Ranking The 20 Deaths of Game of Thrones Season 5

2. Shireen

TOO SOON

It was too soon. It hasn’t happened yet in the books. Shireen is still alive, well, and nerding out over Westerosi history, as only a character after my heart would do. She’s the Hermione of Game of Thrones, and we love her all the more for it.

But not in the show. The show couldn’t allow Stannis to spend his entire season stuck in the snow, as he is in A Dance with Dragons. It had to speed things along, and now we know that when The Winds of Winter comes out, it’ll probably feature Shireen’s death. And it will be terrible and awful and we’ll hate every pointless minute of it. Because of course her death was pointless. All it did was hasten Stannis’ own march to the grave.

Perhaps for a man who was so careless with the lives of his own kin, it was only appropriate. But still. Too Soon.