All men must fall in love—The Top 12 Couples on Game of Thrones

4. Jon Snow and Ygritte

Orpheus and Eurydice, Romeo and Juliet, that vampire and that non-vampire in those movies about vampires…the idea of star-crossed lovers has fascinated storytellers for thousands of years, and George R.R. Martin is no exception. With Jon Snow and Ygritte, he gave us a couple of great ones. He’s a man of the Night’s Watch sworn to protect the realms of men from the menace beyond the Wall. She’s a free-spirited rough-and-tumble wildling riding with her countrymen to breach the Wall and invade those very lands. They shouldn’t be together. They CAN’T be together. And yet, their love blooms in the cold earth of the far north.

As you can see, their romance inspires some flowery prose. Star-crossed lovers will do that. But like many such lovers (not those vampires, though), the gulfs between these two proved too vast to traverse. Jon remained loyal to the Night’s Watch and Ygritte to the wildlings, and she died in his arms during the Battle of Castle Black.

Kit Harington and Rose Leslie had great chemistry, and the Jon-Ygritte love story has a classical shape to it that never fails to bring the feels. Jon’s going to have trouble getting over her, although a certain Dragon Queen might be able to help him…