7. Oberyn Martell loses his trial by combat (GOT Season 4, Ep 8)

Who wasn’t rooting for Oberyn Martell, Tyrion’s charismatic proxy in his trial by combat, to whomp Gregor Clegane, the hulking ogre known as The Mountain? Things look promising for the Red Viper until The Mountain gets the better of him. In one of the series’ most graphic murders, Clegane grabs Martell’s head with his bare hands and squeezes so hard his skull actually bursts. The explicit violence—there are close-up shots and sounds of bones cracking—makes the scene particularly difficult to watch. Yet the gruesome spectacle is emblematic of not just the unpredictable and unsparing violence that marked the series, but the moral ambiguity that surrounds these deaths. From the very outset of the show, when Eddard Stark is unjustly executed, we are forced to wrestle with the senseless loss of good people, often at the hands of awful people. That helps explain the very appeal of Oberyn Martell—he’s a lover, not a fighter, with a strong sense of justice and love. Losing him is a searing reminder that Westeros is no place for the sentimental.