The polls have opened, and our first preliminary, for Best Supporting Actress, is complete. Watchers turned out in strong numbers to vote, and the top five choices were clear. In a few weeks, the final vote will take place, revealing the top 5 and choosing the winner among the finalists.
Now onto the next category, focusing on something Game of Thrones is known for doing notoriously well: death.
As with Best Supporting Actress, we’re asking that you choose up to FIVE candidates for Best Death in this preliminary round. You can choose fewer than five, if you prefer, but no more.
At the end of 72 hours (Thursday 8/21/14 at 11:00 AM Eastern Time), whichever five death scenes have the most votes will continue on to the finals. (Note: in the final rounds, you will only have one vote to cast in each category!)
The results of the poll will be revealed when it’s time to choose the final winner of Best Death, in a few weeks. In the meantime, campaign for your faves and reminisce about the enjoyable carnage GoT leaves in its wake.
Happy voting!
Remember Locke? I’m pretty sure he was no homo.
Wow this was harder than I expected. All of those deaths were pretty awesome.
Did nobody nominate Styr getting hammered?
Great mixture of gory deaths, epic death, sad deaths and well-deserved deaths 😉
Voted for Karl Tanner the fooking legend of Gin Alley
Joffrey – It’s been a long time coming and oh my did he deserve it. Four great seasons from Jack making everyone dislike the character.
Grenn – It was nice to keep the moment even without Noye, also seeing the giant charge was a good change from the book and also allowed Jon to see the aftermath.
Lysa – Brilliantly acted by Kate and Aidan, though Littlefinger not having a plan seemed out of character.
Ygritte – Not my favorite due to being foreseeable but i needed a 5th.
Polliver – Arya finally getting some revenge.
Some great deaths and some not so but I’d place good money on Oberyn winning this category but he doesn’t get my vote.
Turncloak,
Yes! Getting bested by two sugary sweet buttercups. What a way to go!
It was hard to pick between the deaths of characters we’ve seen for multiple seasons, and the awesome deaths from one-note characters.
I could not bring myself to vote for our dearly flying departed.
This is really hard, so many good deaths this season.
Joffrey – 4 seasons waiting for it, and Jack Gleeson did a perfect job, as always.
Karl – He was a fooking legend
Green – It’s not easy to step in Donal Noye’s shoes, but I like the change, even more than in the books. And now his wath has ended.
Polliver – Soooo good, Arya is ice-cold.
Tywin – Really good scene, but we may never know if he shit gold or not, or where do whore go :/
I was torn between Joffrey and Grenn. Jack’s death scene was amazing (and eagerly awaited), but in the end I went with Grenn. It just resonated more with me I guess. Mark Stanley did a terrific job and the scene had proper emotional weight, unlike some other nominees.
This was really hard.
Oberyn – One of the most iconic an shocking deaths this season.
Joffrey – Jack’s acting was great, I really felt sorry for the SOB.
Lysa – though the CGI was a bit sketchy and one of the most iconic lines in the series was changed, I still enjoyed seeing Lysa fly (sorry Oz).
A Night’s Watchman gets skewered by the giant’s arrow – How awesome was that?
Polliver – It felt really good, great way to open the season.
Veltigar,
Well you could have chosen both. It’s the prelims, you can choose five nominees.
Voted for Ygritte (heartbreaking scene, and I wasn’t even a big fan of the character and Jon/Ygritte relationship), Oberyn, Joffrey, Lysa and Polliver. Tywin’s death is one of the best in the entire book series, but the way they did that scene on the show was pretty disappointing and didn’t carry the same emotional punch.
I don’t think Sandor “dying” should be on the list, he didn’t die on screen and may not have died at all as far as we know, so it’s not really a death scene.
Woops, I wasn’t paying attention, to eager to vote I guess 😀 Better luck next time 😀
I voted for Oberyn, Grenn, Tywin, Polliver and Locke.
Oberyn’s death – mind blowing. Literally.
I’m torn on my favourite minor character death. Locke’s ‘Death by Hodor’ or Grenn holding the gate. Both were so good.
The Hound isn’t dead. That is all.
Oberyn, Grenn, Joffrey, Polliver.
Had to miss out on Ygritte even though it was a great scene. I also purposefully didn’t vote for Oberyn since I know he’ll get picked (and probably win) anyway. Giant arrow, Karl’s sword tongue, Joffrey’s liquified face, Lysa’s dump hole (even though it wasn’t the show’s best CGI), and I don’t remember the last one.
A great group. Tried to spread the wealth as some scenes will be nominated elsewhere. So went with:
–Oberyn, because, yknow, DAMN.
–Joffrey, because Jack Gleeson really was excellent in that moment. He actually makes you feel BAD for Joff at that moment, which is amazing.
–Grenn, because reciting the Night’s Watch oath is always a killer.
–The dying farmer, who was really terrific in a few small minutes of screen time.
–And Ygritte. Heartbreaking.
I didn’t vote for Shae or Tywin due to lack of Tysha making these scenes fall flat.
Oberyn’s death was decent enough, but people are talking about the violence of it…not the actual fight. As Elio and Linda pointed out….Alliser vs Tormund was a lot more visceral. They wanted to put in so many Wushu moves that they had to frequently put in the stunt double (though Pascal did do a lot on his own)….meaning they had to resort to wideshots to hide the stunt double. Also….why is Gregor holding a two-handed sword one-handed….and letting his other arm just hang empty, instead of holding a shield, as he often does in the books?
So I voted for Joffrey, Ygritte, Grenn, Lysa, and Polliver.
Wow, this is a brutally tough category. Almost as brutal as the fashion in which several of these characters were dispatched! I could have made a case for pretty much any of these nominees, but in the end I went with these five.
Oberyn Martell –My man’s head straight up exploded. Come on now. I could wax on and on about the duel itself – the fight choreography, the performances, the emotional swings, and the implications. But I won’t. That moment – and the frenzy that it ignited across the world – speaks for itself.
Ygritte – I alreay touched on this a bit when I talked about Rose Leslie in the Supporting Actress post. I thought that the moments leading up to the arrow finding Ygritte’s heart and especially the final goodbye between her and Jon were extremely affecting, beautifully shot, and very well acted by both Leslie and Kit Harrington. Yes, it was more of a TV moment than Jon simply finding her after the battle would have been, but I don’t see that as a bad thing at all. In fact, my living room got just a tad bit dusty.
Joffrey Baratheon– Everyone wanted to see Joffrey die in a brutal, bloody fashion, and his death was every bit as satisfying as we could have hoped. I have to offer special commendation to the makeup and visual effects teams – the purple face, the bloodshot eyes, the blood running from his nose, and the greenish saliva oozing from his mouth all contributed to making the King’s prolonged asphyxiation as disturbing as it was cathartic. And of course, I have to salute Jack Gleeson, who embodied this iconic villain so brilliantly until the very end. Be it in the Supporting Actor category or the Guest Actor category, I suspect that this isn’t the last time that I’ll be paying tribute to him.
Tywin Lannister – I know that there are people out there who were disappointed with certain aspects of Tyrion’s confrontation with Tywin in the privy – namely the absence of the Tysha story. I can certainly understand if that disappointment is great enough for them not to vote for his death here (in addition to the greater problem of simply having a large number of extremely worthy contenders to choose from). But for me, it doesn’t matter. On the page and on the screen, Tywin Lannister’s death at the hands of his son was a massive, series-altering event, and I thought that Peter Dinklage and Charles Dance knocked the scene out of the park. Especially Charles Dance, who portrayed Tywin’s arrogant condescension and refusal to relinquish his aura of command right up until the moment that the first crossbow bolt struck him. I’ve made my feelings about Dance and his performance in this role quite clear in the past. He deserved a memorable send-off, and he certainly got one.
Grenn – I have to admit that I didn’t put Grenn’s name forth for consideration in the initial nomination process – in addition to the names above, I submitted Karl Tanner. But having rewatched “The Watchers on the Wall” recently, I was struck once again by just how powerful that scene in the tunnel was, with Grenn leading his brothers in a recitation of the Night’s Watch oath as they draw their swords and face down certain death. A small part of me wishes that we could have seen that epic battle, but ultimately I think that keeping it off screen was the wiser choice. The Night’s Watch wear no crowns and win no glory, after all – the job, and the end result, is all that matters. And Grenn did his duty. He held the gate, and took down Mag the Mighty, the last of an ancient, noble line. Grenn may have come from a farm, but his death was indeed worthy of a King.
The Dragon Demands,
Tysha who?
Had to look that up. You mean the girl that was mentioned in one scene all the way back in S1 and then utterly forgotten about? Oh yeah, I can see why her inclusion was so integral to the significance of those two deaths.
If it wasn’t important for Tyrion to mention it at the moment of execution, then it must not be important or significant to Tyrions character moving forward. Not to mention that Tyrion never dwelled on it and had spent four seasons to fall in love with Shae. Also that the show spent many episodes detailing how much Tywin despises Tyrion for being a dwarf. There lies the true heartbreak and betrayals, which is far more transparent to the viewer than bringing up a former love that was mentioned once previously that would be an afterthought if not for your biased knowledge of the book.
+1
Couldn’t have said it better.
I voted for Grenn, Karl and Polliver (because these deaths were either really good executed or really emotional), plus the Scythe-wildlings and the Night’s Watch man with the giant arrow for the awesome special effects.
Why not Joffrey, Tywin, Oberyn, et cetera? Because everyone’ll vote for them, and the others deserve a change as well. 🙂
I feel that we, as viewers, are doing a disservice to Dinklage’s impeccable performance during Shae’s death by NOT voting for that scene, especially with such a impuissant argument as “There was no Tysha”.
Mine is the Furry,
True. But giant arrow.
Yes. Ian Whytes best performance to date.
Except it resulted in such a “great” scene in which Tyrion 1) went to look for Tywin’s quarters for no discernible reason whatsoever, 2) killed his father not over his life-long abuse of him (which he had known about for a long time, there was nothing new there), or any of his crimes, but over sleeping with Shae, which, while screwed-up and hypocritical, is not a crime (unless he was forcing Shae to sleep with him to survive, which we have no evidence of), unlike his gang-rape of Tysha, 3) got in a righteous rage over his father using the word “whore” for Shae, which makes no sense and makes him a hypocrite, since it’s not just the technically correct and the only word used in Westeros to describe a sex worker (they don’t have the words “prostitute” or “hooker” or “sex worker” or “call girl” etc.) but is also the word Tyrion himself used numerous times to describe Shae, including at the trial and in a conversation with Jaime at the trial; so what is that, “I can do it but you’re not allowed to?” Kind of a different context than being angry when Tywin uses the word to incorrectly describe and slut-shame a rape victim and try to justify the gang-rape he ordered (very similar to the horrible incident with Gregor Clegane and the poor daughter of an inkeeper, described by Chiswyck in ACOK), don’t you think so? 4) You’ve just killed her, buddy. And how you’re defending her honour? Please.
Was there a possibility to write Tysha out of the scene while making it make sense and have the necessary emotional resonance? Maybe. But did they manage to do that? Hell no.
Annara Snow,
No reason whatsoever? Really? You can’t think of one reason why Tyrion would go up to say bye to his dad, even without the emotional trauma of being betrayed by the woman he loved, not once, but twice, due to Tywin’s influence and then killing her in that gut wrenching way? Tyrion calling Shae a whore is practical because that is what she is. Tyrion has never thought otherwise and neither had Shae for that matter. The show mentions this a few times. Tywin calling Shae a whore is an entirely different context and it was done in a way to demoralize and belittle Tyrion’s own feelings toward her. Trolling him, if you will.
It was Tyrions turn to smash the beetles. I think the show made that perfectly clear. And all the emotional resonance needed in those scenes resided in Dinklage’s performance and four seasons worth of constant degradation finally and triumphantly ceasing.
Mine is the Furry,
Couldn’t agree more.
Tyrion went to look for Tywin’s quarters before he killed Shae or before he knew she was sleeping with Tywin – looking for Tywin’s quarters was what lead to finding Shae there. And yes, he had no reason to be so dumb to go looking for a chat with his father that wasn’t going to reveal anything he didn’t know already, when he should have been trying to get out and save himself instead. It’s not like he could have said “goodbye” and Tywin would have let him go. You can’t say he had already decided to kill Tywin, since he didn’t seem angry at all while climbing there; he was also in a rage after killing Shae. In the book, that part was plausible because Tyrion was in a shock and full of rage about something he had just learned that completely changed everything he thought he knew about his life.
And no, I don’t think that Tywin having (apparently, as far as we and Tyrion are aware) consensual sex with Tyrion’s ex-lover is on the same level as Tywin ordering the gang-rape of Tysha (not to mention making Tyrion watch and participate, which is also sexual and emotional abuse of Tyrion by Tywin). I also can’t see this scene the same way when Tywin is not being killed for one of his crimes. It would be different if the show had, say, revealed that Tywin had forced Shae to sleep with him under threat of death/torture etc., and then went on to call her a whore; but that did not happen.
Tyrion’s turn to smash the beetles? So, you’re saying that he had no motivation for killing Tywin? Seems like you’re contradicting yourself. I thought you were arguing that Tyrion had good enough reasons to kill his father.
So glad Skewered Nightswatchman made the short list. I imagine the winner in this category is a foregone conclusion (hint: Gallagher), but the sheer audacity of that giant-ass arrow actually made me yell-laugh out loud one of the only times this year. So he gets my vote 🙂
If anything, I find comfort in knowing that those who are (still) complaining about the lack of Tysha or the “Where do whores go?” thing are the minority.
Seconded.
I’m having a tough time narrowing it down to 5, but one of them will certainly be Tywin’s death. As someone else has already mentioned, Dance was brilliant in that scene. There he was, on the toilet with his pants around his ankles, yet he showed not one iota of vulnerability, nor fear. Would I have preferred the Tysha motivation to have been there, sure, but the scene still worked for me. Moreover, not a single one of my Unsullied friends wondered why Tyrion killed Tywin, which tells me that without the knowledge of all the factors presented in the books, they felt Tyrion had sufficient motivation to kill his father.
Annara Snow,
I have no bias of the book passages with these scenes so we are probably not going to see each others point of view.
You have an idea of how you wanted the scenes to play out and you are not happy with the end product. I understand that. However, based soley on the show, Tyrions actions are entirely plausible. When has he run away from any other life threatening circumstance thus far? His furtive escape from his cell would not fit his character. He already had his chance of a quiet exodus (again with Jaime’s assistance and insistance) at his trial, but he shat on that by speaking out and demanding a trail by combat. “Sorry daddy, I ain’t gonna play your game, I never have and I never will. I am also not going to run away without telling you exactly what really chaps my ass…”
I should have been more precise. I meant the literal smashing of the beetles. Morte. Not the impetus of the act.
Edit: I should probably just end this with a penis comment. All this debating is making me erect.
Agreed. No on screen death, no sign of his dead body afterwards = not dead.
Oberyn wins hands down though I used all five of my votes.
I squirmed during the whole fight and screamed and flailed during the death. On repeat viewings the physical reaction hasn’t diminished. It’s one of the best all time deaths for me.
Mine is the Furry,
That’s a bloody good point. I myself have come to terms with the scene, but I think the lead up could have been done better (as in, showing that Tyrion was broken and enraged already when Jaime saved him).
EDIT: it’s just that it seemed like Tyrion had a very sudden change and there was no catalyst for it. He was all grateful and ready to escape, then he stared at some stairs and decided to murder daddy.
Polliver
Joffrey
Oberyn
Tywin
Nightswatchmen skewered by giant arrow
jentario,
Its an incurable sickness, having to always get the last word in. Poor, poor Tyrion.
No backsies.
I had a hard time picking 5, even though I didn’t think I would! @MineistheFurry….. Thanks for always making me laugh w/the penis jokes 😉
LMAO
I guess you don’t go to ASOAIF/GoT forums much…
Not everyone enjoys the incessant complaining/arguing about every little thing which seems to be rather prevalent over there, at least from some posters. That is not meant to slam the site, in general, nor the forums, in particular, there are some great things over there, and some terrific posters with interesting insights and opinions, even if I don’t always agree.
Anyway, this really is a difficult category, which says a lot, imo, about what a great job is being done on the show.
Yikes. In true Game of Thrones fashion, “Top 5 deaths” is probably hardest to choose. But I’ll try!
5. Polliver
4. Karl
3. Locke
2. Joffrey
1. Oberyn
(I really wanted to put Grenn’s noble end in there, but we didn’t technically see him die, and anyway I’m holding out for Best Dramatic Scene. Likewise Tyrion’s confrontations with Shae and Tywin.)
Bringing back Tysha in the context of the show seemed implausible, given the different construction of TVShae’s character than BookShae.
However, I think the producers could have done in a better way Tyrion’s escape and murders that approached more the book. Before watching the episode, I thought that Tyrion would get mad with Jaime after discovering that he brought back Shae to Tywin in “The Lion and the Rose”, as Tywin commanded. Tyrion would have replied to Jaime something similar to the “Moonboy” line, making them quarrel and explaining why Shae didn’t leave King’s Landing (which the show didn’t make it clear). Then, Tyrion would go to the Hand’s chambers, kill Shae while she said that she was compelled to testify (not in legitime defense like it happened). And then, for last, Tyrion would kill Tywin like he did in the show, saying the line “I just discovered that Tywin Lannister doesn’t shit gold” when asked from Varys what he did. That would have been a much better scene, at least I think this!
You’re right, we didn’t see Grenn die, although we did see him dead. 🙁
Your reserving your vote on that scene for best dramatic moment is the same reason I’m not voting for Ygritte’s death scene. There were so many great moments in the season, I want to spread my votes around, so am saving my vote for Ygritte/Jon for the best dramatic moment vote (hoping, of course, it is one of the nominees in that category).
Turncloak,
So did I. That was such an awesome fight and death scene.
Axechucker,
A technicality. When the giant rushed them and knocked the gate down, that basically is Grenn dying. Anyway, it’s really best death scene, and that was certainly Grenn’s exit.
What about Syrio Forel?
Well, ASOAIF/GoT forums, or any fan forums generally, aren’t an accurate representation of all the fans. People who post on forums are 1) more likely to have read the books, 2) are generally more critical, and 3) usually represent a minority of the fans.
Oberyn, Grenn, Tywin, The Hound, Polliver
I voted for Oberyn for the head explosion and general fight that concluded in his death, Ygritte for the romanticism, Grenn for epicness of holding the gate against a giant though actual death it is not shown, Locke for the most surprising death scene for me as a book reader, and Polliver for Arya’s quite cold clinical kill and his moment of recognition at who was the instrument of his death.
Morgoth,
Not dead!!!! I thought everyone knew that. Pfft, the First Sword of Braavos cannot be defeated by the likes of Ser Meryn Trant. Martin just doesn’t know this lol.
Strider,
The first sword of Braavos showed up to a sword fight without a sword. Reminds me of another fooking legend who showed up to a swordfight with just a couple of knives. Guess what happened there?
Mine is the Furry,
We all know Syrio could kill ser Trent with his fierce gaze, just so. So imagine what he did with a broken wooden sword.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfXvs2jf2DU
“What do we say to the God of Death?” #NotToday!
Strider,
Either way still no match for Boromir with no sword and one arm wiping his arse.
Have to agree with some if not most of that. Still did not take away as much from Tywin’s death scene as some people are making it out to be, but I think it should be mentioned. I still voted for Tywin’s death scene as being one of the most powerful of season 4 though, the directing and especially the acting were just way to good for me to ignore.
That the legend would be killed by a wildling and a bastard! Had it not been for that wildling cunt youd all be voting for lord snows death
Tywin
Oberyn
Sandor
Joff
Grenn
Love this! Just finally moved over here from that other site and now it feels right again. New bookmark on my tablet!
Precisely. 😉