The 60 Most Important Deaths on Game of Thrones

21. White Walker Bob

In the opening moments of the show, a White Walker effortlessly kills two members of the Night’s Watch. In the season 3 premiere, we see after the fact that they’ve decimated the Night’s Watch in battle. At this point, the White Walkers looked nigh on invincible, but thanks to Samwell Tarly, the most unlikely of heroes, we learned that there was hope. At the end of “Second Sons,” Sam stabs a White Walker with a dagger made of dragonglass, and it dies.

We spend most of Game of Thrones following the political and tactical maneuvers made to get this king or that queen on the Iron Throne, but in the back of our minds, we’re always worried about the White Walkers. Ahead of season 8, most of the characters are finally girding for a battle with these guys, and the’y do well to mark the death of White Walker Bob as the moment they learned that victory was at least possible. We don’t know if that White Walker had a name, but he deserves one for letting us know that there was indeed a way to stop these icy assholes. We call him White Walker Bob.

True, dragonglass isn’t the only way to kill a White Walker. Jon Snow discovered that Valyrian steel can do the trick in “Hardhome,” but dragonglass is a lot more common than Valyrian steel, which means it’s going to be the living’s primary weapon in the coming war. That makes the death of White Walker Bob very important indeed.

20. Everyone in the Great Sept of Baelor

Oh man, what a moment. Really, is there a more thrilling sequence on this show? From Ramin Djwadi’s score to Lancel slowly crawling for the candle, the destruction of the Sept of Baelor is Game of Thrones at its best, and that’s pretty damn important.

It’s also important because oh my god so much happened. In one fell swoop, Cersei Lannister wiped out all of her rivals in King’s Landing, some of whom we were sad to see go (RIP Margaery) and some of whom we weren’t (good riddance, High Sparrow). Cersei also killed her own uncle Kevan, signaling her intention to rule through Tommen, although Tommen had his own plans. His suicide allowed Cersei to rule outright for the first time in her life, although it was a bitter pill to swallow. How differently might season 7 have gone if Daenerys was negotiating with the gentle King Tommen Baratheon rather than his mother?

But as with any act of mass murder, Cersei’s gamble created more enemies than it eliminated. Cersei drove the Tyrells into the arms of her enemies, and set the stage for Jaime’s exit in the season 7 finale. Jaime already knew his sister was less than morally spotless, but then again, so was he. But murdering people in a church…that was taking things too far, even for a guy who once pushed a kid out a window.

Finally, there are the wars to come. Cersei’s slaughter emboldened her, and she’ll carry that confidence into the war against the dead.