Game of Thrones: Everyone Who Tragically Dies in the Battle of Winterfell

OK, so this is kind of a general point, but I'm mentioning it because of how wild the mass death of the Dothraki army is. At the very start of the battle, Melisandre arrives out of nowhere and lights all of the Dothraki's signature curved blades on fire à la Beric Dondarrion. They proceed to be the first wave of fighters to charge into the darkness where the wights are waiting, led by Jorah and Ghost. Unfortunately the wave of the undead pretty much instantly takes out nearly the entire group of warriors — only a very small handful of men come racing back to safety (Jorah, some horses, and a few others).

Dolorous Edd has been a member of the Night's Watch since the beginning of the series, which made it especially emotional to see him die protecting Samwell Tarly out on the battlefield early on in the episode. (Real talk: Sam should never have been out there, and it's essentially his fault Edd dies.) He takes a sword through chest thanks to a wight who attacks from behind. RIP, Edd.

Is Game of Thrones brazen enough to kill off a small child? Um, yeah. Duh. We've seen it countless times. But still, we really weren't expecting to see this pint-sized badass go down during battle.

After surviving the chaos outside Winterfell's walls, she retreats inside with her men as the wight army begins pounding down the doors. Before long a wight giant comes charging in, flinging her tiny body off to the side like a gnat. Though injured, Lyanna pulls herself up and screams as she rushes the giant, who picks up her and squeezes her to death.

But — BUT!!! — before she takes her last breath, she's able to bring the giant down with her by stabbing it directly through its glowing blue eye with her sword. At least she doesn't die in vain . . . until the Night King raises her body from the dead, of course.

The show was always going to try to get as high a body count with recognizable characters as it could while holding back on eliminating any main players. So, that means supporting characters like Beric, who is more popular to book readers anyway, was likely to die in the invasion from the get-go. Without Thoros of Myr to bring him back from the dead as usual, he succumbs from multiple stab wounds sustained from saving Arya from a horde of wights running through the halls of Winterfell.

In season eight's "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms," we see Jorah approach Dany and passionately tell her how much he's enjoyed their ever-evolving relationship, and that she needs to fully trust Tyrion as her Hand of the Queen. In other words, he was basically saying goodbye to his Khaleesi without actually saying goodbye.

As expected, Jorah dies valiantly, doing his father's memory justice as he takes out wights with his new Valyrian steel sword and protects Daenerys from certain death after she falls from Drogon and the dragon flees (to be fair, Drogon is covered in stabby wights himself at the time). Together they fight side by side for a while on the battlefield, but eventually the invading wights become too much and Jorah is stabbed a few times. He dies in Dany's arms, as Rhaegal flies over and protectively covers the two of them with his wing.

Theon has had one of the more depressing character arcs on this series, so we're at least happy that he dies an admirable death while trying to protect Bran in the Godswood. After all the other members of the Ironborn fall around him as the wights invade, Theon is able to keep expertly taking out the zombies with arrows (and then when those run out, he starts slaying them left and right with his spear).

He's the only reason why Bran survives up until the very end, since the Night King arrives just after Theon has killed all of the attacking wights. Theon accepts his fate after Bran tells him he's a "good man," and charges at the icy villain with his spear raised. He dies instantly of course, thanks to a sword through the chest courtesy of the Night King, but it's an act of bravery that we won't soon forget.

HELL YES, HE DIES! In a truly insane moment, Arya kills the Night King. The frozen dictator has just taken out Theon and is approaching Bran, sitting in his wheelchair, and things look dire. How can Bran possibly defend himself, you know? But then — THEN!!! — Arya leaps out of . . . well, I'm not sure where she comes from, but she practically jumps on top of the Night King with her blade at the ready!

He catches her by the neck, but in a shocking twist, she's able to drop her blade into her free hand and stab him in the stomach. The Night King then shatters into a billion little ice chunks, and every other wight and White Walker does the same. Arya's surprise attack is the only thing that keeps the rest of the characters from dying gruesome deaths, so hopefully they all send her an Edible Arrangement (or five).

A brief summary of Melisandre's unexpected arrival at Winterfell: she helpfully lights a bunch of stuff on fire with her magic; tells Ser Davos that he doesn't need to execute her since she'll die by the end of the night; gives Arya the pep talk she needs to kill the Night King (at least I think that's what their chat about eyes is all about); and then once the battle is over and the North is victorious, she takes off the magic red necklace that has kept her youthful all this time, walks out into the snowy remains of Winterfell, and rapidly ages before turning to dust as Davos looks on.