You Win Or You Die: Ranking the 99 Game of Thrones Deaths

Image credit: HBO/Helen Sloan

Khal Drogo and Mirri Maz Duur

Daenerys’ first stint as queen is a rocky road. After her husband, Khal Drogo, suffers an infected wound, Daenerys attempts to save him by bartering with a sorceress. She had saved Mirri Maz Duur from a raid on another khalasar, and so relies on her to restore Drogo to his former glory. But as Mirri Maz Duur warns Daenerys, “Only death can pay for life.” On the outset, a horse is presented as a viable trade-off. Too bad Daenerys didn’t read the fine print.

Drogo’s life is spared, but his unborn child with Daenerys is sacrificed in his stead. Rhaego is born a hideous, winged creature that doesn’t live. Nor, in the end, does Drogo. He merely exists, and Daenerys chooses to truly end it so as not to prolong the pain of his half-life. She accepts that he is lost to her, and suffocates what’s left of him.

As punishment for her lies, Mirri Maz Duur is burned alive at Daenerys’ order. The fire plays multiple roles, as it burns Mirri Maz Duur as well as Drogo’s body. Daenerys also takes the opportunity to test out her fire-bending skills. It is within these flames that her dragons—Drogon, Rhaegal, and Viserion—are born. Daenerys’ power came at a price, but it begins here.