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

Image credit: HBO/Helen Sloan

Tommen Baratheon

Oh, Tommen. You were just too good for a world like Game of Thrones. All the kid wanted was to make everyone happy and do the do with his hot wife. But he was ripped apart like a rag doll between Cersei, Margaery, and the High Sparrow alike. There was no making all of them happy, and yet he continued to make the effort. He wanted to be a good king, but he was surrounded by all the wrong people.

Tommen wanted peace where everyone else wanted power. And he was no Joffrey, although—and I can’t believe I’m saying this—he would have done well to take a leaf out of his brother’s book. I mean, we can throw shade at Joffrey all the live long day, but the fact of the matter is that he never would have armed the Faith Militant to begin with. Although he probably would have enjoyed a few Walks of Punishment if he’d come up with the idea. But that is neither here nor there.

Tommen’s suicide is one of the most haunting images of the series. We see him watch the smoldering sept, knowing who has burned along with it. He knows who is responsible. And he knows that this time, there is really nothing he can do. He hesitated too long, was too unsure where he should have been adamant, and all that his attempted good deeds got him was a dead wife. If only Cersei had made her son the priority in the aftermath, Tommen might have lived.

Instead, he leaves his crown behind and without any hesitation, pitches himself from the highest window of the Red Keep. Tommen’s assuredness in this moment is perhaps the most heartbreaking of all. He had never done anything with such resolve, but his suicide is an immediate decision. He’s at such a loss that there’s nothing else for it, and he feels that there’s nothing left for him without Margaery, and now that his mother has caused such destruction. Tommen wasn’t meant for such a hard world, and so he removed himself from its clutches.