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

Image credit: HBO/Helen Sloan

Rakharo, Irri, Doreah, Xaro Xhoan Daxos, and Pyat Pree

Daenerys’ rivals often wind up six feet under, but she’s felt her losses, too. Friends and enemies alike fall under her influence. This is evidenced as early as Season 1, but the death toll really begins its climb in the following season.

Khal Drogo’s bloodriders still call her Khaleesi, but other Dothraki hordes don’t jive with the idea of a woman and an outsider leading their people. She wasn’t on their prom queen ballot, and they object to her taking the crown, anyway. Rakharo is the first to pay the price. While on a mission to find some help and direction, Rakharo is ambushed by an unidentified horde and beheaded. The whole beheading thing seems to be the go-to in Essos and Westeros alike, although there must be cleaner ways to commit homicide.

Irri too pays the price for her loyalty. She is killed in Qarth, protecting the dragons from the sorcerer Pyat Pree’s clutches. Her death comes as a blow for Daenerys and the audience both, but she is avenged accordingly. After Irri’s murder and the dragons’ abduction, Pyat Pree wasn’t going to walk out of this alive. He is the first to be subjected to Daenerys’ cry of “Dracarys.”

Following this successful and well-deserved barbecue, Daenerys confronts the once-faithful Doreah and the manipulative Xaro Xhoan Daxos. Although Xaro vouches for Daenerys in the beginning and is the reason she is permitted entrance to Qarth, his intentions prove to be tainted. He promised her gold and resources in exchange for her hand in marriage. But it turns out he doesn’t have the gold to spare. Essentially, Xaro totally catfished Daenerys. As it happens, he was on Tinder the whole time he was trying to win her over, and picked up Doreah to be his side chick.

Hookup culture isn’t lost on the guy, but Daenerys makes sure everything else is. She locks Xaro and Doreah in his empty vault, leaving them to die. At this point, Daenerys knows how to handle her men, and you don’t play a player.