Game of Thrones (and its author, George R.R. Martin) are well known for high kill counts and dramatic deaths of favorite characters. No one is, or was, ever safe. But, other than the author himself, who really killed the most on the now completed HBO program?
It’s hard to count everyone (small folk, nameless soldiers, people who died of illness or malnutrition because of the games the high lords play). But with what was available to viewers on the screen we can still make a guess as to who was responsible for the most loss of the life in the Seven Kingdoms and across the Narrow Sea.
Stannis Baratheon
The Lord of Dragonstone and would be king of the Seven Kingdoms has quite the body count, even when only looking at the television show. The younger brother of the deceased king, Robert Baratheon, he is best known for the murder of his own younger brother, Renly Baratheon, with help from Melisandre, The Red Woman.
But, aside from Renly, Stannis was also seen, on camera, fighting and killing during the Battle of Castle Black, where he helped the Night’s Watch fight off a Wildling attack. Oh, he also killed his own daughter, Shireen.
Walder Frey
Unlike Stannis Baratheon, Walder Frey never picked up a sword on Game of Thrones, but he is still responsible for some of the most dramatic deaths in the Seven Kingdoms.
With the murder of the Stark army at the Red Wedding, Frey is seen to have killed more people than Stannis, even though Stannis was the one leading the army. Westeros is not a place to judge anyone solely by their age or stamina. Nowhere is safe when you play the game of thrones.
Joffrey Baratheon
The Baratheon’s were some family as, once again, a Baratheon (legitimate or not) makes the list. Joffrey is best known for his murder of Stark patriarch, Ned (against the advice of his mother and advisors).
Like Walder Frey Joffrey does not use his own sword to take life, but rather the subordinates around him. He uses a crossbow to shoot a prostitute, but that’s the only time we see Joffrey kill on screen. His order to kill the smallfolk rioting around his person is where most of the murders in his name come from on the show though, had he lasted longer, Joffrey could have made the top of the list.
The Children of the Forest
We spend so little time with The Childre of the Forest it’s hard to give just one of them the body count they deserve. Still, we do see the Children of the Forest murder the man who would become the Night King before they are forced to spend the rest of their days killing Wights.
They get to use magic and fireballs which, until characters we love started dying, was very cool to see. Surrounded by so many wights so much of the time it’s easy to see why The Children of the Forest would have a higher body count on their hands than most.
Arya Stark
The girl with the list got her revenge and then some. Making her first kill at the end of season one as she flees Kings Landing after the murder of her father, it is her later training at The House of Black and White that makes her into the real murder machine she is. We get to watch her kill wights at the Battle of Winterfell and, of course, the Night King himself.
As memorable as her slaying of the Night King was her largest body count likely still came from her murder of House Frey. Not every killing needs a sword, and Arya has become an expert at both.
Ramsay Bolton
The bastard son of Lord Roose Bolton was perhaps the most perverse and brutal character on a show that was full of brutal characters. Many of the deaths he instigated were the most gruesome, though he does not top our list with his numbers. Some of his more memorable kills? How about his father, his stepmother, and his baby stepbrother.
There was youngest Stark son, Rickon. There was also the nameless servants he chased with his girlfriend and a quiver of arrows and, of course, all the men killed at the Battle of the Bastards where he fought Jon Snow for the right to Winterfell.
Cersei Lannister
Cersei only cared for her family which, in the beginning, really only counted her twin brother Jamie, her three children, and her father. There were only five people in the whole world Cersei Lannister was unwilling to kill, and she certainly proved it.
She helped orchestrate the death of her own husband (by wild boar) before eventually killing hundreds of disciples and high lords when she blew up the Sept of Baelor with hidden wildfire. This was all before she set her own to fight the Dragon Queen and her allies from the North.
Jon Snow
Jon Snow spent nearly all of eight seasons facing one army after another and, for the most part, he survived it. The only way to survive a lifetime like that? By being would at what you do and sticking the pointy end in the other guy.
We watch a Young Jon kill Qhorin Halfhand and he doesn’t stop after that. He has to execute mutineers in the Night’s Watch, the army of Ramsay Bolton and, again and again and again, the army of wights led by The Night King.
Daenerys Targaryen
Here we have our second Queen on the list and our second-highest kill count. Dragon fire is an easy way to murder hundreds in only seconds and Daenerys does so to both wonderful and terrible effects. Think of the masters of Meereen she kills in retaliation for their treatment of slaves.
Think of the Dorthraki Khals she burns. And that’s all before she returns to Westeros and roasts Lannister armies, wights, and the people of Kings Landing. As Jorah once said, “Having a few dragons makes things easier.”
The Night King
He has a larger army and a longer lifetime to rack up his kills than anyone so it should come as no surprise that the person with the most kills on Game of Thrones is in fact the Night King (though he also has the most resurrections).
All you have to do to even guess at how many kills the Night King has under his belt is to look at the tens of thousands in his army (and those are the ones that have not been murdered a second time by fire or Valyrian Steel.
