Game of Thrones pays tribute to dead characters

Eddard Stark was executed in the first season of the series.

It's wasn't hard for Game of Thrones to say goodbye to several characters at Comic-Con.

The panel for the fantasy HBO series kicked off Friday with an "in memoriam" segment set to Boyz II Men's It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday.

The tribute was dedicated to the scads of characters who've bitten the dust on the show, ranging from Khal Drogo to Wine Merchant to Catelyn Stark, the character played by Michelle Fairley who died in the infamous "Red Wedding" installment.

"I knew how many years I signed for, so I knew what was coming," said Fairley at the pop-culture convention.

The vicious slayings of many Westeros residents in the third season surprised many viewers, especially the brutal "Red Wedding" episode.

"We'd been waiting for it for so long and dreading it, and having it turn out better than we expected because of these actors was one of the greatest moments of my life," series co-creator David Benioff said.

Game of Thrones cast members Fairley, Peter Dinklage, John Bradley, Kit Harrington, Rose Leslie, Richard Madden and Emilia Clarke joined A Song of Fire and Ice mastermind George RR Martin and series co-creators Benioff and DB Weiss.

Martin said he needed to get to work finishing the two upcoming novels, The Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring, because the show is catching up with source material.

The crowd inside Hall H in the San Diego Convention Center shrieked when Khal Drago actor Jason Momoa stomped on stage and planted a smooch on Clarke, who continues to play his love interest Daenerys Targaryen, the Mother of Dragons, on the show.

Momoa screamed into the microphone, "I'm not dead, George!"