It didn't work in the end but it did see him commit the murder and incineration of two young boys (whom he tries to pass off as Rickon and Bran Stark) and, even more shockingly, the graphic beheading of Ser Rodrik Cassel (Ron Donachie).
Ed Sheeran's Season 7 Cameo
Midway thought her revenge spree through the Seven Kingdoms, Arya Stark runs into a group of Lannister soldiers. Would they kill her? According to the loudest voices on the internet, something worse was in store. The negative reaction to Ed Sheeran's appearance was enough to make the singer-songwriter quit Twitter.
Musicians had cameoed in the show before (Coldplay's Will Champion as a Red Wedding participant), but never as prominently as the man behind Galway Girl. Not necessarily a shock in the traditional Game of Thrones sense, but a storytelling choice that for once couldn't be blamed on George RR Martin.
Olenna Tyrell's death on her own terms
The Rose-sigiled Tyrell family had been thorns in the side (so to speak) of the Lannisters' ever since their arrival at King's Landing and matriarch Olenna had managed to outlive all of her offspring. In Season 7 vengeance finally came in the form of Jaime Lannister, who outwitted the famously wily Tyrell and captured the family seat of Highgarden.
Even though she faced certain death, Olenna spited her rivals one last time, willingly consuming the poison offered by Jaime, before confessing that she was responsible for the death of his son Joffrey. This wasn't the sweet victory he was expecting.
R+L=J [probably] confirmed
This is only shocking to those who hadn't spent their time reading fan theories online, or talking to other people who had done so. Rumours of Jon Snow's (Kit Harington) true parentage has long been up for discussion. But for those who had yet to become privy to the idea that he wasn't Ned Stark's son at all - this was a shock.
Yes, it seems that Daenerys may not be the last Targaryen after all. It seems that Jon is the love child of Lyanna Stark, Ned's sister, and Rhaegar, Daenerys's brother.
Tyrion's revenge
By the end of season four Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage) had finally had his fill of being treated like the family embarrassment.
Broken out of his prison cell by his faithful brother Jamie (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), mere hours before he was due to be wrongfully executed for the murder of King Joffrey, Tyrion took a quick detour through the castle on his way to freedom. In his father's room he found his former lover, Shae (Sibel Kekilli) asleep in Tywin's (Charles Dance) bed. This was one betrayal too far.
When she lunged for a knife he throttled her then shot his father with a crossbow while he sat on the privy, denying Tywin the dignity that he had held back from Tyrion for so long.
The walk of shame
Along with Brienne (Gwendoline Christie) and the Stark women, Cersei Lannister was one of the few female characters to successfully keep her clothes on throughout the series - which made it all the more shocking when she was made to walk naked through the streets of King's Landing as penance for her sins.
Granted, Lena Headey used a body double for the scene (who can blame her?), but the sight of such a strong woman, her long hair shorn, forced into such a vulnerable position, surrounded by a baying mob hurling food and stones, made it all the more shocking.
Bran Stark is pushed through a window
Game of Thrones has never held back when it comes to shock value. Even in the very first episode we saw something that made our hearts plunge.
When the second-youngest Stark boy (Isaac Hempstead-Wright) caught Jaime and Cersei Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Lena Headey) in an incestuous tryst when he climbed the castle walls to the tower window, ruthless Jaime quickly solved the problem by casually shoving Bran to his apparent death.
"The things I do for love," Jaime sighed.
Sibling rape
A brother and sister having sex is shocking. A brother raping his sister is even more shocking. A brother raping his sister in front of their murdered child's dead body? That's a special GoT level of shocking. But here is a world where incest has become almost romantic and rape is something you get over in a matter of weeks.
So when Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) took his revenge on his twin/lover Cersei (Lena Headey) for rejecting and ridiculing him... well, it's now just water under the bridge.
Ramsay is eaten alive
Yes it was shocking - a man getting his face eaten off by starving dogs will always be shocking - but the death of Ramsay Bolton (Iwan Rheon) was also oh so very satisfying. After raping, torturing and murdering his way through the north, this sadistic little s*** got his due.
After being bested in a one-on-one match with Jon Snow (Kit Harington) simply because Snow had picked up a shield, a vengeful Sansa (Sophie Turner) unleashed Ramsay's pack of ravenous dogs on him. And then the nation cheered.
Daenerys eats a horse heart
This one is a particularly stomach-churning scene. In order to give birth to a strong son, Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) must eat a whole raw stallion heart without vomiting. Being able to watch it without retching can also be considered an achievement.
The white walkers attack the wildlings
When the horde of white walkers attacked the wildling camp as they prepared to leave with Jon Snow, it made for a scene that seemed straight out of a horror film.
The sight of newly transformed white-walker children stood staring dead-eyed at their mother only added to the shock value. But that moment when the boatful of Night's Watchmen were escaping, staring agog at the scene of destruction they were leaving behind, the Night's King - the sinister leader of the walkers - silently raised his arms, all the while maintaining eye contact with Jon. At his command, all the dead arose. Suddenly we realised, Westeros is screwed.
The severing of Theon Greyjoy's penis
Despite the copious amounts of rape in Game of Thrones, the gruesome nature of this scene must make it the one that most causes viewers to firmly squeeze their legs shut. Kidnapped by Ramsay Snow (Iwan Rheon), Theon Greyjoy was tortured at length.
By this point in the third series, Theon had transformed into an entirely unlikeable, hot-headed little rotter, so he had lost a few sympathy points.
But when Ramsay savagely chopped off his penis and then taunted him by emphatically eating a sausage, well, we learned that men's genitals aren't safe in Westeros either.
The golden crown
Never had there been a murder more pleasing than that of Daenerys Targaryen's (Emilia Clarke) vile, spoiled big brother, Viserys (Harry Lloyd) - even if it was via a method so sadistic and violent that few of us would have ever thought of it before.
Finally bored of Viserys's demands for gold crown, Khal Drogo (Jason Momoa) gave him what he wanted. With molten gold poured over his head, Viserys died a screaming death.
Sansa's wedding night
It was hardly a surprise that Ramsay Bolton's (Iwan Rheon) wedding night would be an unpleasant one for the woman who was unlucky enough to marry him. What was shocking - particularly for book readers as this development represented another major departure from George RR Martin's material - was that it was Sansa (Sophie Turner) who was the victim. Sansa has suffered horribly throughout Game of Thrones but whenever the worst was about to befall her someone would appear and save her.
The Purple Wedding
The Red Wedding was brutal, so surely the next big one in the series wouldn't go the same way? That would be too easy, too repetitive. Turns out, none of that mattered. Even the comparatively undramatic method of killing someone by poison (as opposed to, say, stabbing them in their pregnant belly), somehow left us frozen with shock.
King Joffrey (Jack Gleeson) was the one we wanted to see dead the most, but it coming after his repeated taunts of his uncle Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) made his brutally violent asphyxiation seem all the more satisfying. It's just a shame that it left Tyrion looking like he'd been caught red-handed.
The mutiny of the Night's Watch
Non-book readers certainly didn't see this one coming. When young Olly (Brenock O'Connor) ran to tell Jon Snow (Kit Harington) that his uncle Benjen Stark had finally returned after going missing when on a mission north of the Wall, all our hearts leapt.
Could it be? Was Benjen really back? But then suddenly Jon was in the position of Julius Caesar as he was set upon by a clutch of his own men. The men couldn't accept Jon's progressive approach to leadership and Alliser Thorne (Owen Teale), Jon's second-in-command, was the first to stab him in the gut while uttering the phrase "for the Watch".
The rest of the men followed, concluded by Olly himself, still bitter that Jon had made peace with the Wildlings that had murdered his family.
Hold the door
Poor Hodor. For years we wondered why he could only say his name, very few could have expected the reason to be so traumatic. And it was all Bran's fault.
Using his warging abilities, Bran jumped into Hodor's body but accidentally linked Hodor up with his past self. Then, in a moment that we wouldn't even wish on a London estate agent, young Hodor heard, saw and felt his own death as Meera (Ellie Kendrick) screamed for him to "hold the door".
The execution of Ned Stark
We really should have seen it coming (well, those who had read the books already did); any character played by Sean Bean is destined to die. But lovely, (almost) entirely honourable Ned Stark seemed an integral part of the plot.
Surely they wouldn't allow his head to be chopped off by a former Dr Feelgood guitarist? Well, they did exactly that as Ilyn Payne (Wilko Johnson) performed the deed and thus taught us early on that no one is safe.
The sacrifice of Shireen
Of all the unpleasant things to happen on this show, Stannis Baratheon's murder of his own daughter has to be one of - if not the - nastiest.
Previously something of a fan favourite, he was dubbed "Stannis the Mannis" on the internet for his dour, no-nonsense attitude. But, in the penultimate episode of the fifth series, he finally succumbed to the will of Melisandre - who told him that if he sacrificed his daughter the Lord of Light would show good fortune to his military campaign.
So he had his poor, screaming child strapped to a stake and set on fire. Even his fanatically religious wife Selyse - who had rejected her Shireen ever since she contracted the greyscale that scarred her face - changed her mind about the sacrifice at the last moment. But Stannis remained determined. By the episode's end he was certainly no longer "the Mannis".
The Red Wedding
It seemed fishy from the beginning. No one in Westeros takes anything lightly. Walder Frey (David Bradley) appeared surprisingly relaxed about Robb Stark (Richard Madden) marrying Talisa (Oona Chaplin) instead of the Frey daughter to whom he was betrothed.
But by now we knew just how willing George RR Martin is to maim or kill our favourite characters. The whole episode is a rattling pressure pot and just when we adoring viewers thought we'd made it through with no serious fatalities, the last five minutes happened. Talisa, Robb, and Catelyn Stark - plus poor Grey Wind - dead. Oh George.
A skull-crushing death
It was a moment that's now seared into the memory of all who watched it and is now possibly the most shocking death ever seen on prime-time television. The widely loved character of Prince Oberyn Martell (Pedro Pascal), aka The Red Viper, stepped up to be Tyrion Lannister's (Peter Dinklage) champion in the dwarf's trial by combat as a way of exacting his long-held desire for revenge against the rapist and murderer of his sister - The Mountain (Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson).
But Oberyn's arrogance and his lust for retribution got the better of him and when we thought The Mountain had had it, he surged back into life, grabbing Oberyn by the head, plunging his thumbs into his eyes and crushing his skull with his bare hands. Remember those innocent, carefree days of the Red Wedding being the most shocking? How naïve we were.
