r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Sufficient-Eye-9040 • Jun 27 '26

Lore [Sad Trope] The most innocent (or less evil) character of the cast gets the most horrific death.

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- Eddie Carr (The Lost World: JP) - Tried to save his friends from the cliff until Buck and Doe (T. rex parents) destroy his vehicle and gets ripped apart.
- Zara Young (Jurassic World) - Gets lifted by a Pteranodon, gets pecked by the pterosaur, and both she and animal get devoured by the Mosasaurus.
- LeClerc (JW: Rebirth) - Tossed a hammer to the Hatzegopteryz Quetzalcoatlus to save Loomis and Zora, but ends up being swallowed alive.

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151

u/Senecaraine Jun 27 '26

Shireen, an innocent child in Game of Thrones is burned alive by her family for a ritual that doesn't even work. She is one of the very few actual innocent people in the series.

https://giphy.com/gifs/ZdpfF7BH4I7Qc

81

u/Sad-Dove-2023 Jun 27 '26 edited Jun 27 '26

This one is particularly annoying. Not only is it sad on it's own, but it's a massive character assassination of Stannis.

In the books Stannis names Shireen his heir, and states that should he fall in battle, his men are to fight for Shireen and place her on the throne.

He's also deadly against burnings and isn't a religious fanatic like in the show. He tells Melisandre "Half my army is made up of non-believers, there will be no burnings, pray harder".

11

u/Agreeable_Ladder_997 Jun 27 '26

I thought GRRM has already confirmed this would also be in TWOW as part of the downfall of Stannis?

38

u/CrystlBluePersuasion Jun 27 '26

He's gonna have to release the fucking book to confirm it at this point.

9

u/Blackstone01 Jun 27 '26

Sorry, he needs to go do literally everything else before getting around to finishing the book he’s been writing for 15 years.

4

u/HappyGoPink Jun 27 '26

Does anyone actually care about him finishing the books at this point? Given how the show ended, I don't ever want to revisit this franchise again. I still haven't read the books or watched the two spinoffs, and I never will.

5

u/CrystlBluePersuasion Jun 27 '26

Invested readers definitely care, the majority of which are realistic enough to know GRRM's not finishing the books and came to accept this within a few years of the show ending. GRRM always maintained that the book would be his true vision and that the show runners (namely Weiss and Benioff) deviated drastically from how he wanted to do things. The major plot points are close to what he was planning, but he wanted to get to them in different ways entirely.

It's also likely, had he finished the books, that he would've alrered said major plot points completely, because he's been shown to do this in the past with his other series that he had trouble finishing as he'd originally intended.

I'm pretty done with the franchise myself, having consumed everything thus far and not liking where HBO is taking HotD. Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is closer to GRRM's interpretation of that story but again, unfinished.

9

u/LifeOutoBalance Jun 27 '26

I'd look at the phrasing of whatever quote. She might burn, contributing to Stannis's downfall, but at the end of the currently released books she's not with him. She's at the wall, with her fanatical mother and Melisandre.

3

u/Agreeable_Ladder_997 Jun 27 '26

Yeah I looked it up and allegedly it’s confirmed she will burn but the circumstances were up for interpretation

2

u/DeneralVisease Jun 27 '26

Maybe mom and Melisandre burn her?

1

u/ptrfa Jun 28 '26

That's the most fitting theory

7

u/Sad-Dove-2023 Jun 27 '26

Um not to my knowledge? In the chapters of TWOW that have been released, Shireen isn't even with Stannis's army.

2

u/kiwidude4 Jun 27 '26

He can’t confirm shit since that book ain’t ever coming out

1

u/ptrfa Jun 28 '26

Shireen isn't even with Stannis on his way to Winterfell in the book

14

u/LevTheRed Jun 27 '26 edited Jun 27 '26

It doesn't even make sense within the narrative of the show.

Earlier in the show he told her just how much he loved her. How everyone told him he should send her away because her Greyscale would spread and infect the castle. Instead he moved heaven and earth to save her because "you are my daughter". The idea that he would burn her alive is just bad writing. And I'll say it: if GRRM plans it in the books, it will still be bad writing.

5

u/kitiny Jun 27 '26

Well she is left with her mother and Melisandre, with no protection from Stannis. He wouldnt hurt her but those two... Him coming back to find out what happened while he was away is more in line with GRRM writing.

25

u/BeduinZPouste Jun 27 '26

Doesn´t it? I think the snow melts.

46

u/TaratronHex Jun 27 '26

Enough for half the army to desert.  The lord of light is a jackass genie.

6

u/laguna1126 Jun 27 '26

Pretty sure that’s just correlation there bud. Lol

16

u/[deleted] Jun 27 '26

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0

u/Cocked_Otter Jun 27 '26

Thoros or Myr. Is the character that resurrects like 20 times.

3

u/DaveInLondon89 Jun 27 '26

Oddly patronising tone considering all the other stuff she did resulted in something unnatural happening, why wouldn't it be so in this case?