History NightmareFuel / GameOfThrones

* Reek's bath scene... sweet R'hllor, Reek's bath scene. After proving his loyalty to Ramsay when some "nasty creatures" (Yara and her Ironborn) come to take Reek away from his ''[[StockholmSyndrome beloved master]]'' (save Theon from his unspeakably evil captor) Reek is rewarded with a nice warm bath Ramsay made for him. After making him strip naked and get in the bath Ramsay begins to lovingly scrub his beloved pet with a sponge. As one can imagine in this description, the underlying HoYay of Ramsay's sadistic cruelty towards Theon over the past season is now flat out explicit and has reached pure BrainBleach levels. The most horrifying part of the scene however is how utterly broken Theon has become to Ramsay's will, and has regressed to a frightened child in his terrified yet fanatical devotion to his tormentor, to the point where he violently and viciously resists Yara's attempt to save him and even wholeheartedly tells Ramsay how much he loves him, thus showing how Ramsay's ColdBloodedTorture and MindRape skills are now on par with those of {{Room 101}} in ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour''.

* Khal Drogo's enraged declaration of war against Westeros. Even worse is not just Daenerys' ecstasic face during the whole speech, but also the fact that she didn't even blink when Drogo declared that the Dothraki are going to rape women.

* [[KickTheSonOfABitch While well deserved,]] Theon's torture at the hands of the Bolton men qualifies.

** What makes it the worst? The music. It's ''Pay the Iron Price'', the very same music that was played when Theon executed ser Roderick. The music directly indicated that Robb has sunk to Theon's level.

** The actual 'sex' itself is an exercise in Fan Disservice. At no point in the scene does it seem sexy -- at best it seems to be a cruel parody of Theon's wildest fantasies, and at worse seems like actual rape, considering the girls climb aboard while Theon cringes and explicitly tells them to stop.

* The forging of the titualar "Two Swords." Accomplished by melting down the Stark family sword, Ice, and reforging it into two separate swords. Not only is this Tywin Lannister's final victory over the Starks, but Ice is a ''Valyrian steel sword." Melting it down makes it. . . just steel. Some of the sting is taken out by Tywin later commenting that only a few smiths are able to work with Valyrian steel, indicating that both swords may retain their unique properties, but if the smith wasn't as skilled as he claimed, or just rolled bad dice that day. . .

* The deaths of Randyll and Dickon Tarly. Both men refused to bend the knee to Daenerys following the attack, and both are brought before the surviving army and burned alive by Drogon. This manages to unnerve even Tyrion, who vouched for Daenerys showing mercy to Dickon.

* The look on Daenerys'face as Drogon burns the Tarly's to death. The sadistic insanity of the Targaryens is clearly taking hold of her.

** Somewhat mitigated by the fact that Targaryen children only have a 50/50 chance of going crazy. Further mitigated by the fact that Jon is only half-Targaryen, a one that lacks every Targaryen characteristic including fire-resistance to boot.
** Also, while inbreeding does build up over time (a third generation inbred person would be much more fucked up than a first generation), the "inbreeding scale" is immediately reset if one generation breeds out of their family. Since Jon/Aegon is the son of a Stark and a Targaryen, this is "just" a aunt and nephew inbreeding, not any worse. Jon and Daenerys have roughly. 25 percent of the same genetic material (that being from Aerys II).

* Khal Drogo's enraged declaration of war against Westeros. Even worse is not just Daenerys' extasic face during the whole speech, but also the fact that didn't even blink when Drogo declared that the Dothraki are going to rape women.

* In the opening credits, among all the clockwork on the map, Winterfell is shown burnt to a crisp, with black smoke billowing from the burnt remains. It's incredibly creepy and unsettling.

* The treatment of the smallfolk is downright horrific. They are the ultimate victims of the series, as they are frequently murdered, tortured, and raped for literally no other reason than cruelty. Worse of all, while we are only shown a handful of scenes, it's clear that horrific acts like these happen ''everywhere and every day'' in Westeros.

* What’s even more twisted is that Arya’s older sister, Sansa, witness all of this and what does she do? She lies on Joffrey’s behalf because she’s still head over heels in love with him, despite seeing Joffrey himself attack and nearly kill her little sister. What was the piece for her devotion? Her beloved’s direwolf’s death, but even then she refused to admit the truth!

[[caption-width-right:350:G’night, folks!]]

* Aerys Targaryen II had a passion for burning people alive, and he was prepared to immolate his entire capital city in wildfire to spite his enemies.

* The treatment of the smallfolk is downright horrific. They are the ultimate victims of the series, as they are frequently murdered, tortured, and raped for literally no other reason than cruelty. Worse of all, while we are only shown a handful of scenes, it's clear that horrific acts like this are happening ''everywhere and everyday'' in Westeros.

** It's quite unnerving to see Varys acting insanely out of character - ''running'' to Joffrey to plead with him. And friggin ''[[EvenEvilHasStandards Cersei]]'' is begging for him to stop. In the case of Varys, he likely knows just how much destruction Joffrey's boneheaded decision is going to cause to the realm.

** It's quite unnerving to see Varys acting insanely out of character - ''running'' to Joffrey to plead with him. And friggin ''[[EvenEvilHasStandards Cersei]]'' is begging for him to stop.

!!Meta
[[folder:Trailers - Season 8]]
* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NspqGM0DbbQ The first teaser]]. The map of the North gets entirely covered in ice, and the South is on fire. Both propagate and then clash, promising a horrifying conflict between the dead and the living.
* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wA38GCX4Tb0 The second teaser]]. Jon, Sansa and Arya are in the crypts of Winterfell, staring in horror at what turns out to be the statues that will mark their own graves...[[AloneWithThePsycho and then the torch in Jon's hand goes out]]. The three hear something behind them and turn around to see [[EvilIsDeathlyCold the same pale blue mist]] that preceded the attack on Hardhome spreading towards them, freezing everything it engulfs. Jon and Arya draw their weapons for what is implied to be their LastStand.
* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwmAWOE5F9o The Aftermath tease]]. It shows several shots of a snow-covered Winterfell and various assorted weapons lying around, [[NothingIsScarier with no indication as to what exactly happened or if anyone survived]]. There are also the sounds of men and horses screaming, and it ends with a shot of Longclaw practically buried in snow as what looks like a silhouette of the Night King stands in the castle gateway.
* The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6YCfVe4eR0 short preview for the second episode]] has a couple: firstly, Jaime Lannister looking like he's on trial for his life, Tyrion looking deeply afraid for his brother as Daenerys in a voice dripping with TranquilFury spits out the following pronouncement:
-->'''Daenerys''': When I was a child, my brother would tell me a bedtime story [[YouKilledMyFather about the man who murdered our father]]. [[CruelAndUnusualDeath About all the things we would do to that man]].
** Also, Tormund arrives from Last Hearth and informs Jon just how close the Night King is behind him, truly driving home the fact time is almost up for the living.
-->'''Jon''': How long have we got?\\
'''Tormund''': Before the sun comes up tomorrow.
* Daenerys's line from the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdkS4Xazz7Q trailer for Episode 3]]: ''"The dead are already here"''. Either the army of the dead has already managed to breach the walls of Winterfell... or [[FridgeHorror even worse, the Night King has managed to raise those already buried in Winterfell's crypts]].
** It's pretty chilling to see the normally composed Brienne [[ZombieApocalypse facing a mass]] of what she only glimpsed at in [[Recap/GameOfThronesS7E7TheDragonAndTheWolf The Dragon and the Wolf]] and desperately shouting, "Stand your ground!"
* The trailer for the final episode shows Jon, Arya and Tyrion walking through the smoldering ruins of King's Landing, looking horrified at the sheer scale of the destruction...while before the ruined Red Keep, Daenerys's loyalist forces howl and cheer for their Queen in a manner that evokes either the Nuremberg Rallies or the forces of Sauron chanting at the foot of Barad-dur, driving home the point Daenerys has become as great, if not worse a tyrant than any before her.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:''Histories & Lore'']]
* The segment on Harrenhal describes the MaybeMagicMaybeMundane creepiness about the most famous and largest castle of Westeros, with ghost stories about Lady Lothston (who seems to be Westeros' version of Countess Báthory) kidnapping and cooking children and bathing in blood, the ghosts of the builder and his sons haunting the halls, servants going to bed healthy and found in the morning as ashes... the impossibility of filling, garrisoning and repairing the place, its sheer size oppressing. "You will feel that Harrenhal, with its size, is devouring you. Years later, when you bury a grandson, or a great-grandson, the last of your line... you'll know it has."
* The longest ''Histories & Lore'' DVD extra ever released touched on the Dance of the Dragons [[note]]a continent-long civil war between two cadet branches of House Targaryen which, in retrospect, serves as a predecessor to the War of the Five Kings portrayed in the main series[[/note]], part of the Season 5 release. While the story of the Dance itself is horrifying, the eeriness factor is even more ramped up by the fact that it is narrated by people who, by the end of Season 5, ''[[PosthumousCharacter are all dead]]''--and more eerily, are telling portions of the story which may well serve as a dark mirror to their own fates.
** Viserys Targaryen tells most of the narrative most bitterly, noting how the entire affair involved "[his] ancestors danc[ing] away [his] birthright, weakening House Targaryen to be "never be as powerful or as feared again."
** Robert Baratheon seems grim and proud recounting the roles House Baratheon played in asserting their independent choice during the war, and for that matter Rhaenyra's ruthlessness in winning the Throne, however temporarily (indeed, even if House Baratheon chose to betray Rhaenyra first!). For the Usurper, it's pretty understandable.
** Catelyn Stark's sole role in this story is recounting Queen Helaena's loss of her children and subsequent madness--something she experienced herself in a more horrific manner through the Red Wedding.
** Oberyn Martell recounts the last days of Daemon Targaryen, a free-spirited, maverick man who stood by his family (House Targaryen) through thick and thin and yet lost everything through their paranoia and mistrust--much like how his free-wheeling life was darkened by the loss of her sister Elia through House Targaryen's fall during the Rebellion. Daemon also falls in combat trying to avenge his family's losses against the Greens--much like Oberyn would against the Mountain.
** Joffrey, unsurprisingly, narrates the climax of the Dance where everything went wrong for Rhaenyra, King's Landing broke into hellish riot, and the Storming of the Dragonpit. He even recounts the death of one of her sons (also named Joffrey, but a decidedly kinder, nobler soul than the Lannister inbred). His contempt for Rhaenyra is almost equal to his irritation with his own mother Cersei, and his positive glee recounting Aegon II burning Rhaenyra reminds us why many compare him to Aerys II.
** And finally, Shireen Baratheon frames the story-telling, which she was reading herself for most of Season 5 before she was burned alive by Stannis and Melisandre. The grimness of it is highlighted when she ends the story with the rise of the child-king Aegon III and his equally-young wife, "scared children spouting oaths they didn't understand" -- much like how she will die never understanding why her father had to sacrifice her.
** As for the Dance itself... imagine if you will a loving father naming his firstborn, a daughter, his heir. Then imagine the father is given a son, who grows to manhood. The king dies, with the daughter, Rhaenyra being still officially the heir as per the king's orders... but the son Aegon's mother and some around him convince him to press his claim as the male heir. The following struggles include the killing of children by their uncles or cousins or hired assassins, and end with Aegon ordering his dragon to burn Rhaenyra in front of Rhaenyra's last remaining son.
** The Blood and Cheese incident stands out. Queen Helaena Targaryen goes to tuck her children in... and then two assassins rush into the room and take the two boys, asking the mother [[SadisticChoice which of them they should kill]]. Helaena names the younger, barely 2 or 3 (perhaps hoping he won't remember even if he is spared, perhaps because the older one is the heir), after which one of the assassins whispers into the boy's ear, "You hear that? ''Your mama wants you dead.''" They proceed to kill the child Helaena ''didn't choose to die'', forcing Helaena and the son she was forced to pick... to live with that knowledge that she chose him to die.
** Retroactively, the announcement of the release of ''Series/HouseOfTheDragon'' means, much like the original series, the audience is now going to be given a front-row seat to the drama and horror to be unleashed.
* In the segment of the Iron Bank, Tycho describes how the Iron Bank will have its due: If a prince or king can't pay up, the next one will be able to out of gratitude for the Bank supporting them against their rival. If a tradesman is hopelessly behind in payments, well... "the vicissitudes of trade are well known, and Braavos is full of people... [[PunctuatedForEmphasis Who. Are. Not]]." Accentuated by showing a poor debtor, tied up and gagged, thrown into one of the many canals or maybe even the sea with a weight to [[Film/TheGodfather eat with the fishes.]]
* The last shot of the ''Prophecies of the Known World'' shows a trio of Maesters reading a book as Sam's narration laments that they won't listen to his warnings about the Long Night coming, and they suddenly gain IcyBlueEyes like most Walkers and Wights, meaning this is what will happen if they continue to ignore the imminent threat. What makes this even more eerie is that as the scene fades to black, the eyes remain in place too...
* In "Conquests & Rebellions", Euron Greyjoy describes how Aegon the Conqueror and his dragon, Balerion, destroyed Harren Hoare and his home by burning his gigantic fortress, Harrenhal, into a ruin. The way Euron describes how men died is particularly chilling to hear.
-->'''Euron Greyjoy:''' Stone doesn't burn, but men do, even when they're Ironborn. The dragon blasted my ancestors into ash that choked the survivors when they screamed. Harren's soldiers lept from the battlements and died. They huddled against the walls and died. They fled across the yard and ''died''. Harren and his sons took shelter inside the castle. The stone didn't burn, but as Balerion blasted it with fire, it glowed white-hot. [''Euron chuckles''] The world's greatest castle became the world's greatest oven, baking the last of House Hoare within it.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:''Beautiful Death'']]

''[[https://beautifuldeath.com/ Beautiful Death]]'' is a series of official artworks by artist Robert M. Ball, one for each episode of the show, that portray one or more characters' deaths from that episode in a symbolic manner. They're certainly beautiful, but ye gods, are they terrifying. Some of the highlights:
* '''He was Jon Arryn's squire, look how far he's come''': Blood drips from the mouth and claws of the painted dog on Gregor Clegane's shield, representing his murder of Ser Hugh.
* '''Take him alive, kill his men''': Jaime's approaching reflection is seen in the pupil of Jory's bleeding eye.
* '''A crown for a king''': Molten gold drips down from a pot in the shape of a skull, representing Viserys' death.
* '''Dracarys!''': A burnt red skeleton is backed by Drogon's shadow, for the deaths of the Undying Ones.
* '''Chaos isn't a pit, chaos is a ladder''': Ros's body is shown in profile, riddled by arrows that look like the rungs of a ladder.
* '''The Lannisters send their regards''': A musician wearing chainmail sleeves draws his bow across a cello as blood drips down it in vertical lines, visually evoking Catelyn Stark's throat being slit.
* '''What good is an empty cup?''': Red wine flows from a spilled golden cup onto the ground and down the stairs, forming a pair of hands choking a Joffrey-shaped shadow.
* '''Kill the Masters''': Several bloodied swords are impaled into the ground like tombstones, each one's shadow taking the form of a crucified Meereenese noble.
* '''This is turning into a lovely evening''': Crossed swords, covered with bloodstains shaped like fighting soldiers, form the bars of Theon's cell.
* '''The gods have made their will known''': As a mountain looms in the background, a snake winds around a bloodied spear. Half of its body is red and patterned in Martell suns, while the other half has been reduced to a skeleton.
* '''I am your son, I have always been your son''': Tyrion's massive shadow looms over his father's corpse, Tywin's blood on the floor taking the shape of Casterly Rock.
* '''You're not going to serve, you're going to die''': Fire rises from a burning brazier in the shapes of the Dothraki khals' screaming faces.
* '''That was a command, not an offer''': Holding Longclaw, Jon looks down at the bloodied execution block he just beheaded Janos Slynt over, seeing his father Ned in his shadow looking back at him.
* '''I made my choice long ago''': Snakes weave around and through the eye sockets of a skull that has the pointy end of Obara's spear coming out its mouth.
* '''Your name will disappear''': Sansa stands in the cell with her face shadowed and two halves of a broken arrow in her hands, the hunting dogs looming at her sides and Ramsay's bones piled at her feet, picked clean of all flesh.
* '''Long may she reign''': Cersei clasps a green crown inher hands with points shaped like burning wildfire, presiding over a pile of skulls lit by an eerie green glow. One of them -- Loras's skull -- has a seven-pointed star cut in its forehead.
* '''You are my queen, now and always''': The Iron Throne's points are fading into smoke as a trail of blood runs down it, surrounded by symbolic objects from Daenerys' journey including a Sons of the Harpy mask, the three dragon eggs, Jaime's golden hand and a fallen bell.
[[/folder]]

* Littlefinger stops beating around the bush, straight up admits that Sansa is his ReplacementGoldfish for Catelyn, then kisses her. For a bit of a meta example, it could have potentially been one of the most uncomfortable scenes to film in television history. Coming right off a discussion where he tells her that she could have been his daughter. {{Squick}}.

* '''Long may she reign''': Cersei clasps a green crown in her hands with points shaped like burning wildfire, presiding over a pile of skulls lit by an eerie green glow. One of them -- Loras's skull -- has a seven-pointed star cut in its forehead.

* Jon angrily telling an uncooperative Tormund that unless the wildlings and the Night's Watch work together against their common enemy, the noncombatants amongst his people will be left at the mercy of the White Walkers, who will [[KillEmAll kill them all]] and [[AnimateDead use their corpses to swell their undead legions further]].

* Arya gets to watch people being tortured horribly by ingenious use of a rat, a bucket and a torch ([[TruthInTelevision which actually was a real]] [[HumansAreBastards method of torture in the past]]), killed and having their heads hammered onto pikes for at ''least'' two days, all the while knowing she could very well be next. Many of the people she's with are watching their families receive this treatment.

* Whatever happened to reduce Valyria, once the greatest city known to mankind, to ruins.
** The fact that whatever it was, is referred to as "The Doom", and that it apparently is still there.
** [[YouDoNOTWantToKnow Even worse]] if you've read the books: In the books it's specified that the border between the Valyrian peninsula and Essos consisted of a line of volcanoes called the "Fourteen Flames" and Valyria, [[{{Atlantis}} the greatest civilization in history]], came to ruin when all of the volcanoes erupted. ''At once.'' The force of fourteen Krakatoas tore the entire peninsula apart. Cities were drowned by tidal waves hundreds of feet high; ash and raining lava brought dragons down from the sky; hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children died - ''all within the span of a single day''. All that remains of the once-proud nation are a chain of broken islands, still smoldering in poison fog ''400 years later''. [[{{DoomyDoomsOfDoom}} "Doom"]] is an {{understatement}}.

-->'''Jon''': And how many of your people can't fight? The women, the children, the old, the sick, what happens to them? You're condemning them to death- worse than death-, all because you're too proud to make peace?!

* The EvilGloating scene between Walder Frey and Roose Bolton about the Red Wedding, while several Frey servants are cleaning the bloodstains off the floor. Now, Joffrey may have had his insane outbreaks, but he is just a child. This is the first time we see competent, serious villains revelling in the heinous crime they just committed. The [[UncannyValley smile]] Roose gives deserves special mention. The creepy smile just goes to show, [[http://25.media.tumblr.com/639f71f4d3390c4a8c23576c33e673c8/tumblr_mo9op4nvvu1qkwee2o3_500.gif like father, like son.]]

* In the opening credits map, The Iron Bank finally has a place. The name of that place is the city of Braavos, guarded by a monstrous statue of the Titan. The way the statue moves and takes place is just... [[UncannyValley wrong]].

** It's not the usual scraping, desiccated, Nazgul-like shriek heard from long-decayed wights, either (while that's terrifying enough, you ''know'' no living thing would ever let out a sound like that). It's a scream you'd hear from a terrified but living child, [[UncannyValley only it lasts for far too long]].

[[caption-width-right:350:G’night, folks.]]

** The exact process of what Arya did is as follows: she posed as a servant girl to get close enough to a lord to kill them, stole their face to pose as them, then called a feast of their house together to covertly poison and kill them all. Arya committed a massacre as bad as the Red Wedding or Green Trial, but she did it alone, with far fewer resources, and no one knows she was behind it. Even without her face-stealing Arya has total anonymity to go anywhere and do anything, and has proven she can be utterly ruthless in pursuit of a victim.[[note]]In a later scene implied to be placed a few days later, a clearly freaked out Jaime lampshaded that they still didn't know who killed the Freys.[[note]] Without a doubt Arya Stark has become one of the most dangerous serial killers in Westeros. ''No one'' is safe from her. The girl who five seasons ago swore she would kill Cersei is now perfectly capable of doing it.

** The exact process of what Arya did is as follows: she posed as a servant girl to get close enough to a lord to kill them, stole their face to pose as them, then called a feast of their house together to covertly poison and kill them all. Arya committed a massacre as bad as the Red Wedding or Green Trial, but she did it alone, with far fewer resources, and no one knows she was behind it. Even without her face-stealing Arya has total anonymity to go anywhere and do anything, and has proven she can be utterly ruthless in pursuit of a victim. Without a doubt Arya Stark has become one of the most dangerous serial killers in Westeros. ''No one'' is safe from her. The girl who five seasons ago swore she would kill Cersei is now perfectly capable of doing it.

* In the segment of the Iron Bank, Tycho describes how the Iron Bank will have its due: If a prince or king can't pay up, the next one will be able to out of gratitude for the Bank supporting them against their rival. If a tradesman is hopelessly behind in payments, well... "the vicissitudes of trade are well known, and Braavos is full of people... [[PunctuatedForEmphasis who.are.not]]." Accentuated by showing a poor debtor, tied up and gagged, thrown into one of the many canals or maybe even the sea with a weight to [[Film/TheGodfather eat with the fishes.]]

'''Tyrion''': ''(slams his dagger into the table)'' Then you'll be fucking your own bride with a ''wooden cock!''

* Joffrey Baratheon is barely past adolescence, but he's uncompromisingly brutal and will not hesitate to maim or kill anyone who annoys him as long as he knows he can get away with it. Equally terrifying is that the Lannisters are willing to indulge him and keep him in power as long as they get to rule Westeros in his name.

* The degree of ParanoiaFuel in the first four seasons is palpable, as there's a constant feeling that anyone can be killed at anytime, even if they do everything right. Usually, death comes from a character's mistake, but there are also several moments where it's just because they were at the wrong place at the wrong time.