Ahead of House of Dragon, FEMAIL reveals the most shocking scenes from Game of Thrones

Viewers around the world were stunned and horrified by the shocking scenes in TV’s most risque programme, Game of Thrones. 

But now an actor in the prequel, House of Dragon, has promised the new series ‘won’t be as gratuitous’ as the original.

Speaking to audiences as prequel premiered on Monday in London, British actor Steve Toussaint said there would still be nudity and gore – but not on the same controversial scale.

He said: ‘You’re walking this line between being authentic and being gratuitous and that certainly was the criticism.’

Steve also told Radio Times magazine: ‘There is some sex in it. There is going to be violence because it is a violent world. But we’ve tried not to be gratuitous.’

But just what made the first series so gratuitous? 

Here FEMAIL reveals the most shocking scenes from the eight seasons of Game of Thrones – from incestuous sex scenes to bloody and violent deaths… 

KHAL DROGO GIVES VISERYS A GOLDEN CROWN 

SEASON ONE

From the outset of the first season, it became clear the show would not shy away from gory violence and graphic deaths on screen. 

In one shocking episode in series one, a drunk Viserys threatened his sister Daenerys and her unborn child in front of Khal Drogo.

He begged for his golden crown, before the crown was melted down in front of his eyes. 

Upon realising he was about to be killed, Viserys pleaded with Daenerys to help save him. 

However instead, she watches on as Khal pours the melted gold over his head, saying: ‘A crown for a king.’ 

SANSA STARK’S RAPE 

Critics and viewers were outraged after Sansa Stark, played by 19-year-old English actress Sophie Turner, was raped by Ramsay Bolton (Iwan Rheon) on their wedding night.

She had her dress torn off and was raped by sadist Ramsay Bolton on the night of their marriage. 

The scene, which aired in May 2015, was part of a story arc which did not appear in the novels. It was criticized for being gratuitous, played for shock value and serving no narrative purpose.

British actress Sophie, who has played Sansa Stark since she was 13, also defended the rape scene as the upraor began.

The young actress said: ‘When I read that scene, I kinda loved it… it was all so messed up.’

‘It’s also so daunting for me to do it. I’ve been making [the producers] feel so bad for writing that scene: ‘I can’t believe you’re doing this to me!’ But I secretly loved it.’

THEON’S TORTURE AND CASTRATION

Elsewhere in season three, Theon Greyjoy, played by Alfie Allen, was kidnapped and taken to House Bolton’s Dreadfort. 

There, he underwent a series of horrendous torture methods which were uncomfortable for viewers to watch.

Scenes included a group of soldiers  pulling his fingernails out, flaying one finger, then cutting it off, as well as shoving a screw through his foot.

Two women woke Theon up, and told him they’d heard he was ‘well endowed.’

However it was a trick from Ramsay, who instead decided to hang him from a wooden board and castrate him.   

In a later scene, he even taunts him about what has been done by eating a sausage in front of him. 

The shocking and graphic scenes, which was not included in the original source material, left many viewers horrified. 

THE RED WEDDING

The HBO show created as many headlines for the controversy it’s caused due it’s nudity and violence as it has for the amount of acclaim it’s received. 

However it was when the Red Wedding aired in series three in the episode The Rains of Castamere that many fans were left in a state of confusion and horror.  

At the centre of the episode viewers watched as a grisly end came to the King of the North, his mother and pregnant wife, in what is now being dubbed as the one of the most gruesome scenes in TV history.

Furthermore the scene left viewers not only sickened by it’s bloody nature but surprised as it has drifted from the George R.R. Martin’s A Storm of Swords, which the third of the seven planned books in the Game of Thrones series. 

In the scene Robb Stark, the King of the North engaged in an age old custom of hospitality with Walder Frey by eating his bread and salt.

However after lulling viewers into a false sense of security Walder betrays his guest as he carries out a gruesome act of vengeance against the King and his clan, including of course his wife (who is not pregnant in the book).

The wedding feast soon descends into a bloodbath with most of Robb’s clan also being butchered.

Catelyn Stark, played by Michelle Fairley, had to watch as her daughter and unborn grandchild was slaughtered, then her first born son, before her own throat was also slit.  

RAMSAY BOLTON MURDERS HIS FATHER

Ramsay Bolton’s actions remain some of the most violent and horrendous on the series. 

In series three, he murders his father after bringing him in for an embrace. 

‘If you acquire a reputation as a mad dog you’ll be treated as a mad dog – taken back to be slaughtered for pig feed,’ Roose Bolton told his psychotic bastard son Ramsay. It was an insight intended to be a warning but proved to be a mistake and a provocation.

‘You’ll always be my first born,’ Bolton assured him after the arrival of his legitimate heir was announced.

‘Thank you for saying that,’ Ramsay mustered. ‘It means a great deal to me.’

When they embraced and there was a punching sound with Ramsay’s head turning away as Roose hissed the word ‘liar !’ 

It seemed for a second that his father had sensed what a threat Ramsay represented to his newborn son and put him out of his misery. 

However instead, Ramsay had stabbed his father to death. 

‘Send for Lady Walda and the baby,’ Ramsay ordered, wiping the blood from his knife.

…BEFORE HE IS KILLED AFTER SANSA STARK UNLEASHES HIS OWN VIOLENT DOGS 

After appearing in six series of the show, and becoming one of the most hated characters in TV history, Ramsay finally met his comeuppance. 

And in typical Game of Thrones fashion, the death was extremely violent.  

He is beaten to a pulp by his rival, Jon Snow, after his army is smashed he feels is fitting. 

Even bloodied and bound in a dungeon, Ramsay is not cowed.

However the last moment comes at the jaws of his hounds, set on him by Sanza Stark, the wife he raped and brutalised. 

ARYA STARK GORGES OUT THE EYES OF ENEMY 

One of the most violent scenes in the show came when Arya Stark  slaughtered Ser Meryn Trant in one of the series’ most gruesome ever murders.

She leaps at him and gouges out his eye with a short blade, falls on him and pierces his other eye, before mercilessly stabbing him over and over in the chest.

‘You’re the first person on my list, you know,’ she tells the blubbering mess, recalling her water dancing tutor he killed in season one. ”For killing Syrio Forel, remember him? Probably not.

‘I’ve gotten a few of the others. The Many-Faced God stole a few others from me… but I’m glad he left me you. Do you know who I am?’ she calmly asks, as the Kingsguard bleeds and pleads on his knees.

‘You know who I am. I’m Arya Stark. Do you know who you are. You’re nothing. No-one,’ she says and slowly slits his throat. 

THE PURPLE WEDDING 

The Red Wedding wasn’t the only disastrous ceremony on the hit TV show. 

The second episode of the hit HBO’s show’s fourth season was centered on the so-called Purple Wedding between King Joffrey Baratheon and Margaery Tyrell.

The cruel and sadistic boy king, played by 21-year-old Irish actor Jack Gleeson, showed his evil ways even during his wedding to Margaery Tyrell, portrayed by 32-year-old Natalie Dormer.

Joffrey made sure the festivities included a mock battle featuring dwarfs and later openly mocked his dwarf uncle Tyrion Lannister, played by 44-year-old actor Peter Dinklage.

The wedding scene was somewhat set by Lady Olenna Tyrell, played by 75-year-old Dame Diana Rigg, when she offered condolences to Sansa Stark, played by 18-year-old English actress Sophie Turner, for the deaths of her family members at the Red Wedding.

‘War is war, but killing a man at a wedding? Horrid. … As if men need more reasons to fear marriage,’ Olenna said.

Joffrey after cutting the cake at his wedding took a sip of wine from his new cupbearer Tyrion.

The vicious king appears to be choking at first, but then it becomes clear that he has been poisoned.

Blood pours out of his nose and he falls to the ground and dies rather quickly, but not before pointing an accusatory finger at his uncle Tyrion.

As Joffrey lay dying and his pale skin turned purple, the Purple Wedding nickname became clear.