How Should Game of Thrones Kill Its Most Evil Character Ever?
Speculation about how Ramsay Bolton might die reveals the challenges of devising a cathartic TV death—and illuminates a larger issue facing the series.
..This ideal of the villain death—epic, memorable, with a hint of divine design—has informed some of the best antagonist sendoffs on television. Shows likeBreaking Bad, Fargo, Orange Is the New Black,The Wire, and Jessica Jones have all dispatched their Big Bads in ways that felt artful, appropriate, powerful, and original.
..Most shows, including Thrones, cycle through one or two main story arcs with antagonists before getting rid of them—and yet Ramsay has stuck around long enough as a presence so cartoonishly evil that a simple stabbing or poisoning won’t leave most fans feeling vindicated after all they had to suffer through.
..it faces the additional challenge of producing an ending that will fulfill fans’ innate desire for justice. There’s a reason viewers love to watch “evil” characters meet grisly ends onscreen: In addition to offering pure spectacle (an awful king being poisoned at his own wedding in front of hundreds of guests, a drug lord having half his face blown off and walking several feet before collapsing), it affirms the notion that the chaotic, uncaring universe sometimes gets it right. It’s why revenge narratives like Kill Bill, Old Boy, Carrie, Inglourious Basterds, and Memento resonate so viscerally.
.. Ramsay dying in his sleep would be a tragically Martinesque ending for a person who deserves nothing less than eternity in each of the Seven Hells being munched on by the spirits of all the dead Stark direwolves.