Tragic love in Game of Thrones — Top 5 stories

For those who have watched the TV show or are fans of it, Game of Thrones is not just about wars and political intrigue. It's also about the personal dramas of many characters, complicated relationships, and tragic endings to love stories.

Screenrant tells us about the most tragic love stories of Game of Thrones.

Ned And Catelyn Stark

From the very beginning to the tragic finale in Season 1, Ned and Catelyn's relationship is threatened by external forces. Their marriage (and they were married for 17 years) was calculated for political gain, but they managed to fall in love with each other nonetheless. As Catelyn herself said about their marriage in the conversation with her son Robb: "Your father didn't love me when we married. He hardly knew me or I him. Love didn't just happen to us. We built it slowly over the years, stone by stone, for you, for your brothers and sisters, for all of us. It's not as exciting as secret passion in the woods, but it is stronger. It lasts longer."

Unfortunately, when Ned's best friend (and also the King), Robert Baratheon, invited Ned to become the Hand of the King, he left Winterfell and his family for the capital, from where he never returned. After Robert's tragic death, Ned himself is executed on false charges of treason. And after that, Catelyn was a widow for the rest of her life. The last time she saw her husband was when the coffin with his remains was brought to her.

Shae and Tyrion Lannister

Tyrion Lannister is undoubtedly one of the most beloved characters of the TV show, and someone you can sympathise with in the entire Lannister family. From birth, he was a dwarf who was hated by his father and sister (only because his mother died during his birth, which earned him the nickname "The Kinslayer"). And then Tywin, his father, destroyed his first love by giving the girl he loved to the mercy of the soldiers, lying that she was a whore. Frustrated with women, he began to drink heavily and lead a promiscuous lifestyle. But then he met Shaya, and they began to develop a relationship. But everything fell apart when Tyrion was forced to marry Sansa Stark. Feeling betrayed, she gives false testimony at his trial when Tyrion is accused of killing Joffrey. It ends when Tyrion sees her in her father's bed and kills her by strangling her with a chain.

Jon Snow and Ygritte

Jon Snow and Ygritte's relationship had such wonderful on-screen chemistry that it's no wonder they're now married in real life. As representatives of two enemy camps, feelings arise between them. She was the first woman Jon ever had an intimate relationship with. But Jon chose to stick to his duty (as he was a member of the Night's Watch, which forbade its members from having families). During a battle with the wildlings, of which Ygritte was a member, she dies in Jon's arms from an arrow fired by one of the Night's Watch members.

Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark

Despite only appearing together in one brief sequence in the finale of Season 7, Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark are two of the most influential characters in the story. Their relationship and Rhaegar's secret divorce from his first wife and secret marriage to Lyanna became the catalyst for the tragic events that led to Rhaegar's death at the hands of Lyanna's betrothed, Robert Baratheon, and Lyanna's death in childbirth, giving birth to a boy whom her brother, Ned Stark, passed off as his bastard son Jon Snow, without telling anyone about his parentage (not even his own wife, who had believed all her life that her husband had cheated on her).

Robb And Talisa Stark

One of the most tragic love stories in the TV Show. They met during the war. He was the King of the North, and she was a noble lady who worked as a healer, caring for the wounded. And feelings flared up between them (although at that time, he was betrothed to another). Despite the warnings from his mother, Robb secretly married Talisa. But then, circumstances developed in such a way that Robb was forced to ask for help from the father of the girl to whom he was originally betrothed. And he supposedly agreed, but with several conditions (among which the groom would be Robb's uncle). But the wedding turned out to be a trap, during which Talisa (who was pregnant at the time) was killed by stabbing in the stomach, and she died in her husband's arms, bleeding to death. And then Robb himself, his mother, and their entire army were killed, and the wedding itself went down in history as the "Red Wedding".

As a reminder, we told you about the mistakes that made the most tragic heroine of Game of Thrones, Sansa Stark, unhappy.

We also wrote about why the Game of Thrones TV show is an ideal encyclopaedia of abuse.