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I was re-watching the seventh season of Game of Thrones and noticed that there are four(?) casualties in the battle against the army of the dead in episode 6, "Beyond the Wall".

One of this casualties is

Thoros of Myr,

after he is attacked by the wight bear but I couldn't recognize any of the others. One was eaten by the wight bear, another fell into the water when the ice broke, and the other fell into a horde of wights while Jon was trying to rescue him.

Who were these characters? Were they named? Also, can they be seen in the party that left the Wall in another moment other than their death?

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  • I assumed they were all red shirts. There are wide shots of the party that show more people than the number of "famous" ones. Jan 2, 2018 at 18:22
  • @ToddWilcox Red Shirts? Jan 2, 2018 at 18:25
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    Just red shirts, basically unnamed extras there so the main characters don’t have to die. I’ll rewatch later to see how many exactly die.
    – TheLethalCarrot
    Jan 2, 2018 at 18:33
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    Related on M&TV: movies.stackexchange.com/questions/79359/…
    – Skooba
    Jan 2, 2018 at 18:49
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    movies.stackexchange.com/questions/73107/… This goes all the way back to the original series of Star Trek. Security personnel dressed in red shirts. When the stars of the show would visit a planet, sometimes it was dangerous and people died, but it was always some other character, not a star. Many times the other characters who died were random security personnel who wore red shirts. Hence the term for random characters who are killed off to show the situation is dangerous. Jan 2, 2018 at 19:13

1 Answer 1

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Thoros of Myr, Viserion, Benjen Stark (Coldhands) and 7 red shirts

The first casualty is the lead scout who gets killed by the wight bear whilst running back to the main group.

Wight bear kills the lead scout

The bear then goes on to kill two further red shirts.

Wight bear kills a red shirt Wight bear kills a red shirt #2

The bear then fatally wounds Thoros.

Wight bear wounds Thoros

After that the bear is killed by Jorah with his dragonglass dagger and Thoros' wound is cauterised.

When the group ambush the White Walker/wight patrol it's not shown anyone dying so we can assume no one does. However, whilst they are running towards the island on the frozen lake one red shirt is killed by the wights.

The wights kill the trailing red shirt

When this guy is taken out the frozen lake breaks up and stops the rest of the wights advancing. During the night that follows Thoros finally succumbs to his wounds and turns into a popsicle.

Thoros of Myr the popsicle

The wights then attack the group of merry men on their little island and the group actually hold up relatively well. However, one red shirt get's rushed whilst using a spear and can't fight them off and ends up dying.

Red shirt is rushed by wights

Moments later the same fate comes by another red shirt.

Red shirt mauled by wights

We then get a close scare with Tormund who is overcome by wights and even starts getting pulled into the water by some as the group starts to fallback. However, he is saved from becoming popsicle number 2 by Sandor. After that a red shirt helping Jon pull the captured wight further up the rock is rugby tackled off it into a group of waiting wights and mauled.

Red shirt falls into a group of wights

After this Dany arrives to rescue the remaining merry men with her dragons. The next casualty is then Viserion as he's flying when the world number one javelinist, the Night King, spears it under the wing.

Viserion get's speard

At this point the main group escape and no one else is killed. Later on when the main group of wights has left the area Benjen Stark, Coldhands, appears and saves Jon. He puts Jon on his horse and stays to fend off the wights from chasing him. However, he is quickly overcome and is mauled to re-death. It has been confirmed that Benjen"met his end here" in the DVD commentary for Season 7 by Alan Taylor.

Benjen Stark is overcome by wights

As for whether any of the red shirts can be seen in a none fighting scene, there appear to have been 14 men in the merry men (assuming all the red shirts that are in the group are shown dying) including:

  • Jon Snow
  • Sandor Clegane
  • Tormund Giantsbane
  • Gendry
  • Beric Dondarrion
  • Thoros of Myr
  • Jorah Mormont

I'm not sure they are all shown before they die as there appear to be inconsistencies with how many are shown in the group. Though these could be explained away by the group having used scouts like the one who is first to die against the wight bear. For example, when the wight bear attacks we are shown 12 men when there should be 13 though I assume the last could be a rear scout and isn't with the main group.

The merry men await the bear

That appears to be the best picture of the group all together. The following image shows there being around 8-10 people on the frozen lake. At this point 4 people have died with Thoros being fatally injured so there should be 10 people with 9 stood up and Thoros potentially stood or laying and the wight either on someone or on the floor. This could be me counting incorrectly or an inconsistency with how many people should be there but as it's not exactly that clear in the image it's hard to tell.

Overhead shot of the merry men on the frozen lake

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  • I imagined that it was something like that, but I haven't noticed the red shirts in the scene you showed, only when they died. Jan 2, 2018 at 18:43
  • Great answer even if it annoyed meI can't help feeling the GoT writers got a little more reluctant to kill off the big characters this series! A few years ago no one would have been safe!
    – Liath
    Jan 3, 2018 at 13:13
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    @Liath I agree but with only one season left and not too many named fighters left they sort of had their hands tied a bit. Also they don't really have GRRM to help them at the moment.
    – TheLethalCarrot
    Jan 3, 2018 at 13:16

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