RIP the GoT BFG - Hodor. The good, the bad, and the tragic moments in this week’s Game Of Thrones, writes Jim Shelley

Game Of Thrones ended with the shocking death of Hodor, although his demise shouldn’t really have been a surprise.

Not because, as probably the softest soul in the whole show, he always was too nice to have survived.

No. We had been warned what GoT’s default motto towards culling its characters was going to be back in Season Three.

‘All men must die’ – including, we now know, the occasional baby (if he was related to Ramsay) and the gentle giant everyone loved.

Surprising: Game Of Thrones ended with the shocking death of Hodor, although his demise shouldn’t really have been a surprise

In this series though no one is safe and nothing is sacred - as this week’s death of Hollywood legend Max Von Sydow and yet another Stark direwolf stressed.

It was a patchy episode and in many ways the silliest and flimsiest yet but still switched lethally from soppy to callous in an instant.

Long-awaited breakthroughs – like the origins of Night’s King and how Hodor (nee Willis) came by his name – proved to be portents of doom.

It was also (for a while) uncharacteristically positive. But where Game Of Thrones is concerned, it’s the hope that kills you (the hope that something good is finally going to happen to someone). And if it’s not hope, it will probably be the White Walkers and their army of wights.

So we say: RIP GoT’s BFG, the mighty Hodor. Let’s hope he doesn’t become one of them – because he will be terrifyingly big.

End of an era: It was a patchy episode and in many ways the silliest and flimsiest yet but still switched lethally from soppy to callous in an instant

Here is my Top 10 of the best moments and the worst:

THE BAD

1. Ser Jorah’s soppy goodbye to Khaleesi

‘Tyrion Lannister was right,’ Iain Glen growled heroically to the diminutive blonde bombshell he had silently worshipped for several series. ‘I love you. I’ll always love you.’ This was the moment Game Of Thrones suddenly became as corny as Crossroads only with chainmail.

2. Dr Khaleesi: Medicine Woman’s ‘cure’ for greyscale

Ser Jorah valiantly departed having shown his beloved the greyscale infection destined to turn him to stone.

‘Is there a cure?’ she asked.

‘I don’t know,’ he nobly growled.

‘How long does it take?’

‘I don’t know that either,’ he said. (He didn’t know much.)

He should have known that she wouldn’t help him though.

‘I command you to heal yourself and then return to me,’ she said, instructing him to find the cure for the ancient ailment by himself. Thanks a bunch ! Surely she could have at least tried to burn it off. After all she was Khaleesi the Mother of Dragons, ‘the Unburnt’, the Breaker of Chains, and the Silver Queen. She certainly wasn’t Doctor Khlaeesi: Medicine Woman.

‘When I take command of the Seven Kingdoms I need you by my side,’ she finished - which seemed somewhat selfish in the circumstances.

Knowledgeable: Viewers had been warned what GoT’s default motto towards culling its characters was going to be back in Season Three

3. Kinvara the High Priestess from Volantis

Kinvara was the Florence & The Machine to the original Red Woman’s Kate Bush. Her velvet dress, Lovely Hair, and accent meant she was less like a menacing, exotic, erotic, witch (like Melisandre) and more like the Spanish singer from the Eurovision Song Contest. Nul points.

4. The irksome Children Of The Forest pixies

Game Of Thrones at its worst. All a bit Labyrinth. It transpired the twee little pixies were responsible for creating the White Walkers. Oops. True, one of them sacrificed herself to save Bran. But where she got Ye Olde Hand Grenade from was anyone’s guess.

5.The very presence of Richard E. Grant

The arrival of REG in GoT proves that sooner or later every British (or fake British) actor will end up in Game Of Thrones.

6. Arya’s incessant stick fights

GoT realised all the clanging sword fights had run their course and let Jaime, Brienne, and co. move on ages back. Arya’s efforts are the same – only without the danger/promise of any heads being chopped off.

Ring of fire: In this series though no one is safe and nothing is sacred - as this week’s death of Hollywood legend Max Von Sydow and yet another Stark direwolf stressed

7. The street theatre parody of the Lannisters and Ned Stark - Carry On Game Of Thrones rather than Shakespeare

Served the valuable purpose of forcing Arya to confront her identity before her ‘do or die’ mission but was if anything too authentically vulgar, without GoT’s usual wit. It was so ‘Carry On Game Of Thrones’ they might as well as have cast Barbara Windsor as Cersei. You can amuse yourselves by casting the rest. Kenneth Williams as Varys the Spider perhaps?

8. The whereabouts of the dragons

Tyrion unchained them because they were starving several episodes ago now. But whether they actually flew away or where they went remains a mystery/annoying.

9. Bran’s expositional flashbacks

Bran had inadvertently caused the death of his mystical mentor Max Von Sydow, the Three-Eyed Raven. Clumsy! On the plus side, hopefully GoT will stop resorting to flashbacks.

10. The death of poor Hodor, not to mention Summer the direwolf

Gratuitous frankly. As we’ve come to expect from Game Of Thrones...

Outnumbered: The White Walkers are the only creatures in Game Of Thrones that should have their own spin-off series

THE GOOD

1. The gallivanting Euron Greyjoy

The Ironborn people of the Iron Islands might not be the most entertaining or imaginative of GoT’s clans (although what they don’t know about iron isn’t worth knowing). They rightly elected the psychotic Euron as their new leader, voting for the man (who was a cross between Oliver Reed and Eddie Izzard) over Yara Greyjoy (‘a woman’). This was despite Uncle Euron admitting he had killed his predecessor (Euron’s brother and Yara/Theon’s father) cheering: ‘I apologise to you all for not killing him years ago.’

‘You weren’t here,’ carped Theon, unwisely trying to put him in his place. ‘You were gallivanting round the world.’

‘Gallivanting?’ Euron laughed. ‘Is that the sort of thing you start to say once your d**k gets chopped cut off?’

It was like two rappers dissing each other with their use of the word ‘gallivanting.’

‘I’m going to gallivant right over and give it to Daenerys !’ roared Euron, delivering another knock-out blow to poor Theon. Admittedly, Euron’s reaction to the news that Yara had ‘stolen our best ships’ was rather ludicrous – a rallying-cry for his followers to go home and knock up more boats. But his final word proved inspiringly bonkers. ‘Now, where are my niece and nephew?! Let’s go murder them!’

Hopeful? Long-awaited breakthroughs – like the origins of Night’s King and how Hodor (nee Willis) came by his name – proved to be portents of doom

2. The emergence of Sansa: Warrior Princess

Gone are the days when Sansa’s simpering made her the Stark family’s answer to Lady Diana – despite still forcing some knitwear on Jon Snow and fishing for compliments about her embroidery skills.

The way she stood up and savaged Littlefinger was truly inspiring. She is also rousing the troops to attack Ramsay and regain Winterfell with a gusto that is making Jon Snow look like a blouse.

3. The Night’s King and the White Walkers

Arguably the most arresting of all GoT’s wild and wonderful creations, the White Walkers always guarantee something exciting (and violent) is about to happen - in this case when Night’s King marked Brandon’s arm and quickly disposed of Max Von Sydow. The White Walkers are the only creatures in Game Of Thrones that should have their own spin-off series.

4. Varys being silenced (for once) as he was reminded how his privates were ‘tossed in the fire’

Kinvara’s accent/acting may have bordered on Euro-talk worthy of Eldorado but she made him pay for mocking her as ‘a fanatic.’

‘Terrible things happen for a reason,’ she told him before reminding him of when he was castrated as a youth – which was certainly terrible. ‘Do you remember what you heard that night when the sorcerer tossed your parts in the flames?’

Unsurprisingly he did but didn’t want to re-live it but it was intriguing to see him silenced for once.

Distressed: The episode was also (for a while) uncharacteristically positive. But where Game Of Thrones is concerned, it’s the hope that kills you

5. The continuing super-cool of Jaqen H’ghar

The endless mind games/face games that the Faceless Man plays on Arya have begun to pall but old Jaqen maintains a droll sense of humour.

‘You’ll never be one of us, Lady Stark !’ carped the Waif after knocking Arya about again.

‘She has a point,’ Jaqen quipped coolly, practically winking at the camera.

6. Richard E. Can’t having such a small part (as it were)

Unlike Downton Abbey, Richard E. Can’t was confined to a couple of scenes and was mostly, admirably, heavily disguised. Mind you the sight of his co-star being criticised for their acting by REG (‘you read very false!’) was horribly ignominious.

7. Even the street theatre parody of Game Of Thrones contained full-frontal nudity

Not only did one of the actresses playing someone in Game Of Thrones stand around backstage gratuitously topless, for once we were also treated to an alarmingly, um, blunt, close-up of a male actor’s anatomy (which he said had warts). This was equality at least if not progress.

Menacing: Arguably the most arresting of all GoT’s wild and wonderful creations, the White Walkers always guarantee something exciting (and violent) is about to happen

8. Brienne’s character assessments

Sansa and Brienne are proving quite a double-act. Better than Brienne and Podrick in fact. Not only is Brienne Sansa’s physical protector (very physical) she is also sagely astute.

Of Jon Snow she told Sansa: ‘he seems trustworthy. A bit brooding perhaps. I suppose it’s understandable considering...’

What? Considering he was actually dead?!

Her disapproval of Ser Davos was brilliantly down-to-earth.

‘Davos and the Red Woman helped a man murder his own brother - with blood magic !‘ she protested, adding (about Tormund) ‘And that Wildling fellow with the beard!’ as if this was almost as bad, and rightly so...

Who's in charge? The Ironborn people of the Iron Islands might not be the most entertaining or imaginative of GoT’s clans. They rightly elected the psychotic Euron as their new leader

9. Max Von Sydow’s dignified exit

The legendary Hollywood elder statesman exited with his customary dignity, despite being rather too Doctor Who and with all his dialogue confined to three-word sentences.

‘He touched you,’ he told Bran gravely about Night’s King. ‘He knows you’re here. He’ll come for you. You must leave. All of you. The time has come. For you to become me.’

10. The origins of Hodor’s name being revealed

Somehow GoT made you feel foolish that you hadn’t guessed the origins of Hodor’s name earlier. He was a walking Spoiler Alert all along – a man who’d been experiencing and prophesising his death in a single word for decades (or trying to). Once again Bran not only saw it but caused, morphing into his friend back when he was simply Willis and causing him to have a fit. Then back in the future, ‘Hodor’ was trying to keep the demented wights at bay.

‘Hold the door !’ he was told.

‘Hold the door !’ he said back as a boy as he had his seizure, repeating it until he finally stopped with terrible pathos and began to be torn to shreds by the wights. ‘Hold the door ! Hold the door ! Hold door. Hold door....Hodor.’

Don’t miss Episode Six in seven days’ time – and see whose turn it is to die next.

Steely nerves: Gone are the days when Sansa’s simpering made her the Stark family’s answer to Lady Diana