So farewell, then, Tywin Lannister, you truly were the people’s Hand of the King. But this being Game of Thrones, it was never going to last, and now you’ve been shot with a crossbow by your dwarf son while sitting on the toilet. Not how you envisioned it all ending, I imagine.
The final episode of season 4 has left us bereft at the thought of another year to fill with our empty, meaningless lives; it saw Jon Snow going off to kill Mance Rayder, the rather likeable leader of the Wildlings, a suicide mission that would entail Snow breaking the rule of hospitality, which is especially sacred in Westeros (as it was in most of the ancient world from which George RR Martin drew his books).
When Stannis Baratheon turns up and saves the day, Snow is merciful to Mance, as Mance was to him in captivity, suggesting Stannis treated him well.
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