Game of Thrones season 6 is shockingly violent, not so much in the acts portrayed, but in the death toll it’s racking up so far. Spoilers ahead— we’re two episodes into Game of Thrones this year, and we’ve already lost many who are near and dear to us. The deaths just keep on piling up, and they’re not from the books, and often don’t seem totally necessary to the story. At the least, they’re losing their impact. What’s going on? Did the show run out of money or something?

Game Of Thrones Season 6 Deaths Are Out Of Control And Meaningless

Rest in peace, our dearly beloved ones: Doran Martell, Trystane Martell, Roose Bolton, Balon Greyjoy, who am I forgetting? We’re losing on average two named characters an episode, along with the usual slew of minor characters like Walda Frey. It’s beyond excessive—even when the characters were already dead in the books, as was the case for Balon.

There are two issues. Some of the deaths don’t make narrative sense. The Martells were killed by their own family because… they didn’t take revenge quickly enough on behalf of their family. The Sand Snakes became kinslayers just to get revenge on Oberyn faster. This is out of character, and the Internet is widely calling the Dorne coup an admission that the show’s Dorne arc never really worked. Game of Thrones is throwing in the towel and taking the loss.

The problem with the other deaths is more subtle. Balon appears in season 6 after an absence of at least a few years. We haven’t seen him in ages. Then, another Greyjoy whom we’ve never met in the show pops up and promptly murders him on his first appearance. There’s no tension there, no reason to care—the show hasn’t established Euron well enough. And Roose Bolton’s death is the worst of them all—because it actually does make sense for the characters and storyline. But after so much other death, so much of it coming totally out of the blue, we’re desensitized. Were you shocked at Roose’s death? Appalled at the evil of Ramsay Bolton? Maybe a little bit. But to me, it felt like just another pointless violent death after a slew of other ones.

Killing characters off was Game of Thrones’ early claim to fame, but the show used to do it judiciously. It once had shock value. Not anymore. The question of why Game of Thrones is killing off characters so quickly now is mostly rhetorical. Is the show’s budget all going to the high production values and the increasingly big stars? Are the showrunners admitting they made mistakes in some storylines and cutting their losses? Is the narrative simply too big now and in need of some winnowing down? All of these reasons are plausible, but that’s not really the point. Death on Game of Thrones has become meaningless—it just happens too often now.