Season One
- Ragnar the Fearless dying while valiantly defending his home against last breath, while literally being on fire. Doubles with being awesome.
- After taking in Iseult, Uhtred leaves Mildrith and his son. After they, along with King Alfred and his family escape to the marshes, Baby Edward is very sick. Iseult has a pagan method of healing him, but this would include the death of a random child somewhere. After Uhtred revisits his former home, he discovers his son buried in the yard, and realizes it was him who had to die to heal Edward, and breaks down crying.
- Alfred weeping while holding his dying son to his chest and blaming himself for Edward's sickness.Alfred: It is retribution. God is punishing me. For Æthelwold, for stealing his crown...
Season Two
- The cruelty Uhtred, Halig and Finan face while being sold into slavery by King Guhtred, particularly the death of Halig: chained to the prow of the ship, with very tall waves completely covering him, making him drown.
- After Ragnar saves Uhtred from slavery, he's so broken he can't even recognize him first. When he does, he breaks down in tears.
- Uhtred breaking down besides Hild in the fields, telling her how he hates what he has become, but Hild comforts him that she would always be there for him, which also makes this Heartwarming.
- Ragnar is so blinded by his revenge that after he kills Kjartan, he repeatedly stabs his lifeless body, and has to be taken away by others.
- Aethelred raping Aethelflaed on their wedding night, and later abusing her, until she is kidnapped by Sigefrid and Erik.
- After Sigefrid and Erik attack the camps of Wessex and Mercia after Uhtred and Aethelred and their men take Lundene and find it empty, Thyra and Aethelflaed flee to the forest. After the men return, Beocca cannot find Thyra and cries out to her desperately. Thankfully, Thyra is completely safe.Beocca: (voice breaking) I thought you were dead and I wanted to die....
- Aethelflaed locked up in a cage fastened to the ceiling in the main hall at Beamfleot, her escape with Erik completely hopeless.
- Erik dying is still pretty heartbreaking, especially seeing the reaction of Aethelflaed to his death.
Season Three
- Uhtred finding out that Gisela has died in childbirth.
- Uhtred falling out with his adoptive brother Ragnar and childhood friend and lover Brida, with Ragnar disowning him and Brida wanting to see Uhtred dead.
- Brida crying after discovering Ragnar's body after he is killed in his sleep, and being completely broken afterwards.
- The final meeting between Alfred and Uhtred, where the two men finally reconcile their differences, admit their great admiration for one another, and part as friends.
- The sight of Alfred dying and Aelswith crying by his bed can be pretty emotional.
- Thyra helplessly being trapped under the floorboards in her house, hiding from her attacker, while she is burned to death and cries out for her Beocca...
- Simultaneously, Beocca arrives to find their house burning down, knowing Thyra is there, but is unable to help her, and just screams out to her while Finan and Sithric hold him down, so he doesn't try to sacrifice himself to save his wife.
Season Four
- Beocca's death is simply shocking and gut-wrenching, but at lest he didn't die too long after Thyra did...
- Uhtred buries a cross representing Beocca, as his body cannot be recovered. While he does this, he thinks about their time spent together.
- Aethelred on his deathbed, admitting that he really did treat Aethelflaed cruelly, but has now regretted it.Aethelred: I wish you had been as faithful to me as you are to Mercia.Aethelflaed: Maybe if you hadn't treated me so cruelly since our wedding day, things could have been different for us.
Season Five
- Brida mourning her daughter, Vibeke.Brida: (talking about the Christian God) If Vibeke was His child, why did He let her die?
- The death of Aethelflaed. Perhaps the truest love of Uhtred's life, she dies of cancer, after having concealed it for so long with only Uhtred by her side as they reaffirm their love for each other and pass away.
- The death of Osferth.
- After Brida's Roaring Rampage of Revenge, she invites Uhtred to fight her, one-on one. During their fight, a montage plays of their former years when they were still amicable, intercut with their fight. Brida pleads Uhtred to kill her, as she has nothing left to live for after her daughter had died. Uhtred refuses, and forgives Brida.Uhtred: To kill you would be to kill a part of myself.
- The reconciliation is ruined when Stiorra shoots an arrow through Brida, killing her.
Brida: (while dying) I'm cold... Ragnar..
