Season six of The Walking Dead has wrapped up, and season six of Game of Thrones is nearly upon us. These are two of my favorite television shows for several reasons. The thing that I enjoy most about both shows though is that the characters we care about have no guarantee that they will live to fight another day. This facet of storytelling is one that grips viewers like me, and both shows pull it off well, but one of them raises the mortal threat almost to an art form.

A brief digression of sorts: my dad probably had no business taking 8-year-old me to the movies to see Rocky III. We had not long before watched the first two films on TV, so I guess it made sense to take in the third installment, and go watch the “Italian Stallion” Rocky Balboa square off against Clubber Lang. It was sure to be an epic match up.

We left the theater in the middle of the second act. I was in tears, completely unable to manage the thought of Rocky losing to this ferocious bruiser in Clubber Lang. I begged my dad to go, and –unable to convince me to stick with it and finish the movie- he relented. This is the first time I remember him giving a (well-deserved) side-eye. I’m sure there were others; this is just the first one that I remember.

See, my dad knew what I would come to learn over the coming years: the hero makes it. He or she will face setbacks, adversity, even defeat, but the hero comes back. The hero prevails. I watched Rocky III again recently, and couldn’t help chuckling to myself. The necessity of the loss in that fight, and Rocky’s inevitable comeback, make perfect sense to me now. The hero makes it.

Several years later, here we are, and along comes The Walking Dead with Game of Thrones right behind it. Both television shows are based on print media that boast remarkably robust body counts, and the live-action adaptations for each have been pretty true to the source material, in that they feature broad and talented casts who must endure brutal circumstances, and not everyone makes it out alive. Which is exactly as it should be.

When I was watching Rocky, a movie about a singular protagonist, I didn’t yet know that the thrill wasn’t in if Balboa would come back, but how. If 8-year-old me had been just a tad more patient, I would’ve seen the train-hard-and-overcome-the-adversity victory and gotten my happy ending. In many ways, The Walking Dead has delivered several moments that place our heroes, including Rick Grimes, our main character, in the most dire peril (especially the season six finale; WOW), and the show has emphatically not been bashful about killing off important cast members (I will never forgive them for Shane). In the middle of this heart-pounding danger, we know that most of the cast can be eliminated at any second… except for our point-of-view character and his immediate circle. Rick has looked some deeply life-threatening situations right in the eyeballs, and as a viewer, I’ve felt the suspense of the scene, but I also knew that he was the main character, so the intrigue was built on exactly how he would escape the danger. I am reminded of a confrontation in the woods with Daryl’s new friends in season 4. You don’t want to be in close quarters with Rick Grimes. Yeah, he survives because he’s our primary point of view, but he’s also a pretty tough SOB.

Meanwhile, in Westeros, -where most of the Game of Thrones takes place- heads are getting lopped off from the word “go.” Just over halfway through the first season, we lose a handful of characters that matter to our broad story. A viewer has to be careful choosing a favorite from among this lot, because when the threat is close, that character that you love just might end up with a spear in his or her neck. Admittedly, there are primary point of view characters on Game of Thrones as well, but because there’s more than one, given the expanse of the setting and the story, the threat of death feels much closer, much more menacing. I cannot think of one of the five seasons of this show where I wasn’t legitimately shocked by the demise of at least one character. And that is something I truly enjoy: when situations are precarious, I sincerely think to myself, is this it for so-and-so character that I’ve come to know and love? I’m led to believe that I’m not alone in this, judging by the outcry regarding the season five finale.

The rush of witnessing the hero beat the odds and escape danger by the skin of her or his teeth is fun; it makes for some great “did you see that” moments. But when the danger, the threat of death, hovers over almost every scene like a storm cloud, and you know that not even your favorite character is safe, that’s the kind of intensity that makes it impossible to turn away.

By the way if you feel a certain way about cliffhangers, see this article.