Although I am a bit embarrassed that I used the GoT abbreviation. It seems silly now, like this is what the cool kids call it.
I am almost finished watching Game of Thrones, all six seasons, most of it for at least the third time. So now I will write a few things about it.
My top ten list is not necessarily "favorite" moments, but ten moments that were some combination of shocking, awesome, amazing in some way. A lot of them are from seasons one and six, because I saw season one before I read the books, and of course season six is all new to me. So some things in between, like Tywin's death or Jamie losing a hand, I knew those were coming, so they were not as shocking as they might have been.
Really, I only had nine best scenes, but you have to have ten.
Top 10 Game of Thrones moments
10. Viserys's death
Viserys was a really unpleasant character. I don't know that his death was really shocking, but the way they killed him, the way his head melted, pretty good.
9. Joffrey's death
A great scene, even though I knew it was coming. First, it's really gratifying to see Joffrey die, because he's kind of awful. But the way his face turns all colors, he totally looks like he's dying, really gruesome. Great stuff.
8. The birth of dragons
Let's take a very short break from deaths. Dragons have been extinct for 100 years, or is it 300? They're all gone, never to return. Then Dany walks out of a huge bonfire unharmed, with three live dragons. This changes everything.
7. The Red Wedding (Robb and Catelyn's deaths)
By the third time I watched, I was glad to see Catelyn die. She is soooo grim and gloomy and deathly serious about everything. Not Robb or Talisa though. The red wedding is the second time that we learn that in Martin's world, the heroes of the story die, and we are not sure who the story is about anymore. After this one, we know better than to think that Tyrion or Dany or Jon or Arya or Sansa or Bran will certainly survive to the end. No one is safe.
6. Drogon returns
Even knowing the first time that this was coming, even watching it for at least the fourth time, this scene is just exhilarating. Dany and her small band are surrounded, badly outnumbered. She realizes this is the end, all is lost. She grabs Missandei's hand, closes her eyes -- and we hear the scream of a dragon, followed by a huge ball of fire. Then Drogon circles in while everyone stares, lands with a thump, recognizes Dany, then burns up twenty men or so with one breath. Then another twenty. Then Dany climbs on and flies away. It is a rare moment of complete triumph.
5. Hardhome
This is one of several big battle scenes, and some of the others are really well done. However, nothing can quite match dead people hurtling themselves off of a cliff by the hundreds, then getting up and overwhelming the wildlings and the Night's Watch. By the time the Night King raises all the dead to join his army, we are just as awestruck as Jon Snow is. This is one hell of an enemy. Better hope the wall holds.
4. Shireen's death
Stannis is very stern, very determined, but he is also honorable to some extent, definitely not a villain like Joffrey or Ramsay. Until this scene. What really makes it work is that she screams and screams and screams, and it's horrifying. Like all of these last few scenes, I was left with my jaw dropped open. Did that really happen? Well no, it's fiction, but wow.
3. Cersei blows up Baelor's Sept (Margery and Loras and Mace and Lancel and Kevan and the High Sparrow's deaths.)
I think Kevan was there. We heard about wildfire under the city a long time back, but this was a great plot twist. Just when you think Cersei has finally hit the end of the road...
I do wonder sometimes though, who exactly is supporting Cersei, besides Qyburn and undead Gregor? It seems like virtually every other person in Westeros would take up arms against the three of them. Four if you count Jamie.
2. Ned's death
This is the first really shocking moment in Game of Thrones, and still the most shocking. It's the first time that we learn that the heroes in this story can die gruesome deaths. Up until this moment, Ned Stark is the main character in the story. Suddenly, we are left wondering who the hero is, who is the story about, although of course we soon realize that it's really about Robb...
1. Hodor's death
Hodor's death would not have been such a shock if it had not come with the realization, five seasons after we met the character, that this moment is the genesis of the word and name "Hodor." It comes at the end of a frantic action scene, and it is one of the sadder moments in the series, because Hodor is the sweetest and most innocent person in Westeros. And he dies in a heroic act.
Some other favorite moments, in no particular order:
- Maester Aemon turns out to be Aemon Targaryen, one-time prince.
- The battle of the bastards, especially Ramsay's death and Sansa's smile.
- The battle on the Blackwater, with a huge wildfire explosion.
- Tywin's death. Shouldn't have said "whore."
- When the Hound loses his courage in the face of wildfire, he stops by to ask Sansa if she wants to leave with him. On first watching, it seems crazy. By the third time, you want to shake her and tell her to go with him. He's kind of a big softie. Even Arya likes him in the end.
- When the Hound returns from the dead.
- Some of Arya's story is boring, but I love the character and the actress.
- Arya kills Walder Frey. He is so deserving.
- Melisandre gives birth to a demon.
- Petyr Baelish's monologue to Varys at the end of the episode called The Climb, about how chaos is a ladder, with a backdrop of Joffrey testing his crossbow on Roz. Even Varys is shocked. It's what caused me to put Baelish's picture on my phone.
- Prince Oberyn nearly defeating Gregor Clegane. Very well done.
- Benjen Stark returns, five seasons after he disappeared.
- Jon Snow is Rhaegar and Lyanna's son. This theory was all over the Internet and began to seem inevitable by the time it happened, but it's still a big deal. A Song of Fire and Ice - Targaryen and Stark? The Prince Who Was Promised? George RR Martin setting us up for a crushing disappointment? We will see.
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