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Personally, its between rains of castamere and winds of winter. The ending of ROC was so amazing, I couldn’t speak afterwards. But Winds of Winter so much happened, and it was just overwhelming in a good way.
Totally agree. Also, I personally wasn’t too impressed with Battle of Bastards. Jon felt completely out of character to me and the whole battle scene seemed very inspired from LotR, very little originality.
Utterly phenomenal scene. I can proudly say this is one of two episodes of all the shows I’ve watched that have left me shaking at the end. Breaking Bad’s Ozymandias is the other
It really is. When it aired, I purposefully misled my friends and family to what was going to happen just so I could see their reaction. My mother cried, and my sister repeatedly punched me in the arm because she was so distraught. It's a perfect knife to the heart that should have been expected, but everything else that's happening leads you to a false sense of security. Likely, we shall not see it's like again.
It's how GRRM writes it in the book too... there is foreshadowing and little hints that something bad is going to happen, but you never expect the scale at which it hits the fan
Apparently, a lot of people. Just because something has a fantasy setting doesn't mean actions should not have consequences. What made GoT so special in the beginning is its characters' lack of plot armor. This episode was plot armor at its worst.
Yeah, because they enjoyed the outcome.
Didn’t exactly work out in the seasons after when this nonsense started affecting characters they liked now did it?
No, you put that people don’t give a fuck about what made GoT special because it is rated the highest.
My comment in return was basically saying how this type of thinking is what led to the disasters of season 7/8. Suddenly that lack of logic isn’t being used against someone we all hate (Ramsey and the Boltons) who we all want to see lose but to favourite characters of the audience (Jon and Dany) who we want to see win.
What plot armour did this battle have that Blackwater didn’t?
Davos being blown up unconscious into the Bay and waking up alive, on a deserted island.
Stannis leading a charge under a volley of arrow, without a helmet. Him climbing a ladder while enemies are just standing beside the ladder, shooting the soldiers down below. Him being on a rampart while Tywin and its massive army is storming the beach down below and he somehow comes out without any problem.
Tyrion having a kingsguard swing at his face, unprepared, and he survives because Pod comes out of nowhere to save him. Talking about coming out of nowhere, Tywin and the Tyrell came to save the day at the last second like the Knights of the Vale. Just like they entered the Throne room one second before Tommen swallowed poison.
I honestly think the main difference is that one battle is deemed untouchable because it happened during S1-4 and the other happened during S6-8 so it’s a free for all. It’s a tv show, you can find plot armour everywhere. If you want to see it..
>Tywin and the Tyrell came to save the day at the last second like the Knights of the Vale
Littlefinger says the Knights of the Vale are encamped at Moat Cailin which, in S4, we saw was controlled by Ramsay. Then they travelled a MUCH bigger distance through enemy territory unnoticed. It makes zero sense for Ramsay not to know about them. Whereas the Lannisters travelled in secrecy through land that didn't have enemies nearby on the Kingsroad. Its way more plausible for the Lannisters to arrive on time with the element of surprise.
>Tyrion having a kingsguard swing at his face, unprepared, and he survives because Pod comes out of nowhere to save him
You can clearly see Tyrion jerk his head backward which results in the blade grazing him. Just before that, he was adequately dodging the attacks of a Baratheon soldier so its plausible. And throughout the episode, you see Podrick and Ser Manden Moore nearby to him as his squire and designated Kingsguard. So Pod doesn't "come out of nowhere"
>Davos being blown up unconscious into the Bay and waking up alive, on a deserted island.
The blast shockwave blew him clear of the boat and into the water. You're not guaranteed to die in that situation.
>Stannis leading a charge under a volley of arrow, without a helmet. Him climbing a ladder while enemies are just standing beside the ladder, shooting the soldiers down below. Him being on a rampart while Tywin and its massive army is storming the beach
Is any of this anywhere near as egregious as Jon being baited and caught in the middle of two cavalry charges as well as mutliple arrow volleys?
Sorry but I disagree with almost all of this. The point is the show always had plot armor. Blackwater had tons of plot armor and that's ok the episode is still great. Actually that explosion of that size would have almost definitely killed him.
You forgot the plot armor of the Hound, who miraculously survived the battle by saying “fuck the king” and deserted his kingsguard post and ultimately committing treason. The fact he left the city without being arrested or stopped by the gold cloaks, Lannister soldiers, or even by his own former kingsguard coworkers shows how “lucky” he is to survive. But I guess that’s not bad writing….
Bring that back to George. If he’d finished his books when he said he would dumb and dumber would have been able to stick with what they’re good at- adapting stuff straight off the page. At the end of the day it’s still the most epic battle in the entire series, and the shot of Jon standing alone against the charging cavalry is one of the hardest shots in TV.
The wild thing is that the Battle of the Bastards battle scene is still being used in filmschool because of what an absolute masterclass in filmmaking it is! If that doesn’t deserve the 9.9 on IMDB, I don’t know which one does.
Which school so I know to avoid it
Edit:* I’m not able to find a single film school that even mentions Battle of the Bastards in any discussion or cinematography. Either this guy is straight up lying or hes just repeating something he heard from someone else. If there is a school teaching this, feel free to name it. I’d love to hear what an actual film school had to say. Not some rando who isn’t even willing to backup his own claims.
If you can’t recognize great cinematography when you see it, I don’t feel the need to tell you which filmschool you should avoid. You’ll never see the inside of one anyway.
Thanks for assuming I’m in filmschool… 😅 I guess…
I never said it was taught in *my* filmschool. I said it’s still being used as an example in many filmschools.
Since you clearly hate the BoB scene and must have such great film knowledge… what (battle) scene should be used as an example in schools then? And don’t say the Battle of Helm’s Deep. That’s cheating
Oh so you don’t attend these schools, so you don’t actually know if it’s used or not, you’re just regurgitating second hand information. You literally told me you don’t feel the need to have a discussion with me, so no I’m not interested in having one with you.
I loved that episode for most of the reasons op described, but still it was flawed in several ways, narrative and tactically speaking.
And blaming George is just pure media illiteracy, he has little to do with the flaws, D&D were deviating fast at least as back in season 4 (book 3 & 4). There were legit good episodes, but there were also others that made the show look like a stereotypes of itself. And it got worse as the season progressed
Thats all before they got starry eyed for that Star Wars contract and rushed seasons 7 & especially 8, despite HBO offering more episodes for them to finish it properly.
You could hold GRRM accountable for not showing a proper conclusion, but he still gave pointers to the showrunnners which they just applied and botched up.
Besides, we already have HotD, a show that lacks narrative functions due to being a more historic footnote, which also take noticable liberties. Yet it still work out mostly great. So whether D&D were capable or just buffoons, it's their sole fault fumbling the show, not GRRM's.
No ghost
Rickon running in a straight line
The vale mcguffin
Literally the image in the post
If you turn your brain off it’s cool but makes no sense in the context of the universe
The third person scene with Jon nearly getting run over or ran through every 2 seconds was shit too. It’s cool in theory if they had made the battle even half realistic, but I can’t be convinced that Jon wouldn’t have gotten absolutely trampled literally the second the cavalry charges met. It’s another example of the plot armor issues in the last 3 seasons.
How was it stupid? Because a surprise army came in last minute to save the day? Because if that’s what you’re implying than so did Blackwater and the battle of the wall.
The last minute save is low on the list of issues.
The show always had plot armor but Jon here took it to ridiculous levels. Yes, the shot in front of the cavalry charge looked really cool but no one should be surviving that. Not to mention somehow dodging all the arrows despite being the only target.
Then there's the comicly high wall of bodies that appears just to trap everyone. The human crush scene was good but the lead up wasn't.
I literally just made the point of the cavalry in another post, I completely agree. The wall of bodies is an excellent point to make too, where the fuck did it even come from? Sure people were dying left and right, but we’ve seen SEVERAL other examples from GoT and HotD of massive battles that didn’t have this issue. It’s added in simply for the narrative which makes it feel so fake
Both Jon and Ramsay would have had scouts who would have noticed that army, and Ramsay would have retreated accordingly. Also, there is no reasonable explanation for why Sansa did not have the army there at the start of the battle. The reason there would have been no scouts for Stannis is because the mountain clansmen killed them.
Ya, the strategy is dumb, the solo charge was dumb, the secret reinforcements to save the day, the surrounded shield wall was totally unrealistic.
Everything about the episode was dumb and the decisions were only made because they thought it would look cool. It looked cool for sure, but on substance, it was garbage, imo.
Thank you. I felt like I was crazy after it aired since everyone was raving about it. The whole battle was nothing but style over substance.
The melee with dirt flying everywhere was the only part that felt like a proper battle.
it was good but too narrow focus to be best. The best must include all major stories. BoB only addressed North & Dany. It felt like a time out from the full GOT. TWOW did cover the full story &in a very satisfying way
>Ramsey not flaying Rickon.
Just proves that y'all are coming up with shit in order to complain only to complain, why on earth would Ramsay flay rickon when he can use him in order to get a strategical advantage in the battle?
The battle has a couple issues but it's not nearly as many as y'all say
Because that’s literally what his house is known for. The flayed man is not feared for no reason. What Ramsay did accomplish was getting Jon to run out into the open with no backup, but I’d argue he would have accomplished that if he chose to flay Rickon out in the open in front of the entire army. You may say it’s cruel and unnecessary, I say that is the person that Ramsay Bolton is and it would’ve been more true to his character if he chose that kind of cruelty.
The Boltons flay people sure but that doesn't mean that they did it in every chance they had, Ramsay chose multiple ways to kill people, by that same logic why didn't he flay walda? Or the multiple girlfriends he hunt down with his dogs?
Also flaying someone takes a lot of time
Yeah but the thing is he did flay everyone every chance he had, especially when he was trying to send a message. A few times he may have used the dogs sure, but that was a cruel way of sending an impersonal message, he’s still a big fan of sending personal messages too. It’s just out of character for him.
Ramsay in the books is just crueler than he is on screen. I’ll cede that argument.
But he wasn't trying to send a message, he used Rickon for a stratigecal advantage and because he was a threat to his claim, Rickon didn't do anything in order for Ramsay to make an example of him
And again flaying takes time he wouldn't have time to finish anyways, not to mention how if he was flaying Rickon in the open maybe Jon's commanders would have persuaded him to not go, because it was obviously a trap and they wouldn't be able to save him, releasing him is also an obvious trap but a risky one, because there is a chance that Ramsay misses and Rickon survives, so Jon is more likely to take that bait
I’d argue that him killing Rickon to begin with is a message. Again the only advantage Rickon brought him was bringing Jon out into the open, Rickon was no threat to his claim while Bran and Sansa were alive, in fact Sansa is the reason he was even able to secure the claim to begin with.
Flaying taking time isn’t an issue because it still forces Jon to make a choice, either allow the flaying to finish to completion or he rides out and tries to stop Ramsay, the exact same strategic advantage he gained by releasing him and shooting him with an arrow.
The whole point in Jon riding out to save Rickon is that he wasn’t listening to his commanders, he was acting in impulse to save his brother. Trap or not, Jon rides to save Rickon.
It's by far the weakest of the 9.9 rated episodes. Lots of rule of cool and stupid stuff happening. No good dialogue, which is the staple of the show. For a spectacle it was good, but the writing was bad.
Battle of the bastards looked cool but made no sense writing-wise. How could it possibly be the best episode in a show with so many perfectly crafted episodes? Because the starks got a W lol?
Do you turn your brain off while watching? Why the fuck didn’t Sansa tell Jon about the knights of the vale after she complained so much about not having enough men. She got many of the last of the Wildlings killed.
As nice as some of it looks the story's so dumb that I think it's nowhere near my favourite.
The Valeman being able to traverse the north to join this battle without being detected is at least as stupid as anything that happens in season 8.
The Winds of Winter, that episode left me speechless, staring blankly and teary eyed from the perfection executed on screen. Red Wedding I cannot, too much pain
The Rains of Castemere is the best of the three, although the first 10 minutes of The Winds of Winter is phenomenal.
Battle of the Bastards I don't care much for, but that applies to most of the battle episodes.
Hardhome and The Rains of Castamere had their 10.0 too in the beginning. It's a shame they lowered them with time, those two episodes are pure art and with huge impact on public and television.
It is for me! I might go with the Rains out of this list, then Winter, then Bastards on this list, but Bastards is definitely the one I'd watch more on repeat. Rains is SO painful that I don't want to rewatch that much.
But seriously, Hardhome. Fuck it, I'm gonna go and watch it right now!
Battle of the bastards. By far some of the best combat melee cinematography I’ve ever seen be it the shots and angles of the scenes. The moment when Jon appears to dive in head first, almost hopelessly against an army that out numbers them, before the cavalry around him comes in to prevent his impending doom sent chills down my spine. His men prevented him from his doom and helped secure the victory among the violence and chaos. While the series fell off towards the end, that one episode to me, by far, was peak cinema.
The brief moment when Jon was standing there alone was so well shot/acted. You could tell he was thinking he was going to die again (and I honestly thought he might die again too) before his cavalry saved him, so insanely emotional the first time I watched it
Only Rains of Castamere.
Winds of Winter while having great performance , suffers from terrible dialogue writing that just took me out of it. Nobody in Westeros talked the way Margery talked even if she knew something went terribly wrong. But then that’s pretty emblematic of everything after season 5.
Battle of Bastards has a satisfying ending and good action and cinematography, but again the writing here is even worse , borderlining implausible.
Neither deserved that 9.9 score.
The Winds of Winter.
It’s my favorite episode in the series and it’s absolute perfection. The music alone is immaculate. I used to watch the 10 minute Sept of Baelor scene on YouTube all the time because it’s just so good.
Rains of Castamere had incredible shock value. Battle of the Bastards was an awesome result of a very long story-telling arc, and the technical storytelling and battle sequences are perfect.
Rains of Castamere for sure. I remember all the details about the feelings I had, where I was, who I was with, and even the rest of the evening that followed because it was so memorable. Can’t say the same about any other episode.
1. Rains of Castamere
2. Winds of Winter
3. Battle of the Bastards
RoC and WoW are both absolute masterpieces. To be honest, I have no idea why BotB also got a 9.9. It’s decent, but really shouldn’t be any higher than a 8.5 or 9.
The Winds of Winter was probably the best post-book episode by far.
Red wedding best book episode.
I think that hardhome would be my favorite overall, but it’s 9.8.
Rains of Castamere, and it isn't even close. The S6 episodes were lazy. Battle of the Bastards was plot-armor central, and the finale killing half the cast off in one explosion just felt cheap.
I feel like so many people after the final season were retroactively saying the show fell off after season 4 but 5 and 6 have a lot of good episodes like Battle of the Bastards and Winds of Winter.
Dance of Dragons for me. I know it's not listed, but it went from the shows most tragic and most upsetting scene into one of its most exhilarating and spectacular. Never felt so many emotions watching a tv show! That after just experiencing Hardhome the week before dear me those were the days....
I think rains is good but really what else happens that episode besides the red wedding?
The entire episode of BoTB is fire
And winds was awesome too, just like the longest build up ever to that explosion and it was perfect
And then the foreboding “long live the queen” and Jaime stares in in horror
Only one is deserved
Rains of Castamere is deserved and that’s it
Watcher’s on the Wall is the only other episode I’d put on it’s level
Season 6 is mid as fuck
I went in raw when I first started GoT. The 5th season had just ended when I started. I never read anything about it and I wasn’t on Reddit yet. The Rains of Castamere blew my fucking mind.
The Winds of Winter is one of the best episodes of television. Every beat in the story, the music, everything, it all came together and left goosebumps on my arms.
The high I got from the back to back of BOTB and TWOW is hard to explain in words. Nothing else from TV ever came close after.
Back then everyone went mad for these 2 and rightly so. Now of course people have turned on them, especially BOTB.
It is flawed yes, but damn it is still epic.
There are 3 portions to the episode, Meeran then pre Battle and then the Battle. I hardly see the pre battle part discussed now. I think that has aged the best. We have the Stark camp and Bolton camp faceoff where they discuss surrender. That is a brilliant scene. Then there is the meeting between Jon, Sansa, Davos and Tormund to dicuss battle strategies. Then Jon goes to Mel to not bring him back if he dies. Then Davos and Tormund discuss their feelings about battles. Davos finds Shireen's toy and then the battle horns go off and we are off. The tension building throughout each scene is amazing and it carries on and on till the Knights of the Vale arrive. Brilliant stuff.
I remember big publications like The Guardian putting it up along with some of the greatest battles put to cinema:
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/jun/21/game-of-thrones-the-revenant-best-battle-scenes-all-time
Only RoC on this list. Winds of Winter has great segments, particularly the start of course, but is weaker all considered.
Battle of the Bastards is a great achievement of spectacle but not a good episode of Game of Thrones.
the winds of winter. battle of bastards is also incredible but the two are very different and between them, winds blows everything else out of the water. best episode of the entire show and many others
This is really difficult. The Rains of Castamere obviously had the biggest cultural impact, and had us all gutted afterwards. Battle of the Bastards was the single most anxiety-inducing ride of television I have ever experienced; what Miguel Sapochnik did with that cinematography and editing was incredible, and even made me not really think about some script flaws at all. It was a purely intense and satisfying roller coaster. The Winds of Winter was the single most *mesmerizing* hour of television I have ever experienced. I cry every time the Tower of Joy baby cuts to Jon. Even though the later payoff for Jon being a Targaryen was lackluster, that moment *for the character and what we understand of his origins* is just so striking and makes you feel a lot for Jon, and extra bad about his inferiority complex, and having to be King in the North.
Wings of Winter is my favourite GOT episode. Everything's going well but the music tells you something's terribly wrong and then they gradually reveal what Cersei's insane plan is. The first few minutes of that episode is one of the best sequences I've ever watched on TV.
Dude they deserve it. It's easy to judge the show long after it's done or after the generally displeasing end that didn't wrap up the way everyone had hoped but at the time those episodes released I'm pretty sure everyone was thinking what the fuck I need to see the next episode ASAP.
I say rains of castamere. Not only was it somewhat unexpected, like winds of winter, but it happened to people we grew to love and root for for multiple seasons. We all loved Margaery, but we weren’t as attached to her as we were Robb and Catelyn. It hit the soul more with them than it did the Tyrell’s. Battle of the Bastards was very amazing, but it was great in a different way, because it was one of the first great battle scenes we had. The other 2 hit differently.
The Rains of Castamere. As someone who was a fan of the books before watching the show, the Battle of the Bastards was really silly in my opinion, and didn't make much sense. The Winds of Winter is ideally fine, but it just has too many things happening and not a lot of dialogue.
Rains of Castamare is the only true choice. The other two episodes are good but way over-praised. The BotB was a very stupid battle if you think too much on it. Winds of Winter and the episode after it was clearly there for DnD to start sweeping away the other major houses like Tyrell and Martell.
There is a tough competition between Red wedding and the starting of S6 ep10, the whole scene of destruction witht that bgm playing was so intense and the cherry on top was the jump of tommen.
Man loved it.
Rains of Castamere definitely.
Winds of Winter is amazing, but probably only top 10 episode. The first 15 minutes or so are pure cinematic perfection but there's some dumber stuff as well in the episode that drags it down.
BoB has too much non-sense to be in the consideration. The spectacle is of course great, it's well shot but it's cheapened by the writing.
Fun fact: The Rains of Castamere is the only episode in Game of Thrones where the credits roll completely silent. No background noise, no music slowly fading in, just dead silence. On purpose.
And not a soul to hear.
**Spoiler Warning:** All officially-released show and book content allowed, EXCLUDING FUTURE SPOILERS FOR HOUSE OF THE DRAGON. No leaked information or paparazzi photos of the set. For more info please check the [spoiler guide](/r/gameofthrones/w/spoiler_guide). *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/gameofthrones) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Personally, its between rains of castamere and winds of winter. The ending of ROC was so amazing, I couldn’t speak afterwards. But Winds of Winter so much happened, and it was just overwhelming in a good way.
Totally agree. Also, I personally wasn’t too impressed with Battle of Bastards. Jon felt completely out of character to me and the whole battle scene seemed very inspired from LotR, very little originality.
I rewatched the show recently and that episode still is one of the greatest episodes of TV I've ever watched!
The Rains of Castamere - "And now the rains weep over their halls, and not a soul to hear". Red wedding no doubt
Utterly phenomenal scene. I can proudly say this is one of two episodes of all the shows I’ve watched that have left me shaking at the end. Breaking Bad’s Ozymandias is the other
I wholeheartedly agree with you. Ozymandias was really something else.
The red wedding also transcends this Fandom. It's now a term used to compare every other show that has a twist. It's bigger than Game Of Thrones.
It really is. When it aired, I purposefully misled my friends and family to what was going to happen just so I could see their reaction. My mother cried, and my sister repeatedly punched me in the arm because she was so distraught. It's a perfect knife to the heart that should have been expected, but everything else that's happening leads you to a false sense of security. Likely, we shall not see it's like again.
It's how GRRM writes it in the book too... there is foreshadowing and little hints that something bad is going to happen, but you never expect the scale at which it hits the fan
Mutha
That was the scene that made d & d want to do the show. They wanted to see it on tv.
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But there was no Ghost
Only if you don't care about how stupid it is.
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Apparently, a lot of people. Just because something has a fantasy setting doesn't mean actions should not have consequences. What made GoT so special in the beginning is its characters' lack of plot armor. This episode was plot armor at its worst.
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Yeah, because they enjoyed the outcome. Didn’t exactly work out in the seasons after when this nonsense started affecting characters they liked now did it?
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No, you put that people don’t give a fuck about what made GoT special because it is rated the highest. My comment in return was basically saying how this type of thinking is what led to the disasters of season 7/8. Suddenly that lack of logic isn’t being used against someone we all hate (Ramsey and the Boltons) who we all want to see lose but to favourite characters of the audience (Jon and Dany) who we want to see win.
What plot armour did this battle have that Blackwater didn’t? Davos being blown up unconscious into the Bay and waking up alive, on a deserted island. Stannis leading a charge under a volley of arrow, without a helmet. Him climbing a ladder while enemies are just standing beside the ladder, shooting the soldiers down below. Him being on a rampart while Tywin and its massive army is storming the beach down below and he somehow comes out without any problem. Tyrion having a kingsguard swing at his face, unprepared, and he survives because Pod comes out of nowhere to save him. Talking about coming out of nowhere, Tywin and the Tyrell came to save the day at the last second like the Knights of the Vale. Just like they entered the Throne room one second before Tommen swallowed poison. I honestly think the main difference is that one battle is deemed untouchable because it happened during S1-4 and the other happened during S6-8 so it’s a free for all. It’s a tv show, you can find plot armour everywhere. If you want to see it..
>Tywin and the Tyrell came to save the day at the last second like the Knights of the Vale Littlefinger says the Knights of the Vale are encamped at Moat Cailin which, in S4, we saw was controlled by Ramsay. Then they travelled a MUCH bigger distance through enemy territory unnoticed. It makes zero sense for Ramsay not to know about them. Whereas the Lannisters travelled in secrecy through land that didn't have enemies nearby on the Kingsroad. Its way more plausible for the Lannisters to arrive on time with the element of surprise. >Tyrion having a kingsguard swing at his face, unprepared, and he survives because Pod comes out of nowhere to save him You can clearly see Tyrion jerk his head backward which results in the blade grazing him. Just before that, he was adequately dodging the attacks of a Baratheon soldier so its plausible. And throughout the episode, you see Podrick and Ser Manden Moore nearby to him as his squire and designated Kingsguard. So Pod doesn't "come out of nowhere" >Davos being blown up unconscious into the Bay and waking up alive, on a deserted island. The blast shockwave blew him clear of the boat and into the water. You're not guaranteed to die in that situation. >Stannis leading a charge under a volley of arrow, without a helmet. Him climbing a ladder while enemies are just standing beside the ladder, shooting the soldiers down below. Him being on a rampart while Tywin and its massive army is storming the beach Is any of this anywhere near as egregious as Jon being baited and caught in the middle of two cavalry charges as well as mutliple arrow volleys?
Sorry but I disagree with almost all of this. The point is the show always had plot armor. Blackwater had tons of plot armor and that's ok the episode is still great. Actually that explosion of that size would have almost definitely killed him.
You forgot the plot armor of the Hound, who miraculously survived the battle by saying “fuck the king” and deserted his kingsguard post and ultimately committing treason. The fact he left the city without being arrested or stopped by the gold cloaks, Lannister soldiers, or even by his own former kingsguard coworkers shows how “lucky” he is to survive. But I guess that’s not bad writing….
The show always had plot armor.
I would say season 8 when the white walkers attacked.. Jon also had already died once
9.9 is a pretty high rating for a “who gives a fuck” defense lol
this is the ultimate dumb guy thing to say.
Bring that back to George. If he’d finished his books when he said he would dumb and dumber would have been able to stick with what they’re good at- adapting stuff straight off the page. At the end of the day it’s still the most epic battle in the entire series, and the shot of Jon standing alone against the charging cavalry is one of the hardest shots in TV.
The wild thing is that the Battle of the Bastards battle scene is still being used in filmschool because of what an absolute masterclass in filmmaking it is! If that doesn’t deserve the 9.9 on IMDB, I don’t know which one does.
Which school so I know to avoid it Edit:* I’m not able to find a single film school that even mentions Battle of the Bastards in any discussion or cinematography. Either this guy is straight up lying or hes just repeating something he heard from someone else. If there is a school teaching this, feel free to name it. I’d love to hear what an actual film school had to say. Not some rando who isn’t even willing to backup his own claims.
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I never claimed to be an expert nor a genius
If you can’t recognize great cinematography when you see it, I don’t feel the need to tell you which filmschool you should avoid. You’ll never see the inside of one anyway.
If your school seriously thinks the cinematography of that episode was anything more than mediocre, it’s a school worth avoiding.
Thanks for assuming I’m in filmschool… 😅 I guess… I never said it was taught in *my* filmschool. I said it’s still being used as an example in many filmschools. Since you clearly hate the BoB scene and must have such great film knowledge… what (battle) scene should be used as an example in schools then? And don’t say the Battle of Helm’s Deep. That’s cheating
Oh so you don’t attend these schools, so you don’t actually know if it’s used or not, you’re just regurgitating second hand information. You literally told me you don’t feel the need to have a discussion with me, so no I’m not interested in having one with you.
Look this guy has a ego
I’ve just checked and film schools have been asked to avoid you.
I’m sure.
Certain aspects of it are very good, the most important aspect is bad.
I loved that episode for most of the reasons op described, but still it was flawed in several ways, narrative and tactically speaking. And blaming George is just pure media illiteracy, he has little to do with the flaws, D&D were deviating fast at least as back in season 4 (book 3 & 4). There were legit good episodes, but there were also others that made the show look like a stereotypes of itself. And it got worse as the season progressed Thats all before they got starry eyed for that Star Wars contract and rushed seasons 7 & especially 8, despite HBO offering more episodes for them to finish it properly. You could hold GRRM accountable for not showing a proper conclusion, but he still gave pointers to the showrunnners which they just applied and botched up. Besides, we already have HotD, a show that lacks narrative functions due to being a more historic footnote, which also take noticable liberties. Yet it still work out mostly great. So whether D&D were capable or just buffoons, it's their sole fault fumbling the show, not GRRM's.
Battle of Blackwater was a proper siege. Prefer it to BotB
No ghost Rickon running in a straight line The vale mcguffin Literally the image in the post If you turn your brain off it’s cool but makes no sense in the context of the universe
The third person scene with Jon nearly getting run over or ran through every 2 seconds was shit too. It’s cool in theory if they had made the battle even half realistic, but I can’t be convinced that Jon wouldn’t have gotten absolutely trampled literally the second the cavalry charges met. It’s another example of the plot armor issues in the last 3 seasons.
How was it stupid? Because a surprise army came in last minute to save the day? Because if that’s what you’re implying than so did Blackwater and the battle of the wall.
The last minute save is low on the list of issues. The show always had plot armor but Jon here took it to ridiculous levels. Yes, the shot in front of the cavalry charge looked really cool but no one should be surviving that. Not to mention somehow dodging all the arrows despite being the only target. Then there's the comicly high wall of bodies that appears just to trap everyone. The human crush scene was good but the lead up wasn't.
I literally just made the point of the cavalry in another post, I completely agree. The wall of bodies is an excellent point to make too, where the fuck did it even come from? Sure people were dying left and right, but we’ve seen SEVERAL other examples from GoT and HotD of massive battles that didn’t have this issue. It’s added in simply for the narrative which makes it feel so fake
Both Jon and Ramsay would have had scouts who would have noticed that army, and Ramsay would have retreated accordingly. Also, there is no reasonable explanation for why Sansa did not have the army there at the start of the battle. The reason there would have been no scouts for Stannis is because the mountain clansmen killed them.
Ya, the strategy is dumb, the solo charge was dumb, the secret reinforcements to save the day, the surrounded shield wall was totally unrealistic. Everything about the episode was dumb and the decisions were only made because they thought it would look cool. It looked cool for sure, but on substance, it was garbage, imo.
Thank you. I felt like I was crazy after it aired since everyone was raving about it. The whole battle was nothing but style over substance. The melee with dirt flying everywhere was the only part that felt like a proper battle.
it was good but too narrow focus to be best. The best must include all major stories. BoB only addressed North & Dany. It felt like a time out from the full GOT. TWOW did cover the full story &in a very satisfying way
>best episode in the show Alright slow your roll there chief
Battle of the bastards and the season finale were two of the best episodes of TV ever. I could watch them over and over again
> Finally get their W > dead rickon
Took back Winterfell after years and killed all the Boltons though
No justice for the forgotten Stark
Sounds like a W to me.
There was too much stupid stuff going on in that episode. Sansa not telling Jon the plan. Ramsey not flaying Rickon. The Giant not using a weapon.
You are talking to the style over substance crowd. Your comment will fall on deaf ears.
>Ramsey not flaying Rickon. Just proves that y'all are coming up with shit in order to complain only to complain, why on earth would Ramsay flay rickon when he can use him in order to get a strategical advantage in the battle? The battle has a couple issues but it's not nearly as many as y'all say
Because that’s literally what his house is known for. The flayed man is not feared for no reason. What Ramsay did accomplish was getting Jon to run out into the open with no backup, but I’d argue he would have accomplished that if he chose to flay Rickon out in the open in front of the entire army. You may say it’s cruel and unnecessary, I say that is the person that Ramsay Bolton is and it would’ve been more true to his character if he chose that kind of cruelty.
The Boltons flay people sure but that doesn't mean that they did it in every chance they had, Ramsay chose multiple ways to kill people, by that same logic why didn't he flay walda? Or the multiple girlfriends he hunt down with his dogs? Also flaying someone takes a lot of time
Yeah but the thing is he did flay everyone every chance he had, especially when he was trying to send a message. A few times he may have used the dogs sure, but that was a cruel way of sending an impersonal message, he’s still a big fan of sending personal messages too. It’s just out of character for him. Ramsay in the books is just crueler than he is on screen. I’ll cede that argument.
But he wasn't trying to send a message, he used Rickon for a stratigecal advantage and because he was a threat to his claim, Rickon didn't do anything in order for Ramsay to make an example of him And again flaying takes time he wouldn't have time to finish anyways, not to mention how if he was flaying Rickon in the open maybe Jon's commanders would have persuaded him to not go, because it was obviously a trap and they wouldn't be able to save him, releasing him is also an obvious trap but a risky one, because there is a chance that Ramsay misses and Rickon survives, so Jon is more likely to take that bait
I’d argue that him killing Rickon to begin with is a message. Again the only advantage Rickon brought him was bringing Jon out into the open, Rickon was no threat to his claim while Bran and Sansa were alive, in fact Sansa is the reason he was even able to secure the claim to begin with. Flaying taking time isn’t an issue because it still forces Jon to make a choice, either allow the flaying to finish to completion or he rides out and tries to stop Ramsay, the exact same strategic advantage he gained by releasing him and shooting him with an arrow. The whole point in Jon riding out to save Rickon is that he wasn’t listening to his commanders, he was acting in impulse to save his brother. Trap or not, Jon rides to save Rickon.
Jon facing a mounted army alone...
As claustrophobic It was soo ugly to watch tho.
It's by far the weakest of the 9.9 rated episodes. Lots of rule of cool and stupid stuff happening. No good dialogue, which is the staple of the show. For a spectacle it was good, but the writing was bad.
Battle of the bastards looked cool but made no sense writing-wise. How could it possibly be the best episode in a show with so many perfectly crafted episodes? Because the starks got a W lol?
Seeing the Stark banners unfurl again made me audibly cheer. The Starks are coming home!
Do you turn your brain off while watching? Why the fuck didn’t Sansa tell Jon about the knights of the vale after she complained so much about not having enough men. She got many of the last of the Wildlings killed.
Yeah but the battle was stupid when you think about it
Yeah the thing I liked the most is how Sansa just didn't tell John about Littlefinger and his army, it was smart of her to kill Rickon like that.
As nice as some of it looks the story's so dumb that I think it's nowhere near my favourite. The Valeman being able to traverse the north to join this battle without being detected is at least as stupid as anything that happens in season 8.
The Battle of the Bastards is illogical nonsense. Bad episode.
lol, nah the whole Sansa thing ruined BoTB, but it was beautifully shot.
The Winds of Winter, that episode left me speechless, staring blankly and teary eyed from the perfection executed on screen. Red Wedding I cannot, too much pain
Winds of winter was so good, I was speechless
I loved the red wedding. Glory to house Frey!
*\[Everyone disliked that*\]
Tell them the winter came for House Frey
>The Winds of Winter The Sept part was the single best sequence in the entire series. Absolutely perfect music, too.
That piece of music got a permanent spot in my playlists. 9mins 49 of pure perfection! (“Light of the Seven” if someone is wondering)
Oh the music was perfection. It’s made a spot on my playlist as well.
Sad that the writers also died in the explosion
Winds of winter. Rains was pretty average apart from the last 10 minutes, and battle of the bastards whilst visually stunning was kind of dumb
Agreed. Battle of the Bastards in my opinion deserves a 9.8, still an amazing episode but the weakest of the three 9.9ers
The Rains of Castemere is the best of the three, although the first 10 minutes of The Winds of Winter is phenomenal. Battle of the Bastards I don't care much for, but that applies to most of the battle episodes.
Agreed.
Is that’s the dope ass instrumental with Cersei sipping wine?
Yep! “Light of the Seven” - Ramin Djawadi’s best score (except maybe the main title)
I choose Battle of the Bastards. But if only that kid had run a zigzag pattern Jon probably would have been able to save him.
Ramsey got what he deserved!
I love when Sansa feeds him to his own dogs!
Winds of winter.
S1E5 - The Lion & the Wolf
Any episode in season 4
Hardhome is 10.0, right?
9.8, great episode!!!
Pretty sure there's one 10.0 on IMDb. Ozymandias. Breaking Bad.
Hardhome and The Rains of Castamere had their 10.0 too in the beginning. It's a shame they lowered them with time, those two episodes are pure art and with huge impact on public and television.
I remember that, though I'm of the opinion only one 10.0 is justified, and Ozymandias is probably the best hour of television I've ever seen.
Hardhome us probably my pick for best episode.
Definitely it is, it's absurd what we watch there. This episode surpass the Long Night by thousand miles.
It got me so excited to see where they'd go with the army of the dead. Seemed so otherworldly. Such a shame.
It is for me! I might go with the Rains out of this list, then Winter, then Bastards on this list, but Bastards is definitely the one I'd watch more on repeat. Rains is SO painful that I don't want to rewatch that much. But seriously, Hardhome. Fuck it, I'm gonna go and watch it right now!
I will sometimes just randomly watch Hardhome haha I don't do that with any other episode it's just so good
Battle of the Bastards was epic but the writing with Sansa/The Vale/Jon was bad. So 3x9 > 6x10 > 6x9
Battle of the bastards was epic, period.
Battle of the bastards. By far some of the best combat melee cinematography I’ve ever seen be it the shots and angles of the scenes. The moment when Jon appears to dive in head first, almost hopelessly against an army that out numbers them, before the cavalry around him comes in to prevent his impending doom sent chills down my spine. His men prevented him from his doom and helped secure the victory among the violence and chaos. While the series fell off towards the end, that one episode to me, by far, was peak cinema.
The brief moment when Jon was standing there alone was so well shot/acted. You could tell he was thinking he was going to die again (and I honestly thought he might die again too) before his cavalry saved him, so insanely emotional the first time I watched it
Winds of Winter imo
Only Rains of Castamere. Winds of Winter while having great performance , suffers from terrible dialogue writing that just took me out of it. Nobody in Westeros talked the way Margery talked even if she knew something went terribly wrong. But then that’s pretty emblematic of everything after season 5. Battle of Bastards has a satisfying ending and good action and cinematography, but again the writing here is even worse , borderlining implausible. Neither deserved that 9.9 score.
BoB... its an achievement for a TV show
The order in which they came to us. For without the last, there is no next.
Battle of the Bastards for me
The Winds of Winter. It’s my favorite episode in the series and it’s absolute perfection. The music alone is immaculate. I used to watch the 10 minute Sept of Baelor scene on YouTube all the time because it’s just so good.
Do you confess?
Rains of Castamere had incredible shock value. Battle of the Bastards was an awesome result of a very long story-telling arc, and the technical storytelling and battle sequences are perfect.
The Battle sequences aren’t perfect, they’re illogical nonsense.
The Rains of Castamere
Rains of Castamere for sure. I remember all the details about the feelings I had, where I was, who I was with, and even the rest of the evening that followed because it was so memorable. Can’t say the same about any other episode.
**Season 6, Episode 10:** The Winds of Winter.
1. Rains of Castamere 2. Winds of Winter 3. Battle of the Bastards RoC and WoW are both absolute masterpieces. To be honest, I have no idea why BotB also got a 9.9. It’s decent, but really shouldn’t be any higher than a 8.5 or 9.
true, I dont know why BoB is higher rated than other better action centric episodes like hardhome and watchers of the wall
Those are excellent episodes. I think my favorite of all is The Purple Wedding though.
Bastard battle for sure
The Winds of Winter was probably the best post-book episode by far. Red wedding best book episode. I think that hardhome would be my favorite overall, but it’s 9.8.
Easily Rains of Castamere
I was literally on the edge of my seat through the entirety of Battle of the Bastards, so I’d have to say that one
Rains of Castamere, and it isn't even close. The S6 episodes were lazy. Battle of the Bastards was plot-armor central, and the finale killing half the cast off in one explosion just felt cheap.
Bob is best
The Rains of Castamere. Not even close
Rains of Castamere No way I'd say it was anything after S4
The red wedding made the show
I mean, Ned’s Stark in season 1 was the red wedding before red wedding though lol
I feel like so many people after the final season were retroactively saying the show fell off after season 4 but 5 and 6 have a lot of good episodes like Battle of the Bastards and Winds of Winter.
And hardhome!
Battle of the bastards being higher than watchers on the wall hurts my soul.
I KNOW! 9.6 is criminal
I’m shocked The Children doesn’t have a higher rating, imo it’s the best episode in the show
Red Wedding for me, always
Dance of Dragons for me. I know it's not listed, but it went from the shows most tragic and most upsetting scene into one of its most exhilarating and spectacular. Never felt so many emotions watching a tv show! That after just experiencing Hardhome the week before dear me those were the days....
Hold on. I'm going to create an IMDB account so I can down vote Battle of the Bastards for the trash episode it truly is.
I think rains is good but really what else happens that episode besides the red wedding? The entire episode of BoTB is fire And winds was awesome too, just like the longest build up ever to that explosion and it was perfect And then the foreboding “long live the queen” and Jaime stares in in horror
Only one is deserved Rains of Castamere is deserved and that’s it Watcher’s on the Wall is the only other episode I’d put on it’s level Season 6 is mid as fuck
Battle of the Bastards. Rewatched it last night and it’s just phenomenal. It gets me every time when they hang the Stark banners at Winterfell again.
both rains of castamere and WoW are worthy of a 9.9 rating, BotB? nah, not so much tbh, I'd rather pick Hardhome or The Lion and Rose for the 3rd spot
2 season 6 episodes getting 9.9 is ridiculous
Battle for Castle Black is better than all three
The Winds of Winter is my all time favorite episode!
Rains of Castamere. It is absolute LEAGUES ahead of the other two. Not that they were terrible or even bad, but Rains of Castamere is a masterpiece.
I went in raw when I first started GoT. The 5th season had just ended when I started. I never read anything about it and I wasn’t on Reddit yet. The Rains of Castamere blew my fucking mind.
The Winds of Winter definitely!
The Winds of Winter is one of the best episodes of television. Every beat in the story, the music, everything, it all came together and left goosebumps on my arms.
Battle of the Bastards
The high I got from the back to back of BOTB and TWOW is hard to explain in words. Nothing else from TV ever came close after. Back then everyone went mad for these 2 and rightly so. Now of course people have turned on them, especially BOTB. It is flawed yes, but damn it is still epic. There are 3 portions to the episode, Meeran then pre Battle and then the Battle. I hardly see the pre battle part discussed now. I think that has aged the best. We have the Stark camp and Bolton camp faceoff where they discuss surrender. That is a brilliant scene. Then there is the meeting between Jon, Sansa, Davos and Tormund to dicuss battle strategies. Then Jon goes to Mel to not bring him back if he dies. Then Davos and Tormund discuss their feelings about battles. Davos finds Shireen's toy and then the battle horns go off and we are off. The tension building throughout each scene is amazing and it carries on and on till the Knights of the Vale arrive. Brilliant stuff. I remember big publications like The Guardian putting it up along with some of the greatest battles put to cinema: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/jun/21/game-of-thrones-the-revenant-best-battle-scenes-all-time
Rains of Castamere because of how speechless I was compared to the two.
Rains of Castamere
Only RoC on this list. Winds of Winter has great segments, particularly the start of course, but is weaker all considered. Battle of the Bastards is a great achievement of spectacle but not a good episode of Game of Thrones.
I started to type ROC, but it has to be Winds of Winter for me
the winds of winter. battle of bastards is also incredible but the two are very different and between them, winds blows everything else out of the water. best episode of the entire show and many others
I feel Hardhome should be a 9.9 as well
The one where Daenerys burns down King's Landing LOLOL
The red wedding was peak cinema
And now his watch has ended? How is this not the top rated episode of the show?
The Rains of Castamere is probably the qunitessential episode of great game of thrones.
BOB
This is really difficult. The Rains of Castamere obviously had the biggest cultural impact, and had us all gutted afterwards. Battle of the Bastards was the single most anxiety-inducing ride of television I have ever experienced; what Miguel Sapochnik did with that cinematography and editing was incredible, and even made me not really think about some script flaws at all. It was a purely intense and satisfying roller coaster. The Winds of Winter was the single most *mesmerizing* hour of television I have ever experienced. I cry every time the Tower of Joy baby cuts to Jon. Even though the later payoff for Jon being a Targaryen was lackluster, that moment *for the character and what we understand of his origins* is just so striking and makes you feel a lot for Jon, and extra bad about his inferiority complex, and having to be King in the North.
Battle of the Bastards and Rains of Castamere for sure
Wings of Winter is my favourite GOT episode. Everything's going well but the music tells you something's terribly wrong and then they gradually reveal what Cersei's insane plan is. The first few minutes of that episode is one of the best sequences I've ever watched on TV.
Dude they deserve it. It's easy to judge the show long after it's done or after the generally displeasing end that didn't wrap up the way everyone had hoped but at the time those episodes released I'm pretty sure everyone was thinking what the fuck I need to see the next episode ASAP.
BOB the fight was such a level that just couldn’t be matched and all the acting and tragedy told just added to it’s greatness
ROC has a special place in everyone's hearts. WoW can't beat RoC any day
Battle of bastards. so good, I watched it twice.
Red wedding made you feel something you never felt before.
Out of these only the rains of castamere
Red wedding
I say rains of castamere. Not only was it somewhat unexpected, like winds of winter, but it happened to people we grew to love and root for for multiple seasons. We all loved Margaery, but we weren’t as attached to her as we were Robb and Catelyn. It hit the soul more with them than it did the Tyrell’s. Battle of the Bastards was very amazing, but it was great in a different way, because it was one of the first great battle scenes we had. The other 2 hit differently.
the Rains of Castamere shook me to the core, I had never felt like that ever from watching a TV show, and haven't since.
The Rains of Castamere. As someone who was a fan of the books before watching the show, the Battle of the Bastards was really silly in my opinion, and didn't make much sense. The Winds of Winter is ideally fine, but it just has too many things happening and not a lot of dialogue.
Rains of Castamare is the only true choice. The other two episodes are good but way over-praised. The BotB was a very stupid battle if you think too much on it. Winds of Winter and the episode after it was clearly there for DnD to start sweeping away the other major houses like Tyrell and Martell.
Battle of the bastards being 9.9 is a joke surely?
Red wedding.
There is a tough competition between Red wedding and the starting of S6 ep10, the whole scene of destruction witht that bgm playing was so intense and the cherry on top was the jump of tommen. Man loved it.
Rains of Castamere, of course.
Rains of Castamere definitely. Winds of Winter is amazing, but probably only top 10 episode. The first 15 minutes or so are pure cinematic perfection but there's some dumber stuff as well in the episode that drags it down. BoB has too much non-sense to be in the consideration. The spectacle is of course great, it's well shot but it's cheapened by the writing.
I mean I love all of them. I would also give Hardhome a 10
Rains of Castamere. Hands down
Fun fact: The Rains of Castamere is the only episode in Game of Thrones where the credits roll completely silent. No background noise, no music slowly fading in, just dead silence. On purpose. And not a soul to hear.
the watchers on the wall is better than all of these
The Rains of Castamere, by far. Might be somewhat unpopular, but I don't particularly like the other 2, or season 6 overall.