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Post by greendemon on Apr 13, 2019 20:05:31 GMT 1
8. The Battle of the Barstewards (S6E9 - The Battle of the Barstewards)I finally got sick of the censorship Of all the battles in Game of Thrones, this is the one that feels most like a real battle. There are no dragons, no magic, no wights, no wildfire… just churning mud, screaming horses, blood and gore (oh, and one very angry giant literally putting his fist through the gates of Winterfell). I’ve seen all kinds of real-world inspirations for this sequence mentioned: the Battle of Agincourt (another muddy bloodbath fought in close quarters), the Battle of Cannae (the reference point for the Bolton forces encircling the Starks), and even Picasso’s painting, Guernica. The painstaking work that went into bringing this to life really shows - it feels gritty and authentic in a way no other GoT battle does. It is also one of the few battles where it’s very clear whose side we are supposed to be on - and in case we needed reminding, Ramsay launches proceedings by shooting down Jon’s little brother as he runs towards him. The stakes could hardly be higher - Jon’s band of wildlings and northmen need to win, not only to destroy Ramsay (who is perhaps the closest to pure evil any of the characters get) and avenge the Red Wedding, but to secure the North against the imminent threat from beyond the Wall. The battle is also very one-sided; Ramsay has the numbers, and the death of Rickon angers Jon into making a tactical error that results in his forces being trapped in a tight circle of Bolton spears; if it had not been for the timely arrival of the Knights of the Vale, the battle would have been lost. The highlight (if that’s the word I’m looking for) has to be the moment is when Jon is literally buried alive by the corpses that pile around him before struggling free - just horrifying! This episode deservedly won multiple Emmys and will probably go down in history as one of the best battle scenes ever brought to the small screen - although, if the hype is to be believed, there is going to be at least one battle sequence in Season 8 that might surpass this one.
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Post by greendemon on Apr 13, 2019 20:32:19 GMT 1
7. Tyrion’s trial for the regicide of Joffrey (S4E6 - The Laws of Gods and Men)
Let’s be honest, no-one is ever going to refer to Peter Dinklage’s performance as Tyrion Lannister as “underrated”. He has been nominated for a Primetime Emmy seven times, one for every season of GoT, and won three. One of those wins was for Season 4, which is just as well, because his speech in this scene is, hands down, my favourite bit of acting in the whole damn thing.
Tyrion’s second trial, like his first (#20), is an utter farce, except in the sense that it’s a total set-up. While Cersei definitely believes he is guilty (as do most of the court, or so it seems), there’s no doubt that Tywin primarily views this as an opportunity to rid himself of the son he loathes. An array of witnesses are called against him - Pycelle, Meryn Trant, Cersei herself, even Varys - all of whom are clearly predisposed to lie say whatever is needed to condemn him. In the recess, Jaime intervenes to give Tyrion a chance to keep his head. He agrees to co-operate… until Shae, the lover he spurned to save her life, walks in and delivers the most devastating testimony of all.
The speech Tyrion gives is obviously a callback to his first trial, except this time his confession is a blistering tirade, the release of so many years of pent-up rage at his family’s hatred him for the “crime” of having been born a dwarf. He may not have killed Joffrey, but he wishes he had: "Watching your vicious b*st*rd die gave me more relief than a thousand lying whores". It’s a powerful, passionate speech and wonderfully delivered - Dinklage really makes you feel every bit of Tyrion’s fury and pain - but there’s a certain satisfaction that comes from this moment, finally seeing him call out his sister and father before the whole court, and also denying Tywin the convenient solution Jaime had provided. As he tells his brother in the next episode, “it felt good to take that away from him”.
I’m not ashamed to admit I shed the odd tear or two when watching this the first time. The next entry in this list is, if anything, even more heartbreaking.
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Post by greendemon on Apr 14, 2019 2:03:03 GMT 1
I’m not crying. You’re crying...
6. Hold the Door (S6E5 - The Door)
How cruelly appropriate that, in a series filled with tragic deaths, perhaps the most tragic of all was reserved for one of the few truly good characters. We first meet Hodor, the lovable, oversized servant to House Stark, early on in Season 1 when he assumes the role of Bran’s assistant (and main form of transport) as he recovers from his fall. From then on, he sticks with Bran through every horror that he faces over the next few years: fleeing Winterfell after Theon takes it, going north of the Wall and escaping the clutches of Karl Tanner and the Night’s Watch mutineers at Craster’s Keep, getting attacked by wights as they reach the Three-Eyed Raven’s cave. Of course, we never really know if Hodor stays with Bran out of loyalty, simple-mindedness or because he has nowhere else to go. No-one ever asks him, but if he had, I think we know what he would have said.
Early in Season 6, Bran learns through one of his visions that Hodor used to be a perfectly articulate stable boy called Wyllas, who grew up alongside his father Ned and his siblings. The horrible truth of how Wyllas came to be Hodor isn’t revealed until the fifth episode, when Bran carelessly lets the Night King touch him during another vision - allowing him to bypass the cave’s protective magic. When the Army of the Dead reaches them, Bran, engrossed in another vision of Wyllas and his father as young boys, is completely helpless, until he hears Meera’s voice telling him to warg into Hodor, as he has done in the past. Instead of warging into present-day Hodor, he wargs into Wyllas in the vision, creating a sort of psychic connection between the two Hodors and causing Wyllas to have a seizure as he experiences this terrifying glimpse into the future. As Meera pulls Bran out of the cave to safety, she tells present-day Hodor to hold the door to stop the wights from following them, which the seizing Wyllas keeps repeating over and over until it becomes, of course, “Hodor”. And he holds that door like a champ.
I remember feeling pretty conflicted about Bran's having warged into Hodor and using him to kill Locke at Craster's Keep in Season 4. And the revelation that Bran is essentially responsible for destroying Hodor’s mind, changing his life forever, just so that he could save him and Meera in that one heroic moment, is easily one of the most devastating, heartbreaking moments in Game of Thrones. I know Bran is now the Three-Eyed Raven and therefore Above Such Concerns, but I really think the realisation of the part he plays in Hodor's death finishes off his humanity. This moment completely knocked me for six: the books haven’t progressed to this point yet, and there’s been barely a hint of Hodor’s origin story so far, so I didn’t see this coming at all. I don’t remember having a strong impression of the book character either way - he’s just sort of there, a part of Bran’s arc and little more than that - but he really came to life on-screen. I thought Kristian Nairn was wonderful as Hodor - he really managed to convey a whole range of expressions through the medium of a single word.
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Post by greendemon on Apr 14, 2019 2:06:21 GMT 1
Hoping to post all of the top 5 tomorrow - 1 each left from seasons 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6.
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Post by greendemon on Apr 14, 2019 11:56:55 GMT 1
Into the top 5...
5. Cersei blows up the Sept of Baelor/Light of the Seven (S6E10 - The Winds of Winter)
First, a confession: shocking though it may seem, a year or two ago I don’t know if this entry would have even made my top 10 (Shame! Shame!). But it gets better and better the more times I watch it, to the point that I can’t believe I never appreciated it fully at the time. The whole sequence, from the characters being dressed to the final shot of Cersei sipping wine on the balcony, is nothing short of mesmerising: the acting, the cinematography, but above all - the music.
When I first saw this episode, I found the presence of the piano a little disconcerting, but it has really, really grown on me in a big way. Ramin Djawadi is an outstanding composer and I’ve loved pretty much everything he’s written for Game of Thrones, but "Light of the Seven" might be his finest moment yet. I think the use of the piano is deliberately unsettling - it’s not an instrument we’ve heard a lot of in the series, so the minute it starts with those few notes you think, hang on, something’s not right here. It brilliantly mirrors the growing fear and apprehension of everyone trapped inside the Sept as they realise what’s happening, with the organ picking up as Lancel makes the horrifying discovery of the wildfire cache beneath the Sept. I don’t know how much more I can say about it. It’s just amazing - but you know that already.
This was, of course, the moment that got Cersei the Iron Throne. She did not directly kill Tommen, and clearly didn't consider how he was going to respond, but she has been resigned to his death for some time, thanks to Maggy the Frog's prophecy having come true thus far. As harsh as it sounds, I think she's effectively done with him by this point. In Season 7, she tells Jaime that their son betrayed her by aligning himself with the High Sparrow, letting her be publicly humiliated, forbidding her from her daughter's funeral and - most crucially of all - banning trial by combat, leaving her with few options.
Mad Queen or not, I can't help but feel that this isn't the last we've seen of wildfire in the series...
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Post by Jordan on Apr 14, 2019 12:07:33 GMT 1
This scene would be my #1 beyond any doubt! And like you say, it's the music that just pushes it above and beyond. It's haunting. And also spot on that the introduction of a piano into the score really makes you aware as a viewer that something is up. I simply did not see this coming, but I knew to expect SOMETHING.
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Post by greendemon on Apr 14, 2019 12:14:54 GMT 1
It really is a great scene. I'm a bit embarrassed it took me so long to warm to it. If I were to redo this list after Season 8, I can't say for sure where it would end up but it's difficult to see it getting pushed much lower! But then again I could say that about all of these Djawadi is an absolute genius, that's for sure. It seems the organ was the very first instrument he learnt - an unusual place to start, but I guess it does suggest a particular affinity for this sort of music. Also totally agree about not seeing this coming! This is yet another moment that show fans can point to whenever anyone says the show deteriorated after overtaking the books.
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Post by greendemon on Apr 14, 2019 21:34:12 GMT 1
4. Battle at the Wall (S4E9 - The Watchers on the Wall)
Like one more entry still to come in this list, I love this episode so much that, had I split it into a series of scenes and included each of those, it would have taken up three or four entries just on its own. There are some amazing visual effects, of course - several giants and a mammoth, to say nothing of the huge blade that shears the legs off the unfortunate wildlings climbing the seven-hundred-foot-high Wall. More than that, though, it’s the culmination of everything that takes place at the Wall in seasons 1-4 leads up to this, the ultimate confrontation between the hopelessly outnumbered Night’s Watch and Mance Rayder’s seemingly unstoppable horde of wildlings. And it’s like a relentless barrage of Feels.
Watching this episode is overwhelming for me: if “Hold the Door” was the emotional equivalent of being hit by a truck, then “The Watchers on the Wall” is a bit like getting hit by several large vans in quick succession: Gilly and baby Sam’s safe return, Pyp’s death, Ygritte failing to honour her promise to kill Jon and instead dying in his arms, Grenn’s last stand at the gate… even Ser Alliser proving that, while he may be a vicious bully, he is also a great leader. What makes the whole thing so much sadder is the realisation that the stakes are the same for both sides. This may be the one battle in all of Game of Thrones that isn’t about who sits on the Iron Throne or who owns which castle, but the simple question of who lives and who dies. The wildlings and the Watch have fought and killed each other for centuries, and there is so much bad blood between them, but in the end both sides are fighting for survival.
It's hard to pick one scene from this wonderful episode, so have three...
Alliser Thorne's speech
Grenn and company hold the gate against Mag the Mighty
Death of Ygritte
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Post by greendemon on Apr 15, 2019 18:50:32 GMT 1
3. Battle of Blackwater (S2E9 - Blackwater)
This one was so close to the previous entry that I almost ranked them the other way around. It’s another hugely celebrated battle episode, and is composed of so many wonderful scenes. The bit that everyone remembers - the spectacular visual effects that created the explosion of wildfire on the Blackwater - is definitely one of them. If you can manage to think back to a time before Game of Thrones achieved the profile that it has now (and the budget to go with it), before epic CGI sequences were a standard feature of every episode, it was hard to imagine something like this in a TV drama. It’s an incredible, stunning moment that completely raises the bar for everything yet to come in the show.
I absolutely love Tyrion’s brutally honest speech rallying the troops to sally out and attack Stannis’ forces. While the ploy with the wildfire was brilliant, he isn’t a military man and the role of commander sits incredibly awkwardly on his shoulders. But he does know how to talk to people and inspire them, even when there’s nothing terribly inspirational about the situation. “Those are brave men knocking at our door - let’s go kill them!”
There are two main things that allow me to rank this episode above “The Watchers on the Wall”, and both are to do with Cersei. The first is the series of brilliant scenes with the Queen Regent, Sansa and all the ladies of the court, gathered like frightened hens in the Red Keep awaiting the outcome of the battle. Drunk Cersei engages in a mixture of mothering and mockery towards Sansa, which is hilarious, but there’s a dark undertone to these scenes in the looming presence of Ser Ilyn - Ned Stark’s executioner - who has orders to kill the women if the city should fall. What I also love about these scenes is the way in which they highlight a little-mentioned aspect of enduring a siege, which is that it’s really, really boring.
The other scene I really love is the moment at the very end with Cersei and Tommen on the Iron Throne, where she tells him the story of the lion and the other beasts of the forest and is seconds from poisoning them both before Loras and Tywin burst into the throne room to tell her that the battle is won. It’s a brief scene, but very thought-provoking. On one level, it’s a great example of the way the show (the writing and Lena’s acting both) emphasises Cersei’s humanity and makes her a character you can empathise with, even if she is thoroughly unlikeable. But on another level - and I think you can’t help but think this given the almost crypt-like gloom in which it’s shot - it reveals that Cersei’s definition of keeping her children safe doesn’t necessarily involve keeping them alive.
Finally, a shout out to The National's very creepy version of "The Rains of Castamere" which plays over the closing credits. It's the first time we hear this hugely significant song in full, although its importance doesn't really come to the fore until a certain event still to come in one of my two remaining moments...
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Post by Jordan on Apr 15, 2019 20:28:15 GMT 1
I loved the battle of black water bay in the show - until I read the book that is. In the book the battle is so much more epic, and the giant chain wall would have been an incredible thing to see! Probably not possible on a TV budget though
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Post by greendemon on Apr 16, 2019 0:32:41 GMT 1
2. The Red Wedding (S3E9 - The Rains of Castamere)
When I first read the A Song of Ice and Fire novels, this was the moment that shocked me the most, and when I heard they were being adapted into a TV series, this was the one I couldn’t wait to see. Back then in 2013, when Season 3 aired, I still didn’t have a way of watching Game of Thrones when it aired without resorting to piracy, and I was adamant that I wanted to experience this properly when the Blu-ray came out, even if it meant waiting a year. But even without seeing it, I kept up with the broad developments of the series and so I knew this was coming, and I loved hearing and seeing others’ reactions. More even than, I think, Ned’s execution, it spawned its own existence as a pop culture event in its own right, which I really enjoyed being part of. And to this day I will never know how my partner - who has never read a word of the books - managed to keep himself away from spoilers for an entire year before we finally managed to see it!
It was well worth the wait - Game of Thrones’ depiction of the Red Wedding was everything I hoped it would be. “Love” probably isn’t the right word to use for what is, without a doubt, one of the most horrific and tragic scenes GoT has ever seen or will ever see. But from the horrible moment you first hear the opening notes of “The Rains of Castamere” to the bitter end, the whole long scene is every bit as powerful and gut-wrenching as it was for me in the book version. There’s even a brutal twist in the gruesome stabbing of Talisa, Robb’s pregnant wife (in the book, he marries another character who is neither pregnant nor at the Twins) moments after the two of them named their future son “Ned”. Interspersed with the slaughter are the heartbreaking moments when Arya finally reaches the castle - just in time (or just too late) - and watches helplessly as Robb’s direwolf, Grey Wind, is butchered. I’ve seen this scene so many times and it’s still so devastating to watch.
There’s loads of great acting in this scene but I think the highlights for me are Michael McElhatton’s diabolically creepy turn as Roose Bolton (that look he gives Catelyn when she realises he is wearing armour is chilling) and, of course, Michelle Fairley whose final moments of anguish are her strongest in the entire show. I do really regret that more was not made of this the aftermath to this scene (which is probably the only reason it’s not my number 1 - I won’t go into details but book readers will know what I mean!)
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Post by greendemon on Apr 16, 2019 0:36:36 GMT 1
1. Hardhome (S5E8 - Hardhome)I’m not sure what it says about me that the Battle of Hardhome is my absolute favourite moment in all of Game of Thrones so far. I said earlier that I’ve particularly enjoyed the battles in the series: the references to real historical events, the atmospheric way in which they’re shot, the special effects. This is the one battle where I never pay attention to any of that; not because it’s not done well - quite the opposite - but because I get so sucked into it that I almost forget the artifice of it altogether. It’s one of the most gripping, terrifying and exhilarating sequences I have ever seen on any TV drama and I love every moment. I really like the council scene at the beginning, with Jon desperately trying to win round as many of the wildling leaders as he can. Like Mance, he knows that the right path often involves making difficult decisions - in this case, decisions so difficult that many will never forgive him for it. He also understands that the only thing that will persuade them to work together is their common enemy, and he delivers a pretty great speech, showing his Mance-like ability to bridge centuries of hatred between the tribes - though for some, it can never be enough. “They’ll come around,” Tormund promises Jon as they load the few who have agreed to join them into boats. When the Army of the Dead reaches Hardhome, it’s already too late for the majority of wildlings who have declined Jon’s offer. They are locked outside the fortress walls and left to die. The only thing more chilling than the screaming is the moment when it stops. The Army quickly overwhelms the fortress, massacring thousands of men, women and children. In the process, Jon loses the cache of dragonglass weapons he had brought, but learns that Valyrian steel can kill White Walkers - admittedly, perhaps not that crucial given that there are only about five or six such weapons in existence. We also learn that White Walkers, unlike wights, can quite happily walk through fire. Heartbreakingly, he is forced to retreat, abandoning the vast majority of the wildlings to their fate - including Karsi, who we saw putting her daughters on one of the boats and promising to follow, but who cannot bring herself to kill the horrific gang of zombie children who tear her apart. And then it all comes to an end with that iconic shot of the Night King staring down Jon Snow, walking to the end of the dock. We’ve seen the Night King before, in the scene with Craster’s last son, but this is the first time any of the characters actually comes face to face with him - and what an introduction it is. He slowly raises his arms and every single corpse, all the thousands of people who Jon fought so hard to save, silently rises to its feet, blue eyes glowing. It’s a moment that announces, once and for all, the sheer insignificance of every conflict south of the Wall. It is just as devastating as it is horrifying. I don't know if GoT will ever top this but put it this way: I am looking forward to the Battle of Winterfell.
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Post by greendemon on Apr 16, 2019 0:40:11 GMT 1
I loved the battle of black water bay in the show - until I read the book that is. In the book the battle is so much more epic, and the giant chain wall would have been an incredible thing to see! Probably not possible on a TV budget though You're absolutely right, it's so much more epic in the books! I think they did a terrific job given the constraints of their budget - particularly as it would have been in the show's earlier seasons. But the chain would have been awesome.
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Post by o on Apr 16, 2019 10:25:45 GMT 1
Brilliant. I'm assuming Tommen's suicide is added in to the blowing up of the sept? It literally blew me away, and I actually applauded Tommen doing what he did, because he realised just how evil his mother truly was, still absolutely shocking when he steps into the window and out though!
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Post by greendemon on Apr 16, 2019 11:24:18 GMT 1
Brilliant. I'm assuming Tommen's suicide is added in to the blowing up of the sept? It literally blew me away, and I actually applauded Tommen doing what he did, because he realised just how evil his mother truly was, still absolutely shocking when he steps into the window and out though! Yep, I sort of lumped that in with the Sept getting blown up. It was a really shocking moment! We knew Tommen was going to die but I had predicted poison (like his brother and sister), not suicide. I find the breakdown of Tommen and Cersei's relationship really sad - she loves him but she basically abandons him because he betrays her and ultimately he just gets in her way. She makes sure he isn't in the Sept for the trial but beyond that it's like she couldn't care less about what happens to him. The more I think about it, the more I wonder whether that scene at the end of "Blackwater" is meant to foreshadow Tommen's death. Cersei showing she is happy to kill her own children if need be.
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Post by greendemon on Apr 16, 2019 11:31:33 GMT 1
As an aside, this turned out to be a lot more work that I thought but worthwhile for me - it was a nice way to look forward to the final season, looking back on everything that's got the story to this point.
There's so much I missed though - I regret not managing to squeeze in Old Nan's bedtime story, particularly if we end up seeing those ice spiders in Season 8!
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Post by o on Apr 16, 2019 12:54:58 GMT 1
Oh I'm sure she said something in that story that rang a bell with me, will have to look the clip up, sure it foreshadowed something?
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Post by iant21 on Apr 16, 2019 18:20:03 GMT 1
Ah, I have loved this so much, thank you for all your hard work, greendemon. Look forward to the revised Top 60 (100? ha!) after Season 8. xx
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Post by greendemon on Apr 16, 2019 19:51:52 GMT 1
Ah, I have loved this so much, thank you for all your hard work, greendemon. Look forward to the revised Top 60 (100? ha!) after Season 8. xx Thank you so much! What a lovely comment to read - I'm glad you enjoyed it I could probably do a top 100 of just season 1-7 if I had time but I'm sure Season 8 will have some truly epic moments!
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