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It’s hard to believe, but “Game of Thrones” is ending after nearly a decade on the air. The world’s biggest show had its ups and downs along the way, but there’s a reason it riveted millions of fans around the globe. Ahead of the series finale, celebrate its top 10 moments across all eight seasons.
Ned loses his head
Ned Stark’s (Sean Bean) shocking death in Season’s 1’s penultimate episode “Baelor” set off the chain of events that scattered all Stark children around Westeros and Essos, setting them up for their various journeys. It also set the tone for the show establishing itself as a world where you can never count on good guys beating the bad guys — or even assume you know who the main character is, despite who’s featured on the promo posters.
‘Chaos is a ladder’
In Season 3’s “The Climb,” the show’s resident political schemers Littlefinger (Aiden Gillen) and Varys (Conleth Hill) have a conversation in which Littlefinger performs one of the most iconic monologues that also lays out the show’s political worldview. He describes chaos as a ladder in which, “Many who try to climb it fail and never get to try again…And some are given a chance to climb, but they refuse. They cling to the realm or the gods or love. Illusions…The climb is all there is.”
‘Dracarys!’ debuts
Daenerys Targaryen’s (Emilia Clarke) heel turn in Season 8 has shocked some viewers, but the seeds have been there all along. She’s always used fire and blood, she’s just never used it against characters we like before. In Season 3, when she first gets her Unsullied army and meets Missandei (Nathalie Emmanuel), she does her very first “dracarys!,” raining fire upon an obnoxious man who deserves it. It’s a powerful moment—and in retrospect, a chilling foreshadowing of what was to come.
The Red Wedding
Ned’s death might have prepared the audience for the shock and gore of “Game of Thrones,” but the infamous Red Wedding in Season 3’s “The Rains of Castamare,” steps it up another level, taking out his son Robb (Richard Madden) and his wife Catelyn (Michelle Fairley) in one fell swoop. The sequence is brutal, heartbreaking, darkly poetic, and it’s the last straw that sends Arya (Maisie Williams) and Sansa (Sophie Turner) on the darkest part of their journeys before they eventually unite the Starks and emerge triumphant many seasons later.
‘By what right does the wolf judge the lion?’
A Kingslayer got into a bathtub, and nothing was ever the same. In Season 3’s “Kissed By Fire,” a recently hand-less Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) takes a bath with Brienne (Gwendoline Christie) where he reveals the truth behind his ruined reputation and nickname. Within one show stopping monologue he deserved an Emmy for, he pivots from a villainous character (remember how much you hated him in Season 1?) to one that’s deeply sympathetic. You can’t help but like him then, even though he’s previously attacked the Starks. Every conflict on this show has multiple sides. No character is truly bad or good — and the tormented Jaime Lannister was the most complex of all.
Olenna and Tywin verbally spar
Sure, “Game of Thrones” leaned into clashing swords in its later seasons, but many of its best sparring matches were verbal. Nowhere is this exemplified better than in Olenna Tyrell (Diana Rigg) and Tywin Lannister (Charles Dance), two sharp-tongued political powerhouses who were the true puppet masters behind the scenes for so long. Their most memorable conversations included their short-lived plan to marry Cersei and Loras (remember that?) in Season 3 and arguing about the cost of Joffrey and Margaery’s wedding in Season 4’s “The Lion and the Rose.”
Tyrion on trial
In Season 4’s “The Laws of Gods and Men,” Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) is put on trial for killing his terrible nephew Joffrey (Jack Gleeson), even though he didn’t do it. (Season 7 confirms that it was Olenna Tyrell). After feeling betrayed by everyone — including his own family, the people of King’s Landing, and his lover Shae — Tyrion snaps. In a riveting monologue he says, “I wish I was the monster you think I am!” Tyrion is misunderstood and despised. But instead of internalizing it like his brother did for so long, it bursts forth, ultimately leading to Tywin’s murder.
‘Hold the door’
Bran Stark’s (Isaac Hempstead-Wright) mentally impaired companion Hodor (Kristian Nairn) was never fascinating —he was a side character who only ever repeated his own name. So it was a storytelling marvel in Season 6’s “The Door” when the show revealed his tragic backstory, in which Bran’s shaky grasp of his time travel powers accidentally triggered Hodor’s brain damage. Who would have thought Hodor would move you to tears? “Hold the door” never sounded the same again.
Cersei’s fiery rise
In Season 6’s “The Winds of Winter,” after she’s gone through brutal ordeals at the hands of the militant Faith, Cersei goes for a violent power grab and literally explodes her enemies. The sequence is beautifully shot — one of the only times Ramin Djawadi’s score featured piano — and in a wordless yet riveting performance, Cersei (Lena Headey) watches her enemies burn while smirking and sipping wine. What a moment it is for the show’s best, most complicated villain everyone loved to hate — and often couldn’t even hate, thanks to Headey’s layered performance.
Arya the (night) Kingslayer
Season 8 has been a mixed bag, but Arya Stark killing the Night King is a standout moment. While some viewers might have thought Jon Snow (Kit Harington) was the natural choice, having previously met the spooky White Walker leader, thematically it fit Arya’s arc better. A Girl has been preoccupied with death, learning its art form, delivering it as revenge. And her shapeless destructive rage has now turned around and been used for a noble cause. Now she kills Death’s personification in order to save humanity, in a shocking but earned sequence.
The “Game of Thrones” series finale airs Sunday at 9 p.m. on HBO.
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