Best Game of Thrones battle? (Season 1-6 spoilers)

[The Devil's Advocate]

Castle Black for me. So many gifs were generated from that battle.

First time we saw the giants and them wrecking shyt.
That crazy one take.
Jon Snow really showing us his fighting skills.
Tormund also showing his skills.
Alliser fighting alongside the night's watch after that speech.
The cook.
Ygrit sniping everybody.
Grenn and the night's watch reciting the oath with one of the giants rushing them.
Dropping that scythe.

Hardhome is my (close) 2nd

the somber beginning and slow pacing

the horns blowing letting you know it's on now and never again letting down

the second horn blowing letting alliser know jon wasn't lying... then alliser admitting jon was right... then alliser stepping up and going to war with the troops

that POV of the redhead shooting the arrows

the first time you seen that grumpy nikka alliser actually clash swords.. and he did it vs tormund who was wrecking shyt

tormund wrecking shyt

the motherfukking music

that big ass bald sons of the first men ass nikka slaying with the axe and laughing while doing it

the the giants with their big ass bow and arrow

jon jumping off the elevator like jordan in game 6.. murdering everything in sight and single handedly turning the whole battle

olly shooting ygrette and giving the head nod to jon like he did something.. but he did tho cause she killed his parents

P catching a arrow to the neck and dying in sam's arms

sam being a bytch but still wasn't a bytch cause he stayed and helped for every second of it

ghost coming out the shelter like jordan in the flu game

chef raekwon cooking all sorts of marvelous shyt

"does knock mean fukking draw?"

jon hitting the tunnel after it's over to have a man to man with the king beyond the wall


man now i gotta go ahead and watch this shyt again

 

[Maxine Shaw]

P catching a arrow to the neck and dying in sam's arms

Damn, now I remember another reason why Castle Black killed me. We lost Pyp AND Grenn in that battle. (Another great speech!) They hated Jon (and vice-versa) when they came to the Night's Watch, but they were all so tight by the end. They had a great group of five - Jon, Sam, Pyp, Green and Edd.



A great Hardhome moment - when the Night King watches Jon and his little-ass boat sail away.

 

[FarBeyondRubies]

Battle of the b*stards. I put Hardhome and Castle black second.

BoB was just on a different level.

 

[Sensitive Blake Griffin]

Battle of castle black is my favorite. they actually released that episode in IMAX 3D and I went to see it and it was incredible. I could look at each part of the screen and see individual battles and I could follow them so clearly to finality. you could follow ygrittes arrows, Idk breh shyt was amazing

 

[Mr. Manhattan]

how you not gonna put the Battle of Winterfell

 

[Ziggiy]

BREH. Thorne was the biggest prick alive, but after his rallying speech, I wanted to take up arms and join the Night's Watch. Honestly, we could have a thread based on the best GOT speeches alone.



Speaking of which, here's Tyrion rallying the Lannister troops after Joffrey's punk ass left them on the battlefield:





I'll have to go back and rewatch that ep. What I remember was her clearly telling Jon that there was nothing they could do to save Rickon, and begging him not to do what Ramsay wanted him to do...which was exactly what Jon did. I watch the eps in order (like I don't know what's going to happen!) and I'm only on season three, but I'll be sure to pay attention when I rewatch that ep.



I had no problem with him killing Ygrette. But (slightly O/T) wasn't it kind of harsh for Jon to hang Olly, considering how brainwashed he was? If anybody was going to convince the poor kid he was doing the right thing, it was Thorne (who honestly DID believe he was doing the right thing). I wonder whether he could've been deprogrammed.

I'm surprised there's no love for the Three-Eyed Raven battle - that's the first battle I remember that actually involved magic forces on top of physical battle. (RIP Summer!) I wonder if Hodor is going to come back as a White Walker or a Wight?

Pay attention to the entire story arc. From the moment Jon and Sansa met up she was manipulating him using Rickon as bait. Jon told Sansa he had no interest in Winterfell and that he wanted to go South (some place warm) he completely renounced his status as Lord of the Night's Watch and was about to bounce. Sansa was all on that "Ramsay has Rickon, we have to save family!" steeze knowing full well that Ramsay had no intentions of EVER allowing Rickon to live. Then they get all the way to the final confrontation and THEN that's when Sansa wants to get self righteous on some "Nobody knows Ramsay like me" shyt and telling Jon that saving Rickon isn't in the cards, when that was the one and ONLY reason Jon engaged Ramsay in battle.

Sansa was a straight up bytch for withholding information from Jon that entire time, her whole plans were self serving.


Also fukk Ollie. He had to die along with every single person who betrayed Jon. You don't get a second chance at life and just leave your enemies alive. Ollie knew exactly what he was doing and he had to pay the consequence of his actions. If Jon learned ANYTHING from being betrayed and left to bleed out in the snow, it's that being "nice" has no place in the current world

 

[Maxine Shaw]

how you not gonna put the Battle of Winterfell

Battle my ass - that shyt was a MASSACRE. You might as well throw in one of those wack-ass Daenerys battles (Yunkai, Astapor, etc.). But Stannis went out like a boss, didn't he? "Go on, do your duty." Well, shyt.



I wonder if Stannis actually regretted anything in the end, sitting out there in the forest before the Big bytch Brienne came and put him out of his crazy-ass misery? The death of Ser Davos' brother, losing his nephew (is Gendry still rowing?), burning his daughter at the stake...all for nothing.

 

[Rigamortus]

5 choices and 4 of them involve #Starkset

 

[Jazzy B.]

Obviously Battle of the b*stards followed by Hardholme.

The other ones haven't held up well and the budget difference between them and the others is just too noticeable for the comparisons to even be fair.

 

[Big Dick]

Battle of the b*stards is the obvious #1.

I'm voting Hardhome though just because that battle came out of nowhere to me. My man Jon recruiting wildlings thinking shyt sweet one minute, next minute he in the battle of his life against the White Walkers.

This pretty much.

Battle my ass - that shyt was a MASSACRE. You might as well throw in one of those wack-ass Daenerys battles (Yunkai, Astapor, etc.). But Stannis went out like a boss, didn't he? "Go on, do your duty." Well, shyt.



I wonder if Stannis actually regretted anything in the end, sitting out there in the forest before the Big bytch Brienne came and put him out of his crazy-ass misery? The death of Ser Davos' brother, losing his nephew (is Gendry still rowing?), burning his daughter at the stake...all for nothing.

Dany had one dope battle, it was at the beginning of the battle of b*stards episode where the dothraki came through and slaughtered the harpys.

 

[42 Monks]

5 choices and 4 of them involve #Starkset

#starkset still claiming Jon

 

[jay211]

Jon is a STARK. nikka got Stark blood running through his veins

 

[Ziggiy]

Battle my ass - that shyt was a MASSACRE. You might as well throw in one of those wack-ass Daenerys battles (Yunkai, Astapor, etc.). But Stannis went out like a boss, didn't he? "Go on, do your duty." Well, shyt.



I wonder if Stannis actually regretted anything in the end, sitting out there in the forest before the Big bytch Brienne came and put him out of his crazy-ass misery? The death of Ser Davos' brother, losing his nephew (is Gendry still rowing?), burning his daughter at the stake...all for nothing.

I'd wager that burning his OWN daughter alive at the behest of some 800 year old haggard piece of ass with the best plastic surgery magic can buy would cause some regret...

 

[Maxine Shaw]

Whew! Okay, went back and watched all six seasons again, and I can see the appreciation for Battle of the b*stards. It kind of sucks that we pretty much knew how it would end (they killed Jon once - no way they would kill him again). What I didn't notice from the last time was how many soldiers were in the Vale army. Had Sansa told Jon about them in advance, Jon might have come up with a completely different strategy. I still say he would've fukked it all up, though, b/c of the way he ran out there. Yes, Jon is an incredible warrior, but I don't know if you could call him a strategic leader, a la Stannis. (Let's be real - the only reason why he won Winterfell was b/c he had a giant.)

Watching them all back to back, I think that Blackwater is almost like the Forrest Gump of battles - it's state of the art at the time, but the show has done so many better battles that going back and watching it again, it's pretty underwhelming. I think that it might work as the best strategic battle. After all, even with the wildfire, Stannis n'nem still almost won. So my new order is Castle Black (underrated, if you ask me) - Hardhome - BOTB - 3ER - Blackwater.

(One thing: I hated how Karsi was ultimately done in by a bunch of kid wights at Hardhome. It gets annoying to see over and over how children are the downfall/"soft spot" for women, even undead ones.)

For anybody interested in the nuts and bolts of things (SFX fascinate me), I'm watching the behind the scenes specials of some of the battles.

 

[Maxine Shaw]

Reupped to include the season seven Greyjoy battle.



Votes can be changed, but I'm sticking with Blackwater b/c it's still my favorite. If we ever get a Best Entrance thread, though...