…the Massacre at Hardhome. Duh.
And the Massacre at Hardhome didn’t just come out on top of our poll—it completely demolished the competition, or shattered it into a thousand little ice crystals, as it were. The closest competition came from Drogon’s descent on Daznak’s Pit, but even it didn’t put up much of a fight.
And really, this isn’t the least bit surprising. The Massacre at Hardhome was a tour de force for the Game of Thrones production team. It was expertly paced, as the eerie arrival of the White Walkers gave way to an all-out assault on the wildling compound. Miguel Sapochnik developed tension by cutting between shots of the wight horde, the ships waiting in the bay, and mano-a-manos between the living and the dead. Along the way, there were plenty of standout moments, both thrilling and macabre: Jon shattering the White Walker, Karsi being torn apart by a pack of undead children, and a group of wights tumbling off a cliff only to get right up and charge at Jon and company. And that ending, when the Night’s King raised his arms and added several thousand new members to his undead army, will be haunting us throughout the off-season. Truly, this was one for the books.
Solid as some of the other action sequences in Game of Thrones Season 5 were, they really didn’t stand a chance against this. The only thing that might give the Massacre at Hardhome some competition is a standout action sequences from an earlier season, hence this very special inter-season poll.
Vote away, and stay tuned for our next Season 5 poll: best death scene.
(Side note: We’re still collecting favorite lines for next week’s “Best line” post. There are a lot of them out there, so feel free to post your favorites in the comments. We want to make sure we don’t miss anything big.)
Next: A look inside the Indian special effects studio responsible for animating Daenerys' dragons