The 30 most iconic moments from Game of Thrones, ranked

5. The Battle of the Bastards

The Battle of the Bastards is the best action sequence the show has yet produced. Right from the start, the stakes are high. Ramsay and Jon are bastards who have risen high, and only one of them will come out of this alive. Sansa is putting everything on the line. Davos and Melisandre know that this could be their last stand. From the moment the two sides meet for a parley, the atmosphere is electric.

There are too many iconic moments from the Battle of the Bastards to narrow it down to just one, so we’re going to cheat and name a bunch of them, starting with the tragic death of Rickon Stark. Sansa warns Jon that Rickon is a goner, but we’re still with him as he tries to save his little brother, and our hearts break with his with Ramsay shoots an arrow through Rickon’s back. Even the fans who knew Sansa was right were shocked.

After that, the action is nonstop. It’s hard to single out any one moment as the best in show. Maybe it’s the slow-motion shot where Jon faces the oncoming calvary with nothing but his sword, or the long unbroken shot of him stumbling through the chaos of battle, or the suffocating moment when Jon is trampled underfoot by his own men, or the elated exhale when Sansa appears on the hilltop with Littlefinger and the Knights of the Vale, arrived just in time to save the day.

And no recount of  the Battle of the Bastards would be complete without mentioning Ramsay’s long-awaited death, which was about as satisfying as Joffrey’s. This time, Sansa actually gets to take revenge on her abuser, something that many fans cheered. Ramsay’s comeuppance was especially sweet since it came from his own dogs, the ones he used to inspire terror in Theon and so many others. It’s a brutal, twisted, perfect end to a breathlessly exciting episode.