Small Council: What’s your favorite Game of Thrones moment?

Game of Thrones is almost over. (Pause for sobbing.) It’s been a remarkable eight years. Today on the Small Council, we look back on some of our favorite moments from the show. What are yours?

DAN: If I had to choose just one Game of Thrones moment to celebrate — just one out of the dozens that have left me gripping the edge of my chair or fist-pumping the air or even doubled over laughing — it’s got to be Cersei Lannister exploding the Sept of Baelor. It’s not the moment got me hooked on the show (that would be the birth of Daenerys’ dragons) or the one that left me a quivering wreck (that would be Stannis burning his daughter alive), but it is the one that comes most immediately to mind when I think “favorite Game of Thrones moment.”

It’s hard to tell who deserves the most credit for this moment’s success. Certainly, some needs to go to writers David Benioff and Dan Weiss. It’s not that I’d counted Cersei Lannister out by this point in the story, but I never thought she’d be able to get back on top with one crazy stunt. Crucially, neither did anyone in the Sept, which is why the trick worked. We all knew Cersei was a bit unhinged, but this? This was new.

Credit also must go to director Miguel Sapochnik, who tightens the noose like no one in the business. Game of Thrones has this way of making me think that everything could still work out up until the second it doesn’t. Even after the wildfire bomb went off and the High Sparrow burst into flame, I was still thinking, Okay, this is bad, but maybe at least Margaery can get out. And then the entire building exploded and NOPE. I have Sapochnik to thank for my dashed hopes, and I do it freely.

Of course, Lena Headey deserves some accolades. She’s the centerpiece of this sequence and she doesn’t say a damn thing. Headey can do more with one eyebrow than a lot of actors can do with their whole bodies. Long may she reign.

And then there’s Ramin Djawadi’s haunting score. He’s penned a lot of winners over the years, and while “Light of the Seven” may not be as iconic as the Game of Thrones opening theme or as thematically important as “The Rains of Castamere,” it’s my personal favorite. For the rest of my life, I’m not going to be able to hear it without getting nervous.

So that’s my pick for favorite Game of Thrones moment. How about you guys?

COREY: Where does one even start on a show like Game of Thrones? There are so many moments, big and small, that make you want to jump out of your seat. Whether you’re jumping for joy, anger or just excitement, it’s hardly the kind of show that promotes a relaxed viewing experience.

Two of my favorite moments will always be when Shae first walks into the throne room to testify against Tyrion, and more recently, when Jon forgives Theon in the season 7 finale. Flipping a coin, I suppose I’ll go with the more recent scene.

Theon’s overall plot is one of the show’s most underrated, helped by Alfie Allen’s towering portrayal of the boy born a Greyjoy but raised a Stark. Sure, his plot stagnates while Ramsay is torturing him, but Allen still managed to make that interesting. Fast forward to season 7, when Allen is paired with Kit Harington (Jon Snow), and we have a lovely low-key moment filled with irony.

All season long, Allen was giving a master class in acting. From Theon’s leap into the sea to his conversation with Jon, Allen has earned his place among the best performers on the show. Theon’s identity crisis, which was seemingly and finally solved by his conversation with Jon, was for me one of the highlights of an uneven season. Theon’s lack of confidence and craving for forgiveness comes across as completely genuine, and contrast with Jon’s gentle forcefulness. This is a showcase scene for the series.

And the whole thing drips with irony. Theon seeks out Jon for help with his identity crisis, and we know Jon is going to face the same thing in season 8. I don’t ask you for much, Game of Thrones — you’ve tortured my heart for seven seasons now — but if we don’t get a mirror scene in season 8, I’m gonna be disappointed. Theon somehow consoling Jon after the latter discovers his true heritage, perhaps telling him that he’s both a Targaryen and a Stark and doesn’t have to choose, would be a delight. Give it to me!

SARAH: I second Dan re: Cersei’s Sept explosion. That, or Gwendoline Christie’s Season 8 premiere gown.

Since Dan stole a march on me, I’m going to go with Hold the Door as my favorite moment.

I use the word “favorite” loosely, because I can’t claim to derive much glee from watching Hodor die, but that’s what we sign up for when we commit to Game of Thrones. Nobody tunes in to an episode expecting a heartwarming Disney ending.

From an objective standpoint, Hold the Door can be praised simply by way of how much it packs into one scene. Is there spectacle? Check. Horror? Check. Noteworthy performances? The criminally underappreciated Isaac Hempstead Wright brings his A game as Bran realizes that he has irreparably damaged the mind of a friend he loves so much, and much like Lena Headey, Kristian Nairn has a wonderful talent for projecting much without uttering a single word. Is a White Walker killed in a cool way? Are we treated to a long-concealed slice of juicy backstory? Do we lose one of the direwolves? Does somebody die in a self-sacrificial explosion? Check, check, check, check.

All of those elements are delicious by themselves, but they serve as mere side dishes to a scrumptious main course of masterfully layered storytelling which packs an emotional punch, then a kick, then a slap to the face for afters. Would that I had the word count to delve into its complexity and splash around, but alas, I can only summarize.

Bran gets a lot of heat for the damage he did to Hodor’s brain and his near-robotic behavior in Season 7, but in many ways, he is just as much a casualty as his gentle giant protector. For all his otherworldly powers, Bran was homesick, lonely and longing for his family, so he fell victim to the same trappings of humanity which ensnare us all, and brought the Night King to his door in the process. That sort of sentimentality simply will not do for a Three-Eyed Raven, who must be focused and above such human weaknesses. To keep Bran on task, his mentor did what so many fictional mentors do: inflicted the harshest punishment to teach the hardest lesson. Brave, gentle Hodor was subjected to an unbearable torture and subsequently lost his life, crushed beneath the same boot that ground Bran’s innocence to dust. The trope almost writes itself at this point, but damned if it isn’t effective.

In any case, RIP Hodor. You were good, you were pure, you were stalwartly selfless, and I’d rather not see you as a wight any time soon. I don’t think I could take the pain.

BRITTNI: Picking a favorite Game of Thrones moment is like picking between my dragons… children. There were plenty of moments that shocked me (credit does have to be given to Cersei’s Sept scene, as mentioned above) and plenty of moments that tugged at my heartstrings (I, too, have yet to find a therapist who can help me recover from “Hold the door”). The pick of my favorite scene, though, has to go to the Battle of the Bastards.

Logistically, this scene must have been a hell of a thing to shoot. There are so many moving pieces between the extras, the live animals and the principal actors. It’s a wonder that they pulled it off, much less gave us a final product so riddled with tension and emotion.

Ultimately, I think the exhaustion of such a massive production actually worked in the scene’s favor. Easily the best moment of the battle is when Jon Snow emerges from the spot where he was trampled, gasping for air and clutching at any way out. He looked so desperate, so scrappy. The days spent filming must have worn Kit Harington out, and as a result we’re given this incredibly raw, gripping moment that showed us just what kind of fighter Jon really is. Sometimes you just can’t replicate real exhaustion.

It felt like some kind of loose metaphor for Game of Thrones as a whole: as viewers, we all go through some serious crap together and have to scrap it out, holding out hope that we’ll see the other side and that things will *finally* be worth the drama. Sigh. GoT really nailed it with this one.

RICHARD: Of the endless favorite moments I have from Game of Thrones, one of the most enduring ones for me is the deeply intimate, quiet moment between Dany and Tyrion when she makes him the Hand of the Queen. It was a seminal moment for both characters, both in terms of Tyrion finally finding his home and a leader worthy of his service, and for the cautious Dany to see the truth in the heart of the battered outcast, trusting him absolutely even though he bears the blood of her Lannister enemies.

I’m a huge fan of action sequences and dramatic conflict but Game of Thrones also excels at these heart-wrenching character interactions. I had tears in my eyes the first time i watched this scene, and I still get them whenever I see it again. The road for Dany and Tyrion has been bumpy since then, but in the finale I know they’ll stand side by side, regardless of what ending fate delivers.

RAZOR: I’m going to cheat and choose two moments. Oh, pipe down, I’m last, so I get two.

Numero uno: in season 5’s “Hardhome,” Jon, Tormund and Dolorous Edd realize they must abandon many wildlings in the town beyond the Wall lest everybody become meat for the army of the dead, which is attacking en masse. They all hop into the boat, and a grimy, battle-stained Jon watches the Night King walk out onto a pier. Jon’s stares at him. “I’m going to kill you,” his look says. “Did you see what I did to that White Walker? You ain’t shit.”

Then, the Night King raise his arms and thousands of dead stand up. Jon realizes that there’s one White Walker in charge of everything, and he has the power to mass resurrect all the dead on the battlefield. That’s the moment the White Walker threat becomes real, and not just some side-story we see at the beginning or end of a season.

Number two: In season 6’s “Battle of the Bastards,” after Jon’s failed attempt to rescue Rickon from Ramsay’s arrows, there is a moment when he looks at the ground. Composer Ramin Djawadi’s score begins to play, and the look on Jon’s face is one of acceptance. He sees the Bolton cavalry charging his way, and he knows there is no way he or his army will live through the trap that Ramsay Bolton just drew him into.

I like to imagine his thoughts in that moment: “Sansa was right, Ramsay was never going to let Rickon live, and this was all just a way of making me make a catastrophic mistake. I guess I have been playing with broomsticks.”

Resolved in his fate, Jon unbuckles his sword belt, unsheathes Longclaw, and sinks into a fighting position, raising his sword to meet the charge that’s probably going to kill him. Kit Harington sells this moment from beginning to end, and Djawadi’s score heightens the already very strong emotion of the scene.

Man, we stuck to the later seasons, didn’t we? Anyway, what are your favorite Game of Thrones moments? Let us know!

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