All eight seasons of Game of Thrones, ranked worst to best

Season 6

Does this thing move or what? From Jon Snow’s resurrection to Daenerys taking control of the Dothraki to Hodor’s sacrifice to the Battle of the Bastard’s to Cersei’s triumph, there’s rarely a dull moment in Game of Thrones season 6. It’s not as internally consistent as season 3, but it makes up for that with headlong energy and some crowd-pleasing moments fans had been waiting a long time to see. At this point, the production was a well-oiled machine and had access to all the resources they could possibly need, and they used them.

High point: Cersei blows up the Sept of Baelor

Most of season 6 is solid, but let’s be real: the three best episodes are “The Door,” “Battle of the Bastards,” and “The Winds of Winter.” You could make an argument for any of those being the high point of the season, but for me, the most memorable moment was Cersei Lannister dealing an unexpected knockout blow to all of her enemies in “Winds,” observing the destruction of the Sept of Baelor from high in the Red Keep and sipping on a glass of wine, delighting in her genocide. When paired with Ramin Djawadi’s haunting score, this sequence is a tense, ghoulish masterpiece, and probably my favorite scene from the show to date.

Low point: The Dorne stuff right at the beginning was quite bad

Dorne just keeps on sucking, doesn’t it? Right at the top of the season, Ellaria Sand kills Doran Martell, Tyene Sand kills his hulking bodyguard Areo Hotah with a prick to the back, and somehow Nymeria and Obara Sand sneak off to King’s Landing to murder Prince Trystane on a boat. Like, did Doran know where they were? Were they on the ship all the way from Dorne?

None of it makes a lick of sense, and it’s a huge waste of a talented actor like Alexander Siddig. Thank goodness none of these characters show up again until the very end of the season, and at least then Olenna Tyrell is around to make them look entertaining by proxy.

MVP: Sansa Stark

Season 6 is the year Sansa Stark comes into her own. All those years of being disabused of her romantic notions of courtly life, of being married off to this or that lord to consolidate some pact she didn’t agree to, of being a pawn in someone else’s game…they all pay off here. Finally, Sansa is making moves of her own. She leans on Jon Snow to take back Winterfell from the Boltons when he wanted to skip town. She tris to recruit the Blackfish to her cause. She strikes a deal with Littlefinger and didn’t tell Jon about it even though it could have changed his approach to the Battle of the Bastards.

And yes, I consider her caginess a plus; Sansa had been through a lot of trauma, and it makes perfect sense that she wouldn’t be willing to put complete trust in anyone, not even her half-brother. She emerges as a fully-formed character in season 6, and it’s a thrill to discover what she’s all about.

Runner-up: Jon Snow

Jon steals focus right at the start of the season and he’s not even alive. His resurrection was the most anticipated television moment of 2016, but it was the opening act in an excellent season that saw Jon break free of the Night’s Watch and become his own man, albeit one who still gets railroaded into positions of authority he didn’t ask for.

Kit Harington gives a powerful, nuanced, intensely physical performance in “Battle of the Bastards,” which is still the finest action episode the show has done. (Your move, season 8.) That’s Jon’s high point, but it’s a banner year for him all around. To the King in the North!