All 73 episodes of Game of Thrones, ranked worst to best

8. “And Now His Watch Is Ended,” Season 3, Episode 4

For a mid-season episode, quite a lot happens here: Arya meets Beric Dondarrion, Varys tells Tyrion the memorable story of how he became a eunuch, and a band of traitorous Night’s Watchmen kill their Lord Commander. (That seems to happen a lot.) But this episode ranks so high mainly for one reason: it marks the moment when Daenerys officially became a legitimate, do-not-mess-with-me badass.

Daenerys’ character’s growth is second only to that of Jon Snow. In Season 1, we watched Dany morph from a scared child to a confident wife to a khaleesi who was unafraid to wield the power being married to Khal Drogo gave her. In Season 2, Dany struggled to come into her own, although no one appeared to take her seriously. Season 3 appeared to be more of the same, right up until this episode.

After landing in Astapor to potentially purchase a slave army, Dany is counselled by both Jorah Mormont and Barristan Selmy that a dragon is too high a price to pay for it, and we begin to get a hint that Dany is not playing around anymore as she scolds both veteran warriors for questioning her in public.

But oh wait til’ Dany puts on her “I’m a badass” hat. At the exchange, Dany stoically hands over Drogon to the slaver. She pretends not to understand the constant string of insults hurled her way by the slaver, but she understands that the deal is complete. Testing out her command of the Unsullied, in Valyrian, the language the slaver assumes she does not speak, Dany quickly orders her new army to slay every slaver they see, and to sack the city.

Dany orders Drogon to torch the slaver, who realizes right before he dies how badly he underestimated her, and then lays waste to the city. This is the moment when Daenerys went from a queen in name only, to a queen made from fire and blood. The newly freed Unsullied choose to follow Dany on the march, loyal to the woman who granted their freedom.

(Google the words Daenerys and badass, and this is the scene you get.)