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Exploring and ranking everything in HBO's epic fantasy series.

Game Of Thrones Season 8

With the Battle of Winterfell over and the Night King dead, Dany, Jon, and the rest of the forces in the North turn&nbsp;to their final challenge: Cersei. There is obviously much to celebrate after the Battle of Winterfell,&nbsp;what with stopping the apocalypse and all. Many characters pair off in the immediate aftermath, while others crash and burn in the attempt. But it isn&#39;t all light-hearted. The episode also features some goodbyes &ndash; a few heartfelt ones in the north and a couple of&nbsp;bloodier ones in the south thanks to Cersei and Euron.

Be sure to vote up your favorite moments from the episode!

Game of Thrones

The final season of Game of Thrones promised&nbsp;to wrap up the series&rsquo;&nbsp;many story arcs in a satisfying conclusion - but with a fictional world this big, there was no way the series was going to end without some remaining loose ends.&nbsp;There were&nbsp;simply too many characters, too many realms, and too many plot threads for there not to be some questions left unanswered when <a class="edS-cl" href="https://www.ranker.com/list/real-meaning-of-game-of-thrones-prince-that-was-promised/stephanroget?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">the song of ice and fire</a> reached&nbsp;its end.&nbsp;

So many things&nbsp;happened on Game of Thrones that fans can be forgiven if they&rsquo;ve <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/game-of-thrones-plot-points-you-forgot/michaelgraff" target="_blank">forgotten</a> entire plot points or character arcs. The events of <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/game-of-thrones-season-1-recap/ranker-of-thrones" target="_blank">Season 1</a> seem like a generation ago, and the show&#39;s creators somehow brought up more questions than answers about some fan favorite plots during the series finale.&nbsp;

Winter&nbsp;finally came for Winterfell. After two episodes &ndash; and most of last season &ndash; prepping, the battle between the North and the Night King&#39;s army arrived on Game of Thrones. Fans were simultaneously looking forward to and dreading the battle,&nbsp;knowing full well that many of their favorite characters could be on the chopping block. A fair number of people did drop this week &ndash; though not as many as a lot of people were guessing &ndash; and those weren&#39;t even the biggest parts of the episode.&nbsp;

Between deaths, dragon fights, a major character&#39;s return, and more, the Battle of Winterfell lived up to what it promised and more.&nbsp;

UPDATE 5/12/2019: This theory is confirmed by Season 8, episode 5, &quot;Bells&quot;.

Fans have been <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/is-daenerys-the-night-queen/natalie-jonah" target="_blank">speculating about the conclusion of Daenerys Targaryen&rsquo;s story</a> since before Game of Thrones existed&mdash;and readers of the <a class="edS-cl" href="https://www.ranker.com/list/george-r-r-martins-original-ending-to-game-of-thrones/stephanroget?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">A Song of Ice and Fire</a> series have often theorized about her descent into violent insanity as a Mad Queen of sorts. It&rsquo;s not too hard to figure out where these theories sprang from. After all, Daenerys is the daughter of the infamous Mad King Aerys and has already shown a predilection for burning things.&nbsp;

Despite all <a class="edS-cl" href="https://www.ranker.com/list/life-of-queen-ranavalona-i/melissa-sartore?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">the Mad Queen</a> predictions, one of the series&rsquo; main protagonists becoming its ultimate villain would still qualify as a major twist. It&rsquo;s also not all that unlikely of an outcome&mdash;not if all the cryptic evidence and supposed foreshadowing are to be believed. &nbsp; 
&nbsp;

Ever since becoming the Three-Eyed Raven, Bran has become incredibly blunt, and often just sits around talking about how they don&#39;t have time for anything, because the Night King is coming. So when the show&#39;s big bad showed up on Winterfell&#39;s doorstep, everyone was poised for Bran/Three-Eyed Raven to pull some serious moves. Instead, in classic Bran fashion, he immediately warged into&nbsp;ravens and presumably spent the battle flying around. All the&nbsp;while, the Iron Born died in the Godswood protecting him. It&#39;s unclear if he was doing something aside from being ravens&mdash;which, we&#39;ll add, would have had just as much purpose to the episode&nbsp;had they not been Bran-warged&mdash;but it wasn&#39;t a great look for the guy to just sit under a try while thousands died around him.

WARNING: ALL THE SPOILERS AHEAD.

It&rsquo;s always wise to remember that the journey is just as important as the destination&mdash;a lesson especially pertinent to fans during the&nbsp;final season of Game of Thrones. Whether or not the series did a competent job of concluding its various storylines is a controversial topic, but few would argue that the character arcs of Game of Thrones themselves stand as some of the most compelling in recent television history.

Every character on Game of Thrones&mdash;and <a class="edS-cl" href="https://www.ranker.com/list/george-r-r-martins-original-ending-to-game-of-thrones/stephanroget?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">A Song of Ice and Fire</a>, the book series from which it was adapted&mdash;experiences some sort of personal journey throughout the course of the story. Whether they be a major protagonist like Tyrion Lannister or a supporting figure like Hot Pie, everybody in Westeros gets an arc, and no one is left unscathed by the wars of <a class="edS-cl" href="https://www.ranker.com/list/aquaman-what-are-the-seven-kingdoms/jonathan-kantor?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">the Seven Kingdoms</a>. 
&nbsp;

WARNING: SPOILERS.

Theon Greyjoy has always been one of the most divisive characters on Game of Thrones,&nbsp;and he spends the first few seasons of the series doing everything he can to further sully his reputation. Theon sacks Winterfell, kills two innocent children in lieu of Bran and Rickon Stark, and executes his former friends&mdash;but that&rsquo;s just Act I in a two-act journey to his ultimate redemption.

In the <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/game-of-thrones-season-8-episode-3-recap/jacob-bryant" target="_blank">third episode of Game of Thrones&rsquo; final season</a>, Theon meets his end at the hand of <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/game-of-thrones-night-king-fan-theory/stephanroget" target="_blank">the Night King</a>&mdash;but he does so in his former home of Winterfell, protecting his former family. Theon dies as a redeemed character, but it wasn&rsquo;t just his brave last stand that earned him that title: he&rsquo;s done plenty in the interim to win back the trust of fans and his fellow characters alike.&nbsp; 
&nbsp;

&quot;The Last Of The Starks&quot; had&nbsp;a lot of ground to cover as the third-to-last episode of&nbsp;Game of Thrones, which explains its nearly 80-minute runtime. Not only did&nbsp;the characters (and viewers) need to decompress after the Battle of Winterfell, but the series also needed&nbsp;to set up the ultimate conflict and resolution of the series. The time we spent&nbsp;in Winterfell provided plenty of additions to the <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/best-tormund-giantsbane-quotes/ranker-of-thrones" target="_blank">best Tormund Giantsbane quotes</a>, but probably more importantly, it set events in motion that led&nbsp;to <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/game-of-thrones-daenerys-death-theories/rebecca-shortall" target="_blank">Daenerys&#39;s ultimate fate</a>.

Subtle details in this episode&nbsp;called back to the show&#39;s rich history or pointed towards the characters&#39; ultimate ends. Here&#39;s everything that happened.

The final season of Game of Thrones promised us two major battles, one against <a class="edS-cl" href="https://www.ranker.com/list/white-walker-fan-theories/lisa-waugh?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">the White Walkers</a> in the north and one against Cersei in the south. The series&#39; penultimate episode brought plenty of deaths that fans complained were absent during the supernatural Battle of Winterfell. Dany and her forces squared off against&nbsp;Cersei and hers with <a class="edS-cl" href="https://www.ranker.com/list/26-famous-pop-culture-figures-sitting-on-the-iron-throne/chaz-fletcher?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">the Iron Throne</a> on the line and it brought a lot to digest. One of the show&#39;s primary protagonists finally broke bad, a long time fan theory finally proved true, and a handful of the show&#39;s Day 1 stars kicked the bucket.

We recapped the biggest moments from the episode. Be sure to vote up your favorite!

While there is no shortage&nbsp;of Game of Thrones&nbsp;characters who made terrible decisions,&nbsp;some choices are definitively worse than others. While these make for some of the <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/best-game-of-thrones-episodes/reference " target="_blank">best episodes of&nbsp;Game of Thrones</a>, it&#39;s hard not to cringe when looking back at some of these life-altering - and in some cases, life-ending - choices.

So many brutal&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/game-of-thrones-deaths/devon-ashby" target="_blank">Game of Thrones&nbsp;deaths</a> could have been easily avoided with some less reactive decision-making on the characters&#39; parts. Think about it: what would have happened if&nbsp;the Starks never left Winterfell? Or if Stannis never trusted the Red Woman? Or if Robb had just married into the Frey family as promised instead of following his dumb heart?

Between pivitol&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/game-of-thrones-plot-points-you-forgot/michaelgraff " target="_blank">plot points</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ranker.com/crowdranked-list/best-game-of-thrones-characters" target="_blank">characters you might&#39;ve&nbsp;forgotten about</a>, the families of Stark, Baratheon, Targaryen, Lannister, Martell, Greyjoy, Tully, Tyrell, and Arryn have all made some really terrible,&nbsp;damning decisions, plummeting Westeros and beyond&nbsp;into bloody wars, chaotic politics, and mass scale deaths.

&nbsp;

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD.

No series finale can resolve everything. No matter how definitive an ending, questions invariably remain - characters with uncertain fates, decisions with uncertain consequences. Game of Thrones&nbsp;is no exception. It gave us plenty of resolution - a dead queen, a new king, a new nobility structure... and of course lots and lots of deaths.

Those who survived now move into open-ended future. Where could those futures lead them? To spinoffs, of course. While HBO has its hands full developing&nbsp;Game of Thrones-related prequel content, the network would no doubt jump at the chance to continue one or more of the stories left hanging at the end of its flagship series. It&#39;s unlikely to ever happen, but if it were, here are 11 theoretical possibilities for what we might see next. As for what would make the&nbsp;best&nbsp;spinoff, that&#39;s up to the voters - because unlike in Westeros (sorry, Sam), this here is a democracy.

As soon as HBO realized Westeros was the most popular fantasy realm&nbsp;on television, it was only a matter of time before the Game of Thrones spinoff ideas began to circulate. As the series neared&nbsp;its final season, those ideas began&nbsp;shape. Five prequels were reportedly on the table, but in July 2018, four of those got the Red Wedding treatment, with only the <a href="https://io9.gizmodo.com/those-4-other-game-of-thrones-spinoffs-in-the-works-at-1827865935" target="_blank">&quot;Golden Age of Heroes&quot; approved.</a>

There is already a pilot order for the series. Although the Game of Thrones prequel facts are limited at the moment, there&rsquo;s still plenty to parse through despite a lack of new&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/game-of-thrones-scenes-hidden-meanings/lisa-waugh" target="_blank">Game of Thrones&nbsp;scenes</a> to decipher.

With a pilot on the way and more series apparently in the works, the notion of a prequel series moves&nbsp;<a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/fan-theories-about-the-night-king/carly-silver" target="_blank">far beyond GoT&nbsp;fan theories</a>&nbsp;and now seems like an inevitability. After all, why wouldn&rsquo;t HBO want to keep cashing in on the world of George R. R. Martin?

Game of Thrones went through a gauntlet of criticism in its final season. It had a lot of ground to cover in the series finale, and a lot of threads to tie, and for the most part, it succeeded. After the previous&nbsp;episode, with Dany burning King&#39;s Landing to the ground, it was clear that the rest of the leaders weren&#39;t as keen on the dragon queen as they had been&nbsp;a few days ago. The final episode managed to deal with the fallout of the battle while providing fitting goodbyes to the show&#39;s vast swath of characters.&nbsp;

All across the Seven Kingdoms, people are getting burned. And not just by dragons. Insults fly across the realm, whether your mother was a whore or you have no honor. No one is safe from a verbal lashing or quick put down. What are the best insults ever thrown down on Game of Thrones or in <a class="edS-cl" href="https://www.ranker.com/list/real-meaning-of-game-of-thrones-prince-that-was-promised/stephanroget?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">A Song of Ice and Fire</a>?

Some characters are known for their sharp wit and frequent barbs. Tyrion Lannister is the most prolific insulter in Westeros. He can take it just as well as he can dish it out and is never wanting for a great comeback.&nbsp;Insults must run in the Lannister blood, as Cersei can also be relied upon for an epic burn. However, she usually lacks the wordplay and artistry of Tyrion, choosing instead to hurt her target as deeply as possible.

Many GoT insults focus on the target&#39;s birth. Was your mother a whore? Get ready to hear about it for the rest of your life. But nothing is off limits and there&#39;s no shortage of classic jabs at another person&#39;s looks, pointed statements about one&#39;s talents (or lack thereof) on the battlefield, and sarcastic mentions of a man&#39;s lack of honor.

Vote up the absolute best insults from Game of Thrones - either the HBO series or the George R. R. Martin books. If your favorite put down isn&#39;t here, add it below, and be sure to check out more <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/what-to-watch-if-you-love-game-of-thrones/watchworthy" target="_blank">shows like Game of Thrones.</a>

Barristan Selmy

This list of the best, most interesting characters from HBO&#39;s Game of Thrones&nbsp;series has been voted on by tens of thousands of GoT fans. Though the complicated study of power dynamics in the fantasy kingdom of Westeros may not have too many identifiable or even sympathetic lead characters, it has nonetheless produced a wide variety of compelling, entertaining and outsized personalities, from the brutal boy king Joffrey Baratheon to his diminutive but ingenious cousin Tyrion Lannister to their rivals, <a class="edS-cl" href="https://www.ranker.com/list/all-members-of-house-stark/ranker-of-thrones?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">the Stark family</a> of Winterfell and the &quot;Mother of Dragons,&quot; Daenerys Targaryen. But which characters are the true fan favorites, providing the most memorable moments and unexpected plot twists? While it&#39;s inevitably that a certain Bolton is likely to get heavily downvoted based on the true evilness of his character, hopefully some of the more nuanced &quot;not purely evil&quot; characters will maintain high rankings based on the opinion of true fans (like yourself, dear reader!).&nbsp;

HBO&#39;s Game of Thrones&nbsp;show is based on the Song of Ice and Fire&nbsp;cycle of novels by fantasy author George R. R. Martin.&nbsp;Martin has said that the series was partially based on the real &quot;War of the Roses&quot; that engulfed England in civil war in the 15th Century. Those conflicts concerned a rivalry between the houses of Lancaster and York, whose names clearly provided inspiration for the rival families of Lannister and Stark in the GoT universe. While this list is focused on characters from the TV series, voters who have both seen the show and read the books will probably vote somewhat differently given the additional nuance they will bring to their opinion of this unique ranking. This list ranks every major Game of Thrones character from best to worst, and given how many fans have voted on it, it&#39;s the definitive ranking of GoT&nbsp;fan favorites

For your fill of Game of Thrones discussion, check out more lists like the most<a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/the-most-hated-game-of-thrones-characters/ranker-of-thrones">&nbsp;hated characters in Game of Thrones</a>, or vote on <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/most-satisfying-game-of-thrones-deaths/ranker-tv">which Game of Thrones death was the most satisfying</a>. If you&#39;re ready for something new, we also have a great round up of other&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/what-to-watch-if-you-love-game-of-thrones/watchworthy" target="_blank">shows like Game of Thrones</a>.

The world of <a href="http://www.ranker.com/crowdranked-list/best-game-of-thrones-characters?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">Game of Thrones</a> is dense and full of terrors. But it's also full of <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/all-easter-eggs-from-marvel-movies/ranker-comics?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">Easter eggs</a>! George R.R. Martin has hidden so many subtle clues in the&nbsp;<a class="edS-cl" href="https://www.ranker.com/list/real-meaning-of-game-of-thrones-prince-that-was-promised/stephanroget?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">A Song of Ice and Fire</a> books&nbsp;that he is afraid some fans have already figured out the secret ending and, like the books, the HBO show is also peppered with plenty of Game of Thrones hidden features and Easter eggs that are inspired by Martin's books and other sources.Did you notice that Gandalf's sword is in the Iron Throne? How about that Jon Snow's best buds at the Wall have the same names as Frodo's pals in The Lord of the Rings? There are also initials carved on a wall that hint at Jon Snow's real parents, several references to Monty Python, nods to H.P. Lovecraft and Dragonslayer, and many, many more, if you are willing to keep your eyes peeled.How many Game of Thrones dragon, er, Easter eggs did you catch while watching the show? Which one surprised you more than the Red Wedding? Vote up your favorite hidden message and help us decide which is the one Easter egg to sit the Iron Throne and rule the Seven Kingdoms!

History

George R.R. Martin is a master of fantasy&nbsp;world-building - so much so that some people are more interested in learning about the history and lore of the Game of Thrones universe than actual historical events. Entire encyclopedias have collected stories from&nbsp;the past generations of Westeros, and some of those tales will&nbsp;inspire the upcoming HBO spinoff. While the adventures of Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen may not count as real&nbsp;history homework, it is apparent that Martin&rsquo;s A Song of Ice and Fire books take heavy cues from events that really happened.

Some of the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ranker.com/crowdranked-list/best-game-of-thrones-characters" target="_blank">best Game of Thrones characters</a> are based on historical figures, and some of <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/best-game-of-thrones-episodes/reference" target="_blank">its grandest battles</a> are practically shot-for-shot remakes of ancient conflicts. It&rsquo;s true that some of <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/game-of-thrones-plot-points-you-forgot/michaelgraff" target="_blank">the series&rsquo; plot points</a> mirror historical events very closely, but one shouldn&rsquo;t go looking in textbooks for Season 8 spoilers - George R.R. Martin always manages to twist even his more direct inspirations.&nbsp; 
&nbsp;

Seasons 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,&nbsp;6, 7 and 8 spoilers ahead.&nbsp;

Perishing is no stranger to HBO&#39;s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.hbo.com/game-of-thrones" target="_blank">Game of Thrones</a>, and it certainly isn&#39;t selective. No one is safe, and while many beloved characters pass on the regular, some of the most despicable characters, who truly deserve it, occasionally get the axe (or the sword, or the wildfire, or the &quot;golden crown&quot;) as well. This list of the most satisfying, best Game of Thrones deaths have&nbsp;been ranked by viewers from most satisfying and deserved, to least.

Some of the characters on this list definitely deserved it.&nbsp;Kraznys Mo Nakloz thought he could just buy one of Dany&#39;s dragons - and learned the hard way how that ends.&nbsp;King Robert might not have been the most hated character, but many fans weren&#39;t too disappointed to see him go. The Red Wedding was more shocking and devastating than deserved, but Robb did break his promise to the Freys, after all.&nbsp;And if Oberyn just stopped talking.

See someone on the list you don&#39;t think deserved their fate? Vote them down &mdash; and vote up the characters who were just the worst and whose passing left you feeling satisfied.&nbsp;

And, if you have a spare 49 minutes, watch <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iipgtlikx1U" target="_blank">this YouTube compilation</a> of all the Game of Thrones&nbsp;passings&nbsp;up to Season 3.

Game of Thrones&nbsp;fans knew it wasn&#39;t wise to become too attached to their favorite characters. Over the course of the hit HBO show based on George R.R. Martin&#39;s A Song of Ice and Fire book series of books, Game of Thrones proved&nbsp;time and time again that major characters could shockingly be dispatched without much warning. Fortunately, the many Game of Thrones deaths lead to some excellent, and occasionally poignant, Game of Thrones quotes, as GoT characters utter their last words.

Before a character shuffles off this mortal coil (or do they?!?!?), sometimes he or she says something profound, silly, inspiring, desperate, or tragic. Do you remember what Joffrey&#39;s last words were before he choked on poison? What about Robb Stark&#39;s last utterance? Or how about Tywin Lannister&#39;s last words to his son, Tyrion, who he accused of murdering Joffrey?

Scroll through some of the most memorable deaths in Game of Thrones history and reread the characters&#39; final words. Which parting phrases do you think are the most memorable, telling, and worthy of being last words? Vote up the most memorable and infamous last words said by the many fallen heroes and villains of the Six Kingdoms and the North.

GoT History

Fire and Blood

Here are the best Game of Thrones episodes, as determined by voters like you. HBO&#39;s&nbsp;groundbreaking show based off the popular books by George R. R. Martin is a dazzling spectacle of some of television&#39;s best world building, character developments, performances and jaw-dropping surprises. Now that the finale has come and gone, you may be looking for more <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/what-to-watch-if-you-love-game-of-thrones/watchworthy" target="_blank">shows like Game of Thrones.</a> But if your&nbsp;mind is still preoccupied with&nbsp;everything that went down, we&#39;ve put together this list to help you process.

With all the amazing episodes of the show that exist, it&#39;s hard to trust just one person&#39;s opinion of what the top Game of Thrones episodes of all time are. Fans of Game of Thrones are very passionate about the show, and there are often debates over which GoT episodes are the greatest. That&#39;s why this list exists- so you can vote for your favorite GoT episodes,&nbsp;and we can find out once and for all what everyone thinks the best episode is.

This list of the greatest GoT episodes includes&nbsp;&quot;The Spoils of War,&quot; &quot;The Rains of Castamere,&quot; and &quot;Hardhome.&quot;&nbsp;What is the best Game of Thrones episode of all time? Look below and find out.

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Here are the best&nbsp;Beric Dondarrion&nbsp;quotes from HBO&#39;s&nbsp;Game of Thrones. Played by Irish actor Richard Dormer, Beric Dondarrion is the Lord of Blackhaven who later helps form the Brotherhood Without Banners. After being resureccted by the Red God multiple times with the help of Thoros, Beric Dondarrion uses his flaming sword to serve his purpose. What is your favorite quote from Beric Dondarrion?

Vote up the best Beric Dondarrion quotes, and see where he ranks among the&nbsp;best&nbsp;GoT&nbsp;characters.

The Best Beric Dondarrion Quotes from "Game of Thrones", Ranked

The Best Beric Dondarrion Quotes

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Here are the best&nbsp;Beric Dondarrion&nbsp;quotes from HBO's&nbsp;Game of Thrones. Played by Irish actor Richard Dormer, Beric Dondarrion is the Lord of ...