Game Of Thrones: 20 Most Shocking Moments Ever

12. The Sept Of Baelor Explodes

Game of Thrones wildfire King's Landing Sept of Baelor
HBO

We knew going into this episode that Cersei was plotting *something*. That, with a trial by combat not possible, she’d find some other way out of the mess she was in. But this? Not so much.

The opening to The Winds of Winter is the best-directed sequence in the entire show. It’s 20 minutes of slow-building tension, aided by the spectacular Light of the Seven by the incomparable Ramin Djawidi. It builds and builds, Pycelle is stabbed; it builds and builds, Lancel discovers the wildfire, but gets injured; it builds and builds, Margaery attempts to escape.

Boom.

The Sept explodes in a tornado of green flame, and our minds go with it, witnessing one of the most jaw-dropping displays of power (and mass murder) ever seen on television. Cersei becomes Queen, because who the f**k could stop her after this?

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NCTJ-qualified journalist. Most definitely not a racing driver. Drink too much tea; eat too much peanut butter; watch too much TV. Sadly only the latter paying off so far. A mix of wise-old man in a young man's body with a child-like wonder about him and a great otherworldly sensibility.