Game Of Thrones: Ranking Every Major Battle From Worst To Best

2. Battle Of The Bastards

Game of Thrones Jon Snow Battle of the Bastards — HBO

It would be pretty easy for Game Of Thrones' show-runners to fetishise violence endlessly and revel in the glories of war as well as the bloody fall-out, but there's a lot more nuance to some of the key battles. And it's no surprise that the most emotionally loaded battles are the ones that come out on top.

Battle Of The Bastards is a stunning achievement in large-scale, spectacle film-making, with some incredible directing and ridiculously good choreography to make it all come together. It also manages to double-down on Ramsay Bolton's evil before he bows out (sweetening his awful death scene), while putting the heroes in very real peril and lamenting the true cost of war.

That shot of Jon looking imploringly to the sky as he gasps life back into his body is easily one of the most enduring of the entire show. It's also the most authentic heroic image of the whole thing, since it plays so heavily on the idea of Jon's vulnerability. It's little touches like that that made the Battle Of The Bastards so affecting.

[SG]

James Hunt

Contributor

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.