re: Rank the 4 battles of Game of Thrones

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3 out of 4 of these battles had a last second army come in and win the battle.

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Plus I just don't know how anyone can put the Battle for the Wall not in last place. It's a pure celebration of excess and sloppy. Sure Ygritte died, but not anything else really memorable happened. Really that battle should have been intertwined with Tyrion killing Tywin. That episode looks like Michael Bay shot it. The Battle for the Bastards looks like Alfonso Cuaron shot it. It would be in my bottom 1/3 of episodes for sure.

I enjoyed the Wall battle quite a good bit. That first scene showing the giants and mammoth was more a spectacle than anything last night IMO. Plus the entire woods ablaze. I still re-watch that battle sometimes.

Hardhome was the best of the group.

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It's a pure celebration of excess and sloppy

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This is kind of how I felt about bastards.

Still outstanding though.

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Tormund was captured, which eventually led to him being Jon's pal and going to hardhome (and later making a penis joke after Jon is revived).

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Giants in battle. Guys getting scythed off the wall mid-climb. Jon got his arse kicked by a massive wilding. And, though it happened off screen, the fight in the tunnel against the giant was memorable.

I still think the arrowplay by Ygritte, tracking shot all around castle black, soundtrack, and Tormund action made the Wall battle one of the most memorable. It might pale in comparison, but it's very impressive.

1 Hardhomme- the zombie assault was glorious, and unexpected
2 The Wall- Impressive scale depicted, as well as some fantasy elements
3 Bastards- very solid medieval warfare depiction
4 Blackwater- while you get the sense of a big battle, between the darkness etc you don't see a lot at a large scale.

While I might get blasted by the board for saying this, Ragnar's first siege/sacking of Paris on Vikings topped Blackwater easily, and matched Bastards and Wall for epic scope and general all-around coolness. Climbing the burning siege towers, and Rollo riding the spiked roller, is as good as anything we've seen on GoT. Hardhomme trumped it with zombies.

That scene with Jon Snow just standing there, drawing his sword was so monumentally badass.

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I still think the arrowplay by Ygritte, tracking shot all around castle black, soundtrack, and Tormund action made the Wall battle one of the most memorable. It might pale in comparison, but it's very impressive.

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Aside from Ygritte getting shot and Slynt cowering, I can't really remember a damn thing about the episode. The only character I really gave a shite about was Jon and maybe Tormund to some extent. I mean yeah, you got that going on at Hardhome as well, but the tension was much more real, and Jon lost the damn battle on top of that. It was pretty terrifying.

I also never feared for Jon's life. Yes, maybe as a book reader I knew he was going to survive, but I also knew he would survive the Battle of the Bastards. But I feared for Jon's life quite a few times in that battle among the chaos and the lengths Ramsay was going to kill him and rip personally his soul apart. Plus there are much more interesting characters involved in this that I cared about and wanted them to succeed.

So thinking it through, the Battle of the Bastards may have been the best battle, but the best episode is still Blackwater. Just everyone on all sides I cared for and it was incredibly interesting. Watchers on the Wall they just tried to one-up Blackwater, and largely failed. The darkness that worked in Blackwater didn't have the same effect on the Wall. It also didn't have near the conflict or interesting characters as Blackwater did to hold it down. Sam, Gilly, and Slynt bitching and moaning isn't nearly as interesting as a drunken Cersei plotting a mass murder/suicide if Stannis were to breech the walls while Sansa is almost rapped by the Hound. It's really the reason why I say they needed a secondary plot occurring in that episode, like Tyrion killing Tywin.

D&D learned this from that episode to give us smaller plots that move the story alone. They toned it down a bit with Hardhome and Battle of the Bastards and focused on what was really important. It wasn't some guy we've never met being hit with a giant arrow.

1. Hardhomme--There was just something special about the frantic nature of this battle that is special. Most importantly, I think it highlights the true battle of the series: man vs the undead.

2. Bastards-- This had the most buildup, and the cinematography was the best yet. While the good vs evil narrative may be "true" against the undead, this felt more relatable because Ramsey is not unlike the evil we see in this real world.

3. The Wall-- Maybe this is a bias of mine, but seeing Jon take his place is just gratifying. Besides, even though we can empathize with the wildlings, and grow to like them in many ways, the Wall is set-up as some "true" boundary."

4. Blackwater-- Obviously this was well done, but it seems futile in the grand scheme of the narrative. It's important for many reasons, and highlighted true "bravery" regardless of status, BUT I think it's place in the lore will be a footnote when compared to the true "War" in the series.

All in all, I think it's a testament to the show/books. Even the importance of Blackwater is diminished by the slow but salient trend of the narrative arc with the undead vs. the not undead.

I can't wait to see what will happen when Daenerys finally gets herself (slowly apparently) to Westeros.