Game of Thrones took us all over Westeros and Essos for a full-blown war between the seven kingdoms, a war of conquest by dragons, and the battle against the Others from north of The Wall. We saw a lot of action in that time, but in the end, the story fell flat for a lot of fans. It was easy to cheer on the spectacles each season as the show continued trying to one-up itself, but now that the dust has settled, some of the biggest battles are the ones that don’t hold up to a rewatch. Others are still as epic as the day they aired. Read on for the 10 best battle episodes of Game of Thrones.
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It’s amazing that Game of Thrones was one of the most elaborate and expensive TV shows ever made, and it still needed to choose its battles carefully. The show couldn’t depict non-stop action — not just because it would get boring, but because it was still constrained by a production budget. This list includes some of the most interesting ways they worked around that problem as well as some of the payoffs that made it all worth it. However, I’ve ignored the battles that left fans disappointed, no matter how expensive they were to shoot.
“The Queen’s Justice” — Season 7, Episode 3
Daenerys’ siege of Casterly Rock may not have been the first thing to come to mind when you saw this list, but it’s actually very unique among these battles. We see Daenerys, Tyrion, Missandei, and Varys planning this attack over the legendary Painted Table on Dragonstone. Their words serve as narration as we cut to the action from the perspective of the Unsullied, especially their leader Grey Worm. That includes Tyrion explaining his expectations for the battle even while the reality plays out differently than he anticipated. Casterly Rock is practically abandoned, and they’ve walked right into a feint.
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The episode also features Jaime leading the Lannister assault on Hightower, which is less memorable for the action. However, it gives us our final appearance by Lady Olenna Tyrell — a fan-favorite moment. In addition to trying something new late in the game, I appreciate this episode giving an implicit explanation for why things like travel are sped up so much in the later season. The voice-over format works well at implying time has passed without making us wait.
“Stormborn” — Season 7, Episode 2
The previous episode also gave us something unique for this show — a compelling naval battle. While the threat of fleets is a constant looming threat on this show, we actually see very little combat on the water. One of the big exceptions comes here, when Euron Greyjoy’s fleet attacks the Iron Fleet, controlled by his niece Yara. Euron’s surprise attack kills Yara’s new allies, the Sand Snakes of Dorne, taking one prisoner along with her mother Ellaria Sand and Yara herself. Meanwhile, the fighting triggers Theon so badly that he jumps overboard, abandoning them.
This is an interesting one to revisit now as we await House of the Dragon Season 3, which will kick off with a massive naval battle. It’s easy to imagine how this kind of fighting is so difficult to depict on screen, but it’s always exciting when creators get it right.
“The Spoils of War” — Season 7, Episode 4
Before we leave this early part of Season 7, we need to acknowledge Daenerys’s attack on the Lannister caravan, sometimes referred to as the Battle on the Roseroad. Jaime and Bronn are leading their forces from Highgarden back to King’s Landing with wagons full of gold and plunder in tow, when they are suddenly attacked by a massive Dothraki force led by Daenerys riding her dragon, Drogon. The queen torches much of the loot and the unsuspecting Lannisters flounder in the chaos, but Bronn remembers to go for an experimental anti-dragon weapon called a scorpion and he is able to wound Drogon.
Fans tend to root for Dany and Drogon, but Bronn still comes out as a hero in this battle when he rescues Jaime from his own misplaced confidence. The Kingslayer takes up a lance and charges Drogon on horseback as if he’s jousting, and just before he’s burned to a crisp, Bronn tackles him into the water to protect him. It’s an exciting sequence — so much so that it’s easy to ignore some of the plot holes and contrivances it presents. It’s hard to imagine how the Lannisters were caught unaware by such a large force, for example.
“Battle of the Bastards” – Season 6, Episode 9
The showdown between Jon Snow and Ramsay Bolton outside of Winterfell is generally lauded as the best thing the TV show ever did after running out of book material to adapt. It’s an emotional rollercoaster of mud and blood and vengeance, and it deserves every accolade it’s ever gotten from a technical and theatrical standpoint. It has some story issues as far as northern politics, geography, and other factors, but it’s one of the cases where the spectacle takes your mind off those considerations.
This episode also gets a bonus because it has another stellar action sequence we can’t ignore — the siege of Meereen. Daenerys has just returned to her city as a dragon rider, with a newly won Dothraki army as well. It seems like she will still not be able to stand up to the might of Slaver’s Bay, but she reminds the world not to underestimate the awesome power of dragons. All three of her scaled children swoop down to torch the slaver fleet, securing peace for the region and allowing Dany to sail west at last.
“Baelor” – Season 1, Episode 9
Game of Thrones Season 1 had no pitched battles on a grand scale — only duels, skirmishes, and tightly shot raids. We see armies assembled, banners raised, and lots of strategizing, but when fighting finally breaks out between the Lannister and Stark armies, we see it from the perspective of Tyrion. It’s an ingenious way to avoid shooting a large-scale battle — Tyrion is accidentally knocked unconscious before the first clash, and awakens to find the battlefield littered with corpses. It also works well for Tyrion’s story, which is why I love it so much in hindsight.
In Season 1, Tyrion is left to traverse the length of Westeros with no real force of arms to aid him — only his wits and the promise of the theoretical wealth of his house. This gets him pretty far, as he wins over Bronn who wins his trial by combat at the Eyrie, then he wins over the majority of the wildling tribes who live in The Vale. After all that, he brings these new allies to his father on the battlefront, and Tywin immediately puts them all in the most dangerous position on the front lines, with Tyrion there to lead them. It’s perfect that Tyrion’s stature and luck get him out of this unrealistic duty, setting up his relationship with his family perfectly.
“The Dance of the Dragons” – Season 5, Episode 9
Dany’s story can feel disconnected from the war over in Westeros, at times, and when it’s short on action, it’s really hard to get into. That’s why this episode feels so triumphant — Dany can finally stop politicking with slavers and confront them head on when the Sons of the Harpy start a murderous riot in the Meereenese equivalent of a Colloseum, Daznak’s Pit. While Dany’s loyal fighters scramble to hold off the masked killers, unsure of who is still an ally and who is betraying them, Dany proves once again that she does not rely on any of them for her real strength. She escapes the scene by climbing onto Drogon’s back and flying away, finally becoming a dragon rider in the process.
“Oathbreaker” – Season 6, Episode 3
It feels a bit like cheating to put this episode on the list since we should be talking about battles specifically, but I think there are enough swords drawn here to justify it. The fight at the Tower of Joy is simply too good to ignore, and it seems fair to assume that there were more warriors involved than we saw on screen. It makes sense that the camera would focus on a young Ned Stark and Howland Reed facing down the Kingsguard knights, as that’s what Bran and Bloodraven are focusing on. They witness the whole thing in a vision, thanks to the Weirwood trees.
The swordplay and choreography are excellent, but of cours,e this one really earned its place on the list with its significance to the story. Bran — a child who dreamed of becoming a knight and obsessed over great stories — used his newfound omniscience as a Greenseer to come back and witness his father’s most legendary duel firsthand. In the process, he learned a secret that could change Westerosi history for generations, and upend his family in the process.
It’s worth noting that this episode gives us another moment of non-battle catharsis up north when Jon Snow is resurrected from his murder. His final act as Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch is to execute all the mutineers that killed him, from high-ranking officers like Alliser Thorne to the refugee boy Olly. He then declares that his death absolved him of his oaths, and leaves the Watch.
“Hardhome” – Season 5, Episode 8
Honestly, “Hardhome” might be the best battle on this list, and I think I’m only placing it here because it’s so far removed from the events of the books, and is a logistical nightmare for the plot. Here, Jon Snow leads the Night’s Watch and the Free Folk to the largest settlement north of The Wall, Hardhome, to bring as many people south of The Wall as possible. Not only does he hope to save them from a cruel, wintry death, but he also hopes to stop the White Walkers from turning all these people into wights and adding them to their army of the dead.
The mission goes awry when the Others descend on Hardhome, and humanity is forced into a fight. This battle is easily more fun to watch than the final showdown with the White Walkers in Season 8, or their fight on a frozen lake in Season 7. This is the first time we get confirmation that a Valyrian steel blade will kill a White Walker, and we see how destructive their power to raise their undead soldiers back up really is. We only hear about this fight secondhand in the books, so the show gets points for depicting it at all.
“Blackwater” – Season 2, Episode 9
Many fans love Game of Thrones because they think it’s “low fantasy,” with magical elements minimized to place an emphasis on realism. This interpretation is a little flawed, but even so, the height of medieval-style warfare and drama has to be The Battle of the Blackwater. All of Tyrion’s odd schemes come together at once for a few triumphant surprises in a row, and pampered characters like Joffrey are suddenly faced with the realities of the war they’ve been so enthusiastic about. Meanwhile, Stannis’s camp finally careens into some other storylines, including beloved audience-insert Ser Davos Seaworth, who finds the harsh realities of feudal power hard to swallow.
As an adaptation of A Song of Ice and Fire, this might be Game of Thrones‘ finest moment. It feels like the book has come to life, and the audiobook narrator Roy Dotrice even makes a guest appearance here as the pyromancer, Hallyne. It’s easy to see why so many fans claim this as their favorite episode ever.
“The Watchers on the Wall” – Season 4, Episode 9
Finally, the best battle in Game of Thrones is undoubtedly Mance Rayder’s assault on The Wall at Castle Black in the second-to-last episode of Season 4. It brings Jon Snow’s arc to a brilliant crescendo, and it pays off the megalithic scale of The Wall in ways fans may not even have realized they wanted. While other storylines may feel disconnected at times, this battle easily sends ripples all over Westeros because the audience knows that The Wall protects everything south of it from certain death.
This battle is very different on TV than in Martin’s books, but the setup is still compelling in all the same ways. The party of Wildlings Jon climbed over the wall with attacks Castle Black from the south, which is a relatively undefended position since the Night’s Watch only expects enemies from the north, and The Wall itself protects them there. We see all the defenses the Watch can muster with a 700-foot height advantage, but the show doesn’t hold back on giants and woolly mammoths attacking either. Even Jon’s direwolf Ghost gets in on the fighting — a rare sight as the direwolves were reportedly harder to film than even the dragons.
Game of Thrones may have an unsatisfying ending for some, but as the franchise expands, it gets easier to revisit the high points and appreciate them for what they are. The series is streaming now on Max, along with the first two seasons of House of the Dragon. The new spinoff, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, premieres sometime this year on HBO and Max. House of the Dragon Season 3 is expected in 2026. Martin has no projected release date for the next novel, but the books that he has finished so far are available in print, digital, and audiobook formats.
What’s your favorite battle in Game of Thrones? Let us know in the comments below!
