‘Game of Thrones’: All 8 Seasons, Ranked From Worst to Best
Winter is no longer coming, but Game of Thrones’ legacy lives on. With The House of the Dragon currently between seasons on HBO and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight still without a premiere date, we can’t help but start thinking about our first foray into Westeros and its political machinations, which showed how power can corrupt even the best-intentioned among us.
For almost all of the 2010s, Game of Thrones dominated the pop-culture conversation as showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss translated George R.R. Martin’s still-unfinished fantasy book series for the screen. The bigger the show got, and the more the TV writers strayed beyond Martin’s books, the harder their task became, as the latter seasons evince. Now that we’ve had time to reflect on the TV show as a whole, here’s how we’d rank all eight seasons.
8. Season 8
By its final season, Game of Thrones had sacrificed careful characterization and mythology-building for slapdash plotting as the show hurtled to a controversial ending.
In it, Jon (Kit Harington) is revealed to be half Targaryen, half Stark, and a true heir to the throne, but it’s Dany (Emilia Clarke) who becomes a tyrannical queen of Westeros after going mad with rage and razing King’s Landing in dragonfire.
Meanwhile, Cersei (Lena Headey) and the Night King (Vladimir Furdik) die in anticlimactic demises, Missandei (Nathalie Emmanuel) and Varys (Conleth Hill) die too abruptly, and Bran (Isaac Hempstead-Wright) is named king in the last head-scratching decision in a season full of them.
Perhaps the worst offense of all? Coffeegate, when, yes, the biggest, most anticipated, most expensive show in the world left modern craft services items in frame during big scenes that became showstoppers for all the wrong reasons.
Martin may be sad that he didn’t beat the TV show to his story’s finish line, but he can console himself with the prospect of almost certainly delivering a more satisfying ending whenever (if ever?) he gets it done.
7. Season 5
To paraphrase Melisandre, the season is dark and full of terrors. Cersei uses the High Sparrow’s (Jonathan Pryce) religious cult to take down the Tyrells, but when you lie down with Sparrows, you wake up with… its ruler forcing you to take a naked walk of shame through the streets.
In the North, Stannis (Stephen Dillane) sacrifices his (adorable) daughter Shireen (Kerry Ingram) to gain power. And Jon, now Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch, fends off the undead in a chilling Hardhome battle that introduces the Night King… only to be killed (or “killed”) by mutineers.
Also, sexual violence rears its unacceptable head for the second season in a row as Ramsay (Iwan Rheon) assaults Sansa (Sophie Turner) on their wedding night.
6. Season 1
Fantasy stories live and die by their world-building, and Game of Thrones’ debut season excels at introducing Martin’s epic story to the screen. As the action picks up, Ned (Sean Bean) becomes King’s Hand and investigates the death of his predecessor and the king himself. His dutiful work backfires, though, as Cersei and Joffrey have Ned executed to hide the Lannisters’ many crimes (and incest). And Viserys’ (Harry Lloyd) alliance with the Dothraki backfires soon after he has Daenerys wed to Khal Drogo (Jason Momoa), as Drogo gives him the crown Viserys so desperately wanted… in molten form.
This was still Game of Thrones in its infancy, and though we needed help telling our maesters apart, we were hooked from the first scene.
5. Season 7
Game of Thrones’ penultimate season benefited from a brisker pace but suffered from chronological issues (and a much-memed question about how White Walkers found the rope to raise a dragon from the bottom of a frozen lake).
With that more streamlined storyline, Westerosi power is consolidated between Team Lannister — which includes Euron Greyjoy (Pilou Asbæk) — and Team Targaryen — which includes Tyrion (Peter Dinklage), Jamie, and the Starks and certainly not Littlefinger (Aidan Gillen), whom Arya (Maisie Williams) kills after he tries to pit her against Sansa.
Jon is along for the ride in more ways than one — he and Dany start hooking up, unaware that they’re aunt and nephew — but his focus remains on the White Walkers. And after capturing a wight, he’s almost able to convince Cersei to stop her war against Dany. Speaking of Dany, she loses one of her scaly children to the Night King, who uses his new ice dragon to breach the Wall.
4. Season 4
There’s a lot to love about Season 4. When Joffrey (Jack Gleeson) is murdered at his wedding — the bridecertainly dodges a bullet, er crossbow arrow, there — Cersei blames the assignation on Tyrion. This results in a trial-by-combat where the Mountain (Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson) smashes in Oberyn’s (Pedro Pascal) pretty face.
That’s not even the most brutal thing that happens. Instead, it’s Tyrion, tired of his father’s constant mistreatment, who “cans” Tywin (Charles Dance) and takes the crown for coldest murder.
We also see the depths of Littlefinger’s (Aidan Gillen) scheming, a spectacular Battle for the Wall, and Arya (Maisie Williams) on her way to faceless assassin status.
Still, there’s one major thing to hate: Jaime (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) and Cersei having sex that, no matter the creators’ intentions, came off as him assaulting her.
3. Season 2
Game of Thrones kicks into gear in Season 2, showing us how blockbuster action and back-room intrigue can cohere.
In it, as the rival heirs to the Iron Throne rally support, we meet supporting characters powerful in strength — like Brienne of Tarth (Gwendoline Christie) — or magic — like Melisandre (Carice van Houten) or Jaqen (Tom Wlaschiha). And the War of the Five Kings explodes in green wildfire at the Battle of the Blackwater. Meanwhile, while the menfolk fight their wars, Sansa, Arya, and Dany start amassing power in other ways. But the real threat emerges in the North, where White Walkers are starting their southward journey.
2. Season 6
As Game of Thrones ventured beyond its source material for the first time in this season, Melisandre resurrects Jon (not that that was a huge surprise, considering Harington didn’t cut his hair and the actors were just a little too cute about it in all of their interviews). Then, Jon journeys back to Winterfell to defeat Ramsay in the frenetic and claustrophobic Battle of the Bastards, and Sansa throws her tormentor to the (literal) dogs.
Speaking of revenge, Arya uses her shape-shifting abilities to serve a slice of revenge pie to Walder (David Bradley), Dany scorches her Dothraki captors and allies herself with House Tyrell and House Martell, and Cersei blows up her enemies in a blast of wildfire and becomes queen at great personal cost.
We also get a heroic death for Hodor (Kristian Nairn) and a major reveal about Jon’s ancestry.
For all the spectacles of Season 7 and Season 8, this was the last spectacular season, in our books.
1. Season 3
In case you’ve forgotten all the reaction videos, Season 3 gave us the Red Wedding, one of the goriest, deadliest, and most ruthless sequences ever televised, as the Lannister-backed Freys get their revenge on Robb (Richard Madden), his mother, his wife for a marriage bargain betrayed. That jaw-dropping moment alone is enough to put this season on top of all the rest forever, but there are other stunning moments to be seen as well.
Arya vows revenge on her family’s enemies, Theon (Alfie Allen) is captured (and, um, dismembered) by Ramsay, Sansa finds an ally in Olenna (Diana Rigg), Jon finds more than an ally in Ygritte (Rose Leslie), and Bran finds he’s a warg. Meanwhile, Dany sets evil warlocks ablaze, and Jaime and Brienne set shippers’ hearts ablaze.
For us, Season 3 is the high point of the series, unburdened by the narrative failures of the succeeding seasons (or those to follow).
Peter Dinklage
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau
Lena Headey
Emilia Clarke
Aidan Gillen
Kit Harington
Sophie Turner
Maisie Williams
Alfie Allen
John Bradley
Gwendoline Christie
Liam Cunningham
Nathalie Emmanuel
Jerome Flynn
Iain Glen
Isaac Hempstead-Wright
Conleth Hill
Kristofer Hivju
Hannah Murray
Carice van Houten
Indira Varma
Rory McCann
Joe Dempsie
Jacob Anderson
Pilou Asbæk
Ben Crompton
Richard Dormer
Staz Nair
Bella Ramsey
Daniel Portman
Richard Rycroft
Rupert Vansittart
Oona Chaplin
Michiel Huisman
Tom Wlaschiha
Iwan Rheon
Natalie Dormer
Michael McElhatton
Jonathan Pryce
Dean-Charles Chapman
Stephen Dillane
Jack Gleeson
Sibel Kekilli
Rose Leslie
Michelle Fairley
Richard Madden
James Cosmo
Mark Addy
Sean Bean
Harry Lloyd
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