Game of Thrones’ final season is only halfway done and yet it has been chock full of jaw-dropping, fist-pumping, tear-wiping moments. And of course, in this age of social media, the reactions to these amazing moments have been swift and abundant. In fact, the social media fervor began long before the show even started, since the fact that it had been nearly two years since the last new episode had fans at a fever pitch.
With that in mind, we crawled the #GameofThrones hashtag to find the biggest moments of the season so far as told by fan reactions. Plus, have you ever wondered which celebrities are just as into Game of Thrones as you are? Look no further because your favorite TV and movie personalities have been all over GoT like Tormund on Brienne.
Note: The following are fan posts—their inclusion does not imply a connection with or endorsement from HBO or DIRECTV.
The Celebs
It isn’t just TV civilians who are on the edge of their seats every Sunday night. Plenty of famous people are getting in on the fun too. Celebs — they’re just like us!
Of course, there is one celebrity whose mind is on another show that airs at the same time.
Episode One, ‘Winterfell’
Season eight kicked off with a quieter episode than many were expecting, but there were quite a few reunions at Winterfell that fans have been waiting a long time for, especially the one between everyone’s favorite siblings (who, it turns out, are actually first cousins).
While Winterfell held the lion’s share of the action, the show also checks in on King’s Landing — and Cersei (Lena Headey) gives us one of her typically amazing lines of dialogue.
She also desperately wants the Golden Company to bring her some elephants and is severely disappointed when she is told they couldn’t make the sea voyage. Well, you can’t have everything, Cers. But props to you for barely being on screen in the first three episodes and still being a terrifying badass.
Back at Winterfell, Sam (John Bradley) was so overcome with grief over learning that Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) killed his father and brother — though seriously, are they really that big of a loss? — that he blurted out to Jon (Kit Harington) that he is actually Aegon Targaryen, heir to the Iron Throne. Oh, and that Dany is his aunt. Oops.
But perhaps the biggest OMG moment of the episode came when Tormund (Kristofer Hivju) met up with Beric Dondarrion (Richard Dormer) at Last Hearth and found a blue-eyed, undead Lord Umber (Harry Grasby) surrounded by pieces of his dead housemates.
Episode Two, ‘A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms’
Episode two, which fans generally regarded as one of the best Game of Thrones episodes in all eight seasons, got off to a solid dramatic start with the trial of Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau). The line of the night definitely goes to Bran (Isaac Hempstead-Wright) and his callback to the pilot episode when he echoes the line Jaime said after pushing Bran out of a window.
But that was just one of many, many great moments this episode, like Daenerys and Sansa Stark’s (Sophie Turner) attempt to make nice even when neither trusts the other as far as she can throw her.
Arya (Maisie Williams) gets a little R&R with Gendry (Joe Dempsie) before the big battle, which is a ‘ship fans have been championing since very early on in the show.
A wonderful scene takes place where a group of the fan-favorites bond over wine while contemplating their (probable) imminent deaths. It leads to one of the most touching and earned moments in eight seasons when Jaime knights Brienne (Gwendoline Christie).
And then the big cliffhanger, which remains a cliffhanger because it’s time to fight some white walkers, is that Jon tells Dany he’s the true heir to the Iron Throne.
Episode Three, ‘The Long Night’
The episode title was not a misnomer. This oversized episode was an exhausting roller coaster of tension, fear, and death. It grabbed a hold of viewers in the opening scene and didn’t let go for 80+ minutes.
The battle waged in full force for half the episode, then it took a breather for an incredible sequence when Arya was trying to silently escape the wights in Winterfell’s library.
And then death. Oh, the death! Thankfully, the major players all made it out alive. But RIP to some of our favorite supporting characters.
When the situation really became dire after the Night King resurrected the dead bodies of all those who were already slain in battle, amid all the carnage was a very moving scene between Sansa and Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) down in the crypt. These two were married. Perhaps there’s something more going on there than mutual respect.
But the moment to end all moments (at least so far and it’ll be hard to top) was when the little girl desperate to be allowed to shoot a bow seven seasons ago showed off why she’s been training to be such a badass assassin all these years. Arya MFin’ Stark took down the Night King like the warrior queen that she is.
Because what do we say to the God of Death? NOT TODAY.
And in what might be the greatest tweets in all of Game of Thrones’ run, rapper T-Pain thought Arya deserved a special reward after defeating the Night King… something which Joe Dempsie, the actor who plays Arya’s lover Gendry, took some tongue-in-cheek exception to.
Episode four, ‘The Last of the Starks’
In the aftermath of the battle, the lost friends and family members were laid to rest, then everyone turned their attention to celebrating their defeat of the Night King. After Dany made Gendry Lord of Storm’s End because he is the last surviving Baratheon, he hilariously ran off to blurt out a proposal at Arya.
But that wasn’t even the most surprising romantic overture of the episode because just a few minutes later, Jaime and Brienne… knighted each other.
Still, the episode quickly turned to Dany wanting to march on King’s Landing immediately. Sansa and Arya thought it would be better to wait so their army could recuperate, but Jon was more than happy to follow his dragon queen on her ill-advised mission. He left Ghost in Tormund’s capable hands, which was actually a pretty thoughtful pet owner choice for a wolf that needs to be in a cold climate, but that doesn’t mean fans weren’t crying over that heartbreaking goodbye.
Lo and behold, Cersei was more than ready for Dany’s invasion. The dragon queen and her fleet were ambushed by Euron Greyjoy (Pilou Asbaek) and lost Rhaegal, in what might be the saddest and most unexpected death so far this season.
Though Missandei’s (Nathalie Emmanuel) beheading by the Mountain is also right up there. It wasn’t unexpected, but it was so sad, even if she did go out as a proud Daenerys supporter.
If these reactions are just a slice of what we’ve seen so far, imagine what social media gold the final three episodes will bring us. Clarke tells Jimmy Kimmel that episode five is even bigger than the Battle of Winterfell.
“Episode five is bigger. Episode five is, I mean, four and five and six, they’re all insane, but like … find the biggest TV you can,” teases Clarke.
Fans are already anticipating a Girl Power siege of King’s Landing, which would be a fairly incredible way to end the show.
If you take umbrage with any of these reactions, take it out on Twitter — that’s basically what it’s there for. There are sure to be even more tweet-worthy reactions as Game of Thrones draws the curtain on the most epic television series ever. Tune in Sunday nights on HBO — maybe your reaction post will be immortalized forever.
DIRECTV Insider brings you our views on what’s happening in streaming, t.v., movies and sports. Companies and persons mentioned are not necessarily associated with and do not necessarily endorse DIRECTV. We will disclose sponsored content on our site when we show it to you, and some of the links on the site may be ads or affiliate links which means DIRECTV may earn compensation from your purchases.
