Welcome to the Hall of Fame of Game of Thrones GIFs, where we celebrate the best mini-moments in the (Known) world.

And if you think this is good, check out our Just a Game of Thrones series.

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The Hall of Fame of Game of Thrones GIFs

(The HoF of GoT GIFs)

From #703: “The Eyes of an Honest Man”

“Years from now, should humanity survive, children of the realm will be regaled with the long and bloody tales of ‘How a Night’s Watch Recruit Became King of the North’ and ‘How a Lannister Became Hand to Daenerys Targaryen,’ each story built upon punctiliously crafted narratives and adorned with ribbon-tied metaphors, with so many interwoven characters they won’t remember all the names.
 
What their young minds won’t realize, however, is just how drunk everyone was at the time — on wine, on revenge, on lust, on greed. Honestly, when one takes the time to articulate the specific who’s and why’s of how those assorted narratives fell into a coherent place, it almost sounds like nonsense.”

The Last Targaryen:

Look at Them, Cheering for Greyjoy:

You Look A Lot Better Brooding:

The Long Farewell:

Kiss From A Rose:

 

From #702: “Not Invincible, But Powerful”

“Every warrior proved strong/brave/lucky enough to still be in The Game at this late a stage has beaten near impossible odds to get where ziry is, so, with only eleven episodes left, it’s downright narratively responsible to remind us or — or reveal for the first time — where exactly these various combatants were held when dipped by their respective creators into the river Styx.”

The Lion and The Scorpion:

My Weakness:

Bite Down:

The North Is Yours:

Reek Overboard:

 

From #701: “The Gear Wars”

“Now, as we embark on the penultimate season of this last vestige of monoculture, one can’t help but notice those ‘indications of contrivance’ growing more and more apparent; those ‘manifestations of design.’ Whether it was Jon Snow using his first lines of the premiere to casually remind everyone that “dragonglass kills White Walkers. It’s more valuable to us than gold,” or Samwell Tarly all but turning to the camera to announce “This is important” upon discovering that Dragonstone — gasp — has a mountain of dragonglass beneath it, our supposedly coruscating welcome back to Westeros was nonetheless steeled by moments of grinding exposition and grating rote.

The unignorable hum of the story’s gears churning ever louder in the background as they grapple towards the finish line…”

Leave One Wolf Alive:

Enemies Everywhere:

You’re a Lucky Man:

Logs Burning:

Gray-scare:

Home Sweet Dragonstone:

 

From #610: “Goodbye, Norma Jean”

“The simple but powerful embodiment of hours of care and precision, the candle doesn’t fizzle wildly like a fuse when lit. It doesn’t have a Jack Bauer-esque countdown to metronome crescendoing anxiety, it doesn’t even crow with a Tell-Tale tick. Instead, with hypnotic resilience, it ever-so-slowly melts away, simultaneously fighting its denouement while gorging itself on the very flame consuming it.

Like a certain newly-crowned queen, it’s a tragic figure – aware from its onset of how, exactly, its prophesied to perish, yet thirsty for the empowering flame just the same.

And, like an histortically beloved British knight once eulogized after another famous royal tragedy#, a candle can burn out long before its legend ever will…”

King Tommen the Freefallin’:

Sam = Hufflepuff:

My Name Is Arya Stark:

A Pretty Picture:

Hand of the Queen:

The Prince that was Promised:

The King of the North…

…Protector of the Realm…

…Long May She Reign:

 

From #609: “It’s a Bit Abstract, Other People Dying”

“In previous penultimate episodes and budget-slaying set pieces, Game of Thrones treated us to spectacles of wonder like ‘magic green fire vs. an entire fleet of boats,’ and ‘horde of Wildlings vs. a 700-foot ice wall,’ and ‘ragtag band of humans vs. army of sub-zero zombies.’

In ‘Battle of the Bastards’ though, all that dissonance-injecting fantasy was mercilessly flayed away – forcing us to instead focus on, torturously, only the most brutal capabilities of man.

Via beautiful tracking shots and battle choreography meant for the silver screen, we were prescribed to bear witness as these poor animals fought not just each other, but the tragic randomness of chaotic chance intrinsic to all late-medieval warfare…”

Tell Your People What Happened Here:

A Double-Envelopment…

A Pincer Move…

Game of H.O.R.S.E.:

One Last Giant Party, for Old Times’ Sake:

Puttin’ Up Banners:

 

From #608: “They Can’t All Be Zingers”

“The house words of Some Songs Considered, Random Nerds’ music column, is “a column that recognizes they can’t all be zingers and truly appreciates the ones that are.”

Now, I bring this up because while Just a Game of Thrones rarely touches on the critical merit of individual episodes – choosing instead to celebrate the more philosophical and poetic aspects of the show – I feel compelled to address the cache of wildfire in the room:

Namely, that ‘No One,’ wasn’t actually very good…”

Westerosi Kissing:

I Choose Violence:

Everyone Wants to Hit a Fookin’ Squire:

It’s Yours…

…It Will Always Be Yours:

Payless Shoes:

It Will All Be Over Soon:

 

From #607: “The Broken Man Talking Life”

“‘I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.

I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary.

I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion.’ — Henry David Thoreau, Walden”

Queen Toadstool:

Does It Move or Speak?

…Snow:

The Strength of 10 Mainlanders:

A Game of Chicken with the Blackfish:

Are You With Me? Are You REALLY With Me?

The Fox Axe and the Hound:

 

From #606: “Why We Did the Things We Did”

“We’ve already seen Bran come to learn his father didn’t, in fact, beat Arthur Dayne, Sword of the Morning, like the legends say#. We’ve already seen, through the eyes of Arya and via Lady Crane’s troupe, what false motives the common folk of the realm believe caused the actions that have shaped their lives#. But now, after ‘Blood of My Blood,’ we as the viewers of Game of Thrones are starting to realize for ourselves that the various stories we’re being told – about who these characters are and why they do they things they do – are full of those same kinds of lies.

In fact, there’s a chance almost everything we know about this Song of Ice and Fire is one giant, flaming lie.

Or, at the very least, a gross mischaracterization of events…”

Coldhands Luke:

We Belong Together, All of Us:

Threading the Needle:

Jaime Lannister, White Knight:

Good God, that’s King Tommen’s Music!

Just Hold On, We’re Going Home:

My Uncle’s Back and You’re Gonna Be in Trouble:

Steven Spielberg Targaryen:

 

From #605: “Holding the Door, Breaking Everything Else”

“With primary season officially wrapping up and the party conventions right around the corner, the timing of this episode feels especially prescient. Between the candidate stumping and PR spin, the ‘cable news’-esque political theater, and the White Walkers-as-a-result-of-a-xenophobic-arms-race big reveal, “The Door” waded into some of the wonkiest waters this show has dared submerge itself in so far.

Out in Meereen, we have emerging-leader Tyrion channeling his inner Ben Rhodes and tapping Red Priestesses to spread the Gospel of Dany to the common folk. Up in The North, we see the grassroots Starks brainstorming campaign slogans – “The North Remembers!” – and talking about House Karstark like it’s a vulnerable swing state. Over in Braavos, the conflicted Arya is being told she’s too much of an insider to ever be considered anything other than the Establishment Candidate.

However, it’s out on the Iron Islands where election fever is really heating up…”

Throw Them Bows:

It Was You!

#ImWithHer:

What Is Dead May Almost Never Die:

Should I Tell You the Name of the One Who Spoke?

The Walking Bran:

Team Stark Jerseys:

That One with the Beard…

Leave Me:

“Rosebud.”

 

From #604, “The Power of Family (and Fire)”

“After 6 seasons of warring families and competing governing systems and evolving societal beliefs, we’re (known) worlds away from where we started, yet there’s an uncanny reminiscence about it all. We always knew that ‘to go forward we must go back,’ but between the Lannister Twins’ small council scheming and Daenerys Targaryen supernaturally emerging out of a fire to establish her Khaleesi-dom, you’d be forgiven for feeling like, to paraphrase Dany, we’ve been here before.

But as the High Sparrow has been teaching Queen Margaery, dedicated and laborious time – dozens of hours, in fact – has gone into cobbling this redolent quality.”

Family Values Tour ’16:

12 Days a Slave:

Haircut Twins!

How You Like Them Apples?

Sorry About the Food…

Hot Mama:

 

From #603, “Are You There God, It’s Me GRRM”

“Jon Snow is shivering, half-remembering and half-reliving Olly, the sweet cherub of Castle Black, plunging a knife into his heart when Melisandre appears in the doorway and, astonished then reignited, flings herself to her knees in front of him and asks inspiritedly, ‘Where did you go? What did you see?’

Jon, still shaking, looks at her apologetically and with a marked remoteness replies:

‘Nothing. There was nothing at all.'”

Bringing Sexy Back:

Iron Man v. Captain America and Bucky:

The Stallions that Mount the World:

Hot In Meereen:

The Twin Pillars of the World:

Which Name Would You Like a Girl to Speak?

Last Season’s Fashion:

 

From #602 “Guns (and Messiahs) on the Table”

“With a backstory as dense as most AP History textbooks, Game of Thrones likes to masquerade as a ‘history’ of a world rather than a fictional story, and its creators have been more than happy to use that as an excuse for why bad things happen to good people. It’s fine that characters are getting tortured/raped/immolated because this is the (fake) real world and in the (fake) real world, things like that (fake) really happen.

But now, with more and more red herring protagonists (possibly) getting knocked off the board, Game of Thrones is being forced to reveal itself as the epic story it really is.

‘Bad luck’ can only go so far in a narrative before it becomes ‘bad storytelling.’”

Warging Out:

Pensive Meera:

Giant Party!

When Your Friend Wants to Dance with Dragons…

Arya “Tyler Durden” Stark:

Snow is Risen, Alleluia:

 

From #601, “Riddles and Red Women”

“In a room sit three great men, a king, a priest, and a rich man with his gold. Between them stands a sellsword, a little man of common birth and no great mind. Each of the great ones bids him slay the other two.

‘Do it,’ says the king, ‘for I am your lawful ruler.’ ‘Do it,’ says the priest, ‘for I command you in the names of the gods.’ ‘Do it,’ says the rich man, ‘and all this gold shall be yours.’

So tell me – who lives and who dies?”

Cersei’s Reaction Face:

Dany’s Reaction Face:

Sansa and Theon’s Embrace:

Blind Arya’s Beatdown:

Melisandre’s Big Reveal

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Thank you for swinging by the Hall of Fame of Game of Thrones GIFs – we’ll keep this updated each week as the season goes along.

Remember to check out the words that surround the fun moving pictures with our Just a Game of Thrones series, a column singing backup vocals on the Song of Ice and Fire.