Ranking the seasons

[Khorkalba]

1 >>> 2 > 3 > 5 > 4

[The hairy bear]

To anyone who has posted their choices over the last 17 pages, don't feel the need to update where 5 goes for you now. We all know its bottom by a long way.

I had the feeling that season 5 would be the worst, but I couldn't have predicted that Dany's Qartheen adventures in S2 could be topped. Now I don't even dare to say that S5's Dorne is the absolute lowest. They could even surprise me again next season.

[YouSnowNothing]

3 > 1 >> 2 >>>>>>>> 4 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 5

As television, standing on its own, season five makes barely any sense. Events transpired without reason or consequence. Characters made bizarre decisions solely to force the plot in certain directions. Motivations and deep character introspections were secondary to "shocking twists", sex and violence. And in some areas, the dialogue, direction, acting, plotting - basic ingredients of a show - have reached diabolical levels. The Dorne story would look exceptionally poor on a CW teen drama. Though some stuff has been done well - I enjoyed pretty much all of Jon's story, Cersei's Walk I think captured the emotion of the book - the missteps and character assassinations have become too numerous. I have decided to no longer follow the show. I will avoid spoilers best I can, and wait it out until Winds of Winter is released. I have far more trust in Martin to deliver logical and interesting stories.

[Orphalesion]

My Ranking:

1st place: Season 2. THe first two seasons of this show were truly magnificent in writing, visuals, direction, acting everything. Season 2 gets the edge over 1 for me, because of Blackwater.

2nd place: Season 1. Losing to Season 2 only because it doesn't contain Blackwater. Otherwise it was magnificent and (imho) Season 1 looked the best, especially King's Landing

3rd place; Season 3 After Season 2, this show soehow lost steam... a lot of events like Jamie's rescue of Brienne were shot i a rather unispired manner, What was supposed to be the climax of the episode was Jamie running in and grabbing Brienne like he went to a drive-thru. Still this season gave us a lot of show!Margaery (who is vastly more entertaining than book Margaery) and Lady Olenna and that was awesome. The Red Wedding was excelent as well, the tension the athmosphere, everything.

4th place: Season 4. Still some great moments. I actually found Ramsay hillarious. I also loved the Purple Wedding, which, just like the Red Wedding, was just awesome all around. However, at the same time a lot of the rest of the seasons just continued the downwards trend from Season 3. There was weird stuff like Yara being absolutely pointless, Brienne and Jaime already being in King's Landing and Lysa siting around all alone in the Eyrie. What happened to all the nobles of the Vale, her guards, her handmaidens, servants? She can't have thrown them all out the Moondoor in the past three years...

Also there was stuff like that infamous Cersei/Jaime scene over Joffrey's dead body, Darth Sansa and Shae, after years and years of genuinely loving Tyrion and Sansa, being forced back into a role that did not make sense for the character as portrayed on the show.

5the place: Seasons 1-4 of Showtime's "The Tudors" Because while not set in Westeros it, in my eyes, is closer to the feel you get from ASoIaF than Season 5 pf Game of Thrones, better written and nicer to look at.

6th place: Season 5 I already did not enjoy ADWD/FFC so I actually hoped the show would streamline that mess a bit. However instead we got that cheesy 90's fantasy movie that was Prone, complete character assasinations for Sansa and Stannis and a confirmation that more Meereen (groan) is on the way. We lost Arianne and the Young Griff and had, in general, not much happening at all.

Hardhome was awesome, but that was all.

[Ibbison from Ibben]

1st - Season 2 - Blackwater, Arya vs Tywin, shadowbaby, Tyrion's Trap, Theon's whole season. Stannis' best season. Weak spots were Dany (which was contained, not affecting the next season), Jon the Idiot, Jaime the Kinslayer.

2nd - Season 1 - Problems were due to lack of money. I have firmly blocked the Pycelle-Ros scene from my mind, so it didn't really happen. Best overall season for plot, because it had the fewest deviations from the book.

3rd - Season 3 - Red Wedding was solid, Jaime/Brienne was great, KL excellent. Best Dany season. Bran and Stannis arcs were very weak, Gendry to Dragonstone was a disaster from a plot standpoint.

4th - Season 4 - Purple Wedding fine. Arya/Hound excellent. Sansa excellent, except for the dress. Meereen OK. Jaime/Cersei relationship terrible - season 4 killed Jaime's whole arc. Many plot holes showing up. Wall was awful except for 409, 410.

5th - Season 5 - KL OK, good Walk of Shame. Arya good. Wall OK, but was rushed due to filler in season 4. Sansa awful, Dorne awful, plot holes everywhere. The stripped down Winterfell plot didn't work. Too many characters acting like idiots just to make the scenes happen.

Plot comes first for me. If the plot doesn't make sense, I can't fully enjoy the other aspects no matter how good they are. I couldn't care less about that wonderful and authentic Icelandic glacier in the background if the story is dull. Concocting a good story and telling it well is what fiction is about.

[Drayzen]

4

1

3

2

[TheAwesomeVargoHoat]

1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

TV shows are suppose to improve season after season. I guess Game of Thrones is the exception.

[Jon Starkgaryen]

1

2

3

4

5

[Apfeljunge]

1, 3, 2, 4, 5

[Tyrion Reek Snow]

2 -> 1 -> 3 -> 4 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------> 5

And I can't imagine it getting any better as the writers will be increasingly departing from the source material, which they have proved they're terrible at.

[Masha]

1>>4>>2>>3>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>5

I loved first season because it was very faithful and it really felt like my favorite book coming to life

4th season I enjoyed greatly, Oberyn was cast perfectly, Tyrion trial was good and the way they dealt with Joffrey, Sansa was pretty good too. The only thing was waiting on the Wall for the attack, which did culminate in the great battle but they really should not have dragged it out so. But really, it didn't have any great annoyances/storylines that pissed me off too much there, other than couple of snafu's but it really didn't bother me too much. Last episode was my favorite GOT season finale of all 5 seasons.

Second season was good too but the whole "WHERE ARE MYYY DRAAAGONS?" thing really put me off there and it was pretty good too. And I really hated Talysa/Robb.

3rd season was annoying to me mostly because I just HAD to FastForward all Theon torture scenes, I couldn't stand them and the Robb/Talysa storyline was killing me.

Do I really need to say why season 5 is the worst? I suspect if it wasn't so utterly depressing with zero let up its like things become worse and worse and then it ended badly. I just felt sad at the end of the season, not excited, angry - just depressed, tired and sad. I kept thinking that life sucks that whole evening!! There was no payoff at the end of the season, just sadness. The whole series is premised on strong feelings toward characters, at this point I have no more strong feelings (angry or excited).

[The King Of Cooked Steak]

To renew the list:

1 - Season 3

2 - Season 4

3 - Season 2

4 - Season 1

5 - Season 5

I just want to read Winds of Winter. Please, George?

[Flayed Starkman]

1>>>4>2>3>>>5

[Lerxst]

Season 1 is the best, season 5 the worst. It pretty much goes in order on my list.

Season 1 had 2 story lines for us to follow - Eddard and Daenerys. That's about a good 20 -30 minutes per character per episode. It gives you a lot to sink your teeth into and enjoy. After that, they started splitting off into so many directions, characters would only get about 6-7 minutes per episode and the whole show got watered down as a result.

[Desert Fox]

4 > 1 > 3 > 2 > 5

I'm surprised to see so many people put 2 near the best. Only the KL scenes and the several Ayra and Twyin scenes are any good. The war of the five kings is poorly explained. Armies just keep moving around without knowing where they are going. Qarth was awful. The wall plot was slow and lacked payoff.

[WingZero]

1>>3>2>>>>4 >>> 5

[Runman86]

4-3-5-1-2 : I think they are all great just like the books. .

[ebevan91]

12345

[Visenya Stark]

After watching season 5:

1

2

4

3

5

[Weeping Sore]

1, 3, 2, 4, 5