Game of Thrones set the tone of the show in its very first episode. When Jaime and Cersei catch Bran looking in on them during a compromising situation, the Lannister brother decides the best way to stop the Stark boy from telling the world about his adulterous secret is to throw Bran from a very tall window. It can also be argued that this moment is what leads to much of the fighting that ravages the Stark and Lannister families and the whole kingdom in the seasons to come, but as Jaime says, "The things I do for love." What a way to introduce a character.

The first season was brutal for Daenerys — she was sold off by her own brother to marry a man she doesn't know, suffered serious abuse, and then she lost her husband and unborn child. And yet, she survived all of that pain, put her catatonic husband out of his misery by smothering him to death, and then lit a funeral pyre which she proceeded to walk straight into. Not only did she survive the flames, but she came out with three dragon babies. Respect.

After the red witch and Stannis Baratheon have a sexual encounter, Melisandre becomes pregnant. No weirdness there, except that she enters her third trimester in what seems like a day, and when she gives birth, the "baby" is actually a fully grown shadow man who resembles Stannis. In a supremely creepy scene, the monster slides into Renly's tent where he kills the young king and eliminates one more contender for the Iron Throne.

Tyrion isn't usually thought of as a fighter, but he put his brains to good tactical use as the acting Hand of the King, and he defended the Lannister army in King's Landing against Stannis' mighty fleet. It was the show's first use of the deadly wildfire and the first time the series dedicated a full episode to one location. The episode — and battle — quickly became one for all others after it to live up to.

After Dany trades one of her dragons for an army of 8,000 Unsullied warriors, she shows all of Astapor what a boss she is. Not only does she speak Valyrian for the first time to the slaver, who had previously been insulting her in the language, she also commanded her fire-breathing child to kill that rude dude, proving once and for all that she's the only real mother of dragons. She then went ahead and ordered the Unsullied to free every slave they could find and offered them their freedom, though all chose to stay and fight for the Targaryen khaleesi. Her commitment to ending slavery also earns her a new moniker to add to her already very long title: "Breaker of Chains."

The trials by combat in this show never disappoint, but for fans of the books, few one-on-one battles were more highly anticipated than the one between the Viper and the Mountain. Wielding a spear with a tip covered in poison, the charming and deadly Prince Oberyn Martell used his graceful, acrobatic skills with his weapon to tear down an opponent at least twice his size. His battle against the Mountain was personal — the knight had previously killed Martell's sister and children — but before he could claim victory, the Mountain has one last burst of energy which he uses to crush the Dornish lord's skull with his bare hands.

Tywin wasn't a great dad. Actually, he was a terrible father, who was willing to destroy his own son's life. So when Tyrion confronted the Lannister patriarch one last time before he escaped King's Landing, most of the audience was happy to see the imp had his crossbow with him. It was a fitting end for Tywin to be killed by the son he treated like crap while he was using the privy.

It had long been known that Brienne was a warrior not to be messed with, but to see the lady knight go up against one of the more famous fighters in Westeros, and win was definitely an exciting moment. However, though the sword-clashing sequence is something to behold, the fact that they were both fighting over Arya's safety made the win ultimately bittersweet for viewers who had grown to like both characters. Luckily when they met again in Season 7 their mutual respect (and love for their murderer baby, Arya) shines through.

Though Game of Thrones has not shied away from killing off plenty of great central characters in the past (R.I.P. half the Stark family), it was still a huge shock when the Lord Commander of the Night's Watch and everyone's favorite bastard died shortly after winning an epic battle when his own men mutinied. It was season five's biggest cliffhanger, and his return from the dead in the sixth season might just make him the Prince that Was Promised (a popular Westeros prophesy), or have other consequences for the final season.

After Ramsay Bolton took Winterfell, became the Warden of the North, and raped Sansa, it was only a matter of time before Jon Snow defended his Stark family legacy. This much-anticipated battle reportedly took 25 days to film, and it is quite simply an amazing feat of choreography and storytelling. Not to mention it ends with Sansa feeding Ramsay to his hounds.

After Cersei's walk of shame, it seemed like only a matter of time before the conniving Queen Mother would destroy her enemies. In order to eliminate the High Sparrow and her longtime rivals for the throne, the Tyrells, she went ahead and blew up the Great Sept with her handy supply of wildfire. Afterward, she had the Iron Throne all to herself — but it came at the expense of her youngest son's life.

Arya went all Titus Andronicus in the Season 6 finale when she used her face-stealing skills to brutally get her revenge on Walder Frey and his family for the part they played in the Red Wedding. Appearing to Frey as a maid, she gave the backstabbing Lord of The Twins a freshly made meat pie — the secret ingredient of which was the old man's sons. Arya revealed her identity right before she slit hit throat. She took care of the rest of the family while wearing Walder's face in the Season 7 premiere.

In a series full of amazing badass women, Olenna Tyrell is the OG. After Jaime took her ancestral home, High Garden, he offered her a kind death — a glass of poison. After gulping down the deadly drink, the matriarch revealed that she was the one who killed his oldest son, King Joffrey. She also gave a slight knowing smile as she told Jaime to tell Cersei, "I want her to know it was me."

While this event may have been heavily foreshadowed (earlier in the episode Jon Snow and company are attacked by an undead polar bear), it was still a chilling moment when the dead dragon's eye opened and a blue iris was revealed.

As amazing as these moments are, there's surely more badassery to come in Season 8.