Despite the limitations of a television budget, Game of Thrones has some notably impressive visual effects:
- The reveal of the dragons in "Fire and Blood" is fantastic.
- In "Blackwater", when a massive wildfire explosion (kind of like Greek fire, only emerald green) literally disintegrates the middle of an invading fleet! The effects are incredibly awe-inspiring.
- That White Walker at the end of Season 2? It's not CGI.
- The giant that shows up in the first episode of Season 3 is brilliant.
- In the final scene of "Walk of Punishment", you may catch yourself wondering "Did they actually cut the actor's hand off?"
- The closing aerial shot in "And Now His Watch Is Ended" of Dany's army of Unsullied leaving following the Sack of Astapor, her three dragons flying in the foreground.
- The closing shot of "The Climb": Jon and Ygritte making out on top of the amazingly rendered top of the world.
- In the final scene of "Second Sons" (noticing a pattern here?): Sam stabs a White Walker with an obsidian dagger, causing it to turn to ice and shatter.
- And Season 3 finishes off with a rapid zoom out into the sky, showing Daenerys surrounded by hundreds of recently freed slaves paying homage to her, finishing with a dragon flying into the camera.
- In Season 4, the dragons are more impressive than ever. You can practically feel the texture of their scales.
- The makeup work for Joffrey's death. You'll probably feel some sympathetic pain no matter how much you hated him.
- If you thought the Eyrie looked amazing in Season 1, wait 'til you see it in Season 4.
- The giants and mammoth in "The Watchers on the Wall".
- The scene from the Season 5 showing the harpy statue at the top of the pyramid in Meereen sliding down and slamming into the ground, complete with stonework flying and the statue's wing getting bent as it hits the ground. Truly a sight to behold, that is.
- "Hardhome":
- The White Walker attack on Hardhome. All of it, but especially the wights, which look incredibly frightening as they rampage across the Wildling village.
- Also, Wun Wun stomping on several of the wights is incredible to behold.
- Jon's duel with one of the White Walkers looks impressive, which culminates with him shattering the Walker with a single blow from Longclaw.
- Similar to "Hardhome", the last ten minutes of "The Door", particularly when Leaf commits a Heroic Sacrifice by baiting a lot of wights close enough to set off one of her bombs. The explosion looks incredible.
- The final two episodes of Season 6, "The Battle of the Bastards" and "The Winds of Winter", contain some of the most jaw-dropping special effects the show has ever produced:
- In "The Battle of the Bastards", the clash of the Bolton and Stark armies looks incredible, as well as the knights of the Vale joining the fight to rout the Boltons.
- Again in "The Battle of the Bastards", the entire battle for Meereen. The dragons in particular have never looked better.
- In "The Winds of Winter", the destruction of the Great Sept of Baelor by wildfire looks incredible and frightening at the same time.
- Also in "The Winds of Winter", Daenerys' newly-acquired fleet together with that of the Greyjoy siblings' sailing towards Westeros and accompanied by Dany's dragons looks amazing (which is made even more impressive by the music that is playing, titled "The Winds of Winter"
).
- "Stormborn": The makeup and prosthetics for Jorah's greyscale surgery. Extensive work was done to create diseased skin that could be cut and bleed pus.
- The finale of Season 7, "The Dragon and the Wolf", displays the collapse of the Wall at the hands of the Night King and his new steed, an undead Viserion. Between the eerie and intense blue flames Viserion now breathes, the crumbling of such a massive structure that's stood for thousands of years and the sheer size of the Army of the Dead, the entire scene is a visual spectacle that is just as awe-inspiring as it is chillingly terrifying.
- The Battle of Winterfell in Season 8 is full of beautiful and impressive effects, especially when dragons fly in the moonlight.
- The destruction of King's Landing in Season 8. Honorable mention for the scene in which the Hound and the Mountain fight in the staircase of the Red Keep, while we see Drogon flying above them.
