Top TV Memes: The Best Meme Formats From 'Game Of Thrones'

Game of Thrones is an HBO show and one of the most popular series of all time. Amongst the casual incest, the plot starts out following the popular A Song of Ice and Fire novels by George R. R. Martin and exists within a fantasy world where civil war and creatures such as White Walkers threaten daily life. A fan favorite for many years, this show went on for eight seasons before an ending that most are still recovering from.

As such a popular series, Game of Thrones predictably has given us many different meme formats to work with. Appealing to a more R-rated audience among the Lord of the Rings crowd, there are a lot of the standard fantasy tropes to work with in memes, as well as 73 episodes of content. First airing in 2011, this series has grown up with the internet and has evolved through many stages of meme culture, from Advice Animals to Twitter jokes. Here are some of the most influential episodes for memes.

Most Popular Memes: Season 8, Episode 6: "The Iron Throne"

There’s just no avoiding this one. Game of Thrones fans know what it’s like to be disappointed. It’s now just past the two-year anniversary of the finale of May 2019, which ended in a very shocking (and infuriating) twist. So far, no one is willing to come forward and defend the integrity of the show in regards to the ending, and fans were all enraged. Most recent memes from this show came from its final episode due to this reaction, but by giving it the title of the producer of the most popular memes, we’re not condoning watching it. You can, but you will sustain a significant amount of confusion and emotional damage that you can’t adequately prepare for through the warnings of an online article about memes.

The fact that the internet is so mesmerized by human suffering is one reason why the Game of Thrones finale has become one of the most memed episodes of television in existence. There are a lot of very popular memes that contend with the infamy of this episode, like Winter is Coming or Daenerys Smiling. Throughout this episode, there were a lot of moments that become memes (like "Bran the Broken" or "Brienne of Tarth Writing"), but perhaps one of the most famous was the random water bottle found in a shot, which sparked both theories about Game of Thrones taking place in an apocalyptic future and more general annoyance at the way the ending was handled.

Most Meme Potential: Season 7, Episode 1: "Dragonstone"

In this episode, there’s a significant amount of casual murder and the fantasy version of political turmoil, just as seen in the rest of the show. But as Arya (Maisie Williams) journeys to assassinate the queen, she stumbles across Ed Sheeran in the woods. It’s about as weird as it sounds. His main role is to loudly sing a song, which now has been made into remixes and is adored by his millions of fans. The Game of Thrones fandom appeared to be unamused, however. Seeing one of the music world’s biggest stars pulled quite a few people out of the show and left them wondering what exactly the point of this was. Thus, the memes were created and went forth in protest.

The scene in which Sheeran appears is a strange one, as Arya approaches a single voice in the woods just to find Ed Sheeran, dressed in armor and a cape, leading a group of other soldiers in a song. He proceeds to sit in socially awkward silence for almost the entire scene, and thus begins his next role — to sit next to Arya and conveniently have his face featured in every possible shot.

This created a meme that transcended the boundaries of the show itself and confused everyone online, and eventually, even people who didn’t watch Game of Thrones were angry about Sheeran’s cameo. Most notably, the critics included Hodor (Kristian Nairn), who is responsible for many memes himself. Even now, after the finale of the show, this is perhaps one of the most notable moments and can still make some great jokes, because wasn’t life easier when we could be angry about a famous musician on the show rather than witnessing Daenerys’s nervous breakdown or various war crimes?

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