Tonight, at a live podcast ceremony co-hosted by Game of Owns, the winners of the Watchers on the Wall Awards were announced. The best of Game of Thrones Season 5 was debated and celebrated, and our readers made their opinions known with their thousands of votes.
Without further ado,
The Winners List!
Best Episode: “Hardhome” Written by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, Directed by Miguel Sapochnik
Best Actress: Lena Headey as Cersei Lannister
Best Actor: Stephen Dillane as Stannis Baratheon
Best Supporting Actor: Alfie Allen as Reek/Theon Greyjoy
Best Supporting Actress: Kerry Ingram as Shireen Baratheon
Best Guest Actor: Ciarán Hinds as Mance Rayder
Best Guest Actress: Birgitte Hjort Sørensen as Karsi
Best Quote: “You will find little joy in your command, but with luck you will find the strength to do what needs to be done. Kill the boy, Jon Snow. Winter is almost upon us. Kill the boy, and let the man be born.” – Maester Aemon
Funniest Quote: “Fewer.” – Stannis, Grammar King of Westeros
Best Special Effects Scene: With Jon at sea, the Night’s King raises the dead of Hardhome
Best Action Scene: Jon battles a White Walker one-on-one at Hardhome
Best Death Scene: The sacrifice of Shireen Baratheon
Best Comedic Scene: Stannis quietly corrects the grammar of the Night’s Watch
Best Dramatic Scene: The Night’s King raises the dead at Hardhome
The live online ceremony via YouTube:
The complete final round polling results are as follows:
Best Episode:
Best Actress:
Best Actor:
Best Guest Actress:
Best Guest Actor:
Best Supporting Actor:
Best Supporting Actress:
Best All-Around Quote:
Funniest Quote:
Best Death Scene:
Best Special Effects Scene:
Best Comedic Scene:
Best Dramatic Scene:
Best Action Scene:
We gave away a few prizes to our readers our well!
Congratulations to our giveaway winners:
thornofhighgarden – Winner of a Bran & Hodor Dark Horse Figure
Nymeria Sand – Winner of a Watchers on the Wall T-Shirt
Jeb – Winner of a Three-Eyed Raven Mini-kit
Rastafarian_Targaryen – Winner of a Longclaw Mini-kit
We’re still accepting entries in our Game of Thrones Steelbooks Season 1 & 2 Giveaway until 12PM EDT tomorrow! Make a comment in the LIVE Awards post in order to enter.
Hodor
Congratulations to all winners! Great choices!
Wtf! I wasn’t able to watch it live and you posted the winners ABOVE the video? Could you please COVER YOUR SPOILERS Thank you! Just kidding, thanks for putting this together. I’m going to watch it now, I was decorating the house for Halloween and missed the live airing, cheers
Yes, thanks for posting the youtube video. I’m glad I’ll get to see it. 🙂
Stannis was at least more than Mannis enough to make a lasting impression here. I salute you, rightful king. Rest in peace.
I love that Stannis is giving everyone the finger in his chart.
I feel as if the majority of the votes for Best Comedic Scene have been unjustfully been dumped on what’s a quote – not the scene. If you think that the scene that won was revolving around Stannis correcting grammar, than I don’t know what to say. You have a setpiece (the Night’s Watch hall), the editing clearly cuts the piece of film so you know the beginning and ending of the scene and there’s a clear purpose to the scene, namely:
So essentially, the best comedic scene is Jon trying to rally the Night’s Watch to go to Hardhome. THAT SURE WAS COMEDIC.. NOT. This is not something you can call subjective: “To me it was more about Stannis correcting the Night’s Watch”. No, this scene had a narrative purpose for Jon and the Night’s Watch story arc and thus it wasn’t about Stannis correcting grammar – which you could call a tangent from the scene and thus a quote.
Sure, that quote by Stannis was comedy gold, but don’t forget that it’s jus that: a quote – an excerpt from a scene. If you want to credit it as a scene that showcases Stannis’ character, than that’s not this scene. It’s a scene in which he shows some character, but that wasn’t what the scene was about. The scene in S2, where he was dictating a letter, muttering about how he never “loved” his brothers. That’s a scene in which the very purpose is showcasing Stannis’ character and “I never loved my brothers” is a quote.
Get it through the system next time. Stannis winning with Fewer twice is an offense to film scholars.
Surprised that the Night’s King raising the dead won the special effects award by so many votes. I didn’t even really think of it as a special effects scene, just a dramatic scene. I thought Drogon in the pit was FAR more impressive special-effects wise.
Also really thought Kit and Ian would win actor and supporting actor this year! Oh well. Glad to see Lena getting some love though!
No wins for my bear, but very well deserved winners, all! Especially pleased with Alfie’s win (and look how close the race for 2nd was!)
Brendon,
And I was surprised at how close the Daznak’s scene was to Hardhome. The dragon scenes did not seem as seamless to me as all of the action at Hardhome. Even the quiet moments with Wun-wun in the longhall were more believable/realistic (if such a term can be used in this context) than the climbing on the dragon stuff. Huh.
Ashara D,
I absolutely agree. Everything at Hardhome was blockbuster level and insanely well done. I wasn’t arguing that though. I was arguing that I don’t think the raising of the dead was even very much of a special effects scene, besides the extension of the crowds on the sides and to the back, which isn’t very impressive to me compared to Drogon (or Wun-Wun, or the wights falling off the cliff.)
I didn’t have as many problems with the Drogon CGI as some did though. Besides one very awkward looking shot when it was close-up on Dany during flight, I thought everything looked fairly excellent. Especially Drogon’s arrival, Drogon roasting Harpies, Drogon getting stabbed, and Drogon roaring at Dany.
Except for Lena, all the awards went to the North!
Awesome work you guys this was such a cool thing you did!
I think the winners of these awards should be made aware because these awards come directly from the most active fanbase of GoT.
So glad Lena got her win because she has been such an amazing Cersie all these years and that walk of shame she just killed it.
Im satisfied with the overall results. Especially the guest actress. Loved the wilding chieftess.
No close run categories at all this year!
Thanks for doing it, always entertaining.
Ser Oromis Locke,
It’s all semantics now, the time to educate is before the vote, no point afterwards – just like politics once a winner is declared, its over – until the next vote. Every category was quite decisive so its pointless to really argue the results, even if they don’t make sense (to you 🙂
The best you can do it offer to help setup the ‘rules’ for next year.
Stephen Dillane is a brilliant actor. I like that he doesn’t do hardly any interviews either, though it would be nice if he realised he has a HUGE fan base <3
Ser Oromis Locke,
Yeah. I didn’t understand why it won as not only best comedic quote but “scene” too. Then again, there are so many Stannis super-fans it shouldn’t surprise. I find the Tyrion quote that was in the running to be funnier than a mere grammar correction but it is what it is :)Thanks WOTW peeps for hosting this, it was fun!
Yeah the only thing I had against was Stannis taking Best comedic Scene.
Qoute? Sure, but that wasn’t really a scene too me.
Oh well this is nitpicking.. Glad with the other results!
Brendon,
If Kit couldn’t win it this year, I don’t see how he ever will . Well, maybe now that Stannis is off the show. For some reason there are just too many die-hard Stannis fans it wouldn’t seem to matter how great anyone else is in the season, they’d still vote for him. After all he did come in second place so yeah, maybe next year 🙂
Best comedic scene:Tyrion and Jorah being captured by pirates. Echo!
Best special effects scene: Drogon in the pit, by a long shot. The dead waking up, although brilliant, had no special effects. The scene when the Harpys ambush the Unsullied in the alley was incredible. Worth noting.
Ser Oromis Locke,
Exactly. There is nothing subjective about what constitutes a scene. At least, not so subjective that a single line by Stannis in a scene in which he he has nothing else to do could be claimed to be a scene unto itself. As you said, what technically happened here is that the dramatic scene in which Jon rallies the Night’s Watch to save the wildlings at Hardhome, with a brief comedic aside at the beginning by Stannis, has won Best Comedic Scene. It was a great line, of course! That’s why it won Best Quote. It has as much place in the Funniest Scene category as in the Best Episode category.
Anyway, aside from that little thing, these awards were great fun 🙂
Sorry I missed it live.
I honestly would’ve voted it for Worst Special Effect Scene. It was the most ambitious of the season, I’ll grant you that… but it didn’t live up to its ambition. Everything looked amazing until Dany interacted with the CG creature. That’s very tricky to do right… and sadly, they didn’t. Daenerys flying looked like it belonged in an 80’s movie. Even my parents, who are not exactly VFX savvy, winced when Drogon took flight. Which is sad, because it’s the dramatic point of the whole scene and the episode.
Very happy about Dillane and Allen. Just found out that Sorensen will be in Westworld. Its gonna be alright today.
That is simply not true. Unless what you saw was a hundred guys at a Northern Irish quarry and Richard Blake in unconvincing Night’s King makeup, I assure you there were plenty of special effects in that scene, such as the sea storm, the ships rocking, the background of the mountains around Hardhome, the thousands of extras, the blue eyes on all of them and most impressive of all the extensive CG enhancements on the Night’s King to make him look more icy and otherworldy (in comparison, look back at how shitty he looked in season four, where they only airbrushed his makeup). All those eerie translucencies in this Hardhome scene, that make him look like he’s made of ice? That cannot be achieved without special effects. Take a look at Imagine Engine’s VFX reel; for all intents and purposes, Richard Blake and the makeup served as reference, more than anything else. It was almost a CG replacement. Also, you can see some of what they did in the scene
” rel=”nofollow”>the VFX reel by El Ranchito, who took care of most of the Hardhome setpiece.
Rygar,
Nope, she will be in Vinyl.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinyl_(TV_series)
Another actress from Borgen will be in Westworld (Sidse Babett Knudsen).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westworld_(TV_series)
I demand a recount!
J/K
Well done, congrats to all, enjoy your prizes you fortunate few!
Luka Nieto,
Oops, that comment is a bit broken. If a moderator could fix the code so that the video appears properly, I’d very much appreciate it. Though I don’t know what I did wrong.
I hate to be this guy, but that was super boring.
How are you all feeling this morning? Any headaches? 😉
I found it very interesting that what overwhelmingly affected us as fans/viewers was mostly stuff that is not (yet, at least) in the books! The Hardhome scene and Shireen’s burning/Stannis’ death.
I just re-read AFFC and ADOD in the Boiled Leather version putting them together chronologically. It really made me realize what Stephan Dillane and Kerry Ingram (along with D&D) did with Stannis and Shireen. Those characters are not nearly as interesting/wonderful in the books as they are in the show. And Hardhome so far, hasn’t even been seen! For all the complaints about Dorne (and they are valid!), D&D have done some truly amazing and brilliant work.
I do hope they are aware of these awards, coming from such hard-core and hard-to-please fans!
Thanks for putting it all together!
I agree! Maybe next year… 😉 Kit was amazing this season!!
Congrats to all winners (Dillane, Allen, Lena…) and readers!
No headache, though my mouth is very dry. Morning-after-beer mouth is not pretty.
Matt,
If you hate to be that guy, then don’t be that guy!
I’m so happy Alfie won! And Hardhome deserves everything it got <3
Interesting night
Congrats to all the winners, all well deserved. But for me, it is Karsi all the way and I am going to let her know. Maybe she will stop by and say a thanks herself. That would be awesome!!!
Edit: I did it, I let her know. If you want to see on Twitter, follow me at @LadyFionavar I asked her to please make a post here. *holds breath*
thanks for putting this up!
Greatest torture of the evening? My little mountain town’s liquor store doesn’t carry Brewery Ommegang and driving 2 hours to the big city to hopefully find some limited edition bottles just doesn’t seem very practical. So I’m just jealous, basically. Good times drinking and chatting about the show, nothing wrong with that. Heed not those who would diminish your joy. Next year: Best podcast category? Best fan video?
Black Aly,
Thanks dude.
Yes! I am the 1.87% !!
Well, at least I agreed with many regarding Aemon’s magnificent “Kill the boy” quote and poor Shireen for supporting actress.
As for S6, go BF and BR!
Eh, the winners are already announced, but I have to disagree about most dramatic scene and guest actress. I’d rather see straight-up acting more than a special effects scene of Night’s King and the undead when it comes to the dramatic category. Yeah, it showed the numbers of the undead army, but it was nowhere near as moving as some of the dramatic scenes based on raw acting (Cersei’s Walk comes to mind.)
I’d also put Nell Williams above the woman who played Karsi– some line delivery sounded a bit forced, rather than natural.
Happy with most of the winners, but I still think the scene when Tyrion and Jorah see Drogon fly above Old Valyria should have won. Whenever I watch that scene I remember (from the book) Tyrion talking about how obsessed he was with dragons. His dream finally coming true as the black dread’s wings spread across the sky.
Plus, Jorah seeing what those tiny babies have become and realizing the full weight of their power, and Daenerys’s power.
Gives me chills every time.
The majority have voiced their opinions. The only thing I think we should be able to contest is when some nominations really don’t fit the actual category. People nominating the Sandsnake Fight for most comedic is probably acceptable as comedy is subjective, but the distinction between what constitutes a quote or a scene should be enforced more, like how they made a clear distinction for Guest Actor/Actress with the 2 episodes a season and 10 overall. Though harsh on Diana Rigg (11 episodes), it does make it very clear.
Someone asked last night if Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken had been voted the worst episode. Heh, I’m glad to see it hadn’t! There are three episodes with lower scores. Frankly, it’s only right. I always felt that the episode was unfairly maligned due to one bad scene (Water Gardens) and one fantastic straight-from-a-dark-fairytale scene (Sansa’s wedding). Those five minutes in Dorne aside, Unbowed… was actually outstanding with some beautiful direction and camerawork.
For what it’s worth, my vote for the season’s worst goes to the premiere which was needlessly slow and introductory. Even there, the final 15 minutes with Mance, Jon, and Stannis were brilliant. Still, the weakest premiere of all five.
In the coming year we may aspire to a bit more in the way of triage with scenes vs. quotes. I do think a category for best soliloquy might be good too, given many lines submitted were very long ones.
And had I thought of it in advance, I would have eliminated “Fewer” as a “funniest scene” possibility given it’s not a scene, it’s one line, and it winning is kind of strange. So agreed there.
A stat or two:
Hardhome becomes the first episode to break the streak of “Episode 9 wins” that had run for the first four seasons. And this one was the biggest landslide in the voting we’ve been doing. It took 77 percent of the vote, and going back to the old place, we didn’t get any episode winner that got that kind of support. In order:
Season 1’s Baelor took nearly 54 percent of the vote, with The Pointy End (1.8) next with 15 percent and Fire and Blood at 11 percent.
Season 2’s Blackwater took 72 percent of the vote. Valar Morghulis got 11 percent, and everything else got diddly. That was a notable landslide.
Season 3’s The Rains of Castamere took 54 percent. And Now His Watch Is Ended grabbed 21 percent, and Kissed By Fire another 15 percent, and those two episodes continue to be cited by people as among the top 10 episodes for the show in history.
Season 4 featured the closest competition for this award. Watchers on the Wall took nearly 25 percent of the vote, and it was followed closely by The Mountain and the Viper’s 22 percent and The Children’s 17 percent, and even The Lion and the Rose grabbed nearly 11 percent.
Greatjon of Slumber,
Kissed by Fire is probably my favourite episode of the show. TOP3 at the least.
Greatjon of Slumber,
When did you vote for those? This site has only existed since July 2014.
Weird question, but is it possible to get to some consensus of the winners of the different seasons? I may just be a math-noob, but Hardhome won with 2583 votes out of a total of 3371 votes, which is a certain percentage. But would the percentages change depending on when for example Season had less total votes? How would Baelor stack against Mother’s Mercy for example?
This may just be overcomplicating things that I don’t really bother to understand intrinsically.
Congrats!
Well, my picks often ended up on third place. What I’m probably most surprised about is the Stannis prevalence in the actor category and the fun ones. I didn’t quite expect that. Apparently there really are many Stannis fans overall (or they all flocked here to vote).
Well, I think the Best Episode, Guest Actor and Guest Actress winners will surprise no one.
I really expected Jonathan Pryce to win Best Supporting Actor.
“Fewer” winning over “a dwarf sized cock”? Twice? Ugh.
By the way, I think it’s unfair that you excluded Ian Gelder from the Best Guest Actor category for appearing in 3 episodes, yet you accepted Stella McCusker in Best Guest Actress. The results would have probably been the same, but the competition would have been more interesting.
The first three ceremonies were hosted over at the old Winter is Coming, before it was bought out and the core writers (Sue, Axey, Marko, and Oz) left to create this website. The Season 4 awards were the first to be hosted here at WOTW.
I’m surprised the Walk of Shame got so few votes. Also Karsi’s quote.
Kerry I’s award is the most pleasing one for me here, to beat established stars like Dianna, Carice and Natalie as a 14/15 year old is quite something!
Just saw the results. Am fine with them. But didnt follow the whole vote, tbh. One thing i noticed is, that i was only impressed with “fewer” until i rewatched the show and noticed, its the 2nd time he does it. In season 2 he already corrects Davos with “fewer.” Although not as comedic as the 2nd time.
I watched the awards late last night and was too tired to comment after, but great job!!! The stuff with Robson and Jerome had me laughing so hard I had tears in my eyes!
Also…how cool is it Ms. Sorensen acknowledged her best Guest Actress Award over on twitter?!? 🙂
I really wish Birgitte Hjort Sørensen could replace Gemma Whelan as Asha Greyjoy.
Wow, thank you all so much it was great being part of GOT and although sad to leave the show I loved being able to film such great scenes during S5. Winning this has made my day 🙂
Lots of love Kerry ️xxx
A thousand times welcome to Watchers on the Wall. You so deserved the win for your portrayal of Shireen. Sweet and smart and loyal as the day is long. Very happy to see you take the win. And even happier that you would take the time to visit our little rabid fan site for all things Game of Thrones. *bows*
Kerry Ingram,
I’m glad!
You were wonderful. I can’t wait to see what you do next.
Kerry Ingram,
Thank YOU so much, all the best! 🙂
Kerry Ingram,
Congratulations! You truly did a spectacular job!
Kerry Ingram,
Oh wow, is that really you? :O
You’re most welcome, and thank you for your marvelous performance of one of the best characters. We’ll all miss you and Shireen, and we wish you the best in all of your future projects!
*claps*
Robb Snow,
Yes, it’s her. I verified it.
Congrats on your win Kerry!
All of the winners except Lena are from the Northern part of Westeros, which is as it should be. For the first eight episodes at least, everything involving the Wall and the Baratheons was pretty much perfect this season and significantly better than the rest of the show. Well-deserved wins for Stephen and Kerry, though I thought Kit was equally deserving this time.
Kerry Ingram,
Congratulations on your win, so well-deserved. Your Shireen Baratheon will always be one of my most favorite characters – and the rightful Queen of the Seven Kingdoms. 🙂
Kerry Ingram,
Congratulations to your win! Your final scene broke my heart and not many shows/movies and actors have ever managed to touch me like that. It was a wonderful performance. Enjoy your win 🙂
Kerry Ingram,
Your performance last season broke my heart, you fully deserved that award! 🙂
I’ll miss your scenes with Davos, those were personal highlights of the last couple seasons.
You have been absolutely mesmerizing since your first scene. Great job last season, you managed to break everyone’s heart! Good luck on your next endeavours. We are all rooting for you Princess!
Kerry Ingram,
Thank you so much for your phenomenal work and also for taking the time to stop by. You are an extraordinary talent, and I wish you great success in your future endeavors.
🙂
Kerry Ingram,
Thank you so much for your outstanding performance! You really brought out some deep emotions in all of us! Best wishes to you! 🙂
I should have read your post, first. I didn’t mean to be repetitive.
Kerry Ingram,
Thank you for your performance and the way you captured our souls. We will miss you!
Best wishes for the future…
Is there by any chance a list of the winners from S1,2&3? I know that WotW has the records for two seasons but it would be interesting to know how did it worked with the popular vote before the schism and make some comparisons. Well if not the whole package at least the performances. Thank you in advance…
dothrakian raven,
You can find that info at WiC. Google it up, you’ll find it. Obviously we’re a different website now, I don’t have that info anymore. At WiC we choose the finalists, there was no preliminaries, anything like that, just one round, and then usually a lot of complaining.
Sue the Fury,
I know from day one that you are a different site. But I thought it would be interesting to have the previous winners lists as a reference. Well I will follow your advice and google it. Thank you again!
Wow we’ll miss you and you were so great on the show! Loved you as Shireen!
“Kerry Ingram responds to WOTW” is almost deserving of its own post. 🙂
Kerry Ingram,
Congratulations! A truly fantastic performance. Yours is now the face I see when I re-read the books. Thanks for bringing her to life for all of us.
Best of luck on future projects!
Kerry Ingram,
Wow, I can only say thank you! Thank you for an absolutely wonderful perfomance, thank you for every scene where you made me smile, thank you for every scene where you moved me almost to tears. We’ll all miss you deeply, but now you have a bright future ahead! For me, and I believe that for most of us, you will always be our Princess.
Wow, I can only say thank you! Thank you for an absolutely wonderful perfomance, thank you for every scene where you made me smile, thank you for every scene where you moved me almost to tears. We’ll all miss you deeply, but now you have a bright future ahead! For me, and I believe that for most of us, you will always be our Princess.
Kerry Ingram,
You were an absolute sweetheart as Shireen. It was sad to see you go:( Much luck to you in your future endeavors Kerry!
How lovely to take the time to post a personal thank you to fans on WotW!
Best wishes for your future and acting career!
Wonderful acting, Kerry 🙂 Best of luck for the future
dothrakian raven, I can tell you that Maisie Williams won Best Actress for Seasons 1 & 2 and Michelle Fairley took it out for Season 3. Gwen Christie won best supporting one of the years as well.
I have a feeling that the male lannisters were the Best Actors over the first 3 years – Dinklage, Charles Dance and Nikolaj.
That’s all I remember about the first 3 awards. Since season 4 it’s been here on WOTW.
No, the Best Actors were Sean Bean, Alfie Allen and Nicolaj Coster-Waldau.
http://winteriscoming.net/2011/10/17/and-the-winners-are/
http://winteriscoming.net/2012/10/07/wicnet-awards-season-two-full-list-of-winners/
http://winteriscoming.net/2014/01/06/wicnet-awards-season-three-full-list-of-winners/
Kerry Ingram,
Just like to add to the many who’ve already said how much they loved your portrayal of Shireen. Best wishes for everything else you do and thanks for taking the time to drop by and say hi 😀
Thanks BlackAly. I wasn’t sure. Perhaps Charles Dance won a supporting actor role?
Listening to this after your last episode……
You did awesome (haunting) work.
No, Dance never won a WiC or WotW award. Nor did Dinklage, despite his 2 Emmys.
Just in case Sue the Fury or Greatjon of Slumber see this, I just wanted to say thank you for all of your hard work in putting this together. Love these awards immensely, by far my favorite off-season diversion. Great jon this was a ton of fun!
The Tattered Prince
This site was in existance from the beginning of the series, but with a different name
Sue the Fury,
Huh, I seem to remember them being listed here earlier in the season. Might be cool to get it put up someplace on the site.
ash,
To be blunt, things from WiC need to stay at WiC. We don’t own those awards.