To-date, throughout six incredible seasons, hit fantasy series 'Game of Thrones' - based on George R R Martin's currently incomplete novel series 'A Song of Ice & Fire' - has entertained audiences with more twists, turns, surprises and tense action sequences than anyone could have ever predicted. Now, with a seventh season right around the corner, we've decided to take a look back at five of the most memorable moments the series has presented us with to-date, before the penultimate season hits screens next week!

5. The Battle of Blackwater

This sticks out in the minds of fans, as it was the first major battle sequence that came to the show and still to this day remains as one of the most impressive. Director Neil Marshall is the man responsible for the episode, which saw the Lannisters go up against Stannish Baratheon and his fleet of soldiers for control of King's Landing and the Iron Throne. In the end, the Lannisters would retain control of the Seven Kingdoms, much in thanks to Tyrion Lannister's brave actions on the battlefield. King Joffrey Lannister was nowhere to be seen when his troops needed him the most, but the biggest takeaway from this sequence was that 'Game of Thrones' was a show unafraid to throw everything together for a mind-blowing and exciting experience for fans.

4. Ned Stark's Death

When Ned Stark was beheaded at the end of the show's first season, it really became one of the biggest talking points on television of the modern day. It showed that 'Game of Thrones' was not a show where you could pick and choose favourite characters, with those who seemed to be the hero getting a free pass to the show's end. In fact, it allowed those new to the series to instantly recognise this wasn't your bog-standard TV show. Not a soul watching who hadn't read the books actually expected that axe to fall on Ned's head, but fall it did, pushing Sean Bean out of the series forevermore.

3. The Purple Wedding

Before we met Ramsay Bolton, there was the original 'Big Bad' villain of 'Game of Thrones' in the psychotic Joffrey Baratheon. Becoming king following the death of his supposed father, he would go on to wed Margaery Tyrell in a ceremony that was hugely memorable. Though Littlefinger and Olenna Tyrell were responsible for dropping poison in Joffrey's chalice during the ceremony, the buck landed at Sansa Stark and Tyrion Lannister's feet, forcing the pair to flee King's Landing, but not before they got to watch the painful and hideous death of Joffrey. Coughing and spluttering as his face turned a deep shade of purple, those who were left reeling from season 3's Red Wedding (more on that later) finally felt a slither of vengeance here.

2. The Battle of the Bastards

Fully resurrected following a betrayal by those that remained in the Night's Watch, Jon Snow was more ready than he had ever been before to return to his ancestral home of Winterfell. What awaited him there was the psychotic Ramsay Bolton and his army; this was a man who had raped Jon's sister Sansa Stark and betrayed everything the Stark family had held dear. He was somebody who didn't care about the cost of his indiscretions, and Jon wanted to take him down more than anything he'd ever wanted before. Lucky for him, with Sansa now by his side, she forged a deal with Littlefinger to send in more troops and save the Starks and their army from near-extinction. A beautifully shot sequence that showed just how volatile Westeros could really be, when those who seem to be leading it in their various ways feel their power threatened or challenged.

1. The Red Wedding

Never has a song sounded so ominous as 'The Rains of Castamere'; a tune associated with the vicious Lannister family and one that instantly saw Lady Catelyn Stark realise something had gone very wrong with her family's alliance with Walder Frey and his plentiful army. Would the show really kill off some of its most likeable characters so deep into the series, in a third season that had already been packed full of surprises? It would turn out, yes, the show would. Not only would 'King of the North' Robb Stark be shot multiple times with crossbows before being stabbed in the heart, but his pregnant Queen Talisa would be murdered, stabbed to death along with her unborn child, before his mother Catelyn had her throat slit, in a scene that shocked every single viewer watching. 

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'Game of Thrones' season 7 premieres on Sunday, July 16 in the US on HBO and on Monday, July 17 in the UK on Sky Atlantic.