There are a lot of things that Game of Thrones is known for but people would agree that the HBO series had some of the best battle sequences in television history. Although every season of the show featured a huge battle, it all started with the Battle of Blackwater which took place in the Season 2 episode Blackwater.

The Battle of Blackwater may not have been as epic as the Battle of the Bastards or the Battle of Winterfell but it had an amazing impact on how Game of Thrones will move forward. Interestingly, the memorable fight almost didn't happen as showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss confirmed that HBO was originally against it.

The truth about the Battle of Blackwater was revealed in Fire Cannot Kill a Dragon, the new book by James Hibberd that chronicles much of the Game of Thrones history. In the excerpt published by Vanity Fair, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss confessed that they had a difficult time trying to convince HBO to finance the Blackwater episode.

So, what was wrong with the whole battle sequence? According to the Game of Thrones showrunners, HBO thought that it would be too expensive and suggested that the battle could either take place on land or happen offscreen. Not surprisingly, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss fought to keep the battle in the episode, going as far as begging then-programming president Michael Lombardo to give it the greenlight.

"We begged and pleaded with Mike Lombardo. We were negotiating. We had a big conversation about how many boats could we do," Weiss said.

Luckily, HBO eventually ceded and gave the extra budget to adapt the battle that was one of the highlights in George R.R. Martin's book series A Song of Ice and Fire. The Battle of Blackwater became the first large-scale war sequence in the show and the episode Blackwater would go on to win the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form).

In Blackwater, Stannis Baratheon launches his attack on King's Landing by taking his fleet down Blackwater Bay. The undermanned city is forced to make the best of its available men, which includes King Joffrey Baratheon and Tyrion Lannister. In the episode, Tyrion decides to lead the army as Cersei Lannister orders for Joffrey to be brought back to the Red Keep. However, the highlight of the battle is the onslaught of wildfire that the Lannisters launched on Stannis' fleet.