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Love it or hate it, Game of Thrones was a cultural phenomenon during it's original run on HBO. Yes, the show as a whole fell off near the end of the series, but that doesn't take away from the monumental achievements the show produced over the years. Game of Thrones Season 6 episode, Battle of the Bastards will forever be one of the greatest battle sequences ever put on television. But how exactly did Game of Thrones create such a compelling sequence only to fall off a cliff the very next season?
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You don't have the men, you don't have the horses, and you don't have Winterfell
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Why lead those poor souls into slaughter? There's no need for a battle
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Game of Thrones was always a TV show whose deepest conflict came from its characters
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The quick verbal jabs and betrayals were what elevated the show from the depths of beloved
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genre to cultural phenomenon. But in one perfect episode, Game of Thrones married technical mastery
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and story to create one of the greatest battles in TV history. Released as the ninth episode of
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season six, the Battle of the s was the culmination of several story threads
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Sansa Stark's torturous relationship with Ramsay Bolton, control of Winterfell, and Rickon Stark's
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fate. For the entire season, multiple seasons really, everything felt like it was building to
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this one specific moment by simply changing what we thought a television episode could be
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Battle of the s was directed by Miguel Sapochnik, a former storyboard artist-turned-director
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who had already directed two episodes of Game of Thrones, episodes 7 and 8 of season 5
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The episode told the story of Jon Snow and his small army of wildlings facing off
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against fellow Ramsay Bolton. For writers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss
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it was the first time they would put a proper pitched battle in the series
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While they had shown raids and massacres before, they had yet to have a full military conflict
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They would draw inspiration from real battles, from ancient Rome to the Civil War
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And it's clear how much joy they took in crafting the sequence. And Sapochnik's background in visual storytelling
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pays off in spades. He's able to translate the script's historical research
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into something truly remarkable to watch. When making a scene that engages us, the audience
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we have to understand the geography. And if there's all of a sudden a hill
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our brains start to wonder where it came from. But in the establishing shot before the battle begins proper
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So pochnik shows us everything. We know where the castle is in relation to John's army
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We understand the almost arena-like field the army stand in. And to give us an even more ground level view
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so pochnik places us over the shoulder of John in a now famous minute long one Er it a shot that works especially well for a generation of folks that grew up with third action games Our POV is with John
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We feel the frantic energy as moment after moment pops into frame, only to be ripped away
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Like John, our gaze is locked in but unable to focus. It is not only visually mesmerizing
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but also riddled with moments of character exposition and technical precision. From the elaborate wire work, clever editing, and special effects
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we really watched the show take a giant step forward in its filmmaking
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Part of the feeling we get is the sheer amount of effort the crew put forth every frame
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The battle alone took 25 days to shoot, 600 extras, 500 crew members
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and while the exact number seems to vary, somewhere between 80 and 100 horses
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Up until this point, Camilla Knopras, the horse master on the series, had complained of having too little to do
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simply instructing actors to trot here and there while scheming or giving exposition
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She wanted something more ambitious. In an interview with Esquire, it said she read the script of Battle of the s
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and thought, maybe not this ambitious. But Napris delivers on all fronts
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Working with any animal is hard and unpredictable. There are rules in place to protect the animals that for too long
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were treated as a commodity within film and television. During the episode, many horses were trained to take real falls onto stunt mats
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but the well-being of the animals was always a top concern, with no horse being allowed to fall more than three times in a day
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There's often a romanticizing of days past and disregarding safety for getting the shot
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but there's a reason laws like these exist. The entire crew sets the gold standard for problem-solving and pivoting
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while still maintaining the vision of the script. Working on any TV series means being constrained by an episodic budget
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but Sapochnik squeezes every moment he can, While still being able to make the corners, they cut a part of the mythos
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When they realized that some of the backgrounds would need to be blurred in order to make the
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sense field bigger, Sapochnik first thought to use smoke. He then justified the smoke with huge monuments of the Bolton sigil, the Flayed Man, set aflame
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It's haunting and perfectly adds a terrifying weight to the battle. That field was also slightly concave declining down from all sides to form what is essentially a giant bowl of earth And this being Northern Ireland meant a lot of rain While trampling through the mud makes
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for a more dramatic battle, if the ground becomes too loose and unwieldy, it's also incredibly unsafe
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So dozens of crew members worked at night carting wheelbarrows of fresh soil and rocks
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to literally reestablish the top ground. And after long shoots, retakes, and more rain
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they would do it all over again, every day. The rain also contributed to one of the most memorable scenes in an episode filled to the brim with unforgettable moments
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Jon Snow emerging from a pile of bodies while gasping for air. When the written scene was scrapped due to the location being flooded, budget, and time
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Sapochnik came up with the idea of Jon being trampled by both the Bolton army and his own wildling soldiers
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It is a visual personification of how Jon has felt the entire series
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the weight of the world squeezing him so tightly, there's nothing left. In what is essentially a
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second rebirth, Jon pushes and fights his way to the top and gasps for air. The moment feels
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triumphant. You can't help but feel relieved, maybe even more so than his first rebirth after
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being stabbed by Thorn and other members of the Night's Watch. That revival was without a choice
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It was a moment that happened to him. But in Battle of the s, we see Jon fight for air
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He claws and pulls, his breaths getting more shallow and desperate. When Jon finally makes it to the top
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Sapochnik does a masterful bit of visual storytelling and directly ties the moment to Daenerys
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The framing and overhead POV mirrors Daenerys' being held up by the Yunkai slaves in the third season finale
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It is the director telling us these two are on the same path. And there are so many wonderful bits of character battles
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the show has built its audience on. The script from Weiss and Vinioff highlights
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that Jon may be someone people want to follow, but they shout from the rooftops that he is not the best tactician
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That aforementioned rebirth? It takes place during the loss of the battle
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Jon and the Wildling army have been surrounded by shield and spear soldiers forming a pincer maneuver
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also a deviation from the script due to budget concerns and horse safety
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As Jon is reborn he forced to look over the men he led here all with no escape Or it would be if Sansa had not sent a raven to Littlefinger and the Vale to ask for help Despite Jon ignoring her repeated warnings about Bolton Sansa had the forethought to
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seek aid when it meant the best for Winterfell and the Starks in the long run
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These are the decisions a leader makes, sacrificing a little for so much more
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But Sansa is personally familiar with Bolton's greatest weapon, his antagonization. Since his introduction, we've seen Bolton battle with everyone
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pushing Folk into losing control when he remained calm and steadfast. And in Battle of the s, we watch him revel in the chaos he's created
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It's another bit of wonderful character to see one of the worst villains of the entire series
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fall for the same reasons that made us hate him. When Bolton finally meets his end, we also see another side of John
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In a scene that by itself took 10 hours to shoot, we see John on top of Bolton
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punching him in the face again and again and again. As an audience, we can't help but cheer at first
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If you were watching the show as it was released, you had spent years of your life watching Bolton commit heinous acts with nothing but a smile
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There's an understandable primal sense of justice as he lies bleeding in the mud
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Then it just doesn't stop. We watch John keep hitting him again and again and again
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Kit Harington, who played Jon Snow, said of the scene, it's a horrible moment when you see your hero go a bit too far
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And he does only when he realizes that this moment isn't his
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It's Sansa's. She won the battle. She has suffered the most under Bolton
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Seeing Sansa regain control of her life was something really special. Benioff said of the scene that she walks away
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a small smirk on her face as Bolton screams in the background. Was at that point his favorite moment of Sophie Turner's acting
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That, more than any moment, is one worth cheering. Battle of the s succeeded where many episodes before and after failed
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It made us believe in the story through battle. And that is due to the overwhelming thought and work put in from beginning to end
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From the writing to the production to the acting, everything just stings
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Because we see the heart put into every single frame. Every bit of reshoveled snow or mud and blood thrown off camera
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It reminds us that for 59 minutes, we were part of the battle
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