Holy hell! What a battle! This episode contained the single greatest battle sequence ever made for television, and I would even say it ranks high compared to movies. Miguel Sapochnik is now officially the best director on Game of Thrones (he also did last year's Hardhome). The pacing, the cinematography, the acting, the writing; everything in here was perfect. It depicts the horrors of war in such a brutal and stunning way. It feels like they've finally got the budget to take the series to the scale they've always wanted it at. Just an all around epic episode. It also plays sharp contrast to last week's episode, which I personally found slightly disappointing.
Surprisingly, the episode isn't just set in one location (although it almost is). We also check in with Meereen, which is good because I thought the cliffhanger they were left on last episode would stretch for two weeks. It didn't. The episode leaps right into it. This was quite a smart pacing decision; by opening the episode with a battle, you prevent people from getting fed up with the long stretch of character scenes that precedes the other battle. Just the right amount of time was spent in Meereen this episode.
But then, of course, it's on to the main event. The Battle of the Bastards. As with all the other big battle episodes in Game of Thrones, we check in with all the characters who will be fighting in the battle. It reminds us of the stakes, develops character, and builds anticipation.
In this episode, we see that Ramsay is in fact a brilliant strategist. His battle plan is horrifying, manipulative, and very well thought out. The effects on the ground are very well portrayed. There is one tracking shot that follows a character through the battle that absolutely blew me away. It captures the sheer senselessness, the pure chaos of battle in such a mind-blowing way.
The only thing I found even marginally disappointing about this episode was the character deaths; I wish there were more of them! But that's probably just me being masochistic.
What an absolutely fantastic ride of an episode, I hope the finale delivers.
Surprisingly, the episode isn't just set in one location (although it almost is). We also check in with Meereen, which is good because I thought the cliffhanger they were left on last episode would stretch for two weeks. It didn't. The episode leaps right into it. This was quite a smart pacing decision; by opening the episode with a battle, you prevent people from getting fed up with the long stretch of character scenes that precedes the other battle. Just the right amount of time was spent in Meereen this episode.
But then, of course, it's on to the main event. The Battle of the Bastards. As with all the other big battle episodes in Game of Thrones, we check in with all the characters who will be fighting in the battle. It reminds us of the stakes, develops character, and builds anticipation.
In this episode, we see that Ramsay is in fact a brilliant strategist. His battle plan is horrifying, manipulative, and very well thought out. The effects on the ground are very well portrayed. There is one tracking shot that follows a character through the battle that absolutely blew me away. It captures the sheer senselessness, the pure chaos of battle in such a mind-blowing way.
The only thing I found even marginally disappointing about this episode was the character deaths; I wish there were more of them! But that's probably just me being masochistic.
What an absolutely fantastic ride of an episode, I hope the finale delivers.