Season 6, Episode 9 "Battle of the Bastards" Discussion Thread

[Reek]

HE WASN'T EVIL ENOUGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wun Wun dying after he broke through the gate and screamed.. perfect... Ramsay doing it was meh.

IF THE GODS ARE GOOD... and if D&D aren't ****s... They will open next episode with a burning of his body and the wildlings singing 'We are the last of the giants'.

 

[Reek]

truth be told, I expected (as I was watching) that Wun Wun and Tormund (as jon was down) would have gone absolutely crazy and killed as many boltons/karstarks/****wads as possible and died there... making a final stand before the vale showed up... I was so confident Tormund would die this episode. But, thank heavens, he is still alive and likely will be for a ****ing while now, there's no sense in killing him off unless its in the great war.

"Hey!"

 

[Lencho01]

Game of Thrones' Battle of The Bastards, As Told By Overwatch And World of Warcraft

 

[Charlatan]

Game of Thrones' Battle of The Bastards, As Told By Overwatch And World of Warcraft

okay I was hoping someone had done a Leeroy Jeenkins video of that. I suggested as much earlier in the thread.

 

[DACrowe]

I personally prefer Blackwater.

I will agree with this actually. I loved "Battle of the Bastards." But there was a lot more moral complexity to "Blackwater" with likable and hatable characters on both sides, and the dialogue was soo good in that episode.

But this is up there.

 

[Reek]

Visually, at least... this blows every episode out of the water. Not even a contest. It was goddamn impressive.

 

[Rowsdower!]

Yeah. Backwater and Watchers on the Wall were great, but this one leaves them far behind, at least for me. Yeah, I know there's the Deus ex Machina stuff with the Knights of the Vale but let's not forget that those other two battles also deployed that tactic with Tywin and Stannis.

Interestingly enough though, in the GoT world, the Deus ex Machina armies always seem to be led by evil or unlikeable SOBs, lol.

 

[Verick808]

I wouldn't really call the Knights of the Vale arriving a deus ex machina. Littlefinger had convinced Arryn to help earlier in the season and we pretty much knew that Sansa had requested help. It was set up.

 

[Ms. Marvel]

Same with the Tyrells and Lannisters at the end of Blackwater. Littlefinger was sent to recruit the Tyrells beforehand.

 

[Fist of Khonshu]

The Umbers weren't anti-Stark as much as they are anti-wildling and with good reason -their lands are furthest north and next to the Wall. A huge wildling settlement next door is naturally going to be perceived as a threat, and Jon seen as a traitor for allowing them to settle there. Umbers suddenly fighting alongside wildlings as allies wouldn't make any sense in this context.

 

[Rowsdower!]

I wouldn't really call the Knights of the Vale arriving a deus ex machina. Littlefinger had convinced Arryn to help earlier in the season and we pretty much knew that Sansa had requested help. It was set up.

Yeah, that's true, but everyone is calling it that anyway. And I suppose that label does have some merit, since we didn't even see Sansa hint to Jon that the Vale intervening was a possibility (and because they arrived in just the nick of time and all that).

 

[Fist of Khonshu]

I guess a big club or uprooted tree might have undone their damn shield wall/compress idea!

 

[Rowsdower!]

LOL yeah. Why DIDN'T Wun-Wun get a weapon? lol

 

[Fist of Khonshu]

Yeah, that's true, but everyone is calling it that anyway. And I suppose that label does have some merit, since we didn't even see Sansa hint to Jon that the Vale intervening was a possibility (and because they arrived in just the nick of time and all that).

People use the term way too much, sometimes inappropriately without understanding what it means, and sometimes unfairly as well. Use of that device is classically considered "lazy" writing (often from the snobby pretense of the "intellectual elite"), but sometimes it works and doesn't necessarily degrade the quality of a story at all.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deus_ex_machina

 

[DarthSkywalker]

It applies here because they showed up exactly when they did.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

Visually, at least... this blows every episode out of the water. Not even a contest. It was goddamn impressive.

I prefer the visuals involved with the Wildlings army (the huge fire, the march on the Wall, the giant at at he gate, the Wall anchor) and the armies of the dead in Hardhome, but this was great.

 

[TJByrum]

This was a pitched battle, and we saw the whole thing start to finish. That's why I liked it. Blackwater was sort of pitched, but not like the Bastards battle.

 

[Thundercrack85]

I still prefer the Wildfire episode. For two reasons really. I cared about the characters on both sides (Tyrion, Bronn, the Hound, Davos, Stannis, etc).

This was just good vs evil, with only really one developed character on the opposing side. And I find Ramsay to be a rather dull character.

I also honestly could not have guessed how that battle would have ended. No one it seemed to me doubted that Jon would win. Stannis I felt at the time, really could have taken King's Landing, or at least killed many main characters.

 

[Fist of Khonshu]

It applies here because they showed up exactly when they did.

No it doesn't. Their entry into the battle does not defy the show's internal logic nor challenge suspension of belief -- like a Greek god suddenly entering and zapping the problem as in ancient Greek plays from whence the term or concept originates.

The Knights of the Vale were not suddenly introduced out of the blue nor as an improbable solution, and therefore not a deus ex machina, because their arrival was set up in four previous scenes total:

1. Littlefinger's offer to Cersei in Season 5 which entailed using Vale troops to destroy either the Boltons or Stannis at Winterfell and her authorization of it on the condition that LF assumes control as Warden of the North after Sansa is killed or captured.
2. The scene in the Vale where Littlefinger persuades Robin Arryn to help Sansa.
3. The meeting between Littlefinger and Sansa in Moletown where she is informed that the Knights are already in the North (at Moat Cailin just south of Winterfell) and ready to fight for her.
4. The letter Sansa wrote when Jon told her that their army was going to march on Winterfell anyway despite being undersized. The audience can easily and logically deduce the identity of the recipient of that letter in that desperate situation.

 

[DACrowe]

Visually, at least... this blows every episode out of the water. Not even a contest. It was goddamn impressive.

Oh yes, visually this is the high point of the series. Though I'll also say Hardhome (same director) comes close. I was talking more in terms of writing. But visually there is no competition.

 

[Kane52630]

 

[Drizzle]

Hey, where's the shot of Bran walking awa...ohhh.

 

[Reek]

Beat me to it

 

[Fist of Khonshu]

 

[Marvolo]

One of my many favorite moments. I love the way Tormund pops up and looks at Jon like "Sup. We gonna kill that ****er now or what?" And there is something so cool about Tormund and Wun Wun not even hesitating to stand side by side with Jon and help him get Ramsay. Those two show more loyalty and friendship than most of the nobles south of the Wall.

And I like when Ramsay sees all three of them come over the mound of bodies and you can tell he is shocked that Jon and Tormund are still alive and about ready to **** himself.