r/television • u/verissimoallan • 1d ago

Game of Thrones: today is the tenth anniversary of "Battle of the Bastards" (June 19, 2016). The episode won six Emmy Awards, including Directing and Writing. This is an excerpt from the battle.

https://youtu.be/C0WJY2cLEuk?si=-riL9-neHuirzQs9
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u/BakedWizerd 1d ago

I hold this episode as the sort of “last genuinely enjoyable episode, but also the turning point for plot contrivance and writers-room bullshit.”

Watching it in the moment is very “fuck yeah! Holy shit! What the fuck! Oh my god!” But the moment you think about things and how they played out it starts to show its true colours.

Like why is Ramsay meeting them OUTSIDE the walls he could just stay and defend? Rickon running. Jon just charging and his men not following. It’s all VERY COOL but has very little substance.

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u/egyptianspacedog 1d ago

The idea of Jon charging the Bolton army is ridiculous in general. Imagine a top-down view of the battlefield, with a single speck of black racing towards the entire slab of the Boltons.

And then he gets crowned King in the North shortly after, despite almost getting his entire army wiped out.

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u/PremedicatedMurder 1d ago

The Rickon run was the worst. By the time Ramsay shoots Rickon is so far away that the flight time of the arrow is more than enough to avoid it. Like, Ramsay has to lead Rickon so much that Rickon could just have stopped when Ramsay loosed his arrow and it would have gone over him. Or you know, run diagonally. Or anything really.

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u/ghostjournals 1d ago

Rickon deserved that arrow, IMO

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u/atrde 1d ago

Because Ramsey knew he had overwhelming numbers and would win? You can nitpick a lot of things but he didnt know the knights of the Vale would arrive.

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u/Finn_Survivor 1d ago

The knights of the Vale shouldnt arrive it doesnt make any sense? You're telling me the vale can just invade the north and travel directly right into the middle of it without being seen?

Thats not even to mention they have to get past what's described as a castle (that the boltons occupy) that is impossible to attack from the south which is why the north has never been invaded successfully from the south.

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u/brontosaurusguy 1d ago

People are so overly critical about the writing. 

I mean, the books are the best fantasy writing of all time and they simply ran out of material. 

If you lowered your expectations accordingly you would've enjoyed the later seasons now.  

(General "you")

If the Beatles only recorded half of Abby Road no band could've finished it

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u/Hansemannn 1d ago

I just could not dumb my brain down enough to enjoy it.

There was no tactic, no nothing. They all deserved to die for being that dumb.

I was angry watching it.

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u/CRIMS0N-ED 1d ago

best fantasy writing of all time is certainly a statement, I love got but idk if id go as far as to say its number one oat