Battle of the Bastards

"Battle of the Bastards"

"Battle of the Bastards" is the ninth episode of the sixth season of HBO's fantasy television series Game of Thrones, and the 59th overall. It was written by series co-creators David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, and directed by Miguel Sapochnik. It aired on June 19, 2016.

In the North, the armies of Jon Snow (Kit Harington) and Ramsay Bolton (Iwan Rheon) face off in an enormous battle for control of Winterfell. The Bolton army defeats most of Jon's forces, largely made up of Wildlings. However, Sansa Stark (Sophie Turner) arrives, along with Petyr Baelish (Aidan Gillen) and the Knights of the Vale, who have no difficulty in defeating the remaining Bolton army. Ramsay retreats to Winterfell, where Jon beats him into the mud, locks him up in the kennels, and Sansa feeds him to his own hounds. In Meereen, Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) refuses to surrender to the Masters, mounts Drogon, and begins burning the Masters' fleet, leading to their surrender. Yara (Gemma Whelan) and Theon Greyjoy (Alfie Allen) arrive in Meereen offering their ships to Daenerys, and swear loyalty to help her take the Seven Kingdoms.

"Battle of the Bastards" received critical acclaim, praising it as one of the series' best episodes, and with one critic describing it as a "masterpiece." Critics described the gigantic battle in the North as "terrifying, gripping and exhilarating," and applauded Daenerys's reunion with her dragons at the beginning of the episode, calling it "thrilling." Filming of the episode required 25 shooting days, along with 500 extras, 600 crew members and 70 horses. In the United States, the episode achieved a viewership of 7.66 million in its initial broadcast.

Plot

In Meereen

Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) and Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) discuss how to deal with the slaver fleet. Daenerys, Tyrion, Missandei (Nathalie Emmanuel) and Grey Worm (Jacob Anderson) meet with the masters, who offer Daenerys terms of surrender. She counters that the meeting was to discuss the masters' surrender, not hers. She then rides Drogon into the bay with Rhaegal and Viserion and burn the fleet. Missandei tells the masters that Daenerys has ordered one of them to die as punishment for their crimes. They offer Yezzan (Enzo Cilenti), as he is lowborn, but Grey Worm kills the other two masters instead, and Tyrion tells Yezzan to warn the other masters of Daenerys' power. Meanwhile, Daario (Michiel Huisman) leads the Dothraki to slaughter the Sons of the Harpy, who are seen massacring freedmen outside the city.

Later, Daenerys and Tyrion meet with Theon (Alfie Allen) and Yara (Gemma Whelan). They offer Daenerys their fleet of ships in exchange for help overthrowing Euron and recognizing the independence of the Iron Islands. Daenerys agrees to assist them if the Ironborn will cease all reaving, raping, and pillaging going forward, to which Yara reluctantly accedes.

At Winterfell

Jon (Kit Harington), Sansa (Sophie Turner), Tormund (Kristofer Hivju) and Davos (Liam Cunningham) meet with Ramsay (Iwan Rheon) and his advisors before the battle. Ramsay offers to pardon Jon for breaking his Night's Watch vows if he will hand Sansa over. Jon offers Ramsay a chance to settle their dispute in one-on-one combat; Ramsay refuses, saying he is not certain he can personally beat Jon, but is certain the Bolton army can defeat the Stark loyalists. When Smalljon Umber proves Rickon's (Art Parkinson) captivity by presenting Shaggydog's head, Sansa tells Ramsay he will die the following day.

After Jon discusses the battle plan with Tormund and Davos, Sansa criticizes Jon for attacking without gathering more men and warns him that Ramsay will be able to counter their battle plans. Jon insists that this is the largest army they could possibly gather. Later, Jon meets with Melisandre (Carice van Houten) and asks her not to resurrect him again if he should die in battle. Melisandre replies that it is up to the Lord of Light. Meanwhile, Davos and Tormund discuss their time serving Stannis and Mance respectively, with both acknowledging that they may have been serving the wrong king for so long. Davos walks on and comes across the pyre where Shireen was burned, along with the wooden stag he had carved her.

The armies gather the following morning. Ramsay brings out Rickon and tells him to run towards Jon's army. As he does, Ramsay fires arrows at him. Jon hastily rides out to try to save Rickon, but Rickon is struck through the heart and killed. Enraged, Jon charges at Ramsay, who orders the Bolton cavalry forward, and Davos orders the Stark force out of position to shield him. The ensuing battle leaves hundreds of Bolton and Stark soldiers dead, and the Starks take refuge from the Bolton archers behind a wall of corpses. The Bolton soldiers then surround the Starks, forming a phalanx. Although the giant Wun Wun (Ian Whyte) kills some Bolton soldiers, Tormund panics and sends the Wildlings towards the wall of bodies. Jon is almost trampled by the Wildlings, but is able to eventually get back to his feet. Tormund is able to kill Smalljon, but the Stark forces still appear doomed until a horn sounds out in the distance, with Petyr Baelish (Aidan Gillen) and Sansa arriving with the Knights of the Vale, who defeat the Bolton soldiers.

Ramsay retreats inside Winterfell, while Jon, Wun Wun, and Tormund follow. Wun Wun breaks down Winterfell's gates, but is killed by Ramsay. Ramsay tells Jon that he has reconsidered the option of one-on-one combat. Jon is able to block Ramsay's arrows with a shield and begins to beat him to death, but stops after seeing Sansa and realizing Ramsay is not his to kill. Sansa later visits Ramsay in his cell in the kennels, with his hounds, which he starved for the previous week. As the hounds tear Ramsay apart, Sansa walks away with a smile of satisfaction.

Production

Writing

The episode was written by series co-creators David Benioff and D. B. Weiss.

"Battle of the Bastards" was written by the series' creators David Benioff and D. B. Weiss. Some elements in the episode are based on the forthcoming sixth novel in the A Song of Ice and Fire series, The Winds of Winter, which author George R. R. Martin had hoped to have completed before the sixth season began airing. In the "Inside the Episode" segment published by HBO shortly after the airing of the episode, David Benioff and D. B. Weiss stated that they took inspiration from history for the final battle, listing the Battle of Cannae and the American Civil War as their two main inspirations. The Battle of Cannae involved the army of Carthage defeating a much larger army from the Roman Republic led by Lucius Aemilius Paullus and Gaius Terentius Varro. Weiss stated, "We went back to the Roman fight against the Carthaginians in the Battle of Cannae where the Romans got caught in an encirclement by Hannibal and just slaughtered to the man. We used that as our model." Benioff continued, "The "Battle of the Bastards" becomes incredibly compact. All these men, all these combatants, crammed into this incredibly tight space on the battlefield. You read accounts of the battles in the Civil War where the bodies were piled so thick it was actually an obstruction on the battlefield." The director of the episode, Miguel Sapochnik, stated in an interview with Entertainment Weekly that the Battle of Agincourt was the original inspiration for the battle, but the concept was changed to better fit the budgetary constraints.

D. B. Weiss also noted that they had the desire to portray an actual, full-fledged battle, saying "From the beginning we knew that one thing we'd never had on the show was a true medieval pitched battle where two sides bring all the forces they can into play in some battlefield that's somehow negotiated or agreed upon and they go at each other until one of them wins and the other one loses. This is a staple of human history, and we started to look through film samples of it. There really wasn't one that both made you feel what it was like to be there on the ground and gave you a sense of the geography of the battle." David Benioff stated that they also wanted to portray the luck involved with battle, noting "Just to feel the kind of randomness of it where there's arrows are falling from everywhere, people are getting killed, people are getting trampled by horses, and so much of it is just luck. Jon Snow is a very skilled combatant, but part of the reason he survives this battle is just he gets lucky."

Also in the "Inside the Episode" featurette, David Benioff spoke about Daenerys Targaryen's transformation over the series, noting "I think Dany's been becoming a Targaryen ever since the beginning of Season 1," with D. B. Weiss adding "She's not her father and she's not insane and she's not a sadist, but there's a Targaryen ruthlessness that comes with even the good Targaryens." Benioff concluded by stating "If you're one of the lords of Westeros or one of her potential opponents in the wars to come and you get word of what happened here in Meereen, you have to be pretty nervous because this is an unprecedented threat. You've got a woman who has somehow formed an alliance where she has a Dothraki horde, a legion of Unsullied, she's got the mercenary army of the Second Sons, and she has three dragons who are now pretty close to full grown. So if she can make it all the way across the Narrow Sea and get to Westeros, who's going to stand in her way?"

Casting

Iwan Rheon (right) portrayed Ramsay Bolton since the third season, but originally auditioned for Jon Snow, who is currently portrayed by Kit Harington (left). "Battle of the Bastards" marks their first and last time sharing scenes in the series.

"Battle of the Bastards" was the concluding episode for actor Iwan Rheon, who portrayed Ramsay Bolton from the third season of the series. His first appearance was in the episode "Dark Wings, Dark Words", as a then-unnamed "boy" who was shown as being helpful to a captured Theon Greyjoy. Prior to being cast as Ramsay Bolton, Rheon had also originally auditioned for the series prior to its airing, in the role of Jon Snow, which Kit Harington took instead. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Rheon revealed how he first learned of his character's fate in the show, saying "I had received half the scripts, five episodes, then I got the call. They joked, "Isn't it great Ramsay ends up on the Iron Throne?" As soon as they said that I said, "He's dead isn't he?" It's cool. I've had four lovely seasons here. It's been great to be involved with such an amazing show. I think it's kind of right he goes down. Because what else is he going to do after this? He's done so many things. It's justified and it's the right thing to do. It's the right path. He's reached his peak. It's nice for the audience that he goes out on this high, if you will." In the same interview, Kit Harington spoke about Rheon, noting "I love Iwan's work. He's an incredibly detailed actor who's created a character who's remarkable and despicable."

The episode was also the last appearance for recurring guest actor Art Parkinson, who has portrayed Rickon Stark from the series premiere, "Winter Is Coming". In an interview with IGN, Parkinson stated that his death in the show was a condition of his return, saying "Whenever I was told that I was coming back for Season 6, before they sent me through the scripts and stuff, they sent me through a ring just to say, "Listen, so that you don't get a shock whenever you read the scripts, just know that you die this season."" Parkinson continued, "Whenever I came back, I was excited to come back, and the scenes all seemed pretty amazing. I was so happy to re-embrace the character." He also noted that although he was sad that Rickon would be dying in the show, once he realized how he would die, Parkinson said "It was a cool death, and it was always going to be a good death, so at the same time, I was pretty happy."

Another character departure in the show was Smalljon Umber, portrayed by guest actor Dean S. Jagger. In an interview with the Daily Mirror, Jagger said about his being cast in the series, "I prayed for it. When I heard I got the part my knees buckled. It was a life-changing moment." Prior to becoming an actor, Jagger dug trenches and worked at a mattress factory, in order to pay his way through acting school, and was also a professional rollerblader. Ian Whyte, who portrayed the giant Wun Wun also made his last appearance as the character in the show. Whyte previously portrayed Gregor Clegane in the show's second season. Special effects supervisor Joe Bauer said of Whyte's casting as Wun Wun, "We wanted a large performer because somebody who would be 14, 15 feet tall would have more weight and mass to move around, and a person who's a normal size would have a very difficult time pulling that off."

Filming

The Battle of Cannae of the Second Punic War was one of the inspirations for the "Battle of the Bastards".

"Battle of the Bastards" was directed by Miguel Sapochnik. Sapochnik previously directed the fifth season episodes "The Gift" and "Hardhome". In an interview with Entertainment Weekly prior to the airing of the episode, Sapochnik stated that he was brought on board by co-creators David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, after his success the previous season with "Hardhome", which won numerous awards, including Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards. Sapochnik stated about his feeling of how the episode should be shot, "Every battle on Thrones is unique. I think that's why Benioff and Weiss keep doing them. In the case of "Battle of the Bastards" – or 'BOB' as we affectionately called it in production – David and Dan wanted to do a thing of spectacle, a strategic pitchfield battle they hadn't had the resources to do back in season 1 or 2. I was particularly interested in depicting both the horror of war and the role of luck in battle." Benioff stated that Sapochnik's work on this episode was some of the best scenes in the entire history of the show.

Filming of the episode required 25 shooting days, along with 500 extras, 600 crew members and 70 horses. Benioff described the difficulty of using horses, saying they are difficult to coordinate in battle sequences, which is why they are rarely used except in "big budget war films." D. B. Weiss added, "Miguel's really outdone himself. Fully fleshed out medieval battles require a tremendous amount of resources and choreography to get them right. It feels like we're doing something fresh that you don't see on TV and movies very often." Four different camera crews were used for the entire sequence. The 500 extras largely made up the Snow and Bolton armies, playing the roles of Wildlings, archers, swordsmen and spearmen. Each army was trained separate from each other, in order to create an off-screen rivalry between the two groups. Visual effects were also utilized in order to expand the army into thousands. Kristofer Hivju, who portrays Tormund Giantsbane, was asked by The Hollywood Reporter about the intensity of filming the scenes, with Hivju saying "It was pretty intense, actually. When you have 20 people running around getting squeezed together, and you're trying to chop at another bearded guy with a sword, you are not out of danger. You're laying down in the mud, and one wrong step, you won't have a face anymore. It was very intense, and Miguel insisted on making it that muddy and messy. War is not beautiful. Sometimes you see action sequences where battles seem organized. I know that from how the Vikings fought. It's not beautiful. It's hard. It's hard work. We had to shoot moment-to-moment, chronologically. We would shoot one sequence 80 times per day."

In a second interview with Entertainment Weekly following the episode airing, Sapochnik spoke in further detail about the process of filming the battle, and listed the film Ran by Akira Kurosawa as one of the inspirations in shooting the sequences. Sapochnik stated, "I watched every pitch field battle I could find (footage of real ones too), looking for patterns — for what works, what doesn't, what takes you out of the moment, what keeps you locked in. Interestingly one of the things I noticed is that staging of these battles through the years has changed dramatically. Back in the day you’d see these huge aerial shots of horse charges and there were two big differences. First, it was all real — no CGI or digital replication. And second, often when the horses would go down, you can kind of tell they got really hurt. Nowadays you'd never get away with that, and nor would you want to."

Asked about the biggest challenge in shooting the battle itself, Sapochnik said "every time we charge the horses it takes 25 minutes to reset all the fake snow on the field and rub out the horseshoe prints. So how many times can we afford to charge the horses each day knowing we need to give time for a reset that's 10 times longer than the actual shot? Another thing was how to make 500 extras look like 8,000 when you are shooting in a field where there's just nowhere to hide your shortfall. It becomes a bit like a bonkers math equation. And finally: How do you get these guys riled up enough to run at each other and get covered in mud and stand in the rain and then run at each other again and again for 25 days, 10 hours a day, without them just telling you to piss off?" Sapochnik also revealed that the sequence was shot on a privately owned piece of land in Saintfield in Northern Ireland, and they were only given 12 days to shoot. After reading the script, Sapochnik came up with a 48 day shooting schedule, unable to meet the time constraints, but eventually they were able to squeeze it down to 25 days, after much deliberation and altering creative choices in portraying the battle. Sapochnik stated that one crucial scene was filmed off-script. Due to 3 days of rain, he was not able to finish the filming as scripted, instead he proposed a scene whereby Jon Snow was trampled and became almost buried alive by bodies, a suggestion accepted by Benioff and Weiss. He described the scene of Jon Snow pushing his way out as "rebirthing." There were also challenges with including Ghost, Jon Snow's direwolf, in the episode, with Sapochnik saying he was "in there in spades originally, but it's also an incredibly time consuming and expensive character to bring to life. Ultimately we had to choose between Wun Wun and the direwolf, so the dog bit the dust."

"Battle of the Bastards" marks the first time that Kit Harington, and Iwan Rheon have filmed scenes together, and met in the series, as their respective characters. In the lead up to the episode, Rheon stated that the character that he had always wanted to film scenes with Jon Snow, saying "Anyone who has asked me, 'Who would you like Ramsay to meet?' My answer has always been, 'Jon Snow.' He's the antithesis of Ramsay. They're almost a yin and a yang. They both come from such a similar place yet they're so different. And even though they're enemies, they've both risen so far as bastards, which is almost incomprehensible, and now they're both here facing each other. They couldn't be any more different, yet more similar." In an interview with Harington, about the fight scene with Rheon, Harington stated, "I actually did punch Iwan in the face twice by accident, Which he took really well. He was really nice about it." Rheon responded, "The way I see it, if you don't get hit a couple of times doing that, you're not doing it properly."

Kit Harington drew a comparison between the "rebirthing" scene, and the concluding scene with Daenerys Targaryen in the third season episode "Mhysa".

In an interview about the "rebirthing" scene, Kit Harington stated that he felt it was intended to mirror the Daenerys Targaryen scene at the end of the third season episode "Mhysa", when Daenerys is shown from above and being held up by freed Yunkai slaves, but instead Jon Snow is shown from above after emerging from the crushing crowd of the battle. Harington stated in the interview, "When the crush starts happening, he slows down, and there's that thing of peace where he thinks: 'I could just stay here and let it all end.' And then something drives him to fight up, and that moment when he comes up and grasps for breath, he is reborn again, which I found weirdly reflective of the scene where Dany is held aloft at the end of season three."

For the Daenerys sequence at the beginning of the episode, with the three dragons burning part of the fleet of the masters, Sapochnik credited the VFX supervisor and producer Joe Bauer and Steve Kullback, respectively, for their work on creating the sequence in post-production. He also stated, "For this sequence David and Dan said that what they wanted to see was a "demonstration" of what's to come. So I tried to approach it in the most elegant, epic, big-movie way I could." Sapochnik noted that he attempted to design the shots in a way that was not too fantastical, and based many of his directorial choices on footage he had seen of World War II Supermarine Spitfires in action. He also based the shots of the dragons on wildlife footage, allowing the dragons to break the frame, saying "These things should be so big and fast it's hard to keep up with them." In order to insert Emilia Clarke's performance as Daenerys Targaryen into the sequence, the production created a "multi directional computer-controlled hydraulic gimbal device shaped like the upper shoulders of the dragon," which Clarke rode on, and was filmed separately in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

The episode also featured the first meeting between Daenerys Targaryen, and Yara and Theon Greyjoy, as well as Yara's first meeting with Tyrion Lannister. Gemma Whelan, who portrays Yara, spoke about filming the scene in the episode, noting "Oh my goodness – I was so excited when I saw that I had a scene with those two," referring to Daenerys and Tyrion. Asked about the dynamic between the two women, Whelan said "It's clear as the scene plays out that Yara quite likes Dany. We share a lot of little looks and there's some playful language in how we talk to one another – Dany asks if the Iron Islands ever had a queen, and Yara says, "No more than Westeros." They recognize the girl power undertow between the two of them."

Reception

Ratings

"Battle of the Bastards" was viewed by 7.66 million American households on its initial viewing, which was slightly more than the previous week's rating of 7.60 million viewers for the episode "No One". This was particularly notable, as it was competing against Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals. The episode also acquired a 3.9 rating in the 18–49 demographic, making it the highest rated show on cable television of the night.

Critical reception

Game of Thrones just gave us everything we wanted.

Not merely the obvious — Sansa letting slip the dogs of war to turn her sadistic tormenter and the show's biggest villain into kibbles and bits — but everything else was pitch-perfect thrilling, too. We wanted a massive battle that's unlike anything we’ve seen before, and we got it. We wanted to see Dany's three dragons fighting an enemy all at once. We wanted Theon and Yara to meet Dany and form an alliance. We wanted to see resurrected Jon Snow in action-hero mode. We wanted Davos to get a clue about Shireen. We wanted Jon and Ramsay to have an actual conversation — and for them to fight one on one. We wanted the Starks to reclaim their home. And of course, yes, we wanted comeuppance for Ramsay and sweet revenge for Sansa.

Sure, there was tragedy in "Battle of the Bastards" too — Rickon, Wun-Wun. But can we be honest with ourselves? On some level, we wanted that, too. We don't want a huge climactic episode 9 battle without any loss. That would not be war, and that would not be Game of Thrones.

— James Hibberd, Entertainment Weekly

"Battle of the Bastards" received acclaim from both critics and viewers, praising it as one of the series' best episodes, and with one critic describing it as a "masterpiece." Critics praised the size and scope of the gigantic battle in the North, as well as Daenerys's sequence with her dragons at the beginning of the episode. It has received a 98 percent rating on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes from 47 reviews with an average score of 9.3 out of 10. The site's consensus reads ""Battle of the Bastards" delivered one of the greatest battle sequences in the show's history, and some savagely satisfying vengeance as well." The episode holds a rating of 10 out of 10 on IMDb, being one of only two television episodes in history to get a 10 on the website with more than 1,000 votes. It's also the most voted episode of a television series on IMDb, with over 80,000 votes.

Matt Fowler of IGN wrote in his review for the episode, "At this point, it seems like the pattern when it comes to the ninth episode of a given season of Game of Thrones is tragic death, amazing battle, tragic death, amazing battle, and so on. And this being Season 6, it was time to land on a phenomenal clash of swords and shields - and "Battle of the Bastards" certainly delivered." He continued, "Game of Thrones did not disappoint when it came to this season's great northern battle, as Jon and Sansa's differences were spectacularly highlighted in a savagely strong war chapter that saw House Stark overcome huge odds to reclaim their home. Plus, Daenerys got to soar, as her dragons quickly stopped a violent siege with fury and fire." He gave the episode a score of 10 out of 10. Jeremy Egner of The New York Times similarly gave praise to the episode, writing, "As directed by Miguel Sapochnik, who also oversaw last season’s terrific "Hardhome" episode, the lengthy sequence was terrifying, gripping and exhilarating, sometimes all at once, a sweeping display of all the different ways one can die on the battlefield." Egner also listed Ramsay's death as one of the episode highlights, saying "Ramsay Bolton's demise was arguably the most eagerly anticipated death ever on Game of Thrones and the show handled it with flair, dispatching him in a poetic, canine-fueled fashion that was no less satisfying for being telegraphed early on." He concluded his review writing about Daenerys's sequence in the episode, noting "Daenerys Stormborn had a few words for the slave masters who launched their attack last week. Those words included "surrender or die" and "thanks for the ships," as we saw another thrilling action sequence that I believe reunited the dragon triplets for the first time since they were quite young." Myles McNutt of The A.V. Club wrote in his review "This battle works as a climactic moment for Game of Thrones as a cultural event, selling us on the scale and ambition of the producers and their production teams, all who should be commended for the accomplishments from a technical perspective." James Hibberd of Entertainment Weekly wrote "Was this the show's best episode? It's hard to immediately process that question. Maybe? Probably. It's almost certainly the most exciting hour and had the most jaw-dropping battle sequence we’ve seen yet on TV."

Ed Power of The Daily Telegraph wrote in his review about the theme of strong women in the episode, writing "Game of Thrones has been justly criticised for employing young actresses as wobbly-wobbly window dressing and, though the toplessness has been dialed back this season, it's still very much a calling card. However there are reasons for suspecting that the series is attempting to make amends – by arguing that Westeros would be far better off with women in charge. Even as Sansa was turning the tide at Winterfell, in Meereen, Daenerys and Yara Greyjoy were striking up a lady bromance – and seemingly rock-solid alliance – for the ages. They understood one another absolutely and had fun with their mild flirtation. From blizzards of boobs to a cogent argument for the matriarchy – my how you've changed Game of Thrones." Similarly, Laura Prudom of Variety echoed this sentiment, saying "After seasons of criticism over the show's misogyny (sometimes earned, sometimes not), it's thrilling to see an episode like "Battle of the Bastards", where women like Dany, Sansa and Yara — and emasculated men (either figuratively or literally) like Tyrion and Theon — break the gears of war and the familiar patterns of violence by attempting to "leave the world better than we found it," despite the examples set by the "evil men" who came before them."

External links

• "Battle of the Bastards" at HBO.com
• "Battle of the Bastards" at IMDb
• Template:Tv.com episode