Video: Sure, Game of Thrones’ Battle of the Bastards aired a couple of weeks ago and many things have happened in life and on the internet since then. But we can’t stop thinking about it, because we have a very bad case of Game of Thrones withdrawals. Luckily, CineFix goes in deep on the epic sequence and examines why it was just so damn brilliant.
CineFix explains how it combined the best of the battle scenes from Braveheart (the choreography) with the best of the battle scenes from Lord of the Rings (the CGI) with the best of the battle scenes from Akira Kurosawa’s Ran (the scale). Those elements — along with its excellent cinematography and the way it placed characters we truly cared about deep in the fray — made it easily one of the most fantastic battle scenes ever seen on television (or film, for that matter).
There are three moments in particular that highlight director Miguel Sapochnik’s brilliance: The scene where Jon Snow is trying to save his brother, the scene where Jon Snow is in the fog of war and the final fight. Watch it all and re-live it below. Obviously, there will be spoilers in this video.