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canyonwalker"Battle of the Bastards" is the title of Game of Thrones season 6 episode 9. The long episode features not one but two huge battles. In one Danaerys Targaryen and her allies in Meereen fight off a naval invasion and school the foreign leaders coordinating the attack. In the second forces loyal to Jon Snow and Sansa Stark, including 2000 Wildlings, attack the armies of Ramsay Bolton to recapture Winterfell from him. The latter is a lengthier, more involved, and grittier story arc. Much of the camera work follows Jon fighting at ground level. By contrast, the naval battle was mostly distance shots and mostly CGI.
Here are my thoughts about the Battle of the Bastards, organized as Five Things:
1) The tactics used by the two armies of thousands of soldiers are based on historical examples. I would say they're sound tactics... except that Jon abandoned his sound tactics when Ramsay goaded him to break formation. Sansa even warned Jon that Ramsay, a master of psychological manipulation, would do that. Jon's emotional decision led his army into a dangerous trap. They were saved only by the last-minute arrival of an unexpected ally.
2) That late-arriving ally was the Armies of the Vale, led by Petry Baelish. While I get that their just-in-time arrival was meant to make great storytelling, on a deeper level it rings hollow. Sansa spurned Petyr's offer to help days/weeks earlier. Then she completely failed to tell Jon about it. Ironically on the eve of battle she complained to Jon that nobody was interested in her counsel about war. Jon invited her to tell him what she thought they should do; she again failed to mention anything about Petyr's offer or the fact that he might come anyway.
3) When the battle is all but over, Jon confeonts Ramsay inside Winterfell. Ramsay taunts Jon that he'd like to accept Jon's offer of one-on-one combat to determine the battle. ...Which is ridiculous because Ramsay's army is essentially obliterated, while Jon has thousands of soldiers (the Armies of the Vale) remaining and has just captured the castle. With Jon's archers already training their bows on Ramsay, I would've just pulled an "Indiana Jones shoots the swordmaster with a gun" and had them shoot the bastard.
4) Instead Jon accepts Ramsay's taunt to fight 1:1. Adroitly blocking the latter's bow shots with a shield he picks off a dead soldier, he charges Ramsay, knocks him down, and begins pummeling him. As he lands blow after blow on Ramsay's face, Jon looks up and sees a horrified look on Sansa's face. To me this telegraphed, "Don't become a monster like Ramsay. Don't revel in beating someone to death." But then....
5) In the next scene we learn that Sansa's horrified look was that she was upset Jon was kill-stealing. She wanted to kill Ramsay! And she does. She leaves Ramsay tied to a chair in the kennels to be devoured by his hounds— the hounds he's trained to kill people and has starved for a week to make extra vicious. As Sansa turns her back to his dying screams and walks away, we see in a patch of lantern light a satisfied smile spread across her face.
Here are my thoughts about the Battle of the Bastards, organized as Five Things:
1) The tactics used by the two armies of thousands of soldiers are based on historical examples. I would say they're sound tactics... except that Jon abandoned his sound tactics when Ramsay goaded him to break formation. Sansa even warned Jon that Ramsay, a master of psychological manipulation, would do that. Jon's emotional decision led his army into a dangerous trap. They were saved only by the last-minute arrival of an unexpected ally.
2) That late-arriving ally was the Armies of the Vale, led by Petry Baelish. While I get that their just-in-time arrival was meant to make great storytelling, on a deeper level it rings hollow. Sansa spurned Petyr's offer to help days/weeks earlier. Then she completely failed to tell Jon about it. Ironically on the eve of battle she complained to Jon that nobody was interested in her counsel about war. Jon invited her to tell him what she thought they should do; she again failed to mention anything about Petyr's offer or the fact that he might come anyway.
3) When the battle is all but over, Jon confeonts Ramsay inside Winterfell. Ramsay taunts Jon that he'd like to accept Jon's offer of one-on-one combat to determine the battle. ...Which is ridiculous because Ramsay's army is essentially obliterated, while Jon has thousands of soldiers (the Armies of the Vale) remaining and has just captured the castle. With Jon's archers already training their bows on Ramsay, I would've just pulled an "Indiana Jones shoots the swordmaster with a gun" and had them shoot the bastard.
4) Instead Jon accepts Ramsay's taunt to fight 1:1. Adroitly blocking the latter's bow shots with a shield he picks off a dead soldier, he charges Ramsay, knocks him down, and begins pummeling him. As he lands blow after blow on Ramsay's face, Jon looks up and sees a horrified look on Sansa's face. To me this telegraphed, "Don't become a monster like Ramsay. Don't revel in beating someone to death." But then....
5) In the next scene we learn that Sansa's horrified look was that she was upset Jon was kill-stealing. She wanted to kill Ramsay! And she does. She leaves Ramsay tied to a chair in the kennels to be devoured by his hounds— the hounds he's trained to kill people and has starved for a week to make extra vicious. As Sansa turns her back to his dying screams and walks away, we see in a patch of lantern light a satisfied smile spread across her face.
