GoT’s The Battle Of Winterfell Is The Worst The Show Has Ever Been

Hear us out but ‘The Long Night’, the big battle for Winterfell between pretty much all of the living (sans Cersei) and the dead was one of the most disappointing episodes in the history of the show while also being packed with some of its best moments.

‘The Long Night’ has been built up, put on a pedestal and worshipped as the epitome of battle scenes in any form of entertainment with the director stating that he couldn’t find anything that matched it’s scale or scope but nonetheless, it was bad.

The fight was almost unwatchable. And that isn’t a dig at the quality, viewers struggled to see anything until Melisandre lit the swords of the Dothraki and for a second, we could see. But as they go into battle, the light quickly extinguishes.

The thing is though, that’s a cheap filmmaking tactic, save money on special effects, actors and time by obscuring the fight whether that be a lack of light or clouds, because there was no shortage of that. The thing is though, this would’ve been passable for a fight in season 1 but for season 8 and after the far superior, ‘Battle Of The Bastards’. And honestly, it’s hard to get emotionally invested when you can’t see what’s happening.

Fun fact: Both the ‘Battle of The Bastards’ and ‘The Long Night’ has the same cinematographer and director.

The direction was also really weak. There was no cohesion, no geography and really, it was hard to keep track of. It was impossible to tell where characters were at Winterfell, even telling them apart from white walkers was difficult.

The episode was a showcase in fast paced editing, but not much else and really, no one watches GoT for that. And look, a battle of this scale is hard but it’s hard to overlook LoTR’s Battle of Helm’s Deep in terms of managing multiple characters, positions and viewpoints but having it feel cohesive.

The saddest part though is that this episode has some of the shows greatest moments from Lyanna Mormont going out like a champ to Arya Stark taking out the Night King and his army, problem is though…those moments deserved a better episode that wasn’t bogged down by forced spectacle for the sake of it.

‘The Long Night’ is currently tied for third worst rated episode of the series and although this may sound harsh, but it’s only being said because not only can the show been better… we’ve seen it be better.