SPOILERS FOR THE LAST SEASON OF GAME OF THRONES!
Let’s face it, there were a lot of complaints from fans about the last season of Game of Thrones that ranged from Bran becoming King of Westeros and Daenerys’ character arc to the much hyped “The Long Night” episode being nigh unwatchable mainly because someone forgot how to set up the lights.
While there’s no redoing the first two complaints, no matter how many fans sign that dumb “remake S8” Change.org petition, we have figured out a new way to rewatch the Battle of Winterfell that elevates it from “literally unwatchable” to “that was actually pretty good” that doesn’t involve turning off the lights and cranking up your TV’s brightness setting.
All you have to do is watch it through a VR headset.
It is indeed a reason to smile.
The kind folks at Facebook kindly lent us one of their new Oculus Quest VR headsets and it’s been quite the revelation.
Unlike all the other VR headsets going around that need to be hooked up to a mega powerful PC or PS4 in order to work, the Quest is 100% portable so you can use it from the comfort of your couch or bed. The headset itself is actually pretty comfortable and big enough to accommodate glasses-wearers with no problem, and the user interface is pretty easy to navigate which is always nice.
Most importantly, it offers up a cinema-eqsue quality when it comes to watching Game of Thrones that genuinely adds to the experience. The cinematographer for “The Long Night” previously had a whinge that all the “it’s too dark” complaints were dumb because the episode should’ve watched in a cinema as intended, but I now see where he’s coming from after rewatching the Battle of Winterfell on the Quest.
The lack of an external light source definitely helps when viewing the episode’s dark scenes as you can actually make out what’s happening. But the biggest surprise was the increased sense of tension I got. Despite knowing what happens, my heart was pounding during most of the episode, particularly the great sequence where Arya stealthily escapes a bunch of wights in the library.
I can’t even properly describe that moment when Arya kills the Night King because it was far more awesome the second time around,
You won’t regret it.
There are a few small issues that do come up should you use the Quest for your Game of Thrones viewing. The sound isn’t the best so you’ll want a pair of headphones to go with it, the battery life only goes for about 3 or so hours so you’ll only get in a couple of episodes before needing to recharge, and it’s not exactly cheap as these things go for about $650.
Okay, this probably isn’t the most viable option for most but outside of renting out an entire cinema just to watch “The Long Night”, rocking a VR headset like the Quest is a pretty good alternative to a TV.
All in all, the Quest may not be able to fix “The Long Night’s” structural and narrative problems but it definitely makes for a far better viewing experience than a TV.