#Battle of the Bastards

[hexgirling]

[alemoncakelife]

Sansa moments that live in my head rent free

[targaryen-dynasty]

They‘ll sing songs about these battles. via @/heromode on Instagram

[sesiondemadrugada]

Game of Thrones, S06E09: Battle of the Bastards (Miguel Sapochnik, 2016).

[kitharingtonedit]

“Battle of the Bastards” premiered 7 years ago today.

[emaistome]

The battle of Rook's Rest was as bad as the battle of the Bastards

I think that it's safe to say that I didn't like House of the Dragon season two, and I will write multiple posts talking about all of the things that are wrong because there are a lot. It kind of let me heartbroken because my favorite character was Alicent Hightower and she had been butchered. But my complaint for today will be about episode 4 and 5 and the things I didn't like about them.

First I want all of us to be reminded that, one of the reasons why Game of Thrones was so loved, was because it showed us that character's actions have consequences, and logical consequences. Something I found lacking in House of the Dragons.

The most blatant example of that is the battle of Rook's Rest. There, Aemond fired at his brother, in the middle of the sky, in broad daylight, in front of thousands of soldiers, and somehow no one sees that no one talks about that....

We know that kinslaying and kingslaying are considered as some of the worst sins in Westeros, they say that "no one is as accursed as the Kinslayer", and Jaime was heavily criticized for killing the mad king years after it happened. Somehow Aemond tried BOTH, so he is a recidivist since he'd already killed his nefew, and the ONLY person to catch up on that is Alicent, she wasn't even in the battle. Not a single person talks about it, there's not a rumor, nothing??? If it were something logic from the moment the returning troops set foot in King's Landing, this story should be on everyone's mouth and it wouldn't be just Alicent and Criston's little secret. It makes the world of HOTD feel so dull and lifeless. It just doesn't make any sense. Rook's Rest is like the battle of the Bastards, it's all performance with no substance.

I have a hard time believing that.

But the issue continued to episode 5, where it is mixed with other issues, mainly with Alicent.

Alicent and her people plotted for years to put Aegon on the throne over Rhaenyra, because Aegon is a man and Rhaenyra is a woman. Why does she proposes herself as regent, knowing that it undermined their claim? I mean she has a good reason, but her approach is so dumb, since she should know that the council wouldn't agree with her given the entire premisses for the war. Is she dumb? She is not a Targaryen, she doesn't have a dragon, on top of that. And it's natural that she loses power because she is no longer queen but the dowager queen, her power diminishes. And I know that mothers rule as regent when their sons can't but it literally happens when they are children, if they are grown and married, it's most likely their wives who rule. Why doesn't she at least proposes Helaena? And it's so stupid because in episode height she tells Rhaenyra that Helaena would have all the power when Aemond is gone.

As I said, she has good reasons to want Aemond far from the throne he is a kinslayer, and on top of that she knows that he attempted both kinslaying and kingslaying at Rooks Rest, which make him dangerous even for her. He tried to kill a family member for power, how does she know that he won't try to kill her if she stands in his way?

While her attempt to be named as regent was dumb, it was justified.

Now I wanna be clear about something which is where the struggle of episode 4 and episode 5 seems related. If the writers cared about logic, Alicent would have proposed to be named regent and the entire council would have agreed and named her regent. They would have heard the rumors about Aemond trying to kill his brother, even if they are sexist, kinslaying and kingslaying are worse than having a woman. They should at least be frightened of him, but for some reason, they don't seem to know any of that.

Alicent on the other side knows that he tried to kill his brother and at this point he's unredeemable, she has legitimate reasons to fear for her life and she knows that the council would be more than hesitant to name a woman regent. So what does she do?

I have the example of Kendall Roy from succession who was in a similar situation in the middle of the first season, Kendall is not very smart, but at least he had an entire plan to overthrow hid father. And it's basic logic, he knew that people wouldn't agree to have his father removed if he didn't give them a reason, just like Alicent knew that the council would prefer to name a man instead of her at it's head. And both of them had valid reasons, Kendall realized that his father was a bit senile and Alicent knows that her son is a psychopath.

She had to convince them that he wasn't fit to rule and strengthen her claim, by proposing Helaena as regent, even before going to the small council that's the least she could do.

It's like in season two Alicent lost all of her intelligence and it bothers me.

It was all for today, I will talk about more issues in the future.

[spiderlegsmusic]

Battle of the Bastards…Game of Thrones Season 6

[agentrouka-blog]

Hello,

While referring to the Battle of the Bastards episode when Sansa tells Jon that they need more men, would that be a moot point for her to be right as there were no more men?

He listens to her when she said they didn’t have enough men, and he agreed. But there were no other men available to them.

Jon saw his baby brother running away from Ramsey who was throwing arrows at him to kill and tried to save him (“oh better just let him die cause someone told me not to do what Ramsey wants”?? Saw this somewhere), I’d like to ask if you think what he did was rational considering his brother was going to die, or is there something else he could’ve done instead of messing up his battle plans in one move?

Sansa is primarily criticizing that Jon is going into this battle overconfident and expecting it to go according to what he could expect from a "normal" enemy. With his little "I wanted to make him angry" line, thinking he could easily provoke Ramsay into a mistake. He is not scared enough, cautious enough, for her taste.

Sansa is trying to tell him that only an overwhelming force would predictably work to defeat Ramsay, everything else is extremely risky because of how manipulative and ruthless Ramsay is. She doesn't like that Jon is taking the chance of battle in this circumstance and that he isn't planning according to what the situation requires, i.e. "he's the one who lays traps". Jon hasn't planned for that at all. She assures him that Rickon is a lost cause. That what he wants and expects from this won't happen, that "Battles have been won against greater odds" is irresponsible.

Jon reacts defensively, takes her criticism and worry as an attack against his own level of experience, uses an angry and condescending tone. He's not open to thinking about the situation together, talking over options and applying his own expertise to what she is telling him about the enemy. When she signals her sense of despair and resignation, he offers reassurances that ring hollow. There is no avoiding what will happen, she realizes.

And, predictably, the thing Sansa warned him about happens: Rickon is a lost cause, Ramsay is playing a diabolical mind game. Jon has not prepared for that option, made any contingency for it. Of course, his response wasn't rational, it was entirely emotional and it got a ton of people killed, as Ramsay wanted.

Jon wasn't willing or able to adjust to the situation. He made it clear beforehand and he proved it later. There is no malice in it and he was very human in how he acted. He lacked Sansa experience to anticipate Ramsay's capacity for cruelty. He had no way to mentally detach from Rickon's survival the way Sansa automatically could, knowing Ramsay. Jon never thought to take advantage of her insight. He simply fell exactly into the trap that was laid out for him, a normal human being, and they all would have died.

So Sansa made her own contingency plan, and it happened to work.

Happy end.

[velinkthorn]

I want to fight for the side that fights for the living

[sihtryggr]

Jon Snow with the 20/20 vision pro max eyesight to be able to see clear across the field and figure out which one was Ramsay, let alone that it was his brother standing next to him because you bet your ass I would’ve been squinting across the field and still wouldn’t have been able to see a damn thing

[afro-hispwriter]

blood and mud caked Jon Snow can dick me down anyday

[werefated-topretend]

Game of Thrones (2011-2019)

[whatifwekilledgodandwebothgirls]

Stupidest thing ever in game of thrones was when Ramsey saw jhon snow looking like a wild feral dog covered head to toe in blood fucking foaming at the mouth holding a sword twice the size of the average small chikd and thought . Yeah thats the right time to do a one on one fight with that guy

[kitharingtonedit]

Kit Harington with Director Miguel Sapochnik, Cinematographer Fabian Wagner and Editor Tim Porter discussing 'Battle of the Bastards' at the London Action Festival.

[7-starboi]

So me and my roommate have been watching game of thrones for the first time and we just watched the battle of the bastards episode. People have said it's one of the best TV battles but like I couldn't even watch some of it cause my claustrophobia was like, yeah no look away. Jon getting stuck was not it for me but I enjoyed Ramsey getting his face bitten off after the battle was over. Sooo satisfying 😊