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[kirblar]

The Nerdwriter piece on the influences/homages in the scene is fantastic.

I love everything about this battle except for the name it's developed for itself. "Loot Train Battle" just sounds like some Destiny raid or something. I realize it's what the production staff called it too but ehhhh. Can you imagine cracking open The World of Ice & Fire and turning to page 37, wherein The Loot Train Battle is covered? Oi!

I think the undersell is a good thing because people randomly checking it out won't know what to expect.

 

[rtcn63]

All it needed was CJ

 

[ahoyhoy]

I enjoyed it, but it's probably one of my least-favorite battle scenes in the show. The CGI of the canyon didn't wow me, I questioned Khaleesi not burning the men horizontally all at once, and Bronn was a bit too invincible for my tastes. He shot a fucking dragon and almost brought it down. It's okay to go out like that. It encapsulates a growing feeling in me that most players are now safe, and that takes away some of the thrill.

Yeah i thought for sure Bronn was going to bite it, but I think he still has to have a reunion with Tyrion before he can get got.

 

[Moongazer]

It was a great move to show the dragon attack from the pov of the receiving side of the battle. The shot where Bronn was moving through the burnt up battlefield was intense the whole place turned into hell literally.

 

[jett]

I saw some other video had titled this sequence "The Field of Fire" which seems much more in keeping with the fantasy theme.

But "Loot Train" appears to be what the fans are grabbing hold of?

It's what HBO themselves named this sequence.

The Field of Fire was actually a battle from 300 years ago in the books' lore, when the Targaryens first invaded Westeros with their dragons. This would be Field of Fire 2.0 if anything.

 

[zelas]

What loot? Daenerys burned it all up!

 

[Kin5290]

Light cavalry, not equipped to play a shock role, charging emplaced heavy infantry head on instead of hitting them in their flanks. Oh, and the battlefield is a wide open plain with no cover, and the cavalry hold the numerical advantage. And the cavalry possess a siege weapon that can tear up tightly clustered ranks.

Oh, Hollywood. You never change.

Aren't the Dothraki supposed to be the Westeros equivalent of the steppe peoples? They shouldn't be idiots charging heavy infantry with nothing but sabers.

 

[Galang]

It was the best battle scene of the series imo. Loved it! Played out very well from beginning to seconds before the end. People that said it was stupid have no soul

 

[adj_noun]

Re: what to call the scene, I vote for Grain Wain Pain Train.

 

[vatstep]

I don't watch the show, but Seth Meyers did a segment last night where he watched the newest episode with Leslie Jones (plus a surprise appearance by the actor that plays Varys). It was pretty funny, although if you don't like Leslie Jones this probably won't change your opinion of her.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvcrwTcA5iw

 

[Kayhan]

Light cavalry, not equipped to play a shock role, charging emplaced heavy infantry head on instead of hitting them in their flanks. Oh, and the battlefield is a wide open plain with no cover, and the cavalry hold the numerical advantage. And the cavalry possess a siege weapon that can tear up tightly clustered ranks.

Oh, Hollywood. You never change.

Aren't the Dothraki supposed to be the Westeros equivalent of the steppe peoples? They shouldn't be idiots charging heavy infantry with nothing but sabers.

You are right. My many hours of real-life field command work in the Total War series confirms your observations.

 

[Marz]

Wow amazing. Thanks for posting

 

[RDreamer]

It was an amazing technical marvel of an episode. It's frustrating though because with as much thought as they obviously put into the visuals they couldn't put more thought into some of the glaring issues with what's actually going on. A lot of those writing problems could be very easily and minimally solved, too.

Things like the Dothraki basically annihilating in the battle but literally none of them having the brains to go after Bronn while he's aiming and shooting at Dany? Yeah... ok. Then Bronn diving like 4 feet and being blasted with a 30 foot pillar of flames and not getting hurt. Ok...

 

[Netherscourge]

Khaleesi riding the dragon looked ridiculous to me any time they would show a close up of her, but I'm not sure that can be helped. It was an amazing scene.

She needs to be wearing some sort of battle armor. Or something more apporiate like Cersei's new outfit.

Who the hell goes into battle wearing what looks like a silk evening gown?

 

[Relix]

Breathtaking. Do you know the artist? A link or something?

 

[Eidan]

Light cavalry, not equipped to play a shock role, charging emplaced heavy infantry head on instead of hitting them in their flanks. Oh, and the battlefield is a wide open plain with no cover, and the cavalry hold the numerical advantage. And the cavalry possess a siege weapon that can tear up tightly clustered ranks.

Oh, Hollywood. You never change.

Aren't the Dothraki supposed to be the Westeros equivalent of the steppe peoples? They shouldn't be idiots charging heavy infantry with nothing but sabers.

If only you were there. You could've saved the Lannister forces!

 

[Fancy Clown]

It didn't impress me as much as the battle of the bastards, or the battle of black water, but the decision to ground the chaos through the use of POV of mostly the Lannister side was a very good one, it felt appropriately hellish.

 

[PlayALLtheGames]

Thanks for posting this I was going to search to see if they had a bit on how they did the strafe run. That was the most impressive execution of a continuous flamethrower effect I've ever seen.

 

[RDreamer]

Aren't the Dothraki supposed to be the Westeros equivalent of the steppe peoples? They shouldn't be idiots charging heavy infantry with nothing but sabers.

To be fair, they didn't charge with nothing but sabers. They shot them in the fucking face with arrows before arriving with the sabers.

 

[Mudcrab]

Being a stuntman on this show looks horrifying, but I guess they must love it.

 

[Regginator]

Being a stuntman on this show looks horrifying, but I guess they must love it.

I kinda skimmed the video, but can someone explain how they do this? Do they, like, put something fire-resistant on their skin first? I know it's just the clothing catching fire, but can't the fire reach their skin?

 

[Kolx]

There's a final shot of Jamie riding his horse, sword in hand, charging towards Dany. It's cinematically beautiful.

Yeah. That was the best shot of the episode. With the fire in the background it just looked damn cool.

 

[hydrophilic attack]

It was pretty rad

Also, more watchers seeing Dany for what she really is now after she burned all those people

 

[Kayhan]

Being a stuntman on this show looks horrifying, but I guess they must love it.

List of careers to consider:

Stuntman

 

[hydrophilic attack]

i prefer to call it the food freight fight

 

[The Elite]

Being a stuntman on this show looks horrifying, but I guess they must love it.

When I was watching it I assumed this had to be practical but I thought I might be wrong. It just looked too good.

Kudos to the work they put in.

 

[Uzzy]

The hero Westeros deserves, charging a monster to save the kingdom. This needs a 'He can't do it alone! Join the Lannister Army today!' label.

 

[jett]

It was pretty rad

Also, more watchers seeing Dany for what she really is now after she burned all those people

You mean after she eliminated the opposing army because war?

 

[MadLaughter]

I kinda skimmed the video, but can someone explain how they do this? Do they, like, put something fire-resistant on their skin first? I know it's just the clothing catching fire, but can't the fire reach their skin?

I think it's a crazy gel that they coat themselves in, in addition to outfits that are deceptively designed to be super insulating while appearing normal, with shots/editing to hide that fact.

 

[Napalm_Frank]

Very beautiful.

Jaime = best character. Jon who?

For an undead wanting to bang his aunt he sure is fuckin boring.

 

[TheCowboyPoet]

I was legitimately on the edge of my seat the whole time.

How in the world could someone have already painted that? It hasn't even been a week.

Amazing painting tho.

What? Dany wasn't on top of Drogon. How is Jamie going to get her with that lance when she's like 20 feet up? Immediate fail by the artist.

Spoiler

It's actually pretty amazing though.

Very beautiful.

Jaime = best character. Jon who?

If you forget about the time when he raped his sister next to their dead son, then sure.

 

[Einchy]

Light cavalry, not equipped to play a shock role, charging emplaced heavy infantry head on instead of hitting them in their flanks. Oh, and the battlefield is a wide open plain with no cover, and the cavalry hold the numerical advantage. And the cavalry possess a siege weapon that can tear up tightly clustered ranks.

Oh, Hollywood. You never change.

Aren't the Dothraki supposed to be the Westeros equivalent of the steppe peoples? They shouldn't be idiots charging heavy infantry with nothing but sabers.

Since when is HBO Hollywood?

 

[More_Badass]

It's pretty insane that a TV show (granted a TV show with a huge budget) can match or even top depiction of medieval combat and warfare seen in film. I mean, we all have our favorites - Braveheart, Kingdom of Heaven, Lord of the Rings, etc - but Battle of the Bastards and this are incredible in ways that some of those film battles fail. They may be smaller scale but they have a gritty in-the-dirt atmosphere that bring to mind the horrific battles of modern war movies more than sword and sandals clashes. (Something that Nerdwriter mentioned with the Apocalypse Now parallels)

And I love how they clearly draw from actual history; Battle of the Bastards was the Battle of Cannae ripped from the sources and Dan Carlin's Hardcore History series, down to the encirclement, the suffocating crush of bodies, etc.

 

[Freshmaker]

so who are those guys, what happened to the Unsullied?

I am way behind on GoT

They got a bit sullied.

 

[TimeEffect]

Being a stuntman on this show looks horrifying, but I guess they must love it.

That one guy is not even on fire lol

 

[-griffy-]

That one guy is not even on fire lol

He still commits to waving around frantically though!

 

[Slayven]

I like the Black Twitter Remix

https://twitter.com/_Zeets/status/894804684652851200

 

[hydrophilic attack]

You mean after she eliminated the opposing army because war?

using weapons of mass destruction is a war crime

 

[Drazgul]

I kinda skimmed the video, but can someone explain how they do this? Do they, like, put something fire-resistant on their skin first? I know it's just the clothing catching fire, but can't the fire reach their skin?

Several layers of protective clothing, masks w/ small oxygen tanks plus they're covered in flammable gel which is mostly what burns instead of the clothes, themselves. Still very dangerous so it's a matter of seconds before you need to put the fire out.

 

[TimeEffect]

I was looking at one of the lotr's scenes, and they had one scene that was very clearly poor CGI. I have to wonder what GoT will be perceived as 10 years down the line. There are certain scenes with Dany and the Dragon that will age poorly

And Dany lacking any riding gear is extremely off putting to me. She'd look so much better with goggles and armour and some kind of saddle

 

[Sephzilla]

I was looking at one of the lotr's scenes, and they had one scene that was very clearly poor CGI. I have to wonder what GoT will be perceived as 10 years down the line. There are certain scenes with Dany and the Dragon that will age poorly

And Dany lacking any riding gear is extremely off putting to me. She'd look so much better with goggles and armour and some kind of saddle

I have a feeling they'll put Dany in some armor if she does this again

 

[Volimar]

Light cavalry, not equipped to play a shock role, charging emplaced heavy infantry head on instead of hitting them in their flanks. Oh, and the battlefield is a wide open plain with no cover, and the cavalry hold the numerical advantage. And the cavalry possess a siege weapon that can tear up tightly clustered ranks.

Oh, Hollywood. You never change.

Aren't the Dothraki supposed to be the Westeros equivalent of the steppe peoples? They shouldn't be idiots charging heavy infantry with nothing but sabers.

There's a featurette about the unsullied narrated by Jorah where he talks about the dothraki. They have no respect at all for foot soldiers so they try to run them down rather than out maneuver them.

 

[ChubbyHuggs]

Beautiful.

I like the Black Twitter Remix

https://twitter.com/_Zeets/status/894804684652851200

Shoulda been 100 Black Coffins!!!

 

[gun_haver]

Loot Train Battle is truly a terrible fuckin name for a good battle scene.

 

[Meier]

Isn't it silly to name a set piece after something that doesn't even exist in that universe even as a figure of speech?!

DEEP THOUGHTS.

Probably already pointed out, but I think wagon trains were in existence before locomotives were in use. I'm sure "train" has origins in earlier language. I know they've shown royalty being moved via litter, but we've definitely seen wagons in general in the world so that term could exist in Westeros.

Back to the point, the sequence was unreal.. I'm still amazed at how good the dragons looks. At the beginning of the series there was discussion about direwolves being phased out due to the difficulty of replicating them.. it's a shame we only had that scene a week or two and haven't seen them more regularly. At this point, the show can make anything look real.

 

[Slayven]

Loot Train Battle is truly a terrible fuckin name for a good battle scene.

I don't watch GOT, and it had me thinking these fools got trains?

 

[TheRagnCajun]

The attention to detail was amazing, and the live action elements and CG elements were blended seamlessly. The only flaw I could see in my initial viewing is that when the dragon was going into free fall Danny's hair did not behave believably.

 

[Robdraggoo]

The only thing that would have made it better would be if there was a real train in the set piece and they were also fighting on top of it as it was moving.

Come to think of it, are there any trains in Westeros at all? Does the technology exist?

Isn't it silly to name a set piece after something that doesn't even exist in that universe even as a figure of speech?!

DEEP THOUGHTS.

Wagon train was a thing before trains were invented.

And there called locomotives. The train name I assume came after as it resembled a wagon train when hauling cars.

 

[The Illiterati]

LIke everything else about Game of Thrones post books...

amazing visually, narratively dead.

You have Bronn versus the dragon, Jaime versus Dany, etc....they culminate in absolutely nothing. A whole lot of wagons and soldiers got burned good, for sure. Oh and thank god all the important gold got into the city one minute earlier.

 

[HoJu]

It was an amazing technical marvel of an episode. It's frustrating though because with as much thought as they obviously put into the visuals they couldn't put more thought into some of the glaring issues with what's actually going on. A lot of those writing problems could be very easily and minimally solved, too.

Things like the Dothraki basically annihilating in the battle but literally none of them having the brains to go after Bronn while he's aiming and shooting at Dany? Yeah... ok. Then Bronn diving like 4 feet and being blasted with a 30 foot pillar of flames and not getting hurt. Ok...

Yeah, I agree. Bronn should've died like 5 times...
And if the next episode opens with Bronn saving Jamie from drowning, I'll be pissed.