A Hipshot Critical Analysis of Game Of Thrones Battle of Winterfell (SPOILERS AHEAD)
Categories: Military, News
If you don’t like spoilers for Game of Thrones, stop now. If you couldn’t be bothered in the like 9 years that this show has been running to either get caught up or stay caught up, don’t bitch and moan about spoilers after this point.
Alright so here is the thing, I got out as a Lance Corporal, promoted the day after to Corporal, but I’m no dumbfluck, at least that’s what my mom shouts to me when she encourages me to leave the basement. BUT, I think I’ve got some great points here, and I’d like to talk about them. So spoilers ahead, stop now if you’re going to cry about it.
First off, the Dothraki. I get it, their head on charge is notoriously deadly against their foes. Nobody f***s with the Dothraki on an open field. Nobody. Except…you know a horde of the dead that isn’t dead. The Dothraki are cavalry, they are mobile, fast and agile. There are these things called flanks. That’s the sides. Why did they use them in a head-on charge when they could have outflanked the enemy and made them fight on three fronts? Maybe the army of the dead so to speak would have just turned and decimated them either way, but…Dothraki on the sides, Unsullied in the middle (and I’ll get to the Unsullied). That seems like a great plan to us, oh well. Gone now are the Dothraki in the world of Game of Thrones.
Secondly, the Unsullied. I get it, ounces turn into pounds, etc… and what not but…like, could they get some bigger shields. Historically speaking phalanxes with large shields and spears have done quite well against mindless hordes charging at them. Aside from small shields, they held their own really well all things considered. If they had bigger shields, once they had to resort to CQB, they could drop the big shield and start slaying dudes with the spears Arya style. At least Grey Worm survived amirite?
Thirdly, close air support was completely misused. I don’t know how they got this wrong. There are so many better ways you could have used the dragons. Light up the sides of the enemy formation forcing them to clump together, making them great targets for flaming catapult shots. Engage the enemy before you throw your Dothraki at them. I know, I know, I know it was a trap…blah blah blah and I really enjoyed the show. The dragons could have one burning the dead army, and another flying cover watching for the Night King and his dragon…I mean, there were multiple better ways to use the dragons…but I guess that’s the best we can get assuming they were really…inexperienced with using CAS. Oh well.
Lastly, I was actually quite impressed with the stand at the Godswood. Theon and his dudes did well before they all died. They didn’t waste shots when they saw movement, they took their time and waited to engage when they had PID. They went all Battle of Bunker Hill on ’em.
Those are the big glaring mistakes I saw, I’m sure there were at least hundreds more, but I still enjoyed the episode because…Arya FOR THE MOTHERFLUCKING WIN!
So I actually am proud to say, I really believed Arya was gonna land that final blow since she started training with the God of death, I was like who else could sneak up on death besides one of his greatest assassins. When I saw her come flying through the air like that I felt my heart drop and I like how they didn’t fuck around a drawn out fight between them. They showed the extent of aryas deadliest abilities by making it swift and just over!
Agree with you 100% Maybe let’s done with the Dothraki so ala charged of the light brigade… LOL
It’s a girl power episode and I have two daughters
I thought it was Jon’s dragon who was attacking him at the end, raised with so many other of the dead. Looked like that one and the Ice dragon had offed each other in the previous sequence.
So true!! I was saying to (and probably annoying) my wife with exactly the same criticisms (to which she was in agreement) as we were watching the show.
My question is: Who let Sansa draw up the plan of attack? No one that had any experience with (at least) ground combat (as we assume John Snow, Mother of Dragons, Grey Worm, and the Dothraki leader did) would had gone into battle with that idiotic plan of attack.
Arya kicked ass. Someone should have put her in charge of the battle plan.
And why keep the women and children in the crypt…when the Night King can (and inevitably would) raise the dead??? Here’s…Grandma!
They should all be dead!!! In any other remotely realistic situation they would have all died within the painfully long 1h25 of MY life that I will never get back.
And Tyrion, back from the dead, getting to tear Cersei to bits in a zombie apocalypse would change the course of this horrendous last season and make it worth watching!
I would have kept the unsullied between the fire pit and the wall. Then used them to slaughter the dead when they made gaps in the fire pits. When the dead were stacked up outside the fire pits then I would have used The dragons to flame up the stacked up units. I would have sent the cavalry on a round about route to kill the blue eyes. I would have told everyone that blues eyes were priority targets.