Our 10 Favourite Facts About The "Battle Of The Bastards"

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    1/10

    The production design team had to dress every single one of the fake human and horse corpses in the proper house sigils and armor.

    Production designer Deborah Riley said that each individual prop body was dressed according to which house they belonged to before being added to the pile. She went on to say the level of detail made the sight of the piles "deeply moving" despite knowing the corpses were fake.

     

    Image: HBO/YouTube

     

  • 2/10
    2/10

    That face-beating scene took 10 hours to film.

    Director Miguel Sapochnik wanted to shoot that scene from every angle possible, so they had Harington throwing punches for hours on end.

     

    Image: HBO/YouTube

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    3/10

    Iwan Rheon, who plays Ramsay, says he “always wanted to do a scene” with Jon Snow — a role he originally auditioned for.

     

    Image: HBO

     

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    4/10

    The piles of corpses were inspired by accounts of medieval and even American Civil War battles.

    David Benioff said the scene was influenced by accounts of both ancient and more modern battles in which, according to accounts, corpses were piled so high that they “became an obstruction on the battlefield.”

     

    Image: HBO

  • 5/10
    5/10

    That was an actual wall of cavalry charging at Kit Harington (Jon Snow), not CGI.

    Production used 40 horses to film that shot, and they actually charged straight at Harington, stopping at the last second. “We’re a bit annoyed because I think everyone’s going to think it was CGI,” Harington said, “but it wasn’t.”

     

    Image: HBO

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    6/10

    The scene where Sansa gets her revenge is Sophie Turner's favourite scene

    She says it’s because she loves how Sansa gets to stand up to the man who tortured her and tell him that he won’t affect her.

     

    Image: HBO/YouTube

  • 7/10
    7/10

    They shot Sansa’s triumphant walk away from Ramsay “12 or 13 times.”

    That’s according to D.B. Weiss, who says that Sansa’s hint of a smile is his “favorite thing she’s done on the show,” and they wanted to get it just right.

     

    Image: HBO

  • 8/10
    8/10

    The shield wall wasn’t originally in the script, but was added to save time and money.

    Sapochnik explained that originally the Bolton army was going to perform a pincer maneuver using horses. But you could see too much of the battlefield behind the horses, which meant more extras and set dressing, so instead the production opted for the shield wall, which would completely block the view.

     

    Image: HBO

  • 9/10
    9/10

    The Jon Snow trampling scene was unscripted and was a last-min change because of time constraints

    Originally, the production had a different ending for the battle, but with the conditions on the set (there had been many hours of rain, causing the ground to become a muddy, swampy mess), they were forced to come up with a different ending. The result was the smaller-scale and incredibly claustrophobic shots of Jon fighting for air.

     

    Image: HBO

  • 10/10
    10/10

    Actual actors and horses were used to charge past Jon Snow in the fight

     

    Image: HBO/YouTube

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