Game of Thrones

SPOILER ALERT AHEAD: For the love of The Seven (I’m referring to the Faith of Westeros of course), please do not read ahead if you haven’t seen this week’s episode!

There are few fans who did not walk away from ‘The Spoils of War‘ completely satisfied with the massive battle that topped off the episode. Even if you are one of the naysayers complaining that we were shorted 7 minutes from the episode, you have to admit that this was one of the best battles the show has done, and it was all because we finally got to watch Dany ride into combat atop a dragon, and see what they could do together. And now, HBO has released a massive 14 minute video detailing how exactly they managed to put together that battle and from the look of things, it was quite a feat.

First of all, they had the logistical nightmare of getting cameras in the air to do tracking shots of the dragon passing over the battle, which they accomplished using a spider-cam (which, correct me if I’m wrong, was first used by Sam Raimi for his ‘Spider-Man’ trilogy) and a massive helicopter drone. Next, they had to do a lot of pyrotechnics on set to simulate the dragon fire actually blowing up the wagon train, which was amazing for me because I love that ‘Game of Thrones’ did so much of it with practical effects, from both blowing up the wagons all the way to breaking a record by actually setting 20 stuntmen on fire to get a shot. And, because the battle was not just about Dany and Drogon, they also delved into the way they made the Dothraki so impressive, coming up with the idea of having the horse masters stand up and shoot arrows while riding, which at first they thought was impossible, but they figured it out using special saddles and stirrups.

All in all, the video is a fascinating watch, and anyone who thought this battle was something special should definitely check it out below. And feel free to share any thoughts on the video, the battle, or how ‘Game of Thrones’ is actually going to top this moving forward in the comments section below that!