Jon Snow is a very skilled combatant, but part of the reason he survives this battle is just he gets lucky". They persuade the Free Folk, House Mazin, House Hornwood, and House Mormont to join them, while Robett Glover, head of House Glover, refuses to declare for them, citing both his hatred for the wildlings and his anger at Robb for failing to protect them from Balon Greyjoy's invasion. [6], Weiss said that they wanted to depict a full-fledged battle, "From the beginning we knew that one thing we'd never had on the show was a true medieval pitched battle where two sides bring all the forces they can into play in some battlefield that's somehow negotiated or agreed upon and they go at each other until one of them wins and the other one loses. 5,000 of these men can be confirmed to be Bolton soldiers; however, which part consists of Umber and Karstark forces is unknown. Jon is barely able to save himself from being crushed to death. [8] His first appearance was in "Dark Wings, Dark Words", as a then-unnamed "boy" who helps a captured Theon Greyjoy. "[6], Asked about the greatest challenge in filming the battle, Sapochnik said: "Every time we charge the horses it takes 25 minutes to reset all the fake snow on the field and rub out the horseshoe prints. [28] In the United Kingdom, the episode was seen by 2.450 million viewers on Sky Atlantic (the channel's highest-rated broadcast that week) and had 0.118 million timeshift viewers. ... Ramsay is cocky, bragging about his army’s size. Date However, the Boltons most likely replaced the light losses taken against Stannis with more men. Smalljon leads a small force over the wall of dead to ensure that none are able to escape. It was a life-changing moment. In the United States, the episode had a viewership of 7.66 million in its initial broadcast. "[8], "Battle of the Bastards" was also the last episode for recurring character Rickon Stark (Art Parkinson), who had appeared since the series premiere episode "Winter Is Coming". "[3], Ed Power of The Daily Telegraph discussed the episode's refreshing strong-women theme: "Game of Thrones has been justly criticised for employing young actresses as wobbly-wobbly window dressing and, though the toplessness has been dialed back this season, it's still very much a calling card. He was really nice about it. After Davos, Tormund, and the rest of the lords are dismissed for the evening, Sansa approaches Jon, rebukes him for not consulting her, and tells him he doesn't know how Ramsay's mind works, how he likes toying with people. You read accounts of the battles in the Civil War where the bodies were piled so thick it was actually an obstruction on the battlefield". What is worse, the heir apparent to Winterfell, Rickon, is now dead, leaving the newly restored Great House in the hands of an illegitimate son and an eldest daughter. He's an incredibly detailed actor who's created a character who's remarkable and despicable. At the parley one day before the battle, Ramsay states that he's got 6,000 men. It's not beautiful. Ramsay offers to pardon Jon if he hands Sansa over. However, by the time they arrive, the Northern armies have nearly wiped each other out, with the Bolton forces having clearly suffered much higher casualties than the Stark forces. [11] In an interview, Jagger talked about his casting: "I prayed for it. Ramsay soon notices his hounds coming closer to him, the kennel doors having been left open. It feels like we're doing something fresh that you don't see on TV and movies very often. The fifth and most recent novel, A Dance with Dragons, ends with Stannis still marching against Winterfell and Jon's death. According to Weiss, "We went bac… Club wrote in his review, "This battle works as a climactic moment for Game of Thrones as a cultural event, selling us on the scale and ambition of the producers and their production teams, all who should be commended for the accomplishments from a technical perspective. [6] He based the dragon shots on wildlife footage, allowing them to break the frame: "These things should be so big and fast it's hard to keep up with them. I was particularly interested in depicting both the horror of war and the role of luck in battle." It's hard. And we only had 70 horses ... [The solution was] you would have one guy run into the frame, and then the horse rider would pull the horse, which means make the horse fall and lie down on its side. However there are reasons for suspecting that the series is attempting to make amends — by arguing that Westeros would be far better off with women in charge. We wanted a massive battle that's unlike anything we've seen before, and we got it. A token force remains holding Winterfell, most of which are killed when remnants of the Stark army take the castle. Second Siege of Riverrun However, to cement their hold on the North following the murders of Joffrey Baratheon and Tywin Lannister, they betray the Lannisters and secure a marriage alliance through Lord Petyr Baelish between Sansa (formerly the Lannisters' hostage) and Ramsay Bolton, Lord Roose Bolton's recently-legitimized bastard son. Around 2,400 men2,000 Free Folk warriors200 Hornwood soldiers143 Mazin soldiers62 Mormont soldiers1 giantReinforcements:2,000 mounted knights of the Vale[1](Relief Force) He is saved by the timely arrival of the Stark cavalry, and the battle becomes a bloody storm of swords. When you have 20 people running around getting squeezed together, and you're trying to chop at another bearded guy with a sword, you are not out of danger. The Battle of the Bastards is a battle late in the War of the Five Kings in which Jon Snow and Sansa Stark retake Winterfell from Lord Ramsay Bolton, the Warden of the North, and restore House Stark as the ruling house of the North. Though it seems as if he will kill Ramsay, Jon stops when he sees Sansa, realizing that she has as much right to revenge as he does. We had to shoot moment-to-moment, chronologically. Ramsay Bolton is rumored to command some 5,000 Bolton men,[3] although possibly weakened after the Battle of Winterfell against Stannis. Jon Snow and Ramsay Bolton face off in a battle for control of Winterfell. The Siege of Bastogne was an engagement in December 1944 between American and German forces at the Belgian town of Bastogne, as part of the larger Battle of the Bulge.The goal of the German offensive was the harbor at Antwerp.In order to reach it before the Allies could regroup and bring their superior air power to bear, German mechanized forces had to seize the roadways through eastern Belgium. Jon vows he will protect Sansa but Sansa, jaded by years of failures and disappointments, replies that no one can protect her or anyone now.