SPOILER ALERT! So am I the only one excited about a new round of GoT?

[Sangennaru]

I really enjoyed the episode 9 interms of direction, photography, all the action scene were masterpieces! However... the whole battle strategy reminded me of a chinese blockbuster i watched a while ago, it's full of clichet, with spearmen moving with perfect coordination in weird formations without any hope to keep cohesion and with the wildling letting them move without objecting... Not even the 300 spartans were so well-trained! And the whole "wall of carcasses" thing is not even remotely reasonable as well, not to mention the perfect timing of the cavalry (which was not communicating, it was indeed a surprise) that came just at the right moment.

Again, i really enjoyed the scenes, but my suspension of disbelief was way gone.

[Hammers]

I really enjoyed the episode 9 interms of direction, photography, all the action scene were masterpieces! However... the whole battle strategy reminded me of a chinese blockbuster i watched a while ago, it's full of clichet, with spearmen moving with perfect coordination in weird formations without any hope to keep cohesion and with the wildling letting them move without objecting... Not even the 300 spartans were so well-trained! And the whole "wall of carcasses" thing is not even remotely reasonable as well, not to mention the perfect timing of the cavalry (which was not communicating, it was indeed a surprise) that came just at the right moment.

Again, i really enjoyed the scenes, but my suspension of disbelief was way gone.

And I dont find the deployment of the giant believable. If he could smash though the castle gate, severely, pierced, as if it was made of tinders, why held up by a shield wal. A kick, and there would be a breach in a fallanx no more than two lancers deep and the wildlings(skirmishers) could do their thing. I suppose the Real World equivalent of a giant is a war elephant. I am not all that familiar with their tactics. Were they not best deployed against unfamiliar cavalry, anyone?

[Hammers]

And I dont find the deployment of the giant believable. If he could smash though the castle gate, severely, pierced, as if it was made of tinders, why held up by a shield wal. A kick, and there would be a breach in a fallanx no more than two lancers deep and the wildlings(skirmishers) could do their thing. I suppose the Real World equivalent of a giant is a war elephant. I am not all that familiar with their tactics. Were they not best deployed against unfamiliar cavalry, anyone?

A quick google seems to have me in the wrong: elephant may have mostly prestige and terror effects, and possibly also as a fighting platform. Like a hummer or the hulk of a '252'. :-)

Anyway, several of us seem to have some trouble with the logic of a series which in many ways lays closes to our world but sometimes or even increasingly darts away towards the magical and fantastic (low fantasy).

[Malebolgia]

With Wun  Wun I wondered why he didn't just pluck those pikes from their hands. Grab 5 of them, yank... Rinse and repeat.

[Dr. Zombie]

While there was definately a lot of cgi involved apparently a lot of the battle was real life old school stunt work.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/andyneuenschwander/15-facts-about-the-battle-of-the-bastards?utm_term=.llORGM3Od#.ofmv69qem

[Furt]

I thought the scenes where Jon was surrounded by a swirling mass of colliding cavalrymen and horses was pretty cool and likely fairly realistic. Unfortunately I did find the wall of the dead and the encircling shield wall too much to forgive.

Poor Giant, couldn't he have just fell on the Bolton men in the shield wall and wiped out a good twenty or so of them. 

Overall a good battle scene and so much more than what we have received before.

[Brummie]

Why have there been so many god damn downers when it comes to Season 6?

Its been a perfectly legit season, what made it any less than all the others? I'm starting to think people are just getting tired of the franchise.

Personally I thought the Battle of the Bastards was awesome.

The pile of corpses may have been a bit excessive, but lets put it like this:
1: when two large bodies of mounted men charge each other and collide, the collission itself would be catastrophic. Those horses would have died/dropped where they met, and there were hundreds of them on a seemingly narrow corridor/close formation, so the space to dump all those corpses is pretty small.

2: I've seen multiple dead horses (Barn fire on a family farm killed 4 animals, 1 was a fully grown stallion) and a dead horse is no small thing, people underestimate how much space corpse takes up, times that by 100-1000 and add alot of dead/injured men into the mix and you have a considerable enough pile that you can't just step over them.

As for the encircling shield wall, yeah, a bit perfect maybe, but not impossible. I thought the direction it came from was more unusual as it snaked around them as opposed to advance from the front.

And the Wildlings not intercepting the wierd wall of spears? Well having only just got over the whole phenonmenon of fighting mounted men, a solid wall of shields and spears might take the momentum out of you and make you a tad dumbstruck if you'd never seen it before so...

Anyway, the key issue with critiquing it is, well, the criticisms are heavily perception based, and there is no 'by the book' way in which things happen. At least not in warfare. 

[Dr. Zombie]

I am not entirely convinced that Sansa did not tell John that the Knights of the Vale was comming. I think she might have but off screen to keep it a surprise. As if no one saw that one comming...

I thought as much anyway. That the whole thing was a rouse to make Ramsay thing that they were doing what he wanted them to. Only to spring the Knights on him at the last moment.

[Timbor]

Perhaps, but I don't think they would have put themselves in so much peril just to make a trap...

Also, now that I think more about it, are there no scouts in the North anymore? It seems that 10 000 knights were able to just walk up the continent without anyone noticing or being alarmed? 

[thebinmann]

I loved it when the Riders of Rohan came over that hilll...

[manic _miner]

 Sansa may not have known if Littlefinger would come or not so that might be worth taking into consideration.

 People can argue about battle tactics but if you look at historical battles stupid things did happen.Just look at the ECW,ACW where they just walkied upto each other then started to shoot.Seems daft to me to waste lives like that.Also WW1 storming from trenches into a hail of bullets is just suicide but it did happen.

 After seeing the trailer for the next episode i am wondering if Walder Fay will try another stunt like the Red Wedding with the Lanisters.You just never know with this series.

[Hupp n at em]

Having some low (Maybe up to your waist) corpse piles makes sense.  But people wearing armor aren't going to climb the corpse piles to fight hand to hand, why would they unless it was in their path like up against a castle wall or something?  They would go around it where they would at least have the possibility of better footing.  I'm sure they made that decision because having lots more smaller corpse piles would have meant they needed a wider shot and been harder to pull off.  And the really, really tall corpse pile has more of a striking visual effect and tonal message, I guess.

[Lowtardog]

Why have there been so many god damn downers when it comes to Season 6?

Its been a perfectly legit season, what made it any less than all the others? I'm starting to think people are just getting tired of the franchise.

Personally I thought the Battle of the Bastards was awesome.

The pile of corpses may have been a bit excessive, but lets put it like this:
1: when two large bodies of mounted men charge each other and collide, the collission itself would be catastrophic. Those horses would have died/dropped where they met, and there were hundreds of them on a seemingly narrow corridor/close formation, so the space to dump all those corpses is pretty small.

2: I've seen multiple dead horses (Barn fire on a family farm killed 4 animals, 1 was a fully grown stallion) and a dead horse is no small thing, people underestimate how much space corpse takes up, times that by 100-1000 and add alot of dead/injured men into the mix and you have a considerable enough pile that you can't just step over them.

As for the encircling shield wall, yeah, a bit perfect maybe, but not impossible. I thought the direction it came from was more unusual as it snaked around them as opposed to advance from the front.

And the Wildlings not intercepting the wierd wall of spears? Well having only just got over the whole phenonmenon of fighting mounted men, a solid wall of shields and spears might take the momentum out of you and make you a tad dumbstruck if you'd never seen it before so...

Anyway, the key issue with critiquing it is, well, the criticisms are heavily perception based, and there is no 'by the book' way in which things happen. At least not in warfare. 

I agree, enjoyed it, and being fantasy anything goes😃

[Elk101]

The spectacle around Jon during the battle was visually very impressive, I thought. Some of it may have been a touch unrealistic but it conveyed a sense of chaos and randomness that I thought worked for the scene. The corpse wall itself was a little convenient and clumsy but the concept of not being able to walk except on bodies was suitably shocking. I thought the shieldwall / phalanx came across as alittle odd but I wondered if it was derived from someone on the show reading about schiltrons?

By the end I didn't even care too much that the predictable last minute charge by the Knights of the Vale decided the day, by that time I just wanted Ramsay to get twatted. I was glad that Tormund survived as I like the character,  but poor Wun Wun is gone gone.

I do get the impression that it only has perhaps one more season in it. I hope they bow out gracefully and don't flog it to death because I like many of the characters and I like the setting and I know I'd still watch it just to find out what happens to them, even if it's shit.

[Silent Invader]

I know I'd still watch it just to find out what happens to them, even if it's shit

That sounds like my commitment to watching The walking Dead 

I started off as a casual watcher of GoT, really got into it in Seasons 3 to 5, but season 6 has served to tame the growing enthusiasm.  I did enjoy episode 9, despite that I was resigned to the almost-without-a-doubt-pretty-much-an-absolute-certainty-destroyer-of-tension expectation that the Knights of the Vale would come riding over the hill and save the day.  Yawn.  The rest was pretty good: I enjoyed Mereen and of course the Bloody Big Battle.  My worry for the seasons that follow is that it'll be too clean cut.... lots of immaculately-dressed shining knights are a turn-off for me, I much prefer the grittier Wildlings and Boltons, etc.