Plot Fix: Game of Thrones S8 Ep. 2
If you haven’t read my Episode 1 re-rewrite, that’s a good place to start.
After watching S8, you now that that the writers were not…at the top of their game.
Episode 2, we’re going to jump straight the very strategically important battle for Winterfell, “The Long Night”.
The battle plan for the alliance made very, very little sense:
A headlong charge of light cavalry armed with weapons that couldn’t hurt the Undead or White Walkers…in the dark
The things that could do the most damage, artillery and our elite infantry, in FRONT of the walls
Let’s hide our most powerful intelligence tool, Bran, as a decoy and hope he doesn’t die
Let’s put all the defenseless women and children we love in the place with all the dead people that can be zombified en masse as soon as the Night King raises his arms. Something we fixed in our previous installment.
Look at all of those zombie blocks facing them. So Silly. #SMH
To name a few. And that doesn’t even include the actual story. Let’s jump in.
(As always, feedback welcome!)
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Setting: A well-armed Winterfell glows with its many torches and sconces.
There are multiple trenches that have been built around Winterfell roughly 100 yards apart, each filled with flammable pitch and stakes to slow an advance. Large pots are placed close to the trenches so that archers and artillery know how far their firing. The Alliance is prepared, though nervous.
What Winterfell’s defenses should have actually looked like:
Yellow: Trenches with pitch and other obstacles
Red: Artillery (like Catapults)
Green: The two dragons and their riders on stand-by
Blue: Bran at the Godswood, providing intelligence
Orange: Dothraki Riders providing flexibility either catching stragglers or covering a retreat
Unmarked: The many armed men and women defending the wall
Bran, warging, sees the Dead approaching Winterfell. He tells everyone that they will attack at nightfall. He goes into a deep Greensight state and becomes silent. The Night King can sense his presence.
The ranging fires are lit in the far distance of the plain in front of Winterfell before dusk. The catapults are set on the roofs and battlements. There is an eerie silence as the sky darkens, and a cold breeze comes from the north.
Bran tells everyone to take their places.
Distantly at first, but growing steadily, a dull trample fills the ears. The first ranging fires are snuffed out by a black mass.
At a command from Tyrion, a dozen catapults ready their flame shot, and loose. With a high arch, the pots of pitch burst onto the ground, spreading a wide light, and illuminating countless bodies of the Undead. The defenders on the parapet eyes widen in awe. The dead rush onward past the flame. Each dragon, with their respective riders, waits upon the towers of Winterfell for a sign of the Night King.
The defenders continue to hurl pitch at the advancing army. The first trench is lit by the burning pitch, and stops the army briefly before they pile into it, allowing the others to walk over them. The second and third trenches are also lit. They are filled and walked over. There is despair in the eyes of the defenders. It takes at least a few hundred bodies to put out the fire in each trench.
Bran, deep within Greensight, witnesses many scenes from the Night King’s past. He attempts to stop the ritual that creates the Night King. The Children seem to hear him distantly, look at one another, and continue to penetrate the dragon glass into the gagged man’s heart.
Viserion, ridden by the Night King, darts downward from the storm clouds and strafes Winterfell, destroying a few catapults and the front gate. Jon and Daenerys fly into the engagement, attacking the Night King.
The Dead, now only a hundred yards from the wall, fall under Dothraki bow shot. They take volley after volley with the advance trudging on.
As the last of the trenches are breached, the Unsullied take their position in the front of the gaping hole where the gate once stood. They meet the first wave of wights valiantly. Archers and artillery alike continue loosing volleys into the horde. They have ended at least 10,000 wights to this point, but it did not stem the tide.
The dragons continue to fight high above Winterfell.
A few of the wights, climbing over each other, reach the top of the wall but are chopped down.
Rhaegal is wounded badly on his belly and retreats to behind Winterfell with Jon. Bran grabs the Night King in his Greensight, causing the Night King to flinch. Drogon with a Dragon Glass talon, lodges it into the heart of zombie Viserion. The former sibling goes limp, and the Night King falls a long way to the ground. Dany gives chase, attempting to finish him off where he lands. Drogon strafes the flood of Undead with fire. Hundreds of wights burn with each breath. Jamie and the other defenders sensing victory, cheer.
Bran comes back, sweating and panting. He forces himself to go back under.
The Night King, hiding amongst his wights, hurls a javelin at Drogon, which pierces his wing. He shrieks loudly. Dany beats a hasty retreat as Drogon roars and flaps, attempting to stay aloft. Jorah sees this, and attempts to follow the trajectory of Drogon with a handful of Blood Riders.
An Undead giant wades into the fray, crushing some of the Unsullied and creating a gap in the line. The Others, seemingly waiting in reserve, make an appearance. They make their way through the Unsullied to the parapet. Arya, Brienne, Jamie, Davos, Pod, and Lyanna with her bannermen engage them. Pod and Brienne are able to destroy one Whitewalker together. Davos is wounded, Jamie is able to protect him with his shield, and Arya is able to deliver a final blow. The Unsullied retreat slowly in order to deal with the increased pressure. Lyanna is killed by a hurled weapon from a Whitewalker.
The Night King raises his arms to the side, reanimating all of the freshly dead, including Lyanna, who is immediately put down by Davos.
Melisandre touches Bran, and sees his plan. He opens his eyes, looks at her, and places his right hand against the tree, head bowed. He asks Theon to join the rear guard. Theon refuses to obey.
Melisandre moves to the gap and tells the Unsullied to make way for her in Valyrian. As she reaches the battle line, she removes her red gem and slowly turns into walking embers, then a ball of bright orange light. The undead giant and others disintegrate as she makes her way through the horde.
“Your Queen needs you, to the South Gate!” she yells to the Unsullied in an otherworldly voice. The Unsullied retreat to the back of Winterfell which is manned by the Dothraki and their horses. Melisandre, increases the width of the burning energy she exudes and blocks the gap.
With the breach blocked, the Undead attempt more adamantly to climb the walls and go around Winterfell, with a few meeting the Screamers on the sides of Winterfell for the first time. The Dothraki use their usual harassing tactics, and don’t get bogged down in a melee.
There is a general retreat called for all the defenders, many of whom are attempting to make it to South Wall to escape. Grey worm also retreats to the South Wall. Tyrion and Sam release dozens of ravens to all of Westeros with notes of “The Dead have taken Winterfell,” and rush down to the party.
Jorah finds Drogon and Dany at the edge of the Wolf Wood. Blue eyes peer at them. They are soon assaulted by a wave of Undead. Drogon’s flames burn the wights and sets the edge of the forest on fire. In the chaos, Drogon panics and flings Dany to the ground. Jorah picks her up onto his horse with the help of the Blood Riders. A few fall and Mormont is gravely wounded. They escape at full gallop.
Bran, deep in his visions, sees the moment of the Night King rebelling against the Children. He senses that Winterfell has been lost. He wargs into Drogon.
At the South gate, the escape party gathers. Jorah arrives and drops Dany off to the escape party and collapses. He calls for an ordered retreat in Dothraki. Much like the show, there’s a touching, though much shorter, farewell. Drogon, possessed by Bran, arrives and picks up Dany and sprays fire.
Melisandre finally evaporates away, allowing a flood of undead into Winterfell. Very few heroic defenders are left to allow the retreat time, but they are overrun, including Davos. Brienne, overwhelmed by wights, goes down, Poderick is able to save Brienne by sacrificing himself. Jamie drags her to the retreat party. The dozen or so Ironborn, at the edge of the Godswood, start falling to the wights and a White Walker. Theon is able to kill one White Walker with an arrow before being killed himself.
Bran, magnifying his powers with the Heart Tree is able to find the Heart Wood that the Other’s draw their power from far beyond the wall and within it, a spiral constructed of large stones. In his Greensight, he first jars, then dislodges one large stone. The wights stop, one falls to pieces mid-stride. The White Walkers have strange, staccato movements. The Night King is visibly disturbed,.
Perplexed but relieved, the escape party BOOKS it. Drogon clears a lane and takes off with Dany and Tyrion. Rhaegal is able to hop and flap his way forward. Arya, Jamie, and Brienne keep pace on the ground with the Unsullied.
Every few seconds, a White Walker shatters. Some wights drop where they stand. Pieces of the the Night King’s skin shard away. Bran, in his Greensight, is doing his best to dismantle the Spiral arrangement. The Night King shambles his way to Bran and the Godswood. Bran in his vision, knowing that his time is up, pauses, staring out past the frame.
At the Heart Tree, he turns and looks up at the Night King who is perhaps 20 paces away. His eyes glazed over in a grey-blue. As the Night King toddles toward him, he disappears. Around Winterfell, the Night King sees and hears multiple Brans walking, and murmuring at him. He looks around confusedly. Wights and the Others seem frozen in place. Just as quickly, the murmurs fade away. The Night King is visibly damaged, and kneels. His light blue flesh being slightly exposed through cracks on his face.
The army is in full retreat, with the Dothraki offering cover from horseback. The White Walkers gather around the kneeling Night King. He lifts a hand, telling them the assault is over.
On a wobbly Drogon, whose eyes clear, Dany is bloody and watches over her remaining forces as they limp away southward toward Cerwyn.
