{"id":5441,"date":"2019-04-27T22:36:22","date_gmt":"2019-04-27T22:36:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/?p=5441"},"modified":"2019-04-27T23:43:28","modified_gmt":"2019-04-27T23:43:28","slug":"battle-of-winterfell-begins-on-sundays-game-of-thrones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/sports\/battle-of-winterfell-begins-on-sundays-game-of-thrones\/","title":{"rendered":"Battle of Winterfell Begins On Sunday’s ‘Game of Thrones’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For much of the run of HBO’s fantasy epic Game of Thrones<\/em> the series catch phrase has been ‘Winter is coming’. With the massive Battle of Winterfell ready to kick off on Sunday’s third episode of the final season of Game of Thrones<\/em> it apparently has now arrived. After a number of episodes were prematurely leaked in Season 7, HBO has ramped up the secrecy for Season 8 not even releasing the title of the episodes until they air (or in some cases until after<\/em> they air). Including Episode 3, there are now only four episodes remaining in the series and while it’s apparent that things are starting to get serious there is little in the way of actual ‘spoilers’ but plenty of speculation about what will happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Episode 3 is essentially a ‘made for TV movie’ and one of epic ambition at that. Weighing in at 82 minutes in length, it is not only the longest episode of Season 8 but the longest episode of the entire Game of Thrones<\/em> series. By all accounts, the filming of Episode 3 was exceptionally complex and difficult for everyone involved. It was shot primarily at night in freezing temperatures in rural Ireland. 750 people were involved in the production which took 11 weeks to complete. Apropos of HBO’s emphasis on secrecy for Season 8 there has yet to be an official title released though the network has released this not particularly revelatory blurb:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The Night King and his army have arrived at Winterfell and the great battle begins.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There will be three more episodes with which to tie up various plotlines and presumably reveal who will ascend to the Iron Throne at the end of the series. Even so, given the investment in time and resources that HBO made in Episode 3 it will likely be the most significant of the series in terms of answering questions and revealing secrets. And, to the chagrin of serious Game of Thrones<\/em> fans, will almost certainly have a high ‘body count’ that could involve some key characters. Many of the Game of Thrones<\/a><\/em> betting odds<\/a> for Season 8 have revolved around who will perish before the end of the series and Episode 3 is expected to be so bloody that odds have been posted on the key characters’ prospects of surviving the next 82 minutes of narrative. For a show that had already killed off 45 primary or secondary characters by Season 6 it appears to be a foregone conclusion that more will meet their demise during Episode 3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some fans and television writers are concerned that the ‘Battle of Winterfell’ is a complete mismatch. They point to what appears to be the significant numerical advantage of the ‘Army of the Dead’ relative to what is colloquially referred to as the ‘Army of the Living’ but is more of a ‘ragtag band of knights, Dothraki and Unsullied’ to use the description advanced by one entertainment writer covering the show. If the ‘Army of the Living’ have an advantage it could be in superior leadership and tactics. Plus they have a couple of dragons to what appears to be only one (and an undead one at that) for the ‘Army of the Dead’. Dragons can wreak serious havoc in a battle. On the other hand, there’s always the question about whether the individual members of the ‘Army of the Dead’ can be killed at all which could be a serious problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to the eventual outcome of the battle and who will survive there are several other questions that could be answered in Episode 3. One of the biggest could be the identity of the Night King. A theory has been circulating that Bran Stark is the Night King but since he is also using himself as bait to *attract* the Night King that would require an impressive bit of narrative contortion. The odds on Bran being the Night King suggest that theory is likely not valid–the ‘No’ is a -700 favorite with takeback on the ‘Yes’ at +400. The producers could delay the revelation of the Night King’s identity to a later episode but there should at least be some ‘clues’ in Episode 3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another factor that could play in to which characters die as well as the outcome of the entire battle might be the decision to move the weakest among the ‘forces of the living’–the women, children, elderly, etc–to Winterfell’s crypts. Since the crypts are filled with the dead from countless generations and the Night King’s showstopper power is the ability to raise the dead to fight on his behalf this could be a serious tactical blunder and an invitation to disaster. The presumption that the crypts are the safest place for those unable to fight seems extremely dubious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The only thing certain about Episode 3 of Game of Thrones<\/em> Season 8 is that it should bring plenty of chaos and mayhem. The episode is directed by GOT<\/em> veteran Miguel Sapochnik and his description of Episode 8 as ‘survival horror’ doesn’t bode well nor does his comparison to ‘under siege’ films such as Assault on Precinct 13. <\/em>The expectation is that Episode 8 will be one of the most watched episodes of the entire series and will likely be the most heavily bet single episode in television history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stay on top of the latest Game of Thrones<\/em> betting odds–follow BetOnline.ag on Twitter<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For much of the run of HBO’s fantasy epic Game of Thrones the series catch phrase has been ‘Winter is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":5443,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5441"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5441\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5447,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5441\/revisions\/5447"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}