*Warning: This article contains spoilers for the latest episode from Game of Thrones season 8, episode 3.
Game of Thrones fans have been going ballistic at the poor lighting throughout season eight but there’s a good reason for it.
The latest instalment was Game of Thrones’ most ambitious yet as an epic feature-length episode saw several heroes die as The Night King (played by Vladimir Furdik) and his army of the dead descended on Winterfell.
It was a ride from start to finish. Just as it seemed the living would all perish under the White Walkers, Arya Stark (Maisie Williams) leapt out of nowhere to plunge a dagger into The Night King and save the whole of Westeros.
However, despite the 55 long nights and millions of dollars spent on creating one of the most extraordinary televised moments of all time, almost 70,000 viewers complained on Twitter they couldn’t see any of the action because The Long Night, ironically, was ‘too dark’.
Cinematographer Fabian Wagner, who was behind the Battle of Winterfell’s lighting, has essentially told TMZ HBO’s compression of the episode is to blame for the poor visuals and urged fans to watch in the pitch black and adjust the brightness on their TVs, which makes sense.
Wagner also stressed bosses and director Miguel Sapochnik intentionally planned the episode to be dark, adding to the claustrophobia.
In any case, he’s not apologising to the thousands of viewers who couldn’t see a thing.
‘I know it wasn’t too dark because I shot it,’ he said.
Whatever, we loved it and if you need a reminder of all the hours and effort which built The Long Night, HBO released a behind-the-scenes feature which reveals six epic secrets from the war against The Night King.
Game of Thrones continues Sunday at 9pm on HBO in the US and will be simulcast on Sky Atlantic here in the UK. Seasons one to eight are available to stream on NOW TV.
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