Small Council: What was the best special effect from Game of Thrones Season 5?
By WiC Staff
According to VFX supervisor Joe Bauer, “Between Season 3 and Season 5, our [special effects] shot count doubled.” As Game of Thrones gets more complex, more and more special effects—both practical and digital—are needed. This week, we’ll debate which special effects from Season 5 were the most effective and convincing.
DAN: The members of the show’s special effects team really stepped up their game in Season 5. Of course, they pretty much had to, given what sorts of scenes they were dealing with, but that shouldn’t diminish their accomplishments. A lot of the big special effects moments landed spectacularly—for example, Drogon’s descent into Daznak’s Pit was exhilarating, and the entirety of the Massacre at Hardhome was a blast—but the team also deserves credit for pulling off the smaller moments we might not even have realized involved special effects, like Arya rowing up to the House of Black and White, or Sansa gazing down at Moat Cailin.
Personally, my favorite special effect of the season occurred when Jon Snow shattered the White Walker general into a thousand icy pieces during “Hardhome.” This effect worked on a whole bunch of different levels. First of all, it just looked cool. Jon doesn’t take a chunk out of the White Walker—he disintegrates the guy completely. Even though this is obviously a special effect, it’s very convincing. Living in the real world, we don’t have a frame of reference for this situation, but if a being made of pure cold died in battle, it’s easy to believe it might look something like this. Kit Harington also does a fine job of playing against something that isn’t there, as he looks well and truly exhausted on the downswing of his sword.
Plus, the effect conveys a lot of information in a very short amount of time. We’d seen a White Walker die before, but never in such a brutal, explosive way. It highlights a dichotomy that could prove very useful in the future: the White Walkers are all but invincible under normal circumstances, but if you find their weakness, they’re incredibly vulnerable. If the kingdoms of the living can get it together and muster a force armed with dragonglass and Valyrian steel, complete with dragon air support, they might stand a better chance against the White Walkers than we’ve been led to believe.
KATIE: I’d say the White Walker demolition has my vote, too, but then I considered the more underrated effects. And Arya’s arrival at the House of Black and White was, to my mind, a big crowd pleaser. We’ve been hearing snippets about the Faceless Men since Season 1, not often enough to give us any real feel for them, but certainly enough that our interest has been piqued. We rode this curiosity out with Arya, and as the House of Black and White drifts into view, stately and ancient and every bit as foreboding as we’ve heard, our curiosity has been appeased. Although we only got a shot of the exterior, we finally made it to the destination we’d only heard about, a destination so mysterious that I, for one, was never sure we’d actually get there.
So while not as big on the death and destruction as many scenes on the show are, Arya’s arrival is big on the emotional connotations. The special effects are seemingly minimal, but the scene symbolizes so much for such a beloved character that we don’t need the pizzazz that something like a battle scene requires. Even in the quiet serenity of a boat ride, I feel for Arya; and as much as I love the excitement of a good swordfight, I’m a sucker for a few tugs on my heartstrings, too.
DAVID: There were a lot of great SFX scenes throughout Season 5, and Dan hit the big one for me with the White Walker’s death. And while I agree with Katie that Arya’s arrival to the House of Black and White was an awe-inspiring moment, I think the best use of SFX in that plotline was in the Hall of Faces. I’m going to go with the scene in Daznak’s Pit from “The Dance of Dragons,” purely because of the anticipation I felt over seeing one of my favorite moments from the entire A Song of Ice and Fire saga played out onscreen.
I remember pouring over the pages of A Dance with Dragons, voraciously devouring every word, and when I got to the events of Daznak’s Pit, I audibly yelped when Drogon swooped in to save Daenerys (of course this was around 3 o’clock in the morning and I scared my wife nearly to death). Game of Thrones, while it streamlined the events in Daznak’s Pit for television, did a fantastic job of bringing one of my favorite book moments to life.
The standout moment was obviously Drogon landing and roasting the Sons of the Harpy. Since the finale of Season 1, where Dany’s dragons were born, fans of Martin’s works knew a moment like this would be coming, and the SFX department did not disappoint.
ANI: There were so many moments of CGI that successfully suspended disbelief this year. Dany’s interaction with the dragons, for one (save the ride out of Meereen, which looked startlingly 80s). The aerial shot of Stannis’ army being swallowed whole also comes to mind. Anytime WunWun walks by. The entirety of the Massacre at Hardhome.
But my favorite wins for sheer WTFery. It’s a bit from the halls of the House of Black and White, after the man with the face of Ja’qen Hadar swallows the red pill, and Arya learned just how deep the rabbit hole she’s accidentally signed up for goes. She pulls off face after face after face after face, with no idea who these people are or what the hell is happening. And we’re blown away right along with her. Even those of us who read the books and know that she hadn’t begun to scratch the surface of the fantastical abilities of the Faceless Men were like, “Whoa dude. Whoa.”
And I mean, I know how they did it. Actor after actor lay in the same spot in the same outfit and she pretended to pull off each face. But that doesn’t matter. Because in the moment (and the gif!) it really looks like she’s pulling off faces and throwing them away like used tissues of flesh, hysterically trying to figure out just who this man she forgot wasn’t really her friend was. Only to discover at the bottom, her own face staring back. WHAT DOES IT MEAN? It means she needs to let go of all her preconceptions and her trust in what she sees as real. And that my friends, is why Aray now taps her way through the world, blind.
CAMERON: So, I forgot that Lena Headey was pregnant during the filming of Season 5. As a result, when they talked about how they used a body double for Cersei’s walk, I was rather blown away. Because I am an idiot. In any case, plopping Headey’s head (hehe, that’s fun to say) on someone else’s body didn’t look the least bit weird to me, so clearly whatever black magics were at work to make that happen are real and should be wielded with great care.
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Next: Based on this pic of Alfie Allen, Theon is definitely returning to the Iron Islands