Director Miguel Sapochnik on Ramsay Bolton’s beating and death

Last night, Ramsay Bolton fulfilled the wishes of many a Game of Thrones fan and died horribly, but not before getting brutally beaten by Jon Snow. “We spent an entire day beating Ramsay,” “Battle of the Bastards director Miguel Sapochnik told Entertainment Weekly. “It was a little surreal but mostly fun. I mean you have to make it fun to take the nastiness out of it on set.”

"Early on, Kit [Harington, who plays Jon Snow] and I discussed what that moment was and how it should be an empty victory for Jon…From a certain point of view, Battle of the Bastards is all about his journey back to life, at the 11th hour, rediscovering the desire to live."

I suppose unquenchable bloodlust does indicate that one is full of life…Anyway, both Harington and Iwan Rheon, who plays Ramsay, were troopers, although Rheon “took it on the chin a few times.” I suppose accidents will happen.

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Moving on to the final scene of the episode, where Ramsay Bolton is eaten alive by dogs, Sapochnik admitted that he “kind of wanted to make people start to feel for Ramsay in that wonderful way Thrones turns these things on their head.” However, showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss wouldn’t hear of it. “They didn’t want anyone to sympathize with Ramsay Bolton and this time they wanted blood.”

I actually think I would have dug some moral ambiguity there—I wanted Ramsay dead and everything, but it’s always fun when the show flips expectations on their head. Sapochnik explains why the producers wanted to go the other way with it. “Ramsay needs to die, and horribly. This is what the audience has been waiting to see.”

"That said, there’s no need to dwell on the actual carnage. What’s left to our imagination is always way worse. The most effective moment for me was the sound of a squealing pig you hear from Ramsay in the background as Sansa walks away. Apparently it’s actually what happens when you rip someone’s wind pipe open while they’re still alive and gasping for air."

Hooray for disgusting verisimilitude.

Still, for all the bloody images in “Battle of the Bastards,” for all the big epic battle scenes, Sapochnik’s favorite shot was a close-up on Sansa as she watches the dogs attack her husband. “There’s a moment where she turns to leave but then stops and leans back in, lingering a moment longer. It’s my favorite shot of my episodes this year.”