Video from Magheramorne Quarry: Horses, swords and fire

Last week, we posted a video from the set of Game of Thrones season 8 at Magheramorne Quarry, where the production has been filming nights in front of a giant green screen. In that video, we saw a lone actor walking among extras carrying a flaming sword. We guessed that this was Beric Dondarrion, who uses a flaming sword as his weapon of choice, and there’s a still a good chance of that being true. However, as the latest on-set video from Davy Orr the set shows, there’s more to it.

Watch the video below. The first half shows what happens from a distance. The second half repeats the same footage, but zooms in.

So a group of performers are bathed in light, and then a trio of actors — each of them bearing a flaming sword — ride forth with their weapons held high while clumps of extras run on foot beside them, or possibly from them.

First up, who are the guys with the flaming swords? Beric is an obvious contender, but are his fellows people who already knew the flaming sword trick, or did Beric or someone else teach it to them for this very special occasion? With the wights being weak to fire, it’s a very handy skill to have.

I like to think that one of them is the Hound — he’s been afraid of fire for the length of the series, which made it wonderfully ironic when he, of all people, was able to stare into the flames back in “Dragonstone” and figure out where the army of the dead was headed. Giving him a flaming sword would continue that development, but that’s just a guess.

I’m also not sure if the people on foot are wights being driven back by the riders or fellow soldiers making the charge alongside them. What do you guys make of it?

In any case, this video was taken on April 5, a couple days before HBO wrapped filming on a massive, 55-night battle shoot to be set around Winterfell — a lot of the stuff shot at Magheramorne will be edited together with stuff filmed at Moneyglass, where the Winterfell set is located. Per Davy, who’s been capturing great footage from Magheramorne for weeks, filming in front of the green screen has “finished for now.” If this is the last we see of it, HBO will certainly have gotten their money’s worth.

Next: Con of Thrones 2018 announces programming schedule

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