The latest episode of Game of Thrones, “The Long Night,” has come under fire for living up to its name perhaps too well. For many fans, the episode was just too damn dark.
It’s a tricky situation, because while cinematographer Fabian Wagner should be commended for making the bold artistic choice to rely on natural lighting, a choice that reinforces the overwhelming odds faced by our heroes, if a lot of people can’t see what’s going on, it’s an issue. Now, if you, like me, have a TV setup that allowed you to see the beautiful photography in all it’s glorious detail, that’s awesome. But a lot of people aren’t set up for that, and Wagner made the situation worse by basically telling viewers that it’s their problem and that they’re not watching the episode right. His comments come off as disingenuous and defensive, although I’d go easy on him; he’s a behind-the-scenes guy who put a ton of hard work into this and who probably isn’t familiar with the internet outrage machine. Sometimes things just don’t go the way you plan them.
Happily, the internet is as resourceful as it is angry. Redditor czmanix has lightened up two scenes from the episode and given us a look at what a brighter version of “The Long Night” would look like. First, there’s Jon and and the Night King battling in mid-air on their dragons…
"[SPOILERS] S08E03 Fight of the dragons – brightness UP, speed DOWN from gameofthrones"
…and the group battling newly-risen wights in the Winterfell crypts:
"[SPOILERS] S08E03 Crypts scenes – brightness UP from gameofthrones"
You can also watch both scenes on YouTube, albeit without sound.
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Now, the clips are slowed down and the frame rate weird because the original episode wasn’t shot with the brighter look in mind, but you get the idea. Again, I 100% get what Wagner was going for and respect his choices, but it would have been nice to see better what was going on, particularly when so many of the images were creative and gorgeous. F**k naturalism, at least in this case.
Vulture also lightened some images from the episode; take a look at that here. Eventually, I expect a fan to release a version of the entire episode with lightened visuals. You know it’s coming.
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