The best rewrites of the last season of Game of Thrones

Arya: Helen Sloan – HBO (6) Official Battle of Winterfell

The Battle of Winterfell

New Zealand author Tim Hickson operates the YouTube channel Hello Future Me. He’s created a good deal of insightful content about writing and worldbuilding, and his Game of Thrones entries are no exception. Hickson’s rewrite leaves the first two episodes intact, and maintains a tight grip on the story by trying to work within the constraints Benioff and Weiss established. E.g. We have the same number of episodes, the Night King must be defeated in Episode 3, the same characters have to die (with one exception), etc.

This episode is focused on the Battle of Winterfell, and Hickson expertly restructures the action to keep the tension and stakes high, address the concerns about “plot armor” for named characters, and make the heroes more competent at battle planning than they were in the actual episode.

What works well: Jorah dies much earlier in the story to establish the stakes. Likewise, Melisandre is torn apart by wights in the crypts, where no named characters died in the aired version. The Dothraki are more appropriately used as cavalry to flank the undead from the sides rather than make a doomed charge in the darkness. Characters have to make tough choices: Brienne chooses to save Jaime instead of Lyanna Mormont, then has to slay wight Lyanna as a result. Instead of aimlessly warging some crows, Bran greensees into the past to try to find a way to defeat the White Walker threat. This pays off the forgotten Hodor time paradox storyline by having Bran get stuck in the Night King’s body upon the moment of his creation. When Arya kills the Night King, she inadvertently kills her brother, making the victory truly bittersweet.

Also, Arya uses the face of wight Beric Dondarion to sneak past the Night King’s army to slay him instead of pole vaulting out of nowhere. This gives her two seasons of Faceless Man training a purpose and a better payoff.