Warning: Spoilers follow for last night’s episode of Game of Thrones, “Beyond the Wall.”
Last night’s episode of Game of Thrones saw Jon Snow and his party travel beyond the wall battling the Night King and his horde of the undead, which has seen a lot of fans complain about the timeline as the episode featured:
Jon and his party travelling away from the wall.
The big battle between the humans and undead.
Gendry running back to Eastwatch.
The dispatching of the raven to Daenerys.
Daenerys arriving to save the day with her dragons.
Daenerys and the party returning to the wall.
Benjen Stark coming from out of nowhere to save Jon Show.
Jon Show returning to the wall.
Now the director of the episode, Thor: The Dark World‘s Alan Taylor, who has directed Game of Thrones in the past, has commented on the timeline of the episode with Variety:
“We were aware that timing was getting a little hazy,” Taylor told Variety. “We’ve got Gendry running back, ravens flying a certain distance, dragons having to fly back a certain distance…In terms of the emotional experience, [Jon and company] sort of spent one dark night on the island in terms of storytelling moments. We tried to hedge it a little bit with the eternal twilight up there north of The Wall. I think there was some effort to fudge the timeline a little bit by not declaring exactly how long we were there. I think that worked for some people, for other people it didn’t. They seemed to be very concerned about how fast a raven can fly but there’s a thing called plausible impossibilities, which is what you try to achieve, rather than impossible plausibilities. So I think we were straining plausibility a little bit, but I hope the story’s momentum carries over some of that stuff.”
In all honestly, I felt the same as may fans about the timeline of the episode as it seemed to go way too fast. I actually think the pacing of Game of Thrones Season 7 is off and is going much too fast compared to the first six seasons. More than likely the reason for the series amping up everything is due to the series ending next year and with season 7 and 8 having less episodes. I still enjoyed it for what it was worth. Good episode.
“It’s cool that the show is so important to so many people that it’s being scrutinized so thoroughly,” Alan Taylor added. “If the show was struggling, I’d be worried about those concerns, but the show seems to be doing pretty well so it’s OK to have people with those concerns.”
Game of Thrones airs Sundays at 9pm ET on HBO.
