Game of Thrones Episode 3: The Poetry of Violence

Game of Thrones Episode 3: The Poetry Of Violence
 This week we’re discussing Game of Thrones Season 8, Episode 3, “The Battle of Winterfell.” I am so excited to talk about this episode. I haven’t had a chance to talk about a battle sequence of this length and consequence and poetry since my podcast on Mad Max, which you should check out if you’re into action writing.
Today we’re going to talk about the poetry of violence, the poetry of writing action into your screenplays. We’re going to talk a little bit about how to build a battle sequence, but also about what makes a battle sequence special.
And just a warning, there are some major spoilers ahead…
Action sequences in TV shows like Game of Thrones are actually built just like drama and comedy sequences. They aren’t actually about the fight; they’re always about the interpersonal dramatic moment happening within a fight.
It doesn’t matter how spectacularly you build the events or the plot of your action sequence. It’s the personal story, the drama underneath it, that’s going to make your action sequence succeed or fail.
In fact, if you’ve done a really good job, you’ll be able to describe your action sequence as if it was a drama without talking about the action at all. You’ll realize the action is actually laid over the top of the drama, that it’s the structure of the character choices and the character changes giving us the drama and carrying us through the action.
In a way, building an action sequence is similar to writing a musical. When you work on a musical, you write a dramatic scene and then your composers steal that scene and turn it into a song.
They change it when they turn it into a song because songs work differently than dramatic scenes, but they are inspired by the dramatic content of what’s happening.
It’s even true when you’re writing a TV comedy. As Jerry Perzigian, the Emmy Award-winning showrunner who teaches our TV writing classes here at the studio, says, “First you write it true, and then you make it funny.”
It’s the same in action writing in TV and screenplays; first you write it true, and then you find the action.
So, let’s start by talking about what’s true and how you find it. What’s true in Game of Thrones is that once upon a time there was a dagger and that dagger was intended for Bran. That dagger, over eight seasons, has passed from character to character to character to character, until it finally landed in the hands of Bran’s sister, Arya Stark.
That dagger will finally drive home the ending of an entire engine of the Game of Thrones story, the epic battle against the dead.
Over the course of Game of Thrones, we’ve watched Bran Stark transform from a child to an otherworldly being who is at peace with his destiny. We’ve watched Arya transform from a child into a trained assassin who has worn many faces and will find her last face here when she kills the Night King.
This is the completion of Arya’s fate, her journey from child to assassin, just as it is the completion of Bran’s journey from child to Three-Eyed Raven, both of which we’ve watched over the course of eight seasons.
It’s the completion of Theon and Bran’s journey when Theon, who has been a coward for eight seasons, finally finds his courage after Bran, the boy he betrayed, tells him that he is a good man.
The truth is that the structure is built out of all these relationships: the relationship between Tyrion and Sansa, between Melisandre and Davos, between Jaime and Brienne, between the Hound and Arya, between Daenerys and Jon, and between Daenerys and Jorah.
You can see all of these Game of Thrones characters are going on a ...