Game of Thrones Fans Are Furious the Winterfell Battle Scenes Are Too Dark

It’s finally here. The third episode of Game of Thrones‘ eighth and final season is upon us with the Battle of Winterfell coming to life, bringing great tension to the series as well as certain death for various beloved characters in the HBO series. However, while the promised-battle has arrived in epic proportions, fans are less than happy about the situation — because the episode lighting is dark it’s impossible to see anything — and they’ve taken to social media to complain.

On Twitter, fans have been very vocal about how dark the episode has been thus far. While narratively it makes sense that things would be “dark” as the battle is taking place at night, it’s so dark that it’s incredibly difficult to see what is actually going on. While there are some bursts of light in the episode thanks to various torches and fires one would expect to be employed in a night battle against the Army of the Dead, generally-speaking the episode is overwhelmingly dark, so much so that even when the camera is close enough to a character for one to presumably see what’s going on, the lightning is such that it’s difficult to identify them. You have to listen carefully.

Even though the darkness is making parts of the episode a challenge to watch, it isn’t without purpose and we’re not just talking about the battle being at night against an army for the Night King who wants to bring darkness to the world. The disorenting nature of the episode’s dark lightning mimics for viewers what the characters themselves are experiencing on the battle field and in the crypts while the battle rages on. And, as we noted, there are moments where the action is brighter, lighting wise. A particularly epic scene featuring Arya is still dim, but light enough that you can see the action — including a moment that will surely have fans talking for a long time to come.

With all of that said, how dark is it? Here are some of the reactions below, but warning, spoiler’s for tonight’s episode in the reactions below.

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Can’t see anything

Way too dark

Can’t they turn on a light?

Should have happened in the daytime

Would be way better if it wasn’t so dark

Well, at least I’m not so scared

They spent how much on this episode?

You need to be Bran to watch this episode

WHAT IS GOING ON?

At least we can’t see the dying