Entertainment

The "Battle Of The Bastards" Detail You Missed

by Jordana Lipsitz

If you were too distracted by the intensity of Game of Thrones Season 6, Episode 9 to notice much of anything except the beating of your heart, don't worry, so were we all — well, almost all of us. One zealous fan on imgur, voicesinmyhead, noticed a "Battle of the Bastards" detail that the rest of us missed by a mile. The fact in question? That the sword at Jon Snow's hip — a Valyrian steel sword named Longclaw which he inherited from Jeor Mormont — is actually made of rubber, and totally flops around a whole bunch when the hero mounts his horse.

It's actually pretty hilarious to see, although most fans likely missed it during the actual, action-packed episode. Viewers got a glimpse of Jon's wobbly sword when the sociopathic (and spoiler! thankfully, now super dead) Ramsay Bolton, who had Rickon Stark literally on a leash, set the boy free to run to the Stark camp, causing Jon to try to meet his brother halfway before Rickon was killed by an arrow. The plan, sadly, ultimately didn't work, as Rickon was hit by an arrow and killed, but it did lead to a great scene of Jon getting onto his horse, his apparently rubber sword flopping beside him. You can check out the imgur user's image below, and see for yourself.

Isn't it great? Obviously, it's just a prop mistake and not meant to be a sign of what Jon's actual sword is made of; saying, "only Valyrian rubber can kill a white walker" or "this sword made of Valyrian rubber has been passed through my family from generation to generation" doesn't quite have the same ring as "Valyrian steel." The rubber nature of the weapon makes perfect sense for the filming of the scene, as the actors who play Westeros' favorite characters aren't actually going to be swinging swords or daggers made of steel, but of course, it wasn't meant to be seen during the actual episode. Whoops.

Besides, let's all be happy for a moment that Jon and the rest of the gang weren't toting real steel, because the budget for this episode was already the most expensive episode of the series to date, being somewhere north (of the Wall...) of 10 million dollars, according to Entertainment Weekly. The show needed that money for the 70 actual horses who charged at Jon Snow, and for the 500 extras, and for those CGI dragons. Real steel for the cast (and the medical damages that would inevitably also go down) would be a waste of money, and not exactly practical, considering the weapons' weight.

"Battle of the Bastards" was a groundbreaking and seriously intense episode, so I'll let one rubber sword mistake slide — even if the bald and bearded extra standing behind Jon, who seems to be the only person to actually notice the flopping, can't.

Images: HBO, Imgur/voicesinmyhead