American Hero Conan O’Brien Lightened ‘Footage’ from the ‘Game of Thrones’ Battle of Winterfell

Published May 1, 2019

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4:56pm

If you thought the Battle of Winterfell in the most recent episode of Game of Thrones was way too dark, then you’re not alone. And since no amount of TV screen brightening seemed to remedy the it’s-so-dark-I-can’t-tell-what’s-going-on fight scenes, there were undoubtedly some missed details. Lucky for us, late-night hero Conan O’Brien stepped up with an illuminated (spoof) version of the Battle of Winterfell.

The 56-year-old host shared a disclaimer before showing his studio audience the clip he had his editors brighten with “state of the art technology.” He explained that the original Game of Thrones scene “takes place at night, in a snowstorm and a lot’s happening…I was like what’s going on.” (Same.)

So when O’Brien’s editors “lightened” the footage it was, as he described, “kind of surprising.”

Yep, that’s a clip of some really low-budget LARPING (live action role-playing game, for those unfamiliar) in a field. Since episode three, aka “The Long Night,” is regarded as the longest consecutive battle ever created for TV or film, it did seem like a waste that it was so dark. Thank goodness O’Brien’s team fixed it up switched it out with less impressive footage.

Fans were so upset over not being able to see every grueling detail of “The Long Night” that Game of Thrones cinematographer Fabien Wagner caught a lot of flack. He defended what some called a poorly lit episode in an interview with Wired, saying, “A lot of the problem is that a lot of people don’t know how to tune their TVs properly.” Touché?

Nonetheless, bless you Conan for (kind of) coming to the rescue.

Lex Goodman

Cat mom, yogi, brunch enthusiast

Lex is an LA native who's deeply obsessed with picnics, Slim Aarons, rosé, Hollywood history and Joan Didion. She joined PureWow in early 2017.

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