Last night’s Game of Thrones had some pretty insane set pieces, and a whole lot of tragedy. But one image in particular stands out in its fierce beauty — and it’s another thing entirely to witness it in its full painterly splendor. Check out concept art of the season finale from awesome artist Emmanuel Shiu.
Spoilers ahead…
Yep, it’s a sad day for fans of Stannis “The Mannis” Baratheon, the One True King of Westeros. He got pretty conclusively pwned by the Boltons, and apparently died. And that one visual, of the calvary encircling and just crushing Stannis’ foot soldiers, is going to stick in our minds for ages.
So here it is, as Shiu painted it, before the CG artists brought it to life:
That poor tiny army of bedraggled soldiers — you can just see them shivering and huddling as the horses bear down on them. It’s kind of insane.
And here’s another look at the sad state of Stannis’ camp from Shiu (whose work we’ve featured before):
See more of Shiu’s artwork at his website.
Charlie Jane Anders is the author of All The Birds in the Sky, coming 2016 from Tor Books. Follow her on Twitter, and email her.
