Was Game of Thrones ‘The Long Night’ literally too dark?

But the episode has sparked an unexpected debate on social media: was it too dark for viewers too see what was going on?

Directed by Miguel Sapochnik – who also helmed fan-favourite episodes including ‘Hardhome’ and ‘Battle of the Bastards’ – last night’s instalment ‘The Long Night’ was billed as one of the longest and largest battle scenes ever committed to film or TV.

And while the episode was filled with explosive and grisly scenes of warfare, some have been complaining that they were straining to see the battle, due to the episode’s apparently darker-than-usual cinematography.

One Twitter user wrote: “Tried to watch Game Of Thrones tonight but the episode was too dark to see anything. It sounded very exciting though!”

Another said: “I’ve been watching ep3 for 20 minutes, still don’t know what’s going on it’s too dark.”

Some have suggested that people could have solved the issue by adjusting the settings on their TV’s, with one person stating: “Did people forget they can increase the brightness and contrast on their TVs?”

Another claimed it may have been due to the limitations of streaming services: “One of the reasons for the ‘it’s too dark’ complaints about the new Game of Thrones is because so many will be streaming it. Many streaming services are still poor when it comes to video encoding for dark scenes.”

However, plenty of viewers seemed to have no problem and were left wondering what all the fuss was about

“Turn your light off, close your blinds and stop whining,” one Twitter user wrote.

Another said: “I saw what I needed to see. Arya kicked butt. And the red woman came back and helped. Theon protected Bran till the end. Jorah protected Dany.”

“I guess its winterfell’s fault for not having proper street lighting,” joked another.