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Why Jon Snow's direwolf was missing from Sunday's massive 'Game of Thrones' battle

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Helen Sloan/HBO

Warning: Spoilers ahead for "Game of Thrones" season six.

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"Game of Thrones" outdid itself for the penultimate episode of season six with one of the craziest battle sequences we've ever seen. Among the standouts of the day when it came to leadership, though, Ser Davos Seaworth was a worthy adversary to the Boltons.

Tech Insider caught up with Liam Cunningham, the actor who plays the loyal and steadfast "Onion Knight," to talk about the Battle of the Bastards.

"I defy anybody to say that they've seen these shots in other movies or other television," Cunningham told TI. "You haven't. It was new. It was pushing the borders and pushing the envelope of what you can do on television."

But among the epic and visceral scenes of warfare, some fans were missing a key element: Jon Snow's direwolf, Ghost. The beast was conspicuously absent from the battlefield. In fact, we haven't seen much of Ghost since Jon was resurrected in the second episode of the season.

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HBO

"I would prefer to have Ghost with Davos [rather] than with Jon," Cunningham said. "Even though it's his direwolf, I just like the idea of an insurance policy."

When we lamented about the absence of Ghost in the Battle of the Bastards, Cunningham assured us that wouldn't have ended well for the direwolf. "Yeah that would have been cool, [but] obviously a big battle like that is no place for a direwolf," he said. "They’re not gonna last very long — I mean look at what happened to Wun Wun, the last of the giants."

Wun Wun was killed during the final moments of the battle by Ramsay Bolton. Though it would have been nice to see Ghost take down some Bolton soldiers, seeing him pierced with arrow after arrow would not have been worth it.

Despite wishing Ghost had been by Davos' side and not Jon's, Cunningham paused to praise Kit Harington (Jon Snow) on his acting chops.

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Helen Sloan/HBO

"I have to absolutely single out [Harington] for what he achieved in this," Cunningham said. "I mean he's fantastic. Once we hit the battle scene he had hardly anything to say — hardly a line — and yet he just does so much with his face. He's just completely blossomed ... he's done a remarkable job and I have to applaud the man's work on 'Game of Thrones.' He's been fantastic."

Davos will most likely be sticking by Jon's side for many episodes to come, so we can look forward to more dynamic scenes between Harington and Cunningham. "Davos is a fantastic counselor and there's an inevitable pairing between a decent man like Davos and a decent man like Jon Snow," Cunningham said.

Plus, hopefully we'll see more of Jon Snow AND Ghost in the episodes to come, now that Jon and Sansa have officially retaken Winterfell.

The finale of "Game of Thrones" season six airs next Sunday.

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