Let's send our cavalry charging blindly into the darkness to fight an enemy they can't see

They didn't expect the bodies to come alive.

Anyone know if any of those bodies were important characters like Ned? Didn't his remains get returned to Winterfell?

This! It was to give false hope and the viewer saw what happened...all that light going out....you knew doom was coming.

Except if you've ever been out in the dark with a torch for light you would know it provides piss poor help in seeing because having the fire between you and what you are trying to see doesn't work because you are blinded by your own light.

You forget that Winterfell was not always in the hands of the Starks, and do you see the Boltons agreeing to fight the Army of the Dead? And even if the trenches were there, Ramsay would've found a way to use them against Jon's army in the Battle of the Bastards.

Exactly! Fire off the trebuchets at least 5-6x before the charge even begins, then a few more while they're charging at them. It would've also lit up the undead army (even if only briefly) so that we'd have gotten a glimpse of their immense numbers and what the Dothraki were about to charge into.

Terrible use of those mighty weapons.

I agree with all of the above, but the charge was still the best scene of the episode visually imo.

Cavalry isn't used in defensive formations, they're used to charge the enemy -- as was done to great effect in the Battle of the Bastards. And the Dothraki consider themselves nothing without their horses, so the best way to use them would have been on a cavalry offensive move. There would have been no room for them to maneuver if they were inside the gates or trenches.

But I agree it wasn't handled well -- those trebuchets should have been fired before the horses started in order to give them a little more visual help, or the dragons could have swooped down and set something on fire. Or maybe the Dothraki could have been moved around to another area to try and come at the wights from another angle rather than just straight on into the darkness.

But it was a great visual. And it set the tone too -- it was downright creepy watching those flames die out one by one.

Because CGI wolves are expensive so you need to kill them quickly to cut costs.