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  ===Writing===
  The episode was written by series co-creators David Benioff and D. B. Weiss.
  "Oathbreaker" was written by the series' creators David Benioff and D. B. Weiss. Some elements in the episode were based on the sixth novel in the ''A Song of Ice and Fire'' series, ''The Winds of Winter'', which author George R. R. Martin had hoped to have completed before the sixth season began airing. It also contains elements from the chapter "The Blind Girl" from ''A Dance with Dragons'' and several chapters of Samwell Tarly's voyage to the Citadel from ''A Feast for Crows''. The raid on the Tower of Joy was an event portrayed in a dream of Ned Stark in the chapter "Eddard X" of ''A Game of Thrones''.
  In the "Inside the Episode" feature for "Oathbreaker", showrunner Weiss stated of the Tower of Joy flashback that "One of the best things about being able to go back with Bran and look at the past is to be able to see the discrepancy between the received history, the things that everybody knows about the things that happened, and what actually happened." Benioff continued, "Every kid that grows up in Westeros, they all hear about this legendary sword fight that took place twenty years ago, and as far as Bran knew, it was just his father beat this legendary guy." Weiss also stated "Honor was so important to Ned Stark that it was worth losing his own life for, but he was completely ready to let go of that honor and excellence to do something that he really felt was more important. It could make a very, very strong defense for Ned doing what he did, and it certainly does puncture the mythology of Ned Stark that's running through this world, especially after his death."
  For the first scene of the episode, when Jon Snow arises from the table, Weiss stated that "Jon coming back to life was something in the first, first version we wrote originally had more talking. And as we saw it on the page written out, we realized it was just too much dialogue, we decided to just give the kind of awe of that moment its due."