Thoughts overall on the episode? I thought it was absolute trash from a story writing perspective and completely destroyed what the show has been trying to set up and be about for years. Disappoint and anti-climactic.
I think once its all over and the legacy discussion comes into play, GoT has locked itself out of being the greatest TV show ever written due to the poor last couple of seasons. Severely disappointed. :(
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Agree 100% and I'll add another major gripe . . . their battle strategy was fucking retarded. A few highlights:
Using light cavalry to charge head on with no support
Trebuchets (that fired ONE salvo) placed in front of infantry and the trench
Infantry placed in front of the fucking trench
Don't deploy dragons until infantry is already well engaged
When the wights are stopped for a bit in front of the fire trench, why the fuck aren't they lighting them up with arrows
Could not agree more. Personally I liked the episode but the lack of thought toward military strategy was mind blowing. For such a (typically) well executed show, I was shocked.
Let's be real... they've had some pretty bad writing in the past. Prime example: When the first dragon got shot down by the exploding ice spear that the NK grabbed out of basically nowhere, they somehow had massive 200 yd chains that they were presumably just carrying around in the tundra just in case they needed to fish a dead dragon out of a lake.
It's like the literal opposite of how effective the Battle of Helm's Deep was fought. (plus at least in the LOTR movies I could see what was going on)
Here's how I would have written the rest of the season. Cersei's decision not to send her army ended up having no impact, which doesn't make sense with what everyone was saying (we need literally every person we can get or we will fail). Would have been better for that to be the tide turner - Night King should have killed Bran and won the battle, then left the rest of the crew alive as he marched his army south, as a total F U / overconfidence. Surviving main characters from Winterfell should have retreated to tell Cersei. Cersei ends up not caring or believing, and murdering someone important anyway (Tyrion?). They overthrow Cersei (Jaime kills her), and then make their last stand / kill the Night King at King's Landing.
Whoa! That sounds great! I would watch this alternate ending.
I enjoyed it. Like many GoT episodes, they lean heavy on the "suspension of disbelief" that will ruin the episode if you overthink it. It felt sudden and empty when NK died - all of a sudden, this thousand+ year war is over. I don't think there was a way to avoid that though. Also with the tremendous amount of build up, it's inevitable to be let down.
We got dragon fights, the riding horde was extinguished, NK death, Arya being Arya, Berrik (sp?) saving the day in a Christ-like fashion, Clegane manning up, finding out that hiding by a bunch of dead bodies in the crypt against an enemy that raises the dead is not such a great idea, a renewed suicide pact like bond between Sansa and Tyrion, Ghost Lives!, Jorah defends that friend zone like a champ, Jon yelling a dragon to death, and Sam sobbing on the ground covered in dead things. I'm not sure what else you wanted?!
Remember, the series is about the Throne much more than it is about the dead army. We have three more episodes left, in that we have rebuilding Winterfell/North armies as much as they're going to, fight Cersei, and crown the Iron Throne winner.
What else we wanted was actual story-telling, I loved all those moments, but they need to be told within a good story. Additionally, I don't think the writers took any big risk with the deaths (as Martin would have probably done), this is the biggest battle ever, the living vs the dead, and no-one really important died (weren't we all expecting Brienne to die after becoming a knight?)
I think the writing of the show has deteriorated the further ahead of the books they go, specially with Martin not having an active role.
I think the major blunder was trying to fit far too much potential material into too small of a season...in my mind the battle for winterfell and the war with the white walkers in general was the dominant storyline of the entire show. Sure, there's very interesting competing storylines but what's more important than the living vs. the dead? I was pretty disappointed that the biggest war the show has been ramping up to for the past 7 seasons ended in essentially 45 minutes. In terms of the actual episode, I thought it was really well done. I had all of the feelings I wanted in terms of seeing some people we (maybe just me, in fairness) cared about and that feeling of prolonged tension that the plotline has always provided. I thought they did a great job at making a very large war scene not seem contrived or drawn out. I thought the juxtaposition of the huge war scenes in massive open spaces with the scenes of Arya running through the castle in these borderline claustrophobic areas was a great touch. Overall, definitely a little disappointed with how the plotline was so rapidly (and kind of shoddily IMO) wrapped up, but it doesn't ruin the series for me at all.
They've hyped up this "war" with the wights for 8 fucking seasons only for it to begin and end in one episode? This is what frustrates me (not even considering that they off'd the night king without any fucking context or background, what a waste of a fucking character).
I'm still not sure how I feel though, because I am happy we will see the focus on the Iron Throne for the latter half of this season.
Another note: The wights don't get tired, they don't sleep, they don't stop moving. Would there really be a "war" with them? Nah, there would be no time for retreat and recuperation. It would be all or nothing if we're being honest (which it was).
That being said, it was still a great episode imo; plenty of fanservice and epic shots/angles/clashes. Some things to note that are pros/cons that I particularly noticed or enjoyed:
I saw a rumor/theory on twitter that Arya could be the "promised prince/princess" instead of Jon/Daenerys. I could get w/ that. She's one of my favorite characters and totally deserved that ending scene.
Edit: I forgot to mention Dragons, 10/10.
Overall rating: Rushed, fanservicey, lacked intellect that could have made it the best episode of all time-- but delivered on expectations and was filmed proper. 7/10
I wish the white walkers actually did something though instead of standing around looking menacing
+1. This made me laugh.
Yeah it made me laugh too, i even screenshotted his comment and texted it to a friend
This is the truest part.
I feel robbed, cheated.
I was trying to figure out what the Night King's motivation was. It could have been something glorious, something nuanced. A thousand years in exile, as a super weapon, hidden behind a 700 foot wall.
And then he springs his brilliant trap, and gets an undead dragon.
And what does this nemesis actually want? To kill Brandon Stark.
Are you for real?
No nuance, no character. Just a fucking zombie out to kill a 3 eyed raven?
Fuck you GOT. I want my hour back.
Oh, and who did the lighting on this episode?
I spent an hour peering into a black screen.
Lol yeah. I watched the episode on a monitor I use occasionally and it was on "gaming mode" which maxes out brightness and plays with contrast to eliminate shadows and I STILL couldn't see SHIT for half the episode. I thought something was wrong. But I guess I get it..
I did enjoy the episode, but the one thing I really wanted was a real conversation between Bran and the Night King. I just wish we could have learned a little more about them both that way. While I'm still kinda shook that the whole army of the dead thing is just done now, I'm interested to see where they go next. Arya is a fuckin beast, but I will agree that the ending was a intellectually weak. Still, love the show and always will. One other was the fact that in this huge fuckin battle we had no 1v1 white walker fights (like why could we not have seen Clegane vs WW or Beric and that flaming sword fight one?).
Oh, also, safe to say Cleganebowl is officially on. Glad my favorite character manned up to help Arya and didn't die this episode. Can't wait to see him fucking disembowel his brother.
Also also, the Jorah friendzone jokes are just so live considering Dany tosses him in front of a sword and then gives him a fucking side hug on the way out. Thats some "you're like a brother to me" level shit. Poor Jorah, friendzone to the end-zone. Still really good acting by the two of them.
I rewatched the episode (after playing with the million TV setting so I could actually see it) and I found myself thinking this. Look, I get it - the whole silent badass thing is part of character but it would've been awesome if there was even a sentence or two spoken. Even just Bran saying, "We've been waiting for you" or "This is how I envisioned your end". Just something so we know Bran wasn't just warging off having bird sex the whole time.
Enjoyed the episodes but kinda sad how rushed everything was. So many characters are wasted/not fully used. Bran is supposed to be able to explain so many things though he doesn't. While yes the army of the NK was major to the story I much preferred the earlier seasons when it was just a fight in between families and you'd get a character die here and there without expecting it more than having 5 main character die at the same time.
Imo bran's character wasn't developed enough, he could have been more useful than just telling us who Jon is. (I don't think he'll be any more usefully for a coming fight either).
There is such a tendency these days to proclaim something as the best and/or worst thing ever. This was neither - and Game of Thrones hasn't abandoned its theoretical (and completely subjective) place in the all time television pantheon because of it.
The general plot outlines were fine and overall it was an ok episode. Entertaining if nothing else. Some gripes:
Jon and Dany's dragon tactics left a lot to be desired. Really all of the tactics left a lot to be desired.
Jon and Dany also generally didn't do much of value.
It was way too dark. I understand why, but it still was.
Not enough major characters died. Weird comment, sure, but more should have bitten it given what they faced - Grey Worm and Brienne if nothing else.
Narratively, beating the final boss with 3 episodes to go is a strange decision.
All of that said, Dragons vs. Zombies was never GoT's strength - the politics and characters are. Hopefully his means we get 3 solid episodes of that to close it out.
dragons vs zombies became GOT's strength though after they ran out of source material
This. If you read a lot of the interviews with GRRM, he was kind of pissed the way that they started veering away from his content. What makes the books so amazing and appealing to so many is the fact that the interwoven plots/character story lines mirror a lot of geopolitical themes we see today. He stated that the NK plot was always secondary - hell, he even says in one of the forewords/epilogues that one of his child relatives made him put the dragons in and he wasn't even going to have them in the story, which should be a big item of note.
The minute that the show started making the Light/Dark struggle the main focal point, in contrast to the books, they sealed their own fate.
The show could still have been fine using the night king as the focal point. In the books Cersei could be the focus point still, and it would make both interesting to watch. For more night king, you could watch the show and for more cersei you could read the books.
I'm more frustrated that they made the night king the focal point for the show, then after all the hype are changing it back to cersei. Cersei doesn't feel like a threat anymore now that they killed the Night King. She doesn't even have elephants
I stated originally that the past couple of seasons have caused GoT to fall in rankings. I'd say the first 4 seasons of GoT are the greatest tv series of all time. Post season 4 and especially the last two seasons, logic and story writing have collapsed.
Yeah actually I’d agree with that. Everything up to and including Tyrions trial
My thoughts sooo bad. When they shifted away from family conflicts the show became absolute trash.
Last season with the characters teleporting across the world within a single episode was probably my biggest gripe when comparing to the travel in the earlier seasons. At least this season they’re all in one place I guess
Agree. The show used to have a ton of intrigue with Littlefinger, Varys, and a more interesting Tyrion all plotting and strategizing. That has been totally lost the last two seasons. It was one of the greatest shows ever, and it’s now probably my third favorite hbo Sunday show after Barry and Veep.
So after eight seasons, we get:
almost zero backstory on the night king,
nothing on the prophecy of the prince that was promised
nothing involving lightbringer
Bran gives us no insight into the past or how the night king was defeated the first time, he is a paper weight in this episode other than one line to theon
The "battle for the long night" did not include a single white walker
Night king smiled at Danerys when engulfed in dragon flame, but no explanation there
We were told we'd need therapy after this season, even Grey Worm survived...
Melisandre said she had to return to these lands to die, arguably the lamest death in all eight seasons and her only purpose was to tell Arya to close blue eyes.
I thought this was going to be more exciting than Endgame and was very let down.
Did bran do anything this episode? he just napped a little
He attached his GoPro to some crows so he could film the battle from above.
Think he had to be warging to attract the night king
100% agree with everything you just said.
Thank god someone started this.
I would rate the episode as follows:
Cinematic = 10 / 10 - Yes I understand the lighting was trash, let's put that aside for now. The scene where the Dothraki pushed in with their swords ablaze and slowly got put out, from Danny and Jon's perspective atop the hill was beautiful. The first shot when Drogon came flying in with the first bout of dragonfire and the sky lit up was also beautiful. Viserion was amazingly animated and transformed again and the fog / Winterfell shots were great.
Music / Audio = 10/10 - I think the music in this episode was beyond amazing. The first few minutes had my heart racing, unsure if the hoard of wights would come flying out in a "Day Z" esque fashion and completely overrun the army, or if a lone walker would step out and initiate the fight. The music in the crypts was on point, the music when everyone was retreating was on point, music when NK advanced was great, music when Jon was trying to get to Bran was also on point.
Writing = 6.5/10 - This is where I'm a bit annoyed. First of all Sam should've died like 15 times that episode. Fat SOB sitting on his back randomly stabbing into a pile of wights was hilarious and typical Sam. - No reasons Jorah should have made it back from that initial Dothraki charge (please he led the charge and was the only one to make it back?) Glad he died in the end or I would've lost it. - Needed more major characters to die. Sansa, Jon, Tyron, Danny, Sam, Jamie, Brienne, Greyworm were all in positions where they could and should have died easily. How TF Danny land that Rhaegal, then he flew away knocking Danny off, and then NONE of the AOTD went to kill Danny, Jorah comes out FROM BEHIND SOMEHOW, kills like two wights and MAKES IT BACK TO WINTERFELL? - While I think the Arya killing NK was a really cool scene, still not sure how he goes from Alexander the Great level tactics of putting out the trench of fire with one dead wight at a time to dying from an ambush like that. - Bran was absolutely useless that episode and did nothing. The show hyped up NK / Bran for 3 seasons and they don't have bran do a single thing? They don't share any words? - That brings me to the fact that the walkers had so little revealed about them. NK's end felt lackluster, no reasoning, no motivation, no explanation of what they wanted, why they wanted it, etc. The NK / Bran lore was lacking when the last 2ish seasons were almost completely revolved around the AOTD / NK / Raven etc.
Still liked the episode though. I have a feeling the writers had a longer version of the end written out and were forced to make cuts for timing / budget reasons and it resulted in this.
If Jorah didn't come back from the charge, it all would have felt dangerous. I expected our favorite characters to die left and right
Jorah should have come back as a wight and Dany had to burn him herself with her dragon.
Imagine the Dothraki charge out like they did with Jorah and then pure silence. Shots of different character faces as they try to process what happens. Then suddenly there is a stampeding charge as Jorah leads the now dead and reanimated Dothraki hoard right back where they came from to face the living.
Now THAT would be a way to start the battle and show that they meant business. This felt like kitten gloves were used.
Delete
Because people like me wouldn't care if it had a $14 budget. This episode appealed to the "I wanna see cool s*** happen and damn the storyline" crowd.
I agree with you on almost everything. Everyone is clearly upset that there was no explanation of back stories or what Bran was doing but you got to think they will explain everything in the next episode. There is no way they just drop it and never speak about what happened.
Secondly, Arya is able to sneak up on the Night King as was foreshadowed when she sneaks up on Jon in the Godswood and he says "How were you able to sneak up on me?"
Obviously how was she able to go undetected? Couldn't tell you other than she bad and could have put on a dead person's face or something. Again, I think a lot of this will be explained which will make the episode even better in my opinion.
I'll follow up with you next Sunday.
I'm HOPING that she was able to sneak up on the night king because of some red woman wizardry. That would make sense, and it would explain why the Red Woman died right after when the last magic she did was setting the trenches on fire
On the complaints over their military tactics:
My interpretation was that they had at least some strategy, but then Dany freaked out over the Dothraki's were eliminated (first time she's ever seen her own men get crushed like that) and things went to shit from there
Organized and well thought out military battles are kind of boring. Who wants to see two phalanx's push against each other for hours, or hole yourself up behind walls and play the long game? IRL military battles especially in middle ages were like going to Pacha as a 19 year old with a fake ID expecting to dance with several hotties but find yourself packed in by mostly annoying fist pumping dudes with barely enough room to step while the little real action there is is confined to one end of the dance floor and there's nothing you can do (think John at the end of battle of the bastards). Chaos is the only way to make these sorts of things entertaining so that's what they did. It's a show about flaccid wieners, god dammit, let's keep things in perspective.
On the rest of it, I thought it was good. I turned the lights out in my living room to watch it which I think helped a lot, I recommend people give it another shot that way if it was a little hard to see the first time. Though personally I think the chaos and confusion from the darkness added to the effect.
I'm not 100% convinced the night king is totally out of the way though yet. I don't think we'll see another battle against an army of the dead but there's something else going on. Maybe someone gets possessed or transformed (Bran?). Or maybe the night king was really just inside of us all along.
The Night King is for sure gone. There isn't enough run time to have anything meaningful happen.
@MiserlyGrandpa" I agree with your #2 somewhat (no one wants to see just one prolonged push of pike which was often the reality) but there is a middle ground and the writers completely missed it.
Enjoyed it, 8.5/10. Agree with most of the above gripes and there are so many questions that will go unanswered. - battle strategy was lol - why did Drogon land - How did so many of the major characters survive - what is the point of Bran's character other than being a walking history book - what the hell was the night king's motivation and why choose now to invade/ what catalyzed Dany to birth the first dragons in generations - how did Arya get so close to the night king/ why did he feel the need to personally kill the three-eyed raven (likely related to motivation)
And some other gripes. Still epic af overall but not in my top 5 GoT episodes of all time (Rains of Castemere, Blackwater, The Children, Battle of the Bastards, Hardhome).
Ya plot armor was real in this episode, along with falling damage being turned off. The best explanation I've heard for Arya getting close to the night king was that the Hound gimli tossed her out of a window.
If you go back and watch, Arya speed blitzes past the Walker Generals to get to the Night King (One of their hair flaps in the wind and he looks behind him and then she appears very quickly after). So she legit just ran past all of them and got to their leader.. Even though the scene previously that she was in she wasn't even fast enough to outright the wights chasing her.
This wouldnt be the first time, keep in mind this IS the fellowship of the bad idea after all
To me the Night King completely falls flat as a villain. I still don’t know what he was really trying to do and why. So his defeat was just completely anticlimactic. Compare him to Sauron where you knew if them Hobbits destroyed that ring his shit would be completely wrecked for all eternity. It lead to a far better payoff.
Agree 100%. This episode ruined the show for me, pretty much. Season 7 was already weak but S8 was off to a decent start, and now this episode comes along and solidifies that we'll have a weak ending. Seasons 7 and 8 will alone prevent this show from being a GOAT in my mind.
My list of pros for the episode: - I actually enjoyed the dark, "can't see shit" cinematography - Enough tension to convince me to take off work today - Gillie dies - Good dragon fights - always fun seeing lizard esophagus get ripped out - Ice dragon was scary af - Arya going around doing shit and hiding was phenomenal - Daenerys falling off Drogon and being exposed to zombies was promising - Drogon didn't die
Cons: - Daenerys didn't die after falling off Drogon - Drogon almost died because that dumb bitch got distracted - Sam doesn't kill zombie Gillie - Year 3 AD military tactics - Ser Jorah dies instead of Daenerys - Brienne, Sam, Tyrion, Grey Worm don't die - J Snow doesn't do anything useful
Basically, the Night King waited 9,000 years to get killed by a sneak attack, confirming Thanos would win in any fight between the two and knock the NK into a timeline that never gets a movie.
If it were up to me, the NK would have been 3 of the four remaining episodes, half the crew would have died this episode, the rest would have retreated straight to King's Landing with the NK army hot on their tail. In a ridiculous 3-way battle, Jaimie kills Cersei, Jon takes the throne, Arya still kills NK, and the last episode is a farewell.
Overall a weak episode, 5/10.
Where were the consequences for Cersei refusing to protect mankind? The only way any of this made any sense would be for a battle in Westeros, like you said, with all parties involved. What even was the point of that vision Dany had about the throne room covered in ice? If it was meant to throw off viewers then that doesn't make sense at all. Dany wouldn't be having the vision if it didn't matter to HER character and not just the audience or else we would've seen it a different way. It feels like they just threw left turns in there for the sake of left turns and that is NOT what made me consider the first half of this show the undisputed GOAT.
I'm a sad monkey today :(
Wait Gillie died?
Gillie is not dead look at the episode 4 promo.
My new theory for Game of Thrones:
Qyburn uses his knowledge from the Citadel, experiments with the mountain, autopsy of the wight, and his knowledge of magic from his time in Asshai to turn Cersei in the next Night Queen
I really don't think ol' Qyburn is making it out of this one
Also lets give huge props to Ramin Djawadi for his awesome soundtracks over the years, especially that song that played as the Night King walked up to Bran. So damn good.
In my analysis I wrote up this was the big props I gave. That music score specifically when Bran and the Night King are about to come face to face was top 3 in the show (Light of the Seven is number 1 and I think its hard to dispute that).
I think Bran/Night King and Light of the Seven are tied for me. They were the only two songs Djawadi did that focused on the piano. That dude has really become one of the best soundtrack composers I've ever heard.
Writing of the series has gone down since they passed the books, which I think highlights how good GRRM's storytelling is. The complexity of the politics between the characters isn't where it was in the earlier seasons, and the episodes have tended to follow more typical big-budget/Hollywood tv series'. I won't be too critical of the episode because (a) its only one episode and (b) people were pissed after the red wedding so I'm willing to see how the season plays out.
If you compare GoT to LotR, then Sauron = Night King & Saruman = battle for Iron Throne, so after hyping up the whole winter is coming / dead are coming, they should've made that the climax of the show.
If I was writing the show, I would've had the characters fight amongst and backstab each other in an effort to be King/Queen. Do that until the last episode where, whoever wins the Iron Throne, tries to take on the NK at one of 3 places: Moat Cailin, The Vale, or Dragonstone. End the series with the dead advancing on the living, with the living clearly about to get destroyed, and don't even show that battle. Make the last shot of the King/Queen, clearly mentally insane after killing/backstabbing their way to the throne, on the ramparts of the castle in the Eyrie as the army of dead approaches. Throw in a rain storm and thunder for cinematic effect.
But seriously, wtf was Bran doing the whole time? Really interested to see what the ravens were for and where he sent them.
At this point where the writing is I fully expect everything that happened this episode to be fully forgotten after the first 5 minutes of next episode. There will be a few necessary references to what happened and then everything will essentially be back to status quo and the plot will continue to railroad into the showdown with Cersei. No further explanation for Bran or anything. It just seems like there’s no consequences in this story anymore.
There hasn't been any consequences for actions for multiple seasons now. The fact I still decided to watch the last two seasons should show you how hard it is to get out of abusive relationships sometimes.
Look the show can't go on forever it had to pass the books and seriously speed up the ending to the show with so much happening. A lot of books made into tv/movies are not spot on and that is a great thing. Let the directors put there own twists on it and if you don't like the ending go read the books when they come out.
It is also much easier to incorporate and explain more in a book because its free to write and can be however long you want it to be. A lot of people are asking for way too much out of one the most expensive shows to film. There will be plenty of explanations next episode.
In short, of course GRRM is more creative he has all the time in the world to think about ideas and write them down for free. He gave the writers a direction and they definitely have put there own spin on it.
Agreed, the show would pass the timing of the books, but if there is a lot happening and you try to mash all the conclusions into a handful of episodes, quality is going to drop. What's the rush? And, I was under the impression that GRRM told the directors his plan/vision.
I'd agree that we should reserve some judgement until the show has a chance to explain/expand on epi.3 but what you say about storytelling in a book is obvious. The show is successful because they have done a good job explaining the story as complex as it is, they haven't dumbed down the conflicts, nor gone for many tropes. I think the sentiment is that the more recent seasons have not maintained the complexity/intricacy of storytelling that the earlier seasons had (where the books were followed more closely).
the queen fi
This episode was 10/10 and I don't even care that I have a lot of unanswered questions or that people who got flooded by zombies are still alive or that there wasn't much military thought. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time and the music was A+. There was so much foreshadowing that played out finally and it was good to see. Now the scenario is a depleted northern army against Cersei and the Golden Company this is gonna be fun.
Note: Did anyone pick up that the giant died in the exact same spot he died in with Ramsey shot him with the bow? Beric was getting stabbed in a cross position. Also he kept being brought back to save Arya. Obviously Arya will shut "blue eyes". This was foreshadowed way back in like S1 or S2 I think. Arya snuck up on Jon at that Godswood tree last season and did the same to the NK. The dagger meant to kill Bran and given to Arya by Bran saved Bran. Also she stabbed the NK in the exact spot the CotF did when they created him. Arya used the same knife drop move when sparring with Brienne in S7.
A lot of questions should get answered next episode and that is why I'm not mad about the ending. Also people are mad no one died but actually a good bit of people did just not the biggest characters but trust me there are still 3 episodes for your favorite characters to die. Enjoy!
"I was on the edge of my seat the whole time"
After the 4th time a character that clearly had absolutely no chance at survival miraculously escapes unharmed you were still believing something would happen? I had to stop the episode and restart twice because it was so frustrating that they were turning it into a run-of-the-mill Hollywood show.
"the music was A+"
Agreed.
"There was so much foreshadowing that played out finally"
Except for ALL of the prophecies surrounding the entire main storyline. Also, they effectively made Robert's Rebellion, that the show was first started upon, completely irrelevant. It happened because of Lyanna and Rhaegar and the reason Rhaegar did what he did was because he believed he was the Prince who was Promised of prophecy who would bring an end to the long night. He realized he was not, and it was his son (Jon Snow reveal) who would be that man. There was some ambiguity as Dany was ALSO born anew in front of a red moon when she hatched her dragons. NEITHER ended up mattering whatsoever and they had ARYA, ARYAAAA end the long night. Arya's storyline has quite literally nothing to do with the Long Night storyline. They shoehorned her into the plotline that she wasn't a part of because "you wouldn't expect it" as they said and in order to fan service people who don't understand the story at all and just wanna see "cool things" happen.
"Now the scenario is a depleted northern army against Cersei and the Golden Company this is gonna be fun"
Not really. Cersei is nowhere near the same level of threat as the White Walkers if this were an accurate story. It's pretty obvious that the Golden Company will betray Cersei (They mentioned multiple times they've neeeeeeeeeeeeever broken a contract and in the books they're led by Blackfyres).
"Beric was getting stabbed in a cross position. Also he kept being brought back to save Arya."
Beric's entire point of being resurrected dozens of times throughout the story is supposed to be because he needed to be in that exact spot at that exact time to throw his sword at a wight so Melisandre could give Arya a quote from Sirio? The epitome of horrible script writing.
"Obviously Arya will shut "blue eyes". This was foreshadowed way back in like S1 or S2 I think."
The quote back then actually had blue eyes as second and they retconned that to have it last this time. Arya won't be killing the Night King in the books (as she never even met Melisandre and Beric has been dead for a long time) so that wasn't foreshadowing that back then. She literally said every common eye color and you can say it fits anywhere realistically.
"Arya snuck up on Jon at that Godswood tree last season and did the same to the NK"
Except this time the NK was surrounded by... everyone... and nobody stopped her even though the walkers clearly notice her running.
"Arya used the same knife drop move when sparring with Brienne in S7"
Which the Night King followed with his eyes the entire time and for some unknown reason never even reacted, nor did any of his generals. He also for some reason didn't instantly snap her neck when she's maybe 100 pounds and the generals are shown being able to toss Jon Snow with one hand, let alone the Night King's force.
"A lot of questions should get answered next episode and that is why I'm not mad about the ending"
They won't be answering questions. It will be "that was epic that we survived, now the REAL WAR BEGINS" or some bs. We were told "there is only one war that matters, the great war, and it is here" and "winter is coming" and yet nothing... happened...
"People are mad no one died but actually a good bit of people did just not the biggest characters but trust me there are still 3 episodes for your favorite characters to die"
People are not mad because of lack of deaths. People are mad because characters who should CLEARLY be dead based on their circumstances in the fight survived for no reason other than plot armor. Also, characters that could have made this fight mean ANYTHING did not die. Dany, Jon, Jaime, all completely unharmed and ALL were put into impossible to survive situations. It's just pure ass storytelling and that's why people are mad.
We are in two separate camps here. I have never read the books so I could care less what story line the show wants to follow as long as it is entertaining (it is). At the end of the day it is a fictional TV show that people think should be way too realistic. There is magic and dragons yet you complain that people aren't dying realistically.
Might not be as deep as some Game of Thrones episodes, but it was definitely one to watch. I thought that Arya was the perfect person for the job especially as we have seen her character change and develop over the years. Also apparently the producers knew Arya would be the one to kill NK for a few years now.
A few years means last season.
Also, Arya's storyline has nothing to do with the Long Night storyline. Like legitimately, other than her being a Stark, her storyline does not overlap in any way whatsoever with this main storyline. They did this because it "was unexpected" and because they wanted to give fan service. That's why anyone who knows the story in-depth is LIVID.
Important to note, though, that the Prince That Was Promised (Ice & Fire) is different from Azor Ahai. They are two different story-lines and people. The show (incorrectly) conflated the two.
Probably an unpopular opinion here and I'm still trying to think through all of it, but I'm not sure I buy the idea that Arya actually snuck up on the NK. I interpreted it as having more to do with him being over confident and thinking he had complete control of the situation. I viewed it as NK let Arya (as he did with Theon) get close to him. He just failed to foresee Arya would counter his counter. I think he was essentially planning to do what he did to Theon: Let 'em charge, counter, and kill. I mean, did you really sneak up on someone if when you attack they turn 180 degrees and grab you by your neck and dagger-holding hand? That struck me more as the reaction of someone that was expecting you to come at them. Curious to know if anyone else had viewed it that way or if I'm totally missing something. The knife drop was just plain bada**, though. Certainly open to having my mind changed on the overall interpretation. Either way, I had a few issues with the episode but liked it overall. Felt like there should have been a little more something between NK and Bran at the end. Can't believe there's only three episodes left!!
The nightking was never in the game of thrones. Dany and Jon will take center stage in the battle against Cersei.
Yeah but Cersei is not anywhere close to the level of threat the Walkers were shown to be. Also, the North has no battle forces left because they did the Night King fight first! So the only way the story will be able to progress will be some BS about the Golden Company/Iron Bank betraying Cersei and likely Daario and the Second Sons appearing from Meereen. I'm not emotionally invested anymore because there isn't a huge looming threat in the background like a ticking time bomb ready to go off. From the FIRST scene/episode of the show we were shown the ridiculous abilities of the White Walkers and the pure terror that they would bestow. Cersei is a watered down Tywin and we've done this before.
Dany still has the dragons so I’d give the advantage to the North.
I can see the North defeating Cersei and then it’ll be Jon and Dany fighting each other for the throne.
The more the show deviates from the books, the worse the writing becomes and it degenerates into crowd pleasing action scenes, instead of the clever, insightful and skillful writing that made the show great in the first place. It went from great drama to vapid action.
I think GRRM should be ashamed for allowing this to happen.
True, GRRM needs to do more quality control on the work
Samwell Tarly being in the frontlines costing Edd's life was like seeing a legacy hire with shit credentials fucking up small parts of the model so that a non-target Analyst gets shit from the MD
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