Game Of Thrones

Edington said:
This episode is around 80 minutes, if I wanted to see it before I have to leave for work I'd need to start watching around 5:30AM. I just don't know if I can put myself through that on a Monday morning. :S
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I'm debating whether to watch it tonight or tomorrow when I get back from work...
 
That was fucking amazing and I am now completely shook

My only criticism is the fact we had no mass character purges but otherwise that was just absolutely incredible. I will go to bed to digest what I have just watched then discuss it tomorrow
 
That was just the best episode of the series. Nothing comes close. No huge major deaths, but I didn’t expect any. Theon and Jorah’s deaths were pretty rough, especially Jorah’s!

I knew Arya would kill the Night King. I thought it would have to be her or Jon. Jon can only be the hero so many times, so she was the most logical
choice to me. I could have sworn Bran would die though.

Also are Sansa and Tyrion getting back together?
 
My feed is flooded by people complaining that they couldn't see the episode as it was shot so dark.
 
LooseCannon said:
My feed is flooded by people complaining that they couldn't see the episode as it was shot so dark.
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They probably saw it pirated, as I did, though it did not retract from a good episode.

Poto said:
That episode was great and shit at the same time..
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I agree.

Just read an article in Time that said for a battle being built up to for so many years it was anticlimatic and I agree. It had great moments, but not... enough. Some I was willing to accept that my my expectations weren't met and reset, but others, I stand by my gripes.

For example. I initially felt huge disappointment at the initial battle. When the Doth Raki get their fire swords and ready to square off against the wights I was very excited. I was expecting something akin to Braveheart or the Battle of the Bastards, instead they ride off into the dark and we see their swords go off one by one. Spooky, sure, but... WTF? The Doth Raki were built up the whole series as a waring people, who knew little else and to just wipe them out like that... I felt cheated. Same went for most of the battle.

Then I remembered the Hound's line about not being able to fight death itself. The wights are fairly unique to zombiekind. They are an interesting mix between the classic, slow, brain seeking, lurching zombie and the fast, deadly tidal wave of death that we see know-a-days like in 28 Days Later and World War Z. These zombies also have agency and a tad of intelligence. Not to mention a hierarchy. There is a huge difference between the cannon fodder wights and those part of the Night King's court, but all the same they are not entirely mindless. Due to this I was willing to forgive the fact these lifelong warriors, among others, being completely overran.

I will not, however, excuse how easily the Night King was killed. This... larger than life character, the threat to all humanity, doesn't even put up a fight. I wanted to see a major showdown with ANYBODY. He escapes from Jon by raising more dead, he easily handles Theon and Arya sneaks up on him and uses a slight of hand trick to kill him? Fuck that. That blew. They could have had some sort of sparring match as more beloved characters died. Like... MAYBE Lyanna Mormont lives! Jon/Arya/who the fuck ever, has him against the ropes! They'll kill him and she'll make it! WTF! They didn't kill him on time! She died! Oh no! But... no. Just walks in, looks at Bran, a little wind and ice explosions for everyone.

EVERYTHING else was awesome. Some people complained that not enough people died, but that makes sense, they still have to fight Cersei. So quite a few characters can still die after surviving the dead. Looking forward to the next few episodes. How many left, 4? I assume will have two more set-up episodes, another war episode, and an epilogue episode wraping it all up.
 
Collin said:
I did not share this complaint.
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Everything was shot perfectly, in my opinion. I loved the cinematography.

I agree that the Night King went down in a rather silly fashion. But how else would they have been able to defeat him in a one-to-one battle?
When he raised all walkers, I thought that was when everyone was going to die. Chilling.
Also, I'm not shaken by any of the deaths in this episode, only Jorah mattered, but he died as he would have liked to. Well, apart from suffering a heart attack while shagging Dany, perhaps.
I'm looking forward to what happens next
 
Poto said:
That episode was great and shit at the same time..
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Agreed, what I could see of it, at least.

How well did I do with my predictions?

  • The Hound dies, Beric gives his life to revive him. Hound overcomes his pyrophobia and wields the fiery sword. He kills the Mountain with it later in the series.
Disappointingly, this was all wrong.
  • The Red Woman returns with an army. As she said she would die in Winterfell, she dies.
Seeing Carice Van Outen's name in the credits proved this partly right before the episode started properly. No army, but she had some cool moments (mostly lighting things of fire), sadly they didn't have much of an impact.
  • The dead Starks in the Crypt are revived, but under Bran the Builder's magic they fight against the Night King. This is the closest the show will go to having Lady Stoneheart appear. Doesn't make the most sense as everyone down there is mostly dust or decapitated, but I felt there was too much insistence on the Crypts being "safe" for nothing to happen down there.
Wrong. Shame, that would've been better than what we got.
  • Alternatively, as everyone said the crypts were the safest place to be, that means they're clearly not and everyone down there is slaughtered, possibly by the revived Starks.
Correct, but less shocking than I expected.
  • An important character, or maybe a dragon (or an important character with a dragon), slays one of the wight Giants.
Correct. Nicely done, Lyanna, that was the most badass moment in the episode.
  • Ser Jorah dies to save his Khaleesi. A fitting end for him, but this is the death that will hit me hardest. I like Jorah.
Correct. I am sad.
  • The Night King is killed, the war against Cersei is the main story now. Doesn't seem to be much reason to go to King's Landing if Bran is his target, plus we've only got three episodes after this. Gotta wrap it all up.
Correct, but his death was so fucking stupid, and we got another shitty moment where all the enemy mooks go down after their leader is killed. I would've preferred NK to be the last one standing after the battle and go out with more of a fight, maybe taking on a number of major characters at once, but instead he gets killed by a flying Arya? It's not even so much that it was Arya who killed him, just the dumb way she did it. Also, after all that setup of the Army of the Dead they're all gone just like that?
  • Jon, Dany, Jaime, Tyrion, Sansa, Ayra and Bran all live. Everyone else is 50/50.
7/7, pretty good going. I expected more of the supporting characters to die and honestly would've preferred if they did.

Also, two things that really bugged me:

Someone calculated that dragon's fire burns around 2500 Fahrenheit, apparently a quarter of the temperature of the sun. How the hell does Jon (and others) keep getting so close to it?

A single wight can take down an unnamed soldier in seconds but a whole group of them can't kill Sam Tarly. Give over.
 
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That episode was absolutely incredible and I loved most of it. Four things that sucked but somehow didn't ruin it for me:

- Raise the fucking brightness! Why are they spending so much money on effects to shroud it all in shitty color correction?!
- The actual military strategy shown on screen was absolute trash. It made zero sense. You've got the minds of two Lannisters, Jon Snow, Sansa, Brienne, hell even fucking Samwell has to have read about battle strategy...If that's what they're hitting King's Landing with, they're royally fucked.
- Dragons flying around the sky confused by ice was too lengthy and stupid.
- Way too many people are alive. Samwell should be dead a thousand times over. Brienne should be dead. Grey Worm should be dead. Missendei should be dead (literally no one important died in the crypts). The plot armor is fucking absurd.

I have no issues with Arya killing the Night King and I literally jumped out of my chair yelling, "OH MY GOD" for 20 minutes. They set it up nicely with her being stealthy in the library, they show one of the White Walker's hair blowing in the wind as Arya passes by...it is subtle and a little bit silly, but I'll allow it. The point was that you can't kill the Night King with force, you can't kill the Night King with magic, so what's left? Stealth.
 
I share most of the "complaints" made here but I have enjoyed the episode a lot overall. Still, can somebody enlighten me about one thing?
I was distracted at that moment, so I didn't really get why Melissandre died.
 
Black Bart said:
Ok, but what strikes me is that she seemed to have CHOSEN to do so?
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The Lord of Light had deemed her time up. I think the necklace just masked her true (old) appearance, I guess she wanted to die as herself rather than an illusion.
 
Black Bart said:
I share most of the "complaints" made here but I have enjoyed the episode a lot overall. Still, can somebody enlighten me about one thing?
I was distracted at that moment, so I didn't really get why Melissandre died.
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She was 402 years old in season 8 so she let her magic go (the necklace helped keep her alive but needed close proximity). She had fulfilled her destiny so she chose to die instead of remain in a world where she had nothing more to accomplish. It is like how Beric died once his mission was completed (Protecting Arya)
 
MrKnickerbocker said:
That episode was absolutely incredible and I loved most of it. Four things that sucked but somehow didn't ruin it for me:

- Raise the fucking brightness! Why are they spending so much money on effects to shroud it all in shitty color correction?!
- The actual military strategy shown on screen was absolute trash. It made zero sense. You've got the minds of two Lannisters, Jon Snow, Sansa, Brienne, hell even fucking Samwell has to have read about battle strategy...If that's what they're hitting King's Landing with, they're royally fucked.
- Dragons flying around the sky confused by ice was too lengthy and stupid.
- Way too many people are alive. Samwell should be dead a thousand times over. Brienne should be dead. Grey Worm should be dead. Missendei should be dead (literally no one important died in the crypts). The plot armor is fucking absurd.

I have no issues with Arya killing the Night King and I literally jumped out of my chair yelling, "OH MY GOD" for 20 minutes. They set it up nicely with her being stealthy in the library, they show one of the White Walker's hair blowing in the wind as Arya passes by...it is subtle and a little bit silly, but I'll allow it. The point was that you can't kill the Night King with force, you can't kill the Night King with magic, so what's left? Stealth.
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Knick nailed it. Those were my reactions too. I particularly agree with his second point -- a couple times I said aloud to my wife, "what are they DOING?!" But it was a fantastic episode nonetheless, with real tension and dread.
The coolest scene was watching the Dothraki charge via the "thousand points of light" -- and watching all of them gradually get extinguished.
 
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