Game of Thrones

[TaylorStSox]

1 minute ago, Chicago White Sox said:

Quentyn thinking he could free a dragon was just plain stupid IMO.  It’s very clear to me that GRRM didn’t have a great way to bridge the first three books to whatever end game he had in mind.  Books 4 & 5 both have way too much filler.

4 and 5 are just bad, tbh. 

[TaylorStSox]

Also kind of disappointed that the Direwolves had no impact on the story and that we never got to see Nymeria and her pack shredding Lannisters. 

[Southwest Sider]

12 minutes ago, bigruss said:

There were some absolutely captivating moments.  

Nitpicking on some things:

Why send your cavalry in like they did?  Seemed like a waste.

Was hoping to see Arya use her special weapon more.

Clearly this is leading to a war with Cersei, but what army is left?  The Unsullied and Dothraki are pretty much wiped out, so you've got remnants of the Northern army left.  Seems like they are undermanned (of course they still have dragons).

Agreed about the cavalry. Overall, that is terrible strategy. I couldn't quite understand why they did it, because Jon should know they wouldn't stand a chance. 

Dany's army is literally toast. Dothraki gone. Unsullied gone. It seems Drogon survived, but it could be debated as to whether or not Jon's dragon survived because he took an ass whooping. Whatever they have left will be scraps... against 20k Golden Company doesn't quite inspire confidence. 

[Moan4Yoan]

What an overhyped trash episode.  So dark you couldn’t see anything.  A few lesser characters died.  Awful.  They hyped up the dead army so much and prevail without many losses in the end.  Lame.

[Southwest Sider]

5 minutes ago, Harper2Sox said:

What an overhyped trash episode.  So dark you couldn’t see anything.  A few lesser characters died.  Awful.  They hyped up the dead army so much and prevail without many losses in the end.  Lame.

I see your point, and I understand that we're all used to our favorite characters dying like the first couple seasons, but I don't know if I'd judge the merits of this episode on who didn't die. It was a thrilling episode, not perfect no but nonetheless it was a ride. 

Sam should be dead, but with warriors like Brienne and Tormund, I can accept plausibility in the fact that their survival skills are as good as their fighting skills. They were all at the end of their rope, though. Should Arya have waited a minute so we could kill off a few more "main" characters? I dunno. Whatever, nothing is perfect and it was still a great cinematic experience, in my opinion. 

[StrangeSox]

Fun episode but lol that so many people in the front lines of the initial battle still somehow survived, extremely strong plot armor

 

E: had to crank the brightness on my iPad way up to be able to see anything, anyone else have similar problems?

Edited April 29, 2019 by StrangeSox

[Moan4Yoan]

4 minutes ago, StrangeSox said:

Fun episode but lol that so many people in the front lines of the initial battle still somehow survived, extremely strong plot armor

 

E: had to crank the brightness on my iPad way up to be able to see anything, anyone else have similar problems?

Yes, the episode was ridiculous for both of your reasons.  It was way too damn dark.  Spoils of War (Season 7, Episode 4) was better than this cuz you could actually see what was going on.

Edited April 29, 2019 by Harper2Sox

[thxfrthmmrs]

Reading all the fan theory of the background of night king had me excited about this battle. Despite the phenomenal presentation the episode wasn’t satisfying for me. Now I kind of feel that NK wasn’t all that significant as a character despite a 10 year build up.

[Moan4Yoan]

Just now, thxfrthmmrs said:

Reading all the fan theory of the background of night king had me excited about this battle. Despite the phenomenal presentation the episode wasn’t satisfying for me. Now I kind of feel that NK wasn’t all that significant as a character despite a 10 year build up.

He didn’t end up killing any big characters and one spontaneous stab took out the entire bad guy team.  After years of buildup, that was just lame.

[Buehrle>Wood]

The lighting on game of thrones has always been awful. Tonight was the worst ever. I dont get it.

[StrangeSox]

1 minute ago, thxfrthmmrs said:

Reading all the fan theory of the background of night king had me excited about this battle. Despite the phenomenal presentation the episode wasn’t satisfying for me. Now I kind of feel that NK wasn’t all that significant as a character despite a 10 year build up.

Purely mindless entertainment at this point. Ninja Arya, nearly every named character somehow surviving, Jorah appearing in the middle of the battlefield alone to save Danny, the insanely dumb tactics, the extremely telegraphed but apparently pointless crypt zombies, and ultimately the pointlessness of the NK and this existential threat.

[StrangeSox]

What the hell was bran doing this whole episode, anyway?

[Moan4Yoan]

1 minute ago, StrangeSox said:

Purely mindless entertainment at this point. Ninja Arya, nearly every named character somehow surviving, Jorah appearing in the middle of the battlefield alone to save Danny, the insanely dumb tactics, the extremely telegraphed but apparently pointless crypt zombies, and ultimately the pointlessness of the NK and this existential threat.

Yep, great post.  Basically, the NK and the dead army was used just as side plot to weaken Daenerys’ army for the expected battle with Cersei.  Lame as hell.

[Moan4Yoan]

1 minute ago, StrangeSox said:

What the hell was bran doing this whole episode, anyway?

Watching the battle through the eyes of some crows for no apparent reason.

[thxfrthmmrs]

5 minutes ago, Harper2Sox said:

He didn’t end up killing any big characters and one spontaneous stab took out the entire bad guy team.  After years of buildup, that was just lame.

It was almost too easy. One stab and poof, all gone. Way too anticlimatic with how dire their situations were just second before.

[thxfrthmmrs]

2 minutes ago, StrangeSox said:

What the hell was bran doing this whole episode, anyway?

Yea, that part also didn’t make sense. I thought Bran would have had a bigger purpose in the NK battle other than basically just baiting.

[Southwest Sider]

40 minutes ago, thxfrthmmrs said:

It was almost too easy. One stab and poof, all gone. Way too anticlimatic with how dire their situations were just second before.

Well duh. Everyone knew how weak he was to dragonglass and the consequence to his army if he died. Someone had to to take the chance to get him. Too easy my ass. Jon had a shot but unfortunately for him was standing around a bunch of fresh corpses. Also, NK smartly stayed away from the warfare until he had his shot at Bran. The entire episode was the climax, plus it was unexpected that it was Arya killing him. I would have imagined it would have been Jon vs. NK in some sword fight to finish him off... but that would have been too predictable. I think once people get over their stupid issues with the lighting, setting, and too few main characters dying, this will go down as one of the best GoT episodes ever. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. 

 

 

 

Edited April 29, 2019 by South Sider

[Kyyle23]

1 hour ago, South Sider said:

Agreed about the cavalry. Overall, that is terrible strategy. I couldn't quite understand why they did it, because Jon should know they wouldn't stand a chance. 

Dany's army is literally toast. Dothraki gone. Unsullied gone. It seems Drogon survived, but it could be debated as to whether or not Jon's dragon survived because he took an ass whooping. Whatever they have left will be scraps... against 20k Golden Company doesn't quite inspire confidence. 

Pretty sure you see both dragons in the preview for next episode 

[G&T]

4 hours ago, thxfrthmmrs said:

It was almost too easy. One stab and poof, all gone. Way too anticlimatic with how dire their situations were just second before.

He survived dragon fire. It was pay off for watching 2 seasons of Arya training. 

[thxfrthmmrs]

6 hours ago, South Sider said:

Well duh. Everyone knew how weak he was to dragonglass and the consequence to his army if he died. Someone had to to take the chance to get him. Too easy my ass. Jon had a shot but unfortunately for him was standing around a bunch of fresh corpses. Also, NK smartly stayed away from the warfare until he had his shot at Bran. The entire episode was the climax, plus it was unexpected that it was Arya killing him. I would have imagined it would have been Jon vs. NK in some sword fight to finish him off... but that would have been too predictable. I think once people get over their stupid issues with the lighting, setting, and too few main characters dying, this will go down as one of the best GoT episodes ever. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. 

 

 

 

So the leader of the dead and the second biggest villain in the show could be snuck up and killed in an improvised attack and the the only character he would kill was Theon? Not what I was expecting. Regardless whether dragon glass was the weapon that does the deed I had expected more battles with NK than the rushed ending to this part of the story. Maybe the living had to retreat from Winterfell after badly destroyed from the first battle and Thirion and Co have to devise a better strategy for a final battle with NK with what’s remaining.

Again, the presentation and the setup in this episode was great, my biggest issue was not learning more about the back story and motivation of NK. It seems like the whole time he just wanted to kill people and “erase the three eyed raven from existence”, which is lacking in depth compared to rest of the story arc. At least a chat there with Bran would have been nice. This piece here basically called the ending to NK but also called what it would have felt had NK been defeated the way he did.

https://www.thisisinsider.com/game-of-thrones-white-walkers-zombie-killed-2017-8

 

Edited April 29, 2019 by thxfrthmmrs

[TaylorStSox]

It all has a very "just wrap it up" feel. I'm sure everyone involved in the production just wants to move on with their lives. 

[TaylorStSox]

Although, everything involved with Melisandre was bad ass imo. 

[Chicago White Sox]

Last night’s episode was awesome from a technical standpoint (although way too fucking dark), but it lacked a meaningful payoff from my perspective.  All these years built towards a single ninja jump / dagger stab ending the Night King and the army of the dead.  Meanwhile, the vast majority of the named characters on the front lines survived and every single named character in the crypts survived despite that big surprise.  I can not deny I was on the edge of my seat for most of the episode, but I think this episode will lose a ton of its luster upon repeated viewings.  A couple major deaths would have added an emotional payoff this episode definitely lacked.

[G&T]

14 minutes ago, Chicago White Sox said:

Last night’s episode was awesome from a technical standpoint (although way too fucking dark), but it lacked a meaningful payoff from my perspective.  All these years built towards a single ninja jump / dagger stab ending the Night King and the army of the dead.  Meanwhile, the vast majority of the named characters on the front lines survived and every single named character in the crypts survived despite that big surprise.  I can not deny I was on the edge of my seat for most of the episode, but I think this episode will lose a ton of its luster upon repeated viewings.  A couple major deaths would have added an emotional payoff this episode definitely lacked.

The crypt was pointless. You hear everyone screaming, but apparently no one died. I will say they lost the ability to kill named characters when the books ended.

[TaylorStSox]

I'm sure plenty of named characters will die. Jaime for sure. Cersei for sure. Maybe Tyrion. One of Jon or Dany for sure.