Game of Thrones

[Brandon]

[NJHalo]

Wow!

Just catching my breath now

[Inside Pitch]

1 minute ago, NJHalo said:

Wow!

Just catching my breath now

Yeah man.....  Holy schnikeys...

[Ender]

I'm unsure how to feel. Feels like 8 seasons of lead up shouldn't have had him go out like that.

[Brandon]

 

nar.......wal.

Arya is a straight up g.

[Brandon]

The producers of the show break it down.

Side note, this comment below the video is so true. I couldn't tell if it was just me when the episode started.

"Let us take a moment to thank Melisandre and her fire for allowing us to view the battle."

 

 

[Chuck]

2 hours ago, NJHalo said:

Wow!

Just catching my breath now

Yeah man, I'm still buzzed over that episode. Wow

[UndertheHalo]

Man.  Just 15/10 entertainment.  So much shit going on it was just overwhelming.   Not disappointed.  

Jesus Christ that scene in the beginning with the Dothraki.  

[NJHalo]

8 hours ago, UndertheHalo said:

Man.  Just 15/10 entertainment.  So much shit going on it was just overwhelming.   Not disappointed.  

Jesus Christ that scene in the beginning with the Dothraki.  

Spoiler

I love the way they did that scene with the Dothraki. Just seeing the glow of their lighted swords slowly get extinguished, and the looks on everyone's faces was so well done. 

 

[red321]

Great episode...

Spoiler

Some amazing scenes...the waiting and anticipation and then the Dothraki with the lit swords rush off to war...only to be slowly extinguished. The dragon battle...well, what we could make out of it. Lyanna Mormant being the bad ass she was. Theon's redemption (bad timing dude...30 more seconds). The utter horror when the night king brought everyone back to life.

but a day later...a bit anti-climatic?

Spoiler

 

Like...what the fuck was bran doing warged into crows? What was the night king's motivation...memory...and how did he survive dragonfire? Where the fuck did Arya come from?

(oh...and why the hell didn't Tyrion think of wildfire)

 

 

[AngelsLakersFan]

I seriously enjoyed the episode, edge of my seat action, but by the end I had so many nits to pick that I’m not sure how long the excitement of the live viewing over shadows the criticisms.

just a few things...

Was any thought given to tactics? Why would you charge the Dothraki horde straight into an unseen opponent? When you are vastly outnumbered you gotta hide behind your force multipliers like the catapults, archers and fire. When you build a defensive position you let the attack come to you or you lose the defensive advantage. Meeting the dead, man to man, on the field is nuts.

After being led to believe the episode would be a blood bath we end up with a series of major characters being saved by other major characters or simply ending up miraculously ok, with a body count of about 100,000 red shirts and 2 or 3 name characters. It felt near the end like the only people left alive were the major characters. Thousands killed and Samwell fuckin Tarly survives? Jon has all the dead from the battle rise up around him and he some how manages to fight through it? 

A central mystery to the series has been the identity of ‘the prince who was promised’ and the purpose of the Three Eyed Raven. By the end of this episode we are left to accept that the ‘princess’ was ‘no one’ and the purpose of the Three Eyed Raven was to chill under a tree like any basic autistic child. All the theories and ideas about their true purpose and ultimate fait seem to have been dismissed out of hand, a seriously wasted opportunity.

After years of lore and build up to ‘the long night’ the Night King is defeated in one episode, in his first battle? We’ve waited years for this, being told the real war is to the north, now 3 episodes about dealing with Cerci feel strangely anti climatic.

[Catwhoshatinthehat]

Agreed.  Doesn't seem fitting after so many books and years of the show to have the Night King defeated like that.  As entertaining as the episode might have been it doesn't seem fitting for the build up, detail and story telling that went into it.  

[Chimi]

The Dothraki charging in like that I think was their tactic.  That's how the Dothraki fight and have always fought.  They're strongest on their horses and when they're running at full speed.  I think the plan was for the Dothraki to charge in and try and cut down as many White Walkers as they could and thin the numbers.  I wouldn't be shocked if they overestimated the power of the Dothraki and figued they might eliminate the majority of the White Walker army, leaving the Dragons and Unsullied to clean up the rest.  Daenerys and Jon watching from the cliff kind of showed that was the plan all along because Daenerys abandoned it pretty quick when she saw the Dothraki getting slaughtered.

I was ok with Arya getting the killshot.  Everyone seems to be all up in arms about the fact there wasn't some epic showdown between the Night King and Jon Snow.  But I think Arya killing him was the perfect person to do it.  She was the most equipped person to do it at least.  It made all her training at the House of Black and White mean something.  I think Jaqen knew what he was training her for.

[red321]

33 minutes ago, AngelsLakersFan said:

I seriously enjoyed the episode, edge of my seat action, but by the end I had so many nits to pick that I’m not sure how long the excitement of the live viewing over shadows the criticisms.

just a few things...

Was any thought given to tactics? Why would you charge the Dothraki horde straight into an unseen opponent? When you are vastly outnumbered you gotta hide behind your force multipliers like the catapults, archers and fire. When you build a defensive position you let the attack come to you or you lose the defensive advantage. Meeting the dead, man to man, on the field is nuts.

After being led to believe the episode would be a blood bath we end up with a series of major characters being saved by other major characters or simply ending up miraculously ok, with a body count of about 100,000 red shirts and 2 or 3 name characters. It felt near the end like the only people left alive were the major characters. Thousands killed and Samwell fuckin Tarly survives? Jon has all the dead from the battle rise up around him and he some how manages to fight through it? 

A central mystery to the series has been the identity of ‘the prince who was promised’ and the purpose of the Three Eyed Raven. By the end of this episode we are left to accept that the ‘princess’ was ‘no one’ and the purpose of the Three Eyed Raven was to chill under a tree like any basic autistic child. All the theories and ideas about their true purpose and ultimate fait seem to have been dismissed out of hand, a seriously wasted opportunity.

After years of lore and build up to ‘the long night’ the Night King is defeated in one episode, in his first battle? We’ve waited years for this, being told the real war is to the north, now 3 episodes about dealing with Cerci feel strangely anti climatic.

I tend to agree on some of those points.

I did read some articles that break down what happened a little more over the lifetime of the series, there were scenes through the years that filled in some details (like Melisandre with Arya way back in season 3). But in general they didn't fill in a lot of that backstory. They spent all that time identifying Jon's parents and yet Jon and Dany had nothing to do with killing the Night King and in reality Jon's just yelling at a dragon at the end. Hell, at least Beric had his lore explained through the years and filled in. Still didn't really explain why Night King wanted Bran dead. memory? kind of lame. Build for 7 years and it's over in 80 minutes?

It still was a great episode...just as I touched in above...but this is where them rushing to the finish line is hurting them. The initial excitement of getting answers we've waited for years...and then a little anticlimactic the day after.

[Brandon]

4 hours ago, red321 said:

Great episode...

  Reveal hidden contents

Some amazing scenes...the waiting and anticipation and then the Dothraki with the lit swords rush off to war...only to be slowly extinguished. The dragon battle...well, what we could make out of it. Lyanna Mormant being the bad ass she was. Theon's redemption (bad timing dude...30 more seconds). The utter horror when the night king brought everyone back to life.

but a day later...a bit anti-climatic?

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Like...what the F*ck was bran doing warged into crows? What was the night king's motivation...memory...and how did he survive dragonfire? Where the F*ck did Arya come from?

(oh...and why the hell didn't Tyrion think of wildfire)

 

 

I've watched a couple of the episode recaps on Youtube and read a few articles that might have at least one or two answers.

Spoiler

No one has an answer for Bran just chilling other than jokes. I guess we just accept that Bran is a special dude that the Night King needed dead to advance his cause.

I think I saw somewhere that yes, the Night King needed to erase the memories of the living which Bran possessed. As for the fire not working, they did allude to it previously. Bear with me as I am not up to par knowing the names of people, magic/skill sets, etc. But I think it was the Hodor episode where Bran, Hodor, and those other kids were running from the dead and those tree kids that were hurling fireballs so everyone could escape through the tunnel. The tree kids put a ring of fire around the entrance and it did keep the wights out, but they show the Night King and his generals walk right through it. Probably a very poor explanation on my end since I am not fond of the shows jargon or names.

Arya just ran out. Her interaction with Melisandre was telling regarding the comment about the eyes and why/how it unfolded. It also tied her arc up well with all the assassin training and how Bran gave her that Valeryian steel dagger underneath that special tree. So it was fitting, to an extent.

Side note, I started to write this out two hours ago but got caught up with work stuff and see replies incoming, so these may have been answered.

That said, I have a sports talk show on in the background and they have a similar gripe and it is intriguing when you consider what the sports anchor mentions about the payoff in conjunction of the amount of time put in to get up to this point. I wasn't let down, but can see how others may think it's anti-climactic or slightly let down. I think seeing that video I posted above about the behind the scenes and their thought process of how they wanted it to play out made sense and works for me.

[Brandon]

Some good points made while I was sitting idle in the middle of a post.

ALF gives some validation to the criticism I have seen today. I think the only thing I'd counter to (and Chimi touched on it), is that the Dothraki have always been offensive minded and are attackers. I think his point on tactics is valid, but what the show had them do makes sense and is the same continuity the show has ran all these years. Plus, my little ticker in the back of my head was going off how they started to build the episode like the living were going to destroy only to see it backfire miserably....as the show runners in the video talked about. I did enjoy that build up and rush only to know it was going to be harder than they wanted to lead us up to.

[AngelsLakersFan]

5 hours ago, Brandon said:

Some good points made while I was sitting idle in the middle of a post.

ALF gives some validation to the criticism I have seen today. I think the only thing I'd counter to (and Chimi touched on it), is that the Dothraki have always been offensive minded and are attackers. I think his point on tactics is valid, but what the show had them do makes sense and is the same continuity the show has ran all these years. Plus, my little ticker in the back of my head was going off how they started to build the episode like the living were going to destroy only to see it backfire miserably....as the show runners in the video talked about. I did enjoy that build up and rush only to know it was going to be harder than they wanted to lead us up to.

I have issues with the tactics in just about every skirmish aside from Blackwater, and ultimately it doesn’t really effect the story it just takes me out of it a bit when they want to pull me in. I actually think killing the night king here is potentially a bit of brilliance on their part... acting as a pretty huge red herring, and a metaphor for what we can accomplish when we work together. It kind of reminds me of when they killed Joffrey in that regard (although I do think that ended up being a mistake). 

Ultimately there was so much build up and hype that I think they couldn’t manage to put together all the pieces they had laid down over the years, as red said, this is where rushing the ending hurts. But still that is why we have watched the show over the years, great tv is hard and for the most part they have executed it at a very high level. I was hyped for a 10/10 and ultimately probably got something in the 8 range, but I do think there is a great opportunity to move past this with a great final 3 episodes.

[AngelsLakersFan]

5 hours ago, Chimi said:

The Dothraki charging in like that I think was their tactic.  That's how the Dothraki fight and have always fought.  They're strongest on their horses and when they're running at full speed.  I think the plan was for the Dothraki to charge in and try and cut down as many White Walkers as they could and thin the numbers.  I wouldn't be shocked if they overestimated the power of the Dothraki and figued they might eliminate the majority of the White Walker army, leaving the Dragons and Unsullied to clean up the rest.  Daenerys and Jon watching from the cliff kind of showed that was the plan all along because Daenerys abandoned it pretty quick when she saw the Dothraki getting slaughtered.

Meh... it’s bad tactics as presented. They should’ve avoided fighting them head on for as long as possible. Set the forest on fire, light em up with those catapults, rain arrows on them, then once the dead hit the unsullied have the Dothraki come around and flank them. As presented in the show I think the tactics were meant to serve the drama more than the logical plan / believe-ability. The flaming swords were tight though.

[UndertheHalo]

[Schildog]

Agreed with let down after the initial thrill of Arya. Bran is a nothing and it's the writers fault.

The show hasn't been that good since the writers had to deviate from GRRM.

I'm holding on to hope that the books will be different but they won't be finished. This is the ending we get.

[red321]

9 hours ago, Schildog said:

Agreed with let down after the initial thrill of Arya. Bran is a nothing and it's the writers fault.

The show hasn't been that good since the writers had to deviate from GRRM.

I'm holding on to hope that the books will be different but they won't be finished. This is the ending we get.

Beats an ending of Brienne just wondering aimlessly through who the hell knows where. Dude will never finish his books, he either doesn’t know how or doesn’t want to, and certainly doesn’t respect his readership enough to just leave them dangling. Fuck him at this point. 

[Blarg]

Spoiler

You guys act as if Bran is supposed to be a super hero of some sort. He is not, his role is a of true historian. He is to see clearly the events from a perspective without alliances and record them. That is evident by his complete ambivalence to Jamie's actions that caused his crippling. Also he used the Ravens to see and record the battle, not influence the outcome. He no longer sees anything from his perspective but only as events in endless time.

He is not a general, a tactician or warrior. He's just a living book and the one that awakens Jon to his title. 

The Night King's need to destroy Bran is to erase the world of it's heritage. Without it's past of noble events and genealogy there is no king to fight for, no ground to stand as a cause, all is chaos. There can be no army without a general, no kingdom without a king. Bran is the central core of the world's concious and it must be disrupted, it's memories erased. 

Or maybe Bran is just a worthless cripple. 

[Blarg]

The Queen of dragons is now down to one dragon. Once stripped of her last in the upcoming war with Cerci, what is her value? Her armies were destroyed in the Winterfeld battle, her power is reduced to genealogy of which her claim is lesser.

Hers will be subservience to Jon as the rightful king as his queen.

But it won't be on the Iron Throne. Cerci will live out the Mad King's legacy and burn the entire kingdom to the ground while sitting on the throne, refusing anyone the opportunity to claim it as it melts around her. 

That's my take.

[Slegnaac]

The actual darkness of the scenes was a distraction for me.  Watching at 6 PM in a west facing room made it almost impossible to watch.  I  had to watch it a second time in total darkness to be able to see some of the character's faces towards the end.

Bran was just catnip?  

Arya, Clegane and Tyrion have been the 3 most interesting characters.  Hopefully they will continue to be.

[NJHalo]