Joining in as well. Lots of interesting discussions in the last pages, I agree with most of the point Chino made.
This was the darkest episode of the series. And I mean it literally because you couldn't see a damn thing
I have to think a lot about it and maybe rewatch it. So far, I'm in the "not like it" camp.
Many things were quite cool however:
- Melisandre shows up calmly, "need fire bitches?", lights up all the swords and the Dothraki charge against the wights. Hurray! badass moments! and then all the lights go out one by one and people in Winterfell are all "Well, fffffuuuuuuu" and the few survivors run back in full "Nope nope nope nope" mode. What a brilliant way to set the tone for the battle.
- Lyanna Mormont going out like the badass she is. Best death scene of the episode.
- The music in the final moments was surpassed only by Light of the Seven, which I think it will go down as the most beautiful piece of music of the entire series. But still, awesome score.
- As previously reported, I find totally belieavable both the Hound being scared by fire, and Arya ninjng her way out of the rooms.
- Totally predictable, and I actually said it out loud, but Arya telling Sansa to "stick them with the pointy end" was awesome.
- People overanalyzed every absurd detail of the book and of the show.... but I bet no one figured out what Melisandre actually meant in early season about Arya closing "brown, green and BLUE eyes". Well done, very very well done.
- The ever unpenetrable and inscrutable Night King gets roasted by Dany, does not die and.... smiles. What a wicked, eerie smile. Also Jon running desperately for him and the Night King raising the dead like "piss off and leave me alone bro". Chilling.
And now, for the complaints....
- Plot Armor. Plot armor everywhere. It's a battle - some will survive, some will die. But I expect the survivor to kick ass and fight, not to repeatedly not-die over and over. Jaimie, Brienne and Sam spent the whole episode being surrounded by wights and not dying. Seriously, why wimpy, scared, fat Sam is still alive? ok, people came to rescue him more than once but come on. And also Dany is about to get killed and OF COURSE she's saved at the last second, and OF COURSE it's Jorah.
- Maybe it's me not following everything but... is Tormund alive? is Pod alive? is Rhaegal alive? couldn't figure out shit.
- The final showdown... this is it? Ninja Arya comes out jumping of fucking nowhere and kills the Night King and the entire existential menace is over? that's it?
Look, I appreciate Arya having the skills and the determination to do the unthinkable, but there's a thin line between kickass hero action, and "Screw the plot and the logic because the hero has to do something awesome".
Think of these scenes from other movies:
- X Men 2 I believe. The one with the battle on Alcatraz. Wolverine is facing Magneto but it was just a distraction to allow the blue hairy dude to surprise him from behind and stab him with the anti mutant gene or whatever it was. The hero renounces the "big kill" to do teamwork.
- Lord of the Rings, Pippin stabbing the Witchking. He was right there with Eowyn while the Nazgul attacked them. He was loyal to her friend and he was small and unnoticed, while the Nazgul was concentrated on Eowyn. He was right there, and his small size helped him.
These are both logical situations. Arya jumping out of fucking nowhere is not. Where did she jump from? how did she slip past the White Walkers, which were after all between her and the Night King so it's not like she was hidden in the trees behind Bran?
Also, they were clever enough to surround Winterfell with trenches of fire, but their plan for defending Bran, who was a 1000% sure target of the Night King, was "let Reek and 20 sea rapists defend him"? you know there's a chance the most dangerous creature in the whole of Westeros will go after a specific person in a specific, enclosed space and you don't booby trap the place? just, dunno, hide archers with dragonglass arrows in the trees and ambush the White Walkers, they could have had that, with some White Walkers being killed, the Night King being distracted but still kicking ass and killing people, and Arya being the wild card like Pippin was in Lord of the Rings, and doing her fatal kill.
Now, onto the "the battle for the Iron Throne was always the final issue" - I agree with Jon Snow and those who point out that the overarching theme of the entire saga is that people's squabbles don't mean anything in front of a bigger threat. With this resolution, they proved Cersei right - she was right in letting the undead and the North battle each other, now the existential threat of the White Walkers is over, and Dany has a very weakened army. Cersei was right and Jaimie was a stupid idealistic fool in wanting to fight, congratulations on making the big bad of the show being the only one who knew what to do I guess.
And about how it could have gone... well, the details should be thought out, but in broad terms: Winterfell is lost and the survivors escape. The Night King conquers Westeros and reaches King's Landing. Everyone realizes that they should have bonded together to save Westeros. Through mayhem and destruction, the Night King is eventually defeated, and then the fight for the Iron Throne is resolved, only after Westeros has gone through an existential threat.
I've read comments about the Night King having white eyes instead of blue in the end - I hope we overlooked some weird warging shit and that this is not the last of him and that we'll all congratulating the authors for a wicked twist. But for now I accept that they threw out all the subtetly for Holllywood blockbuster action and that the ending will be predictable and boring.
Topic: Game of Thrones (TV, fantasy) Thread (Read 639805 times)
