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Game of Thrones Season 8 |OT| A Song of Icy and Fiery Fandom

NYR

Member
Only thing that took me out of it was most of the major characters just parking in a corner and not getting overrun.
How Sam survived with his balls literally going back into his body is some pretty legendary plot armor.
 

Arkage

Banned
I have no problem with her doing it.

I lay in bed with my wife watching it. First I yelled at the TV because...

1. Why are you riding the Dorthraki at them. Jesus fucking wine drinking Christ, they have the knowledge that anyone who falls joins the Night King. Who the fuck thought this was gonna be a positive as they were riding towards the AotD? Show of hands?

2. Why didn't the dragons back them up or something. Only the Living were surprised at the Dorthraki quick butt fucking

I then yelled at the TV...

1. Why aren't you shooting arrows at the AotD as they stand lifeless in front of the fire trench?

2. Why Jon are you sitting on a Dragon on a wall doing nothing while the AotD stand lifeless in front of the trench. For a guy who couldn't stop saying "We don't have time" he sure picked a hell of a time to find some fucking time.

I yelled some more

1. How is the Night King a better Dragon rider than Dany?

2. How did the Living not see the corpses in the Crypt coming to life, WHEN YOU HAVE THE FUCKING KNOWLEDGE THAT THE NIGHT KING CAN RAISE THE FOOKING DEAD?

The answer to all these questions, and many more is.... Because the Plot requires it!

It was so frustrating to watch a group of people discuss the threat for over a season, gather information from places including Bran, and forget all of it between episodes 2 & 3.

giphy.mp4

What was especially dumb was why Jon didn't light the fire trench since he was just chilling next to Bran on his dragon during that whole sequence.
 

Arkage

Banned
All that effort on a wall and all they needed was an Arya.

They really should've done an Avengers type sequence, where each character contributes a bit towards distracting/messing/fighting with the main possy of White walker leadership, giving Arya an opening or something. Her just ninja'ing it up solo with literally no context of her getting there in the first place is Deus ex machina level of dumb.
 

MetalAlien

Banned
They really should've done an Avengers type sequence, where each character contributes a bit towards distracting/messing/fighting with the main possy of White walker leadership, giving Arya an opening or something. Her just ninja'ing it up solo with literally no context of her getting there in the first place is Deus ex machina level of dumb.
She should have faceless maned her way up behind him, stabbed him and then all the white walkers fall but one... and then she takes off the face.
 

Arkage

Banned
She should have faceless maned her way up behind him, stabbed him and then all the white walkers fall but one... and then she takes off the face.

Yea even that would've been much better, and a decent twist, as it provides some context and character relevance beyond "air jump stab."
 

dorkimoe

Member
No dothraki, no unsullied, but still two dragons. I think Tyrion is going to have to come up with extra clever shit to make up for his past mistakes somehow, but not sure what.

Also WTF was Bran doing with his eyes rolled back 90% of the time? Flying with crows because he's bored or actually contributing somehow?? For being the "history of humanity" he does approximately jack and shit.

Though I did enjoy how the battle got more and more desperate. Dragon being swarmed with walkers crushed my soul. It definitely arrived at the "all or nothing" crossroads fairly naturally despite all the other inconsistencies.

Also I'm not too bitter at Arya, as it somewhat justified Beric's continual resurrections and saving her for a greater purpose. But I still doubt Arya will be the one to do it in the books.
Is there 2 dragons or 1 left. I assumed 1
 

EviLore

Expansive Ellipses
Staff Member
Speculation time?

Nothing shown of King's Landing or Euron or the Golden Company. Also, the Night King and his dragon were not present at the undead battle lines.

It'd be wise for the Night King to not be where all the things that can potentially kill him (and thereby end the war) are, and he has mobility. Raze King's Landing? Cersei has to remain in play, though, so probably not yet. It's unlikely he exposes himself unnecessarily, though.

We had such a sentimental build-up here that I expect The Battle of Winterfell to end up a total loss for the living. Jon and Dany may both survive to scoop up some of the Fellowship and other key players for a final battle in the south. It's possible one of the live dragons dies in this battle, though, and the last living dragon dies in the final defense of the south. Dragons are trump cards, and right now Team Living has more of them. That has to change.

There's still another Miguel Sapochnik episode after next week's (episode 5), which probably involves the Iron Fleet and the Golden Company. There's also Melisandre who went to Essos to bring back probably a bunch of Red Priests et al. The remnants of the north and all the power of the south and essos vs the army of the dead. Jon sacrifices.

Ep 3 the heroes are totally fucked. Ep 5 for the final battle that transforms Westeros. I expect the Iron Throne to get melted by dragon fire one way or another.

So, never mind all that, they just bash into each other mindlessly, and the Night King fully commits for no reason. Also Melisandre teleports directly to Winterfell just in time for the battle.
 

bigedole

Member
I was really disappointed by the episode. It was hard to follow most of the action, especially the dragon bits. Character actions were difficult to make sense of. Anyone who gave two shits about the lore behind the white walkers has to be feeling really let down by this. My wife enjoyed the episode, I think precisely because she doesn't care about the "high fantasy" elements of the show, never cared about the undead/white walkers as anything more than a plot device and is more interested in the drama surrounding the iron throne. It's a fair take, but I'd bet both of neutered testes that there is NO WAY GRRM will go with something even remotely resembling this for resolving the Night King plot.
 

MetalAlien

Banned
I'll tell you what happened. Some corporate suit screamed that these zombie episodes costing a fortune... wrap this shit up!
 

EviLore

Expansive Ellipses
Staff Member

"The Long Night is how the Westerosi refer to a period when a terrible darkness fell across the Known World. It occurred during the Age of Heroes approximately eight thousand years before Aegon's Conquest, in the midst of a great winter that lasted for years. The Long Night lasted a generation and laid waste through famine and terror.[1] "



One night lolololol
 
Who was getting some love from Sansa in the trailer? I couldn't identify the lucky bastard, was it Jon? Should I spend the week on stepsis porn to get ready?
 

zenspider

Member
Alt Shift X is in total denial right now and is convinced the Night King isn't really dead. He's laughing uncontrollably about the resolution, probably in place of crying, because of all the prophecies that have been totally discarded here and how contrived the Arya kill is.

As a fellow book reader I can relate, but nah man, this is reality. In the Behind the Episode, D&D talk about how it would be too "obvious" for Jon to do it so they set up Arya by "distracting" the audience to give an unexpected moment.

They all said that they knew Arya would kill NK for 3 years now - I assumed that was from a convo with GRRM, and the latter meant they baited the expectation that Jon was supposed to deliver the final blow and hid Arya in the sequence.

Maybe one day we'll find out the canonical events.
 
Didn’t think so many characters would make it. I enjoyed it. My stomach was in knots for good portions of it. Pacing was near perfect for an 80 min. battle.
I was enjoying the episode, because it was so suspenseful with what would happen. Then I saw what happened, and now the whole episode feels bad.
 

Woo-Fu

Banned
Not sure what it is you want to see, it'll just be fur-clad deadites running from the left side of the screen to the right.
 

greyshark

Member
Rest of season: “Hey guys, remember when we fought and defeated hundreds of thousands of undead warriors? Well let me tell you that’s NOTHING compared to 20,000 sellswords from the Golden Company - those guys fight for GOLD! We MUST take this new and greater threat more seriously than the Night King’s army.”
 
Havent read any opinions here yet, but that eps was shite. In fact its the worst large scale battle of the whole series. This season is the friggin pits
 

Trogdor1123

Member
Really liked it myself. The Arya bit was kind of off but given her stealth training and some magic from Melisandre I can dig it. The Dragon stuff was a bit off. The Dothraki bit did bother me though. Made zero sense tactically
 

GoldenEye98

posts news as their odd job
I think it being extra dark was done on purpose. Cuts down on the amount of special effects and extras needed to pull off a large scale battle. In other words...they cheaped out a bit..
 

Jon Neu

Banned
Jon Snow was completely useless the whole episode. He literally did nothing to help the battle. It was ridiculous.

He stands up and shouts NO! NO! NO! to an undead dragon.

That was the best constructed plot & dialogue I have ever seen in my entire life.

It really makes you think.
 
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MetalAlien

Banned
Quote from youtube..

"Watch the end again, she took the face of the white walker commander, that's how she got close to the #NightKing she changed back and then plunged to the night king. Her running past them can't generate enough wind to move their hair. Even the white walker commander's hair not close to the pathway moved as well."
 

Hari Seldon

Member
If a Roman general employed the battle tactics that these morons employed in this battle he would have been crucified along with every single one of his officers. A frontal cavalry charge into the mist? Putting your artillery ahead of the god damn infantry? Attempting a rolling barrage with medieval tech? Putting your highly disciplined spearmen outside of the fucking walls for no god damn reason at all? These were the top commanders in Westeros?
 
Great visuals, but terrible writing.

- Why did the Dothraki stupidly ran to their deaths at the beginning?
-Why did Daenerys land Drogon on the ground when it was full of zombies?

Most of the cast should have died 10 times over . I hated the fact the we saw them getting swarmed, thinking they would die, only to see them being fine in the next scene like nothing happened
 

MetalAlien

Banned
If a Roman general employed the battle tactics that these morons employed in this battle he would have been crucified along with every single one of his officers. A frontal cavalry charge into the mist? Putting your artillery ahead of the god damn infantry? Attempting a rolling barrage with medieval tech? Putting your highly disciplined spearmen outside of the fucking walls for no god damn reason at all? These were the top commanders in Westeros?
I've been yelling at Marvel films for years... you start with artillery and then send in the troops! Not the other way around!... Film makers are dumb.
 
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If a Roman general employed the battle tactics that these morons employed in this battle he would have been crucified along with every single one of his officers. A frontal cavalry charge into the mist? Putting your artillery ahead of the god damn infantry? Attempting a rolling barrage with medieval tech? Putting your highly disciplined spearmen outside of the fucking walls for no god damn reason at all? These were the top commanders in Westeros?
Exactly this

And the sad part is through 8 seasons, we were led to believe many of these people had smarts. Including Jamie.

I don’t have issue with who died. I don’t have issue with who won or how.

But the retarded strategy is too much for me to wave off.

If anyone would have read this entire episode in text 6 months ago, they would have labeled it fan fiction for the dumb strategy.

And yet here we are.
 

NYR

Member
Quote from youtube..

"Watch the end again, she took the face of the white walker commander, that's how she got close to the #NightKing she changed back and then plunged to the night king. Her running past them can't generate enough wind to move their hair. Even the white walker commander's hair not close to the pathway moved as well."
Yeaaaah, gonna call bullshit on this.
 
Quote from youtube..

"Watch the end again, she took the face of the white walker commander, that's how she got close to the #NightKing she changed back and then plunged to the night king. Her running past them can't generate enough wind to move their hair. Even the white walker commander's hair not close to the pathway moved as well."
I’ll take your word for it.

I have zero desire to rewatch the episode. I’ll just roll my eyes the whole time again.

And that sucks since this was supposed to be “THE” episode.

Edit: did you know I have a near photographic memory?

It wasn’t a White Walker. It was a wight. The wight female that was recently killed and she stabbed through the neck into the head?
 
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xandaca

Member
Frankly I got bored through the middle of that. It was hard to tell what was going on a lot of the time, the strength of the undead army seemed to waver depending on the needs of the episode, Jon was a complete waste of time (not even lighting the trench when he was right there with a dragon) and even though it was established beforehand, the 'kill the leader and everyone else falls' bit is one of my most loathed lazy clichés. Arya didn't even have to seriously use her skills: they should've had her wearing one of the wights' faces to get close to the Night King and kill him that way, not just leap down from... somewhere and stab him. It's certainly impressive to have a battle of that scale on TV, but on any sort of narrative level, it was a failure. Building up the entire series towards facing a seemingly invincible undead army, only for it to be vanquished within one episode? Terrible. Would've been far more interesting to have it be the devastating failure it should have been, with key characters very narrowly escaping with a tiny number of survivors (and, say, one of the dragons), and suddenly Cersei's mercenary army is left as the last serious line of defence, scattering several of the characters back to the wind (maybe to some of the Northern lords who didn't join the cause) and forcing some extremely difficult alliances. As it is, it feels like one battle out of the way, number two to come, with no real change in the stakes for anyone: if that truly is the last of them (I really hope there's a twist), the army of the dead might as well not have existed at all for all the narrative use they served.
 
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