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

D&D in Behind the Episode talk about how the Night King needed to be killed with Valyrian Steel in the exact spot that the Children of the Forest implanted the Dragonglass in his chest.

...Arya doesn't know jack shit about the Night King and no one told her any of these details. Makes it even more of a contrivance.
 
It feels like they thought they ran out of time. They have all these subplots going on - Battle for the Iron Throne, Jon/Dany, Dany/Sansa, Therion/Cersai, Jamie/Cersei, etc. You don't have enough episodes to go through all that AND do the Night King story justice. So something has to be sacrificed - and maybe D&D made the choice to ditch the high fantasy story in favor of the intrigue around the throne. If my assumption is true they may as well have gone all the way and killed the dragons too. The good guys (which had an overwhelming advantage before) are now basically on a level playing field with the bad guys and there's no more magic to screw things up.
 
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Very frustrated with how this episode ended. I was expecting at least a few episodes of the battle with the Night King after 7 seasons of buildup.
 
EviLore said:
D&D in Behind the Episode talk about how the Night King needed to be killed with Valyrian Steel in the exact spot that the Children of the Forest implanted the Dragonglass in his chest.

...Arya doesn't know jack shit about the Night King and no one told her any of these details. Makes it even more of a contrivance.
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but she stabbed him in the stomach it looks like to me.
 
MetalAlien said:
but she stabbed him in the stomach it looks like to me.
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hXYMQP7.jpg
 
Just finished watching and boy did I find the writing to be terrible. Their "plan" was astoundingly stupid and Jon Snow himself continues to be portrayed as the shittiest commander in the seven kingdoms. Is there an army whose lives he doesn't throw away needlessly?

The whole story felt contrived in having Arya stealth kill the Night King at the last second possible when virtually everything was lost. No mystery, all the Night King needed was a Valyrian steel stake through the heart. The rest of the cast got no development aside as background accesories, while young lady mormont got to kill a giant.

I'm disappointed that this was the Battle of Winterfell we got.
 
EviLore said:
D&D in Behind the Episode talk about how the Night King needed to be killed with Valyrian Steel in the exact spot that the Children of the Forest implanted the Dragonglass in his chest.

...Arya doesn't know jack shit about the Night King and no one told her any of these details. Makes it even more of a contrivance.
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Did you see the preview for the next episode? Seems like a ton of people lived. It didn't seem that way during the episode tho.
 
I boosted contrast to help with detail above. There's so much color and detail being suppressed in that frame as graded.
 
Musky_Cheese said:
Did you see the preview for the next episode? Seems like a ton of people lived. It didn't seem that way during the episode tho.
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Yeah. I understand that they don't want to give away characters trivially, but this is a confrontation with Death itself. Not everyone is going to get a dramatic, heroic demise under those circumstances...well, but apparently they do or otherwise survive.
 
DragoonKain said:
lol Arya didn't take a White Walker face, whoever said that is a moron.
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Just re-watched it the last 15 minutes, totally agree, no fucking way this is true. The whole hair wind thing is Arya running past when the night king is distracted.
 
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NYR said:
Just re-watched it the last 15 minutes, totally agree, no fucking way this is true. The whole hair thing is Arya running past.
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WW General: Should I do something about that? Nah, this battle's been going great so far. And it's not like I've done anything this whole time anyway. I'll just sit here and see how this plays out, what could possibly go wrong?
 
I'm torn on this. I enjoyed the spectacle, but was frustrated with the tactics and Arya getting the kill. As a book reader this might be a positive for me, as George is practically 100% likely to do things a whole nother way.

You have dragons. Open the fucking enemy lines, bro! Tactics 101. Find a weak point in the ranks and open them. With the dragons at your command, every point is weak and time is of the essence! Don't let your troops get mixed in with the wights! Light the trenches Jon! Come on. I can't even be mad at any of the characters. It's all D&D.

There were two moments from a writing perspective I thought were good opportunities. The Night King raising the dead as Jon ran at him was fucking intense, but ended with nothing. Then Viserion with a ripped throat started spitting his fire all over the place. Now I'm thinking, all these blades we have on fire now. What would make Jon with a flaming sword any more special? Also, will Valyrian Steel even work on the NK now that dragon breath hasn't? Then Jon starts facing down the dragon. Now it could make sense. Dany's dragons are her heart! If he drives his sword through Viserion and it becomes embued with the blue fire, you have Light Bringer! Perhaps that can end the Night King?.....But no, it's over as Jon is mid yell-off.

Edit: Also, perhaps the most hurtful thing as a book reader is how useless they made Bran.
 
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NYR said:
Just re-watched it the last 15 minutes, totally agree, no fucking way this is true. The whole hair wind thing is Arya running past when the night king is distracted.
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It couldn't happen anyway, how could she take one of their faces? They don't have skin.
 
www.gamespot.com

Review: Game Of Thrones Episode 3, Season 8 Pulled One Terrible Twist

"The Long Night" should have been one of Game of Thrones' coolest episodes ever. Instead, it might just be its most disappointing.
www.gamespot.com www.gamespot.com

Probably sums up my biggest issue with this episode. I previously speculated that Cersei had to be dealt with mid-season due to the white walkers being the big bad, but the showrunners reversed that premise. This goes against the fundamental themes of the books and show itself:

I guess with the fact that it seems like Game of Thrones, the show, has just missed the point of the entire series: that the squabbles between the great houses of Westeros are nothing compared with the unstoppable force of nature slowly bearing down on them from the wintery north. Game of Thrones was never supposed to actually be about the battle for the throne--it's supposed to be about the characters coming together to realize what was really important. The quintessential human fallacy, according to the brain of George R.R. Martin, is believing with absolute certainty that your personal battles are the most important fights that exist. It's a failure of perspective. Now, with three episodes left, the series' ultimate threat died with a whimper, and the series' most short-sighted characters turned out to be right, their selfishness justified.
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It's pretty fucked up if Cersei is the smartest person in the room by remaining unimpressed with the WW'ers and essentially creating a win for herself by dismissing this threat. If this series had any ground logic to it at this point, all of Danny's armies are dead and she cannot win the throne with just two dragons, both of which were badly injured, and a handful of soldiers, so Cersei wins. But that ain't gonna happen.
 
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Atrus said:
Just finished watching and boy did I find the writing to be terrible. Their "plan" was astoundingly stupid and Jon Snow himself continues to be portrayed as the shittiest commander in the seven kingdoms. Is there an army whose lives he doesn't throw away needlessly?

The whole story felt contrived in having Arya stealth kill the Night King at the last second possible when virtually everything was lost. No mystery, all the Night King needed was a Valyrian steel stake through the heart. The rest of the cast got no development aside as background accesories, while young lady mormont got to kill a giant.

I'm disappointed that this was the Battle of Winterfell we got.
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Never watched GoT aside from big fight recaps on YT. I saw the kill in YT upload just now.

Dumb boss kill. Another one of those, "the boss has a hero in their clutches, but the hero pulls off a last second death blow knife stab"

Like most movies, to make it "as easy as possible", killing the final boss somehow kills all other enemies at the same time. I guess that's the easy way for writers to clean up the mess instead of the heroes needing to kill off 10,000 other enemies still alive.

If Night King wanted to rule, just sit back at the back of the map and let the hoards of undead walkers do the damage first. And move on in when everything is eradicated.
 
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Only thing I didn't like was the restarted tactic. Wasting your Calvery like and putting your artillery up front?????? The history war buff in me was triggered others wise I don't know what else you guys were expecting. I think John should have died though
 
Loved it. 10/10. Though I will say Danaerys just chilling on the ground while walkers swarmed Drogon was dumb as hell.


But Arya ganking the Night King was fucking awesome. I'm glad that fan theory came true. Also RIP House Mormont and RIP Edd. :(
 
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First time around I really disliked the episode (not just because of the plot bullshit but also because I couldn't see anything on my new TV).

Recalibrated my TV and watched it again and although I enjoyed it much more on this second viewing due to the spectacle of the battle and some of the character moments (I thought Beric, Theon and Jorah all had decent send offs), I still can't help but feel a little disappointed that the Night King went out like that and that the battle, despite its spectacle, ended up feeling like an anticlimax.

Going into these last three there do look like there are some interesting factions forming? Hopefully now that the dead are done with we will start to see some more backstabbing/maneuvering by the key players now that their common enemy is gone:

1. Sansa, Tyrion, Jaime and Brienne

2. Arya, Gendry, The Hound and Bran

3. Jon, Daenerys, Grey Worm and Yara

4. Cersi, Euron, The Mountain and Tycho (Iron Bank)
 
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NutJobJim said:
First time around I really disliked the episode (not just because of the plot bullshit but also because I couldn't see anything on my new TV).

Recalibrated my TV and watched it again and although I enjoyed it much more on this second viewing due to the spectacle of the battle and some of the character moments (I thought Beric, Theon and Jorah all had decent send offs), I still can't help but feel a little disappointed that the Night King went out like that and that the battle, despite its spectacle, ended up feeling like an anticlimax.

Going into these last three there do look like there are some interesting factions forming? Hopefully now that the dead are done with we will start to see some more backstabbing/maneuvering by the key players now that their common enemy is gone:

1. Sansa, Tyrion, Jaime and Brienne

2. Arya, Gendry, The Hound and Bran

3. Jon, Daenerys, Grey Worm and Yara

4. Cersi, Euron, The Mountain and Tycho (Iron Bank)
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Hopefully, for GoT fans, the last few episodes will be great.

Any of you watch Band of Brothers way back? The second to last episode was the big fight. The last episode was like a clean up episode of drama tying up plotlines with characters. I fell asleep.
 
the episode was a bit of a let down. I'm actually kinda shocked. I didn't expect to walk away thinking endgame would have a more satisfying ending battle than a hour long GoT siege episode.

Also, very few characters of note died. That plot armor is strong
 
First of all, it felt like the episode was making fun of my old TV's crappy black levels. In some scenes I really couldn't see shit

But anyway, I think it absolutely delivered in terms of spectacle, that's was definitely one of the coolest looking and most over the top big battles I've seen in a TV show.

The writing though... Not a fan :
- Jon continues to be useless, getting everyone killed and then being saved at the last second by someone else.
Like seriously, he was the one going on and on about the white walkers all of this time and what did he do ?

- Not a fan of Arya getting the final kill. I would have been if they had shown some plan or strategy or trap or something, but her literally jumping at him out of nowhere while the entire area was surrounded by enemies (which they just showed to even react to the sound of drops of blood hitting the ground ) is just shit writing

- So the night kings plan really was to expose himself when his minions could easily get the job done ?

- Thankfully they had some decently big deaths toward the end. At one point it seemed like they were going to kill minor characters only.
Still, some like Sam making it seems hard to believe
 
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The plan never survives combat.

Gotta head to work, but will rewatch laters on. However, I'm surprised people thought that the Night King Story was going to go past this episode. If Winterfell was lost, no one aside from whoever could have gotten on board the Dragons would have survived. The dead don't tire, the living do, so no way they'd be able to escape on foot at the very least.

I expected a few more deaths in terms of principals, but tbh I was gripped. Full analysis later on. Seems like it's a bit of a Marmite episode.
 
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Another thing I didn't like:

Bran has been built up as the 3 Eyed Raven, the ultimate visionary. Yet Melisandre knew how everything would end too. She saw all of it, she knew Arya was going to win the war for them, it's why she came back.

So if the red woman knows everything Bran does, how is being the 3 Eyed Raven all that special, in hindsight?
 
I really wish Melisandre didn't make that "blue eyes" comment. My brain immediately thought, "Oh so Arya is gonna kill the night king...that's kinda lame."

Then it actually happened and she just jumped out of nowhere with some kind of flotation powers never seen before to get her that far into the courtyard without a single other white walker spotting her. So not only was it not a surprise at all that Arya did it, but it happened in a way that wasn't clever or believable. Really a let down.
 
Grinchy said:
I really wish Melisandre didn't make that "blue eyes" comment. My brain immediately thought, "Oh so Arya is gonna kill the night king...that's kinda lame."

Then it actually happened and she just jumped out of nowhere with some kind of flotation powers never seen before to get her that far into the courtyard without a single other white walker spotting her. So not only was it not a surprise at all that Arya did it, but it happened in a way that wasn't clever or believable. Really a let down.
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I assumed she was in hiding in the trees tbh and dropbeared him. Makes sense in that regard. One way of getting to him without alerting the wights below.
 
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Kadayi said:
I assumed she was in hiding in the trees tbh and dropbeared him. Makes sense in that regard. One way of getting to him without alerting the wights below.
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Well, there's the big tree that Bran is sitting under and the Night King is looking down at him. Arya jumps from behind the NK with horizontal momentum. It doesn't look like she's dropping down from a branch or anything but I'm sure we can write the reasoning in for them if we wanted to bad enough. It just wasn't shown to us in a way where we're to assume she was hiding on a branch the whole time waiting for her chance to strike.

Also the episode was definitely way too dark and muddled. And when they first light up the trenches and the wights are just standing there, neither of the two dragon riders thought, "Hey this would be a great time to go in and burn a ton of them!" Everyone just stared at each other until they started building body bridges over the flames.
 
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That was great maybe my favorite episode of the series. But I did try adjusting my TV settings a couple times at first because I wanted to see things better, I gave up though and enjoyed it more as I accepted we are not suppose to see everything so clearly as it was part of the chaos going on.
 
Didn't have time to read all the response here yet, but my initial thoughts are that the long build up before anything happened was the best part of the episode. The battle itself was fairly well done IMO (I'm not a fan of battle sequences) but eh not quite as epic as something like Helm's Deep. The Sam "Arya" Fisher part felt too video gamey for my tastes, and too few people died. Beric, Jorah, Edd and Lyanna, was that it? Weaksauce
 
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