Support NeoGAF

[JimiNutz]

So how are suggesting the story to end?

NK doesn't die in this episode.

Sansa gets caught up in the game for the Throne and gets killed by Cersi. Brienne tries to avenge Sansa but is brutally raped and murdered by the Mountain. The Hound faces the Mountain and wins. Jaime kills Cersi to avenge Brienne. Jamie and Tyrion die in the battle for Kings Landing against the White Walkers.

White Walkers destroy Kings Landing and the Throne. Jon sacrifices himself to save Arya and Danareys. He kills the NK but not before he suffers a fatal blow from the NK weapon and turns into a white walker himself.

Deanerys, Arya and the Hound escape on the last remaining dragon to far away lands (Deanerys has Jons unborn child in her stomach). Final shot is undead Jon sitting on the ice Throne.

 

[Airbus Jr]

NK doesn't die in this episode.

Sansa gets caught up in the game for the Throne and gets killed by Cersi. Brienne tries to avenge Sansa but is brutally raped and murdered by the Mountain. The Hound faces the Mountain and wins. Jaime kills Cersi to avenge Brienne. Jamie and Tyrion die in the battle for Kings Landing against the White Walkers.

White Walkers destroy Kings Landing and the Throne. Jon sacrifices himself to save Arya and Danareys. He kills the NK but not before he suffers a fatal blow from the NK weapon and turns into a white walker himself.

Deanerys, Arya and the Hound escape on the last remaining dragon to far away lands (Deanerys has Jons unborn child in her stomach). Final shot is undead Jon sitting on the ice Throne.

Big story mistakes there if NK is dead all ww are dead ww jon included

 

[RedVIper]

Except the title of the movie is called Game of Thrones not Song of Ice and Fire

Jesus that Arya moment was sick moment turning point of event from sorrow and despair into epic win i was totally screaming why are you people never happy ffs

Because it's shit writing.
Doing something because omg its so cool, is shit writing. I'm glad you enjoyed it though.

 

[JimiNutz]

Big story mistakes there if NK is dead all ww are dead

True... Unless he transfers his power to Jon?

 

[ZehDon]

Except the title of the movie is called Game of Thrones not Song of Ice and Fire

Okie dokie: Game of Thrones was used as the title of the show, taken from the first book of the series 'A Song of Ice and Fire'. The name was selected due to marketing appeal. The title of each book in the series reflects the content of that particular novel; the first book, 'A Game of Thrones', reflects the game that Ned Stark was drawn in to. The following title - 'A Clash of Kings' - represents the war of the many kings in the wake of King Robert's death. This proceeds with each novel; the last one to be titled 'A Dream of Spring'. As we see, 'Game of Thrones' is not an accurate reflection of the story as a whole, only of a chapter of the greater narrative, whose author titled it 'A song of Ice and Fire', as this is representative of the story's central premise.

 

[MMaRsu]

White walker laying waste to everything would have been boring af tbh

 

[Airbus Jr]

Okie dokie: Game of Thrones was used as the title of the show, taken from the first book of the series 'A Song of Ice and Fire'. The name was selected due to marketing appeal. The title of each book in the series reflects the content of that particular novel; the first book, 'A Game of Thrones', reflects the game that Ned Stark was drawn in to. The following title - 'A Clash of Kings' - represents the war of the many kings in the wake of King Robert's death. This proceeds with each novel; the last one to be titled 'A Dream of Spring'. As we see, 'Game of Thrones' is not an accurate reflection of the story as a whole, only of a chapter of the greater narrative, whose author titled it 'A song of Ice and Fire', as this is representative of the story's central premise.

The story of this movie is about Game of Thrones man not Jon Snow vs Night King

Look so ve seen so many expert here but unfortunatly D Beniof is the one tasked and trusted by GRRM to make the movie man not you

 

[MMaRsu]

White walkers and the NK were NEVER the focal point of aymttention in any orevious seasons, except 7 and parts of 6.

 

[Airbus Jr]

True... Unless he transfers his power to Jon?

And where are you getting another one of these fanfict theory from ( that NK can transfer his power to jon)?

 

[Airbus Jr]

Because it's shit writing.
Doing something because omg its so cool, is shit writing. I'm glad you enjoyed it though.

We got your point

Now we d like to hear your ideas about how S8E3 story should develop

 

[JimiNutz]

And where are you getting another one of these fanfict theory from ( that NK can transfer his power to jon)?

Why not? Maybe once he captures or kills Bran he has the ability to transfer his power upon death. Maybe that's why he is after Bran to gain immortality for his race? The three eyed raven is a title passed on, maybe the NK wants the same? This is fantasy fiction after all. If Brienne and Jamie can fight off thousands of Whites with their backs to the wall then anything is possible lol

 

[ZehDon]

The story of this movie is about Game of Thrones man not Jon Snow vs Night King

Look so ve seen so many expert here but unfortunatly D Beniof is the one tasked and trusted by GRRM to make the movie man not you

What are you talking about? Neither tasked nor trusted; D.B. Weiss and David Benioff petitioned Geoge R.R. Martin to make the show, and Martin relented after they were able to answer a string of narrative questions. Since Martin's material has run out, the show's quality dove off a fucking cliff - the two show runners are, literally, writing fanfic because they ran out of material. They clearly just do not care how it ends, they just want it over so they can do something else. They are simply not the men for the job of finishing this story.

 

[Airbus Jr]

What are you talking about? Neither tasked nor trusted; D.B. Weiss and David Benioff petitioned Geoge R.R. Martin to make the show, and Martin relented after they were able to answer a string of narrative questions. Since Martin's material has run out, the show's quality dove off a fucking cliff - the two show runners are, literally, writing fanfic because they ran out of material. They clearly just do not care how it ends, they just want it over so they can do something else. They are simply not the men for the job of finishing this story.

So who should be trusted to do the job according to you?

 

[Teletraan1]

And where are you getting another one of these fanfict theory from ( that NK can transfer his power to jon)?

It lines up with their fanfiction and headcanon. Personally if this whole show was just TWD in a medieval setting I would have tuned out 7 seasons ago. Any sort of zombie type villain is the most boring shit ever. NK was a snorefest bland villain, with zero personality. I was hoping that they didn't waste the entire season dealing with that threat. Even TWD which actually is about zombies shifted focus to human conflict and used the boring zombies as plot devices. Zombie threats can work for a 2h movie. 80+h series, not so much.

 

[ZehDon]

So who should be trusted do the job according to you?

Snuck premise; I stated the people in charge don't care, hence they're not the men for the job, not that a specific individual should be "trusted". The only possible answer to your question is: anyone else who actually gives a damn. Go find the reddit folks at r/asoif who cobbled together any one of a billion far more interesting, thought provoking, researched, logical, and satisfying story developments. Literally anyone of those will do; they all attempt to do something, rather than - and I cannot stress this enough - the actual and literal nothing that we got. The "Night King goes to King Landing's" plot? The "Bran is the Night King" plot? Fuck, I'll take "Cersei marries the Night King" plot at this point. For 10 years, fans have provided a fountain of incredibly well thought out and potential story lines, any one of which would have worked. If they didn't know what to do, they could've just straight up stolen one of those. And instead, the two clowns running the show decided "Arya kills the Night King before The Great War actually happens" plot was the best candidate because - and I wish I fucking kidding - they "hoped you'd have forgotten about Arya". They want out from under the show so goddamn badly, they picked the quickest, easiest, dirtiest plot line they could conjure up. But hey - at least it looked really cool... when you could see it.

 

[SirKicksalot]

Any sort of zombie type villain is the most boring shit ever. NK was a snorefest bland villain, with zero personality. I was hoping that they didn't waste the entire season dealing with that threat. Even TWD which actually is about zombies shifted focus to human conflict and used the boring zombies as plot devices. Zombie threats can work for a 2h movie. 80+h series, not so much.

Why did you hope they wouldn't waste the season on a boring threat instead of hoping they'll make it interesting? This was not just any zombie horde - the leaders were clearly thinking, planning and having feelings. Unfortunately, random White Walkers like the one who spared Sam and the one who shat his pants when fighting Jon were more interesting than the big boss.

 

[Teletraan1]

Why did you hope they wouldn't waste the season on a boring threat instead of hoping they'll make it interesting? This was not just any zombie horde - the leaders were clearly thinking, planning and having feelings. Unfortunately, random White Walkers like the one who spared Sam and the one who shat his pants when fighting Jon were more interesting than the big boss.

Because I watched the previous 7 seasons were they didn't really make a case for this to be interesting at all. NK wasn't in the books in the form he manifested in the show. It was obvious he was a paper thin character used as a Mcguffin to get certain people to fight together. It would have been nice if they pulled it off but I seriously don't see how they could based on the past 7 seasons. There was no there there.

 

[MMaRsu]

nk was a weapon created by children of the forest to wipe out the first man

He will continue to wipe out humanity

he had no great plan

 

[Kadayi]

We got your point

Now we d like to hear your ideas about how S8E3 story should develop

Seconded. There's a lot of scorn being thrown at the show but not much in terms of how to do things differently but still end up in the same place. A phyrric Victory was always the end result.

 

[blu]

nk was a weapon created by children of the forest to wipe out the first man

He will continue to wipe out humanity

he had no great plan

Seriously. The plot importance that some posters ascribe to NK is way out of proportions. NK being a contender in the game of thrones is overblown, he's more of a force of nature than anything more.

 

[LaughingStock]

I was done with the books. But after the last episode. I NEED to read the final books. GRRM, please.
The show is just bad fanfiction at this point.

 

[Woo-Fu]

Why not? Maybe once he captures or kills Bran he has the ability to transfer his power upon death. Maybe that's why he is after Bran to gain immortality for his race? The three eyed raven is a title passed on, maybe the NK wants the same? This is fantasy fiction after all. If Brienne and Jamie can fight off thousands of Whites with their backs to the wall then anything is possible lol

Uh, it was already mentioned why he was after Bran. If you want to eradicate mankind you also have to remove the memory of mankind.

As far as Arya killing the NK, what the fuck did people expect to happen? The plan all along was to use Bran as bait to lure the NK into a situation where he could be killed. Are people complaining that the plan actually worked? lol. Turns out all that time training to be a faceless man makes you a good candidate for sticking a knife in somebody. Who would have thought it?

Seems to me that some people wouldn't be happy regardless of what happened. They might not always be the same people, but there'd still be people crying.

 

[SirKicksalot]

. If you want to eradicate mankind you also have to remove the memory of mankind.

.

What does that even mean?
What the hell is the raven even doing?
It all just sounds like mystical mumbo-jumbo to me.

 

[ruvikx]

So how are you suggesting the story to develop and ended ?

First rule: don't treat the characters like superheroes who need their moment of epicness & predictable storyarc payoff, like a Marvel movie. As for the rest, I've read & heard countless scenarios which were all stronger than the nigh fanfiction tier writing we've had since the start of season 8. The writing was on the wall though when they stopped introducing new characters several seasons ago & became fixated onto heroics of the same bunch. It was around season 5 when they stopped killing-off major characters & everything became far more predictable. Sunday's episode really jumped the shark though & they became parodies of themselves.

It's that moment when as viewers, we realize certain characters are invincible, so all the on-screen fighting & struggling means complete diddly-squat because Arya cannot ever die in that episode, ditto Jon, ditto Dany etc. etc. It robs the episode of its tension.

 

[Woo-Fu]

What does that even mean?
What the hell is the raven even doing?
It all just sounds like mystical mumbo-jumbo to me.

As long as somebody remembers you you're not completely dead.

 

[Airbus Jr]

Off top but the music on the last part when NK met Bran eye to eye is just amazing

perfect

the haters can write their own fanfiction fantasy story and suck it off if they dont like this movie

Moment Arya stab NK with the dagger i was so relieved

 

[Luffytubby]

I'm a casual, but I had a feeling that no matter what they did, people would have a problem with the way they dealt it.

In the previous episode, when they are laying out the plans, Bran explains that the Night King is coming for him. Bran already knows what it is coming to happen. He already knows that the Night King will die. They built trenches and try to use Winterfell to hold out while they lure the Night King out to expose himself. It's pretty self-explanatory and I don't see the problem.


I don't have a problem with Arya killing the Night King. Her character establishes her as a rogue who would be the most likely to sneak up on him. The Night King sees her, and she does the knife-switch trick which was well done. I cannot think of another scenario I would have liked more- Jon Snow 1-on-1 with the NK? No. Terrible. The NK being killed by dragons? No. Terrible. The red Lady pulling some Lord-of-Light shit magic out of her ass? No. Terrible.

The point of the episode established that he was completely invincible, but I think that the story should have explained why the NK needed to kill Bran in person. That battle had been over had he stayed behind and killed Bran. Theon was the only person left defending him. A little bit longer and it would have been all over. If the story had just explained why the NK had to physically expose him it would have been great.

They could also have shown Arya going from the keep and getting close. I understand why people feel it was cheap and lazy for her to just shadowstep out of thin air. I also understand that people found the resolution of "winter is coming" to just be over so quickly. Had the battle been twice as long and gone into the next episode and spanned a lot longer with more twists and turns, it would probably have felt more justified.


But the way they build the NK up, there was no way he'd be defeated by conventional means. And I loved how he didn't say anything. No cheesy voice. No stating his intentions. And the WW were vicious. I was very impressed with how they filmed the battle, the way they used camera angles to show them in a World War Z capacity. Very impressive. When they are just storming the dragon. The way the Dothrakis lid blades just turned dark. The way they girl pierced that Undead Giant. The way the corpses suddenly awoke in the Crypt.

This was an amazing episode. More people could have died. I agree with that too. They did kill a lot tho. It was a total slaughter, and you had character changes in a meaningful way (Sansa and Tyrion), The Hound getting PTSD and giving up. Tilly got killed in the crypt too which will impact Sam.
I would have killed Sam too. Sir Jorah had an incredible end. Theon redeemed himself. The Dothraki are no more. The Unsolided were incredible. Another Dragon died. It seem slike that 90% of everyone died.

Jamie, Brienne and Podrick dying would have been heartbreaking. But Jamies plot is not over. But it didn't feel right how those 3 held out for hours on the wall. It was so crazy with White Walkers that there is no way they could have survived that long. Jamie is a handicapped fighter, and Podrick ain't that good. The unsolided general surviving and just being a killing machine non-stop. Maybe he should have died too. But Jorah was already the one who served that noble death. Kill too many characters at once and the effects of it will be reduced I think.


Let's be honest, this battle had a setup since Episode 1 and it was over an hour of battle. I think the context of the aftermath will make this episode better (if they do it well). Its not like everyone survived. It took everything they had and it was one hell of a fight.



I wonder if Sansa will get the throne in the end. I see Cersi commiting suicide. She is way to proud and crazy to let anyone but herself end herself.

 

[Airbus Jr]

I'm a casual, but I had a feeling that no matter what they did, people would have a problem with the way they dealt it.

In the previous episode, when they are laying out the plans, Bran explains that the Night King is coming for him. Bran already knows what it is coming to happen. He already knows that the Night King will die. They built trenches and try to use Winterfell to hold out while they lure the Night King out to expose himself. It's pretty self-explanatory and I don't see the problem.


I don't have a problem with Arya killing the Night King. Her character establishes her as a rogue who would be the most likely to sneak up on him. The Night King sees her, and she does the knife-switch trick which was well done. I cannot think of another scenario I would have liked more- Jon Snow 1-on-1 with the NK? No. Terrible. The NK being killed by dragons? No. Terrible. The red Lady pulling some Lord-of-Light shit magic out of her ass? No. Terrible.

The point of the episode established that he was completely invincible, but I think that the story should have explained why the NK needed to kill Bran in person. That battle had been over had he stayed behind and killed Bran. Theon was the only person left defending him. A little bit longer and it would have been all over. If the story had just explained why the NK had to physically expose him it would have been great.

They could also have shown Arya going from the keep and getting close. I understand why people feel it was cheap and lazy for her to just shadowstep out of thin air. I also understand that people found the resolution of "winter is coming" to just be over so quickly. Had the battle been twice as long and gone into the next episode and spanned a lot longer with more twists and turns, it would probably have felt more justified.


But the way they build the NK up, there was no way he'd be defeated by conventional means. And I loved how he didn't say anything. No cheesy voice. No stating his intentions. And the WW were vicious. I was very impressed with how they filmed the battle, the way they used camera angles to show them in a World War Z capacity. Very impressive. When they are just storming the dragon. The way the Dothrakis lid blades just turned dark. The way they girl pierced that Undead Giant. The way the corpses suddenly awoke in the Crypt.

This was an amazing episode. More people could have died. I agree with that too. They did kill a lot tho. It was a total slaughter, and you had character changes in a meaningful way (Sansa and Tyrion), The Hound getting PTSD and giving up. Tilly got killed in the crypt too which will impact Sam.
I would have killed Sam too. Sir Jorah had an incredible end. Theon redeemed himself. The Dothraki are no more. The Unsolided were incredible. Another Dragon died. It seem slike that 90% of everyone died.

Jamie, Brienne and Podrick dying would have been heartbreaking. But Jamies plot is not over. But it didn't feel right how those 3 held out for hours on the wall. It was so crazy with White Walkers that there is no way they could have survived that long. Jamie is a handicapped fighter, and Podrick ain't that good. The unsolided general surviving and just being a killing machine non-stop. Maybe he should have died too. But Jorah was already the one who served that noble death. Kill too many characters at once and the effects of it will be reduced I think.


Let's be honest, this battle had a setup since Episode 1 and it was over an hour of battle. I think the context of the aftermath will make this episode better (if they do it well). Its not like everyone survived. It took everything they had and it was one hell of a fight.



I wonder if Sansa will get the throne in the end. I see Cersi commiting suicide. She is way to proud and crazy to let anyone but herself end herself.

Rhaegal is still alive hes in Episode 4 trailler

 

[JimiNutz]

Uh, it was already mentioned why he was after Bran. If you want to eradicate mankind you also have to remove the memory of mankind.

As far as Arya killing the NK, what the fuck did people expect to happen? The plan all along was to use Bran as bait to lure the NK into a situation where he could be killed. Are people complaining that the plan actually worked? lol. Turns out all that time training to be a faceless man makes you a good candidate for sticking a knife in somebody. Who would have thought it?

Seems to me that some people wouldn't be happy regardless of what happened. They might not always be the same people, but there'd still be people crying.

That explanation was just a guess.

Arya killing the Night King wasn't the problem it was the fact that it happened so easily and that it happens in a single battle that lasts an evening. This is obviously for budget reasons but it's just very anticlimatic for a villain that has been built up as the villain of all villains.

Killing him in one episode wouldn't even be that bad if they had come up with a shocking or interesting method to do it other than Arya using magic ninja skills to run past his main army (the actual White Walkers)

 

[CrankyJay™]

That explanation was just a guess.

Arya killing the Night King wasn't the problem it was the fact that it happened so easily and that it happens in a single battle that lasts an evening. This is obviously for budget reasons but it's just very anticlimatic for a villain that has been built up as the villain of all villains.

Killing him in one episode wouldn't even be that bad if they had come up with a shocking or interesting method to do it other than Arya using magic ninja skills to run past his main army (the actual White Walkers)

It's completely believable to me that the undead army was so powerful that the battle only lasted an evening, so I don't think it was only for budget reasons. I think of the NK as a king not unlike one you would find on a chess board. I don't think they are the villain of villains in a fighting sense, which is why often you saw that the NK wasn't outright exposing himself, instead opting to send his horde or his generals.

 

[AV]

But the way they build the NK up, there was no way he'd be defeated by conventional means.

I think my problem was that it was so conventional. I get that the writers wanted to make it the blade that was meant for Brann, I get that they wanted Arya to be the one to deliver the blow, I get that he died in the same way he was created. All fine. I just think they could've added something, another layer to the NK's demise that wasn't just "rogue outta nowhere, gotcha dagger trick". I was just left kinda... deflated. That's it? That's what we were building to this whole time? I suppose I expected the episode to actually end in defeat, with Brann being either killed or taken and a few survivors barely making it out alive. The NK plot would then be resolved alongside the Cersei plot over the course of the season. I feel that Cersei's mercenary army are going to feel like a far less climactic villain than the army of the dead, and now we've got 3 episodes focusing solely on that. Well, probably 2-2.5 with a lot of resolution afterwards.

Didn't actually mind the episode, great visually, those crying "DEATH OF GOT" are being a little silly considering the show's been off-book and written to TV for several seasons now. The writing took a sharp turn into safe, fairly predictable TV territory a long time ago.

Also Gilly didn't die, it was some random woman.

 

[SirKicksalot]

As long as somebody remembers you you're not completely dead.

That's bullshit that sounds deep when you're high at 3 AM in college. It's nothing.

 

[Luffytubby]

I think my problem was that it was so conventional. I get that the writers wanted to make it the blade that was meant for Brann, I get that they wanted Arya to be the one to deliver the blow, I get that he died in the same way he was created. All fine. I just think they could've added something, another layer to the NK's demise that wasn't just "rogue outta nowhere, gotcha dagger trick". I was just left kinda... deflated. That's it? That's what we were building to this whole time? I suppose I expected the episode to actually end in defeat, with Brann being either killed or taken and a few survivors barely making it out alive. The NK plot would then be resolved alongside the Cersei plot over the course of the season. I feel that Cersei's mercenary army are going to feel like a far less climactic villain than the army of the dead, and now we've got 3 episodes focusing solely on that. Well, probably 2-2.5 with a lot of resolution afterwards.

Didn't actually mind the episode, great visually, those crying "DEATH OF GOT" are being a little silly considering the show's been off-book and written to TV for several seasons now. The writing took a sharp turn into safe, fairly predictable TV territory a long time ago.

Also Gilly didn't die, it was some random woman.

Ok.

I get that explanation and I see the point. I think it played out better than I expected. I sorta expected a Bran to turn back time or some magic-thing saving the day. Bran is a weird character because he knows the future, so he knows what is going to happen. I assumed that he became the 3-eyed raven because he was doing something of significance, but we've not had that explained to us. He just magically becomes conscious once the NK is right there. There is a potential explanation there that might make it feel better. Bran is frustrating because he is to ambiguous. He doesn't explain anything and that can be a lazy way to avoid explaining things rationally because character B is just cryptic.


Jon and Dani went on their dragons and chased the Night King in the sky away from the battle. That seemed like a stupid idea, but then again the blizzard kept them from seeing the ground. But they could have stayed on the ground and spewed fire like a flamethrower, trying to hold back the undead.


Bran is like this Tom Bombadil figure. Insanely powerful and yet removed from everything. There is no remorse when his brother Theon commits suicide (essentially). It is not explained. Its not explained why the NK needed bran. Its not explained why NK needed to kill bran in person. Its not explained what Bran was doing the entire battle. We can hope that these things are explained in EP 4 to give context.

 

[NickFire]

What does that even mean?
What the hell is the raven even doing?
It all just sounds like mystical mumbo-jumbo to me.

Yeah it made no sense to me either. Who cares about the memory of man kind? Like seriously, why would the NK be worried about a bunch of cats and dogs remembering their owners?

 

[LaughingStock]

The greatest danger of all, however, comes from the north, from the icy wastes beyond the Wall, where half-forgotten demons out of legend, the inhuman others, raise cold legions of the undead and the neverborn and prepare to ride down on the winds of winter to extinguish everything that we would call “life.”

What could have been...

 

[cr0w]

Jon is basically the Forrest Gump of Westeros, and him somehow stumbling into killing the NK would have been the worst possible outcome for me, to be honest. It would be completely unearned, because Jon has spent the better part of 8 seasons just kind of falling into success in spite of himself, as opposed to Arya actually earning the kill and payoff (in my opinion). Jon and Dany both have delusions of grandeur and, when their tricks or cheat codes don't work, they're straight up fucked.

 

[Musky_Cheese]

https://www.vox.com/culture/2019/4/30/18522955/game-of-thrones-season-8-battle-winterfell-military

Yes the Winterfell strategy was bad

 

[ruvikx]

At this point I'm left hoping there's some sort of fucknuttery with Bran & he's not what they think he is, i.e. he's actually the new Night King (he keeps on repeating he's no longer Bran, after all). The heroes go down to King's Landing, fight Cersei (win) & then kaboom, a snow storm hits King's Landing & voilà, Bran & his new white walker army overcome the capital & the survivors are forced to flee to Meereen which Dany secured a couple of seasons ago. The end.

Hoping for that sort of drama & twist is probably entirely wishful thinking at this point, but it does fit the horror story arc, i.e. just when people think the monster is dead, it's not (Alien etc.).

 

[JareBear: Remastered]

At this point I'm left hoping there's some sort of fucknuttery with Bran & he's not what they think he is, i.e. he's actually the new Night King (he keeps on repeating he's no longer Bran, after all). The heroes go down to King's Landing, fight Cersei (win) & then kaboom, a snow storm hits King's Landing & voilà, Bran & his new white walker army overcome the capital & the survivors are forced to flee to Meereen which Dany secured a couple of seasons ago. The end.

Hoping for that sort of drama & twist is probably entirely wishful thinking at this point, but it does fit the horror story arc, i.e. just when people think the monster is dead, it's not (Alien etc.).

I would love this but I don’t think they are brave enough to pull this off, unfortunately.

Feels like the show is just gonna leave a lot of questions unanswered.

 

[ConnorDuffy1977]

& heroic, ninja assassins don't get to kill the biggest bad guy just because they're a ninja assassin etc.

Actually, you're wrong. She did kill the Night King. And it was amazing.

 

[ConnorDuffy1977]

I would love this but I don’t think they are brave enough to pull this off, unfortunately.

I honestly thought the NK was going to kneel before Bran.

 

[Melon Husk]

To everyone who says too few died: it's more interesting when they kill each other.

Directing was better than average (as expected), but editing wasn't tight. Some scenes dragged out and other were cut short. A few extra seconds for Arya after she runs off would have erased the apparent teleportation into Godswood.

edit: It was obvious what was in her head after "and blue eyes". I would've preferred the stakes build up by seeing both Jon and Arya fight their way to Bran. There was not build up because Jon kept running between the same two corridors.

edit2: Honestly I thought she'd drop down from the tree!

 

[SirKicksalot]

If you want good Game of Thrones fanfic play the RPG. It's basically KOTOR in Westeros with a better narrative structure and one hell of a story.

 

[Kadayi]

An interesting critique from TV Critics Chris Ryan & Andy Greenwald on The Watch Podcast about the episode: -

Breaking Down ‘Game of Thrones,’ S8E3

Chris and Andy talk about the visual effects of the Battle of Winterfell, who lived and who died, and more

www.theringer.com

They're coming at it as both TV critics and creators (in the case of Andy) and give a bit of insight into the nature of things, and the importance of understanding that what we are witnessing is a story being told .


Also obligatory Gay of Thrones recap: -

 

[Tesseract]

btw it is interesting to note that bran says 'i have to go now' and worgs just as we get a first glimpse of the nk

while it's probably narrative framing, i'm hoping there's more mystical there-there coming soon

 

[manfestival]

To everyone who says too few died: it's more interesting when they kill each other.

Directing was better than average (as expected), but editing wasn't tight. Some scenes dragged out and other were cut short. A few extra seconds for Arya after she runs off would have erased the apparent teleportation into Godswood.

It sure is more interesting when they kill each other but you know it is bad when they lazily give everyone plot armor instead of being creative in thinking of believable ways to make them live. I mean, Jon for example: most of his scenes were done believably well. The only scene I had an issue of his(this is suspending my disbelief and a common awful theme they had going this episode) is that in the first shot when the wights surround him. He clearly is surrounded and obviously overwhelmed. The wight behavior also changes for the next scene as they show him in a greater space now where there is less wights and they are coming at him in a manageable way. This is kinda like playing dynasty warriors and all of the soldiers taking their turn despite surrounding your character to take shots off at you. Then he comes out of this seemingly impossible to survive scenario to walk into more and a zombie dragon(I thought the whole zombie dragon thing was fine and well done). This is not even to talk about all others that somehow made it to like 5 different front line fights with endless endurance and taking 30 stabs yet standing tall.

 

[AV]

It sure is more interesting when they kill each other but you know it is bad when they lazily give everyone plot armor instead of being creative in thinking of believable ways to make them live.

... (John) is clearly is surrounded and obviously overwhelmed. The wight behavior also changes for the next scene as they show him in a greater space now where there is less wights and they are coming at him in a manageable way.

This is so frustrating. There's a massive disconnect between what's happening in the script and what's happening before your eyes. I lost count of the amount of times the camera would cut away just as a main characters was swarmed by a dozen enemies, and then cut back to them being the only person in their respective area left standing. They even admit to doing it in the behind-the-scenes stuff: "you know it's not going to happen, but you feel like it will". No, I don't, because you keep pulling the same trick every five minutes and it's lost all effect. I'm not a fucking idiot.

 

[RedVIper]

To everyone who says too few died: it's more interesting when they kill each other.

Then don't put them in positions where they should die, whats the point? If you don't have the balls to kill of the characters then don't make it so they survive by some miracle. It's especially bad when you do it several times, for each character.

 

[Atrus]

To those who feel they've lost the plot (as some parts of it do require some attention):

Spoiler

Any battle tactic based on an army agains the whitewalkers is inherently doomed -- it takes the NK (the second most powerful known entity in the world) less than a minute to produce a brand new army. 3ER (formerly Bran), the most powerful entity in the world, knows that fact, perhaps Jon is vaguely aware of it, the rest -- naively hopeful they could fight the undead army. 3ER sacrifices Winterfell, along with its inhabitans, refugees and the defense army for the one plan 3ER knows would work (hey, being a greenseer has its advantages). For 3ER just has to be at the right place at the right time, and the right pawns will carry out what needs to be carried out. For instance, while 3ER was the decoy, Theon Grayjoy was a secondary decoy -- the 'fallen defender' (for which he was formally thanked). 3ER did not need defending, he just needed an assasin pawn within attack distance from the NK, and NK uncovering himself at what he'd assumed would be his striking hour. Big mistake -- check and mate.

As you said, the Night King is powerful and it is expected that the ensuing plans to win would not devolve into anyone stabbing him with Valyrian steel like a vampire. The whole 3 eyed raven nonsense involves last minute recontextualizing on past events in order to make it seem like it went all according to plan. The quote to Arya about closing blue eyes was reworded, the 'all roads lead to this point' concept is only determined by actions immediately preceding the outcome rather on being solely dependant on the characters past actions. Literally any character could have saved Arya, instead Beric 'The Barricade' Dondarion is used because we needed to close his lengthy 'destiny' arc.

This is a world that has seen political drama constantly, what made this time different was the added threat of a mysterious undead army shrouded in false history and prophecy. One that left strange messages everywhere and were led by intelligent creatures that seemingly acted in a way that showed deeper motivations than a World War Z horde.

What we got was lazy, inept writing found in any teen WB show to resolve a lengthy buildup as quickly as possible. If this was AMC with the property, the writers would have probably had Daryll Dixon ride up on a motorcycle and help Arya tag team the Night King to death because both characters are fan favorites. This is basically fan fiction set in the Game of Thrones universe.

 

[Javthusiast]

So now that Arya bypassed a ring of Wights and White Walker generals with an easy rushing in from behind, nothin personel kid Bleach move - how does the show not just end with her killing Cersei and Euron?

Especially, since she can put on different faces. I mean think back on how easy she infiltrated the Frays and killed them all, even fooled Jaime and Bronn there.


Also, Davos just became the first of those air traffick control dudes at airfields in all of Westeros and Essos.