#teamNightking

Having defended what didn't bother me I will say what did bother me. Especially on rewatch. So much so I'd downgrade my rating if I could. Bad writing. Way too many "just in time" moments. If you did a drinking game and took a drink every time something happened "just in time" to save someone, you'd have no idea how the episode ends cuz you'd be passed out on the floor. And the just in time of all just in times Arya saves Bran just in time. And in so doing saves everyone still living just in time. It's just hack shock writing taking advantage of the expectation of many heroes dying and stringing together cheap "gotcha" moments. So disappointing. 6/10

In the show doesn't the Night King create the WW from Craster's sons using some kind of magic? So maybe when he fell they fell. But was that all the white walkers? I'm not sure

I'm pretty sure they were planning to use them to abush the night king and his dragon 2 against 1 when he went for Bran. Holding them back. Dany changed the plan when the Dothroki fell. Also the plan was for Drogon to light the trench but the blizzard became too strong and she couldn't see. At a rough estimate of even 1000 undead burnt per breath attack at 100k zombies it would have required many many strafing runs to make a dent and that's before the second wave was raised. Every run being exposed to surprise attack from NK and undead dragon and or white walker lances potentially. Dany really should have tried to hatch more dragons in the preceding years ; )

Or it would be like getting hit by a tsunami of undead from the side as they tried to go around.

No matter what they did it would have failed and been seen as moronic. What would have been nice is 5 minutes exposition in the war room discussing strategy and pros and cons. Some arguing. The lack of that annoys me. It would be interesting and very important. But no. We never get that. And the show suffers for it.

I watched this several times. I think she's just alerting him to the danger by helping him turn to face the threat from behind as she steps away and the timing was unfortunate.

The charge of the Dothroki makes sense all things considered. What else do you do with them? Take away their horses or put highly effective cavalry inside the castle? (Not to mention I don't think the Dothroki would agree to fight off their horses) No. Put them behind infantry? No one does this. Excuse them from the fight and save them for fighting Cersei? Pretty sure everyone else fighting would be all, "oh hell no!" Have them fight defensively from a fixed position? (The Army of the Dead was about to close in and charge) No. Send them out in a flanking action? What's the point? They would have been swallowed up. Or, use them in a charge (what they do best) and have them retreat back on their horses if necessary? Keeping in mind no matter what they do they are all outnumbered about 10/3 and likely to die. I don't have a problem with the charge and it provided an awesome visual.

Yeah. Best I can come up with is he was certain he had already won and so why not gloat a little a kill him himself and savor the moment. Possibly possessing some humanlike behavior. We know way too little about Bran, the Night King, the motivation and history. It's all still a bit mysterious. Unfortunately so. Before they ended this plotline I'd a really appreciated a full and detailed information dump.

Yep. I forgot that. So I guess maybe it was more of a hey, don't forget about me! Like a provocation. Shrug

It's funny. I feel like her entire arc makes sense towards this. Why else all the time spent spent training to be a super faceless woman assassin? And the Chekhov's gun dagger was in her possession.

Not just find him. Lure him. It was established in previous episodes the Night King can sense Bran when Bran is warging. So in a sense Bran tapped him on the shoulder and said "psst hey, I'm over here".

They had no control over when the Night King would appear. In the scene where Jon wants to wait but Daenerys says "the dead are already here" shows clearly their plan. (also in the "after the episode" this is discussed) The Night King arrived after the army. After the battle started. If he was smarter he wouldn't have arrived at all.. But for some purpose yet to be revealed he wanted Bran dead ASAP and wanted to be the one to do it. This is where the storytelling stumbles but can be saved possibly by exposition later if it is explained. Yet to be determined.

They were vastly outnumbered. To flank the undead would have accomplished nothing and with a front of 100,000 undead they would have had to ride a loooong time. Meanwhile the center smashes Winterfell either way. Now, if you want to discuss whether or not the Dothroki would have sacrificed themselves willingly for the Seven Kingdoms' survival, their queen or any other reason, that's something I could consider. But just maybe they were arrogant enough to believe they would survive.

Subject to interpretation. Jon Snow is ice and fire in a way. Or Jon and Daenerys end up with the throne. "Ice and Fire" and have a child. What GRRM intended we may never know.

Books? Such optimism. Dance was published almost 9 years ago. I fear that if we were getting more books we'd of had at least one by now. Sigh.

Yeah and with thousands of horses too, yes? They're cavalry. Cavalry charge. It's what they do. All these arm chair generals crack me up like there's a manual on fighting an army of undead. If they packed inside the castle shoulder to shoulder and the undead arrived undelayed they would have simply "world war Z'd" the walls in a very short time and the plan would have failed. What you are seeing is a series of layered delaying tactics in order for there to be time for the Night King to be lured to Bran and defeated by Jon and Daenerys. Killing the Night King was their only hope. They'd never actually win the battle and they knew it. So not standard battle tactics.

Kind of silly in the books too, to be honest. GRRM had the zombies just wandering around or maybe turning left every time they came to the wall all NASCAR style... for years, while the story ignored them. It's the "Game of Thrones" not the "War with the Others" Honestly has it not always been primarily about the Iron Throne? I think so, and I'm fine with it.

Yep. The next two episodes will probably be politics and gathering allies. Last episode, battle for the throne.

But who didn't see it playing out exactly like this as soon as it was mentioned in a previous season and they (the characters) discussed that when a white walker dies all the dead it has raised die with it? And the Night King destroyed by the valyrian steel dagger from season one? By Arya, after spending all that time training to be a sneaky assassin? It was trending this way. It appears Cersei won in the Cersei vs. Night King for who the worst bad "guy' is. This wasn't the finale so I'll suspend final judgement.

Until such time as GRRM proves otherwise, I'm becoming more and more suspicious that the book series will never be finished. Maybe not even Winds.

Haha yes! I'm surprised this isn't being talked about more. They finally show Ghost after so much time and he's... shrunk to the size of a large Husky. Fail.

That and "bend the knee". She seems to want that a lot too.

Yep, no two ways about it, Rhaegar was kind of an a**hole...

What I find frustrating about the wrong side of the wall is that it just so blatantly disregards internal consistency and logic. If they couldn't reach Eastwatch due to storms and it being unsafe to sail, which would make sense, they should have just showed that (or at the very least insert some dialogue mentioning that). If they reached Eastwatch and Jon decided he couldn't just let loose the wildling bunch south of the wall yet and keep them under control that's a big decision I would have liked to have seen the discussion. But to assume as the show implied that they landed in Eastwatch and then decided to make their way back to the north side for some unknown reason with a massive undead army not all that terribly far away and they decided to not put the wall between them...just doesn't make sense and makes Jon look like an idiot.

I think if they wanted to sell the 20 men thing better they should have made the storm more visibly worse. Like can't see your hand in front of your face from blowing snow...sell sword sentries are huddled around fires for warmth not paying attention. Ramsay's Rambos strike just before dawn in white camo with lots of oil and combustibles and in groups of 2. Totally believable? Better than what we got. Or hell, just show that Mel did it, Ramsay got lost on the way. Hmmm maybe thats why the tents burst into flame with no one around? Oh, it wouldn't have hurt for a couple of them to have been killed or captured either. But hey, it's Ramsay...someday, he shall sit the Iron Throne! Well at this rate of success anyway.