[Poll] How would you rate episode 803?

[Frey family reunion]

1 minute ago, Ser Gareth said:

What source material?

Ha, you’re right.  I’m pretty sure the book Arya threw to distract the wights was a half finished manuscript of Winds of Winter

[Corvinus85]

Just now, SansaJonRule said:

But it reminded us that part of her training was to move without making a sound. And it gave me a minute to breathe!

I thought the wights could just sense warm blood, but I guess that's only for the books.

[nara]

1 minute ago, Krishtotter said:

I'm in the bizarre position of not knowing where, or how, to rate it. 

On the one hand, a very cinematic battle sequence.

 On the other, it lagged a bit in places.

And the Night King was just taken out by Arya. And his entire army collapsed LoTR-style. Midway through the season.

And Dany lost both Drogon and her main advisor.

WTF!? 

I feel kind of weird about what I just watched and need some time to process.

 

I agree with your sentiments. I did not think that Drogon died. I thought he was mourning Jorah and wounded. But I could be wrong. If he did die it would be nice to see Dany lead without the threat of dragons. 

I liked that Theon and Jorah got proper ends. I liked that Dany finally showed some emotion and it was for Jorah. 

It’s hard to believe that Arya snuck up on the Night King like that but I can buy that he became arrogant in his victory. I was kinda hoping that Bran would slit his own throat and that would kill the NK and the WWs.

 

[Krishtotter]

1 minute ago, Anthony Pirtle said:

I think both the dragons survived. They were both flying in the next episode.

Ah, right - thanks! I had thought it was Rhaegal at the end.

My mistake.

[Mladen]

Oh, boy... This was not good. This was really not good.

The pacing was all over the place. It was too dark, intentional or not, and a lot has been lost to it. They were building and building and building suspense and somehow failed. 

I won't even deign to start talking about the plot. That was... too nonsensical.

Just now, SansaJonRule said:

But it reminded us that part of her training was to move without making a sound. And it gave me a minute to breathe!

You had only one minute to breathe? There were far too many.

Simply, this was a bad episode. Badly written, badly shot, badly directed.

[LordImp]

I gave it a 4 . Imo the entire episode was a mess and I am disappointed that 7 seasons of buildup ended with Arya coming out of nowhere to kill NK . 

And the Melisandre shit ?

I have always enjoyed this show and been a loyal fan . But now I think I'm done . 

Hopefully GRRM will give us something better in the last books than this mess. 

[Trebla]

3 minutes ago, FireWinds said:

That's exactly how I feel.. I don't know how I feel about it all.. 

But Drogon is alive no? 

Both dragons are alive. They both appeared in next week's preview.

[SansaJonRule]

5 minutes ago, Frey family reunion said:

I would have given it less than a 1 if allowed.  This show is so aggressively dumb.  It’s become an absolute travesty of the source material.

Like Ser Gareth said, what source material? The books haven't been finished.

If you hate it so much why are you still watching it?

[FireWinds]

1 minute ago, PirateVergo said:

7/10.

And I'm being generous.

First of all the episode was ridiculously dark, I couldn't tell what was happening in a LOT of scenes, sometimes it was even pixelated, the overall visual quality of the episode wasn't that great in my eyes.

Secondly the pacing was weird, I don't think these scenes of Jon and Dany flying in the air were needed, they didn't lead to much until late into the episode and weren't exactly interesting, the entire episode builds up to the Night King reaching Bran and that's about the only scene they built up perfectly.

And last but not least, my biggest issue : The plot.

Now that ending was terrible, let's get that out of the way, Arya killing the NK ok fine that doesn't bother me but the way she did it? The impact it had on the battle? That's just utterly ridiculous and let's not talk about how the NK is a nothing character, we don't know who he is, why he wants a never ending night, how long he's been the NK, we don't learn anything about him at all.

Beyond the horrible ending, Jon does nothing for 90% of the episode, same could be said for Dany, not sure what Bran was doing either once the NK started moving on his dragon.

 

Scenes I really liked were : Theon's death scene, Melisandre's scenes, Arya cosplaying as Solid Snake. build up to NK reaching Bran

Scenes I didn't like : Arya killing the NK, all of Jon/Dany dragon scenes, the cluster**** that was some of these battles where I couldn't tell what was going on

 

Overall I think the battle of Blackwater and Hardhome were both better than this episode, It's hard to compare it to the Battle of the Bastard but BotB was a better episode too.

I agree with this as well. Jon annoyed me through this episode as he did barely anything. Learnt nothing about the Night King, what those symbols were, nothing. Arya wasn't even wearing a face when killing him, which I at least expected her to do. 

Would have been a little bit more realistic if a couple of white walkers died in battle, thinning out the herd of zombies somewhat so it would be believable that so many survived.

[Adegon]

It wasn't even one of their better battles let alone better episodes.  I thought last episode was much, much better.  It was a bit choppy and unclear at times.  And as much as we all thought major deaths..the biggest was Jorah...although I did really enjoy his last stand.

[no_one_...]

7, mainly -1 for pointless Calvary charge, -1 for artillery undefended after said charge b/c foot soldiers in rear, -1 b/c no one bothered to consider NK would raise them ala Hardhome.  I thought of taking more off b/c more than Jorah and Theon should have died imo.  But they gave a giant a weapon.

[Jamie Lannister]

You remember that Avatar: TLA episode, where the gang hides out in the Fire Nation and watches a parody of their adventure so far that's just rife with mischaracterisation, terrible dialogue, and absurd plot, but "at least the effects were decent"?

The effects were really fucking decent. So was the music, the cinematography, the atmosphere. Dragons savaging each other above the clouds in a blizzard, the Lich King swooping down to blow everyone the fuck out while his pet sears the castle with its ice beams? The cannon fodder army with their flaming swords, a 5'0 ninja mowing down hordes of zombies? Good God that shit was enjoyable. Stupid as all fuck, but so very enjoyable. 

Just a shame the story sucked except for Mel's stuff.

[Krishtotter]

One thing I do know...

The dialogue last episode was way better.

Battle or no battle, it was obvious that Cogman wrote the last script and that D&D wrote this one.

Painfully obvious.

And since they are writing the remaining scripts, I'm not overly confident.

Indeed, at this hour I don't really know what the whole thing is about.

A supernatural evil threatening Westeros for centuries and emphasised since both book 1, and season 1 of the show, just gone? And the remaining plot is back to politics after a short, high fantasy interlude, but this time without the big evil menace in the background to put their petty quarrelling into perspective? 

Wasn't that, like...kind of the point of ASOIAF and the double-pronged Other/White Walker threat matched up against the internecine, self-harming dynastic squabbling while Rome burns?

The way their approaching this seems awfully disjointed rather than holistic, unless I'm misunderstanding where they intend to go.

The Night King turned out not to be even a poor man's Sauron. And to have far less interesting motives (or none at all) than him as well.

Edited April 29, 2019 by Krishtotter

[Ser Yorick Ampersand]

I felt cheated by this episode.

The whole thing was stretched out to the max. Halfway in I said no one important would die.

We'll never hear about the night King or prophecy again.

Can't believe the last 3 episodes will be about alcoholic Cersei and the idiot clown.

[Ser Gareth]

7 for me.  The NK being defeated so easily (individually), combined with the cliche nuclear bomb of taking him out stops all of them, was underwhelming IMO.  And there are way too many characters still alive.

I'm struggling to work out how Arya ended up being the TPTWP too and if Mel predicted the "blue eyes" thing then does that mean Mel foresaw Arya killing the NK?  If so that makes no sense at all.

Action sequences were decent though (if a little over heroic and convenient at times, but I forgive that as this is fantasy) and unlike others I didn't have a problem with the picture quality or darkness.

I am assuming there is a reason Tormund survived, because it would have been fitting if he had died the way Lyanna Mormont did (which was by far the best death, if there is such a thing, in the episode).

[Adegon]

And Melisandra...after her entire arc...did nothing other than give Arya a tad of inspiration?

[PirateVergo]

I wished so badly for the Night King to say something, for Bran to reveal something as he was about to kill him, hell watching the episode I was even expecting some time-related fuckery or Bran to bring the Night King with him in a vision.

And Hardhome,Blackwater >>>>> Today's battle, that much is clear in my eyes. It's not even remotely close.

 

 

[CrypticWeirwood]

Remember that Martin deliberately set out to smash the tired old tropes of high fantasy that were (and still are) being mindlessly repeated in an endless number of boring, predictable novels. We’ve seen this ever since Ned lost his head, and all the rest.

You can be sure that in Martin’s head it was always going to the dark sister who would unexpectedly pull a Howland Reed move at the end to defeat an undefeatable opponent. That’s why this was shown to Bran seasons ago now. Even Melisandre knew it.

Only Jon and Dany, the storybook “heroes”, didn’t know it. Which is just fine.

If you really think this isn’t what Martin has always planned, then you must not know his wife’s views on Arya.

Edited April 29, 2019 by CrypticWeirwood

[Fez]

It was going okay, albeit with poor lighting, but then the ending happened and it was deeply disappointing. Night King's end was way too anti-climatic and it was silly how many main characters survived considering how many extra were killed.

[SansaJonRule]

5 minutes ago, nara said:

If he did die it would be nice to see Dany lead without the threat of dragons. 

Yeah, I agree. She's been so confident of victory all along because of her dragons. But with most of her army gone, she's really gonna need them.

5 minutes ago, nara said:

I liked that Theon and Jorah got proper ends. I liked that Dany finally showed some emotion and it was for Jorah. 

I went through a few tissues...Dany reminded me of Eowen crying over her uncle's body. Dany didn't even cry for Drogo.

6 minutes ago, nara said:

It’s hard to believe that Arya snuck up on the Night King like that but I can buy that he became arrogant in his victory.

No it's not. She's a trained assassin, and she knows WF like the back of her hand. My heart almost stopped when she dropped the dagger though.