[Poll] How would you rate episode 803?

[Krishtotter]

12 hours ago, Han Snow said:

It was a big steaming pile of D&D manure.  I wonder what would have happened  with this show, had Bryan Cogman been the main showrunner?! I remember GRRM saying when LOST ended, how it felt like someone took a dump on his front porch. Heheh. The two hacks are shitting left and right with their interpretation of HIS story. 

It's a wasted opportunity that Cogman, who "gets" GRRM's creation a million times over D&D, wasn't given the chance of being showrunner to conclude the series.

His script last week was so greatly superior to this one by D&D, it's almost painful to watch them in succession.

Amazon have been fortunate to have nabbed Cogman, even though we still don't know which shows he's working for them on. 

[Heartofice]

Its been obvious for a few years that there was never going to be any depth or big reveal regarding the White Walkers or the Night King. Once we found out the number of remaining episodes it’s was clear there was nothing else going to happen other than one big battle to sort everything out.

Maybe that’s why I was able to enjoy the episode. If you’d told me a few years ago that this was the end point of that storyline I’d have stopped watching the show. But I’ve come to accept that there is no depth or meat on this plot.

[RhaenysBee]

39 minutes ago, Heartofice said:

Its been obvious for a few years that there was never going to be any depth or big reveal regarding the White Walkers or the Night King. Once we found out the number of remaining episodes it’s was clear there was nothing else going to happen other than one big battle to sort everything out.

Maybe that’s why I was able to enjoy the episode. If you’d told me a few years ago that this was the end point of that storyline I’d have stopped watching the show. But I’ve come to accept that there is no depth or meat on this plot.

I wasn’t even expecting depth or content. But common sense. Any shallow common sense. Or just consistency. Like explain how the fuck Melisandre ex machina teleported into the middle of the snowy field between a horde of zombies and the defender army. Just one bullshit line instead of two characters staring at each other. Just stuff like that. Just any sign that you made an effort. Any sign at all. 

[Heartofice]

Just now, RhaenysBee said:

I wasn’t even expecting depth or content. But common sense. Any shallow common sense. Or just consistency. Like explain how the fuck Melisandre ex machina teleported into the middle of the snowy field between a horde of zombies and the defender army. Just one bullshit line instead of two characters staring at each other. Just stuff like that. Just any sign that you made an effort. Any sign at all. 

Melisandre being there was really not an issue for me at all. She's meant to be some sort of witch.. so she must have used some magic or something, I can hand wave that quite easily. 

[Kajjo]

8 hours ago, lakin1013 said:

theories about who the NK was, what he wanted, why he existed, and how to kill him.  The NK theories branched off the CoTF theories, 3-eRaven, what Bran was

I agree. I don't want to wish away our desire for some depth here, for explanations, more background, better motivation of Children, Raven, Others. Yes, I would have liked all that, too. I miss it. I even hope that we will get a few more explanations eventually, even though I doubt it now.

But on the other hand it was a mistake committed by many watchers to solely focus on the Nightking storyline.

What is the name of the series? Game of Thrones.

What 90% of all scenes and threads centered around? The Iron Throne.

The Nightking was ONE additional thread, something orthogonal to the competition for the Iron Throne.  Something were people have to wotrk together to beat a much greater threat. They did it, the threat is neutralized (let's hope so). Now it's the run for the throne once again.

I sincerely like that. It would have been petty nonsense to watch seven seasons of emotions, hardship, intrigue, sex, violence, battles just to get the conclusion: Doesn't matter, only the Nightking counts.

It is realistic that after beating a extraordinary danger to everyone, the normal competition will again arise. This is an interesting psychological concept all too true in the real world.

[Kajjo]

7 hours ago, Lyanna<3Rhaegar said:

So maybe someone better versed in battle strategy can explain this to me but after the trenches were lit & Dany & Drogon could see where they were WHY IN THE WORLD did she not start torching the fuckers?! Everyone just stood around & waited for them to get through the fire & granted there wasn't much everyone else could do but... Pardon me ma'am think you could stop pissing around & help humanity survive for a few minutes??

In exactly that moment when Davos gave the signal, the bitter winter storm magically created by the Nightking was clouding their sights and she didn't see the sign.

[Kajjo]

7 hours ago, Lyanna<3Rhaegar said:

One more thing - did it look like Dany turned Jorah into the sword there towards the end or was it just me? It was like she used him for a shield! 

I had exactly the same impression. That was weird. Maybe she really did.

[Lyanna<3Rhaegar]

33 minutes ago, Kajjo said:

In exactly that moment when Davos gave the signal, the bitter winter storm magically created by the Nightking was clouding their sights and she didn't see the sign.

Right I'm talking about after the trench was lit & Dany could see them. Why didn't she torch the others on the other side of the trench before they started laying down over the fire so the rest could get through

[Kajjo]

2 minutes ago, Lyanna<3Rhaegar said:

Right I'm talking about after the trench was lit & Dany could see them. Why didn't she torch the others on the other side of the trench before they started laying down over the fire so the rest could get through

Yeah, right, I wondered that, too. They could have done more at that moment. That was suboptimal story-telling. They should have "deactivated" dragon her before that scene.

[Lyanna<3Rhaegar]

1 minute ago, Kajjo said:

Yeah, right, I wondered that, too. They could have done more at that moment. That was suboptimal story-telling. They should have "deactivated" dragon her before that scene.

Right, I agree. 

[MinscS2]

9 hours ago, Lyanna<3Rhaegar said:

One more thing - did it look like Dany turned Jorah into the sword there towards the end or was it just me? It was like she used him for a shield! 

 

1 hour ago, Kajjo said:

I had exactly the same impression. That was weird. Maybe she really did.

When?
Here's a clip of their last scenes together. Pinpoint the time in the clip.

All I see is Daenerys reaching out to him over and over, in a worried "are you OK?"-sense (i.e. 1:24), and at 1:02 he literally pushes her away and intercepts a strike that would've otherwise hit her in the back.

Amazing scene regardless.
Great and fitting death for Jorah, and we finally got to see Daenerys acting like the Valyrian Warrior-Queen she is.

Edited April 30, 2019 by MinscS2

[Kajjo]

4 minutes ago, MinscS2 said:

When

1:02 ... she turns Jorah and uses him as shield. At least that how it looks like for me.

Maybe you are right and he pushes her. But my first gut feeling was the other way round.

The Jorah exit is perfect anyway, Very nice scenes for a farewell of this character.

Edited April 30, 2019 by Kajjo

[chatty83]

Gave it a 5. Basically the episode in itself was fun viewing, did well with the suspense in portraying the AOTD as a near unstoppable army and that humanity looked doomed to survive. So good horror sections and the dragon fight would have been cool if I could see but the story part made no sense and essentially made the proceeding seven seasons look pointless. Everything they told up to now ended up being pretty much useless.

I also had higher hopes going into this battle a few seasons back, it should really have been the last battle where everything was resolved. We should have seen Ghost actually fight, Naemeria turn up for the save with its pack on wolves, hell a Ghost v Zombie Summer fight would have been the perfect way to cap of the dogs story.

The WW''s should have went in to this with their full story told, why they were there, what they wanted to achieveand why they wished to kill Bran who in the full eight series has done anything to show that he is of any danger to them.

Clegane bowl on the battlefield, Mountain is a zombie anyway and they could have sided them up only for them to let their hatred of each other override what they are actually fighting for. I ultimately think they did it the wrong way round but we'll see. Have Dany win the throne only for it to seem like a waste of time when humanity could be wiped out in an instant, they go to battle, win but the skin of their teeth and emerge rulers of a destroyed kingdom because they let their pettiness and lust for power over one another overshadow the real importance for living.

We did get the dragon battle I guess.

Oh and Jon should have slayed the NK, its the obvious choice but sometimes when you've had seven series oif build to that moment its nice to get the actual payoff instead of some M Night Shaymalan twist just for the sake of surprise.

So brilliant in terms of an actual viewing spectacle and suspense driven horror episode but utterly terrible in terms of story, paying off the series and ending character arcs. They balance each other out for straight down the middle 5/10.

+

[MinscS2]

@Kajjo I'm not saying I'm right, but I personally see that less of Daenerys pushing him into the way of the strike (she's out of position to pull that move, let alone not strong enough) and more of Jorah actively intercepting a strike that she doesn't see coming in the first place (because she's busy looking at him.)

And yeah, while there wasn't that many named character-deaths this episode, the actual way that most of them went out was badass: Jorah protecting Daenerys until the bitter end, Beric protecting Arya and striking a Jesus-pose, Theon Leeeroy-charging the NK and Lyanna bumrushing a wight-giant.

Poor Edd got the shitties death of all, with his last words ever being "Fuck's sake Sam"...

 

Edited April 30, 2019 by MinscS2

[Ser Quork]

9 hours ago, Frances Bean Corbray said:

MODIFIED MCSHANE SCORING SYSTEM PRESENTS:  GAME OF THRONES S8 E3 (episode 70)

No Tits, Just Dragons, base line of 5.

no "previously on" segment before the episode, and I like this because that usually functions as the cliff notes of foreshadowing and I like the idea of nope we're not giving you clues this time, just guess.

 Tonight's episode will be broadcast in SPOOOOOOOOOOKYVISION which means its too dark to see what's actually going on and who's dead or not.  I respect the whole wanting to have fog of war and terrifying confusion and all but it's a television show, let us watch the television show.  Minus 2 points [3/10]

I've said before and I'll say again that I dig it when this show shuts the fuck up and lets its cinematography breathe.  Again we start with an extended stretch of no [coherent] dialogue as last minute preparations are underway and we follow Sam's path through them.  Varys and Tyrion heading towards the crypt, Theon marching off at Bran's side and I think the lineless Alys Karstark is with them for reasons unknown but it could just be an extra [not that Alys isn't one herself at this point] portraying a female Ironborn warrior, contradiction of lore though that is.  Either way it's hard to tell in the gloom.  +1 point for focusing on the show's strength and hiding its weakness (the dialogue lol). [4/10]

Melisandre shows up at the last minute to cast a couple AOE cleric buffs on the party, then promises both Ser Davos and the audience that she will die before morning.  SPOILERS, Mel, geeeez.  Glad she's here. +1 [5/10]

Dothraki death charge was a wonderful visual as the lights of their flaming arakhs gradually, silently, went out.  Possibly the best visual of the episode.  It's ALMOST enough to make me forgive and forget the terminal case of Dumb For The Sake Of Plot that went into this happening.  Especially considering Mel showed up at the last second so the plan was to do this without even flaming arakhs.  Having the first sortee be a catastrophic failure is fine (and like I said the visual was great and the "oh shit" of Jorah coming back from it alone was wonderful too).  But what even was success supposed to look like with this?  Did Jon and Dany think they had this in the bag, feel bad for The Night King, and want to spot him a couple touchdowns to start the game?  Also, the timing of the trebuchet volley basically amounted to shelling their own men, and not even the most tactically bereft WWI generals were that cavalier about killing their own men (they considered it much more gentlemanly to let the enemy do it).  There had to have been a smarter and more character-consistent way to get this disastrous start achieved and create this feeling of peril.  Battle of the Bastards had a dumb early cavalry charge too but at least there they admitted it was dumb but did it anyway for plausible emotional reasons.  Also way to summon Ghost back to his home planet in the middle of this charge.  +1 for the visual of the lights dying, -1.5 for basically giving the NK their cavalry in a way that makes our heroes look like idiots. [4.5/10]

The crush of the wights hitting the unsullied spear wall really felt like a crushing wave.  That was good shit.  Soon after, we have our first confirmed Named Character Death, and the dubious honor goes to Dolorous Edd, shortly after he saves Sam's ass one more time.  In the grand scheme of things, Dolorous Edd died unflatteringly early and got rather ignominiously chumped from behind.  I think Dolorous Edd would appreciate and even predict going out this way.  His last words are "fuck's sake, Sam" which is a fitting epithet for show Edd if not necessarily Book Edd.  I'm glad they gave me a clear opportunity to say goodbye last week.  +1 point for the infantry crush visual and for giving Edd a good death. [5.5/10]

NIGHT'S KING WITH A MAGIC STEALTH BLIZZARD LOL.  Killing the visibility would've been more effective if visibility wasn't dead from the start due to SPOOOOOOOOOOOKYVISION but at this point I'm digging the flow of living and dead trading punches.  Dothraki cav gets chumped, Dragonrider strafing torches the wight infantry, magic snowstorm kills the visibility and nobody can see Davos' signal to light the trench as the Unsullied retreat.  LOVE seeing fire arrows get snuffed out by the cold wind as early attempts to light the trenches fail.  Melisandre comes up clutch once again, lighting the trench by hand and by chanting mojo.  Boy, how bad does the initial battle plan suck considering it didn't have her in it?  She is saving some serious bacon out there.  +1 for Mel being all over the place trying to repay the karmic debt for burning Shireen. [6.5/10]

Setting Sansa up to be the Anti-Cersei in a replay of Maegor's Holdfast in the Crypts of Winterfell is lovely.  Unfortunately the dialogue is up to snuff.  Missandei, technically you're right but you're not helping right now.  Varys says "at least we're already in a crypt" and Connleth Hill drags that line into acceptably amusing territory by sheer force of actor's will.  Doesn't quite stick the landing but I appreciate Sansa and Tyrion having a moment.

Didn't expect Little Lady Mormont to get smacked around and especially not to get killed.  This is the only death from outside my "probably gonna die" list.  I thought they did an acceptable job of establishing that she was making the choice to die because taking out the particularly dangerous Wight Giant was worth it. I suspect this bit was homage to some Lord Of The Rings bit I'm not familiar with, and I appreciate that they made it work even for someone like me who lacks that reference point. +1 [7.5/10]

Collapsing the trench as the Unsullied covered everyone else's escape really should've been the moment of Grey Worm's death.  I guess White Savior Dany getting all her brown people killed off wastefully was too much of a bad look even for the production team about to bring us the atrocious "Confederate" TV show?  This episode is supposed to be a heavy die-off.  And you marked this dude for death with the Naath retirement plan.  Don't wimp out on me, guys. -1 [6.5/10]

Speaking of which, how many times die Jaime Brienne and Pod get near crushed to death only without the dying bit?  Pod's expendable and Brienne's knighthood completes her arc with the validation she always deserved.  Wouldn't have been a dry eye in the viewership if you'd taken at least one of them out.  Or at least don't devalue the fakeout by putting them in it so much? -1 [5.5/10]

The Wights stopping at the trench until the Walkers start strategically sacrificing them to snuff out a breach was a nice tactical touch.  I also appreciate the Lieutenant White Walkers were NOWHERE TO BE SEEN until they breached the gate, had overcome the walls, and looked like they could plausibly believe they had it in the bag.  That's some tactical competence! Though I wish one or two had actually been in position to get got, it would've been a good pendulum swing of false hope before things really started going bad.  Also, one other reason that I'm saving for the end. +.5 [6/10]

Pretty sure Sandor was kinda over his firephobia as of his flame gazing at the start of Season 7?  And they beat the drum a little too hard on Beric yelling at him to come on, over and over and OVER.  But I do appreciate that it was Arya's peril that got him over the hump.  So I'm only taking a quarter point off. -.25 [5.75/10]

Arya stars in a commercial for the upcoming Game Of Thrones video game that hasn't been made yet as she gets her Solid Snake on in a Stealth Level in the Winterfell archives.  Anyway she grabs one of Maester Luwin's favorite tomes and throws it, and all the wights spawn exclamation points over their heads and chase the noise, and Arya runs away.  Too long and maybe I'm too jaded but I didn't ever think Arya was really in danger here.  -.5 [5.25/10]

Dwaggin Joust!  Jon unhorses The Night's King!  Okay that was pretty cool. Would've been nice if we could tell which dragons are which.  Thanks SPOOOOOOOKYVISION. +.25 for the battle, it was nice, wish I could've seen it better and would give it more points if I could. [5.5/10]

Beric sacrifices himself to cover Arya and The Hound's escape from a pack of wights.  To put things absolutely on the nose in case you're too dumb for symbolism, the guy whose whole gimmick is that he's died and been resurrected literally strikes the Jesus Christ Pose to block as much hallway as he can.  Later on Arya and The Hound barricade themselves in a room and... ...um, somehow Beric gets away from the wights he's dying to block and catches up with the people whose escape he's covering?  So he can have one last look at Arya and die in the room with them?  So Mel (oh yeah she's already in the room because why the fuck not) can pontificate on Beric having served his purpose in The Lord Of Light's plan?  Okay look.  You can do the heroic sacrifice to cover an escape.  You can do the "I almost made it oops no I didn't" bleedout after everyone's escaped.  Both are valid, both are good, both were even done well here.  Except for one problem.  YOU CAN'T HAVE THE SAME CHARACTER DO BOTH IN THE SAME SCENE.  Shit, man.  PICK ONE.  There's plenty of other people who can get killed off and pick up either one of these mantles.  You can still have Arya cry over Beric dying for her sake and have Mel give her the destiny pep talk without him physically being there.  This way either his sacrifice was pointless because they didn't get that far away (he caught up with them) or the wight pack in question was beatable and didn't require a sacrifice to escape.  Dumb, dumb, dumb.  -2 points. [3.5/10]

The Totally Safe Crypts turn out not to be safe.  But its a matter of the invading wights breaching it instead of anything amusingly dumb like Headless Ned, Wolfhead Robb, or even Zombie Rickon.  Sansa having to actually use that knife Arya gave her would've been a nice moment.  Also nobody even died here that I saw.  Not even Soup Girl.  Though Gilly got the obligatory spot of clawing at the ground as she's dragged away on her belly, screaming.  But even she didn't die?  I think?  Maybe I should re-watch before I do these things.  Or I can just blame SPOOOOOOKYVISION instead.  Missandei or Varys (or both) could have gotten got here, honestly.  Missed opportunity.

Dracarys! On The Night King.  BUT IT DOESN'T WORK, failing as foreshadowed, and he smirks up at Dany before chasing her off with a death javelin aimed at Drogon.  I love this guy.  The wrinkle that the White Walkers are not emotionless alien robots but actually cocky motherfuckers who like to psyche the enemy out and taunt and toy with people before killing them is a wonderful wrinkle, both because it reminds us that they used to be human men, and also it's a good lampshade for the old problem of villains not finishing off the heroes when they have the chance.  Being cocky all along is way better than only being cocky in response to plot demands, and I'm glad they put the effort into having the White Walkers, particularly the Night King, demonstrate this flaw.  +1.5 [5/10]

Sansa ALMOST makes the tough decision to gank herself and/or Tyrion to spare themselves agony when it looks hopeless. That would've taken some HUGE stones on the producers' part and I'd have applauded them until the end of time had they dared to do it, even as much as I would ultimately prefer they both stick around (and Tyrion still kinda needs to due to the Bronn thing and the Cersei thing).  How "bittersweet ending" would THAT be, especially if the day got saved right after?  But they don't.  Cheers for getting me to think it for a couple seconds, though.  +1 [6/10]

I lost track of Gendry and Tormund and I don't think I even saw Lord Royce at all? They could all be dead or all be alive or somewhere in between.  Thanks, SPOOOOOOKYVISION

Jon rushes the Night King after Dragonfire fails.  But he's not nearly in time to stop the Night King from doing his slow dramatic The Undertaker arm raise and, yeah, you knew it was coming.  Finally we get it.  Cut to a Dothraki with blue eyes.  Cut to Edd getting blue eyes.  Cut to an Unsullied that looks like Grey Worm [it's not but in the dark its hard to tell] getting blue eyes.  Cut to Little Lady Mormont getting blue eyes.  They held off on busting this nut for a long, long time.  I applaud the patience.  +1 [7/10]

What I do not applaud is the new wave of wights instantly surrounding Jon and suddenly following Bruce Lee movie rules and coming at him one at a time to fight his way out of it.  Also there's one of many cuts to Bran & Theon by the weirwood as Theon's crew start pumping the new wave with fire arrows and when we cut back to Jon he is considerably less surrounded than he was, i.e. nobody's behind him any more.  Come. On.  Now, of course Dany saves him with a strafe of dragonfire and that's FINE but the stall on doing it to let Jon get some Kickin' Rad sword kills in and having the wights suddenly deviate from their rush n' crush pattern (as seen with the Unsullied spear wall early and seen in several hallways of Winterfell at Jaime Brienne and Pod's collective expense) exposes the nuts and bolts of plot armor.  Have Dany burn him an escape path and even drag him onto Drogon's back, fine, but do it right away before the wights have a chance to crush him.  OR, kill Jon off.  I'd prefer not the latter but Dumb For The Sake Of Plot is annoying when the badguys do it, too.  -1 [6/10]

Drogon lands and gets swarmed.  Dany gets un"horsed" and somehow Jorah Mormont is back outside, making a heroic last stand with Heartsbane in a "doomed" effort to keep Khaleesi alive.  Daenerys is suddenly and spontaneously competent with a blade in her own right as they sorta fight back to back but mostly fight with Jorah as her (willing) human shield.  Dany wielding a sword for the first time in the series is some left field shit but whatever, I wouldn't buy her just cowering and giving up, either.  I'm much more contentious over how Jorah got back outside into his Appropriate Dying Position right on schedule.  Woof. -1 [5/10]

One last cut to the Weirwood and, aw, damn.  Theon standing alone beside Bran as the Night King and The Walkers approach.  Welp, guess he's not making it after all.  Minus Eleventy Jillion points.  Just kidding.  Theon apologies for not getting Bran out of this.  Aww. Bran confirms that destiny is destiny and Theon makes a doomed charge with The Spear Not Of Destiny and of course completely fails to gank the Night King, and gets ganked himself.  At least he got to go out against The King, and there's something suitably viking and thus Ironborn about him literally fighting to the last [in his section of the battle, anyway]. being unafraid to die in combat, and at least taking a 1 in a million shot at getting the lucky blow on the Night's King.  Theon better get his damn bronze statue on the shores of Pyke.  He gets to bleed out and have a death rattle before NK closes on Bran. +1 point for killing off Theon in a way that didn't irritate my inner fanboy, that's not always so easily done. [6/10]

Anyway, unless you've completely avoided the internet for the last couple days (and if you're reading this, obviously you haven't), then you know what happens next.  Arya comes out of nowhere with a NINJA JUMP and tries to gank the Night King, who catches her by the throat, and she drops the Valyrian Steel Dagger that's been known as Chekov since Season 1 Episode 2 but catches it with her other hand, shanks the Night King with it, and it's SNOW CONES FOR EVERYBODY!  Quick cuts to the zombie hordes dropping here and there and everywhere in sheets.  Viserion crumbles particularly nicely half way through rearing back to bite Jon.

Jorah, having just barely technically made it through the battle, succumbs to his wounds, and Dany bawls like a baby over him, leaving me wishing once again Clarke actually got more chances to emote with this role. +1 for letting Clarke show something being stoic leader robot, and for giving Jorah the ideal death (even though he kinda hopped in the Littlefinger memorial Teleporter to get there) [7/10]

Davos watches Melisandre ride off into the sunset except she has no horse and it's actually a sunrise, and instead of disappearing beyond the horizon we watch her cast off her ruby choker, revert to her true impossibly old crone form, and collapse before withering to dust.  Davos says nothing.  As much as he hated her for burning Shireen I want to think he respected that she showed up to contribute to the greater good and hey, she kept her word and died before morning.  I doubt he'll point out how much she did to upgrade their battle plan from Shit to Not Very Good, but I'm hoping he channels some Stannis and says a few words about the good she did along with the bad next week, as everyone's (hopefully) eulogizing the heroic dead.  +1 for giving Mel a good enough sendoff for me to overlook the convenience of her last second showing up to die on time. [8/10]

Okay but seriously the SPOOOOOKYVISION was a huge damper on this episode and while I still don't have a good feel for who exactly survived and who didn't it's definitely clear that for as epic and grim and final as this was billed and as "hopeless" as it was supposed to be this episode really pulled a lot of punches and chickened out on the meatgrinder front.  Nobody who would've left a huge void died, everyone who did die was either expendable or had finished up their character arc cleanly.  And even among the expendable casualties were surprisingly light.  Almost disappointingly so. And Ghost needs a better agent.  Seriously.  Appeared to die off camera when he didn't come back from the doomed cav charge but he's still hanging out in the previews for next week?  Did Ghost pee in Benioff's cornflakes or something?  -2 points [6/10]

Final Score: 6 out of 10

fun in parts, fulfilling on some fronts, but room for improvement and they could've done more.

Also mildly disappointed not that Arya got the death blow on the Night's King (that's pretty cool actually, even if Mel's pep talk about closing eyes forever and reminding Arya of Syrio's prayer to the God Of Death telegraphed it pretty forcefully) but because they had her go for it in an action movie way that any other show or film could have done, instead of doing something that could be uniquely Game Of Thrones:  namely, having her sneak up on the Night's King by wearing a White Walker face.  A little contrived and lore breaking for the sake of KICKIN' RAD but look we've already jumped that chasm anyway, might as well go all out with it.  But unfortunately that window closed when they had the Lieutenant Walkers do the smart thing and not show themselves at all until things appeared to be well in hand.  What they did was fine enough (though if Arya'd shown a little more hustle maybe Theon wouldn't have had to die ) but I feel like they left something on the table.  Even sacrificing Bran so that Arya could wear Bran's face and spring up out of the chair to shiv the Night King.  How "bittersweet ending" would that be?  So much more they could've done here even if what they did was ok.

But my main disappointment is a narrative/thematic one:  It's entirely personal feeling so I'm not going to deduct points for it but I'm gonna say it anyway.  I did not expect the Army of The Dead to get neutralized this early.  See, from the very beginning of the show (and the books) we are shown the White Walkers, we have them established as looming in the background, seen sparingly enough that they can be temporarily forgotten about and distracted from, but when they reemerge you're reminded of them and the threat they pose to everything.  Like Jeor Mormont says, "do you really think it matters who sits on the throne when the dead are up and walking?"  The White Walkers, we're told, are the real battle.  The real threat to everything and everyone, and the game of thrones is a dangerous and destructive distraction that further imperils everyone.

And yet, in the end, the southern half of Westeros and the royal court's cavalier dismissal of the undead threat and, indeed, every crisis ever centered on The Wall, as mere "northern problems" and things they need not take seriously and can even trust to only inconvenience their nothern political rivals, just another bit of chaos they can spin to their advantage, turned out to be basically correct.  The Maesters, The Tarlys, The Boltons, Renly, The Tyrells, Tywin, Littlefinger, Cersei, Euron, everyone who ever said LOL SNARKS AND GRUMPKINS and focused on the petty rivalries of Iron Throne machinations, ended up having the right idea.

Cersei's "lol fuck you I'm not helping" got validated.  She has been rewarded for making the opposite decision from what Jon Snow has made (i.e. immediately giving up his crown for the greater good of his people).  Jon chose the song of ice and fire.  Cersei chose the game of thrones.  And the show has just said "yeah she's right" and even if Dany and Jon go on to defeat and even kill in the next 3 episodes, they cannot repudiate her.  She effectively allied with the Army Of The Dead and it worked out for her.  It cost her nothing but Jaime's loyalty.  So unless Jaime, specifically, kills her and kills her in a specific way that Jon and/or Dany could not otherwise achieve, then Cersei being petty, selfish, and short sighted was tactically and morally correct.  And the White Walkers were one hell of a shaggy dog story line after all.

Boy was I wrong about the theme of this whole thing.  Ouch.

Well, we'll see how the last 3 episodes play out, I guess.

Quality! 

[GilletteMace]

right after watching i woud have given it a 9. now, in hindsight i rated it a 6. there is just too much stupidity going on in the latest seasons. some of the terrible stuff my brain had to overlook while watching it:

- the military strategy was just crap. i understand that the showrunners wanted to have danys troops decimated for future reasons, but letting the dothraki sacrifice themselves for no reason at all? the dragons waiting behind the frontline while they got slaughtered? no burning oil thrown onto the zombie heads? melissandre only setting the dothraki weapons on fire?

- not a single thing learnt from hardhome? neither the headless storming of the undead considered nor the reanimation magic of the night king? how dumb is that?

- the white walkers doing even less than bran? why do they have these fancy spears if they do not use them even once? 

- all the main heroes surviving except jorah and theon? (theon running for ten minutes towards the night king just to be sidestepped?)

- after the reanimation action it should have easily been game over for everyone in winterfell, still our heroes kill, kill, kill. 

- melissandre committing suicide for no reason at all. 

- arya not even trying to use her many face skill.

- ghost? 125% redundant. just a stupid dog running around.

the list could go on and on. the night king and the invasion of the undead stopped right in front of the wall and having the night king killed in one battle episode was super meh. in hindsight it felt like a terrible purpose episode, killing danys and jons armies while sacrificing the whole night king/white walker/undead plot for it... super duper meh. 

so whats left? dumb cersei and her clown waiting for some action. 

the saddest part, not a single shot of sweetrobin, who was in training all the time.

i enjoyed it while it lasted and was very disappointed in hindsight. lucky people with power switches on their brains.

[Lyanna<3Rhaegar]

1 hour ago, MinscS2 said:

 

When?
Here's a clip of their last scenes together. Pinpoint the time in the clip.

All I see is Daenerys reaching out to him over and over, in a worried "are you OK?"-sense (i.e. 1:24), and at 1:02 he literally pushes her away and intercepts a strike that would've otherwise hit her in the back.

Amazing scene regardless.
Great and fitting death for Jorah, and we finally got to see Daenerys acting like the Valyrian Warrior-Queen she is.

Yep right at 1:02. I'm sure she isn't really using him as a shield - it wouldn't make any sense for the writers to write it that way, just appeared that way to me. Probably she has her hand on his shoulder as he uses the same arm to push her out of the way giving the appearance she actually turned him into the sword thrust. I agree though Jorah went out like a boss. 

[#teamNightking]

4 minutes ago, GilletteMace said:

- the military strategy was just crap. i understand that the showrunners wanted to have danys troops decimated for future reasons, but letting the dothraki sacrifice themselves for no reason at all?

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. 

 

 

 

[#teamNightking]

7 minutes ago, Lyanna<3Rhaegar said:

Yep right at 1:02. I'm sure she isn't really using him as a shield - it wouldn't make any sense for the writers to write it that way, just appeared that way to me. Probably she has her hand on his shoulder as he uses the same arm to push her out of the way giving the appearance she actually turned him into the sword thrust. I agree though Jorah went out like a boss. 

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. 

[Kajjo]

46 minutes ago, GilletteMace said:

- arya not even trying to use her many face skill.

Against wights? What would be the sense of disguising as someone else?! You are just moaning and hating for nothing here.

Many other complaints have also explained before.