Rant and Rave Without Repercussion End of The World Edition [Spoilers]

[Haskelltier]

12 minutes ago, Cas Stark said:

It is hard to understand how they have no understanding of the story they're telling, and how or why they have made so many of the main characters some combination of stupid/unlikable.  The fact that they claim they've planned on Arya killing the NK for 3! years and it still comes completely out of left field with no foreshadowing, not even a hint of anything in hindsight, is staggering.

Well in my opinion, the "Arya-killing-Night-King" move came totally unexpected. And that only worked so well, because there was no foreshadowing.

I mean, lets be honest, after the whole Azor Ahai, Prince That Was Promised prophecy and the "Jon is A Song of Ice and Fire" stuff, nearly everybody was suspecting, that Jon or Dany would kill the Night King. But no, only in the last minutes I thought, well, the Night King is literally seconds from killing Bran, Jon is playing cat and mouse with Viserion and Dany is a world away, that doesn't fit. Well and then came flying Arya stabbing the Night King. That came unexpected and showed everybody that the whole prophecy stuff was/is completely meaningless (on a second thought, that shouldn't suprise anybody, because prophecies seldom become true).

[kissdbyfire]

So, the NK hasn’t been defeated, it’s a fake out nd he’ll come back bigger and badder... in other words, it’s a genius twist and we will see how brilliant the whole thing is once we get there. 

Gotcha. It’s like Myrcella’s necklace, Cersei’s baby boy, and the old gods alone know how many other things that were going to have a huge payoff in the future... 

[Coffeewiththegods]

I’m in shock at how many people are praising this episode.

[Saturno]

I actually enjoyed this episode. I think something snapped inside my head and I just am unable to care anymore about the plotholes and nonsensical behaviors. Could be also that the episode was practically devoid of any dialogue, and as such it was very hard for D&D to make me angry.

So for instance when the giant took the time to grab the small Mormont girl and prepare to eat her I was very fine with that, I somehow read it as some kind of deal between me and D&D.

"Yes, showrunners, I accept this stupid scene in exchange for removing this annoying character from the show! We have a deal!"

[RhaenysBee]

4 minutes ago, Saturno said:

I actually enjoyed this episode. I think something snapped inside my head and I just am unable to care anymore about the plotholes and nonsensical behaviors. Could be also that the episode was practically devoid of any dialogue, and as such it was very hard for D&D to make me angry.

So for instance when the giant took the time to grab the small Mormont girl and prepare to eat her I was very fine with that, I somehow read it as some kind of deal between me and D&D.

"Yes, showrunners, I accept this stupid scene in exchange for removing this annoying character from the show! We have a deal!"

 you are a wise wise person. I wish I could look at it the same way. 

[longest night]

22 minutes ago, A Bong of Ice and Fire said:

I predict that this seemingly horrible episode was a big swerve.  The Night King isn't really dead.  Something went down with him and Bran.  A major and cool plot twist is coming.  I refuse to believe that this is the real ending to the threat that's been hyped up for 8 seasons.

I just don't have any hope for the show anymore, but I remember GRRM saying he would have us visit the Land of Always Winter.

[Saturno]

9 minutes ago, Haskelltier said:

Well in my opinion, the "Arya-killing-Night-King" move came totally unexpected. And that only worked so well, because there was no foreshadowing.

I mean, lets be honest, after the whole Azor Ahai, Prince That Was Promised prophecy and the "Jon is A Song of Ice and Fire" stuff, nearly everybody was suspecting, that Jon or Dany would kill the Night King. But no, only in the last minutes I thought, well, the Night King is literally seconds from killing Bran, Jon is playing cat and mouse with Viserion and Dany is a world away, that doesn't fit. Well and then came flying Arya stabbing the Night King. That came unexpected and showed everybody that the whole prophecy stuff was/is completely meaningless (on a second thought, that shouldn't suprise anybody, because prophecies seldom become true).

I'm starting to believe that D&D decided that in their version of Westeros every prophecy is either false or ignored. There is still foreshadowing, but in a very generic and vague way, like what they did between Melisandre and Arya (that thing about blue eyes, it could literally mean anything at anytime). If they follow that plan it is actually fine as they will go deep into fanfiction and will not spoil the books, they essentially will make the show oficially their own paralel universe and by doing that they are free to be completely "original".

So I don't think that Cersei, for instance, will die by the hand of her valonqar, or if she does, it wont be the same Valonqar from the books. I believe they are going completely off the trails here to separate the show even more from the books.

[darksellsword]

I forgot to mention the music, was I the only one that thought the music was way too funky for the Nightkings approach?

[darmody]

16 minutes ago, darksellsword said:

I can see where you are coming from although Cersei did indirectly get the butchers boy killed and Sansas direwolf Lady killed, she was also the reason Arya had to send Nymeria away. I'm pretty certain Arya knows Cersei was behind Neds arrest and execution so if anyone really has it coming from Arya it is Cersei. I wouldn't have any problem with Cleganbowl but I was simply saying Arya taking that kill from the hound would be less offensive than Jon holding Aryas beer while she killed the NightKing.

Arya has a better claim to Cersei's throat than a lot of other characters. And though Sansa has more reason to hate her, she can't kill except through intermediaries. 

I would very much like for Jaime to queenslay her. Failing that, Tyrion is next in line. 

[Faera]

3 minutes ago, Coffeewiththegods said:

I’m in shock at how many people are praising this episode.

I am, too. I guess it's thanks to the fact that most people who watch GoT are casual fewers who just saw Arya leaping in out of nowhere, stealthing out the entire AotD, the WWs and the NK to kill him and thought it was epic.

5 minutes ago, Saturno said:

I actually enjoyed this episode. I think something snapped inside my head and I just am unable to care anymore about the plotholes and nonsensical behaviors.

Wish it would snap in me. I was excited going into this episode after 1 & 2. Then when 3 started, it seemed so good... but then as it went on I had flashbacks of the wight hunt.

1 minute ago, Saturno said:

here is still foreshadowing, but in a very generic and vague way, like what they did between Melisandre and Arya (that thing about blue eyes, it could literally mean anything at anytime).

It probably did, too, since they only came up with Arya axing the NK around three years ago.

[NoneofYourBiz]

Last episode felt very Helms Deep, in this episode we get the Battle of the Pellenor Fields complete with Eowyn killing the Witch King of Angmar.  I know they call GRRM the American Tolkien I just didn’t think that was quite so literal.

i have so much grousing to do but I’ll keep it to this:  that’s it with the Night King story?  No motive other than he’s just evil and no explanation for his swirly dead body art?  Melisandre has lived hundreds of years so the Lord of Light could have her light a trench on fire?  And after battling the supposed biggest menace in Planetos, we have to go back to “This week on Carol and Euron”?  I just can’t.  This series has been a disappointment since season 3 yet I gamely followed along hoping to at least get a resolution to the story and all they give me is Lost 2.0.  I honestly tuned out for most of the battle because I really couldn’t tell who was living or dying and it was 60 minutes of clang clang fire scream cold weather front.   I will watch until the end just to see how much more they can disappoint me.  GRRM, you should have been the one to tell your story.  

[Cas Stark]

Mel can't have known that Arya was going to kill the NK at that time, why would she have left her to her own devices instead of trying to protect her?  Mel never even mentioned Arya to Jon, did she?

If the show wasn't going to make the prophecy intelligible, then why include it at all?  Why have all the mumbo jumbo by Mel if it's all BS in the end?  It is one thing to have prophesy wrongly interpreted so there is a 'surprise' in how it plays out, it's another to destroy all of it's meaning.

I'm going to guess that maybe Cersei will be able to kill Jon, he's pretty stupid, otherwise, I don't know what they have saved approximately 4 hours of the show for.

[darksellsword]

Just now, darmody said:

Arya has a better claim to Cersei's throat than a lot of other characters. And though Sansa has more reason to hate her, she can't kill except through intermediaries. 

I would very much like for Jaime to queenslay her. Failing that, Tyrion is next in line. 

I think you are right . It is pretty clear if you follow the progression of both Jaime and Cersei's story arc that Jaime would have the most reason to kill her. I mean she essentially used him as her puppet his entire life, a realisation like that is incredibly powerful.

[longest night]

Just now, DebL66 said:

Last episode felt very Helms Deep, in this episode we get the Battle of the Pelletier Fields complete with Eowyn killing the Witch King of Angmar.  I know they call GRRM the American Tolkien I just didn’t think that was quite so literal.

i have so much grousing to do but I’ll keep it to this:  that’s it with the Night King story?  No motive other than he’s just evil and no explanation for his swirly dead body art?  Melisandre has lived hundreds of years so the Lord of Light could have her light a trench on fire?  And after battling the supposed biggest menace in Planetos, we have to go back to “This week on Carol and Euron”?  I just can’t.  This series has been a disappointment since season 3 yet I gamely followed along hoping to at least get a resolution to the story and all they give me is Lost 2.0.  I honestly tuned out for most of the battle because I really couldn’t tell who was living or dying and it was 60 minutes of clang clang fire scream cold weather front.   I will watch until the end just to see how much more they can disappoint me.  GRRM, you should have been the one to tell your story.  

This episode has nothing to do with GRRM. The director says he was inspired by Helm's Deep. He should have taken more lessons from it since it was done so poorly.

[Saturno]

The only thing that is bugging me (and again, I'm kinda anesthetized to the show) is Bran warging. I'm so fucking fearful that they will just leave it like that, there will be no explanation about what the fuck he was doing during the whole episode. This is soooooo D&D it makes me pull my hair out because it is such a fucking unnecessary error from the part of the show, and yet I'm so sure that this will be exactly what they'll do... it makes me a little mad I admit.

[Coffeewiththegods]

2 minutes ago, Cas Stark said:

Mel can't have known that Arya was going to kill the NK at that time, why would she have left her to her own devices instead of trying to protect her?  Mel never even mentioned Arya to Jon, did she?

If the show wasn't going to make the prophecy intelligible, then why include it at all?  Why have all the mumbo jumbo by Mel if it's all BS in the end?  It is one thing to have prophesy wrongly interpreted so there is a 'surprise' in how it plays out, it's another to destroy all of it's meaning.

I'm going to guess that maybe Cersei will be able to kill Jon, he's pretty stupid, otherwise, I don't know what they have saved approximately 4 hours of the show for.

D&D said they decided Arya would be the one to kill the NK 3 years ago. They felt Jon snow had saved the day enough and it was too predictable ...so that means all this “foreshadowing” for Arya being the one to kill the NK, didn’t even really exist(in D&D’s mind at least) before season 6. 

[RhaenysBee]

3 minutes ago, longest night said:

This episode has nothing to do with GRRM. The director says he was inspired by Helm's Deep. He should have taken more lessons from it since it was done so poorly.

Helm’s Deep? You mean that battle with competent leaders, armed walls, resource management, backup plans, defensive positions, exit routs and strategic decisions? I thought they were inspired by pretty little liars. 

[Red Dragon10]

9 minutes ago, darksellsword said:

I forgot to mention the music, was I the only one that thought the music was way too funky for the Nightkings approach?

Yes, I was surprised to hear so many people praising it.  Normally I think GoT has great music, but I didn't like it at all. 

[Corika]

1 minute ago, Saturno said:

The only thing that is bugging me (and again, I'm kinda anesthetized to the show) is Bran warging. I'm so fucking fearful that they will just leave it like that, there will be no explanation about what the fuck he was doing during the whole episode. This is soooooo D&D it makes me pull my hair out because it is such a fucking unnecessary error from the part of the show, and yet I'm so sure that this will be exactly what they'll do... it makes me a little mad I admit.

This warging was so pointless.

Bran was so useless this episode, second only to Varys (barely remembered he was even here), and to think many people expected this episode to be Bran's time to shine.

 

Also, I wonder why Arya was chosen to kill the NK. Just imagine the discussion:

"- We have to change Night King killer, because we're different from the book! Who will do it?

- Idk? Arya is good at killing?

- Genius!"

[Platypus Rex]

Pretty poor fare, IMHO.

The defenders wage battle like they don't know what castle walls are for.  And then, when the enemy makes it past the burning moat, everyone starts screaming "Man the walls!  Man the walls!"  Like they never thought of this before?  What have they been doing? 

Not that I'm sorry to see the last of the Dothraki.  But why did they do that?

Dark, dark, muddy, muddy action sequences, that soon become muddy foggy action sequences.  For coherent battle strategy, you'd be better off with "Hawk the Slayer".

For the last 3 episodes, everyone has been gathered in one place, so that the scriptwriters can solve what to do with them by doing the same thing with all of them.  Feels very forced and simplistic.  And then, the scriptwriters have nothing to do with some of them, except stick them in the crypt where they sit around complaining that the scriptwriters gave them nothing to do.

It feels that the scriptwriters are just mechanically checking off boxes, and they checked off a big one this episode.  I've seen some people hoping that this is not completely the end of the arc about the threat from the North; and there is still a twist coming that will somehow tie everything together in the final episodes.  Okay, fine … keep hoping.  We'll see.