Game of thrones

[Return of the Rev]

I'm a little stunned that anyone can really think that last the episode was any good. It was ok but falls way short of other big hitting episodes (thinking 'battle of the ********' here).

Here's my main reasons for thinking it was poor...

Tactically they fought the battle appallingly - this has been mentioned previously several times. I would be willing to let this go as it is fantasy, but it simply added nothing to the story itself apart from waste a few minutes (and a lot of Dothraki)

The storm - made it almost impossible to see what was going on but rather than adding tension it just detracted from it. Just a lot of people running around like headless chickens in swirly snow, in the dark.

Jon and Dany flying around on dragons all la-di-da bumping into things because of the stupid bloody storm. Neither beautiful, nor interesting.

The Hound - acting like some moody twit from Eastenders.

The raising of the dead - how did they make such a huge event such a disappointing letdown?

The killing of the Night King - Love Arya but that was a joke. Just ridiculous on every level.

Really sorry but i thought it was terrible, but i seem to be in the minority so fair enough. My overwhelming feeling about the episode was that for such a momentous build up, the battle was just boring. And that's the real disappointment.

Palace!

 

[Normal Rob]

the only way the battle was going to end favourably was for TNK to be killed but right up until the last minute, I had no idea how this would possibly happen. He seemed invincible. Arya's character is superb.

That's my issue, and in contradiction to your own feeling, it's why i felt so disappointed. You had absolutely no idea what was going to happen due to the lack of direction of the entire episode up until that point. The last we saw of Arya was hiding under a table/running around a library until the Hound lifted himself from his mawkishness and got his act together to help her. Then she disappeared again until, hey ho, out of nowhere, and in a different location, she jumps out and stabs him. (apologies if her movements towards the forest were depicted, i may have nodded off)

 

[Normal Rob]

Palace!

eh?

In my 20 years on this board, that's a first. Please explain.

 

[Marshy]

I always thought Arya was the girl for the job. It had been set up for quite a while. She just needed a little nudge from Melisandre too remind her who she was …

I bloody loved it. Its the end game now, sure things are moving quickly, all the loose ends need tidying up and I have not been disappointed at all.

Having said that if it all ends in a happy clappy democracy im going to be disappointed.

I need a winner/ruler

 

[Braggfan]

I'm a little stunned that anyone can really think that last the episode was any good. It was ok but falls way short of other big hitting episodes (thinking 'battle of the ********' here).

Here's my main reasons for thinking it was poor...

Tactically they fought the battle appallingly - this has been mentioned previously several times. I would be willing to let this go as it is fantasy, but it simply added nothing to the story itself apart from waste a few minutes (and a lot of Dothraki)

The storm - made it almost impossible to see what was going on but rather than adding tension it just detracted from it. Just a lot of people running around like headless chickens in swirly snow, in the dark.

Jon and Dany flying around on dragons all la-di-da bumping into things because of the stupid bloody storm. Neither beautiful, nor interesting.

The Hound - acting like some moody twit from Eastenders.

The raising of the dead - how did they make such a huge event such a disappointing letdown?

The killing of the Night King - Love Arya but that was a joke. Just ridiculous on every level.

Really sorry but i thought it was terrible, but i seem to be in the minority so fair enough. My overwhelming feeling about the episode was that for such a momentous build up, the battle was just boring. And that's the real disappointment.

I agree, I think it was a poor episode in a poor series so far. The White Walkers were introduced as the bad guys right at the start of the first episode, killing them off now seems like such an anticlimax. It seems bizarre that defeating them isn't the climax of the series. Its like if in the original Star Wars trilogy they'd killed off Darth Vader and the Emperor in "The Empire Strikes Back" and then just squabbled for a bit in "Return of the Jedi". It was also such a weak way to kill off the Night King. They built him up as terrifying, can't be killed, burning him with dragon didn't work, he's an unstoppable force bent on destroying the world, "What's that? Arya stabbed him, oh ok."

 

[vegster]

I agree, I think it was a poor episode in a poor series so far. The White Walkers were introduced as the bad guys right at the start of the first episode, killing them off now seems like such an anticlimax. It seems bizarre that defeating them isn't the climax of the series. Its like if in the original Star Wars trilogy they'd killed off Darth Vader and the Emperor in "The Empire Strikes Back" and then just squabbled for a bit in "Return of the Jedi". It was also such a weak way to kill off the Night King. They built him up as terrifying, can't be killed, burning him with dragon didn't work, he's an unstoppable force bent on destroying the world, "What's that? Arya stabbed him, oh ok."

Oh dear, all those hours and hours watching this building up to this wasted! Like pulling at the disco and then finding out she's on.

 

[Marshy]

I agree, I think it was a poor episode in a poor series so far. The White Walkers were introduced as the bad guys right at the start of the first episode, killing them off now seems like such an anticlimax. It seems bizarre that defeating them isn't the climax of the series. Its like if in the original Star Wars trilogy they'd killed off Darth Vader and the Emperor in "The Empire Strikes Back" and then just squabbled for a bit in "Return of the Jedi". It was also such a weak way to kill off the Night King. They built him up as terrifying, can't be killed, burning him with dragon didn't work, he's an unstoppable force bent on destroying the world, "What's that? Arya stabbed him, oh ok."

How else was he going to die ? He had to die for the story to move on. We always knew they had a weakness to fire and dragon glass … fire did not effect him in the end it seems...so dragon glass was the only way. And who else but the trained assassin..
I get that maybe it didn't satisfy you, it certainly did me, just interested in how else you think it could have been done ?

The White walkers had to go before the end... although a major part of the story the main characters still have plenty to sort out before the end... that could not be done until the White walkers were out of the way.

 

[Waynflete]

I.E. it would be internally inconsistent for Game of Thrones, a series which features necromancy, dragons, immortals, magic etc etc, to feature a character who sells mobile phones.

[/I]

Or, indeed, Ed Sheeran.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[blue-shifted]

I can't see how the Night Kings death could have been done better. The only other possibilities were ..

1) Don't it at all. I quite liked the option of him wiping out humanity
2) Do the battles in the other order, so that the battle for the throne happened first, then the battle for survival at the end of the show. It depends on what you think the show should be. Is it depicting political and military machinations or is it a zombie show for the survival of humanity. I'd say more the first, so I think they did it in the right order. The drawback is though that the end battle, is inevitably going to less epic that the penultimate, so they need to rely on twists and scripting to satisfactorily end the show. No pressure

 

[highflyer]

It satrted well, agee with the build up of menace, especially all those mental horse guys riding off with lighted swords and seeing them go dark like that.
But then it went on. And on. And on. With lots of special effects and heroes implausibly surviving endlessly against impossible odds.

Felt too much like 'we've got a big budget, lets' do epic battle scenes and not upset any of our newly acquired audience by surprising them with a major charactor death'

I liked earlier series it when they had smaller budgets and audience and needed to focus on intrigue and plot twists to keep us interested.
Hopefully last few episodes will get back to basics...

 

[Icy Gull]

Oh dear, all those hours and hours watching this building up to this wasted! Like pulling at the disco and then finding out she's on.

Or a lady boy

 

[One Love]

The Dothraki riding to their deaths was one of the most disappointing things I have ever witness on TV. Especially after The Red Woman lit up their swords. Great charge with accompanying epic sounding music but poor finish. 8 Seasons worth of carving up Essos pillaging, raping and generally being legends, then following Khaleesi to Westeros only to be snuffed out by an act of tactical idiocy. Again with my limited knowledge of fantasy/medieval era military tactics - even I know cavalry is used to flank the enemy - meaning they hang about on the edges and come in from the side AFTER the infantry have engaged. We all remember the disaster the English suffered in the cavalry charge in Braveheart when they charged into Mel Gibson and his mates and totally forgot the few thousand sharpened tree trunks waiting for em. Now imagine that into a few hundred thousand deados (World War Z ones as well not Walking Dead) tooled up backed up by White Walkers. No wonder those lights went out quick.

I thought this was ridiculous at first.

However the Dothraki cavalry have been built up to being pretty invincible, never engage in an open field etc. They weren't expecting to be riding into a brick wall so they probably thought it was playing to their strengths to punch a hole in them.

More importantly made more great cinema seeing the ranks of fire flowing across the screen and then being snuffed out pretty quickly. Despair and impending doom for the defending armies.

 

[Braggfan]

How else was he going to die ? He had to die for the story to move on. We always knew they had a weakness to fire and dragon glass … fire did not effect him in the end it seems...so dragon glass was the only way. And who else but the trained assassin..
I get that maybe it didn't satisfy you, it certainly did me, just interested in how else you think it could have been done ?

The White walkers had to go before the end... although a major part of the story the main characters still have plenty to sort out before the end... that could not be done until the White walkers were out of the way.

We all enjoy it for different reasons, so I just want to make clear I'm not having a pop at anyone for liking/loving it, especially as everyone's invested a lot of time in watching it. I just kind of feel like the main baddy was the Night King as his role had been so different to all the other characters. I felt like they built him up as the ultimate threat, and killing him off so early is disappointing. Also in regards to the way he died, it felt like it was just tagged on. There was no plan to kill him, there was no build up to it, suddenly Arya just pops up and stabs him. It felt like they didn't put much effort into that.

 

[blue-shifted]

I do take the point that they sacrificed military realism for some stunning shots and I'm not entirely comfortable with this.

I don't mind a Dothraki charge on it's own. Clearly they are going to fight better on a charge than they are defending behind castle walls, so I think that's a fair enough strategy.

The thing that got to me was that they were staring into the "wights" of their eyes whilst standing on the Winterfell battlements and not attacking. A barrage of tipped arrows would have cleared a few more out.

Personally I'd have deployed the dragons far earlier on.

I suppose that Jon etc, knew that the conventional battle was lost before it started and the only hope was to draw out the night king, so whether the Unsullied and Dothraki last a few hours or a few days is immaterial.

 

[blue-shifted]

Yes and it needed to show more realism in who lived and who died, Jamie and Brienne could never have survived that onslaught. They don't need to give all characters significant and noble deaths. That isn't what happens in battle.

GoT needs to get back to being more baddass and make it's big characters more dispensible, Red Wedding Style

 

[DarrenFreemansPerm]

I do take the point that they sacrificed military realism for some stunning shots and I'm not entirely comfortable with this.

I don't mind a Dothraki charge on it's own. Clearly they are going to fight better on a charge than they are defending behind castle walls, so I think that's a fair enough strategy.

The thing that got to me was that they were staring into the "wights" of their eyes whilst standing on the Winterfell battlements and not attacking. A barrage of tipped arrows would have cleared a few more out.

Personally I'd have deployed the dragons far earlier on.

I suppose that Jon etc, knew that the conventional battle was lost before it started and the only hope was to draw out the night king, so whether the Unsullied and Dothraki last a few hours or a few days is immaterial.

The moment the dragons were deployed the NK called in the snow storm to disorientate them, wouldn’t have mattered when they were used.

 

[Hiney]

We all enjoy it for different reasons, so I just want to make clear I'm not having a pop at anyone for liking/loving it, especially as everyone's invested a lot of time in watching it. I just kind of feel like the main baddy was the Night King as his role had been so different to all the other characters. I felt like they built him up as the ultimate threat, and killing him off so early is disappointing. Also in regards to the way he died, it felt like it was just tagged on. There was no plan to kill him, there was no build up to it, suddenly Arya just pops up and stabs him. It felt like they didn't put much effort into that.

It's all about opinions innit

I'm not sure that waiting 7 and a bit seasons, when the entire rationale behind the story is 'Winter [The Knight King] is Coming', is 'killing him off so early'.

I loved it.

 

[Braggfan]

It's all about opinions innit

I'm not sure that waiting 7 and a bit seasons, when the entire rationale behind the story is 'Winter [The Knight King] is Coming', is 'killing him off so early'.

I loved it.

But in any story, its about the protagonist overcoming the antagonist. Its obviously more complicated in GOT because most of the characters have shades of grey, but I don't think anyone can argue that the Night King was ultimately the main antagonist because he was the enemy of every other character and had been built up from the very first scenes of the series 1. With that in mind, I think it's too early to kill him off half way through the last series, leaving other parts of the story to tell. And because he was the main antagonist I feel like it leaves the rest of that story a bit flat.

 

[Munkfish]

Or a lady boy

Or both!

 

[Giraffe]

Not sure if anyone else has posted this but in I was half expecting Bran to kill the Night Kill, only for him to rip his face off and it really was Ayra. Thought that would have been a better way to have tricked him than just her appearing out of no one and also would have fitted in with him "going now".

Maybe I am just obsessed with the great "easy answer" to everything that her ability to wear many faces brings?

ps) I loved the tension, but I too found some scenes very difficult to follow because of the darkness/storm