Game of Thrones (HBO)

WaywardFan

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It felt longer because there was too much time you couldn’t see a damn thing.
 

crisper57

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Really freaking cool episode. Only two real complaints from me, one of which is spoiler-ish:

1: Waaaaaay too dark. What is it with TV and movie directors deciding to make things "real" by making them hard to see and hard to hear? Shaky cam, dark screen, muffling the sound when people are under water/wearing helmets. WE NEED TO SEE AND HEAR ALL THE THINGS, PEOPLE! lol

2:
Not enough big names died. Figured Jamie and Tyrion would live for the Bronn "showdown". Some serious feels with Jorah's death. Other deaths were good. Just way too unbelievable that most of the big names made it. Too Dungeons & Dragons "high-level characters" for me.

100% agree with all you said. After it was over, my wife asked me how it was. I said, "meh". Maybe it was because I was coming off watching Avengers which also had a better rendered "darK" battle in it, but the fact that you could never tell who was fighting (especially when dragons were involved), really sucked the life out of this episode for me. The key moments and deaths were at least easy to see, but the rest of the episode was all shadow and fog.

Great ending though. Subverted every expectation, I think, but looking back, this was telegraphed several seasons ago. That is the genius of this series. They will flat-out tell you what they are going to do, but you don't realize it until after the fact.
 

crisper57

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There will come a day after a long summer when the stars bleed and the cold breath of darkness falls heavy on the world. In this dread hour a warrior shall draw from the fire a burning sword. And that sword shall be Lightbringer, the Red Sword of Heroes, and he who clasps it shall be Azor Ahai come again, and the darkness shall flee before him."

Right now I'm thinking the person who most literally embodies this prophecy is Melisandre. Arya is Lightbringer.
 

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excellent episode....Knew Arya would be the one to kill the night king.... the valerian steel dagger set it in motion. when she jumped on the night king and he grabbed her dagger hand...I said,...now drop it... it was foreshadowed in her spar with Brienne

I liked seeing the bond grow between Brienne and Jaime.... bet ya they're gonna be married to restock house Lannister...he has to marry someone other than his sister......

Jorah Mormont went out like a boss

Sam the slayer was in full effect...was surprised to see him join the fighting....he wasnt great but he found his courage.

do they have enough troops left to take kings landing?? My guess is the dragons are gonna have to burn the gold company on their own.... I was however impressed with the unsullied for the first time... their discipline was amazing
 

crisper57

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One question I have is this, were all/vast majority of Dothraki killed or do they still have a lot of horsemen to counter the Golden Company's cavalry? It was hard to tell if they were all sent in that initial first wave or if that was just a fraction of their numbers. Also, Ghost went out with them, was never heard from again, but shows up in next week's trailer? Call me crazy, but a giant wolf isn't gonna know when to retreat like the humans in his company, is he?

Also, the Tyrion/Sansa moment was confusing. They look knowingly at each other, they hold hands, she graps her dagger, and then they...do nothing? Move to an adjacent corner where their friends are hiding and wait it out? I liked the tender moment between them, but it felt like they were gearing up to fight...whatever that would have looked like.
 

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The Night King attacking at night was hardly a surprise.

And - the General who thought the opening charge was a good idea deserves to be hanged, drawn and quartered.
 

Ouchie-Z-Clown

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excellent episode....Knew Arya would be the one to kill the night king.... the valerian steel dagger set it in motion. when she jumped on the night king and he grabbed her dagger hand...I said,...now drop it... it was foreshadowed in her spar with Brienne

I liked seeing the bond grow between Brienne and Jaime.... bet ya they're gonna be married to restock house Lannister...he has to marry someone other than his sister......

Jorah Mormont went out like a boss

Sam the slayer was in full effect...was surprised to see him join the fighting....he wasnt great but he found his courage.

do they have enough troops left to take kings landing?? My guess is the dragons are gonna have to burn the gold company on their own.... I was however impressed with the unsullied for the first time... their discipline was amazing
I thought about how the remnants were going to be woefully inadequate to launch against King’s landing. There’s just no way imo that’s possible.

And agree, the unsullied have played a faceless beige role to date. Last night they made their presence in the entire series an absolute necessity.
 

Ouchie-Z-Clown

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The Night King attacking at night was hardly a surprise.

And - the General who thought the opening charge was a good idea deserves to be hanged, drawn and quartered.
Right?!? Imo your only hope was to try to kill all the undead at one time to expose the night king. If you send in waves and they are defeated you’ve just given the night king more dead to make undead soldiers. I thought that was stupid.
 

crisper57

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The Night King attacking at night was hardly a surprise.

And - the General who thought the opening charge was a good idea deserves to be hanged, drawn and quartered.

Exactly. Isn't the point of a cavalry to try and flank your enemy, not charge headlong into an entrenched mob? Seemed like a test run to assess the enemy, which leads me to believe most the Dothraki were held back. But with the sheer numbers we saw riding forward, it appears that was not the case.

Of course, the great mind behind this tactic was likely Jon Snow, the same guy who charged into the open field alone during the Battle of the Bastards. Fits his M.O.
 

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Exactly. Isn't the point of a cavalry to try and flank your enemy, not charge headlong into an entrenched mob? Seemed like a test run to assess the enemy, which leads me to believe most the Dothraki were held back. But with the sheer numbers we saw riding forward, it appears that was not the case.

Of course, the great mind behind this tactic was likely Jon Snow, the same guy who charged into the open field alone during the Battle of the Bastards. Fits his M.O.

Did the two "good" dragons survive?
 

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I thought it delivered pretty well.

Have some of the same complaints about the darkness--the HBO NOW stream was pretty inadequate and even felt a little less than HD.

That said, I loved it from start to finish. Cheering for Arya, respect to Jorah--he is a badass, and Lyanna Mormont... An undead giant--what a boss! Will miss her, and RIP the Mormont family.

Nobody has really mentioned it, but I am hot and cold regarding Theon. Happy he got his redemption, but unhappy that if he would have waited 3 more minutes, he wouldn't have needed to die. Thanks Bran. His story and situation still don't make a whole lot of sense.

As for the White Walkers, I'm with Ouchie. They didn't fight AT ALL. While the Night King freaking SMILING and raising the army again was certainly awesome, we barely saw the rest of the White Walkers, and they didn't do ANYTHING.

I liked it and thought it was epic, and there were a few characters they didn't show at the end (Sam, Tormund) to see if they were still surviving--the assumption is that they are, since we didn't see them die--but there were some missed opportunies IMO leading to the question of, "Is that it?" Is the thread form the North gone?

Oh, and ironically the one character who did absolutely nothing was Dani. She awkwardly killed a few wights there at the end with Jorah and did well burning up all the army of the Dead, but what else did she do? And we didn't she and Jon attack the Army of the Dead BEFORE the Dothraki did their death charge? They could have at least made the opposition at least a little smaller, right?
 

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I thought about how the remnants were going to be woefully inadequate to launch against King’s landing. There’s just no way imo that’s possible.

And agree, the unsullied have played a faceless beige role to date. Last night they made their presence in the entire series an absolute necessity.

It was cool to see them finally put in a situation where they could show their discipline and strength. Everyone who made it back into the castle (and lived) owes them their lives. It would be cool to see their survivors freed in the end to pursue whatever their versions of Grey Worm's dream are.
 

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I didn't predict Arya killing the Night King. Partly because I turn off trying to predict during the actual episodes, but also because I figured the comment about "blue eyes" would probably apply to white walker lieutenants and their wights. I was also fully prepared for it to be a cliffhanger in the godswood until next week--especially since Jon hadn't made it there yet.

So for me it was a fun surprise.
 

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It was cool to see them finally put in a situation where they could show their discipline and strength. Everyone who made it back into the castle (and lived) owes them their lives. It would be cool to see their survivors freed in the end to pursue whatever their versions of Grey Worm's dream are.
The one thing I kept yelling at the tv during the entire episode was, "Grey Worm is STILL alive??"
 

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I thought it delivered pretty well.

Have some of the same complaints about the darkness--the HBO NOW stream was pretty inadequate and even felt a little less than HD.

That said, I loved it from start to finish. Cheering for Arya, respect to Jorah--he is a badass, and Lyanna Mormont... An undead giant--what a boss! Will miss her, and RIP the Mormont family.

Nobody has really mentioned it, but I am hot and cold regarding Theon. Happy he got his redemption, but unhappy that if he would have waited 3 more minutes, he wouldn't have needed to die. Thanks Bran. His story and situation still don't make a whole lot of sense.

As for the White Walkers, I'm with Ouchie. They didn't fight AT ALL. While the Night King freaking SMILING and raising the army again was certainly awesome, we barely saw the rest of the White Walkers, and they didn't do ANYTHING.

I liked it and thought it was epic, and there were a few characters they didn't show at the end (Sam, Tormund) to see if they were still surviving--the assumption is that they are, since we didn't see them die--but there were some missed opportunies IMO leading to the question of, "Is that it?" Is the thread form the North gone?

Oh, and ironically the one character who did absolutely nothing was Dani. She awkwardly killed a few wights there at the end with Jorah and did well burning up all the army of the Dead, but what else did she do? And we didn't she and Jon attack the Army of the Dead BEFORE the Dothraki did their death charge? They could have at least made the opposition at least a little smaller, right?
agreed. This was Dany’s worst look the entire history of the series. Although it was realistic that she was terrified and not a warrior. That was never her role.

And 100% WTF with not leading with the dragons flaming the wights before throwing the Dothraki to their deaths.
 

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100% agree with all you said. After it was over, my wife asked me how it was. I said, "meh". Maybe it was because I was coming off watching Avengers which also had a better rendered "darK" battle in it, but the fact that you could never tell who was fighting (especially when dragons were involved), really sucked the life out of this episode for me. The key moments and deaths were at least easy to see, but the rest of the episode was all shadow and fog.

Great ending though. Subverted every expectation, I think, but looking back, this was telegraphed several seasons ago. That is the genius of this series. They will flat-out tell you what they are going to do, but you don't realize it until after the fact.

I have been hearing that alot, but I never felt that way. Yes it was dark, but I could tell who was fighting. The only time it became tough was with the dragon fight.
 

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I didn't predict Arya killing the Night King. Partly because I turn off trying to predict during the actual episodes, but also because I figured the comment about "blue eyes" would probably apply to white walker lieutenants and their wights. I was also fully prepared for it to be a cliffhanger in the godswood until next week--especially since Jon hadn't made it there yet.

So for me it was a fun surprise.

Right with you on that. Didn't think it would end the way it did and it made the ending more exciting for me.
 

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huh, then I don’t get why it took a timeout when it was needed. Or why Jon abandoned it.

Well, I can certainly understand it. He didn't have time to find out of the dragon was ok. As far as we knew, his singular goal was to find the Night King and kill him. I mean, when they did that amazing tracking shot in Winterfell, he had a moment where he saw SAM getting overrun by wights and he didn't stop to help. If that doesn't explain his singe-mindedness, I don't know what does.
 

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Can someone tell me what happened. It was so damn dark on my TV I couldn't see a thing for the first hour!
 
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