A Game of Thrones (contains spoilers)

[Celtics4ever]

the Night King bringing Tormund back to life,

Were we watching the same show?  Cause Tormund did not die on the one I watched.

http://time.com/5578054/game-of-thrones-battle-of-winterfell-deaths/

[Roy H.]

It makes sense that Arya would be the one to kill the Night King.  The way she killed him was a little bit weak, though. Running up behind him while nobody noticed was the best the writers could do, with all of her talents?

And Bran’s plan was to zone out, scanning for absolutely nothing consequential?

I’m hoping the final books will be significantly more fleshed out. Otherwise, Martin’s final novel is going to be about 175 pages.

[fairweatherfan]

So is Arya the real Prince Who Was Promised or whatever? Though Jon Snow continuing to fail upward just to fulfill an author's own prophecy would be a powerful anti-meritocracy statement.

[Sophomore]

It makes sense that Arya would be the one to kill the Night King.  The way she killed him was a little bit weak, though. Running up behind him while nobody noticed was the best the writers could do, with all of her talents?

And Bran’s plan was to zone out, scanning for absolutely nothing consequential?

I’m hoping the final books will be significantly more fleshed out. Otherwise, Martin’s final novel is going to be about 175 pages.

That attack was ... baffling. He's ringed by, what, 100 wights and a squadron of white walkers?

Also, we've just seen how fast his reflexes are, how strong he is. He sidestepped Theon and easily controlled his spear. Lightning fast, no hesitation or fumbling. He sensed Arya running up behind him when we could not, turned faster than we could see and grabbed her forearm in midair; he also absorbed her impact without staggering or apparently even moving. At this point he can see he's a few inches away from her dagger - the same dagger that a dozen characters on the show instantly recognized as Valyrian steel. When she drops the dagger it seems to fall forever. But it falls, goes into her free hand, and then she has time to stab him - and in all this time he doesn't bat the dagger away or yank her around off balance. Okayyyy. It's a cheat to establish his inhuman abilities to make his victory seem inevitable, but then take them away to move the plot forward.

This was about as close to deus ex machina as the series has ever been.

[Moranis]

Weirdly I think that was the worst episode of the series.  I can say that comfortably.

Interesting take. I thought it was awesome. There were a ton of little parts that I liked, including the Mormont girl and undead giant, the distortion caused by the weather, Melisandre's return/exit, the Night King bringing Tormund back to life, etc. I thought they kept my adrenaline going for a solid 80 minutes.

I mean it had moments and I get that most of it was a choice, but I actually thought the first 1/3rd was just a complete visual mess that was impossible to follow with any clarity.  You see those closeups/quick cuts in poorly choreographed action films.  I get they can only do so much with their budget, so turning everything into a grey blurry mess was maybe their only option, but I just thought it looked like trash. 

A couple fun fan moments, but actually pretty low stakes all things considered.  The biggest thing frustrating me is that they never really do a good job explaining why Bran is there... what his purpose is... why they are trying to lure the Night King... what the Night King wants... what the purpose of any of that is... why are we even bothering with this...  and then Arya out of nowhere is like "uh... ok?  so... that's it?"

It just felt like really awful direction to me.  Still fun, because Game of Thrones is always fun, but that was the worst episode of the show for me.

Did you expect Bran to stop being cryptic and explain himself or maybe the Night King to do a soliloquy?  Seriously, they're doing a prequel so I expect they'll answer a lot of your Night King questions in it. 

I thought they did quite well to maintain interest in a battle that lasted so long.  I expected someone to take out the Night King and save the day ... err night but I was glad they didn't go with the obvious death by dragonfire or Jon being the hero and slaying him in a duel.  Arya really was the best equipped to do so.

prequel was cancelled I believe.

I think there were multiple shows in development. At least one prequel, set 5000 years ago, is going forward I think.

yeah, the one that Martin was contributing on was cancelled apparently, but there still is the "Long Night" one that was 10,000 years in the past.  That is apparently still going forward.

[Moranis]

It makes sense that Arya would be the one to kill the Night King.  The way she killed him was a little bit weak, though. Running up behind him while nobody noticed was the best the writers could do, with all of her talents?

And Bran’s plan was to zone out, scanning for absolutely nothing consequential?

I’m hoping the final books will be significantly more fleshed out. Otherwise, Martin’s final novel is going to be about 175 pages.

That attack was ... baffling. He's ringed by, what, 100 wights and a squadron of white walkers?

Also, we've just seen how fast his reflexes are, how strong he is. He sidestepped Theon and easily controlled his spear. Lightning fast, no hesitation or fumbling. He sensed Arya running up behind him when we could not, turned faster than we could see and grabbed her forearm in midair; he also absorbed her impact without staggering or apparently even moving. At this point he can see he's a few inches away from her dagger - the same dagger that a dozen characters on the show instantly recognized as Valyrian steel. When she drops the dagger it seems to fall forever. But it falls, goes into her free hand, and then she has time to stab him - and in all this time he doesn't bat the dagger away or yank her around off balance. Okayyyy. It's a cheat to establish his inhuman abilities to make his victory seem inevitable, but then take them away to move the plot forward.

This was about as close to deus ex machina as the series has ever been.

The quality of the show has been fading very quickly once they got past the source material.  They take short cuts for cost and to artificially keep the episode count down, they don't set things up well, etc.  I mean they easily could have ended the episode when the Night King approached Bran.  It would have been a massive cliff hanger.  They then could have spent 15 or 20 minutes at the beginning of the next episode filling in blanks, setting things up, etc.  Season 7 was riddled with that nonsense and it really has detracted from the show.  Hopefully they fill in some of the blanks in the next episode, but I've seen nothing from the production that says they will.

and Arya makes no sense at all fulfilling the prophecy as the person responsible for killing the Night King.  It doesn't jive at all with the story. 

[tazzmaniac]

It makes sense that Arya would be the one to kill the Night King.  The way she killed him was a little bit weak, though. Running up behind him while nobody noticed was the best the writers could do, with all of her talents?

And Bran’s plan was to zone out, scanning for absolutely nothing consequential?

I’m hoping the final books will be significantly more fleshed out. Otherwise, Martin’s final novel is going to be about 175 pages.

The way Arya killed him was about the only way it could have happened.  She wasn't going to fight her way through the dead and the other white walkers.  The Night King had frozen in place the dead so they weren't going to react to Arya.  The other white walkers were clumped together near the Night King so they wouldn't have had a chance to stop her since she was coming from behind.  However while the Night King is drawing his sword to kill Bran, they cut away and show one of the White Walkers looking to his right.  I expect that was what alerted the Night King to Arya and allowed him to turn around and catch her. 

I wouldn't be surprised if there is a deleted scene that was going to show what Bran was doing.  Maybe it gave too much of the ending away or just extended the episode too long.   

[Fafnir]

They're doing the Long Night prequel aren't they?

Probably trying to avoid committing to anything so they have the freedom to do whatever in that show sadly.

[No Nickname]

Wow, what lazy writing for the climax of this episode.  It's basically lifted straight from The Avengers (2012) when the Chitauri start to overwhelm them in the final battle.

The Hulk gets swarmed by hundreds of Chitauri laser blasts and it looks like he's overwhelmed.  Cap, Black Widow, and Hawkeye look like they're about to get overrun.  The Chitauri keep pouring out of the wormhole in infinite numbers.  All seems lost in several individual heroes situations until Iron Man guides a missile through the wormhole, destroying the Chitauri ship which then disables their thousands of fighters. 

Exactly how GOT ended last night.  About a dozen scenes of all the heroes starting to get overwhelmed.  You think it's impossible for them to fight off the wights any more, and then Arya kills the Night King.

Come on GOT.  Be original.

[tazzmaniac]

They're doing the Long Night prequel aren't they?

Probably trying to avoid committing to anything so they have the freedom to do whatever in that show sadly.

Yes.  That's the one the one they are making the pilot for.  Supposedly it is going to be filmed around now. 

[BringToughnessBack]

It makes sense that Arya would be the one to kill the Night King.  The way she killed him was a little bit weak, though. Running up behind him while nobody noticed was the best the writers could do, with all of her talents?

And Bran’s plan was to zone out, scanning for absolutely nothing consequential?

I’m hoping the final books will be significantly more fleshed out. Otherwise, Martin’s final novel is going to be about 175 pages.

I have a deep suspicion that Bran is not what we think. It is possible he was a version of the Night King and he actually wanted to be killed by him so they would both vanish upon dying. When he zoned out, perhaps it was to make sure that The Night King found his exact location and to make sure no threats were there to stop it. The Night King looked at Bran almost as if he knew it had to be done but he did not want to do it. It was a bizarre encounter.Remember, Bran actually is not Bran as well which would mean he went somewhere beyond the normal living plain of existence.

Bran had Theon brought to defend him as well. This was a choice in full knowing that he is the last person that could stop The Night King from Killing him once and for all.

Also remember this interesting bit of history:

How did the Night King change Craster's babies? ....By touching them.

How did he change Viserion?....By touching it.

What did Bloodraven say to Bran Stark in the cave?..."He touched you."

Something tells me that when Cersei loses the war, the biggest threat will then truly be revealed- Time Will Tell I guess.

I found the episode hard to see clearly though due to the darkness in the fighting scenes. It was almost to the point of bothersome but I still loved it anyway.

[footey]

It makes sense that Arya would be the one to kill the Night King.  The way she killed him was a little bit weak, though. Running up behind him while nobody noticed was the best the writers could do, with all of her talents?

And Bran’s plan was to zone out, scanning for absolutely nothing consequential?

I’m hoping the final books will be significantly more fleshed out. Otherwise, Martin’s final novel is going to be about 175 pages.

I agree.  I was anticipating her having the face of Bran, to entice the Night King, then stab him.  Only that would have required that Bran be dead first, and I guess they didn't want that to happen.

[Phantom255x]

LOL



Night King: "It was a bad shot"

 

[footey]

LOL



Night King: "It was a bad shot"

 

TP!! Hilarious!!

[fairweatherfan]

Wow, what lazy writing for the climax of this episode.  It's basically lifted straight from The Avengers (2012) when the Chitauri start to overwhelm them in the final battle.

The Hulk gets swarmed by hundreds of Chitauri laser blasts and it looks like he's overwhelmed.  Cap, Black Widow, and Hawkeye look like they're about to get overrun.  The Chitauri keep pouring out of the wormhole in infinite numbers.  All seems lost in several individual heroes situations until Iron Man guides a missile through the wormhole, destroying the Chitauri ship which then disables their thousands of fighters. 

Exactly how GOT ended last night.  About a dozen scenes of all the heroes starting to get overwhelmed.  You think it's impossible for them to fight off the wights any more, and then Arya kills the Night King.

Come on GOT.  Be original.

The Avengers didn't invent that either, the "kill the main guy/power source/mothership and the whole overwhelming threat immediately collapses" has been around forever. I agree it's generally a cheap out and an easy way of making a huge confrontation boil down to a single interaction.  Would've at least liked to see it set up by some strategic killing of other White Walkers that destroyed pockets of the army.

I agree.  I was anticipating her having the face of Bran, to entice the Night King, then stab him.  Only that would have required that Bran be dead first, and I guess they didn't want that to happen.

I think he would've sensed she didn't have his mark too. But yeah jumping out of nowhere made it seemed unearned and more geared toward surprising then thrilling the audience. Which is fine, it was fun to watch anyway.