A Game of Thrones (contains spoilers)

[LarBrd33]

Ok episode.  Everything is on fast forward.  Seems we might be heading to a final conflict of Jon vs Dany. 

I’m still annoyed that bran seems totally pointless.

[LarBrd33]

My biggest disappointment from Episode 3 is that they didn't give any info regarding the purpose of the Night King and the White Walkers. Basically, they built them up for 7 and a half seasons, and then kill them all off with no explanation of why they existed, what they wanted, who the Night King really was, etc. They needed a lot more depth to this storyline than they provided.

i changed my perspective on this a little when I realized that the Night king isn’t in the book. It’s just a character HBO came up with.  Still feel like a lot of our time was wasted on it.

[LarBrd33]

Was this what we were supposed to observe?

Before Arya lunges at the Night King, we see Jon Snow trying to make his way into the godswood, where Bran Stark and the Night King are. The path is blocked by Viserion, the White Walker dragon. Jon tries to run past him, but he's spotted by the dragon. Jon ends up trapped behind the battered remnants of a wall and decides, with nowhere left to run, to confront Viserion. Except he doesn't raise his sword, he just stands up and yells.

Here's what you may have missed: Jon yells "Go!" One long one and then another short one. In the very next scene we see one of the White Walker's hair flicker in wind -- wind created by Arya as she makes her way to the Night King.

In other words, Jon saw Arya and distracted the dragon so that she could make her way through.

Not only would this make sense in terms of clearing a path for Arya, it would also absolve him from the stupidity of trying to kill a dragon by yelling at it.

https://www.cnet.com/news/game-of-thrones-season-8-one-key-battle-of-winterfell-detail-you-missed/

TP. It makes sense to me, especially since we know how stealth Arya is.

the “Jon distracting the dragon for Arya” thing has pretty much been disproven.  He’s just yelling things like “grrrrrhhhggg”.  Nice fan theory tho.

That’s said, there’s a scene in episode 1 where Jon is at the tree and Arya sneaks up on him and he goes “how did you sneak up on me”.  Nice foreshadowing.

[Kuberski33]

My biggest disappointment from Episode 3 is that they didn't give any info regarding the purpose of the Night King and the White Walkers. Basically, they built them up for 7 and a half seasons, and then kill them all off with no explanation of why they existed, what they wanted, who the Night King really was, etc. They needed a lot more depth to this storyline than they provided.

The one overall feeling I have watching this season is it seems like HBO told Benioff & Weiss - 'all you're getting is 6 episodes - wrap it up'.

[PAOBoston]

This season is absolute hot garbage. You can argue last season was bad as well. The show that was so deliberate for so long decided to just fast forward and try to cram so much in so little time as possible. Not feeling this story line at all. Feels absolutely forced. Feels like a bunch of people on Reddit came up with the script.

[PhoSita]

Ok episode.  Everything is on fast forward.  Seems we might be heading to a final conflict of Jon vs Dany. 

I’m still annoyed that bran seems totally pointless.

What percentage of the stuff they set up and the characters they developed are not pointless at this stage of the story?

[PhoSita]

Episode Four: Reducing the CGI Budget




Anybody else feel like, in an effort to make the dragons not seem invincible, they made the dragons feel kinda ... lame?

[tazzmaniac]

One more thought: a virtue of keeping the body count down last episode is that there are more characters left on the board to put at risk or kill...

Other than Jorah, the people that were killed off wouldn't have had any part to play in the war with Cersei.  They kept alive the people who have active storylines. 

[tazzmaniac]

Ok episode.  Everything is on fast forward.  Seems we might be heading to a final conflict of Jon vs Dany. 

I’m still annoyed that bran seems totally pointless.

What percentage of the stuff they set up and the characters they developed are not pointless at this stage of the story?

I don't see anything as pointless.  Not even Bran or should I say the 3 eyed raven.  The Night King is dead so the characters just focused on that storyline no longer have a part to play.  However most of the characters and storylines are still in play. 

[Phantom255x]

Man I feel bad for Grey Worm. RIP Missandei 

But honestly it’s becoming really obvious they’re rushing everything now and the writing’s been compromised as a result.

The clever characters are getting outsmarted easily and frankly even the dragons have looked weak lately. I mean, they just ambushed Dany’s Army and killed her dragon + captured Missandei that easily?? Lol.

[fairweatherfan]

Pretty good episode. Seems pretty clear Dany is gonna go all Mad King on everyone - when they talked about all the civilians in the Keep I was just waiting for the "burn them all". And she'll do it in front of Jon for maximum rift. Tyrion and/or Varys will probably start siding with Jon more directly or spreading the word. Jon is stupid for telling his family and seems to have all of Ned's self-destructive honor but with far better luck.

They are absolutely rushing through a ton of plot, though, and the slower burning stuff earlier in the episode felt much better than the fast developments near the end.

On the smaller notes

- glad they took care of the Arya+Gendry stuff early on - it would've been convenient to hook them up but that's not true to who she is. They've done the best job with her character by far this season.

- Bran and Tyrion's conversation accidentally had some of the best comic timing all season. The awkward pauses, Bran's flat tone, the wheelchair getting pulled away at exactly the right moment...just terrific. Really enjoying weird post-North of the Wall Bran.

- Remember when Tyrion was smart, and not the dumbest man in Westeros?

- They shouldn't've done Ghost dirty like that. At least give him a good death, don't just cheap out on showing him then send him away. At least Jon can say goodbye!

- There is no way Euron's dumb enough to think that's his kid but also there is every way Euron's dumb enough to think that's his kid.

[jpotter33]

Any significance to Bran’s comment about Tyrion not envying him due to always living in the past? Or what about his comment to Jon about telling Arya and Sansa being Jon’s choice?

Both seem like foreshadowing to me. It seems like Bran still has a significant role to play moving forward, but I can’t place my finger on what I see that role being.

[PhoSita]

Any significance to Bran’s comment about Tyrion not envying him due to always living in the past? Or what about his comment to Jon about telling Arya and Sansa being Jon’s choice?

Both seem like foreshadowing to me. It seems like Bran still has a significant role to play moving forward, but I can’t place my finger on what I see that role being.

Honestly at this point I wouldn't put too much stock in the show having any real tricks up it's sleeve.

What you see is what you get , they obviously don't have the time or the budget for any cleverness.



I would say my biggest concern right now is Deus Ex Arya striking again.

[LarBrd33]

Dany has already turned heel.  She’s super selfish. She doesn’t have a valid claim to the throne anymore but she wants Jon to keep the truth a secret so she can be in charge.  It’s silly.  Time for her to die.

[Moranis]

This episode further solidified for me they made the wrong choice with Arya killing the Night King.  It is so much more apparent they needed it to be Jon because it being Jon would have set up him ruling so much better.  They knew they were going to rapidly turn Dany into a heel, they needed Jon to be the savior.  It just would have played so much better.  They also should have set up the heel turn better, but that is a casualty of timing, which I understand.  I just hope they allow Jamie the right to kill his sister and don't have Arya do that also.