Game of Thrones General (Non-Book Related) Discussion Thread - Part 1

[Roose Bolton]

I've been doing a lot of *****ing, but I wanna mention some things I liked.

Lyanna Mormont being an absolute boss. I thought she was just being stupid charging that giant, but she got the job done. Good for her, and I hope Jon or some other character mentions her bravery.

Ghost charging into battle beside Jorah and somehow surviving the horde and escaping. I was worried he'd go out like a chump the way Shaggy Dog and Summer did.

The dragon fight in the air was pretty damn cool. I was yelling for Rhaegal to rip Viserion a knew *******. And then Damy came in and knocked the NK off and I cheered.

Mel lighting the Dothraki swords was a cool moment.

I love love love that when the slaughter began in the crypts Varys rounded up the children and took them to a spot to hide. It's a nice callback to Vary's little birds and shows Vary's cares about children beyond their ability to spy for him.

Tyrion and Sansa's moment in the crypts and him kissing her hand and saying without saying that they were ready to die or kill each other if necessary. I think those two would actually make a good couple and technically they are still married. But I dont expect it to last or for them to become anything more than friends.

Jaime and Brienne were brave .

The Unsullied were unbelievably brave and awesome.

The initial wave of dead rolling over the living was legitimately startling and scary.

I liked the library scene, and the Hound going to save Arya.

Didn’t especially like the episode either, but I will say...Theon’s death was one of the best scenes the show has done in years. That exchange with Bran, the setting of the Godswood, really evoked some of his moments from A Dance With Dragons.

 

[harlequinade]

Bran did have a link with the Night King... the whole ending is built around that as he wants to kill Bran who knows his own past, and he wants to erase the past and all history. The symbols I like remaining a mystery. I guess I was among those that assumed we'd never get an answer to what the White Walkers symbols mean, because they're creepier that way. Kind of like not knowing what the Space Jockey is in Alien versus... well, did you see Prometheus?

Prometheus is perfect comparison, that was poorly written too

These writers don't know that leaving things to imagination is better, you need to watch any given Inside the Episode to realize that

 

[Marvolo]

There were a lot of things I liked in this episode and even the end of the NK makes sense before the end of the show, but I would have rather it happened next episode. I also would have liked to see him defeated in epic combat rather than punk’d. With all those White Walkers about one of them should have been aware enough to save him.

Another issue I had with Arya's hail mary was the yell. She's supposed to be this uber sneaky assassin. Was trained by the best assassins in the world. We see her in the library sneaking around without making a sound. She sneaks past the White Walkers, she's ready to make her move and none of the white Walkers and the Night King knows she is there...and she yells like a berserker giving away her position and eliminating the element of surprise.

Should have had her not make a sound but the Night King catches her anyways.

And Im a little disappointed she didnt say, "Not today." before or after she stabbed him.

 

[kvz5]

 

[Marvolo]

I've been thinking about the Night King some more and I've got 3 wild card theories about him returning.

These are my wild card theories:

1. The Night King cant actually be killed. After he is stabbed and shattered the magic or his essence reforms in the Heart of Winter and he begins again building his army. And in a few thousand years when Westeros has forgotten and written off the White Walkers as myth, the NK and his army of dead will march South and try to do what they failed to do. I think this may be why the Night King is alive even though Azhor Ahai supposedly killed him and ended the Long Night thousands of years ago. I think Azhor Ahai did defeat him and the NK resurrected in the Heart of Winter and began again. I'd ****ing love for the final shot of the show to be the Night King walking up to the altar in the Heart of Winter or him sitting on a throne of ice.

2. The magic is a mantle and someone must carry the mantle. Arya killed the NK so it's her burden to carry the mantle. The magic will begin changing her and her story will end with her going North beyond the Wall.

3. The NK marked Bran and connected the two of them. Maybe a piece of the Night King or his magic is still in Bran. Like a parasite. And it will corrupt or turn Bran into the next Night King.

The first one is my favorite. Itd be such an ominous way to end the story and a killer final scene.

 

[Filmfan93]

This was it?

7 seasons of build up for the Night King and he gets dispatched by Arya just like that? Jon didn't even get to fight him.

I honestly expected the Night King to kill major characters and take over Winterfell, forcing the survivors to flee off King's Landing and desperately join Cersei for one final stand.

Other than this critique, the episode was beautiful (when you could see what was going on).

 

[Legendver2]

Anyone getting Planet of the Apes vibes during the slower portions?

 

[Marvolo]

It reminded me of the piano theme from the 2005 remake of the Fog.

 

[Roose Bolton]

I've been thinking about the Night King some more and I've got 3 wild card theories about him returning.

These are my wild card theories:

1. The Night King cant actually be killed. After he is stabbed and shattered the magic or his essence reforms in the Heart of Winter and he begins again building his army. And in a few thousand years when Westeros has forgotten and written off the White Walkers as myth, the NK and his army of dead will march South and try to do what they failed to do. I think this may be why the Night King is alive even though Azhor Ahai supposedly killed him and ended the Long Night thousands of years ago. I think Azhor Ahai did defeat him and the NK resurrected in the Heart of Winter and began again. I'd ****ing love for the final shot of the show to be the Night King walking up to the altar in the Heart of Winter or him sitting on a throne of ice.

2. The magic is a mantle and someone must carry the mantle. Arya killed the NK so it's her burden to carry the mantle. The magic will begin changing her and her story will end with her going North beyond the Wall.

3. The NK marked Bran and connected the two of them. Maybe a piece of the Night King or his magic is still in Bran. Like a parasite. And it will corrupt or turn Bran into the next Night King.

The first one is my favorite. Itd be such an ominous way to end the story and a killer final scene.

He dede fam, let it go.

 

[Iceman]

Another issue I had with Arya's hail mary was the yell. She's supposed to be this uber sneaky assassin. Was trained by the best assassins in the world. We see her in the library sneaking around without making a sound. She sneaks past the White Walkers, she's ready to make her move and none of the white Walkers and the Night King knows she is there...and she yells like a berserker giving away her position and eliminating the element of surprise.

Should have had her not make a sound but the Night King catches her anyways.

And Im a little disappointed she didnt say, "Not today." before or after she stabbed him.

Makes sense

 

[Marvolo]

He dede fam, let it go.

 

[OutOfBoose]

I'm still loling at dothraki mass suicide.

 

[#root]

This episode was so frustrating. I’m not even that upset that they resolved the Night King storyline like that but my frustration was with how they handled it.

Spoiler

This whole episode was just wrought with stupid plot contrivances. Characters they didn’t want to kill off survived no matter how bad things got and characters they decided to kill just got stabbed randomly. I mean the way the Brienne and gang kept getting ambushed and looking like they were about to die but then being totally fine somehow only to be ambushed again was just stupid.

And then characters would disappear and reappear randomly. Instead of attacking the wights near the castle, Dany was attacking wights way far in the back leaving people to die. Jon was just chilling waiting for the Night King to show up. Bran warged but apparently it was for no reason. Also, am I forgetting something or did Melisandre just appear out of nowhere?

I was also disappointed with Theon’s death. Just how he basically accepted that deadth and ran towards the Night King felt dumb to me. Standing his ground and protecting Bran by trying to fight the Walkers would’ve been much better instead of just charging at the Night King screaming. And what happened to Rhaegal and Ghost? At one point I though both had been unceremoniously killed off but apparently they’re in the next episode. That’s how unclear everything was this episode.

It was like they decided they wanted to have an entire episode dedicated to this battle but they didn’t know what to do with the story or any of the characters. The Night King walking in super slo-mo towards Bran was a symptom of that I think. The only highlight was Arya in the library. That was a tense and well made scene. Everything else just sort of highlighted all of the show’s recent problems.

 

[Iceman]

Another issue I had with Arya's hail mary was the yell. She's supposed to be this uber sneaky assassin. Was trained by the best assassins in the world. We see her in the library sneaking around without making a sound. She sneaks past the White Walkers, she's ready to make her move and none of the white Walkers and the Night King knows she is there...and she yells like a berserker giving away her position and eliminating the element of surprise.

Should have had her not make a sound but the Night King catches her anyways.

And Im a little disappointed she didnt say, "Not today." before or after she stabbed him.

It’s a good point. I was really enjoying her sneaking around silently and avoiding the wights earlier.

 

[Mjolnir Reborn]

As for Arya "stealing" Jon's moment... eh, that was the best aspect of it. Prophecies have always been wrong on Game of Thrones, and I never felt like Jon had to be the one to kill the Night King. If anything that might've been actually anti-climactic because that is exactly what everyone expected. Arya was unexpected but not undeserved. She's been training her whole life to take matters into her own hands and not need to rely on someone else. She also learned stealth in a way Jon and the Westerosi never did. Personally, I think she was lying in wait for the Night King to isolate himself and then pounced. It was thrilling stuff.

The part I put in bold isn't true. For example, everything in Maggy the Frog's prophecy has come to pass, except the manner of Cersei's demise which just hasn't happened yet. As time passes I do get a bit sketchy on which prophecies made it to the show and which are only in the novels, but at least in the books most of the prophecies are being fulfilled. They are however cleverly written so they are hard to predict or even to figure out what they are about (by both the characters and the readers). Some even hard to realize they've happened even after they happened.

Jon has been the character that represents the name of the story (the book name, A Song of Ice and Fire) so it's odd that he was fairly irrelevant during the battle, as I doubt Ice and Fire will be as important to the conclusion of the human world's story. He was the one to make sure the living had an army to fight the Night King with, but that was pretty much the extent of his contribution. Daenerys was of course the other big candidate to be Azor Ahai reborn but as powerful as the dragons are they didn't amount to any crucial part to the final victory in the sense that Lightbringer would. I do get the feeling that the novel will handle this differently, with more meaning.

Even though I did predict that this episode would be the end of the Night King I first want to see the rest of the show to make sure nothing else is made of it, and then I'd be really interested to hear the showrunners talk about this part of the story and how it relates to the build up.

 

[Roose Bolton]

 

[chamber-music]

On this week's Funny or Die Gay of Thrones with Gabrielle Union.

They called the Night King 'Ice Pence'

Lyanna Mormont 'Little Miss No Sunshine'

Baby Theon is leaving it all on the dancefloor playing Stab Stab revolution

 

[Brother Jack]

It reminded me of the piano theme from the 2005 remake of the Fog.

It reminded me of Zimmer's Dunkirk score. Actually the whole episode had a similar vibe.

 

[DACrowe]

Prometheus is perfect comparison, that was poorly written too

These writers don't know that leaving things to imagination is better, you need to watch any given Inside the Episode to realize that

 

[DACrowe]

It reminded me of Zimmer's Dunkirk score. Actually the whole episode had a similar vibe.

I think it was a clear influence with it being almost silent. There is very little dialogue and by the end there is very little sound effects too, it relies on music and visuals. I actually like how dark it is because that's the whole point: this is the light's fight against the dark. With that said, I watched it in a dark room, I imagine if you had lights on the glare would've made it much more difficult to see what was going on.

 

[harlequinade]

 

[Pink Ranger]

The biggest trouble I had with the lighting was telling the dragons apart.

 

[Havok83]

What if the Night King isnt completely gone? Yes he's dead but what if by killing him, Arya marked herself to become the new NK? Im not sure if thats something we will see play out but her final scene could be of her with blue eyes

ETA: Now that I think of it more, I can see Arya dying in the battle against the Lannisters which triggers her transformation into the NK as she raises up the dead soldiers as wights. This could be the true final battle with Jon forced to fight and kill his younger sister

 

[Motown Marvel]

Arya with the slam dunk at the buzzer made me sincerely proud of her. It was a great moment. It was everything else about the episode that had me skeptical. I have no problem with Jon Snow not being the one to do it...but they really needed to give him SOMETHING to do. He did nothing.

 

[harlequinade]

Getting into a ridiculous screaming match with a dragon is not "Nothing"