Season 6, Episode 8 "No One" Discussion Thread

[TheFuture]

I think at least some of her behavior at Lady Crane's home was acting. Remember the conversation between her and Crane? Arya is a good "actress." She is also a good enough liar to fool Jacquen into thinking she is truly no one. I think the way she smeared blood on the wall to lure the Waif right where she wanted her, followed by her being absolutely fine once she had the sword reflects that Arya was, to some extent, aware that the Waif was watching and exaggerating her injuries. I agree that it could have been expressed better, but thinking of the totality of Arya's arc, that is what I got from it.

That's true, once Arya smeared the blood I started to say hold on a minute something is up here, then when I saw the room Arya had lured her to I got giddy.

Too bad we didn't see the waif getting made minced meat of.

 

[Unbreakable Lex]

I didn't care about anything that happened in this episode. It all seemed like wasted opportunity and doors that lead nowhere being closed. Didn't even get to see Drogon laying waste to those Masters and their ships (though that's probably a good thing since they need ships).

The Arya storyline that spanned 5 seasons wrapped up with little pay off other than her new skill at running full speed with 3 or 4 stab wounds. I wish the waif never stabbed her last week. Arya could have just jumped off the bridge and ran to the actress and hid out instead of needing to be injured. We've seen time and again that the Waif was a superior fighting talent to Arya. Her beating her at 110% would have been satisfactory.

I just don't care about the riverlands. The show has a fine balance to find in these closing episodes. The pettyness of Kings Landing and the Riverlands and Arya's revenge has lost it's luster to me over the true stories of the North and Meereen.

Vary's story interests me greatly even though I know where he's going.

That's true, once Arya smeared the blood I started to say hold on a minute something is up here, then when I saw the room Arya had lured her to I got giddy.

Too bad we didn't see the waif getting made minced meat of.

I was okay with not seeing it once I considered it was in the pitch dark. Serio's presence was felt even if that theory of him didn't pan out.

 

[Matt]

That's true, once Arya smeared the blood I started to say hold on a minute something is up here, then when I saw the room Arya had lured her to I got giddy.

Too bad we didn't see the waif getting made minced meat of.

I agree with that part. 2 seasons of build up led to Arya cutting a candle in half. That was just a "**** you" to the audience.

 

[Lencho01]

because it was silly. she could barely walk last episode... gets a glass of milk of the poppy... takes a nap... and is ready to go.

And Waif's face. Whether amusement or determination, there was something funny about the look she was giving throughout the chase.

 

[Unbreakable Lex]

I re-watched John Wick yesterday. He had a very similar injury as Arya. His doctor gave him a pain med and told him he'd have full function and movement but would rip open the stitches and bleed again.

Milk of the Poppy could have been similar in that regards. She had motion and movement but tore her stitches again. Plus adrenaline is an amazing survival tool.

 

[Thundercrack85]

I like the show too guys, but bad writing is bad writing. Come on.

I mean, you get ****ed up like that, you're lucky to survive in a medieval world. The next day you are not walking, much less fighting people.

Unless magic was involved, this just doesn't work.

 

[Victarion]

I wonder if Jaqen is done with Arya. I wasn't sure how to read him. I loved the Jaime/Brienne scenes. The only stuff that felt useless here was Tyrion joking around with Gray Worm and Missandei. It could've been cut for something else.

 

[Kane52630]

 

[Fist of Khonshu]

So relieved that the A=W crap was nonsense in the end and Arya did exactly what I hoped she'd do: off the Waif and tell "Jaqen" to go and **** himself.

Edmure's decision was interesting to me and I won't judge him too harshly. The Blackfish was on a kamikaze mission and treated Edmure's life with indifference. The Tully name survives due to Edmure's actions.

That's not over. The tinfoil crowd now claims that Arya is dead and that's actually the Waif who we saw at the end. The FM got all this information about Arya's life during the training so that the Waif could assume her identity, get close to someone in Westeros (like Jon, who "cheated the Faceless God") and assassinate them. And this is why Jaqen's and "Arya's" convo at the end now makes "sense"!



I agree about Edmure. That scene was decently-written and acted. Unfortunately it lets the wind out of the sails for the Riverrun storyline in a very anticlimactic fashion. They could have combined ideas so that Edmure gets his son and the Tully troops are allowed to leave with Brienne to head north. The Blackfish is stubborn and refuses to leave -fine, but he should have killed one or two of those Frey leaders as revenge for the Red Wedding and gone down fighting where we can see it!

 

[Mikelus]

I didn't care about anything that happened in this episode. It all seemed like wasted opportunity and doors that lead nowhere being closed. Didn't even get to see Drogon laying waste to those Masters and their ships (though that's probably a good thing since they need ships).

The Arya storyline that spanned 5 seasons wrapped up with little pay off other than her new skill at running full speed with 3 or 4 stab wounds. I wish the waif never stabbed her last week. Arya could have just jumped off the bridge and ran to the actress and hid out instead of needing to be injured. We've seen time and again that the Waif was a superior fighting talent to Arya. Her beating her at 110% would have been satisfactory.

This episode was very underwhelming and dumb, one of the worst of the series. The Blackfish was wasted and the whole Arya stuff was full of some of the dumbest clichés in Hollywood, almost as bad as Arrow's Oliver Queen surviving after falling off a cliff.

It was bad writing and completely unnecessary, even on this show, when people get stabbed like that, they usually die, but because Arya can't die yet, they wrote this nonsense instead of just letting her escape with some cuts and bruises. Then she gets cured by the greatest nurse in the world/actress Lady Crane, then recovers just in time to fight the waif, and despite being injured and bleeding (again!!), she beats her offscreen, how wonderful!! Ladies and gentlemen, the new Wonder Girl, Arya Stark!!!

They turned "expert killer" waif into a joke, the idiot apparently can't stab properly and kill a wounded girl with less experience, whatever DB and DBW... They have also ruined Jaime this season by making him Cersei's b i t c h, he's much better written in the books. Also Jon's resurrection was lame, there are no consequences, no price to pay, it's just too easy and lazy. It's really a shame, but the best is yet to come, hopefully, it will be worth it.

 

[Great Mind(s)]

I'm so disappointed with the Arya story. It played out the most lazily way possible. She was my favorite character up until this complete waste of a plot. What happened with the whole multiple face layer thing from last season finale? I haven't read the books yet but I'm starting to think I need to because whatever they just did with Arya I bet is not whats going to happen in the books.

 

[Victarion]

Time to throw my tinfoil into the microwave:

Jaqen was actually enroute to King's Landing to assassinate Varys and disrupt his Targaryen Restoration plans.

 

[Fist of Khonshu]

Admittedly silly, but a story telling necessity that viewers accept as part of the suspension of disbelief. I mean, you're watching a show with dragons, zombies, time travel possession, and resurrection and you are complaining about a guy traveling from point A to point B too quickly?

Admittedly dumb, but again, it's TV. Jack Bauer can save the world after being shot through the stomach or infect with a biological weapon. Such is the nature of suspension of disbelief. It wasn't logical, but it's not the big deal fans are making it to me.

Yes it's a fantasy world but suspension of disbelief can only go so far and I think they are exceeding the balance point in their storytelling. Most of the characters in this world are human beings subject to the same laws of physics, etc. --not Tolkien elves with different physiologies and advanced regeneration.

Arya's wounds were too severe for what we saw happen with her last night, and they were bathed in raw sewage after she received them! If all she got was the slash and had avoided the stabs, I could buy this a little more, but they were going for the Red Wedding type shock ala Talisa's pregnant belly, so they totally overdid it to the point of incredibility for what followed. She shouldn't have been able to walk upright through the streets, she would have been in shock and loss of blood would weaken her so she couldn't make it all the way to the theater to hide.

Lady Crane used to stab her boyfriends so now she's a medic? If she had been a healer's daughter that might have given her skill a better explanation, and even given potency to a healing concoction or potion. She didn't have that so Arya got a bandage, soup, a painkiller and a night's rest then made amazing leaps and multiple, extremely painful-looking landings and falls without spraining anything and which would have ripped her wounds open in agonizing fashion the first time she impacted the street! Adrenaline can only override so much.

And nothing excuses the naivete and stupidity of Arya's behavior leading up to the stabbing. It was totally uncharactistic for Arya at this point in her life considering all she's learned and knows about this assassin's guild, and totally incongruent with what we saw in the episode before that when she retrieved Needle and retreated to her hideout -which turned out to be not very hidden or secure at all, IMO.

And putting out the candle (how did she even have time to light that when she was closely pursued? And why would she??) and cutting away from that scene was a terrible way to end a confrontation that's been set up for a season and a half. Sure it calls back to her blindness and blind training, but wouldn't the Waif and other FM have undergone blind-folded training to tune their senses too? At the very least, we could have gotten scuffle noises and a death scream!

This just ruined the whole Braavos storyline and wasted time; it could have all been done inside of one season. This conclusion was badly-written, unbelievable, and epically mishandled.

 

[Havok83]

Arya killing her was even more unbelievable bc was saw her fight while blind....she sucked. Its hard to beleive she could take out Waif girl in her condition even with all the lights out bc she wasnt any good

And putting out the candle (how did she even have time to light that when she was closely pursued? And why would she??) and cutting away from that scene was a terrible way to end a confrontation that's been set up for a season and a half. Sure it calls back to her blindness and blind training, but wouldn't the Waif and other FM have undergone blind-folded training to tune their senses too? At the very least, we could have gotten scuffle noises and a death scream!
.

No. Arya had blind training bc she was punished. Her eyes being taken away from her was a direct response to her stealing the face last year. The waif and most assassins dont do that and therefore would not be blind. That wasnt standard part of training

 

[BestGirl]

Quite possibly the worst episode of the whole series.

- Arya surviving being stabbed in the stomach was ridiculous. I suspect the director of the last episode went overboard because he thought her surviving being stabbed in the gut repeatedly would be cool. A bleeding scratch across the stomach I could've lived with, not what we got.

- The Riverlands plotline feels like filler. We got a little character development for Jaime, he got his sword back, the Tully's are back in charge in Riverrun? I'm not as critical about this because Edmure being lord again might pay off in the future but I don't trust these writers at this point.

- Blackfish dying offscreen was anticlactic. when Jaime asked to see him, the guard should've brought his body wrapped in a blanket, not just lamely described what happened to him. Failing that, BF should've gone with Brienne so that the Riverrun plot wouldn't feel so pointless.

- I understand where they were going with the Missandei/GW/Tyrion scene but it went on for a touch too long. The shot of the Masters attacking Mereen was spectacular, though.

- On a more positive note, I enjoyed the Cersei scenes. Trial by combat being banned really shocked me as I thought we were in for Cleganebowl.

- Speaking Clegane, the Hound scenes were also really good. Nice to see he hasn't lost his edge. I didn't entirely understand the execution scene, though. They told him he could only kill two of them, yet he knocked the stump out from all three and they didn't seem to care.

At least next week looks better.

 

[BestGirl]

And putting out the candle (how did she even have time to light that when she was closely pursued? And why would she??) and cutting away from that scene was a terrible way to end a confrontation that's been set up for a season and a half. Sure it calls back to her blindness and blind training, but wouldn't the Waif and other FM have undergone blind-folded training to tune their senses too? At the very least, we could have gotten scuffle noises and a death scream!

She probably lit the candle so as to lure the Waif in. If the Waif can't fight in darkness, she wouldn't enter a dark room and she definitely wouldn't close the door.

I agree about the scuffle and scream, though. That would've been awesome.

 

[Fist of Khonshu]

She probably lit the candle so as to lure the Waif in. If the Waif can't fight in darkness, she wouldn't enter a dark room and she definitely wouldn't close the door.

I agree about the scuffle and scream, though. That would've been awesome.

She had already left the trail of blood and bloody handprints on the entrance. The candle was for the sole benefit of the audience to illuminate the beginning of the action inside and for dramatic effect -lights out with Needle before I kill you with it! And how do we know that all of the FM don't train in the dark to tune their senses? That's a valuable skill for an assassin who may need to take someone out in a dark bedroom.

That was all just badly conceived, IMO.

 

[Teddy Westside]

Quite possibly the worst episode of the whole series.

- Speaking Clegane, the Hound scenes were also really good. Nice to see he hasn't lost his edge. I didn't entirely understand the execution scene, though. They told him he could only kill two of them, yet he knocked the stump out from all three and they didn't seem to care.

Hound kicked the first two stumps...Beric kicked out the third.

 

[Drizzle]

- On a more positive note, I enjoyed the Cersei scenes. Trial by combat being banned really shocked me as I thought we were in for Cleganebowl.

Oh I still think that's a fight we're going to see.

 

[Fist of Khonshu]

No. Arya had blind training bc she was punished. Her eyes being taken away from her was a direct response to her stealing the face last year. The waif and most assassins dont do that and therefore would not be blind. That wasnt standard part of training

You don't know that, and it should be. Blindfighting is a useful skill for an assassin who may have to use it if their mark is in a dark bedroom at night, or dark alleyway, or the assassin puts out the lights in order to move in for the kill. The assassins may practice in dark rooms or with blindfolds, so Arya's training continued anyway but without those measures because her punishment had already removed the sight.

 

[BestGirl]

She had already left the trail of blood and bloody handprints on the entrance. The candle was for the sole benefit of the audience to illuminate the beginning of the action inside and for dramatic effect -lights out with Needle before I kill you with it! And how do we know that all of the FM don't train in the dark to tune their senses? That's a valuable skill for an assassin who may need to take someone out in a dark bedroom.

That was all just badly conceived, IMO.

The blood trail led the Waif into the room, but Arya wanted the Waif inside the room, with the door closed. She's trained with the Waif for a while and presumably suspects she can't fight in darkness. Well, if the Waif knows darkness is her Achilles heel as well she won't voluntarily enter a dark room. She needs to enter a reasonably lit room and then have the light cut out.

Hound kicked the first two stumps...Beric kicked out the third.

Oops, my mistake.

 

[Fist of Khonshu]

The blood trail led the Waif into the room, but Arya wanted the Waif inside the room, with the door closed. She's trained with the Waif for a while and presumably suspects she can't fight in darkness. Well, if the Waif knows darkness is her Achilles heel as well she won't voluntarily enter a dark room. She needs to enter a reasonably lit room and then have the light cut out.

The Waif would have entered even if it was dark, and I think the Waif would be able to fight in the dark as well, as any good assassin with a full skillset should.

Then again, as the bridge scene proved, she's a crappy assassin.

 

[Havok83]

You don't know that, and it should be. Blindfighting is a useful skill for an assassin who may have to use it if their mark is in a dark bedroom at night, or dark alleyway, or the assassin puts out the lights in order to move in for the kill. The assassins may practice in dark rooms or with blindfolds, so Arya's training continued anyway but without those measures because her punishment had already removed the sight.

well you dont know that either. Im going just based on what was shown on the show. You are assuming something that may or may not have been the case

 

[Thundercrack85]

- I understand where they were going with the Missandei/GW/Tyrion scene but it went on for a touch too long. The shot of the Masters attacking Mereen was spectacular, though.

I thought this episode overall was very weak, but that was pretty well done.

 

[Fist of Khonshu]

“That old rumor you told me about — my little birds investigated,” Qyburn tells Cersei.

"Tell me, was it a rumor or something more?" she replies.

"More, Your Grace. So much more."

<Cue mischievous smirks.>

The main theory going around now is that this rumor pertains to the

Spoiler

hidden, underground caches of Wildfire that the Mad King had planted throughout King's Landing and that Cersei will burn the city to the ground before submitting to the judgement of the Faith. We did see Wildfire igniting in Bran's recent vision download.

I believe that there may be a cache underneath the Sept of Baelor that she will wish to ignite to incinerate the High Sparrow and as many of his fanatics as she can. And I think the plan will go awry and accidentally kill Tommen who happens to be visiting the Sept, or the wildfire will cause a chain-reaction that sets other connected, hidden caches ablaze, possibly under parts of the Red Keep.

I just have a feeling that Tommen will die this season (a King dies every season: Robert 1, Renly 2, Robb 3, Joffrey 4, Stannis and Mance 5) and it would be tragically-poetic that Cersei be responsible for this one - her last child, her children being the only thing she's ever loved, cementing her final, bitter downfall and the fulfillment of the witch's prophecy from her youth.

Supporting GIFS that illustrate this theory:

Spoiler