As an episode of TV that was awesome. Extremely entertaining and very well done. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. As a battle though, I had a LOT of questions. Biggest one for me was, did The Dothraki just charge forward on their own when they got their swords lit, or was that the plan??? I know they were prepping Winterfell quickly and with little preparation, but a lot of that strategy seemed EXTREMELY questionable to me, and I'm not an expert on tactical medieval ground combat or anything. They also made some very surprising decisions in the overall narrative that I did not see coming. I absolutely did not think they would take out the Night King at this point in the season and have Cersei be who they are taking on in the final few episodes. I would have bet everything they were going the other way. That said though, I FUCKING LOVED that it was Arya that did it and that caught me completely and totally off guard. The White Walkers being a complete and utter non-issue was also very surprising. I have not read the books, but I am extremely curious whether this was in any way remotely close to where he was going with the story. I also wonder whether he is ever going to finish the actual books.
So, back in S6 I believe, Bran encountered the Children of the Forest who told him what they did to him and why they did it. They looked at man as we are, destructive. Like a plague, I can’t remember the exact play by play but upon killing the man who became the Night King, they realized they created something much worse that they couldn’t undo. The explanation of how the 3ER came to be I don’t think was fully explained, but that his purpose is to “know.” Kind of like a The Giver situation. He keeps the memory of the history of man alive. The Night King, ever since, has walked beyond the wall building an army of the undead to bring about the long night and wipe out humanity. Bran, being the only one who could see into the past and future, and also the only one with full knowledge of him, poses the biggest threat. With Bran gone, the history of man in Westeros goes with him. Ever since he caught Bran watching him while warging and marked him, he’s been tracking him down ever since.
If he would’ve walked up to Bran, and they’d of revealed they were one in the same like many thought, then I’d of asked @EASheartsVinyl for that club. Would’ve been such a punch in the face after that whole episode and really wouldn’t have made much sense.
I would KILL to know Rian Johnson's Night King theory and where he would have gone with that character.
When he came out of it I half expected him to be like, “Hi! I’m here! I was definitely watching the battle and not people having sex! That is super not a thing that I would do right now!”
He 100% would’ve made The Night King a nobody throwaway, and Bran would roll of out Winterfell with the dead, leading them. Ending shot: Gilly goes to the casino.
catching up on this thread, this has been the best story arc I've seen lately, including last nights ep.
I very much thought the Night King was just going straight on to King's Landing and what we were seeing was just a small off-shoot sent to deal with a minor annoyance from his POV. I also did not pick up on the fact that the White Walkers did the windy blizzard snowstorm. I just thought it happened to kick in when Jon was flying by looking at them. All the stuff with the darkness and them not being able to see was extremely well done. The shot of the Dothraki torches slowly winking out was super creative and an awesome touch, even though that scene bothered the hell out of me from a strategy standpoint.
I don't think so. I think they set it up with her being able to move/creep around so silently, and also being extremely quick, that we're just supposed to accept that she was able to put those skills to work while everyone was focused on Bran. But the first scene with Jon where he mentions her sneaking up on him silently, her moving about the library in complete silence, plus all that damn training we (thought we) wasted two seasons on haha I really gotta rewatch so I can watch the hair on that one White Walker move again as she presumably goes flying by him
What will be the next line of dialogue from previous seasons that will reappear in cringe worthy fashion in the next episode?
What a disappointment this show is turning out to be, just leaving me wondering what could've been. If they had spent just a tiny fraction of their cgi budget on some decent writing, they could have wrapped this show up nicely.