Television Game of Thrones (TV) • The watch has ended

The true hero of Westeros is
The wooden bench that held the door closed for Arya, the Hound, and Melisandre. Without that thing, Night King wins.

Wooden Hodor saved the day!

Personally i think its Brann. Without him sitting there like an autistic lame sitting duck it would never have worked.
 
So your beef is with the way it's been marketed?

Seems a little unreasonable tbh.

Nah. The white walkers have been a known dark and powerful entity from the pilot onwards. It's the way it was hyped and built up in the tv show which resulted in ultimately nothing more than a population thinner mechanic and it didn't even result in a main character dying. That's my beef. It was a pretty big waste of time ultimately. I mean those of us who enjoyed the white walker storyline will feel short changed and I just hope they don't do the same with the rest. Hopefully we get a top send off. I don't want you guys to feel like I am right now. :D
 
Cersei is one of the big bads of the show though, right from the start. She and Jaime kill Roberts hand don’t they? Jaime tried to murder Bran to protect her. She’s responsible for Roberts death too through Lancel. I could go on...

He (Jaime) goes through a redemption arc while she continues to deepen into her crazy evil bitch form. I don’t think it’s odd at all if she’s the final boss here.
That was Lysa Arryn at the behest of Littlefinger.
 
The pyromancer she employed is dead
at least in real life. Roy Dotrice passed. He was the voice of some GoT books on Audible and a fan favorite who made a cameo of sorts as the pyromancer in S2. RIP.

Ah right.

If she did have some left, then i could definitely see her bringing the whole damn place down and taking out kings landing as a sort of "if i can't have it, your not either" type of thing. Would definitely be in her nature.
 
Well they've called the Dothraki charge as I'll advised, and it's already been confirmed that wasn't part of the plan... So not off to the best start is it? They also talk about the dragons being used in the battle, which, again, goes against what they were being deployed for. They've written it from the perspective of how to defeat the enemy in combat, which, as we know, would be idiotic. The only way to win was to kill the king. They want the dragons to be attacking the undead at the trenches, but as we already aware, they are utterly lost in the fog.
 
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He's not in the books at all. I personally find the political intrigue more interesting and I'm glad that this plotline has, to my reasonable satisfaction, ended.

Yep he isn't but the impression one get from reading the books was that there is a deeper connection between the 'Others' and the 'Starks' and I guess the Night's King character in the book - who happened to be a Stark, and the decision to make an older but symbolic Night King - who may or may not come into the Books, and hype him up the way the show did (kind of hinting he's got some links to Starks/Targaeryans etc) .. got expectations way too high and it has kind of bitten them in the ass a little - lots of foreplay, no follow-through in terms of that story arc.
 
That was the most confusing thing in the episode for me. His whole VR crow stunt. What was the point of that?

Brann is like the most pointless character in the series. Hes basicly omniscient but everytime he opens his mouth i expect him to say "Drrrrrr" while drooling.
 
Yep he isn't but the impression one get from reading the books was that there is a deeper connection between the 'Others' and the 'Starks' and I guess the Night's King character in the book - who happened to be a Stark, and the decision to make an older but symbolic Night King - who may or may not come into the Books, and hype him up the way the show did (kind of hinting he's got some links to Starks/Targaeryans etc) .. got expectations way too high and it has kind of bitten them in the ass a little - lots of foreplay, no follow-through in terms of that story arc.
That sounds familiar...
 
Interested to see where Bran goes as a character after this episode. His whole thing seemed to be about the Night king and warning others about the impending doom. Not that's dealt with i'm interested to see where this goes.
 
It's a good thing Shakespeare or Homer never composed their works in the internet age, "Mary Sue" indeed :lol: .

I guess most of us thought the following would happen
1) battle of winterfell would be lost, the losers retreat somehow
2) battle/compromise with Cersei, the undead march south
3) Final battle against the undead


That wont happen now obviously. I still have mixed feelings about the way we're now switching back to Cersei as the main 'bad guy' but we don't know if she is in fact the 'final boss' as there are three episodes left. I'm hoping there is another threat that keeps the excitement and unpredictability going. I'm guessing on it being the mad queen but i'm hoping for a big Bran reveal that ties back into the last episode.
 
Surely Cersei is a much better and more interesting and complex villain than a bunch of frozen blokes who've never said a single word?

One of the selling points of the show, early on, it gave everyone a back story and even the most despicable characters had a bit of a back story, which helped you understand their motivations. One of the things that made it seem original was the lack of two dimensional cartoon villains. So it's a bit weird that people are mourning the loss of the most two dimensional cartoon villain of all.

I can understand that people are surprised about the Night King being bumped off early. But bumping off key protaganists unexpectedly early has been another key feature of the series. So you can't say it's not in keeping with what we've been watching so far.

But is that not the problem? They never fleshed out the NK which everyone wanted. People aren't just annoyed about the invincible losing but the fact we got to learn nothing about them. We wanted the backstory, motives etc. Nobody I think is sad just because "he was cool as feck".

They teased for 8 years how powerful they are and we only ever deliberately saw small doses in expectation of a big kind of reveal towards the end. It never came.

If I knew this is how they'd do them then I'd wish they never bothered
 
I think they paid off the NK pretty well regardless of his death. The hype was worth it (and I think in time will be better regarded once some people calm down). They dedicated so long to his arrival into civilisation. He slaughtered a village. Took out the previous 3eR. He took a dragon. He brought down an ungodly ice wall. They created this epic battle when he brings the dead to Winterfell. He survived fire by dragon during it.

How much more powerful could he look?
 
Brann is like the most pointless character in the series. Hes basicly omniscient but everytime he opens his mouth i expect him to say "Drrrrrr" while drooling.

I think he's just another character they inherited from the books that they don't exactly know what to do with after they ran out of book material. Time will tell if he has any further significance or not.

The fight against the dead was to supposed to tie all the threads together; Jon, Arya, 3-Eyed-Raven/Bran, Azor Ahai (the Prince that Was Promised), Beric, Melissandre, the Hound and his fear of fire, the Dragons, Aerys the Mad ("Burn them all") and the wildfire he stored, dragon glass etc. etc. It's been built up as the event that will end the Game of Thrones as humanity will have either to join in the fight or perish.

Now it's been relegated to a subplot and a population thinner and it leaves more questions than it answers. Bran is a prime example of that.
 
During one of the what has seemed to be 3000 discussions about this episode at work, a few good points were brought up: The living didn't really have any good military strategists on their side in this battle and it nearly cost them. People will point to Jaime and Tyrion but it's feasible that neither had much of a say due to Tyrion's recent military bungles and almost everyone hating Jaime.
The strategy of the living was so dumb. Danaerys essentially sacrificed her Dorthraki for nearly nothing (and they nearly came back to kill Jon). Also the trench was dug far too narrow, shallow and too close to the wall. They should have gotten everyone behind a massive trench with a huge wall of fire in it and defended from within that position. Also dragons weren't used properly. And I think everyone agrees that only the Starks are dumb enough to hide out in crypts against an enemy that can raise themselves soldiers from the dead.
On the night king side, why wasn't there a specific strategy to destroy the dragons. All his men with those ice javelins and he's the only one who seemingly ever used one?
I enjoyed the episode but it seemed rushed for me. I feel like the writers didnt take time to plan it properly and spent longer on the fan service than telling a good story. Maybe it would have been different with some original GRRM material, maybe not, who knows. Worried about the last few episodes, hopefully we get some interesting twists and good dialogue instead of just more fan service.
 
But is that not the problem? They never fleshed out the NK which everyone wanted. People aren't just annoyed about the invincible losing but the fact we got to learn nothing about them. We wanted the backstory, motives etc. Nobody I think is sad just because "he was cool as feck".

They teased for 8 years how powerful they are and we only ever deliberately saw small doses in expectation of a big kind of reveal towards the end. It never came.

If I knew this is how they'd do them then I'd wish they never bothered
We already have their creation story, we know it's just some random human, and he wants to "erase the world." There's very little to flesh out. The end game was always going to be about throne.
 
It's a good thing Shakespeare or Homer never composed their works in the internet age, "Mary Sue" indeed :lol: .

I guess most of us thought the following would happen
1) battle of winterfell would be lost, the losers retreat somehow
2) battle/compromise with Cersei, the undead march south
3) Final battle against the undead


That wont happen now obviously. I still have mixed feelings about the way we're now switching back to Cersei as the main 'bad guy' but we don't know if she is in fact the 'final boss' as there are three episodes left. I'm hoping there is another threat that keeps the excitement and unpredictability going. I'm guessing on it being the mad queen but i'm hoping for a big Bran reveal that ties back into the last episode.
That was the problem I always had with that idea.
 
It's a good thing Shakespeare or Homer never composed their works in the internet age, "Mary Sue" indeed :lol: .

I guess most of us thought the following would happen
1) battle of winterfell would be lost, the losers retreat somehow
2) battle/compromise with Cersei, the undead march south
3) Final battle against the undead


That wont happen now obviously. I still have mixed feelings about the way we're now switching back to Cersei as the main 'bad guy' but we don't know if she is in fact the 'final boss' as there are three episodes left. I'm hoping there is another threat that keeps the excitement and unpredictability going. I'm guessing on it being the mad queen but i'm hoping for a big Bran reveal that ties back into the last episode.

I doubt. Despite Jon now knowing his heritage, he's has no ambitions of ruling from the iron throne. He gave up his Crown as king in the North to serve Dany. Also he has no way of definitely proving that he is heir to throne. The Words of sam and Brann mean Little in the great scheme of Things. At this point I can't see any major conflicts apart from Dany vs Cersei. Dany has her slightly mad streak, but I fail to envision how that will Progress in the NeXT 3 episodes.
 
Speculation

I have no basis for this at all but I can see it ending with a shitstorm of Wildfire totally nuking King's Landing. End of the throne full stop.
 
I don’t know the books inside out but don’t the books refer to a different character than the Night King in the show? Isn’t it some historical figure? I thought the NK as we know him is just a face for the others they invented.
Night's King in the books is a former Lord Commander of the Night's Watch that took up with some bint from beyond the wall that had icy white skin. He then started sacrificing people to her or something. He was eventually killed. White Walkers and The Others seem to be fairly different.
 
But is that not the problem? They never fleshed out the NK which everyone wanted. People aren't just annoyed about the invincible losing but the fact we got to learn nothing about them. We wanted the backstory, motives etc. Nobody I think is sad just because "he was cool as feck".

They teased for 8 years how powerful they are and we only ever deliberately saw small doses in expectation of a big kind of reveal towards the end. It never came.

If I knew this is how they'd do them then I'd wish they never bothered

That last bit seems a bit extreme. Not every villain needs a back story. They got lots of mileage out of the white walkers over the course of the 8 seasons. With loads of cool scenes featuring them. This most recent episode was a hell of a send off too. Can't really understand why someone would wish they'd never been included at all, just because you didn't find out a bit more about their background. You say that "everyone" wanted them to be fleshed out a bit. I, for one, couldn't really care much either way. We certainly found out enough about them to make them interesting. Brings dead people/animals back to life. Kill the leader, kill them all. Job's a good 'un.
 
I think they paid off the NK pretty well regardless of his death. The hype was worth it (and I think in time will be better regarded once some people calm down). They dedicated so long to his arrival into civilisation. He slaughtered a village. Took out the previous 3eR. He took a dragon. He brought down an ungodly ice wall. They created this epic battle when he brings the dead to Winterfell. He survived fire by dragon during it.

How much more powerful could he look?

I guess it's the fact that he lost the first major battle after breaking the wall. Before then he was only battling depleted forces of the Night Watch and wildlings. In the first major battle he lost. I think if it wasnt for time and budget constraints, he would have won the battle at winterfell and then being defeated later in a battle against the forces more South.
 
Well they've called the Dothraki charge as I'll advised, and it's already been confirmed that wasn't part of the plan... So not off to the best start is it? They also talk about the dragons being used in the battle, which, again, goes against what they were being deployed for. They've written it from the perspective of how to defeat the enemy in combat, which, as we know, would be idiotic. The only way to win was to kill the king. They want the dragons to be attacking the undead at the trenches, but as we already aware, they are utterly lost in the fog.


Who confirmed that? If so the Dothraki got exactly what they deserved. Tits.
 
That last bit seems a bit extreme. Not every villain needs a back story. They got lots of mileage out of the white walkers over the course of the 8 seasons. With loads of cool scenes featuring them. This most recent episode was a hell of a send off too. Can't really understand why someone would wish they'd never been included at all, just because you didn't find out a bit more about their background.
Less is more is lost on these types of people I think.

Hate to bring up Star Wars again but a minor example is Lucas reediting the key scene in RotJ so that Vader shouts ‘Nooooo’ before throwing the emperor over. Like as if his silence while watching Luke dying wasn’t enough for that scene. Maybe that’s what they wanted from the NK. For him to start some long speech to Bran before trying to kill him.

Can’t remember who said it but you don’t need to know answers/backgrounds to all your favourite things.