Initially I don’t think it was the battles. But the first six seasons were mostly the precursor to the battles. However the time for politicking and dealing is over. Unless you are going to run the show forever I don’t think you can escape a couple of major battles towards what will be the end of the series. And with a show as grand and as epic as GOT, the battles have to be equally grand and epic, hence the dumping of the budget into them. Which I’m ok with.
Yes. Earlier in that episode, the ice broke in parts, and the wights refused to cross it. I’m sure that’s correct. I haven’t watched that part of the episode in ages.
I always assumed that the wights were under direct control of the White Walkers, so there was no point sending them all to the bottom of the lake without a dragon there as the prize. If you assume they can survive underwater but not swim it maybe makes a little bit of sense. Even though it’s the only thing in that whole episode that fucking does.
I think one of the biggest issues that the writers have had is the sheer number of different story lines occurring throughout the series. Now they have the issue of how do they bring them together and also ensure that they don’t have to continue them on. With the great battles, it makes sense to kill off many, as would happen in general anyway, GRRM has shown before his willingness to kill anyone off.
In truthfulness, if you were to follow GRRM and what he started (especially with his love of killing off heroes), there are two likely endings to GOT.
- Everyone dies up north, Cersei walks in and defeats the Night King
- The Night King wins
GoT S08E03 thoughts:
So, the Battle of Winterfell … was it a spectacle? Yes. It was also frenetic, always had you on your toes, and easy to get into, even if they were fighting loads of dead things and a leader that didn’t talk. But the ending of the battle … the fucking ending of the battle! I wouldn’t be surprised if it raises a LOT of questions on the interwebs. Honestly, Battle of the Bastards remains the pinnacle of any GoT battle. They sure spent a lot of money on this one, though.
GOT S08E03
Fuck the fucking fuck off, looks like we’re going to have a tropefest happy fucking ending, only Mormont, Melisandre, Theon Greyjoy and Grey Worm cop it against the biggest threat in the history of Westeros, oh and that mental Mormont kid. So much for turning traditional storytelling on its head, I get the feeling they’ll try some stunt in the final episode, but it looks like mr & mrs Verycloseleyrelated for the throne.
Some amazing scenes, the wights climbing all over the dragon was tops, as was the Dothraki charge, the end of the Night King was well done, but completely failed to explain what the fuck the go is with Bran, he just sat there like Young Ironsides. It suffered mostly from being so dark, digital compression is no friend of dark cinematography.`
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GOT S08E03
Fuck the fucking fuck off, looks like we’re going to have a tropefest happy fucking ending, only Mormont, Melisandre, Theon Greyjoy and Grey Worm cop it against the biggest threat in the history of Westeros, oh and that mental Mormont kid. So much for turning traditional storytelling on its head, I get the feeling they’ll try some stunt in the final episode, but it looks like mr & mrs Verycloseleyrelated for the throne.
Some amazing scenes, the wights climbing all over the dragon was tops, as was the Dothraki charge, the end of the Night King was well done, but completely failed to explain what the fuck the go is with Bran, he just sat there like Young Ironsides. It suffered mostly from being so dark, digital compression is no friend of dark cinematography.`
Reply to jubal’s thoughts:
This episode did feel much like a trope-fest, to be honest. The last season and a half has also really rammed home the fact that this is BASED on the books, and in its entire run, has not hidden that fact in its opening credits. Perhaps we really need to start treating it as such, and leave the “real” ending to GRRM himself (if he ever ends up finishing the books).
Some speculation I read online suggests that Bran deliberately gave Arya the dagger last season in order to enact the outrageous plan laid out during the last episode. If that’s not clutching at straws, its lazy writing to the nth degree. Oh, and if that speculation is correct, Bran let Theon make his charge and get himself killed. What a cunt.
Chekhov’s gun says that showing Bran giving Araya the knife has to result in a purpose. You might consider it lazy writing, but it is planned. And it’s been planned for a few decades. Giving or taking the basing and what the final novel(s) do.
Given that, it was a giant boring buildup, but the ending was enjoyable.
And I can’t remember when it happened, but we’ve seen Araya do that before. Checkov’s gun.
I’m with Jubal.
This episode was as far from the Red Wedding as you can get, within a minute of Bran offering himself up as bait in the last episode I had guessed every aspect of the Night King’s death; where, who, how and when (the last possible moment). And no principal actors dead, nothing but blue shirts for the next episode’s funeral pyre - GFY. And the military tactics - if your enemy out numbers you stand behind the castle wall not in front of it!
Having said that… I will be turning on episode 4 the second I get home from work next week.
Training with Brienne.
Game of Thrones
There was so much wrong with that I don’t even know where to begin. At least it looked good.
there were a lot of good parts, there were some bad parts. I loved it, so did my wife. Some will hate it. I don’t care. Great show, still really enjoying it and can’t wait for the next 3 episodes.
I enjoyed it, the bits i could make out on the screen anyway. I actually had to rewatch it to make out a lot of the detail… I had no huge issue with the Night king dying - hopefully we finish the last three episodes with how it all started - no more huge set piece battles and back to politics (and tits)
Thoughts on The Long Night.
I’m 50-50 on the Night King being done half way through the season. In terms of importance, all the magic and prophesy, and fate and lore and all that stuff, him and his crew were indisputably the real issue. But in terms of being of interest as an opponent, there’s no dialogue, no back-stabbing, no intrigue, so it becomes a fairly straightforward boring enemy and whiz-bang battle. Cersei’s deviousness as a human is much more fun. And the pirate dickhead’s death will be more satisfying when it comes.
Unless…
…that winter magic bit isn’t over yet and maybe there is more to come there, maybe from Bran himself, starting a cycle anew. I’d like this to become an element, mainly because there remains a bunch of unexplained stuff, some of which I think we may hear more of - such as last week when the scene closed as Tyrion sat with Branners to get to learn more of what he knew. The old Checkhov principle should ensure something from that becomes relevant as Tyrion didn’t put any of that knowledge into a defense plan during the Long Night.
My only real beef: I really wanted - needed - to lose more key characters. No A-Listers killed, a couple of B-Listers (Jorah and Theon) and a whole bunch of red shirts yet again. That acceptance that even the big guys are mortal was one of the most compelling things about the show, and instead it becomes the traditional Hollywood heroes always survive narrative. Though I’m sure they’ll save a few up for the final episodes.
Anyhow, for all its faults, it was entertaining and satisfying. The Dothraki bit with all the flames being snuffed out was a great and simple way of building dread, and getting them out of the way straight up saved millions in horsey CGI costs.
Also this was a fantastic length - 82 minutes - to consume at one sitting of action, whereas films tend to think they need to go beyond 2 hours to justify the admission price.
[spoiler]One thing that really shit me about this one, was the pure failure in defensive tactics. It was almost as though they were being led by an idiot. Why would you send your cavalry forward against an unknown enemy with unknown numbers sitting in pitch black. It’s stupid and waiting for them to get completely slaughtered.
Then you have the unsullied. A force that fights like a basic Greek phalanx. They should be compressed like fucking crazy and have a wall of spears facing forwards for the undead to impale themselves on. The lines are way too spread apart in depth and width. They should have also been at the front of the line, not sitting in one block (the sort of fixed this in the retreat) and covering the front of the army as a defensive screen.
It’s been raised already about the stupidity of having your soldiers outside a wall against a numerically superior force, but why didn’t they have boiling oil, heated sand or just fucking rocks piled up all along the walls? One decent sized rock would have collapsed one of the human pyramids and saved them some time.
When the undead are standing on the other side of the burning ditch, why the hell are over half the forces just sitting there at the bottom of the walls. Why didn’t they go up onto the walls in the first place. Why wait for ages to stare at each other before actually getting ready for an attack they know is going to come. Why weren’t the firing catapults/trebuchets into the undead, surely they didn’t set all of them up in front of the castle for a few shots before surrendering them to the undead?
Throw in the fact that anyone with common sense will understand that the gate is a weak point in the castle, so why were there only 10 or so soldiers (one of them a kid) sitting there guarding in, it’s calling for a slaughter.
Also don’t get me started on the fact that they were panicking because Daenerys couldn’t see the signal to light up the flames in the ditch, yet you had Jon Snow sitting on a fucking dragon ON THE WALLS watching everything happen.
Or I may be reading into this too much
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I agree with some of those tactical observations, but with the Dothraki, they need that open space, and cavalry should be highly effective against a disorganised enemy on foot. Not sure of the wights can be classified as disorganised given they may be possibly centrally controlled, but they certainly lack the cohesive structure of the Unsullied. However having the whole Dothraki horde go in from one direction was certainly wrong.
Also, there has never been any suggestion that Jon or Dany are capable military strategists. Changing this now would be inconsistent with what has gone on before. Additionally, Jon’s fighting prowess is pretty much all adrenaline-driven berserker stuff, with no brain behind it.
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Fair call on the Dothraki, but logically you’d have them trying to flank from the sides, rather than a head on charge. All it would take is a row of spears and you’re screwed.
In terms of Jon and Dany, they had some of the greatest knights, soldiers and advisers fighting alongside them. Pretty much the cream of the seven kingdoms, surely someone would have suggested some better tactics.
Does anyone think breaking the GoT chat into a separate thread like on the old forum might make this one a bit more readable? 
there’s only 3 eps left…worth it?