Game Of Thrones (spoilers)

[adam]

So who is left to fight Cerci?

Cerci has:
1. Half the Lannister Army
2. The Golden Company
3. Half the Greyjoy Fleet

Danny & Aegon have:
1. Whatever remains of the Greyjoy Fleet at Pike
2. Maybe the Dornish Army
3. What remains of the Tully Army and the Riverlords
4. What remains of the Reach, including the Hightower Army of Oldtown (4th largest city in Westeros) That is if Sam can use his sway as Lord Tarly to raise the Army of the Reach as his banner men.
5. What remains of the Army of the Vail (not much)
6. What remains of the Army of the North (not much)
7. What remains of the Unsullied (not much)
8. What remains of the Wildlings (not much)
9. 2 Dragons

Danny & Aegon have lost in the Great War:
1. The entire Dothraki force, basically a genocide of their people & culture in a few short minutes. Sad.
2. Most the the Armies mentioned in 5-8 above

I feel like D&A need some type of reinforcements coming to take Westeros. Could the Second Sons leave Mereen and come West? The Smallfolk rise up? Maybe Davos can convince his pirate friends in Braavos to join the fight, what's left of them after The Battle of Blackwater Bay that is.

 

[Rimil]

That felt worst than the 6 draws we had this season ... not enough deaths and the Night King was "defeated" too easily. I'm hoping for a nice twist next episode

I'm with you. I know this is an unpopular opinion, but I think the shows fallen off since season 6. I certainly couldn't do any better, but doesn't mean I cannot see/comment on the drop off.

The NK had an overwhelming victory on his hand. Assuming his forces were evenly matched at the start is being generous. It clearly looked like he had 2x the manpower. And okay lets assume he was inefficient with his army and let it dwindle down to even or worse. It did appear that the living had the castle cleared at some point, but once he did the resurrection he was back to overwhelming victory. In that time, no one of serious significance was killed despite them being so exposed? how? and then he is killed so abruptly by a single rushing girl? He had completely surrounded the garden with his dead, where did arya come from? I know she's a badass ninja but it seemed like the NK was omniscient, as if his army's eyes are his eyes, could none of the dead standing round say, hey watch out she's got a fatal weapon in her hand boss man. A simple jab in the stomach ends 8 season of impending doom...... bleh, that was a lazy out for the writing staff.

For me, the 99.999% certain doom to be reversed instantly is a trope. They set it up, okay fine, but resolved it better, you had two years! There was no novelty to it, nothing supremely mind bending. Literally a single on rushing little girl and a dagger to the stomach. This is fantasy, find some fanciful twist. They painted themselves into a 'deus ex machina' corner, and they resolved it so lackluster.

Congrats to them for throwing obscene amount of manpower and money into it and breaking records, but it didn't translate to quality for me.

Now they are done with the fantasy aspect, presumably, (minus the dragons) and are on to the political. I'm sure they have plenty of room to do something grand with the episodes remaining, but I'll always feel like half the story line was a dud. Maybe they still have something up their sleeves, so I will refrain from judgement till the actual finally, but up to this point its falling flat.

 

[mgarbowski]

So who is left to fight Cerci?

Cerci has:
1. Half the Lannister Army
2. The Golden Company
3. Half the Greyjoy Fleet

Danny & Aegon have:
1. Whatever remains of the Greyjoy Fleet at Pike
2. Maybe the Dornish Army
3. What remains of the Tully Army and the Riverlords
4. What remains of the Reach, including the Hightower Army of Oldtown (4th largest city in Westeros) That is if Sam can use his sway as Lord Tarly to raise the Army of the Reach as his banner men.
5. What remains of the Army of the Vail (not much)
6. What remains of the Army of the North (not much)
7. What remains of the Unsullied (not much)
8. What remains of the Wildlings (not much)
9. 2 Dragons

Danny & Aegon have lost in the Great War:
1. The entire Dothraki force, basically a genocide of their people & culture in a few short minutes. Sad.
2. Most the the Armies mentioned in 5-8 above

I feel like D&A need some type of reinforcements coming to take Westeros. Could the Second Sons leave Mereen and come West? The Smallfolk rise up? Maybe Davos can convince his pirate friends in Braavos to join the fight, what's left of them after The Battle of Blackwater Bay that is.

Arya the teleporting ninja assassinates Cersei, nobody we like dies, then the ewoks dance at a happy feast, cause that's how GOT rolls now.

 

[twsj91]

If Arya can sneak up on anything and kill them without question whats stopping them from doing that with Cersei? Or literally anyone? Maybe thats what theyll do and the final few episodes will be the backstabbing and snaking to get the throne.

 

[Ulrich]

Gonna be real unpopular reading through this thread. but this episode has summed up of what i have thought of the show since the books have ended. and thats that the writing has been pretty bad without him. Way too much reliance on CGI to fill in plots and solid writing. I hated almost everything about last night. The amount of plot armor and main characters not dying killed what made everything so good about this show to start the series. Not saying the necessarily had to die, but then dont put them in those sure death situations only to have them basically all come out of it alive completely unrealistically. There was no epic battle with the Night King, hell there was no real epic battle at all through the entire episode. They never explained where the hell Arya even came from to come flying in out of nowhere. Maybe theres a perfectly good explanation but i dont fucking know it. What the hell was Bran doing the entire episode, his taxes? Jon and Dany, especially Dany were pretty much fucking useless. The flying around on the dragon scenes were confusing as fuck i didnt know where they were flying or why 90 percent of the time. How many dragons are even left? Fuck, im annoyed. ready to be shit on and be told why im wrong, but its not gonna change how i felt about it.

The characters *may* not have died last night because they aren’t supposed to (yet?). When the show passed the books, the producers said Martin gave them the ending and major story points and they filled in the roadmap. Unless that’s changed and they went off-road with the story, then I can see it holding to Martin’s MO of surviving the worst possible battle to die due to stupidity like so many characters before them.

 

[Kangaroo Jack]

The characters *may* not have died last night because they aren’t supposed to (yet?). When the show passed the books, the producers said Martin gave them the ending and major story points and they filled in the roadmap. Unless that’s changed and they went off-road with the story, then I can see it holding to Martin’s MO of surviving the worst possible battle to die due to stupidity like so many characters before them.

my gripe isnt with them not dying. its the unrealistic ways they kept them alive.

 

[The Toe]

Ramin Djawadi should go down as one of the best composers of all time. The musical accompaniment is too perfect. Also, this episode gave me a lot of relief that the books' ending (maybe not the ultimate conclusion) will be really quite different.

 

[Ulrich]

So who is left to fight Cerci?

Cerci has:
1. Half the Lannister Army
2. The Golden Company
3. Half the Greyjoy Fleet

Danny & Aegon have:
1. Whatever remains of the Greyjoy Fleet at Pike
2. Maybe the Dornish Army
3. What remains of the Tully Army and the Riverlords
4. What remains of the Reach, including the Hightower Army of Oldtown (4th largest city in Westeros) That is if Sam can use his sway as Lord Tarly to raise the Army of the Reach as his banner men.
5. What remains of the Army of the Vail (not much)
6. What remains of the Army of the North (not much)
7. What remains of the Unsullied (not much)
8. What remains of the Wildlings (not much)
9. 2 Dragons

Danny & Aegon have lost in the Great War:
1. The entire Dothraki force, basically a genocide of their people & culture in a few short minutes. Sad.
2. Most the the Armies mentioned in 5-8 above

I feel like D&A need some type of reinforcements coming to take Westeros. Could the Second Sons leave Mereen and come West? The Smallfolk rise up? Maybe Davos can convince his pirate friends in Braavos to join the fight, what's left of them after The Battle of Blackwater Bay that is.

Separate but similar listing:

House Mormont is now dead(?)
House Umber is dead (as of last episode)
Believe House White Harbor was ended by the Bastard of Bolton when they were waiting for Stannis.
Obviously House Bolton was erased after the Battle of the Bastards.

Not a whole lot left of the North as you mentioned, *but* there is Deepwood Motte and Glover who stayed away from the battle.

Also:
Would be surprised if any lords from the Vale survived as it seemed the Vale’s soldiers were constantly being slaughtered.

 

[Ulrich]

my gripe isnt with them not dying. its the unrealistic ways they kept them alive.

For all intents and purposes, should Winterfell have really been overrun so easily with 30&50’ walls & built/protected with magic spells from an ancient era? Probably not, but it’s Entertainment.

 

[Kangaroo Jack]

For all intents and purposes, should Winterfell have really been overrun so easily with 30&50’ walls & built/protected with magic spells from an ancient era? Probably not, but it’s Entertainment.

Art and entertainment are subjective.

 

[mgarbowski]

https://tomandlorenzo.com/2019/04/game-of-thrones-the-murky-foggy-battle-of-winterfell/

This is a good write-up of how the Arya story was perfectly executed with regards to her personal arc, yet pretty much messed up in how it intersected with the rest of the story lines, with nods to all the other flaws from last night.

 

[NYCFC_Dan]

The Night King had a chance to fight Jon and he didn’t take it. He’s not stupid. I’m okay with them not going that route. It wouldn’t have made sense.
Let’s let all these undead stand and watch Jon kill the Night King...
They did a good job of building him as an unstoppable force but despite him being dead showing that he’s also very calculated and smart. He only shows up when it’s safe and convenient for him.

Didn’t have too much gripe with the Arya scene either. She’s one of the faceless men. How did she make herself sound like Frey?
I think it’s best to not delve too much into the mystery of the show and just appreciate it for what it is.
You see wind blow across the hair of one of the walkers and suddenly Arya is airborne and making an assassination attempt. I thought it was sick and when she killed him I jumped out of my seat.
Also remember mellisandre (sp?) told her she’d kill people with Blue Eyes? This was one of the visions she had.

Whatever happened to Danny’s vision of a throne covered in snow?
Is this a symbol for Jon Snow?

 

[SFphoto]

Going into this season I was like, "how can they possibly wrap this up in 6 episodes??" Now I'm like, "how the hell are they going to fill out four more hours of this show?" lol

I feel like they still have a card to play regarding the Night King/the Dead.

 

[NYCFC_Dan]

https://tomandlorenzo.com/2019/04/game-of-thrones-the-murky-foggy-battle-of-winterfell/

This is a good write-up of how the Arya story was perfectly executed with regards to her personal arc, yet pretty much messed up in how it intersected with the rest of the story lines, with nods to all the other flaws from last night.

If they were telling any story, it could be summed up thusly: “These folks are well and truly fucked.” And to the episode’s credit, everything worked to drive that merciless point home, relentlessly. The storytelling may have lacked clarity by design, but the pacing was exquisite torture, keeping the viewer’s blood pressure dangerously high and their despair always escalating

I personally like that they went this route.

 

[Kangaroo Jack]

 

[mgarbowski]

I personally like that they went this route.

And it's why my opinion is mixed. While watching I was on the edge of my seat, even with the occasional "wait, seriously?" moments that took me out of the mood and I still admire the emotion, flow and pacing of the episode. It was afterwards that I became less enchanted. I just read another review whose theme was that the writer found his review getting more negative as he went along and that's kind of where I am..

 

[Ulrich]

I personally like that they went this route.

While I had a hard time figuring out the characters and content in the darkened cinematography, it was perfect for relaying the utter confusion, fright, hopelessness, and frenetic pace of the fog or war. I liked that I had no idea where the dragons were flying, and crashing through the trees, because with the winter storm, they had no idea either.

My biggest qualm about the White Walkers/wights, and they’ve sort of addressed it in past battles (the ability to, not the justification), is why when the dead army travels (to the Fist of the First, past the Wall) they move at a meandering pace, but when they approach a battle they charge like doped-up athletes (Hardhome, Winterfell)??? It’s like the trudging of the Walking dead and then the sprinting of World War Z.

 

[Kangaroo Jack]

While I had a hard time figuring out the characters and content in the darkened cinematography, it was perfect for relaying the utter confusion, fright, hopelessness, and frenetic pace of the fog or war. I liked that I had no idea where the dragons were flying, and crashing through the trees, because with the winter storm, they had no idea either.

My biggest qualm about the White Walkers/wights, and they’ve sort of addressed it in past battles (the ability to, not the justification), is why when the dead army travels (to the Fist of the First, past the Wall) they move at a meandering pace, but when they approach a battle they charge like doped-up athletes (Hardhome, Winterfell)??? It’s like the trudging of the Walking dead and then the sprinting of World War Z.

For all intents and purposes, should they have been able to run so fast? Probably not, but it’s Entertainment.

(just teasing)

 

[NYCFC_Dan]

And it's why my opinion is mixed. While watching I was on the edge of my seat, even with the occasional "wait, seriously?" moments that took me out of the mood and I still admire the emotion, flow and pacing of the episode. It was afterwards that I became less enchanted. I just read another review whose theme was that the writer found his review getting more negative as he went along and that's kind of where I am..

Yeah I’m with you there. During the episode I was all into it and ‘wowed’ but afterwards while talking with my brother I started to question a lot.
Like I mentioned earlier if you look past some of that stuff it makes it more enjoyable.

 

[Ulrich]

Perhaps it won’t calm your frustration with how things played out, but I read a quote by Martin who said his characters are specifically suspect to making the wrong, or at least unthought-out, decision at the most crucial juncture(s). It’s been that way for every season (hello Red Viper toying with The Mountain). And it played out last night on a grand scale, from the Dothraki, to the unexpected resurrection of the dead, to Daenerys landing her dragon on the field of battle rather than safely flaming from above, to the master plan to attack the dead in the open rather than at least defend from the height of the walls.

I just realized that last night’s ending fits perfectly with everything we’ve seen up to this point, and the NK is no different.....

In the moment of total victory, the NK took his time first savoring the killing of Theon and then sauntering up to Bran, having not even bothered to draw his sword ahead of time because he’s so badass he didn’t need it prior, and then basking in his glory, only to realize it cost him his life because Arya arrived before he could off Bran.

It’s the Red Viper all over again - he won until he didn’t.