HBO's Game of Thrones - Open Discussion - Final Season VIII

[Griggz]

This is precisely why people ARE complaining! The biggest battle in the history of man and NO ONE (important) DIED!

She red queen was important, but she served her purpose. How they not gonna show them titties one last time though?

[mexanacho]

Shows gone hollywood and jumped the shark. Im done with it

[Jacobcapra]

Anyone else remember that the dagger Arya used to kill the NK has actually been in the show since season 1? And later stumbled upon by Samwell in some ancient scrolls? The dagger is apparently ancient and may play a role in how/why Arya was the one to kill the NK.

Remember also it was Bran that gave Arya the dagger.

[iamgenus]

Knew as soon as Arya left the room talking to the red lady that she would kill the Night King.

Arya was able to sneak up because the NK got cocky. He controls the wights and had them all on standby as he was about to axe Bran. That's how she was able to sneak up, along with her being sneaky anyway but it wasn't like she fought through them all to get to him she knew her way around the territory they were at and she snuck up. Still almost didn't work in the end but she got him.

I do want more explanation surrounding the NK, his purpose, why he was after Bran and wtf Bran was doing and is doing. I personally am gonna tell myself that the red lady was involved with the human version of the NK and that she knew when he died she would die. It explains her age at least. I think somehow they were connected in the waaaaay past.

Hey there you sexy beast.

I agree with the Arya thing. I realized it when Sansa pulled out the dragon glass dagger, at first I thought Arya gave her the valeryan steel dagger earlier but as soon as I realized she still had it in her possession I knew Arya would get up in dat ass. They definitely went out of their way to show that dagger was super important.

I loved the episode overall. Definitely had my gripes with it similar to the fast travel from Danny last year but just like then...i understand why things were done how they were.

The darnkess and chaos early on was annoying and hard to see but they're fighting the army of the NIGHT King and the whole "They bring the storm". It fits into the story and considering how many people/undead were in that battle it makes sense that it would be chaotic as ****. I knew if they were going to kill off anyone we cared about it would be easy for us to see.

My biggest gripe seems to be shared by others, which is after the build up of the Night King and the White Walkers the end while super badass with Arya leaves a lot of mystique in the dust. I LOVED all the Bran scenes a few seasons ago that were giving us WW backstory. To find out all the Night King wanted to do was kill the last Three Eyed Raven seemed stupid.

Like why didn't he just kill the old TYR before he got Bran to be the next one? I guess you can argue that he foresaw that the only way he could get beyond the wall to kill him and then have a chance to destroy everyone else was to allow Bran to become the last Three Eyed Raven but it still falls a bit flat IMO.

I think the Melisandre connection is basically there are two "true"? Gods in that world. The Red God and the Great Other...basically light vs dark, fire vs ice. Since the NK was dead her mission was done.

[ispy]

in b4 arya pops for a banned substance in a post-fight test by usada, the match is ruled a no-contest, and the night king gets reinstated

[nvrstopworking]

did Jon's dragon die? I knew he landed hard but I wasn't sure if it was actually dead or not.

also did Jon really just ditch Dany in the middle of that field full of WW's or did I miss something?

seems like sending the Dothraki charging head first into that horde was kinda pointless. they knew how outnumbered they were. how did they not know they all would get eaten up and die? I just knew they'd get wiped out but it did set up the literal wall of WW's hitting the unsullied and basically rolling over everyone.

I thought the episode was really great but Arya flying out of quite literally no where(seriously what did she jump off) and landing on the NK then pulling the "ole switch-a-roo was kinda cheap. I mean we knew that everyone wasn't going to get wiped out just to leave the last episodes being the NK's army going south and doing the same to King's Landing but damn.

p.s. I totally knew the dead in the crypt would come back to life! I f*CKING KNEW IT! Wish I had said something first though. it just seemed to easy.

p.s.s. should have had Ghost stay in the crypt with the wamen to protect them. he doesn't have dragon glass teeth or anything so why bother letting him lead the first charge? I know it didn't show him die but it would be safe to assume no? I donno. I hope he made it but I don't see how. then again I don't see how Jorah made it out of that initial attack either sooooo...

The first bolded part needs to be answered... because I had no idea what happened there lol. I assume his drag (Rhaegal?) died because we never saw it again.... who knows though?

The second bolded part... the direwolves got so fukked over in the show compared to the books. Agreed that it would have made way more sense for him to be in the crypt protecting Sansa and everyone... or protecting Bran with the Iron born.

R.I.P. to the Mormonts.... a great house is no more....




WTF are they going to do from this point til the end of the show??? They're really going to go from NK and his massive undead army.... to fighting Cersei for control of the Iron Throne? Seems like such an anti-climax....

[Jacobcapra]

My biggest gripe seems to be shared by others, which is after the build up of the Night King and the White Walkers the end while super badass with Arya leaves a lot of mystique in the dust. I LOVED all the Bran scenes a few seasons ago that were giving us WW backstory. To find out all the Night King wanted to do was kill the last Three Eyed Raven seemed stupid.

Mentioned this before, but the last 3ER was unreachable. The area under the weirwood tree was imbued so no undead could enter (remember a couple wights chase the Reed kids into the cave and die instantly). The NK could very well have been trying to kill all the previous 3ERs but they were all careful. It was only after Bran was touched by him while using greensight that the NK was able to enter the weirwood area and kill the last 3ER. But of course it wasn't in time because Bran become the next one.

[rainieravesouth]

Not true, It was a central theme to Stannis' entire storyline, and also was mentioned several times throughout Dany's storyline - hence the whole bombshell that the word for prince in High Valeryian could actually also mean princess, implying it could be Dany.

Plus the Brotherhood have been babbling about the lord of light since season one in literally every scene they were in. Factor in Gendry's referencing the kidnapping and wanting his blood in S8E2 and Mellisandre's reappearance in S8E3 and it seems to me they are trying to make sure we don't forget about it.

they mention the prince that was promised and lord of light, etc etc, several times, yes.

As far as the prophecy and actually mentioning the name Azor Ahai and lightbringer, i'm pretty sure it was only brought up one time. So to all of a sudden bring that into the picture, wouldn't make much sense.

I think they were trying to separate the two, no? The Prince/princess that was promised =/= Azor Ahai?

[iamgenus]

Anyone else remember that the dagger Arya used to kill the NK has actually been in the show since season 1? And later stumbled upon by Samwell in some ancient scrolls? The dagger is apparently ancient and may play a role in how/why Arya was the one to kill the NK.

Remember also it was Bran that gave Arya the dagger.

Yeah mentioned it in the post right under yours. Soon as I realized Arya still had the dagger I knew she'd be the one to kill him. They gave that dagger WAY too much screen time, including showing up in the scrolls for it to not be something extra special.

Wouldn't shock me if the dagger was lightbringer, if I recall it may have been Rhaegar's dagger or at least owned by him due to the ruby on it.

[rainieravesouth]

in b4 arya pops for a banned substance in a post-fight test by usada, the match is ruled a no-contest, and the night king gets reinstated

rigged i swear, just to make more money

[Trudope]

Shows gone hollywood and jumped the shark. Im done with it

yeah ok


guarantee u will be here next episode. fcking lol

[iamgenus]

Mentioned this before, but the last 3ER was unreachable. The area under the weirwood tree was imbued so no undead could enter (remember a couple wights chase the Reed kids into the cave and die instantly). The NK could very well have been trying to kill all the previous 3ERs but they were all careful. It was only after Bran was touched by him while using greensight that the NK was able to enter the weirwood area and kill the last 3ER. But of course it wasn't in time because Bran become the next one.

Good call. Raped.

[Coal Man]

If you guys want a REAL show, Cobra Kai >>> GoT.

how can you tell? everything was shot in shades of black. all sets, set decoration, costumes, and CGI in the world aren't going to help you when your shots are edited by stevie wonder and ray charles. maybe some day they'll release a remastered edition with the brightness and contrast fixed so you can see what's going on. until then, 2/10.

I saw it in HD and I have a good TV. I saw everything really clearly.

[juvefan]

Why even have another 3 ep? Send james bond arya to kill cersei and thats that

[IronBrahh]

Why even have another 3 ep? Send james bond arya to kill cersei and thats that

this

lmfao if cersei doesnt get killed by lord of light arya

[iabs]

Episode 1 was a huge filler with horrible horrible horrible acting.

Episode 2 was better with some good heartfelt character closure moments.

Episode 3 was a huge middle finger to the fans, sloppy put together battle in piss poor darkness to save $ on cgi, war tactics that made zero sense, and a conclusion to the most hyped up moment in the whole series that left a lot to be desired to say the least.

This show makes zero sense anymore and lost all connection to the GOT show we grew to love.

[Devils]

Episode 3 was the equivalent of doing great in the class all semester long, then waiting until the night before to write your 10 page Final paper, reading cliff notes and doing minor Google research, throwing it together with no real depth and hoping the teacher knows and likes you enough to remember how much effort you put in all year and throws you a bone by giving you a passing grade.

But then again, with this much build up and expectation it was bound to leave a lot of people feeling short changed.

Still enjoyed it, still on the edge of my seat for the final 3 episodes.

There are so many ways they could have made the episode better.
For starters, Red woman shouldn't have come out of nowhere, there was no need for her to be there or any explanation on how she just walked through the entire army of dead to walk into winterfell. Secondly, if she must come, have Davos or Jon execute or barr her from entry. Davos has already made up his mind that any god that sacrifices children is an evil one.

Dothraki suicide but then of course Mormont makes it back because reasons, charging out to meet a superior force in the dark is the worst idea they could have had, It wasn't even made clear who made the order they just seemed to yolo it. (ps having a light source in pitch black in front of your eyes basically makes your visibility zero outside of the light's radius. They wouldn't see a single enemy until it was 20f in front of them)

The entire fight outside the moat was silly, relying on dragons to light the fire and not multiple soldiers with torches and oil. This was a real lapse in judgement for a siege planned weeks in advance.
Showing hero characters getting swarmed multiple times and cut up yet they remain completely fine after hours of fighting. It makes the audience roll their eyes, same old hero plot armor. It was done way over what was needed. The editing of some of the scenes was jarring as well, you had characters getting stabbed, swamped and hopeless in once scene, and then completely fine in others. IE Berric holding the passageway in a jesus christ pose getting stabbed multiple times, then just supposedly running by himself with no followers to get through the door again.

Arya dodging walkers in the library went on way to long and was completely unnecessary. We already know she's stealthy we didn't need a 5 min scene of her hiding and sneaking around. I believe they wanted to hammer it down the audience's throat that she's "stealthy" around the dead.

Jon and Dany doing nothing. Lets face it, They did nothing, the dragons where pretty much acting on their own and attacking targets of opportunity, it's not like they have full mind control of what they do. They made it look like they were just hanging on for the ride.

Lastly, general symbolism. Lets face it, with the NK getting stabbed it obliterated every single walker and the entire threat was gone in an instant. There was no hard fought victory here, only a magic plot device that wrapped up all the loose ends at once. They could have ended it better in two ways.
1. The hero's being catastrophically defeated, many dying but some escaping through the crypts and slipping away. Opening up a final battle at kings landing and encounter with Cerci with he dead at her doorstep.
2. The army winning a bittersweat victory and through great struggle. The arrival of the dawn and defeat/Retreat of the NK, thus "bringing the light" and giving the hero's a small time window to escape winterfell and move to kings landing.

[Griggz]

I saw it in HD and I have a good TV. I saw everything really clearly.

You have your backlight cranked up if you saw this clearly. I have a Sony OLED TV set up the way it's supposed to be and the ep was hard as fuk to see.


The point of the episode was to be hard to see, btw. To portray fighting at night sucks etc.. but everyone who keeps boasting that their TV is "HD" blah blah just has their backlight cranked up really high.

[Jacobcapra]

I think they were trying to separate the two, no? The Prince/princess that was promised =/= Azor Ahai?

I feel like yes and no.

Mellisandei (or whatever - Dany's interpreter) must have mentioned the actual words "Azor Ahai" to state that in high valeryian it could mean prince or princess. Also many facets of the Azor Ahai prophecy have been mentioned in the show - forging lightbringer (which Mellisandre thinks she does for Stannis in season 2 or 3), the bleeding star (which is seen in the show by all of essos and westeros around the time of the war of the 5 kings), and even being born amongst salt and smoke.


But Azor Ahai was the actual person that defeated the long night 8,000 years ago (in the books). The prince that was promised is supposedly a reincarnation of that person, should the long night come again.


Even book readers have been theorizing that the two are not actually one in the same.

[GM54]

i wouldnt doubt this is all a plot by the night king. he's not actually dead and giving them a false sense of security.

You have your backlight cranked up if you saw this clearly. I have a Sony OLED TV set up the way it's supposed to be and the ep was hard as fuk to see.


The point of the episode was to be hard to see, btw. To portray fighting at night sucks etc.. but everyone who keeps boasting that their TV is "HD" blah blah just has their backlight cranked up really high.

Samsung Mu8000 or some crap here. top of the line when i bought it a year ago or wahtever. looked like chit.

[IronBrahh]

i cannot believe arya got dicked down and killed the Night king in the same night

[TBO1313]

This is precisely why people ARE complaining! The biggest battle in the history of man and NO ONE (important) DIED!

Jorah, Ed and Theon are all important

[biggquis]

Yeah, I honestly don't think they made even the faintest effort to make that realistic. It's also batchit insane that they sent the dothraki out in to field in an initial charge. It was like they were giving the NK a new horse army for absolutely no reason.

Could there be a deeper reason for this? It's like Melisandre baited them, and them only, to charge by lighting their weapons and making them think they would be victorious. It's like she wanted to get rid of them.

[leafs43]

People complaining about Arya are just dumb.

There was no retreat plan. There was no falling back. There was no escape.

somebody had to kill him at Winterfell otherwise the NK wins and the show is over.

Stop being triggered cucks

[ceizer1985]

Arya for the kill..

[IronBrahh]

People complaining about Arya are just dumb.

There was no retreat plan. There was no falling back. There was no escape.

somebody had to kill him at Winterfell otherwise the NK wins and the show is over.

Stop being triggered cucks

the show opens with a whitewalker (episode 1)

title of ep the winter is coming which is also the shows god damn motto

winter arrives

and is bested in the same night it arrives

by a character who has been building up to take on completely different characters

and doesnt even take on the guy its been challenging for most of the show

[woofermazing]

The people complaining about no "deep meaning" or resolution still don't get it. This is GOT, not fkn Lord of the Rings. The world is harsh and chaotic, there is no rhyme or reason to it. People die senselessly.

It's literally LOTR. Team up to fight an ultimate faceless evil, win, then go liberate the Shire from Saruman. Restore rightful king/queen to throne

[NillaWafer]

I am disappointed to say the least. A few points.

We've got all of our heroes (except Bronn) in one place. At this point, we've see them all be intelligent one way or another. Some of our heroes are even explicitly known for their intelligence and their capacity to 'know things.' Not ONE of them thinks it's a bad idea to put people into the crypts against a villain who can raise the dead. Let me say that again. NOT ONE OF OUR INTELLIGENT HEROES THINKS IT'S A BAD IDEA TO SEND THE MOST HELPLESS PEOPLE INTO A PLACE WHERE DEAD PEOPLE ARE. Minor point in the grand scheme of things, but I found it stupid nonetheless.

I am convinced this episode was shot out of order as some of the scenes were in places that would have made sense somewhere else. We go from the initial battle on the ramparts with the heroes starting to buckle under the zombie pressure to a scene indoors where they are fighting in what appears to be Winterfell Keep. We are shown Aria being badass on the ramparts killing dozens to her sneaking in the library, scared and looking like she's going to piss herself. It just doesn't flow right to me. The ramparts were still holding yet we've got a sizable portion of zombies inside? I guess I just don't know the design of Winterfell enough, but it seems like a God awful place to try and mount a defense if your innermost keep falls as soon as the initial ramparts are lost. But again, this is kind of minor and not really why I think this episode was shot out of order.

The library sneaking scene would make better sense if it was placed AFTER Arya's meeting with Melisandre. The flow would look like this: Arya fighting -> she gets overrun -> Hound and Berric see her and save her on the Ramparts -> they drag her to safety inside with Melisandre -> Melisandre tells her about killing NK -> Arya sneaking around in library to get to NK -> Arya assassin creed's NK. Now, I still think the ending is bad, and I'll get to that in a sec, but I think this at least flows better and gives us some explanation as to how she got close enough to the NK.

Here's the problem, and I've already seen it posted a few times ITT: Arya needed buildup with the Night King to make her killing the NK anywhere near satisfying. The killing scene itself was beyond idiotic, but I could have gotten past it if she ever had any interaction with the NK in the past 10 years. As far as I know, she hasn't even SEEN a whitewalker or a zombie until today (I could be wrong, but I couldn't remember any). The story arc just doesn't hold up for her. I've seen a comparison ITT that I think is great: It'd be like if Palpatine in Return of the Jedi was killed out of nowhere by Lando Calrissian from a blaster shot to the face instead of Vader. The story doesn't involve Lando and him killing Palpatine would be greatly unsatisfying because it's never been built up. The same can be said with Arya and the NK. Yes, she's a great assassin who apparently is capable of being so quiet that a drop of blood is the loudest sound she makes. That doesn't make her the best fit to kill the villain of the past decade.

Just a few more things that bothered me. It was impossible to tell what was going on at times, and not just because it was dark. I get they were trying to make it feel like it was chaotic and a clusterfuk, but imo the best scenes were when the camera was stable, focusing on one character's moves. The dragon scenes were only good when it was a wide shot; the closeups of Jon or Dany felt really bad. I did really like the swarming of Drogon scene however.

Reps if you made it this far because I could keep ranting about all the things that were dumb. Idk, this show just feels like a former shade of itself. The effects were great, it looked good, blah blah blah, this show was never about the battles or the effects.

Tbh, my bottom line is that this show would have been better off without the entirety of the White Walker and Night King story line.

[Discipline27]

For my boi Jorah

[Bar182]

Jorah, Ed and Theon are all important

lmao please.

Not only are the secondary characters they were all expected to die in that ep.

Yawn.