First of all, I’d like to note that I will try to make this as well written and structured as I possibly can, but if I slip into profanity laced tirade, I ask for your patience, I swear I will get back on track and make a point. What I’m about to write has been bugging me since Monday morning, so while your initial and likely correct first response will be “Why would I care what this nobody thinks”. I feel like I need to write this out and express my frustration publicly to get some sort of closure. I tried to focus my criticism on the point of storytelling and cinematography and set aside my love of medieval military tactics. Because this show, ultimately isn’t about historical, medieval warfare or martial arts it’s a story about people trying to overcome unsurmountable odds. And whatever better serves to depict those unsurmountable odds is fair game.
The episode was full of inconsistencies, unnecessary shots and scenes; nonsensical behavior and stupid decision making on characters’ part. It ended up being a quintessential culmination of 4 season long downward spiral in the show’s quality. This single episode showed us everything that has been going wrong with the show since the producers decided to go off the reservation.
So let’s get down to it.
The quiet opening was a nice touch it showed the pre-battle fuss: the troops running around, last minute preparations being made. It established where the characters were going to be, and did a good job depicting everyone’s emotions before the showdown. Then the wild Melisandre appears, the way the shot is framed at the beginning it’s supposed to make you think it’s a lone white walker on a horse. Although next shot lingering on Ser Davos far too long, quickly dispels that notion. Her arrival, ultimately, serves no purpose story-wise. There were other characters, already present at Winterfell that were more suited to do the things she ended up doing. And their character arcs would have benefited from it, while hers gained absolutely nothing. What was her purpose in life? Why did she travel so far from home, manipulate one of the most powerful lords of the realm, get herself involved in the internal politics and a brutal civil war of a foreign kingdom, ruin aforementioned powerful man, then tuck her tail and run? For what?! Just so she could deliver a motivational speech, scratch that a half-time locker room pep-talk and then serve as a glorified lighter?! What kind of story arc is that? We get the Arakh lighting scene and it looks cool, but it’s there just for that, to look cool. Then we get the unnecessary scene of angry Ser Davos, and Melisandre’s foreboding “I’ll be dead before the dawn.” Why, did it change anything about Davos’ character, did it establish something new? Nope, after all the slaughter and human tragedy Davos witnessed mere hours ago, after humanity was brought back from the brink, he is still fixin’ to execute her, right up to the moment she Thanos dusts out of there. Wouldn’t it be more fitting for her to at least sacrifice herself lighting the trench? Wouldn’t it be more fitting for Davos to execute her, remembering how Stannis rewarded him for his good deed, and then punished him for his past crimes – Good act does not wash out the bad, nor a bad the good. Apparently “Themes are for eighth-grade book reports.” But a throw-away line 5 seasons ago, yeah that’s totally a foreshadowing of her killing a Night’s king, and not a reference to her becoming a near feral killer by the end of that season and emotionlessly stabbing a man through the throat at the beginning of the next. And so, Melisandre ominously stares at Arya… Right up until the producers attempt to employ one of the numerous slights of hand and J-Cut the Dothraki charge. They get slaughtered mercilessly and completely. There is literally no way that there’s a significant Dothraki contingent left after this. I get what they were going for there, and I support the sentiment, but the execution was horrific. They wanted the scope and scale of ride of the Rohirrim raw emotional gutpunch from Faramir’s desperate attempt to earn his father’s love from “The return of the king”, they wanted the charge of the light brigade. But it all fell flat. We’re not invested in this particular charge, because we know none of these people (except for Jorah, who conveniently struggled to keep up with the front line, and returned unscathed, albeit a bit shaken). We haven’t met them, we haven’t spent time with them, we haven’t heard their stories, hell, for the good part of these past 8 seasons they’ve been portrayed as nothing short of bloodthirsty savages, hell-bent on burning everything they can’t carry off, carrying off everything that isn’t nailed down, raping everyone that comes within the range of a quick gallop and killing everyone they have to ride a bit hard to catch up to. they’re just redshirts and they die off screen too. No matter how much I try to empathize - I can’t, it’s not emotionally impactful for me. I can’t help but feel that the whole scene was built around the idea thrown out at the brainstorming session. “Hey wouldn’t it be cool if we… like gave them flaming swords. And … like they ride off into the battle, and then suddenly the flames start… like going out.” Yeah, it would, but only if you convey that behind each and every one of those flames going out is a tragedy of human life being snuffed out, life’s worth of emotion, love, fear, hate, anger, hopes and aspirations lost forever. But instead they opted to put the viewer in the shoes of a foot soldier for that particular chunk of the scene. If you insist on creating cool visual you know what would be cooler than that, if as Dothraki are riding and their charge is reaching its peak momentum their wave of flaming swords is met with a wall of blue shining eyes. Yeah, at first a pair, then four, twelve, a hundred, a thousand and as more and more eyes appear, their charge falters, the Arakhs start going out and the rest plays out the same. You want to emphasize how futile this fight is? Well how about this – Maybe the Dothraki would have been able to make a difference against the Wights, but we don’t get test that just as they’re about to clash with the army of the dead and everyone’s feeling elated an undead dragon swoops across the field raining the blue flame and destruction on the Dothraki line, breaking their charge. They quickly get broken into small groups and killed off or routed. The mighty horde – reduced to a few hundred fleeing horsemen. There are many more versions of this particular moment that would have been cooler or more impactful, but I don’t want to dwell on this for too long. None of this happened and as it is, I’d much rather watch Balian’s charge at the battle of Kerak from the “Kingdom of heaven” than this. For one at least Balian understands that he may as well be killing himself by charging the numerically far superior force, but he’s doing it anyway to buy some time for the innocents to get into the castle. He’s fighting a delaying action. This sequence, however, was completely pointless and served no purpose other than “cool” visuals and shock value that is failed miserably to deliver. Even when the viewer is supposed to see the things from the POV of the infantrymen – the reactions to the unfolding events on the faces of these soldiers is not horror or despair, it’s confusion and bemusement. Only when the riderless horses and wounded stragglers start to appear do we start to see worried faces. Oh, great… What did you think was happening over there, a strong gust of wind?
We hear the sound of massive amount of feet stomping, tell-tale croaking, crackling whizz of the Wights. Everybody gets their game faces on. Finally, the dead appear. Running at front line of the defense. We cut to the defenders; they brace for impact. Cut again towards the attacking Wights. Somehow inside the 5 seconds - max, since we last saw them, a mass of running Wights have turned themselves into a literal tidal wave of human corpses……………………………………………….
WHAT. THE. HELL.
This is not a subversion of expectations; this is a literal ass-pull. Immersion-killing, story-breaking, style-over-substance move. Because, right after the shot that showed us the wave of animated corpses washing over and sweeping away the line of defenders, we get the shot of regular mass of Wights clashing with the pseudo-shieldwall/phalanx of the Unsullied and other formations. And slowly but surely overwhelming them. I’d also like to point out that, our heroes, our named characters at this point are at the front line and they’re not facing the same ferocity of attack as the unnamed goons. They’re allowed to stand solo and swing their sword while unending mass of Wights run past them all around them clashing into the line of extras. Sometimes they have to face off against 4-5 Wights at the same time and they seem to be in trouble, but nothing really comes of it. And this is a reoccurring problem. All throughout the episode there are shots of our heroes standing out in the open, defensive line broken, masses of the dead bull-rushing and overrunning their position, surrounded by slaughter, and they just keep duking it out with the convenient clutches of 4 to 5 Wights. It just dampens the tension and dulls sense of the high-stakes nature of this battle. You can not expect me to be immersed in the moment of endless army of the dead overrunning the world of the living, when a single character can stand out in the open and swing and never face really overwhelming odds. To me, more impactful and closer to realistic depiction of this situation would be something akin to the final portion of the “Battle of the bastards” – A small band of survivors huddled together backed into corner (not necessarily a literal one) Just barely holding a line. People falling one by one to the relentless onslaught. That would have displayed the futility of the fighting this type of foe through the conventional means, and set up the more compelling reason for putting all your eggs in the “Decapitate the snake” basket. That would have alleviated some of the necessity of major characters dying. It’s OK if the heroes survive seemingly insurmountable odds, if there are other survivors as well. Instead we get the series of isolated 1 v 4 duels where heroes are completely impervious to harm. While everyone around them is getting mobbed by unending waves of the dead. By the end we get shot after shot of everyone but the major characters dead in the courtyard and them standing atop the mounds of the corpses, just hacking away. The sea of the dead that’s supposed to be all around them, nowhere to be seen.
After a brief and desperate struggle, the uplifting soundtrack starts playing and the dragons arrive, setting fire to the dead and blunting their attack for a time. Besides a brief hiccup of Jon being obviously in front of greenscreen, the moment feels and looks awesome, and shows us once again how much of a game-changer the dragons are. Shortly after Jon spots White Walkers in the rear guard observing the battle, he peels off the strafe formation and goes straight for the jugular. But our moment of elation is cut short when the Others introduce their counterbalance to the overpowered dragons. The blizzard strikes. The shot of the dragon breathing flames with the backdrop of clouds and mist descending from the sky in thick pillars is one of the most iconic from the show. It also gives us one of the rare glances at the size of the Wight army. With the visibility gone and the flight conditions for the dragons worsening they’re pretty much out of the picture as far as supporting the troops goes. When the blizzard reaches the front line it all descends into chaos. We see quick-chop edits of our heroes fighting, without the context of larger battle, which is rather suiting at this point, unlike the previous attempt it succeeds in putting you in the moment and makes you feel the chaos. In one of these chaotic moments Dolorous Ed saves Sam, but gives him a gaze that lasts a second-too-long and we’re forced to say goodbye to a beloved character. And for a moment everything feels right again. This is old “Game of thrones” that taught us that being sentimental when pragmatism is needed will get you killed, that actions have consequences, that no-one is safe and that you may even die despite being up there with the best of the players. Some die because of blind luck, or rather misfortune. I mean yeah, Robert’s wine was spiked, but that’s no guarantee that the boar is going to kill him.
A hasty retreat is called, the situation is at the brink of a rout. Unsullied make a stand and stem the tide while the flanks are funneled through a narrow gap in the barricades. Some of the unsullied are seen making an orderly, organized retreat, but most of them are staying behind and sacrificing themselves to buy others some time. We see Grey Worm retreating; he stops and gives the order to light the trench. We see shots of the Unsullied getting slaughtered. He’s breathing heavily. Battle sound effects are faded out. The soundtrack is reduced to a single dramatic high-pitched note gaining momentum. And for a moment I thought he was going to stay behind and fight beside his men till the bitter end. Seemed like a fitting death for him. Going down fighting beside the people he grew up, and went through hellish training with. Beside whom he has shed blood. Sacrificing himself for those who just a few days ago were looking at him with suspicion. Sacrificing his life to preserve the future that he can never have. Surely, it’s symbolic of how if this victory to be achieved it’s supposed to be achieved through sacrifice and looking past your own interests and feelings. NOPE! He collapses the only way to retreat and leaves his men to die horribly.
But the trench is still not lit. So, we’re treated to the complete opposite of the mine scene from the battle of the Helm’s deep. Where instead of one berserker torch-bearing Uruk breaking through despite Legolas feathering him in the neck a couple of times – Every single person carrying a torch is tackled and foiled in their attempts to heroically light the trench. In rides, or rather strolls Melisandre to play a human-lighter again. She’s chanting the light-shit-on-fire prayer, but it’s not working. Wights are getting closer. It’s still not working. You can see the dead breaking through the barrier. One’s bearing straight down on her. And I thought – Oh, so this is what she was referring to when she said she’d be dead by dawn. This Wight is going to stab her and with her last breath she’s going to set the trench ablaze and this playing at least some positive role in the defeat of the army of the dead, instead of sending several thousand men to their deaths. NOOOOOPE again! She lights the trench and everything is fine… Except for the Hound of course, who has relapsed into pyrophobia. To me this would have been the perfect moment to send off Beric. Him and several Unsullied make a last stand in front of the opening, They collapse the passage and at the last moment he sticks his sword into the trench and it lights ablaze. The flames consume him and the Wights that pressing against the barricades. After all, Death by fire is the purest death.
Cut in between the shots of this all unfolding are the shots of Dany and Jon flying around aimlessly, and it took me a while to realize that they were lost in the blizzard. Also, there’s a sudden cut to Godswood where Bran dramatically looks up and sees a dragon. And for a moment it feels like the Night’s king has arrived on his undead dragon. OH shit what are they going to do now?! Is Theon going to shoot down an undead dragon with an obsidian tipped arrow? That’d be a twist. Are they going to be roasted by the blue flames of a Gaz-prom Dragon? Naah… It’s OK. It’s just Jon. Why is this moment there, what purpose does it serve? To tease the audience of the shock that never materializes? Yeah, that’s lazy. That shot could have easily been from Jon’s POV and it would’ve made much more sense.
Down in the crypts Tyrion, arguably the only person who has had any experience preparing for and defending sieges on this scale is locked up underground with the vengeful Stark dead and all of the most helpless and defenseless people. While being besieged by literal necromancers… That have demonstrated said necromantic powers on numerous occasions, on the corpses of various freshness/state of decay. And our heroes KNOW THIS. FOR A FACT. The sheer stupidity of this chain of reasoning is beyond realm of suspension of disbelief. Aside from that – some truth bombs are being dropped down there. Both by Sansa and Tyrion. Then Missandei throws a hissy fit. Well, no that’s unfair, she just barges in on a conversation that she wasn’t a part of, makes an out of context, bitchy comment and then storms off.
In the Godswood Theon tries to apologize for his past actions and all the harm that it caused, but Bran tells him that all of his decisions brought him to where he is now. Some of the viewers have taken this to mean that somehow or another Bran/3 Eyed Raven has manipulated events and actions of the characters for everything to culminate in this final showdown. I think what it meant was that every decision he ever made during his life – good and the bad has led him to becoming a man that chose to be there and do what he’s doing, when it matters the most. An ultimate testament to the agency and the personal responsibility. Then bran fucks off into some crows or ravens and pervs on the Night’s king. Who, fucking finally shows up, riding nothing other than an undead dragon. What purpose does Bran’s expedition serve? Who knows… He’s surely not relaying that critical information to anyone who can do anything about it. Did he do it to draw the Night’s king out. If he did, we as an audience, certainly didn’t see the Night’s king react to his daring fly-by. It's not shown that Night’s king even noticed the crows. Or in any sense acknowledged the three eyed raven being active. He just went on business as usual. Ordering the Wights to stop drop and roll into the flaming trench. Why didn’t he order them to just throw dirt and snow at it? Eh, who cares. It’s nit-picking. Seriously I get it, he can expend troops at the rate that the living cannot possibly hope to match, “life” is cheap to him. But I think we kinda established that several times over.
“Man the walls!” Wait, what?! Why isn’t the wall manned already?! Archers are Just now starting to shoot the static mass of well-lit, tightly packed enemy?! Are they conserving ammo? What for? This isn’t some “But eagles solve everything” type of complaint. This is like “Hey, Frodo, why are you knocking on the black gate, putting down the One ring and running away” tier idiocy. Weren’t they supposed to be defending the castle? Or did they think that lighting a bonfire would stop the army of the dead?!
Walls are quickly overrun; the extras are dying left and right like flies, swarmed by dozens of Wights. The named characters however, are holding portions of the walls and the defenses on their own, or in pairs. I get it! They’re good fighters, they’re far better than common soldiers. This isn’t the type of situation where being a skilled swordsman keeps you alive. This is the type of situation where blind luck decides if you live or die, and by all accounts some of these people should be dying by now. Imagine if in the final battle of “Saving private Ryan” only two minor characters died. Would it pack the same emotional punch? I’m not some sadistic sicko that takes pleasure in characters dying. I happen to like a lot of them. I like the good, consistent storytelling far more. I’ve watched them for years, for nearly a decade now, I’ve grown attached to them. But I’ve grown attached to them because I like their story, it’s compelling and realistic, because their lives are fraught with danger. But when we’re in the most compelling moment of the story and all the danger seems to evaporate around them it’s frustrating to say the least.
The undead giant breaks down the door and the character that should have been in just one scene and they kept because of memes and the “positive feedback” get the most ridiculous sendoff. Why did an unstoppable, undead, mindless killing machine stop to examine this girl that he just seconds ago had batted aside without so much as giving her a second glance? Who cares!!! It’s cool. You go girl.
Hound is having a full-blown PTSD episode; good to see at least some consistency in the writing. Arya, alone is holding a wall. She’s got a good action sequence and while I dislike the decision to elevate her into this super ninja assassin state despite the fact that she dropped out of her training with the faceless men on her second year, she has been indeed training in some sort of martial art since the first season and she deserves her “badass moment” as much as the other heroes. She’s kicking all kinds of ass, but then she gets boinked on the head and loses the spirit and runs. It’s a bit abrupt, but still, it’s a nice touch. We get to see that underneath brave and unflappable façade she’s been trying to keep, there’s still a scared little girl who never got to experience the normal life. It’s not what happens to her that I’m having an issue with. I dislike what sets off that reaction in her. She hurts her head and that’s what convinced her that the fight is lost? Are you kidding me. I swear to god, if D&D had just shut their mouths and haven’t done the post-episode interview, I’d have far less ammo to use against them. Beric points at Arya and tells Hound that she’s still fighting, and she needs help. This seems to kick the Hound into gear… but we’re rudely interrupted by the aforementioned fan-pandering Mormoment. I would’ve liked it more if Hound came to that realization on his own. Shot of the Hound spaced out with a 1000-yard stare; having a breakdown. The sound of the battle is drowned out his gaze suddenly starts to gain focus, he sees Arya in trouble and realizes he’s not ready to give up the fight, and he still has someone to fight for. This would serve as excellent character development moment for the Hound, to come to that realization without being pushed and prodded toward it by external forces. Finally regaining his confidence that he lost during the battle of Blackwater bay. Becoming proactive force instead of reactive and for him to discover what he wants to do instead of wandering aimlessly around the world fighting other people’s battles.
Then we are treated to brief, unimpressive dog-fight scene with dragons in which Night’s king violates the first postulate of the “Dicta Boelcke” (1. Always try to secure an advantageous position before attacking. Climb before and during the approach in order to surprise the enemy from above, and dive on him swiftly from the rear when the moment to attack is at hand.) This sequence ultimately gives us nothing, serves no purpose and does not advance plot at all...
And then the show takes a break to bring us the special episode of “The walking dead”. You remember all that slaughter, all the carnage, the dead bodies, the human tragedy, the bitter fight to the death and beyond for the very survival of the human race that’s raging right outside the castle walls? Well, forget it! Because It’s “The walking dead” time. Without kidding the director, or the producer, or the creators, thought that it was a good idea to take a 10-minute detour into survival horror genre. And it on its own merits - it’s a decent effort. Sure, the zombies (yes in this scene they’re zombies) that were supposed to be going straight for the 3 eyed raven ambling around the library makes no sense. Them not hearing Arya plomping around the wooden floor, but hearing a droplet of blood hit it makes no sense, but as far as survival horror short goes - it’s really good. It has stealth, it has good action, jump-scares, sad death of a well-liked character. The whole shebang. BUT IT’S ABSOLUTELY OUT OF PLACE ON THIS SHOW IN THIS EPISODE OF ALL!!! There were several moments where Beric gets stabbed repeatedly and you’d think that this is the moment that he falls, or makes a last stand to buy Arya and hound time to escape. But we’re faked out on each and every occasion. He ends up limping into the room and saying his sad farewells before dying one final time. Then Melisandre gives her the pep-talk. Again, Melisandre is the most redundant character here. Hound could have done this. It would have fit his character much better. With his signature raspy growl, could have delivered something along the lines, of “I know what you feel right now, you’re scared, you’re desperate. Everything seems to be lost and pointless, I’ve been there. But I’ve also seen you kill. You’re a killer. I’ve seen it in your eyes. You’re good at it too. You can keep fighting.” We could have closed on the shot of her climbing out the window while the Hound braced for battle as the dead break down the door. But instead Melisandre tells Arya that the two have met few years ago and she’s said something to her that was vaguely ominous thus she has some murderous destiny to fulfill and she, with renewed vigor… does the most awkward stiffleg prancing run ever and goes off to somewhere.
Thus, begins the epic and completely futile journey of D&D to try and make you forget that Arya, the character that’s been around since the very first scenes of the very first episode exists. They even say so outright in the interview. “She seemed like the best candidate provided that we weren’t thinking about her in that moment” They do this for the sole purpose of it being unexpected. If you want the unexpected make Tony fucking Stark appear in his Iron man suit and defeat the White Walkers with the power of love. FOR FUCKS SAKE!!!.... First of all, make up your mind - either you’ve been setting up this for past 3 years (in which case the the “blue eyes prophecy” is a total shoehorned retcon) and dropping hints and foreshadowing or you’re going for the total surprise. Because people aren’t dumb, they can read between the lines and see the set-ups coming. The whole point of foreshadowing is that it’s there; the attentive viewer can pick up on it. Execution of the payoff to that foreshadowing is what really matters and creates satisfying storytelling. What the hell are these people thinking?! Do they think “unexpected decisions” and “Shock value” is what made this show popular?! No! it was breaking of the conventional clichés of the invincible, flawless heroes and the mustache twirling, monologuing bad guys. All that is discarded for god knows what. Surprise, unexpected twist, the empowerment of Arya (Which doesn’t make sense; she’s had plenty of empowering moments), the “you go girl!” message?! I don’t know. All I know is that everything that happens in between this moment and the moment the conflict is resolved is done to make you forget that this happened. And boy do they try to distract you. They all but point behind your back to ask you “hey what’s that” and then throw a kitchen sink at you.
The final act just devolves into inconsistencies, bad writing, lore-breaking novelties, and outright copouts. They cut to Godswood, then cut away to wide shot of the entire castle. Then the undead dragon swoops in and apparently it can breathe high explosives now??? They have a dragon fight, but you can’t make anything out because it’s edited with quick choppy cuts. The Night’s king falls off his dragon. Jon’s dragon stalls out and crashes what seems to be several miles away from the castle (Don’t worry time and space isn’t an issue at this point. He’ll be right back in action in no time). Dany does her signature smug “Dracarys” and dragon-fries the Night’s king. The uplifting music kicks in again. There’s this long pause before the fire completely dies down. But you know it’s not the end. A) there’s too much run-time left. B) For some strange reason Dany has this look of horror on her face despite the fact that the flames are still engulfing the entire area where Night’s king used to stand and there’s no indication that he hasn’t died. Then he steps out of flames and not only is he himself unscathed, the flames didn’t even affect his armor or clothes either. He gives her the biggest shit-eating smirk you’ve ever seen; ShakesSpear at her - prompting her to flee, and continues on his merry way. All this while Jon who has magically teleported back to the outer perimeter is pursuing him. Night’s king notices him behind his back, from about 70-80 meters away raises the dead (which incidentally raises the dead in the Winterfell crypt, now we have completely useless knowledge that it’s an area of effect spell) Jon is absolutely swamped in the Wights with literally 0 realistic way he could fight his way out of it. We cut away to some more freshly raised dead and irrelevant fighting and cut back to Jon who has somehow managed to get all the Wights that were encircling him to one side of him. Then he nearly gets roasted by literal and figurative friendly fire. Dany’s dragon gets swarmed because she hasn’t learned anything from last season about landing on a hot LZ; she gets thrown off; Drogon flies off and it’s raining men it's raining men hallelujah… Not to worry though, a wild sacrificial Jorah appears and saves her; then she saves him because he’s wounded and she’s no damsel in distress, even though she has never been involved in physical conflict. Ultimately Jorah dies saving a woman he had no business loving, at a place where she had no business being. A sad hill to die upon, for a character that has been with us since episode one.
Jon is carving a bloody path through the undead; he’s going for the Night’s king. There’s a really good sequence showing us how he’s conflicted between helping his lifelong friends and loyal allies, and his ultimate goal to kill the Night’s king. We get to witness just how much he’s willing to sacrifice to reach his nemesis as he turns his back on Sam who’s desperately fighting off the dead and makes a beeline toward the series long antagonist that has cost him so much. He’s lost friends, mentors, family members, throughout these grueling years of fighting. After he has faced off with him at Hardhome and witnessed his true power. “He raised his hands, and they all stood up at once,” he said to Sam after the battle. After witnessing that Jon knew nothing else mattered, he could not let them win. And that decision got him killed. YES! He knowingly antagonized members of the Night’s Watch and risked his life to achieve a goal that no one else was fighting for at that time. And he died for it. That’s what the stakes are for Jon. But yeah, whatever, surprise!!!
In the crypt everyone is getting jacked. Sansa and Tyrion are hiding behind a tomb/sarcophagus and have a real heartfelt moment. Everything points to the “Save the last bullet for yourself” scenario. Sad piano theme creeps in. They exchange the farewell glances. And I was ready for it. I wasn’t happy about it, but it seemed like good choice. Sparing themselves the agonizing death at the hands of the savage Wights and then the reanimation as the servants of the ultimate evil. NOPE! They copped out of that one too. The haunting piano theme stays though, it plays over the shots of desperate struggle to survive in the courtyard and lands some emotional impact to the improbable scenario of all the main cast surviving ‘till the last stand. The White Wankers do the slow-mo power walk towards the Godswood. Meanwhile outside the castle Ser Jorah is swinging his last swings and drawing his last breaths. As the White walkers make it into the Goodswood only Theon remains standing among Bran’s defenders against dozens and dozens of Wights. Theon squares off against the Night’s king, fully realizing that he has no chance but still willing to try. Bran tells him he’s a good man and Theon goes off into the goodnight. Bran is now face to face with Night’s king, several White Walkers, and dozens of Wights. Night’s king gets this over the top slow motion walkup to Bran while Jon is right outside the Godswood, pinned down by the undead dragon and is ducking from wall to wall as it breathes Gazprom fire at him (the flame that a few minutes ago blew through the main wall of a formidable castle) A lot of people were making fun of the moment when Jon stands up and starts screaming at the dragon, I personally kinda liked it. His pent-up frustration and anger from his inability to make get closer to his goal, and get his hands on his nemesis - the Night’s king despite trying his best and his hardest, is what drives him to express himself that way. He doesn’t seem to be able to do anything else, so at the very least he wants the struggle to be over. In a sense it reminded me of Rorschach screaming “Do it” in the face of Dr.Manhattan.
Finally, the Night’s king is ready to deliver his coup de grâce. And finish his eons long quest of killing the three eyed raven (why exactly? So no-one can remember the history? There’s not going to be any history if he kills all the living anyway so why does it matter if the three eyed raven remembers it Who’s he going to tell it to?! And let’s say that is right and it’s not a nonsensical reason. Doesn’t that motivation deserve more than a passing mention during a scene of planning a final confrontation against forces of the Night’s king). He then stares at Bran for a while, and Bran seems at peace. The Night’s king seems to be intrigued or confused by this fact and takes a pause… And you remember how they were trying to make you forget Arya. Well, so do I and during the entire drawn-out walk of the Night’s king I was thinking: She’s gonna jump down from the tree, she’s gonna leap up from the snow, she’s gonna be airdropped via dragon. NOPE she just materialized out of nowhere. As if training for a Year with assassins makes her absolutely undetectable makes her able to sneak past dozens and dozens of Wights and couple of White Walkers to boot. Is the gust of wind that blows past one of the walkers supposed to represent the trail Arya took? Do they realize how ridiculous this looks…? Well, you know the rest. Commenting on how unsatisfactory and unfitting it was for her character arc to be the one to single-handedly kill the Night’s king. And how cheated I feel that all the Jon’s efforts were ultimately in vain, would be repeating what 1000 000 other users and a 100 000 Youtunbe videos have already have said. I just want to point out that either this happened on a complete fluke, and the humanity didn’t deserve or earn their survival in this outcome. The Night’s king wasn’t defeated because the protagonists banded together and worked towards a goal, he was killed because Arya broke some guy out of prison… I can not overstate how lazy this is. One year’s worth of training does not turn you into an ultimate assassin, fit to single-handedly defeat the biggest existential threat to humanity. Especially when you have quit before you finish the course. The other explanation is that Arya’s is indeed that goddamn good. She’s a literal force of nature and can not be stopped. In which case why wasn’t her sole role at the beginning of the battle to just camp out in the Godswood, hiding in the shadows or in the branches or some sort of ambush to deliver the killing blow? Was she going to make that much of a difference on the ramparts and on the front lines that she couldn’t have been spared for the obviously more important goal of killing the Night’s king? If they weren’t planning on killing the Night’s king in the Godswood, then there was absolutely no need to put Bran there. And it would have been a prudent move to keep Arya – the most competent ambush killer beside the ultimate target of the enemy lynch-pin.
Anyway, the Night’s king is dead, all the other Walkers explode int shards; the animated corpses crumble and all’s fine with the world. Honestly, I just didn’t watch the episode after that moment. What’s there to look for, any sort of satisfying conclusions to the character arcs have been passed over, again and again. The biggest threat to the world of the living is dealt with. What’s there to look forward to, why am I still invested in this; To see who sits on a throne? Fuck that. I don’t care, I haven’t cared since Hardhome. Everyone who was competent or worthy to deserve that title is long dead or has been character-assassinated. And even if that wasn’t the case the stakes in a conflict over petty titles are nothing compared to fight to defeat a world-ending threat.
GOODBYE.
https://ift.tt/eA8V8J Submitted May 06, 2019 at 12:58AM by gaaxure http://bit.ly/2WrA2rg
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