The Game of Thrones Thread (With Spoilers)

The whitewalkers saw nobody approach.

In all seriousness though, if she can do that, then ending Cersei won't even take half an episode (once in king's landing.)

 

No kidding. Rewatching it tomorrow on the Panasonic plasma (1080p) in the bedroom instead of my 4k Sammy LCD. The black banding and lack of details in areas was brutal.

 

It's kind of dumb to push everything so close to black when your encoder is dumping a crap ton of compression artifacts into that very same region. They really should've made it brighter or use a better encoder.

 

They saved a shit ton of money shooting it at night to help cover up any mistakes or obvious cg, cloning, etc.

It was a good episode but as the culmination of 7 seasons of “winter is coming!” hype to have all that just end in episode 3 in the first battle is super anticlimactic. We also lost two of my favorite characters in the Mormonts, who’s going to be keeping it real in Northern meetings now?

 

I'm not sure that's the case. It's been graded this dark for quite a while, even during scenes without CGI whatsoever, and it's getting annoying as the writing doesn't hold up to the darker lighting. Earlier seasons could have some seriously troubling matter being discussed in bright, almost clipping yellow King's Landing light without issue while the later seasons have turned King's Landing into looking pretty dull white, arguably more neutral but also dimmer in general. I remember it being noticeable around the Sparrow arc.

 

I'm highly conflicted on this one. Some of the action shots were really cool - and I liked how they showed the Dothraki lights all going out after they charged, was a cool effect. Also liked that NoOne delivered the final blow, and the fact that it was with that specific dagger, given it's history at Winterfell.

On the other side of the coin, I agree with three of the main beefs shared above - 1) the whole sudden end of the white walkers is more than a bit abrupt. 2) as we talked about here the dead rising in the crypt was such a "well duh" moment and was kind of sad they did that, especially with Varys and Tyrion right there - two of the best minds in Westeros? Really? and most of all 3) totally agree that it was disappointing to have so many of the major characters survive the battle. All the big fighters in the castle are literally standing on piles of bodies, and all were shown being over-run and/or pressed against the walls and they all appear to survive? Heck, it seems like Sam also made it, and he was stuck in a big pig-pile of bodies. Again, really!?! And speaking of unrealistic, given the number of wights they showed in that end shot still running towards the castle (and then collapsing after the Night King turned into crushed ice) the whole of Winterfell should have looked like an apple core left near a big ant-hill, totally covered in those wiggling (un)dead bodies.

Thinking about the end of the battle and the thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of bodies that are piled in/around Winterfell I do hope they make some jokes about the smell/clean-up/etc. Especially if Winter is now over if the frost caused by the Night King dissipates.

Curious to see what happens next, but agree that GRRM wouldn't have spun the battle that way. If he ever flippin' finishes the book maybe we can see/read for ourselves!

Cheers

 

I watched it in my dedicated HTR and figured at first that the lamp on my epson 8350 was a few steps closer to biting the dust. I had to undo my careful calibration and bump up the brightness to make out who was getting killed by whom. (Turns out I didn't miss much, lol)

As for the episode, I enjoyed it. Sets up a very interesting finish I think. Not sure what will happen next given that the "Northern" fighters and their allies were pretty much decimated.

Best moment for me... while Arya offing the Night King was clearly meant to be the climax I have to say that seeing little Lyanna Mormont charge at the giant was believable, heroic and just all around epic.

 

My feelings exactly. I think there were great scenes in this episode. From deaths that were heartfelt - Jorah, or deaths that were just great to watch - Lady Mormont taking out the giant. Theon finally redeeming himself protecting Bran and Bran acknowledging him being a good man.

Then comes the other parts that had me wondering why the directors went that way. The useless calvary charge into the night made me facepalm. Jaime, Brienne, Sam, Tormund, and Greyworm all surviving, Sansa and Tyrion hiding in the crips while they’re the only ones with Dragon glass. Bran warging the whole time until the NK shows up (who or what was he warging into?) then Arya’s Nightcrawler’s teleportation into the NK while the rest of his crew are standing around. How did she even get that far?

Well, I guess there’s next episode: Cersei’s Elephants vs Dragons.

 

How did Jorah get outside to protect Daenerys? Last we saw him, he was inside the castle, ya? Seems like a case of Arya teleportation to me.

 

Good:

• Arya offing Night King: Love seeing him and those other pantene pro-v bastards shatter into ice chips. @ultrabike: how mad were you to see Arya pull the same drop-the-weapon-and-catch-it kill move that Rey pulls off in the throne room fight in TLJ!
• Arya stealth sequence: This was very cool and suspenseful. Who knew she was wearing solid snake's sneaking suit under her armor?
• Dothraki lights going out: A genuinely new and unforgettable image. Very effective.
• Tyrion and Sansa: reunited and it feels so good.

Bad:

• Darkness: As others have said, this episode was dark as shit. Night mode may have enabled the dothraki lights thing, which was great, but it was so frustrating to not be able to see anything for most of the episode. Just terrible. Helm's Deep battle proved you can do a night battle in bad weather, but still let the audience see what the f**k is going on.
• Aerial dragon action: Adding misty clouds to the darkness does not help visibility. I completely gave up trying to understand anything that was going on in the aerial dragon sequences. It was confusing as hell and everything looked fake as shit.
• Night King smirk: he may be immune to dragon fire (how?) but he still looks goofy as hell

 

How disappointed are you if you were Melisandre the red witch lady? You travel all that way to light a bunch of swords on fire like "Poof, it's fire magic bitches!" and then they go run off and die 30 seconds later. I would so be like "Oh, well, f**k this shit then", and go hide in the castle too. f**k those f'ing horse porkers for ruining my fireworks. Unappreciative porkers. f**k.

Makes me want to go lay down naked in a field of snow.

 

Good episode, but too dark. I couldn't see anything on my 84" rear projection tv.

 

Arya now has the best CV to be Westerboss: most accomplished assassin, has already seen off one pretender to the throne (dead guy) and another is already on her list (although her list seems flexible), is of one of the right houses and might be pregnant with a different one (as opposed to the two current queens whose potential offsprings might not turn out ). Sure, she's not the oldest household survivor but her sister is kinda useless, older brother is none too bright and is shagging his own aunt, and younger brother is a bird-brain.

As for the episode itself - towards the end I was really hoping the zombies would find whoever was playing that bloody piano and bite his or her hands off.

 

The more I think about the episode, the less I like about it.

I did enjoy some of the scenes, especially the Dothraki lights going out and Arya's library scene. Very cool and well done. At times, they really captured how hopeless the fight was for the living (or at least was supposed to be).

I thought Melissandre's involvement was just right. Some cool fire stuff, snap Arya out of her funk, and then go fade away like she promised. She finally got her role right.

Not that I wanted more characters that I enjoy to die, but almost all of them should have died. If a Dothraki horde can be wiped out in seconds, there is no way Jaime, Brienne, and especially Sam should have survived the onslaught on foot.

The crypts were boring. With all the talk of how safe the crypts were, I could see the dead rising a mile away. Boring. Even more boring is that there was nothing more to them. No magic guardians, no hidden dragons, no meaning for the past or purpose of Winterfell - just a place where they store the dead.

WTF Bran. All his powers, all his mystery, and we get him riding some ravens and not even helping. He can't see the future, so he didn't know Arya was going to ninja the Night King, was he really just going to sit there and let his memories die?

WTF Night King, Endless Night, 10 year build up, etc. etc. Out with a fizzle. No answers, no epic battle, just some come-at-me-bro smirking and then punked.

Dragon flying and Blair Witch battle scenes. I get it. War is chaos, but it was impossible to follow what was happening. Why waste all the money on dragons fighting when no one can see what is going on? And in the end, dragons were kind of meh as far as usefulness. And why even bother with Ghost when he just looked like a large dog and he disappeared in the fight?

Jon Snow was comically useless as always. Couldn't ride his dragon, couldn't get to the Night King, couldn't get to Bran, couldn't get to Daenarys, etc. Why the f**k did he get resurrected if his only role to play in this was to run around being useless in the face of a magical enemy.

This episode was a big FU to all the mystery, magic, and lore of the this world. Nothing mattered, nothing was answered. Other than some cool fire and ice tricks, it amounted to nothing. Bleh.

I usually don't get worked up about my entertainment, but I invested a lot of time in this series, and have been having dinner parties with friends for each episode this season. To see it all fizzle like this, is very disappointing. After how anticlimactic the whole Endless Night was, I almost don't care who ends up on the throne.

 

I couldn't see shit on my TV for most of the episode. It's not the best TV out there, but certainly a respectable one.

The darkness aside, the editing was unforgivably bad. The use of quick cuts and shaky cam work only exacerbated the problem. Whatever I could see, I could hardly make sense of. Spatially. Logically.

Sorry, but the strategist who suggested that initial head-on charge by the Dothraki should be burnt at the stake. Poor porkers submitted to a foreign khaleesi and crossed the seven seas for shit.

The very few things that I could actually see and understand in this episode, I felt were mostly done well. The script and writing on those was at least quite good.

Not exactly a fan of the Arya Deus Ex Machina. But not giving up hope that there's some development or further explanation on that end.

 

Also, great use of the trebuchets... They got off one, maybe two volleys??? The whole defense plan in general just seemed poorly planned and executed. I just wish they would have balanced the style and spectacle with a little more substance.

Also as @fraggler said above, I think the more people digest the episode the less they will like it. Especially after any repeat viewings.