Game of Thrones ! (HBO Mini Series) Spoilers......

[RBHeadge PE]

I mean I get that they were trying to save some money and represent the chaos and of the fog of war. I really do. But they took it to such an extreme that the series biggest battle (ever, or just to date?) will be remembered for its indiscernible filming and not for its tension and epic battle scenes.

 

[Road Guy]

Like seriously?

 

[Supe]

We finished watching with all the lights off, and my wife still said to me "I have no idea what just happened, I couldn't see a thing."  I was not expecting to get Birdboxed by this episode.

I agree with RBHedge - that was a clear case of "this should have been the most epic battle scene ever, but we're out of money - lets Blair Witch the first half hour and then shut the lights off for the rest."

I also can't get past some of this:

1) We still don't know jack shit about the Night King or why he really wanted to kill Bran.  Is there a reason other than "memories bad - kill"?

2) After all that, the only apparent major deaths are Melisandre who's been MIA, Theon (which was totally dumb/pointless), and Jorah?  I can barely categorize them as "major".

3) If the Night King could raise ANY dead as proven by the crypt scene, then why didn't he just do that and show up with millions instead of thousands?

4) If the plan was to use Bran to lure him out anyways, why did Jon/Dany just go play cloud chase the entire time instead of making strategic ground attacks that could have killed walkers by the thousands allowing for defenses/retreats as appropriate?

5) Where the f*ck did Jorah just pop up from out of the blue?

6) Where the f*ck did Arya just pop up from out of the blue?  Did she sneak through the massive circle of walkers who were surrounding the tree?

7) How could the ice dragon topple the wall and obliterate Winterfell towers/walls at whim, but then Jon is safe when hiding behind a half wall of bricks?

 

[P-E]

We finished watching with all the lights off, and my wife still said to me "I have no idea what just happened, I couldn't see a thing."  I was not expecting to get Birdboxed by this episode.

I agree with RBHedge - that was a clear case of "this should have been the most epic battle scene ever, but we're out of money - lets Blair Witch the first half hour and then shut the lights off for the rest."

I also can't get past some of this:

1) We still don't know jack shit about the Night King or why he really wanted to kill Bran.  Is there a reason other than "memories bad - kill"?

2) After all that, the only apparent major deaths are Melisandre who's been MIA, Theon (which was totally dumb/pointless), and Jorah?  I can barely categorize them as "major".

3) If the Night King could raise ANY dead as proven by the crypt scene, then why didn't he just do that and show up with millions instead of thousands?

4) If the plan was to use Bran to lure him out anyways, why did Jon/Dany just go play cloud chase the entire time instead of making strategic ground attacks that could have killed walkers by the thousands allowing for defenses/retreats as appropriate?

5) Where the f*ck did Jorah just pop up from out of the blue?

6) Where the f*ck did Arya just pop up from out of the blue?  Did she sneak through the massive circle of walkers who were surrounding the tree?

7) How could the ice dragon topple the wall and obliterate Winterfell towers/walls at whim, but then Jon is safe when hiding behind a half wall of bricks?

2, 4 and 6 were on my mind too. Would have like to see how #6 happened. 

Who takes out Cersei?   Im going with either Tyrion or Jaime.   Prob Tyrion in two weeks. 

 

[Supe]

I'm going with Jaime unless he somehow dies protecting Tyrion - maybe ends up dueling Bronn?

 

[RBHeadge PE]

1) We still don't know jack shit about the Night King or why he really wanted to kill Bran.  Is there a reason other than "memories bad - kill"?

2) After all that, the only apparent major deaths are Melisandre who's been MIA, Theon (which was totally dumb/pointless), and Jorah?  I can barely categorize them as "major".

3) If the Night King could raise ANY dead as proven by the crypt scene, then why didn't he just do that and show up with millions instead of thousands?

4) If the plan was to use Bran to lure him out anyways, why did Jon/Dany just go play cloud chase the entire time instead of making strategic ground attacks that could have killed walkers by the thousands allowing for defenses/retreats as appropriate?

5) Where the f*ck did Jorah just pop up from out of the blue?

6) Where the f*ck did Arya just pop up from out of the blue?  Did she sneak through the massive circle of walkers who were surrounding the tree?

7) How could the ice dragon topple the wall and obliterate Winterfell towers/walls at whim, but then Jon is safe when hiding behind a half wall of bricks?

1) I would think that the books would explain this more. IF the books are ever written. The show didn't (or couldn't) expand upon that mythology so they had to default to the tired trope of "he's the embodiment of death"

2) Lady Mormont (the little girl) went out in badass fashion. There was another 'B' character who died, but I can't remember his name (edit: Dolorous Edd )

3) Who's to say it wasn't near millions? The books certainly made it seems like he was dicking around for years north of the wall finding every dead body available.

4) Poetic license, narrative demanded it, it looked cool? I didn't get the strategy for this battle at all.

5) see #4

6) see #4

7) see #4, but that dragon was pretty jacked up, he was breathing cold-fire out of multiple places in his neck and face. Prolly couldn't get a coherent strong enough breath weapon to do serious damage. Plus the dragon spent spent a lot of time breathing on the great wall before it fell.

I'd sort of like to better understand the intended strategy here. Because it looks to me that it was all standard dramatic narrative driven: wipe out 98% of the humans, make it look like a TPK, have a few contrived rescues, then the outta-nowhere badass one shot skill to destroy all of the forces of evil. I expected better out of this show, and instead we got a contrived 1970s narrative and cinematography.

 

[RBHeadge PE]

Jaime takes out Cersei in three weeks. Kingslayer style at the end of the battle of Kings Landings.

 

[Supe]

3) Who's to say it wasn't near millions? The books certainly made it seems like he was dicking around for years north of the wall finding every dead body available.

They repeatedly said "100,000" in leading episodes.  But even if he was rounding up people north of The Wall, why not just resurrect everybody south of the wall as soon as they made their way through?  

As for the dragon, I'm pretty sure he collapsed part of the castle right before he perched to start spraying as Jon was on the run.

Either way, I was pretty disappointed how it all went down.  It definitely seemed very rushed.

 

[leggo PE]

Arya! Arya! ARYA!

 

[Road Guy]

I honestly just figured that this was going to be one of those shows where they kill everyone at winterfell, then move down and kill everyone at kings landing the way it was going the first 30- minutes.

But I thought Bran was going to have more importance to this fight, and I guess if the Night King wasn't obsessed with Bran then Arya wouldn't have had the opportunity to kill him like she did. I cant tell if that is the end of Brans use in the story or if it is just the beginning?

Does Jamie know that Cersi has the Dragon Slayer arrow thing? That would be an important piece of info

But my other thoughts is just how much of an army can the north have left? seems like most of them got wiped out.

And this is my theory the way the story is going with all the Starks is that assuming they figure out a way to defeat Cersi, Danny and Jon will work out a deal where Danny takes the iron throne and Jon gives up his right to the throne in exchange for the North being set free again.

 

[jeb6294]

Dany is too stupid to be Queen of the 7 Kingdoms..."we're surrounded by the walking dead, but I'm just going to sit here on my dragon for a few minutes and pose".

This also contributes to the answer to #4 they sort of gave in the post show.  Dany and Jon were supposed to wait for the Night King to show up and go after him, but she acted like a sissy girl when she saw the Dothraki getting their asses handed to them, took off prematurely, and blew the whole plan out of the water.

 

[RBHeadge PE]

They repeatedly said "100,000" in leading episodes.  But even if he was rounding up people north of The Wall, why not just resurrect everybody south of the wall as soon as they made their way through?  

As for the dragon, I'm pretty sure he collapsed part of the castle right before he perched to start spraying as Jon was on the run.

Either way, I was pretty disappointed how it all went down.  It definitely seemed very rushed.

I must've missed when they gave the 100k number, and I forgot how easily the ice dragon took out that one section of winterfell's castle.

I honestly just figured that this was going to be one of those shows where they kill everyone at winterfell, then move down and kill everyone at kings landing the way it was going the first 30- minutes.

But I thought Bran was going to have more importance to this fight, and I guess if the Night King wasn't obsessed with Bran then Arya wouldn't have had the opportunity to kill him like she did. I cant tell if that is the end of Brans use in the story or if it is just the beginning?

Does Jamie know that Cersi has the Dragon Slayer arrow thing? That would be an important piece of info

But my other thoughts is just how much of an army can the north have left? seems like most of them got wiped out.

It was looking like a TPK for a while. If not for the "kill the leader, kill them all trope" it was going to end that way.

Bran has to have a use beyond sitting there looking catatonic. If he doesn't have a larger role soon then he'll merely play the role of a maguffin or dues ex machina, moreso than he already has!

I thought Jaime knew about the dragon slayer arrow, but I could be wrong. Wasn't it deployed in the battle of the loot train?

I figure they can't have more than a few hundred people left. But even if they have 1 dragon, that's still enough to put a hurting on Cersei's forces. If all else fails, the writiers will arse-pull ten thousand troops to fight on the side of the north/danny.

Dany is too stupid to be Queen of the 7 Kingdoms..."we're surrounded by the walking dead, but I'm just going to sit here on my dragon for a few minutes and pose".

This also contributes to the answer to #4 they sort of gave in the post show.  Dany and Jon were supposed to wait for the Night King to show up and go after him, but she acted like a sissy girl when she saw the Dothraki getting their asses handed to them, took off prematurely, and blew the whole plan out of the water.

Being stupid is a requirement to lead Westeros. Anyone intelligent is immediately disqualified or killed.

I felt like the rules of engagement was to not be the first to deploy nukes (sorry: dragons)? Once that happens, the enemy knows how to redirect forces to evade or attack a different area of weakness.

 

[Supe]

They still have Yara's troops, and then several houses that backed out of supporting the fight against the walkers.  Maybe they'll have a change of heart after seeing the death toll.

 

[Road Guy]

I thought Yara just had a handful of people also?

And now I do recall some northern houses backed away when Jon bent the knee & yes also now recall that he was there when Bron shot the first dragon - I need to take better notes.

It does suck for them that most of the Dothraki's are gone, they could have used them for sure.

Anyone think Bron will actually try and Kill Jaimee / Tyrion? 
 

 

[Supe]

Not sure how many are with Yara.  Didn't Dany also leave behind some unsullied in Mereen to keep things in check?  

Bronn is a pretty big wildcard.  I think he may try to kill Jaimee/Tyrion if he thinks they don't have a chance in hell of beating Cersei/Golden Army.

 

[Road Guy]

Maybe Bron will double cross cersi and feed her some bad info

And just 1 dragon is left?

 

[RBHeadge PE]

Yara had only a skelton crew on-screen, but there was an implication that she had more followers. She said she was going back to the iron islands, since it was left undefended, to wait out the apocalypse. Maybe with the white walker threat gone, she'll join up again.

I don't know about Bron. I can see that going either way. He's a hired gun, but he's shown a hint of loyalty before. I'd be more surprised if there wasn't a double or triple-cross though.

Some unsullied were left in Mereen to keep things stable. If the shown still pretended to be realistic then they wouldn't be an option. Instead they'll teleport them over the ocean without a second thought. The Golden Company were also helping (and hurting) in Mereen too.

 

[RBHeadge PE]

And just 1 dragon is left?

It's not clear how many are left. We didn't see what happened to Jon's dragon - he was hurt though.

Drogon flew off, shook off the wights, then returned. He was injured too.

 

[Supe]

I got the impression that both dragons were alive but wounded.

 

[Road Guy]

So the ice dragon at the end was the original dragon lost last season? I got the impression that one died in the dragon fight?