Game of Thrones [2]

Forest Shepherd wrote:
Book!Arya is 9 at the start of A Game of Thrones. And about 2 and a half years have passed between then and the end of A Dance with Dragons. ADWD is two books before A Dream of Spring, which is where we are in the show, technically. But in the last published book she is around 11. Here's a very detailed timeline someone with too much time on their hands made: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ZsY3lcDDtTdBWp1Gx6mfkdtZT6-Gk0kdTGeSC_Dj7WM/edit#gid=8

Only 2.5 years from the start to Dance of Dragons? One would think it would be longer but that may be the draggy writing as it went on.

Big Dark Episode tomorrow night!
Will it be good? Will it be trash?
Nobody knows but boy I hope it won't be bad.

Well at least we know they won't all die or the next three episodes will be singularly boring.

got to say I have been underwhelmed so far.

It's all been setup. The first episode was underwhelming, but they should have skipped straight to the second one then got on with it. We'll see in just a few hours....

yep 2 slow set-up episodes only 4 left. cant imagine how it all gets wrapped up in 4.

They all die. then it takes 4 episodes for Cersei to figure out how to backstab the Night King.

OMG, that was BRILLIANT.

Some very mixed reactions out there today!

Spoiler:

Good points all, Lance.

Spoiler:

Your memory is better than mine, Lance. Here's a commentary with a few callback videos putting characters in context for episode 3:

https://www.vox.com/2019/4/29/18522003/game-of-thrones-season-8-episode-3-melisandre-arya-night-king-azor-ahai

Maisie Williams commentary:

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/em-game-thrones-em-maisie-022025917.html

HOLY. FUCKING. SHIT !!!!!

still in shock. it was magnificent!!!

episode 1 = tickle under the chin
episode 2 = tickle under the chin
episode 3 = massive punch in the stomach with a kick in the nuts for good measure

It was pretty good, though a little superheroish at the peak moment which I'm not too fond of. Could have made it a tad more plausible.

Then again, if people have been teleporting about Westeros for the last two seasons, why not?

halfwise wrote:It was pretty good, though a little superheroish at the peak moment which I'm not too fond of.  Could have made it a tad more plausible.

Then again, if people have been teleporting about Westeros for the last two seasons, why not?

"pretty good" understatement of the century

I agree with all of this except having Jaime kill the night kings (not a spoiler, didn't happen).

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/game-thrones-battle-winterfell-television-150000248.html

SPOILERS for episode 3

That episode was pretty awful.

I did break into uncontrollable laughter for half a minute after Arya teleported behind the Night King. So I guess that was something.

Battle of the Five Armies made more sense.

Someone else said it didnt make sense? Not sure how it didnt make sense?

It's easier to count the things that did make sense! But here's some of the stuff that didn't.

Why did Melisandre ride in from the direction of the wights? Why not from the south? What was she doing up there?

Why was Ghost with the Dothraki? And not somewhere more important, like with Bran?

Why did the Dothraki horsemen charge into the darkness to die? What was the plan there? Was there a plan? It was an absolutely terrible plan, if so, and a really shitty way for the writers and Danaerys to treat her loyal followers. The Dothraki have been central to her character arc since season 1, and they're thrown away in a moment for empty spectacle. It reminds me a great deal of that idiotic part during the Battle of the Bastards when the Vale cavalry ride in and save the day... after almost all of Jon's troops are dead. Sansa knew that they were coming, and told Jon nothing about it: making her largely to blame for the thousands of avoidably-dead. Imagine if Jon had known. They could have delayed the battle a few hours, and then entered into it with much better odds.

Speaking of which, where were the heavy cavalry of the Vale that figured so prominently in season 6?

Why weren't the trebuchets and catapults used for more than a single volley? Why were they out in front of the infantry instead of behind them, or off to the sides at the rear? Putting them in front meant that they would be overtaken first. This makes sense how??

Why were the troops positioned in the open with the trench behind them? What did this accomplish? Why didn't they fight behind these trenches around choke-points: thereby limiting the number of wights that they had to fight at a time?

Why weren't Drogon and Rhaegal used more effectively? They don't even enter the fight until after all the Dothraki are dead and the armies have come together. And then they rather quickly bugger off to go chase the Night King around.

Why were the trenches lit with the Unsullied between the flames and the undead? This cut off their retreat, why would they do that? Like the Dothraki, the whole point of the Unsullied seems to have been to sacrifice them.

Why did Melisandre have a fairly easy time of it lighting thousands of steel blades, but seemed to struggle greatly to light oil-soaked wood?

Why did the wights that threw themselves onto the fire trench not burst into flame? Every other time that we've seen wights expose to fire, they go up as though they are soaked in gasoline. Remember the Umber or Karstark boy or whoever in the first episode this season? He lit right up, as well as all those severed limbs around him. But now, when convenient to the drama of the moment, wights have a stifling effect on burning trenches.

Why did that blizzard have to come in and make the rest of the episode a murky mess? I was rather enjoying being able to see what was going on.

Why did the wights suddenly go all World War Z when they never have before? Rolling across fields like a wave of zombies, ignoring all the complications that tend to happen when you start piling people on top of each other and telling them to run forward.

Why didn't Jon and Rhaegal light the trenches when it was time instead of taking a breather out on the wall around the Godswood?

Why did we get the kitchen scene from Jurassic Park for Arya? One moment she's killing a dozen of the dead with her special spear, and the next she's hiding in fear from a handful of them? It was a jarring and obvious change of pace to go from a battle scene to a horror film cliché.

Why do the doors in Winterfell break right off their hinges when a small girl and a mostly-rotted-away wight run into them?

Why didn't more main characters die? We saw them surrounded by wights repeatedly and battling desperately for their lives, but only Theon and Jorah snuffed it. Last episode it felt as though we we're about to lose half of them, and it was rather effective. Remember that nice bit around the fireplace last episode? It was a poignant, bittersweet scene, and felt very much like a goodbye. None of those characters died. Nice plot armour.

Why were the ancient bones down in the crypts able to punch through their stone coffins? Were the coffins made of very thin pumice?

Why is the Night King immune to dragon-fire, but explodes into snow after being stabbed once by Valyrian steel, a specific alloy that is said to have been forged in dragon fire? Seems pretty dumb.

Why didn't everyone die once the second round of wights were raised by the NK? We saw them all surrounded in the courtyard, and some minutes passed between the raising and the NK's demise.

How does Jon survive when he was surrounded by the hundred-odd wights, right after he tried to kill the NK?

How did Danaerys survive? The camera cut away from her being jumped by three wights, while Jorah is busy with a couple others.

Why did Danaerys and Drogon sit there while the wights climbed up onto them? Nice move there Drogon, wait to say something until you're half-covered in them.

Why were the White Walkers not used during the battle? Why did the Night King need to personally kill Bran? If all he wanted to do was to kill the Three-Eyed Raven, then he could certainly have let his zombie-army done it for him without risking his life.

A lot of people were expecting some kind of twist related to Bran and the NK, but there was absolutely nothing.

Why was the broken wooden shaft of Theon's spear able to pierce through a steel breastplate, Theon's torso, and out through a steel back-plate? Armour, funnily enough, has this strange quality to it where it keeps sharp objects from cutting and piercing your body. But lo and behold, shattered wooden sticks can go through that stuff in Game of Thrones-land like it's so much wet toilet paper.

How, the fuck, does Arya get inside that circle of wights and White Walkers without being noticed by any of them? White Walkers aren't chumps, I mean except for the one that Sam fought, most of them aren't chumps. But she's able to just teleport on through and one-two the NK to death. With how insufferable that character has become over the last several seasons, and what a shitty job the writers have done of making her story mean anything, I found this greatly unsatisfying, as well as just generally ludicrous. She has super-powers I guess. She's basically the Flash.

Why does Melisandre die at the end? She's very old, sure, but the idea is supposed to be that she has completed her centuries long mission to prepare the way for Azor Ahai or whatever. But what did she actually do? Light the Dothraki's swords so that we could tell when they died in the dark, and light the trench? She gave Arya a vague pep-talk and a hard stare. Is that it? Who is Azor Ahai? Did they come back? Is it Arya?? Do the writers even care? Probably not.

I've heard that both Ghost and a number of Danaerys' troops are shown in the next episode preview. Where the heck were they hiding during the fight? We saw every single person die except for a handful of survivors down in the crypts, Bran and Arya, and the plot-armoured characters inside Winterfell. There were no troops left alive that we saw, so what the heck?

Anyway, that's all I've got for now, except to say that, nitpicking aside, the episode disappointed. The defenders were made out to look really dumb, the main characters had plot armour, and Arya killing the Night King was the most cliché anime thing the shown has done to date, including that time Arya was stabbed in the stomach (multiple times? I've forgotten), flipped into a dirty canal, and then ran through a city until fighting and defeating her pursuer. Just like that nonsense, this episode did not work for me on a plot or story level. The only things that worked for me were the visuals, some of the acting, the special effects work, and the music.