"Book readers" - Season 8 Episode 3 "The Long Night" - Spoilers post 2 forward

awec

awec wrote: »

Agree, there has to be something more about Bran, otherwise that was one very long, drawn out, pointless arc that he had.

I reckon he could take Dany into the visions about Jon's lineage. Bran was taken into visions before he was the three-eyed raven so it could be possible.

podgemonster

EagererBeaver wrote: »

Is there any point to Bran now for the next three episodes?!

He'll probably become an advocate for the planting of Weirwood trees and try to claim disability benefit off the crown.

The White Wolf

Poor oul Theon; sacrificed in order to lure the Night King into a false sense of security before he was ninja'ed by Arya. Suppose he was ****ed anyway.

That's The Great War, the only war as we've been told so many times, done and dusted - back to the melodrama of who ****s over who to sit on the Iron Throne.

pxdf9i5cmoavkz

The best fight scene from the last episode.



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Is Arya some sort of super silent ninja? How the hell did she sneak past everyone.

--

Mr Velo wrote: »

Official episode name was "The Long Night" not Battle of Winterfell

HBO only releases the title of the show just before it airs to avoid spoilers.

Paddy Cow

pinkypinky wrote: »

Bring on the battle for the Iron Throne.
Who will win?

Sansa, with Tyrion as her hand.

paulbok

Still shaking after watching it last night, epic.
The amount of main characters left standing aside the only puzzle for me is the knife Arya killed the NK with.
It looked like the Valayrian steel dagger she always had, but didn't she give that to Sansa before going to the crypts, we even see Sansa draw it as the wights invaded?

fitz

paulbok wrote: »

Still shaking after watching it last night, epic.
The amount of main characters left standing aside the only puzzle for me is the knife Arya killed the NK with.
It looked like the Valayrian steel dagger she always had, but didn't she give that to Sansa before going to the crypts, we even see Sansa draw it as the wights invaded?

No, she gave the dragonglass dagger Sansa drew when hiding with Tyrion after the dead rose in the crypt.

awec

The Night King death is bugging me. I don't know. It seems to have just disregarded the lore. You could have replaced the NK with any villain at the end, since all it took was a ninja woman with a nifty little knife slight of hand. I won't even go in to how implausible the logistics of the actual death seem (Arya must be some sprinter).

Killed by a character with pretty much no interaction with that entire story arc throughout the series.

It feels like he was built up too much for what we got in the end. It feels muddled.

RobbingBandit

Lyanna Mormont BEST DEATH EVER. That was a very confusing plot development for the Night King did not see that coming. Ah poor Jorah we'll miss you.

ERG89

pinkypinky wrote:

But I agree it was really hard to follow.

My biggest problem was that there must have been a few hundred transitions between characters in this episode. When your doing that in near constant darkness with fog or smoke effects it's very confusing. I thought it was quite badly shot.....
Maybe I'm mistaken but I don't understand why they made those dragonglass swords when most seemed to battle with the regular swords anyway.
No major character deaths either was strange. I feel since they exhausted the written material that its fairly noticeable.

Liam O

paulbok wrote: »

Still shaking after watching it last night, epic.
The amount of main characters left standing aside the only puzzle for me is the knife Arya killed the NK with.
It looked like the Valayrian steel dagger she always had, but didn't she give that to Sansa before going to the crypts, we even see Sansa draw it as the wights invaded?

Think that was a dragonglass one she gave her.

I'd imagine Rhaegal is dead too the way he stumbled and fell out of the sky.

Liam O

ERG89 wrote: »

My biggest problem was that there must have been a few hundred transitions between characters in this episode. When your doing that in near constant darkness with fog or smoke effects it's very confusing. I thought it was quite badly shot.....
Maybe I'm mistaken but I don't understand why they made those dragonglass swords when most seemed to battle with the regular swords anyway.
No major character deaths either was strange. I feel since they exhausted the written material that its fairly noticeable.

Making all the dragonglass swords was a bit silly considering they have no big power again wights and there are only 13 or whatever walkers. Them all getting wrecked in one foul swoop felt rushed which probably shouldn't happen in an 80 minute episode of anything.

awec

Questions I hope get answered in the show:

- What / who was the Night King and what did he want?
- What was the story with Craster's children. Why did he keep taking them and turning them into Wights / Walkers?
- Why did the NK want to kill the 3 eyed Raven ?
- Who are the walkers, and why is there so few of them?
- What is the point in Bran?

Daith

awec wrote: »

The Night King death is bugging me. I don't know. It seems to have just disregarded the lore. You could have replaced the NK with any villain at the end, since all it took was a ninja woman with a nifty little knife slight of hand. I won't even go in to how implausible the logistics of the actual death seem (Arya must be some sprinter).

I thought it was fine. When Bran gives Arya the knife, he kinda pulls back and I always thought he knew where it would end up. Arya dropping the knife was the same as her fighting Brienne.

Agree with the super ninja skills when she had trouble evading the wights in the library though.

awec wrote: »

Questions I hope get answered in the show:

- What / who was the Night King and what did he want?
- What was the story with Craster's children. Why did he keep taking them and turning them into Wights / Walkers?
- Why did the NK want to kill the 3 eyed Raven ?
- Who are the walkers, and why is there so few of them?
- What is the point in Bran?

1. To destroy everything and erase the world
2. He needed an army?
3. Erase the world's memories
4. Craster's children so wasn't an endless supply?
5. Successfully laid a trap for the Night King?

Some of these were answered, doesn't mean they're satisfying though.

Nody

awec wrote: »

Questions I hope get answered in the show:

- What / who was the Night King and what did he want?

I think this was brought up back in season 7 with Bran & the original children when they were in the cave system on how they created the NK by infusing a human (apparently random human) with a piece from a special tree to fight against the human invaders into their lands. This for some reason morphed into a "kill everything living" as motivation. Never was very clear on it beyond that however and it only was a short interlude.

paulbok

fitz wrote: »

No, she gave the dragonglass dagger Sansa drew when hiding with Tyrion after the dead rose in the crypt.

Cheers. Couldn't make it out right it was do dark

DeepBlue

I regret not wearing a heart rate monitor while watching that so I could look back at the spikes for sh1ts and giggles - the tension was unreal. So much so that I had to take a breather every 30 minutes or so.
I've read too many books and watched too many tv series to know that it's very, very difficult to craft a satisfying ending to a long series and I'm not expecting one from GOT. Just so long as they don't mess it up too much I'll be happy enough but it's all about managing expectations.

Agree that it was too dark but fairly epic all the same.

paulbok

Liam O wrote: »

Making all the dragonglass swords was a bit silly considering they have no big power again wights and there are only 13 or whatever walkers. Them all getting wrecked in one foul swoop felt rushed which probably shouldn't happen in an 80 minute episode of anything.

Thought the dragonglass killed a wight when you stick them with the pointy end a regular steel weapon just cuts then, butthey still keep coming.

Nody

paulbok wrote: »

Thought the dragonglass killed a wight when you stick them with the pointy end a regular steel weapon just cuts then, butthey still keep coming.

That and they don't bleed since they are all frozen; neither which appeared to apply in this episode for some reason.

The Hound Gone Wild

-Jon S8E1: Infront of the weirwood tree

- Arya appears

Jon: "how did you sneak up on me?"

; ]

podgemonster

The Dead are already here - This kind of marks what this episode is about, enough chatting, enough allegiances and trials, its living versus dead and they don't negotiate. What we saw was an 80 minute blockbuster battle made for TV, it will have its visual limitations.

There were some glorious visual spectacles though, the moonlight dragon ride, Visercian blasting down winterfell yard, the charge of the dothraki while the fireballs reign, the trench lighting up, Viscerian v Rhageal.

While I do agree the battle should have had more headline casualties, but then for a story so rich, we need rich characters to make the last 3 episodes more dynamic, the final episode can't just be 3-4 characters smiling and walking off to the sunset, there has to be more to this saga for major and minor characters alike . Killing characters for the sake of killing them is not what GoT is about, characters die because they made poor moves or have certain weaknesses, Ned's honor, Robbs love, Ramseys cruelty, Oberyns arrogance, Stannis stubbornness, Joffery sadisticness, Littlefingers scheming etc...

The Night Kings lost the game of thrones in this episode almost like Oberyn. He extremely cautious at first. He saw his main enemies as the brute force of the armies of Winterfell, and the two dragon riders. He protects his WW in a snowstorm and only marches in with them when both dragons are incapacitated, and then pins Jon down with Viscerian. He takes down Theon himself for sport while surrounded by help and then take his sweet time starring Bran in the eye. Bran has brought him to this point, he's goaded the NK with his ravens and brought him to literally Arya's back garden and armed her with a Valerian dagger.

The early scene with Arya in the Library (?) shows she moves quieter than the sound of blood dripping on stone. Syrio Forel thought her to move like a cat, fast, silent, deadly. In a way, it was brilliant, very GoT, the big hero didn't kill the big bad, it was girl with a knife that no-one saw, jumping out from the shadows.

EagererBeaver

The Hound Gone Wild wrote: »

-Jon S8E1: Infront of the weirwood tree

- Arya appears

Jon: "how did you sneak up on me?"

; ]

Slightly irrelevant given the godswood was completely empty in the scene with Jon and literally packed with wights and walkers last night.

Nerdlingr

Of course it had to be super hero ninja Arya to kill the night king. Haven't liked her story arc for ages now. Said it in the previous thread. But the writers have made her this maxed out impenetrable smug everything she touches turns to gold character. Does my head in.
I dunno. I enjoyed it but I never felt any of the major characters were ever in any danger. How many times can you use a "help me I'm being attacked only to be saved at the last minute by someone else" troupe?? They basically used it for every single major character scene on here.
After a while I was watching thinking so and so is grand someone will swoop in here and save them. It happened everywhere...Mormont/Dany. Dany/ Jon. Brianne/Jaime , ed/Sam, hound/Arya, red witch/fire etc etc....and of course NK/arya/bran....
Also extremely disappointed Mormont didn't go out with one last "khalessi"!!
NK didn't say a word for 8 seasons.
It was a good episode nothing more. The whole thing was covered in plot armour.

Also wasn't Jon on a dragon sitting on the wall of winterfell when they needed fire to light the trenches? Eh hello. Help us out here buddy!

Liam O

Nerdlingr wrote: »

Also wasn't Jon on a dragon sitting on the wall of winterfell when they needed fire to light the trenches? Eh hello. Help us out here buddy!

Yeah i didn't get that at all. He was there for a good while when there were lads breaking through. Maybe he was still trying to draw the NK in?

Paddy Cow

ERG89 wrote: »

My biggest problem was that there must have been a few hundred transitions between characters in this episode. When your doing that in near constant darkness with fog or smoke effects it's very confusing. I thought it was quite badly shot.....
Maybe I'm mistaken but I don't understand why they made those dragonglass swords when most seemed to battle with the regular swords anyway.
No major character deaths either was strange. I feel since they exhausted the written material that its fairly noticeable.

Beric has a magic fire sword. Brienne, Jamie, Jorah and Jon have valerian steel swords which are capable of killing wights and white walkers, so they didn't need dragon glass swords.

EagererBeaver

Paddy Cow wrote: »

Beric has a magic fire sword. Brienne, Jamie, Jorah and Jon have valerian steel swords which are capable of killing wights and white walkers, so they didn't need dragon glass swords.

The dothraki all charged with their arakhs though. Why weren't they armed with dragonglass?

Paddy Cow

EagererBeaver wrote: »

The dothraki all charged with their arakhs though. Why weren't they armed with dragonglass?

Gendry simply didn't have the time or enough dragon glass to make 100,000 swords.

EagererBeaver

Paddy Cow wrote: »

Gendry simply didn't have the time or enough dragon glass to make 100,000 swords.

They had all the dragonglass they could ever need.

The White Wolf

I'm half and half on the Dothrakis. They shouldn't have gone out like that but at the same time, seeing the reactions of Jorah and Grey Worm to it put the absolute ****s up me.

This guy's opening post sums up most of my feelings about the episode.

https://old.reddit.com/r/asoiaf/comments/bikgf2/spoilers_extended_plots_that_are_now_resolved_or/