"Non book readers" - Season 8 Episode 3 "The Long Night" - Spoilers post 2 forwa

Asus X540L wrote: »

Needle is though?
Ned melted down some valyrian steel sword and made needle and something else I think

It was John that gave her needle and it wasn’t made of valarian steel.

Assetbacked wrote: »

"source material", what source material?

The books man...the books.. where do you think GoT came from?
Martins has only written is it 6 books and the writers had to divulge from what he had originally intended.

Jaime should have turned his right hand into some sort of prosthetic sword device or something, would have been both practical and fúcking hilarious looking.

threeball wrote: »

She has been wrong all along because her predictions/interpretations were wrong. She was choosing the wrong people but the Lord of light seems to have protected Arya so she could fulfill her destiny.

No I’m sorry I can’t really subscribe to that. Jon Snow was the absolute obvious nailed on character to do it but they decided to switch it up. Fine, that’s what they done, but Arya was linked heavily with the many faced god/God of death or whatever that is and that is where her arc was heading. She had a list of names and the Night King wasn’t on that list.

She really was a contender to kill Cersei but now I think that pleasure will be given to Jamie in a murder suicide type ending. Born together, die together.

GSPfan wrote: »

Ah see this is silly because if we take this logic then Arya get on your bike down to Kings Landing and kill Cersei will you. The whole show can be wrapped up in ten minutes in the next episode because Arya can literally kill anyone because she has training.

The reason people might be surprised it was Arya is because she has had zero involvement with the Night King arc. It’s the equivalent of Sam killing Cersei in the end by hitting her with a book. We knew he loved books so it was obvious.

I'd think more along the lines that Sam would help others to kill Cersei by reading about an old passageway from outside King's Landing into the Red Keep from one of the books he took from the citadel.

GSPfan wrote: »

The more I think of it if they didn’t want Jon killing the Night King they should of had Sam do it somehow as he has been involved in the WW arc this whole time. Having Jon being beaten and about to die only for Sam to kill him would of made sense. The ultimate coward who was ridiculed at the Nights Watch ending the threat of the Night King would of given Sam his conclusion. The Night King was very cocky so that could of played into the reason why he turned his back on Sam.

I'd much prefer to see Sam killed by the Night King, he was the first normal person to kill a zombie wasn't he? And was it only after this point that they started making their way towards the wall and the seven kingdoms? Sam deserved to be killed... :rolleyes:

GSPfan wrote: »

She’s said a lot of things. She’s been wrong throughout the whole show so I don’t think Arya being in that group meant she was destined to kill the NK.

I’ve no real issue with it but it doesn’t make sense and that’s fine but people trying to create sense is pure wishful thinking. Arya being a fan favourite and female has played a massive part in the decision to elevate her to NK slayer status.

This is a load of b*llocks in fairness... There's hardly anyone I know who says Arya is one of their favourite characters. In fairness, I'll accept that she's been one of my favourites since I started watching but I don't know many others who'd say the same. And her being a female has nothing to do with her being the one who killed the Night King. She's wanted to be a fighter since the very first episode, and trained as an assassin for years. On the other hand, who else would you pick to kill the Night King?
Would you pick Dany? No, she's a female so if she did that would be the only reason she was picked to do it...
Jon? If Jon had been the one who killed the Night King at least half of the people on this forum would be complaining that it was too obvious that Jon was going to kill him, why else would he be brought back to life?, etc.
Tyrion? Too small, how would he possibly be able, unless Bronn showed up, gave him the crossbow with a dragonglass bolt and he snuck up on the Night King while he was going for a dump.
Jamie? Another poster already mentioned about the nickname "Kingslayer". I think he'd have been a reasonable surprising choice, but have no idea how he'd actually do it.
Theon? Whatever about Arya killing him, imagine if Theon had killed the Night King straight away? Even I'd have been up in arms about that :pac:
The Hound? Would've been nice to see him use fire to make his way to the Night King, maybe get killed by the Night King then before Arya killed him.
Tormund? Wouldn't have minded this in fairness... The Night King killed probably more of his friends and wildling troops than anyone else... Would've been a massive shock but I could've seen the reasoning behind this one too.
Who's even left? Brienne? Couldn't see that ever happening, but could've imagined her being killed while fighting the Night King as a distraction for Arya, following through with her promise that she'd protect the Stark girls.

Arghus wrote: »

GoT was a show that used to deliver swift and unexpected ends for major characters in an unprecedented manner - Ned Stark, Rob Stark, Catlyn Stark, Oberyn Martel, Tywin Lannister - it was the show's bread and butter. It wasn't afraid to take risks. It isn't so much about who died in individual battle episodes, but those sudden twists in the tale used to occur semi-regularly and it just doesn't happen anymore. The show has lost its edge.

Number of people you’ve listed there who died in battle:

Zero.

The battle with by far the most significant deaths in the show’s run:

The one that just happened.

But don’t mind me over here with the facts...

Finished watching the episode for the second time tonight. I wanted to watch it a second time before I would make a judgement call on it. I won't go into the whole story line etc. I will try to focus solely on this episode and my thoughts.

I won't lie - as soon as it finished the first time I watched it, I was left with a feeling of disappointment. Oh what could have been? Game of Thrones has always had me on the edge of my seat for battle scenes as I did not know what to expect as anyone could be killed at any moment. As soon as Brienne was swamped by wights in the opening minutes of battle and somehow survived I had a gut feeling none of the main characters would die. The old Game of Thrones, nobody was safe. I won't discuss army battle tactics in reference to the Dothraki charge as I am no military expert; and, it is a fantasy TV series at the end of the day.

The highlights that I enjoyed;

1. The opening 10 minutes of the episode really depicted the intense and worrying atmosphere among all the characters before the battle commenced.

2. Theon's protection of Bran was admirable and Bran thanking him by telling him he was a 'good man' felt to me, a release of guilt for Theon and a weight of his shoulders. I felt he needed to hear that from Bran, or a Stark to finally face his own death.

3. Jorah's death was emotional and a fitting ending for his character. He always loved Dany, but she could never love him in the way he desired yet he did his utmost to protect her.

4. I enjoyed Arya killing the Night King and the story arc. Specifically the dialogue between her and Melisandre and the reference to there conversation back in Season 3. Her battle scenes on the wall and in the halls with Beric and the Hound was the most enjoyable part of the episode for me.

5. Sansa and Tyrion sharing an emotional moment together in the crypts. After all they have been though together earlier, it was nice to see Tyrion hold her hand.

6. The Hound gaining the courage to help Arya showed he truly cared about her more than himself. I feel his story arc is similar in aspects to Jorah. The battle with himself, Beric, Arya and the wights was brilliant viewing. Although he wasn't a 'main' character, Beric's death left me with a feeling of sadness that I hadn't felt since Oberyn's death in Season 4. He sacrificed himself for Arya and the eye contact between them both before he died showed how grateful Arya was.

7. Finally - The Night King soundtrack was an absolutely beautiful score for the last 10 minutes of the episode. The picture of the White Walkers and the Night King walking into Weirwood was phenomenal. At this stage, I thought it was over and they had won and it was a really really well shot scene.

The highlights that left me somewhat disappointed;

1. The White Walkers did not swing a spear/sword once. I felt there was a real opportunity to have a good battle between a White Walker and Thormund/Brienne/Jamie in this episode. Disappointing that they did not take part in the battle.

2. Didn't show Davos fighting at all throughout the episode. How did he survive? He was in the background when Arya was fighting on the wall but that was it.

3. No real shot of Gendry or Thormund fighting throughout the episode. We seen glimpses of Pod, Jamie and Brienne up against a wall fighting but very little of Gendry and Thormund.

4. I presume Ghost is dead?

5. How did the Night King raise the bodies from the crypt? I thought to raise a dead body, it had to be killed by a wight, White Walker or the Night King himself.

6. Jon was surrounded by wights, literally surrounded. The next shot of him is fighting 3 or 4 wights before Dany rescues him. I lost count of the amount of times he should have died in the episode. Don't get me wrong, he's not my favorite character and I don't want him dead but he shouldn't have survived the episode after everything we seen.

7. Perhaps my biggest grief with the episode. After the Night King raises all the dead bodies, it goes though all the main characters showcasing where they are located - everyone in the crypts, Gendry, Greyworm, Thormund, Pod, Brienne, and Jamie all in the courtyard, Jon outside the walls and Theon protecting Bran. Jorah is on his way outside as shown a few minutes beforehand. However, it does not show the Hound and Melisandre. Where are they? In the hall where Arya left them. And what was in the hall with them? The place was flooded with dead wights, who surely rose when the Night King did his magic. How did they survive that? I mean the room was jam packed with dead wights, yet the two of them walk out of the hall after the Night King is killed. A real mistake by the writers here I feel. I didn't notice it on first viewing but it was blatantly obvious on the second viewing.

In conclusion, I am neither truly satisfied by the episode nor truly disappointed. A lot of opportunities to spring a few surprises upon the viewer but I feel the safe option was taken by the writers. This episode had the potential to be a magnificent piece of television but fell short on many aspects. Yet, it had it's moments to keep the viewer intrigued and entertained.

Looking forward to the battle between Dany and Cersei, will be sad when it is all over in less than three weeks!

Blazer wrote: »

RickBlaine wrote: »

I watched it in a dark room on Sky Atlantic on a 60" high end TV and the picture was often dark and murky to the extent that I had trouble following along at times. I never had to calibrate or adjust the brightless for any other show or movie, and I've watched plenty of stuff set in dark environments.

I can't explain why some people weren't effected but just looking on Twitter, loads of people were effected.

Looking at the behind the scenes footage, the set was brightly lit during filming. Personally I think the color grading was just too extreme in post but I suppose that doesn't account for why some people didn't have a problem.

Sky’s hd is absolute muck.
I’m betting all of those including myself who has no issues all had a 1080p high bitrate copy.

Ok I'll get one tomorrow. Very curious now to see if it will make a difference.

But I see in Twitter that people in the US who watched it on HBO had similar complaints but some didn't.

Very odd.

Arghus wrote: »

GoT was a show that used to deliver swift and unexpected ends for major characters in an unprecedented manner - Ned Stark, Rob Stark, Catlyn Stark, Oberyn Martel, Tywin Lannister - it was the show's bread and butter. It wasn't afraid to take risks. It isn't so much about who died in individual battle episodes, but those sudden twists in the tale used to occur semi-regularly and it just doesn't happen anymore. The show has lost its edge.

So, your saying, rather than main characters dying in battles, they die due to backhand political issues and the battle for the crown? Wow, kind of weird that a lot of characters survived a battle so! Also, we actually had two main characters died. Any character who has a chapter in the book in their PoV is considered a main character. Theon and Melisandre had PoV chapters.

Best shot of the episode...



The fire in Melisandre's eyes a close second.