"Non book readers" - Season 8 Episode 1 "Winterfell"

Nody · 13-04-2019 7:34pm #1

Note anything after this post may contain spoilers for the episode; do not read or open this thread until you have watched the whole episode!!!

This is ONLY about the specific episode! No information from any other source but the lore from the DVDs (i.e. no book related information). Anything relating to interviews or articles directly related to this episode can be posted with a spoiler tag.

The "Next Episode" and any speculation on what may come in the future episodes should be put in the stickied appropriate Season 8 speculation thread; any funny pictures from the episode should be posted in this thread until Wednesday rather than the funny picture thread.

Please use spoiler tags until Wednesday midnight to allow users to watch it on Sky.

Dempsey · 15-04-2019 8:16am

I found the changes in production values jarring and I was looking at scenes thinking that they wouldnt have shot it like that before because of the budget.

I thought it was an ok episode, nothing more.

Cantona's Collars · 15-04-2019 9:19am

Reading posts on the episode,I think people expected too much. This one had to be done this way to get the characters set up for the rest of the story.
I liked that despite the sense of foreboding as to the threat ahead there was still moments of humour throughout.

JoeyJJ · 15-04-2019 10:02am

Decent episode for setting it all up. Sansa scene with Tyrion was very good, also Ayria backing up that, telling the viewer that Sansa is indeed smart. This will be reused in the coming episodes I would say.

Ayria playing down her experience was a little coy, her reunion with the hound was decent.

Sam T didn't take that news too well, interesting to see how John will take his new news and how will his aunt.

shrewdness · 15-04-2019 10:13am

Cantona's Collars wrote: »

Reading posts on the episode,I think people expected too much. This one had to be done this way to get the characters set up for the rest of the story.
I liked that despite the sense of foreboding as to the threat ahead there was still moments of humour throughout.

"Look out, he has blue eyes!"

"I've always had blue eyes"

LFCFan · 15-04-2019 10:46am

The looks on John's face as he started to realize he'd shagged his Aunt :-) I thought it was a good episode and a necessary one to set things up for the rest of the season. All the pieces are in place now so they can get one with the meat of the story. Can't wait

Zaph · 15-04-2019 11:22am

LFCFan wrote: »

The looks on John's face as he started to realize he'd shagged his Aunt :-) I thought it was a good episode and a necessary one to set things up for the rest of the season. All the pieces are in place now so they can get one with the meat of the story. Can't wait

I agree. It's the same every season when people give out about not much happening in the first episode. It's been nearly two years since it was last on, they need to catch viewers up on who's who and where they are, especially as a lot of the main characters are coming together now. I enjoyed it for what it was, a decent appetiser for what should be one hell of a main course.

RollieFingers · 15-04-2019 12:24pm

The look on Drogon's face when John was with Daenerys

Enjoyable episode though nothing blockbuster happened aside from Sam spilling the beans.

Utopia Parkway · 15-04-2019 12:48pm

Didn't exactly come back with a bang given it was the first episode in 2 years but it was probably effective in setting the scene for what is to come.

irishfeen · 15-04-2019 1:05pm

Did anyone find it strange that Bran didn’t tell Jon about his true ancestry himself and let Sam do it?

Very solid episode which is laying the groundwork for what is to come.

Hande hoche! · 15-04-2019 1:15pm

Setting it up nicely for the season. Will be curious as to what happens with the golden company.

PTH2009 · 15-04-2019 1:19pm

Anyone else feeling a sneaky ambush by the cersis forces on the rest of the army's when they all meet up in winterfell ???

That could rival the red wedding

15-04-2019 1:22pm

PTH2009 wrote: »

Anyone else feeling a sneaky ambush by the cersis forces on the rest of the army's when they all meet up in winterfell ???

That could rival the red wedding

Night King mightn't even go to Winterfell, so that couldn't happen. And it makes no sense as she needs the North to kill as many wights as they can before becoming wights themselves.

Winterfell has dragons and massive armies. King's Landing has no dragons and a million people to add to the army, along with everything unprotected along the way.

Then I guess you could have Lannisters fighting from one side, and The North from the other.

ERG89 · 15-04-2019 2:06pm

Utopia Parkway wrote:

Didn't exactly come back with a bang given it was the first episode in 2 years but it was probably effective in setting the scene for what is to come.

Yeah it was just there, I expected a bit more after the long break & the fact this is a 6 episode season.
My only concern this season is the last episode will have most of the major deaths/plot twists as I suspect the penultimate episode to be the big battle against the White Walkers.

degrassinoel · 15-04-2019 2:41pm

RollieFingers wrote: »

The look on Drogon's face when John was with Daenerys

I thought that was so cheesy i actually laughed out loud

golfball37 · 15-04-2019 2:46pm

ERG89 wrote: »

Yeah it was just there, I expected a bit more after the long break & the fact this is a 6 episode season.
My only concern this season is the last episode will have most of the major deaths/plot twists as I suspect the penultimate episode to be the big battle against the White Walkers.

They've already flagged that episode 3 is the big battle as far as I'm aware.

Exclamation Marc · 15-04-2019 2:58pm

golfball37 wrote: »

They've already flagged that episode 3 is the big battle as far as I'm aware.

Yep and also the longest episode.

Wolverine359 · 15-04-2019 3:07pm

I love that new opening title sequence, so much closer to the map with lots of detail and confined to the few locations left in focus now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBg_dmOfdRY

PTH2009 · 15-04-2019 3:42pm

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Night King mightn't even go to Winterfell, so that couldn't happen. And it makes no sense as she needs the North to kill as many wights as they can before becoming wights themselves.

Winterfell has dragons and massive armies. King's Landing has no dragons and a million people to add to the army, along with everything unprotected along the way.

Then I guess you could have Lannisters fighting from one side, and The North from the other.

Dont trust Cersi tbh

Sansa and Dany could also come too blows as they don't seem to be getting on

ERG89 · 15-04-2019 3:48pm

golfball37 wrote: »

They've already flagged that episode 3 is the big battle as far as I'm aware.

Exclamation Marc wrote: »

Yep and also the longest episode.

Really? I was basing my opinion on this article. I try avoid spoilers and that most of the action-y episodes in GOT are usually the second last ones

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/2019/04/15/what-time-game-of-thrones-season-8-episode-1-start-tonight-uk/

Its episode lengths must be off or something

Episode 1: 54 minutes
Episode 2: 58 minutes
Episode 3: 60 minutes
Episode 4: 78 minutes
Episode 5: 80 minutes
Episode 6: 80 minutes

golfball37 · 15-04-2019 3:53pm

ERG89 wrote: »

Really? I was basing my opinion on this article. I try avoid spoilers and that most of the action-y episodes in GOT are usually the second last ones

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/2019/04/15/what-time-game-of-thrones-season-8-episode-1-start-tonight-uk/

Its episode lengths must be off or something

Episode 1: 54 minutes
Episode 2: 58 minutes
Episode 3: 60 minutes
Episode 4: 78 minutes
Episode 5: 80 minutes
Episode 6: 80 minutes

That’s incorrect I’d say. Episode 3 is slated to be 82 mins from a few sources I’ve read

SureYWouldntYa · 15-04-2019 4:30pm

Anyone else disappointed by the dragon cgi in the scene with Dany and Jon?

The dragon scenes were good in the more recent seasons, but their riding of the dragons reminded me of the one in season 5 when she first rode one leaving the stadium which could be excused when it was the first time

Did anyone else think Jon was going to kill Sam when he told him who he is, the tension there was unreal and if Bran wasn't on the scene with his visions and it was only Sam then maybe he would have

dahat · 15-04-2019 5:05pm

I think anyone who has watched the episode will have the same opinion on the magic dragon ride, unnessecary.

Exclamation Marc · 15-04-2019 5:12pm

dahat wrote: »

I think anyone who has watched the episode will have the same opinion on the magic dragon ride, unnessecary.

Well, necessary to show Jon can ride a dragon but just overlong and drawn out.

dahat · 15-04-2019 5:16pm

Exclamation Marc wrote: »

Well, necessary to show Jon can ride a dragon but just overlong and drawn out.

Yes, this is true.

15-04-2019 5:26pm

I think they had to give it a decent amount of time.. They're trying to set up a believable love between two characters in a very short amount of shared screen time, nevermind romatic screen time. Without some of this, future conflict between them will ring hollow.

Dave_The_Sheep · 15-04-2019 5:28pm

Subtle as a brick to the face at the start. While I can see the need to use it as a set up episode, I felt it was a bit dull. Only decent scenes involved Sam, a brief few seconds with the Hound and Bran (seperately) and a one liner from Tormund. Danaerys seems to be allowed smile these days, which is good to see, nice for her to get to flash the teeth before she dies.

They're over egging the internal conflict a bit much though, and I have no time for the "Sansa is so smart" way things are obviously going to go, while making Tyrion into an absolute idiot.

stronglikebull · 15-04-2019 5:52pm

Exclamation Marc wrote: »

Well, necessary to show Jon can ride a dragon but just overlong and drawn out.

But why was that even necessary? We know he's a Targarian. We know the dragons can sense this from his interaction with Drogon at Dragonstone in the last season. We learn nothing new from this, and the whole thing was just killing time to add extra episodes into the mix.

People keep going on about this episode setting up characters for the season, but they've been doing that for 8 years now. The whole of season 7 was setting everyone up in these positions to get it ready for this final showdown, and it should have gone straight into it. Another episode to tell us what exactly? That Bran is a creepy weirdo - already knew that. There's tension between the Starks and Jon - already knew that. Nobody likes Dany - already knew that. Aria and The Wolf won't get along- obviously. The Iron Islanders are a boring waste of time and space - already knew that. The North arean't happy with Jon leaving them or bowing to Dany - already knew that too. The Night King is coming and he's a bad ass - already knew that, so stapling some young lad to the wall as some sort of message was pointless and unnecessary.

This episode didn't do anything. It introduced no new information, apart from Sam telling Jon who he really is. It didn't need 60 minutes for that.

After 8 years and some 70 episodes, it's down to the final 6 now, and it should be at this stage balls to the wall action for 90% of that, and the first of those 6 did absolutely nothing. I can't see much happening in the next one either if the rumors that it's all coming to a head in episode 3 are true, so that'll be 33% of the final episodes with little to nothing going on. I'll look forward to episode 3.

SureYWouldntYa · 15-04-2019 5:54pm

Exclamation Marc wrote: »

Well, necessary to show Jon can ride a dragon but just overlong and drawn out.

I didnt mind the scene at all myself, as well as showing Jon riding the dragon we saw the link between him and Dany which was obviously the last time we’ll see them like that after Sam told Jon who he is

15-04-2019 6:04pm

stronglikebull, you want 90% of it to be balls to the wall action.. Plot action or like fighting action?

Most of us here miss some actual conversations and want more drama, not action. It's just a pity the writers are incapable of that.

Always Tired · 15-04-2019 6:12pm

One area that could definitely be improved is the attempts at humor.

Why do you think jokes about eunuchs are funny?
Cuz I still have my balls.

What do dragons eat?
Whatever they want!

What do you hold onto when you ride a dragon?
Anything you can!

There are better jokes in a Tesco Christmas cracker.

"Non book readers" - Season 8 Episode 1 "Winterfell"

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