Poll: Winter Is Coming - HBO's A Game of Thrones [READ WARNING]

[CaptainRAVE]

This is the biggest missed the point I've read so far, in about 10k comments between here, reddit and other places.

The genius of GoT was precisely that it wasn't about the unstoppable force of nature, because that boils down to Goodies vs Baddies and we know who we want to win and who we want to die.

GoT subverted that by having people on both sides that you liked and disliked. During the battle for the wall, you had Jon vs Mance, who you didn't hate, plus Ygritte who you loved, plus Ser Alliser Thorne who you hated, your loyalties were split entirely, and that was made it engrossing.

Making the whole thing pivot around the NK would have worked only if it had proved the undoing of Cersei by having him fly to KL, which I thought would have been a decentish twist but in all I'm glad that line is over, albeit if it was very dark and only one or two B level characters died and no A level.

The statements in the Game Spot review are part of the very typical and normal desire for things to be black and white, but if GoT, or the books for the most part, had played it like that we would have all got bored and moved on ages ago. The good vs evil thing is boring and played. It's what let Harry Potter, LOTR and plenty of other fantasies down by having evil for evil's sake. No explanation or monologuing from the NK would have made you like him, probably not Cersei either to be fair at this point but I wouldn't count on Jaime at least not defecting and throwing doubts back on your loyalities once more.

That's the key to the genius of this show (and books), the thin little shred of doubt that makes you root for and against both sides.

The final episodes will be Cersei being devious, Jaime doing her in, Dany turning on Jon only for a dragon to back him and then Jon vs Dany to tie it all off. Might have missed another thread but Dorne is still unaccounted for right? Might see them come back in to bolster the north's decimated army against the Lannisters.

Yup, agreed.

The unhappy people are those who voted for the NK in the poll above

 

[Minusorange]

That's the key to the genius of this show (and books), the thin little shred of doubt that makes you root for and against both sides.

The show broke its rules it had set at the very start though, that any one is fair game and there's no fairy tale magical "get out of jail" for characters, the writers put a lot of characters in situations they should have died and had some do some stupid things but suddenly the writers now want to use plot armour to save people and break the rules that made the show fantastic

Can you imagine how **** the show would be if Ned had survived and magically fought off all his enemies in season 1 ?

 

[413x]

Episode was epic To maintain the tension for 80 mins

Just fear Like Others they will struggle To not make that the climax! But I'm sure they are aware and will keep it up.. I hope!

 

[LeMson]

Yup, agreed.

The unhappy people are those who voted for the NK in the poll above

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJ6ayvGPP0g Skip to 1:57.

If the NK can down one dragon with one spear, let's say he can only do this in daylight, and we have had NK battles in day, here and Hardholme, why not go against the 2 remaining dragons and take 2 spears...bye bye dragons? The NK speared one dragon and brought it down, and scoffed when another set him alight O_O

 

[neoboy]

The final episodes will be Cersei being devious, Jaime doing her in, Dany turning on Jon only for a dragon to back him and then Jon vs Dany to tie it all off. Might have missed another thread but Dorne is still unaccounted for right? Might see them come back in to bolster the north's decimated army against the Lannisters.

In the final minutes of the show, Daenerys turns on Jon and burns him in a giant inferno to claim the throne, only for him to walk out the flames because turns out he's also immune to fire. As his hair morphs blonde he proudly proclaims, "I am Jon Snow, I know everything now". Credits roll, audience gasps, book fans write bad Yelp reviews, the end.

Joking aside though, agree that this show is not about black and white, good vs evil story. It is about the pettiness of man and our flawed nature. Cersei literally risked the fate of humanity with her betrayal to maintain iron grip on that power. If someone takes the throne from her, it will not be a clean happy victory and many gray lines will be crossed.

Still not sure how they are going to fight her though, they looked pretty damn decimated towards the end there? Unless that Dothraki love interest of Big D's (forgot his name) who was left to guard stuff shows up.

 

[Spuj]

The show broke its rules it had set at the very start though, that any one is fair game and there's no fairy tale magical "get out of jail" for characters, the writers put a lot of characters in situations they should have died and had some do some stupid things but suddenly the writers now want to use plot armour to save people and break the rules that made the show fantastic

Can you imagine how **** the show would be if Ned had survived and magically fought off all his enemies in season 1 ?

On the flip side though GoT has never been about losing important characters in battles. Think back to all the major shock deaths we've had, none of them have been in a battle, it's just not GoT style.

 

[NoobCannon]

Thought it was a disappointing mess. Too dark to see half of it. And most of the half i could see was just stupid.

 

[Amp34]

Spoiler

They didn't actually show a dragon die though, so I just considered it was only wounded? I was always expecting 2 next episode, although one possibly not flying too well!

Spoiler

Exactly this. There’s no evidence that one died. John got knocked off and his flew away, then Drogon got covered in wights, but came back at the end.

Besides, I’m not sure a dragon that size could be brought down by a few dozen small creatures like that. How many humans die from being bitten by a bunch of ants?

That’s form someone that didn’t watch the next weeks teaser and is going to bow out of this thread soon so I don’t get to many theories. Last nights episode was already mildly spoiled by the mention of the crypt from the preview!

 

[413x]

This is the biggest missed the point I've read so far, in about 10k comments between here, reddit and other places.

The genius of GoT was precisely that it wasn't about the unstoppable force of nature, because that boils down to Goodies vs Baddies and we know who we want to win and who we want to die.

GoT subverted that by having people on both sides that you liked and disliked. During the battle for the wall, you had Jon vs Mance, who you didn't hate, plus Ygritte who you loved, plus Ser Alliser Thorne who you hated, your loyalties were split entirely, and that was made it engrossing.

Making the whole thing pivot around the NK would have worked only if it had proved the undoing of Cersei by having him fly to KL, which I thought would have been a decentish twist but in all I'm glad that line is over, albeit if it was very dark and only one or two B level characters died and no A level.

The statements in the Game Spot review are part of the very typical and normal desire for things to be black and white, but if GoT, or the books for the most part, had played it like that we would have all got bored and moved on ages ago. The good vs evil thing is boring and played. It's what let Harry Potter, LOTR and plenty of other fantasies down by having evil for evil's sake. No explanation or monologuing from the NK would have made you like him, probably not Cersei either to be fair at this point but I wouldn't count on Jaime at least not defecting and throwing doubts back on your loyalities once more.

That's the key to the genius of this show (and books), the thin little shred of doubt that makes you root for and against both sides.

The final episodes will be Cersei being devious, Jaime doing her in, Dany turning on Jon only for a dragon to back him and then Jon vs Dany to tie it all off. Might have missed another thread but Dorne is still unaccounted for right? Might see them come back in to bolster the north's decimated army against the Lannisters.

Agree. The unpredictable nature of the show really came in. It would have been cliche to make it dead vs alive!

 

[JBuk]

night king attacks at night, people complain it’s dark!

 

[neoboy]

Didn't they already say it was dark on purpose to show the confusion of fighting in such conditions? To be fair I did enjoy the World War Z vibes.

 

[Amp34]

I feel they tried to do something different here for the sake of being original, i.e. a battle in the dark with more of a horror-vibe than previous battles, like with the BotBs, which by comparison was very slick and appropriately lit, or the more typical battles in the bright snow they've had previously with the white walkers.

I wonder how many are now considering upgrading their TVs thanks to this episode. Even in pitch darkness my old 1080p 42" TV had such low brightness and clarity it was very nearly unwatchable, making it a constant frustration, more so than any issue I might take with the plot itself.



I thought that too, though looked like he was just reaching for his sword before Arya interrupted him, suggesting he was simply going to kill Bran. I was wondering if we were going to a get a Matrix Revolutions-type conversion, which might have been interesting even if the NK still died moments later.

As it stands, looks like they've wrapped up the story of the white walkers, and I'm struggling to see any clever thing they can do to resurrect them and keep them in the show. The last big bad now being wine glass swirling Cersei and her 'I hate everyone' attitude seems a tad underwhelming compared to the existential threat to all life posed by the white walkers.

I think it'd have been far more satisfying if we had the battle for the iron throne first, and then the plot developments happen with the NK breaching the wall / getting a dragon and sweeping down to King's Landing for a big finale.

Oh well, hopefully I'll be pleasantly surprised by the story and quality of the last three episodes.

Personally I’d have gone for the way they have, but made it so there was an escape plan for Winterfell, allowing a few thousand of the men and some of the main characters to escape towards the south, perhaps being pursued by wights. When getting to Kings Landing they make a “deal” with Cersei, who finally realizes the situation is dire as she’s about to double cross them. Then they can have another epic WW vs human battle and perhaps sort out their differences during it, or just after, with the last “man” standing taking (or not) the throne.

Alternatively I wonder if Brans arc is going to continue with some form of “resurrection” of the NK, perhaps taking his place somehow and retreating north to start the entire cycle again.

 

[Jonnybmac]

I watched it through my pc and tuned the brightness and contrast so it was less dark but dark enough

 

[hartgeh3]

Spoiler: Spoiler - how! lol

https://twitter.com/ThePixelFactor/status/1122980523729674240

 

[Simmz]

I'm pretty sure it's going to end with Bran just getting out his wheelchair and Knocking one out on the tree to spawn a new Night King. He's been rolling them eyes back and edging for so long now looking at past events of Daenerys getting banged.

 

[kitkat9933]

I'm wondering if there's a twist where the night king is/was the good guy and bran needs to die!

My money is on this...

 

[JBuk]

He's been rolling them eyes back and edging for so long now looking at past events of Daenerys getting banged.

And his sister

 

[Mr Jack]

I'm pretty sure it's going to end with Bran just getting out his wheelchair and Knocking one out on the tree to spawn a new Night King. He's been rolling them eyes back and edging for so long now looking at past events of Daenerys getting banged.

The Children created the Night King to defeat the First Men (was it the First, or the A-dudes, I forget?), could we see a new NK created to defeat Cersei? I doubt it, but it'd be an amazing ending.

 

[Psycho Ned]

Epic episode.
However the Sky Q picture quality was horrendous and really took away from what was a truly fine bit of tv.
So much darkness, artefacts; it looked like a bad YouTube video in places.

I thought my tv was playing up! Actually changed from my sky HD recorded version to the on demand version as I thought the recording was dodgy!

It wasn’t just the darkness it was the dreadful pixilation on the dark scenes. The compression on that episode must have been horrific.

 

[monkentage]

This is the biggest missed the point I've read so far, in about 10k comments between here, reddit and other places.

The genius of GoT was precisely that it wasn't about the unstoppable force of nature, because that boils down to Goodies vs Baddies and we know who we want to win and who we want to die.

GoT subverted that by having people on both sides that you liked and disliked. During the battle for the wall, you had Jon vs Mance, who you didn't hate, plus Ygritte who you loved, plus Ser Alliser Thorne who you hated, your loyalties were split entirely, and that was made it engrossing.

Making the whole thing pivot around the NK would have worked only if it had proved the undoing of Cersei by having him fly to KL, which I thought would have been a decentish twist but in all I'm glad that line is over, albeit if it was very dark and only one or two B level characters died and no A level.

The statements in the Game Spot review are part of the very typical and normal desire for things to be black and white, but if GoT, or the books for the most part, had played it like that we would have all got bored and moved on ages ago. The good vs evil thing is boring and played. It's what let Harry Potter, LOTR and plenty of other fantasies down by having evil for evil's sake. No explanation or monologuing from the NK would have made you like him, probably not Cersei either to be fair at this point but I wouldn't count on Jaime at least not defecting and throwing doubts back on your loyalities once more.

That's the key to the genius of this show (and books), the thin little shred of doubt that makes you root for and against both sides.

The final episodes will be Cersei being devious, Jaime doing her in, Dany turning on Jon only for a dragon to back him and then Jon vs Dany to tie it all off. Might have missed another thread but Dorne is still unaccounted for right? Might see them come back in to bolster the north's decimated army against the Lannisters.

I understand the morally grey characters on both sides, the trope has been going on a long time now. It has been a few years since I have read any of the books now but I seem to remember the books being about the Others, Targaryans, the prophecy of Azor Ahai etc and the Night King being a red herring surprised me because the series was called a Song of Ice and Fire and Game of Thrones was just the title of the first book.