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

Who will rule Westeros?

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    471
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Probably mentioned, but remember when John was at the Weirwood tree and he couldn't hear Arya come up behind him....this was a foreshadowing and how she got the jump on the Night King.

This was also the exact spot that Bran gave Arya the knife at the end of the last season.
 
I think some folk have lost the plot, scrutinising and analysing it as if it was some historical drama, ranting because they got the detail wrong. FFS it has dragons, undead, witches and old Gods. It's not a re-telling of the battle of Agincourt. It has been, and continues to be, an entertaining, reasonably compelling romp. Pretty much every episode has had millions of folk trying to second guess the outcome of the next episode, it does an excellent job of entertaining and holding folks interest. Way better than anything similar. Yet wait a minute, there is nothing similar.

Other than it being overly dark, I can't say It left me disappointed. Think it's been said above, so many shows just run out of steam and ideas, just fizzling to nothing. Up to now it's pulling everything together nicely. I enjoyed Melisandre, making a final appearance, didn't see that coming. I assume the giant was "Wun Wun," I thought it was kinda neat that the largest was taken down by one of the smallest characters. Thoroughly enjoyed it, 88mins flew by.

I was expecting to lose way more key characters but we have 3 more episode to run. Can't believe they had Bran sitting in the wood, away with the fairies for a whole episode for nothing. Hopefully we will see what he was up to shortly. Surely Lord Varys, will have some part to play, he's been in the background throughout?
 
Just realised that the dagger used to kill the night king is the same one as the one that was used in the assassination of Bran.

Also.... lots of foreshadowing with Arya stabbing the NK in the stomach. Literally every training scene she’s won like that.

I’m not sure how I feel. Part of me didn’t expect it to be over in a single episode but then again there’s a lot left to finalise so...
 
It was a very solid episode, and a great 90 minutes of TV.

Sure there were bonehead decisions, actions that made no sense and some very tropey moments - but it was a hell of a rollercoaster ride.

Whatever you think of the strategy behind the Dothraki charge - you have to admit that the craft behind it was spectacular. The charge which feels like the opening scene of Gladiator, the little lights slowly winking out one by one, fantastic. Of course it was a bonehead idea, but it gave us a great scene, and imagine trying to direct all these battle scenes with the added complication of horses plus the additional associated cost.

You also have to forgive the writers somewhat - the first 5 seasons they were working off source material prepared by GRRM himself, who spent decades working on this stuff so that the pieces (mostly) fit together. Since then they've been winging it from some bullet points outlining the final plot, if some of the scenes aren't up to early GoT standards then its easy to understand why.

Really your opinion on this episode will depend on how comfortable you are to ignore some of the more obvious problems with it. For me it was a thrilling 90 minutes of TV, a fantastic climax to one of the two main story threads. But if you can't overlook of the issues, and you don't like it, then I can understand that too.
 
DampDog said:
I think some folk have lost the plot, scrutinising and analysing it as if it was some historical drama, ranting because they got the detail wrong. FFS it has dragons, undead, witches and old Gods. It's not a re-telling of the battle of Agincourt. It has been, and continues to be, an entertaining, reasonably compelling romp. Pretty much every episode has had millions of folk trying to second guess the outcome of the next episode, it does an excellent job of entertaining and holding folks interest. Way better than anything similar. Yet wait a minute, there is nothing similar.
Click to expand...

GoT used to be intelligent and relatable characters doing things you could understand in weird situations. That was an hour and a half of previously relatable characters doing things which you couldn't understand at all. Why did Arya go on her little sneak through a library when she'd previously killed more white walkers than that in the castle entrance? Why did they line up outside the castle when it was clear that they'd be overrun and their best chance was fighting in tight spaces? Why didn't Bran use the ravens or Dany the dragons to scout before sending in their best fighters? Why did nobody burn the dead - you learn in series 2 (?) that that's the only way to stop them becoming white walkers, and everyone knows that the NK was there and could raise them. Likewise, why hide in the crypt, where there's a ready made army of undead?

I'm fine with it being entertaining TV and don't need it to be hyper accurate, but it needs to enable you to suspend disbelief. That episode did not, as characters kept making stupid and wholly uncharacteristic mistakes and decisions.
 
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It was an awful episode, in all aspects. The picture quality on NowTV was the worst that I've ever seen, the plot was terrible, the story rubbish.

It was so dark throughout that I thought my TV was broken. Whatever they did to the footage, it ruined the ambience for me because I was constantly straining to try and make out what was going on.

The plot armour for characters was ridiculous. Brienne, Jamie and most of the others should all be dead. The amount of times they were overrun, looked shattered and beaten, but still managed to defend themselves was ridiculous. Sam lying on a bed of undead, with them all reaching up and more moving onto him, suddenly shrugging them off like the Hulk was just silly. Ser Jorah practically being the only one returning from the Dothraki charge, only to then die defending Dany, how convenient. The Dothraki charging into total darkness was stupid tactics, the Unsullied attacking in front of a single spiked fortification was rubbish as well. They had so much time to prepare the defences (or at least to sit around and chat about loads of rubbish in the first two episodes) but only set up one layer of these? The Unsullied would have been more effective standing behind them and attacking any that tried to make it over. But sure, it's just a TV show so what does that matter?

Bran was pointless, flying around as a flock of ravens with no apparent goal in mind was just filler, Arya was awesome until she suddenly wasn't, and Theon dying the way he did was utterly pathetic. "You're a good man Theon". "CHARGE!". Lol, whatever.

And let's not even talk about how the entire Night King storyline was brought to the most abrupt end by some magical Ninja antics. I thought it was going to revolve around some single-combat between the Night King and someone else. Or at least Bran would somehow show some sort of amazing power, rather than just being a completely helpless white-eyed cardboard cutout.

I knew this season was going to end up being a rushed mess, but I really wasn't expecting this. The first two episodes have been pretty mediocre. For a TV show that's been up there with the best for the other seasons, they really are making a mess of it now. I want to see how the rest of it plays out, but I really don't think the writers are going to end up doing it justice at all :(
 
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