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

Who will rule Westeros?

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I watched it on sky go last night. the picture was so awful I need to watch it again. the night king end felt too abrupt but I wonder if there is more to come from bran which will make more sense of it.
 
For me, Game of Thrones has been one of the greatest tv shows I've seen, throughout the seasons it has tied with the show that I consider to be the best tv show ever. Last night, I did feel a little disappointed at the episode, even though it was still very good. Last nights episode was one which left Game of Thrones in 2nd place , behind the show that I feel is the best tv show I have ever seen, Band of Brothers.

Theres 3 episodes left though, so depending how they pan out, GoT might yet be able to take the crown.
 
An hour and a half of pure unadulterated action, the darkness whilst frustrating at times really added to the confusions of the battle.

The only gripe is the survival of characters that really wouldn't have survived in that situation other than that it really was a great piece of TV
 
CHokKA said:
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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I agree with this essentially.

I didn't like the episode at all myself. I had a feeling it was going to be an anti-climax and it was. It was way too dark as well. If it had been broadcast on Netflix in HDR / 4k then that would probably have done it justice. But Sky etc are a complete joke when it comes to this.

It seemed like a mopping up exercise to me. Just a rushed attempt to tie up the story of the NK so they can focus on the remaining arcs. The way the NK got so swiftly defeated didn't sit right with me at all. That episode was the first time you actually got to see him in action for a prolonged period. I wanted to see another episode or 2 more of that. Arya just feels like a Mary Sue to me at this point.

Not an episode I'd ever care to re-watch.
 
CHokKA said:
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

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.

:(
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Magical night king killed by magical ninja move, sounds about right to me!
 
manic111 said:
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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That's fair enough comment, but not how I viewed it. Much of Arya's training has been about stealth and going unseen wherever possible. She's been chanting "I am no one" for several seasons. Plus she's also bright enough to realise that not having to fight your way through is the best option. Even though she did kill more than her fair share, she still reached the point where she was overwhelmed. Plus almost all of her victories have been via guile, cunning, swiftness of hand not brute force.

There was always going to be a battle outside the walls. The Dothraki are "horse-lords" at their most effective out in the open. I read it as simply using them at what they were good at. I'm not sure they had the time to burn the recently dead to stop them turning. Plus it's been mentioned a couple of times that those you kill rise against you, so I think it was always going to be a big element of the battle. Bran did send the ravens ahead, but I have no idea what for as he nodded off for this episode. Plus they made a lot of the undead being hidden behind the frost/fog.

Have to agree I called the crypt as being full of the dead a few pages back, so that was hard to believe they missed it. I enjoyed it, warts and all, I still think it is one of the best series that's been aired.
 
manic111 said:
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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Some were bad choices the writers/directors went with. Some is the limitation of filming a tv show, it has a big budget but still nothing like a 2hr blockbuster movie has per minute of film and this was nearly an hour and a half of battle - plot points aside you have to admit a lot of it was spectacular. Went to see Endgame and it's final 3rd felt a bit meh in comparison.

Watching the behind the scenes they didn't want the hordes to be seen, only heard to build up the tension until they crashed into the unsullied ranks (and some crash it was too, went through 5 ranks before slowing). As others have said, the Dothraki are just too expensive to have around. The battle was under the walls of Winterfell where they'd build a huge set with trenches etc. They made the choice to get rid of them quickly to show what they were up against and save $.
Personally I'd have had them show bonfires etc and let us see the blue eyes and shadows of the walkers but then have the NK extinguish the fires after the charge was in full swing leaving just the light of the swords.

The Arya in the library was meant to break up the battle as they thought viewers will have fatigue so went with a more horror story vibe. She'd got knocked about a bit and reverted a bit up until Melisandre asked her about the God of death. Could have done without the blue eyes line, I know it was from about 4 years ago but still. Spelled out how it would end.

Don't think anyone had time to go about burning the dead mid battle ;)
 
Washout said:
Some were bad choices the writers/directors went with. Some is the limitation of filming a tv show, it has a big budget but still nothing like a 2hr blockbuster movie has per minute of film and this was nearly an hour and a half of battle - plot points aside you have to admit a lot of it was spectacular. Went to see Endgame and it's final 3rd felt a bit meh in comparison.

Watching the behind the scenes they didn't want the hordes to be seen, only heard to build up the tension until they crashed into the unsullied ranks (and some crash it was too, went through 5 ranks before slowing). As others have said, the Dothraki are just too expensive to have around. The battle was under the walls of Winterfell where they'd build a huge set with trenches etc. They made the choice to get rid of them quickly to show what they were up against and save $.
Personally I'd have had them show bonfires etc and let us see the blue eyes and shadows of the walkers but then have the NK extinguish the fires after the charge was in full swing leaving just the light of the swords.

The Arya in the library was meant to break up the battle as they thought viewers will have fatigue so went with a more horror story vibe. She'd got knocked about a bit and reverted a bit up until Melisandre asked her about the God of death. Could have done without the blue eyes line, I know it was from about 4 years ago but still. Spelled out how it would end.

Don't think anyone had time to go about burning the dead mid battle ;)
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They had dragons... they could have swooped down to burn them, but whatever.
 
smr said:
When the Dothraki charged towards the WK's and the lights started going out, with that silence. I actually said "****" ... I've never said a word watching all of the previous episodes. That scene was stunning. The atmosphere, the composition, the directing. Sublime.
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I was the same (even struggling to see through the banding/artifacts :o ). When the unsullied wait, and wait, and wait, and then get hit by a WWZ-type wall of zombies.. zomg. Mental. I just wish they did some better cinematography, both in lighting it properly and maybe doing some good "oners" like battle of the *******s. John running away from the dragon was good, but doesn't have the same impact because ya know, CGI.

When the soft music hit and everyone was on the edge of giving up, that's such an overrused tool (no sound effects, soft music) but it actually really hit me.

I have a feeling this is going to turn out like Lost where some major grumpy-chops are going to complain and complain and complain online, because their expectations are on planet Mars, and are forgetting that it's a TV show. And one that needs some sort of conclusion.
 
Scam said:
I was the same (even struggling to see through the banding/artifacts :o ). When the unsullied wait, and wait, and wait, and then get hit by a WWZ-type wall of zombies.. zomg. Mental. I just wish they did some better cinematography, both in lighting it properly and maybe doing some good "oners" like battle of the *******s. John running away from the dragon was good, but doesn't have the same impact because ya know, CGI.

When the soft music hit and everyone was on the edge of giving up, that's such an overrused tool (no sound effects, soft music) but it actually really hit me.

I have a feeling this is going to turn out like Lost where some major grumpy-chops are going to complain and complain and complain online, because their expectations are on planet Mars, and are forgetting that it's a TV show. And one that needs some sort of conclusion.
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A conclusion typically requires consistency and not being on acid when you write it.

I’m just currently critical of what we know so far about the poorly handled story after the source material dried up.

Frankly I’d take a boring af ending over some farcical waste of time, and hopefully not rushed because it was suddenly cancelled (irrelevant here). It may not be cerebral (just don’t understand maaaaan...’vacant look’), but it’s just far less annoying.

(BSG, lost, Stargate Atlantis, fringe, 12 monkeys are some endings that come to mind that **** me off for how dumb they were)
 
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That was a chaotic episode. I enjoyed it but when I engage my brain it was pretty stupid in places. I hope that's not the end of The NK because it feels cheap to me if it is.
 
Don't get the outrage over "plot armor" and lack of significant deaths. I'm fine without big characters dying just for the sake of realism and without really furthering the story. It would get really monotonous watching epic death scene after epic death scene for 90 minutes as obviously each death requires enough time to do it justice. That said, they did overdo the shots of insurmountable odds being overcome again and again. All in all it was about as good as my tempered expectations had hoped for.

Remember that expecting unattainable perfection is partly why we never got HL3
 
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