Game of Thrones (HBO)

[Bug-Creator]

They had to eliminate 1 of the 3 parties as resolving everything in the last 5 minutes of the last episode would have been far to obvious.

Noone really guessed that the NK would fall so fast, so IMO that was anything but anti-climatic but right on track with being unpredictable.

What we might see towards the end is some sort new NK hiding way up north for the next 1000 years making it clear that everybody is just futile fighting against a never ending cycle.

 

[Strider64]

While not trying to give out any spoilers, I think you will see someone get too cocky thinking the plan that he/she made "worked out" and that someone least expected will win the throne (It might not be someone likable either though probably will).

 

[AustinIllini]

While not trying to give out any spoilers, I think you will see someone get too cocky thinking the plan that he/she made "worked out" and that someone least expected will win the throne (It might not be someone likable either though probably will).

The post has a spoiler tag. You don't have to beat around the bush.

Dany will use this victory to convince the rest of Westeros to turn on Cersei

 

[jkcerda]

They had to eliminate 1 of the 3 parties as resolving everything in the last 5 minutes of the last episode would have been far to obvious.

Noone really guessed that the NK would fall so fast, so IMO that was anything but anti-climatic but right on track with being unpredictable.

What we might see towards the end is some sort new NK hiding way up north for the next 1000 years making it clear that everybody is just futile fighting against a never ending cycle.

I did not expect the NK to die so quick, then again there are only 3 episodes left

 

[Krayzkat]

The NK dying so quickly i think was a bit anti-climatic. Only Cersai left to defeat now until the 'good guys' win. Having Cersai as the final 'boss', is like defeating Brazil in the World Cup semi-final, and play against Liechtenstein in the final!

From what i have read, a lot of people have been complaining about the episode being too dark. The next time i watch this episode i will make sure to have any other light source turned off, maybe even wait for the next eclipse to happen.

It annoyed me when the cameras cut away too quickly, so that by the time you focus on whats happening on screen, the camera/angle has changed and you need to refocus. Some of the scenes might be best to watch slowed down. Slowed down with brightness turned to maximum.

Theon's redemption suicide charge was a bit silly. He should have waited until the NK was a bit closer. Having such a long run up was always going to result in being unsuccessful. I could have went and made a cup of tea and came back by the time Theon even got close to the NK! Jon Snow's excessively long and drown out charge against the NK was the same, except JS stopped a few feet short and just stood there looking gormless. He should have been killed. Nothing worse than feeble attempts while in battle.

That stupid ice zombie giant deserved to be killed by Lady Mormont. How idiotic do you have to be to lift up some short ass sword welding enemy right up to your face, so that they have a perfect position to stab you?

....

Something keeps on bothering me now about Sansa. Did arya get to kill the NK because it is actually her who is the legitimate Stark heir? Bran is now full autistic/3 eyed raven mode, and possibly Sansa isn't a proper Stark? I'm only thinking this due to her being the only one with red hair. Could it be that Catelyn had an affair with someone and Ned isn't Sansa's father, hence the ginger mane?..... Yes i think this is probably just some bollocks but who knows...

....

So winter actually fell at Winterfell. Winter being the NK. This is something i always thought would happen, until a few weeks ago lol, due to not thinking the NK would die to quickly, ie in the first proper battle.

 

[AlliFlowers]

A few more random thoughts:

Spoiler

1. As far as we know, Bronn is still on his mission to kill Tyrion and Jaime. He no longer has the incentive to join them in the battle against the dead, so what will he do? I doubt if this won't be resolved.
2. If the Night King is truly dead, never to return to Westeros, what role will Bran play from now on?
3. Could the Night King, as the saying from The Princess Bride goes, be mostly dead and come back to wreak more havoc?
4. Is Cersei the Night Queen or its equivalent?
5. The Hound and The Mountain are both still alive (or mostly alive), so is Clegane Bowl still a possibility?
6. Will Jon marry Dany only to have one of them die?
7. Will Tyrion and Sansa re-tie the knot? (Sort of kidding, but the scene between them was touching.)

#5 is my favorite. It's time for The Hound to make the Mountain collapse. Despite his best efforts and intention, Gregor has proven that he's a good man. I want to see him defeat his brother - any way he can!

#7 that was touching, and they wouldn't make a half bad couple. Together, they would rule the north and Casterly Rock.

From what i have read, a lot of people have been complaining about the episode being too dark. The next time i watch this episode i will make sure to have any other light source turned off, maybe even wait for the next eclipse to happen.

It annoyed me when the cameras cut away too quickly, so that by the time you focus on whats happening on screen, the camera/angle has changed and you need to refocus. Some of the scenes might be best to watch slowed down. Slowed down with brightness turned to maximum.

Theon's redemption suicide charge was a bit silly. He should have waited until the NK was a bit closer. Having such a long run up was always going to result in being unsuccessful. I could have went and made a cup of tea and came back by the time Theon even got close to the NK! Jon Snow's excessively long and drown out charge against the NK was the same, except JS stopped a few feet short and just stood there looking gormless. He should have been killed. Nothing worse than feeble attempts while in battle.

That stupid ice zombie giant deserved to be killed by Lady Mormont. How idiotic do you have to be to lift up some short ass sword welding enemy right up to your face, so that they have a perfect position to stab you?

All this!

90 seconds after the show started I had to turn off the lights. Half the fighting was too dark to see. I couldn't even tell one character from the next most of the time.

Theon died a hero, and redeemed himself of any of the poor choices he made earlier. Not sure why the charge though. That was dumb.

Lady Mormont - what a beast!!

But who is left now to go into battle with the Lannisters? The unsullied are all gone, their torches extinguished in one of the best scenes of the show. I doubt they can fight the entire war just on dragon power.

 

[Bug-Creator]

s like defeating Brazil in the World Cup semi-final, and play against Liechtenstein in the final!

Liechtenstein/Argentina .... Potato/Potato

Only Cersai left to defeat now until the 'good guys' win.

Don't expect any "good guys" winning.
If it doesn't end with a new NK, maybe it will with Sanza being pi#### about Dani and starting the next (civil) war.
Or maybe the family madness breaking through with Dani letting her dragon torch Jon the moment she won the iron throne?

Fun times ahead

 

[ericgtr12]

Bran already told us what the Night King wanted. The Night King wanted to wipe out humanity as well as all memory of it. Bran being the Three Eyed Raven was essentially the vessel containing the memory of all of human history and is why he was targeted. I agree that it was a bit anti-climatic, although that was a pretty bad-ass moment.

Spoiler: S8E3

When Bran first went into his trance it showed the ravens on recon (or so it would seem) but he was in that state for a very long time and who knows what all went on during that period and when he awoke just before the NK showed up. I wonder if this is something that will come up/be explained in upcoming episodes.

 

[bobob]

The NK dying so quickly i think was a bit anti-climatic. Only Cersai left to defeat now until the 'good guys' win. Having Cersai as the final 'boss', is like defeating Brazil in the World Cup semi-final, and play against Liechtenstein in the final!

Except Cersei will win the game of thrones.

 

[ericgtr12]

Except Cersei will win the game of thrones.

I fear you are right. It's one thing if they would have created a character with a single redeeming quality but they've made her absolutely unlikable in every way. Even when they marched her through the streets naked it was hard to feel any sympathy for her, it didn't go nearly far enough.

Frankly, they've succeeded in making her so hateful and evil that I had almost stopped watching the show entirely. Instead I've found my self skipping through her scenes in past seasons.

 

[Falhófnir]

Spoiler: 8x03

I didn't honestly find it all that anti-climatic, we saw Dany and Jon try and fail to defeat him, and then a girl swoops in to save her brother. I quite liked that it wasn't the story's big/ powerful heroes to triumph here, but everyone's favourite underdog come good! From a meta perspective, it's always going to be difficult to give a satisfactory ending to a series like this, where anticipation of what will happen next is a big part of the appeal - to that end, I thought they kept the whole episode itself tense until the very last, so that's a clear win IMO. Combined with some clever foreshadowing throughout the episode which kept just the right side of making it obvious I was really quite pleased

Only thing is, everything else ahead is going to feel kinda hollow now... maybe they will use this and work with it as a theme for the remaining episodes?

I fear you are right. It's one thing if they would have created a character with a single redeeming quality but they've made her absolutely unlikable in every way. Even when they marched her through the streets naked it was hard to feel any sympathy for her, it didn't go nearly far enough.

Frankly, they've succeeded in making her so hateful and evil that I had almost stopped watching the show entirely. Instead I've found my self skipping through her scenes in past seasons.

Have to say, though she's not sympathetic, I find her to be quite an interesting character - born largely of the fact she's demonstrably not as good as she thinks she is at playing the game though in her mind that's a key pillar of who she is. The whole beautiful, wicked queen thing also gives her just a whiff of cachet so I've personally always quite liked watching her. Think you're right in that season 7 overplayed the spiteful side and downplayed the glimpses of vulnerable human a bit too much, but I think that was to show she'd hit rock bottom losing all of her children and attaining a pyrrhic victory in finding herself on the throne in her own right. I might have a slightly different perspective also having been a bit more 'inside her head' from reading the novels too, though.

 

[mmomega]

Long live the queen

 

[lparsons21]

Except Cersei will win the game of thrones.

Nope! Arya will kill her.

 

[Krayzkat]

Cersei can't win the game of thrones as she is already on the throne, so it has to be someone else otherwise you may aswell change the title to Game Of Defeating Rebellions

 

[yaxomoxay]

Cersei can't win the game of thrones

Last minute new character: "Time for democracy!" and the entire kingdom falls

 

[JBGoode]

Nope! Arya will kill her.

And then Hot Pie will be revealed as true heir and everyone eats well forever.

Seriously, since Jamie survived last night I believe he will kill Cersei.
[doublepost=1556563595][/doublepost]

Spoiler: S8E3

When Bran first went into his trance it showed the ravens on recon (or so it would seem) but he was in that state for a very long time and who knows what all went on during that period and when he awoke just before the NK showed up. I wonder if this is something that will come up/be explained in upcoming episodes.

I’d like a bit more explanation but have a suspicion that this part of the story is over and we won’t get much of anything.

 

[ritmomundo]

Spoiler: “Ep 8x03”

On the surface, this was a good episode with some incredible fight sequences. But in all honesty, I’m disappointed. With the hype and anticipation surrounding this episode, it was a letdown… Apologies in advance for the lengthy post.


Let me start with the good. Because there definitely was some good.

• It was an INTENSE 80 minutes of non-stop suspense. I dont know how many times I caught myself holding my breath. And it’s not easy to keep people that focused on one battle for that long without getting fatigued. Props.
• Dragon fights in/above the clouds, shots around Winterfell, and the zombie chase scenes were all visually stunning.
• Fantastic score, as always.
• I actually loved Arya being the badass with her assassin skills at the end.. I think most everyone, including myself, fully expected it to be Jon. Very cool twist.

And now for the bad:

• For starters, the first 15 minutes were so dark and blurry, even with my screen at full brightness. I could barely make out some faces. Perhaps it was meant to be like that, immersive, fighting at night, limited vision, but it was just frustrating more than anything else.
• Poor military strategy. Dothraki charging first into the darkness? Unsullied in front of the trenches? I mean, trenches should not be the last line of defense before the castle wall. What a waste of two formidable armies.
• Given the stakes, way more characters survived than should’ve been possible. Plot armor was so thick for the main characters here. Thinking of it this way, the Dothraki are supposed to be great warriors, and they were wiped out in 30 seconds. Major characters like Jon, Jaime, Brienne, Pod were surrounded by wight hoards, in impossible scenarios, and managed to escape unscathed. Sam was literally lying on the ground crying for who knows how long, but he’s totally fine?!? Valar morghulis, unless you’re a main character, right?
• Ghost? Great seeing him for a whole 5 seconds before he’s killed off with the entire Dothraki army.
• How exactly did Arya get through the circle of white walkers and wights? And didn’t she give the dagger to Sansa?
• 8 years of buildup and neither the Night King nor the white walkers engaged in combat in this battle. I’m just disappointed they didn’t do much of.. well, anything really.

I get that the Night King was subplot/b-story. He’s not even in the books . The meat of the show is still to come. And I’m definitely not in it just for battles. But still, he’s not just your average villain. It just feels like there should’ve been more.

 

[Apple fanboy]

Cracking episode. I was surprised at how many survivors there were.
I think the next episode will be the North licking their wounds and seeing who has the stomach for an assault on Kingslanding. Is there enough of an army left?
Not sure if the dragons are still fighting. It looked like they might be done.

I’m glad the assassin got to take out the NK. Totally unexpected from me.
I’d love her to cross a few more of her list in the next three episodes.
Although she did seam to go from badass on the wall, frightened girl in the library to assassin of the dead at the end!
Anyway she’s pretty much my favourite character. Love her to be the one to end Cersei but don’t think so. Expecting Jamie or Tyrion to do the deed.

Roll on Monday!

 

[Khalanad75]

Anyone else think Bronn is going to let Jaime and Tyrion know about his "assignment"?

He is a sellsword that is about the money, but over the entire series he has shown some honor to both Tyrion and Jaime at times. He also knows that you can't trust Cersei.

 

[Krayzkat]

I just watched the whole episode again.

I watched it ‘live’ this morning at 2am, so I was a bit fresher on this viewing. Also it was good to not have any adverts interrupting the immersion.

I turned the tv brightness up from 50% to about 80% lol, and also volume way up as there are some parts that are just too quiet.

I spent the whole episode on my exercise bike too lol, so I got a good workout from it.

Watching it again and knowing the NK was gonna die actually made it better, I no longer had the sense of it being too soon for the NK to be finished off.

As far as I can make out from this episode, Bran just sat there flying his pet crows about, not helping. Maybe we will find out in later episodes that he actually did something useful? Maybe his incompetence was a ploy to trap the NK into a false sense of security?

Arya still flew out of nowhere to save the world. One minute she was trapped in a room, the next she was lunging through spacetime.

Whoever decided on the livings battle plan needs to retire from military command. Was foolish to blindly send all the Dathraki to their death. The cavalry should have been used on both flanks with the Unsullied in the middle. Those siege weapons were positioned so that they were useless after the Dathraki charge.

 

[AustinIllini]

Cersei remaining on the throne is bad story telling and would ruin the series.

 

[rhett7660]

I enjoyed the battle scenes, I too thought a few more folks shouldn't have made it out alive, and the killing of the NK while good, was a little anticlimantic. Also, with everyone one around who has been in battles, this was the best plan they could come up with!? It did work, by luck, but then again, didn't they mention luck would be needed?

 

[smallcoffee]

Idk why everyone is so obsessed with “kill off the characters”. At this point it’s just killing for the shock value and not the story. The fact that people are expecting all these main characters to die (and lets be clear, two did:
Jorah and Theon) shows people have been lulled into a false sense of security. Plot twist! Nobody died!

I’ve read a couple Reddit threads that summed things up.
1. John always tries to be the hero and it just doesn’t work but he does the right thing.

2. The NK dying in an anti-climatic way is pure GoT. He had no special fate, he just got stabbed and he and his army got wrecked.

3. The writers have been telling us lots, and some of it’s ignored - like idk, Arya being more quiet than a drop of blood.

4. The Dothraki charging was just for effect and I think the writers say so. I’m fine with it - it was ominous as hell, especially with Jorah coming back like he did and just shaking his head. We’re talking about ice Kong’s and zombies, it doesn’t matter if Alexander the Great isn’t commanding the forces.

 

[ritmomundo]

Idk why everyone is so obsessed with “kill off the characters”. At this point it’s just killing for the shock value and not the story. The fact that people are expecting all these main characters to die (and lets be clear, two did:
Jorah and Theon) shows people have been lulled into a false sense of security. Plot twist! Nobody died!

It's not about "killing off the characters" for shock value. It's an issue about plot armor. I can't speak for everyone, but I have no qualms with characters like Tyrion and Sansa safe in the crypt. I don't expect them to die there, and if they somehow did, I would definitely be shocked. But when you have a character like Sam (who is one of my favorites, but proves to be completely inept in battle, practically unable to defend himself and lays on the ground while surrounded by zombie hoards) and he still survives while skilled fighters/swordsmen like Eddy, Theon and Jorah are killed, then yeah I imagine people will have an issue with that. Put him in the crypt then if he needs to survive. Just give us realistic outcomes for the situations these characters are in.

 

[th0masp]

I didn't see the end coming, either...

Same here and it was the overall brightness of the picture. I had a high quality video feed but a glossy 4K TV in a room with white painted walls. Trying to figure out what was going on and seeing past the room's reflection on the screen gave me a headache after a while. Had to block out all room light before continuing ... then I was able to see the color banding in darker spots from the handful shades of dark gray they used.

Something like the battle of Helm's Deep night shots look just fine on this same set. A lot of people out there will have watched this on worse setups and with lower picture fidelity so I wonder if they somehow screwed up calibration on their end in the making of this episode.