Game of Thrones Season 8 Episode 3: "The Long Night" {INITIAL REACTIONS}

Well, I'm speechless. I have now seen the Battle of Winterfell, and...it doesn't feel as if I've actually seen the Battle of Winterfell? Or all of it? I think if I'd been spoiled, I would have dismissed some of the spoilers as made-up bullshit. How, I'm wondering, is it possible to feel the way I do after having seen this particular episode? Winter has fallen at Winterfell...for a time? I need to just dive straight into this...

Okay, the episode was extremely suspenseful and adrenaline-rushy and stressful. The first time through was frustrating with the lighting, and no, it's not your TV. Unless you've got a set from the 50s. Between my dad and brother, there is no way we're ever watching anything at less than optimal quality, and the lights were out. The murky, swirly blurs of inky darkness and indistinguishable people and actions were, I'm sure, wholly deliberate. They plopped you right there into the "Can't see shit Captain" chaos. I have to prop my glasses up high the entire time to see with maximum sharpness. The screen would slow, lighten, and clear up a bit when a significant death or event occurred. But the first time through I was just going, "All right, so people could be dropping left and right and we won't know unless we see them as wights or they're named as casualties later or we simply don't see them again or...?" There were so many moments when main characters easily could have, perhaps even should have, died. At one point I was distinctly almost convinced Brienne had bitten it. Yet if we didn't specifically see it happen, we're evidently meant to assume they survived. Even if they looked rather overwhelmed and doomed. And that moment where you kinda thought Jon was gonna save Sam but he had to keep going...:o Miracle Sam survived at all, really. -_- Sure didn't live up to that episode-2 sass, boy. Were other people having to save his ass the whole time, or did Edd's death ignite his latent fighting skills?

Sam really struggled. (Like the whole damn time after the first few wights, how did he live...) At first he makes the brave choice of the battlefield over the crypt, and you're like, "Aw man, if Randyll could see him now!" Howeverrr...before long I was saying, "Okay buddy, you made a courageous go of it, but maybe you'd be better off with Gilly and Little Sam if you're mostly going to need continual rescuing?" There's always gonna be a lot of allies saving one another, but he seemed particularly unsuited to being out there.
OH EDD. ;-; He was the first to go, and I was not happy. Love that guy. (Also I should point out for anyone who goes around saying "Dolores Edd" that "dolorous" is "dollar us.")

MY MVP MELISANDRE came through in a big way, BRINGING THAT LIGHT. (Although she deserved bigger...get to that later. She wasn't disguised at Winterfell either, as hypothesized...) The ignition of the arakhs was an epic, majestic "aww dude" moment. (And then "Sorry can't do the same for y'all Unsullied, but valar morghulis!") Thanks, Grey Worm. ^-^ Not like you guys needed fire, since you were actually armed with dragonglass. Loved the Dothraki moving as a field of fire, leading the battle off. It was an auspicious start to the ep. The loss of Dothraki is on Dany's strategy; however many wights they killed before going down, it would have been far fewer if not for Mel. Flaming weapons are never pointless.
Davos lets her in...oh yeah, & you also had Ghost charging--just to be seen briefly like, "Here ya go, wolf-starved audience, will this appease?" But he apparently also survived. (Might they as well have killed him for all the use they're making of him? :p)
Then Mel came in clutch with the trench-lighting. 8'D What. A. BLAZE!! Lots of stunningly gorgeous shots of her in this ep, especially the one with the fire in her eyes. The look of actual amazement on her face. Again her incantations work when she's desperate, teary, shaky, pleading with the Lord of Light. Damn, he really makes you work for your miracles. That obviously used a ton of strength, and  the unsuppressible self-doubt that had plagued her since Stannis' demise was still present. Hope she also managed to summon some Dany-esque faith in herself at last--I see her & the LoL as partners, and ideally there'd be both.
And I mean, I just...Carice is out of this world. She fully deserves ALL of the roles from here on out and ALL of the awards. I've chosen my new all-time favorite actress well. She can kill you without uttering a word. The only prequel I require is one that delves into Mel's past, with Carice playing adult-her. (Been saying all along that the "Valyria" prequel idea is the raddest.)  

"I don't know how to use it." Um. IT'S BASICALLY A FUCKING KNIFE. Stabby-stab, slashy-slash, cut-cut. It ain't rocket science, bitch.
Even if you don't hit 'em in the optimal spot, anything's better than nothing.
And at least Arya knows better than to "never aim." xD She better have mentally retracted the ill-considered "smartest person I've ever met" statement.

Dany wanted to get the dragons going early. She and Jon were mostly dragon-action, with dialog consisting primarily of gasps and pants and heavy breathing. xD She had more of consequence to do than he. Poor R&D having to battle their undead bro. Dany establishing the NK as a fellow Unburnt (by dragonfire, anyhow.) Which was plain to us, but poor her hoping she'd taken care of the bastard, only to have him standing there smirking at her. Felt so bad for Drogon getting swarmed and having to shake the wights off like fleas.
And then...the arm-raise! Dammit Jon. Well, the crypt prediction was right on, although I don't think we saw any recognizable wights who'd died prior to this episode--one of many weirdly missed opportunities. Still, watching all the dead open their now-blue eyes and rise was just like, "Ohhhh, we're sooooooo fucking fucked." And yup, hiding from dead people who can raise the dead in a room fulla dead folks was predictably brilliant.

SER JORAAAAAAHHHHHHH..;0; Ugh, got so misty. Dany sobbing over him, Drogon hugging around...omfg. Like, say "Khaleesi" or something one more time...;o; (And kiss him before he passes!!) But words weren't needed. 'Twas all felt. Ily Jorah. But let's also mention that Daenerys was being an excellent example for all reasonably able-bodied usual-noncombatants: you find yourself threatened, you pick up whatever weapon you can find and you make a goddamn effort! You don't need to have held one before. Figure it out. You've seen it a million times. Use your instincts. You go, girl. (Except for how in dafuq do you STILL not have armor...?!!??!!?!!!?!!!?!!??)

Lyanna's death was fittingly badass! Finally she was taken down a peg, but still boldly charged a fucking giant wight--and took him down with her. She'd begun to annoy me of late, but it's forgiven. (Crap, we lost both potential heads of House Mormont, and one assumes the whole house...le sigh.)

My man Varys for the third time needed more to contribute; hopefully that'll come within the sure-to-be-poltically-charged remaining episodes? Appreciated his pessimistic "at least we're already in a crypt" quip. But good on Tyrion for being frustrated down there and wanting to try to do SOMETHING.
At least Sansa recognizes her uselessness. -.- Damn right, he was the best of your husbands by lightyears. But even now I think he'd deserve better. Loved Missandei's clapback in defense of the dragon queen. After the dead rose, I thought Sansa was gearing up to actually slay some wights...but I guess not? Wouldn't we have clearly seen that rather than it just being doubtfully/vaguely implied? Idk, that part went so quickly. :/ There was the beautifully touching silent bit with Tyrion though, so maybe they will get together willingly this time? Theon's outta the picture already anyway. >< So, the crypt-hiders we care about survived then--Varys, Tyrion, Gilly, Sansa? Aiight. Disappointingly without having to fight or do much besides run and hide elsewhere down there 'til the dead re-died, apparently, but okay.

No seriously though, fuck Sansa, the more I think about this. "I'm not going to abandon my people--I don't want to do nothing down there, I want to do nothing up here where I can watch. Oh, you're giving me an extremely effective and easy-to-use weapon? Me no know how work it. Oh, the dead are reanimating? Better keep hiding and let my people perish!" This bish has a mere 3 episodes left to turn things around and make me like her, and I don't see it happening. Cersei Jr. 

Speaking of useless...BRAN! :D Did as little as ever. Perhaps less. "I'm gonna go now...for a ride in my wheelchair, wheeeeee, far from this frozen hellhole...naw I'm gonna be a birdie again, tweet-tweet..." N'really though. He was the NK's primary target, but at least it's not as if you could've said, "Well hey if we just give him Bran, he'll be satisfied and leave us alone." No, he wants you all gone, so that wouldn't have been feasible. Destroying the 3ER matters to him, even if the vast majority of people have no idea what he is. He wasn't crucial to mankind's survival, only to its memory after being wiped out. Our world gets on just fine without a living "three-eyed raven" individual. And I reckon a lot of people would be keen on killing such a person--creepy af to think of someone being able to watch anyone doing anything at any time, spy on you in your most private moments. On the other hand, it could be handy and interesting, if he's willing to truthfully divulge information to you.
But aaaanyhoozer. THEON!! I are le sad again. Best thing Bran did all episode was call him a good man and thank him. "Who's a gud boi? Besides Ghost?" *pets and ruffles* Like BoJack, he appreciated hearing that. And he is. :''} Bit o' sadness on the three-eyed raven there when he died. 'Course you could see his death coming a mile away and then STILL go "WAIT WHAT IT CAN'T POSSIBLY BE THAT EASY" when the Night King does shatter. "That's really it? Plus if you'd polled people on who would end up killing the Night King, sure, Jon and Dany would have been at the top, but Arya would've been up there too. We've got a whole gorgeous cast of possibilities. Where's all the other stuff most people wouldn't have seen coming?"

Noticed the music, especially in the last 15-20 minutes, and thought, "Ramin's done it again." Now there's a dude who NEVER drops, or even fumbles, the ball.

Moving backwards, the Arya/Sandor/Beric stuff was cool & sweet. Nice callback to the Waif chase tumble. And Jaime & Brienne helping each other out (suppose if the dying-in-her-arms thing is gonna happen it'll be during the Cersei fight then.) Got Arya's "Zombie Library" horror-movie scene, the trailer material--and sure enough she was just being chased by a horde of wights. All that speculation that it had to be a reanimated somebody she knew or connected to Cleganebowl or something unpredictable, but nah, even the "fearless" would run like that from your run-of-the-mill, garden-variety zombies. xD
POOR BERIC!! ;.; Me so sad. Arya tried to save and then comfort him...I thought he might have dying words. But nope, same as Jorah.

This feels like the right time for...this.

"I know you...you were on my list at one point." So glad my girl's willing to revise as necessary.
"Blue eyes": I gasped, "Yours?! And, well, the undead in general, obviously...and who else with blue eyes might she need to kill for some reason? Certainly not Tormy-kins...oh." All right. Didn't have to be the NK himself, but why not I guess.
So FROM WHERE did Arya dive upon the Night King? A tree branch? A wall? Hadda be something. Because it was out of nowhere, without warning, apparently escaping the other WWs' attention somehow, but appeared to be from above. I'm going with tree; only thing that makes any sense.
"Faceless ninja assassin stealth" would be a flimsy answer in that case; she wasn't even disguised. If she could slip past them, others could as well. She's not THAT special. This big baddie's bodyguards actually let her slip by. Okay, let's say for the sake of argument she was just that swift. She never acquired the power of flight or impossibly high leaping. And nothing's lamer than claiming something happened "just because magic or whatever." The rules for what exists should be established relatively early, and how it works should be flexibly hinted. You can't all of a sudden rocket above your enemy in a "wtf" fashion.
Anyhow. He catches her by the neck, she drops and catches the dagger, shatters him--followed by the other WWs, and all the dead drop (including Viserion right in front of Jon, and the crypt corpses before harming our huddled bunch. Plus a few lucky others.)

Sandor and Mel emerge as the sun is beginning to rise. (I HOPE to R'hllor they had some productive conversations, and/or fought off wights together!!) She then strides silently through the corpse-littered field, discards her choker and lets the ruby glow its last, walks on...and gradually transforms into the super-elderly her, finally disintegrating and blowing away into the wind like Mother Gothel. And...I am just so glad that the episode ended so poignantly on her. She showed up early on to do her part, and she closed it out. Walking willingly into the overdue rest for which she's been ready a long time. A hero in the end. Having fulfilled her purpose, she heads straight into her beloved Lord's embrace at break of dawn. Reuniting, hopefully, with any whom she's loved and outlived. The weight of the world has lifted from her shoulders at long last, and she can finally sleep, after this long lifetime spent fighting with darkness. No more need to fear the dreams. This time, she can go home. I hope she and all the beloved deceased find peace. Hope she finds Shireen and does cool afterlife stuff for her in apology for the grievous error. This was one of multiple possible death scenes I'd envisioned for her. She beautifully bookended the BoW. Everybody had better lay some damn respect on her name. All she did, she did not for own sake, knowing she wouldn't in the end be sticking around for thanks or to enjoy the saved land should they succeed--but purely due to the desire to see it saved.
High time she receives the credit due her. She probably could've peaced outta this world long ago and said "Fuck y'all," but instead committed herself to the LoL and discovering his plan for her...stayed driven and focused on her raison d'etre 'til the end...
She may have thought she'd fulfilled her destiny in resurrecting Jon, but the LoL wasn't done with her yet. Ugh, I cry. (Initially I'd thought the first necklace-removal indicated that she'd sacrificed her life force to bring him back!) I know the old-lady reveal came before the resurrection, which I guess was her feeling unsure and vulnerable and looking at her true current form after being asked to attempt such a feat...but I love the thought of her kinda "trying to die" before her time (like "Can I be done now? No? You still want me here? Okay, your will is still mine...") I believe the LoL selected her because she wanted to live for his purpose; it was their combined wills that kept her going this long. He chose her because she chose herself, in a way.
The other time I cried was "Hold the door." Also Maester Aemon's death/funeral, the second time through. And almost on the demises of Sers Barristan & Jorah.

But I wanted that loss to happen in ep 4 or 5, with the plot carrying over. Dammit, Mel oughta be part of getting a decent monarch on the throne (i.e., not Cersei.) Her prime directive with Stannis was bringing the savior to power so he could rescue humanity from the Others (not necessarily by killing the NK personally ofc), but she & Davos both thought he'd make a just and honorable king too--and let's face it, of the five choices...it was his by right. But I suppose the LoL took her back now, & the lesser humans can sort their own shit out...still, be great for her to have received the adulation/praise/thanks/credit/acknowledgement due her in person. -.-

PREVIEW: "We have won the great war." ...In one episode, so it feels too quick-and-"easy!" Thanks anyway Yara, didn't need you after all. ;p Are we sure this isn't a wholeass fake-out?! The sneakiest mislead/misdirection ever?!?! Somehow?!?!?!? People and things we think are gone after the BoW will be back to blindside everybody?? *prays desperately to the LoL*  Hey, if it works for one witchy redhead...
Like...3 long episodes left for dealing with Cersei, and then "aftermath" (hashing out political positions and all survivors' futures and tying up loose ends, answering lingering questions, etc...I guess that'll work? Obviously it did...) But the bottom line is: CERSEI IS WORSE THAN DEATH. If we can defeat literal Death already but still have half the episodes to "rip her out root and stem," uh. Yeah. Guess that's humorously, ironically true. (Although, if it was, couldn't the LoL let us have Meli longer...and/or Beric...who's he got down here now, The Hound?)
And they have decimated forces now, so whatever's ahead is also far from easy...
Cersei got off scott-free and -should- be appropriately impressed/grateful that those she betrayed actually managed to keep everyone south of Winterfell safe from the looming doom, but she's guaranteed pure sneering, self-centered smugness and evil as usual. :p So what is this...a proposal from Euron? A Gendrya smooch? Dragon-lovin' from Dany? Etc. Hokay. I just hope everything else doesn't feel totally underwhelming now, since "The Long Night" felt like the second-to-last episode. AND we seem to have lost one of the most powerful, mysterious, fascinating people. 8-\ There'll have to be some BoW aftermath/discussion (rn I'll be discussing what needs to be discussed.)
This was everyone’s war, the war for the dawn, and hopefully when all’s said and done those who remain will have had enough of fighting to settle things peacefully. (Hah. Fat chance? We’ll see.) 

I absolutely get the point of other flesh-and-blood humans remaining as threats even when the seemingly most dangerous enemy has (seemingly >_>) been eliminated. The one accidentally created by a race of humanoids. This STILL feels as if it needed more than one episode, even if it's the longest of the series. Seven seasons, eight years of buildup (much more in the show's world.) How could "The Long Night" last 82 minutes? How could it literally span one single night? The dead were this "ultimate enemy" from the very first scene of Season 1, the apocalyptic threat from which political machinations and thrones were truly mere distractions, and even if Cersei's worse than Death...they didn't even get past Winterfell. I was just left with a million things to say/ask. It's just that the episode/55-nights-to-shoot, most-mindblowing-thing-ever battle was hyped sky-friggin-high. Is it merciful or disappointingly difficult to believe that we had as few deaths as we did?
Hopefully with the rest of the series will come the answers and perspective I need...

Where were the ice spiders big as hounds? (I know, I know, budget; we barely saw Ghost.) Any chance of Nymeria's wolf pack traveling south to aid in fighting Cersei?
The Night King didn't head to King's Landing--which would've been a smart plan--thanks to his goddamn Raven-Bran obsession. People had some great predictions and theories that didn't play out, and may never be able to at this juncture. Certainly, every fan theory that takes hold should not and cannot prove true, but many have tended to pan out because they simply make too much damn sense. Not so in this case.
Is this indeed how the books will--uh, I mean would--end? I find it hard to imagine that GRRM would've neglected to give D&D any key plot points that he's firmly aware of and hasn't changed his mind about...

Clearly the battle was hell for the characters, but I fully expected the plan to go still further to hell, and for this issue to extend beyond the third episode and wind up intertwining with the Cersei problem. We're to understand that eps 3-5 are like three acts of one long story/film. Guess we just have to wait to see how that's the case. Truly agreed with the forecast that the dead would win at Winterfell, with survivors forced to flee south to regroup and finish battling on both fronts later. How phenomenally terrifying would that be...!!!!! These ain't the kind of expectations you really want subverted. Praying I won't reach the end still thinking how much I want a do-over. Please let the rest be loaded with shocking surprises that thrill me and undo every disappointment I currently feel...please.

Is there -any- possible way that you could have a "Little Shop of Horrors"-style ending, with signs of the undead returning? Probably not. But it felt like the start of that trope where everything gets suspiciously calm for a while and you think you've defeated Hexxus but then he rises again harder and stronger as an even more fucking petrifying, fire-breathing skeletal sludge-demon ("Surprise muthafuckaz, thought ya'd seen the last of me?"), and everybody's like, "All right, so it really wasn't that simple." I sorta see some narrative poetry in Arya being given the would-be Bran-killing dagger in the spot where the NK was created as a human-destroying machine, then sneaking up on him there as she had Jon. I mean honestly, Arya's been one of my top favorites since the beginning. I adore her, I identify with her. But we already knew she was awesome and badass. We've seen her do plenty of fist-pumping, cheer-inducing, rah-rah wicked-awesome and assassiny shit. Her training and missions thus far had been worthwhile in and of themselves, without that endgame. They've paid off in the vengeance and justice and triumphant moments she's achieved, plus already contributing mightily to the battle, shutting many a blue eye forever.

For the ultimate secret to just be guiding her to go stab the Night King felt so...eh? Meh? Not enough took place first? On the one hand, it is a great moment for Mel, letting Arya know the task she has to carry out and encouraging her to go get it done. However, Mel can also change her appearance at will, probably more easily than Arya (for whom face-changing didn't even come into play)--why not just let her grab a dagger and impale the guy, if that's all it was gonna take? Why did it HAVE to be Arya? Why is that leaving me a little cold and unimpressed? Sure she's a sneaky ninja assassin, but there's no magic to sneakiness, no impossible level of lightfootedness that renders you absolutely silent or invisible or undetectable to supernatural beings bent on destroying your species. Not that we have any reason to believe she achieved at her level of faceless study, anyway. There's a limit, training or no training. And she's not even as advanced as Jaqen or others, so you might as well have HIM come back and do it. That'd be more thrilling and shocking than seeing her get one more kill. (Not to mention the NK should've just snapped her fuckin' plot-armored neck...!!!!)
[OH AND IT'S SNEAKED NOT SNUCK, FFS PEOPLE.--courtesy of Stannis the Mannis, One True King of Grammar] Anyway, Arya's not the only person who can move quickly, lightly, and quietly, and also stab. That's not a superpower (or if it is, I'm Wonder Woman. People be always goin' "AH! I didn't know anyone was there" when I assumed they were aware of my presence...xD) People in horror/suspense/action films regularly have to do what she did, without unnecessary special training. Ya wanna have her slide in from the side and shank the NK in his weak spot while he's distracted with somebody else at the end of ep 4 or 5, fine, but 3? Gimme a break. At least she wouldn't have attacked the NK without Mel's revelation & prodding.
Those other worthless Walkers shouldn't have allowed Arya to get close enough to impale their leader, though. -_-

{"COLONEL. I'm trying to sneak around, but I'm dummy thicc..."}

It was Melly's death that seemed like a nail in the coffin to the idea of there being a fake-out as far as the AotD. At any rate, if the NK/WWs could be reconstituted or reincarnated or reformed, Mel would have to be too. (And she does deserve to rest without being called right back to Planetos after being on it for like 3, 400 years or so? xD If the Great Other still presented a massive danger, the LoL wouldn't have taken her yet...) That it appeared to *conclude,* and not just leave off on a maddening cliffhanger for next week with the promise of more expected events concerning the dead, is what's got me buggin'. Something is so damned fishy about the whole thing.

Continuing my thought train: Who is/was Azor Ahai and/or the Prince(ss) Who Was Promised? What or who was/is Lightbringer? Entirely too much has been made of this key prophecy to discard it in the 11th hour because "Lul we just like badass Arya bein' a badass." It's actually unfair to Sansa at this point. Was it a combination of Mel and Arya? Another combo of people? Everyone collectively? This is a huge thing. Arya can't be AA/TPWWP. Mel would've at least sensed something beyond "you'll permanently shut eyes of all colors and we'll meet again." She'd have begun to see signs pointing to Arya, devoted herself instead to aiding her--but nope, she remained stuck on Stan the mistake. For her to suddenly realize at the very last minute that it's been Arya all along would be random, ridiculous nonsense. Obviously she recently saw an image in the flames (probably in Volantis before heading back to Westeros) of Arya slaying the NK and went, "Oh those blue eyes specifically, but I need to tell her to do it." But Arya does not fit the prophecy and is not AA/TPWWP...she was just...destined to do that one thing, becuz skillz? She didn't figuratively forge the catspaw dagger in any way, so I kinda doubt they thought of it as being Lightbringer. There's nothing truly special about it, is there? Any other weapon made of NK-killing material could've done the job. There was a pic of it in that citadel book, but who knows why, it could've been a glossary of undead-killing weaponry. Giving it to Arya was the fucking obvious thing to do even if Bran had no inkling of this fate. Idk, maybe it was destined to kill the NK without actually being Lightbringer.

And let's face it, that scene in S3 only concerned Arya becoming a faceless man; they turned it into a NK thing too when they decided they wanted her to kill him, and fortunately Mel had listed the three most common eye colors (in order tho), so they could focus in on the blue. :p Surely some of the humans Arya's felled were blue-eyed. D&D decided 3 years ago she'd kill the NK, but if she were the subject of the prophecy they'd have gotten that previously from George. The repetition of that prophecy was only to emphasize the blue, not to say that Arya still had one more green- and brown-eyed person to kill as well.

Now I suppose it could've just been a matter of needing people to be in the right places at the right times and ensuring that the right groups unite, and so the LoL was guiding her all along to where she had to be...but there MUST be a reason Mel was SO UNQUESTIONABLY CERTAIN that Stannis, an unrelated man, was the hero, and I demand to know what that is. I need all this shit addressed, writers.Was it just so she'd be where she needed to be for this ultimate outcome? We can make our conjectures about how Mel needed to pass from Stan to Jon so things would work out as they did, but...  Mayhaps Shireen was a test of sorts which Stannis failed in his quest for kingship--something Mel wound up regretting deeply for multiple reasons. Would the true Prince/rightful king not have sacrificed his child? It depressed her for some time, but eventually compounded her determination to fulfill her goal and set things to rights.

WHAT HAPPENED to last year's supposedly legit spoiler about Mel fighting the Night King one on one, turning wights against him, "holding her own but not winning?" I was waiting for this fucking glory. Maybe it's better to do what I'd done for every prior season and NOT closely follow for every last tidbit of news along the way. Regardless, THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN IN THERE. Made too much sense not to be. The Fiery Hand, red priests and priestesses from Essos arriving to reinforce ("the savior!") Daenerys' troops, Kinvara, cutaways to Mel powering up & prepping in Volantis, even additional dragons--where were any of these fantastic, logical ideas? They aren't crackpot tinfoil hypotheses or too-high hopes. They're story elements and likely possibilities that should be dealt with and included, not ignored. It just can't be over. What did Varys hear in the flames? It makes sense to extend the connections between him & Mel, and to connect their fates. Why'd he have to just sit there the whole damn time? My spyder deserves so much better. His death better have something to do with the flame thing and not just some bullshit getting roasted by "Mad Queen Dany" (GAG me) for betraying her after swearing not to go behind her back, or whatever they might try to pull after axing the NK too early.

No "Night Queen," no "ice priestess," no Nissa Nissa to forge Lightbringer. One jab. What, happened.
Also the plot armor thickens, alas, as you careen toward the end. The show built its reputation partly on the realistic willingness to kill anyone at anytime, but with the cast whittled down for the endgame, you KNOW certain people need to make it to certain points for certain things to happen. But whatever. ;p Even the ones who almost assuredly don't have a big part and aren't crucial made it against overwhelming odds, somehow.
Guess I'm no longer speechless! The night might not have been that long, but as always my feedback sure as shit is.
This is the first time I've been so let down by a GoT episode, and I never would have seriously imagined being anything less than blown away by this one delivering everything I dreamt of and then some. Hate the feeling, because it feels as if it shouldn't even be possible.
...Rewatching for a third time...it's a pretty well-structured episode. Well-paced, well-edited and all that. *For what's in it.* If that's all that needed to happen before we apparently lost the AotD and Mel and moved past that plot. And I just, refuse to accept that that's the case. Lay some kinda twist on me, guys, I beg of you. I love the traditional political intrigue and throne shit as much as the next girl, but this is the final season. Last chance for everything. There should be so much more, and it's unbelievable that the NK could've been ended just like that. Feel like I watched a severely edited-down version of his plot line. It shouldn't have been too much to ask to linger longer in the winter Old Nan described, or indeed to have truly experienced it. It can't take a promised prince or Azor Ahai one time, and a sneaky girl with a dagger the next. They need to pull out all the stops and go, "SIKE! We got you good!"
#BattleOfWinterfell #GameOfThrones #GoT #ForTheThrone #NotToday 

Discuss? Let's Disqus! 

P.S. And oh yeah, which scene was this then?: