Game of Thrones: Season 8, The Final Season (spoilers)

GoT reenactment from last night...

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"This is that human freedom, which all boast that they possess, and which consists solely in the fact, that men are conscious of their own desire, but are ignorant of the causes whereby that desire has been determined." -Baruch Spinoza

Here's a wild idea: have Arya disguised as the wight she killed at the end of that library stealth scene. Cool reveal: Faceless Man powers work on the undead and explain how she can sneak in.

You could be critical of the NK here and say he paid the price for standing down his army so that he could be the one to kill the Raven, all eyes were focused on Bran and NK because the NK believed it was safe, and someone quick and stealthy got in there. I'm still sceptical of how Arya could get so close though, the last few steps, its believable that she can get to within a few metres of it but that final leap, I'm not sure, but again if everyone's still and distracted someone quick could dart in there.

I also thought when she was in the Castle she might be able to take a dead face, I actually think that would have been a better way. They are probably saving the face changing for something later and don't want to have 2 similar endings.

It's quite possible we'll all be saying this should have been the case. I'm also really interested to see if the NK goes down like this in the books (sometime in the 2030's at this rate).

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I really hope that something has been missed (rather, hidden from the audience), regarding the dynamic between Bran and the Night King. first, I think in any other context, I would be totally satisfied with how things ended. That's ended. I still have my issues with previously listed complaints. But this isn't just any 80's action flick with 2-dimensional cardboard villains. GoT OPENED with the White Walkers. That was the implied evil of this world. We spent nearly a season's worth of episodes watching Bran's character evolve for some greater purpose, also heavily implied for some defense against the Night King. We see him worg Hodor in a brilliant tragedy, showing just how powerful Bran can be and how powerful he COULD be if he could just survive long enough to learn more of himself and his strengths. Last night he worged about 8 ravens. Someone else saved the day. Though exciting, it hurts my head when I start to think about the outline of it all. I figured what would happen would eventually happen, but I kind of feel like a few bits maybe should have come to pass, first.

They did spend a few minutes during strategy meetings filling in some blanks about Bran being the "memory of man," and if he died then mankind's history would then be dead too---forgotten, as it was stated by Sam. So using those few minutes of exposition dialogue, then I suppose that was Bran's purpose and nothing more. Not to suggest that is a small purpose, just not quite what I feel we haven been surviving for, season after season. A few sentences to redirect so much of what has been building? Cersei is now the remaining threat, surviving---no, actually, having never faced the horde of undead? Human v Human? But really, with so little forces left in Winterfell, Cersei should be able to steamroll everyone, even with a dragon or two. I guess we get a shot at Gleganebowl. I guess.

If that is truly the end of the Night King's threat, I honestly feel that much of the show has been one long red herring. Or I've totally been misreading everything.

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"My Dionne Warwick understanding of your dream indicates that you are ambivalent on how you want life to eventually screw you." - Joel

"Ever try to forcibly pin down a house cat? It's not easy." - Captain Steel

"I just can't get pass sticking a finger up a dog's butt." - John Dumbear

That's kind of the standard thing for unstoppable villains, yeah: their own hubris brings them down. Even though it rings true, I tend to think it's kind of lame and cliche now, unless they find a clever way to have it manifest beyond just "I'm so confident I'm going to make myself unnecessarily vulnerable just because." More interesting if their hubris brings them down more indirectly.

But honestly, all the above is how I feel about human villains. For someone who's being portrayed as cold (heh) and calculating and emotionless and hell-bent on destruction, it seems ridiculous that they'd be brought down by being haughty. Especially when it hasn't even really been established what they think or why they do what they do, exactly. Their powers and motivations and all that have been pretty murky, save for a couple of offhand comments in the last couple of episodes.

Put another way: if the Night King is just a thoughtless force, fair enough, but then it can't be brought down by hubris. And if he's an actual character, then they need to treat him like one and actually flesh (heh again) him out a bit.

Yeah, same. And I dunno what she even jumped off of. There's just so many cool ways to have done it! Secret passages only she knows about, wight face-stealing. There's all this low-hanging fruit there about ways to make this cooler and make more sense.

Yeah, I'll have complaints either way, but I really hope they use that later. I'm not sure how they would now since the threat has been dealt with. I guess just to freak someone out, but my guess is we won't get it at all.

Gotta imagine something a lot more interesting and nuanced will happen in the books.

Twitter, andylevy:

Wouldn't quite say emotionless, doesn't he smile at Jon when he's raising the dead both in this episode and in Hardholme, like a "come at me bro", a taunt. However I did reply to Iro earlier saying I thought they might flesh him out a bit, give us his motivations, I thought he might even speak at some point. Years of wondering about him have all come to naught really, and that's the disappointment. Does he not smile at Dany too after the failed dragonfire? at least that elevates him above Robot

Its got to be either using face changing to get Cersei or, after getting her becoming Cersei and ending the war. If she doesn't use her face changing it's gonna be the worse dangling unanswered thread in this whole thing, 2 seasons of training and scrubbing floors in Bravos for what? to kill the Frey's with face changing?


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I'm starting to get a feeling that these sorts of shows start out all grand and complex and then some jackass joins the boardroom late and says "Nah, I don't like that" and then we get this crap fest. Both GoT and Marvel have me questioning why I should ever give my allegiance to a franchise for more than 5 seconds if they are going to screw it up just as fast.

For instance, who's idea was it to let a dragon land on a battlefield in enemy held territory? An idiot. That's who.

It's hard to say. Maybe a slight mouth upturn? It's subtle. But that's kind of my complaint: they're not really going either way with him. We've definitely gotten hints along the way that he's not just a mindless destructive force, but that's about the extent of his characterization. Which is kind of okay if it's building towards a reveal, but if he just stays that way, in Character Development Limbo, and then just dies, and he dies because of some human-like hubris without ever really seeming human? Blech.

Anyway, sounds like we're on the same page. More of that, or less, but what we got was just confusing.

The Frey thing was a pretty good payoff to it, I thought, but yeah, would've been better to have it really help one more time. Winterfell seems like it would've been a better/cooler choice (since we didn't know she could impersonate wights, but there's no real reason to think she can't, either, so it's a "fair" surprise). We'll see if it comes up again, though we should probably brace ourselves for the idea that she just had her big moment. I think she'll get more to do, but it might not reach those heights again.

ROFL. I totally read that as a taunting smirk. I laughed at how happy he must be knowing he's winning, but then I thought wait just a damn minute! This dude is a cold, calculating, magic mystery machine of dead. The hell he smiling for? That's not his character!?

Like Sam's comments explaining the reduced purpose of Bran earlier, the Night King was reduced to only human. With just a smile.

Situations like this are like watching a chef buy some nice aged ribeye, a select lobster and choice ingredients, invite you over, sit you down in a a candle-lit dining room with all the best china and silverware spread, pours wine into a crystal glass and asks you to sit tight for two hours while he/she prepares the meal. Two hours later without so much as a salad or soup course, you're served corndogs. Don't get me wrong, now. I LOVE corndogs! With mustard? OMG my mouth is already watering. But as much as I love me a good corndog, I thought I was waiting for surf-n-turf. I'll eat my fill, and leave satisfied enough that I received a free meal at the courtesy of a stranger, but secretly I'm going to be upset for being teased for something else. And feel guilty for thinking it.

;P

I'm trying to hide my anger with humor btw. lol.

One of the best episodes of tv history! The darkness and the chaos didn't bother me, because the battle was dark and chaotic, made me feel even more engaged in battle as a viewer. 'NOT TODAY!' There will be plenty of sunlit battles next week in the Battle for Westeros!

I should have learnt my GOT lesson by now about theories but I haven't. I was so sure the NK wouldn't die last night but he did. Anything's up in the air at this point.

Like I said we may have to wait for the books to fill in any NK blanks.

Yeah, I learned from Battlestar Galactica that any time fans come up with a super cool (but complicated) theory, it's basically never right. Showrunners almost always pick the simpler thing, probably because they want it to be as accessible as possible. And if forced to choose between character and plot, they pick character. Which I guess is fine, but ideally you wouldn't have to choose.

For both BSG and Lost the showrunners were putting out podcasts down the stretch of the final season, and both times leading up to the finale they were talking so much about "characters" and "these characters and their journey," so now I know every time you hear stuff like that, it's the showrunners preparing you for the idea that they're going to try to pay off character arcs at the possible (likely?) cost of narrative cohesion. Though, frankly, in this last episode, they didn't even really do that properly across the board.

I guess that's why GOT has elevated itself above most everything else because you just can't guess where its going, whereas something like Endgame you basically knew it was all going to be ok in the end, even when the snap happens in IW it's not really a shock because you never really believe it. GOT though, you cant rule out any kind of dark ending.

The music is first class again, after Melissandre lights the swords and just after she lights the trench. Absolutely epic.

Some highlights for me:

-The musical score was 100% on point this episode - but since I couldn't see much else, my
other senses must have been heightened.

-I understand that the darkness and chaos was an aesthetic choice, but I had big a problem
with immediately identifying who made it out. When the Night king raised the dead at the
end of the episode I could have sworn I saw Sam and Tormund open their now blue eyes
up, and watched the rest of the episode with the assumption they were dead/wights until we
saw them among the survivors at the end. I think we still have two dragons, only because
next week's preview had two dragons in them. I thought it was Dany's dragon that was killed
by wights and then came back at the end, but I was wrong.

-Didn't really care for how most of the central characters were being overwhelmed in one
scene and the next they're just fine.

-Where was Davos the whole episode?

-The Dothraki charging and instantly being ripped apart by the undead was a high point for
me.

-My biggest question is: How many LURD of DE LIGHT converts we gonna get
out of this?

-Overall - I liked the episode, definitely not how I would have ended the Night King's
story, and I thought a few more central characters would have died, but here's hoping for
more carnage for the throne. I would love to see Dany take way more credit than she
deserves for winning the battle - and I think that's the only way for the audience to turn
against her along with the Starks.

P.S. - I guess Sansa and Tyrion are gonna bang now?

EDIT: I would love to see any other battle where Sam could just lay down and cry his way out of being killed.

EDIT 2: I really have no problem that it was Arya that killed the Night King, my problem was that it was deus ex Arya.

I feel like we'll see Arya with a Lannister face taking out Cersei. Fulfilling two prophecies in a weird way (Cersei's eye colour is green and being killed by a little brother). The little brother could be either one as they were both born AFTER her.

Two birds one stone.


Although, that gives Arya all the best kills in this whole series, ha.

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Suspect's Reviews

First part, agreed! I believe every major horde rush showed Winterfell outnumbered like 100-1, racing in to the Unsullied. Then again to the wall. Then again ENTERING the wall. Then again rushing the elder tree. Then AGAIN after the resurrection. Each scene shows a massive number of undead swarming a handful of defenders before quickly cutting to another scene. On return? Defenders are still standing with like 50 total undead, dead. When the Hound and Beric were roaming the halls for Arya, the halls should have really already been overrun and standing room only, based on the pace and mass of invaders literally rolling over each other to get in, a la World War Z (thanks, TUS, for seeing that!).

On your second commented, I lol'd.

man. I hate being so negative =*(