Did I see Theon Greyjoy in one of the crowd scenes towards the end? Shouldn’t he have been out by the tree with Bran by then? Any idea how many forces are assembled at Winterfell? We know that King’s Landing has 20,000+ troops but I’m wondering if the assembled armies at Winterfell are greater. It would be ironic if the Night King went right past Winterfell to attack King’s Landing, which of course has no dragonglass (or I think understands its importance).
No, no, no. All I see are trees. There is not a forest anywhere. Haha!
It seemed that the shot was meant to convey that the Night King’s army had arrived. They didn’t need to show every private, NCO, and officer in the army to make the point I think.
Like others I feel like this episode was very much an opportunity for the fans to have a quiet moment to say goodbye to many of these characters. I hope that all plot armor has been removed at this point and that the writers will have some surprises for us next week.
Agreed that it felt pervy. I guess it’s because (a) Maisie Williams has an unusually young face, and (b) Arya started having an adventure at a young age, and has never really stopped to grow up in a traditional sense, so it still kind of feels like she’s 12.
This was a good example of both the strengths and weaknesses of latter-season GoT. Emotional moments well acted by good actors in roles that we have come to love, plot and logistics details that aren’t very well thought out at all.
A few thoughts:
Danaerys’ response to Sansa to “men are easily manipulated” – basically that Jon convinced her already to put ambition on hold to do the right thing, was probably setting the table for something regarding her response to his claim. Either realizing that Jon really is the “right” one who’s able to convince enemies to come together: wildlings and Crows, north and south (and east), etc. — OR that she will feel he’s been playing the game and really has, no joke, been manipulating her, causing her to turn against him. We’ll see I guess, but I’m sure that was the point of that scene and the “who manipulated whom?” quote.
I’m pretty sure it came up earlier in the show that “there must always be a Stark in Winterfell.” It always seemed like one of those that they wouldn’t keep saying unless it was going to be important. When the kingdom was falling apart and other castles were falling/changing hands we never heard “there must always be a Frey at the Twins” or “a Tully at Riverrun” or whatever. My wild-ass hypothesis is that the wights are going to come in through the crypts and slaughter everyone…but we’ve also been hit over the head a bit with the loyalty of the northerners (and the Sansa convo, again: “we will never answer to another king” or whatever), so as long as there’s a Stark around, either the NK won’t be able to resurrect fallen northerners, or the risen wights will turn against him and fight for Winterfell/Stark instead.
Complaint: it seems to me the dialogue sucks. My wife disagreed, I have seen few mentions of it at least with regard to this episode…but something seems off to me. Of course, they haven’t had any book quotes or inspiration to work from in a while, and GRRM tended to write things in, I guess, a certain sort of cadence or style. So many instances, but off the top of my head I’m thinking of “Jon’s a man, and men are easily manipulated.” (probably paraphrased) I just thought there’s nothing really wrong with that phrase, but it felt just kind of flat and obvious and soap-opera-y, where previously the point may have been made with a little more eloquent language. Or the Hound, of all people, with the “LoL brought you back 19 times just for me to chuck you over this wall” – for some reason the word “chuck” is what bothers me here. It feels modern and out of place and just replacing it with “toss” or “throw” or something similar wouldn’t have been as jarring. All I can think of is if some writer came onto Deadwood (which had/has a particular notable style) and just totally whiffed on the specifics, it would feel really weird. Lots of other examples. Hopefully as the battles pick up there’ll be less opportunity for talking 
Final thought, again with the dialogue and again with hamfisted foreshadowing: what’s the deal with Tyrion’s brain. Oh my god, almost as many times as we heard that the “crypts are safe!” we heard that Tyrion’s “here for his brain” or because he’s a genius, he himself calling himself “clever” (“I made a mistake common to clever people…”). Why? That something bad’s going to happen in the crypts is obvious…what’s up with Tyrion? Is he being set up to save the day or make another huge blunder?
Well, Podrick’s a goner. Did anybody say anything about their sweetheart back home? They’re dead, too. The body count next week will be tremendous, and I think (just a guess, but still) we will shed most if not all of the secondary characters. And maybe a dragon. Jon is shit at tactics, so he will fuck up and get a lot of people killed.
Sequence guess: Most if not all of the Army of the Dead is dealt with in this episode. Episode 4 is the advance on/retreat to King’s Landing. Episode 5 is dealing with the remains of the AotD and the Golden Company, Part 1. Episode 6 is us watching our favorites fall one by one until the end, when we find out that yes, the writers do dare to kill everybody.
Im going to guess it goes down like this:
Dany and Drogon are the clean-up plan. Our heroes lose. Dany and Drogon level Winterfell to keep the Night King from using the people who died there. A couple of our heroes escape south. Dany thinks she’s cinderized all our players, but we see at least one has survived in the crypts. Probably Jon. Arya also may arise later as she pretended to be a wight or something.
I’m starting to wonder if Dany will end up being a villainess by the end of the show. She didn’t seem to happy with Jon’s reveal and that it meant he’s the rightful heir to the Iron Throne.
It could be a nice plot twist and we’ve already seen early season bad guys like Jaime and the Hound evolve into “good” guys.
I dont think theres enough time for full blown villainy. Maybe Jon releinquishs his claim but says he can never be with her ORRRRRR
…he takes the Black again and spends the rest of his life alone while Dany sits on a lonely throne
In a series full of bad asses the baddest of them all, IMHO, is Lady Lyanna Mormont. She doesn’t get much screen time, but she has balls enough for an army.
Dany talked earlier about “breaking the wheel” and freed the slaves in that other city (whose name I can’t remember). But she still thinks she’s entitled to be the one true ruler and that others should “bend the knee” to her or be killed immediately. That doesn’t sound like breaking the wheel, or eliminating the feudal system, which is what I thought she wanted to do.
I really hope they just say something like "everyone in the crypts was killed. I cant stand being shown Gilly and Little Sam dying.
They went to great lengths to show the crypts in the intro, so I’m betting that there’ll be a lot going on down there. If so, then they can’t just brush it off later with everyone died. They’ll need to show it.
Sansa is still stupid. The whole bit with Dany was Stark Stupidity ™. Will never bow to another King?
Yeah right. :rolleyes:
When the opposing party has Dragons, Unsullied, Dotrakhi. In addition to other parts of the Seven Kingdoms. And when best case scenario, is that the North (ie the White Walkers first target), survives, having been badly mauled by the Night King.
Makes the Greyjoy rebellion look well thought out in comparison.
I am surprised Dany did not say regular or extra crispy, followed by a burst of fire from an off-screen Drogon.
I also thought this was silly of Sansa. Did she not learn anything from Littlefinger? You do not show your hand to the fucking Queen like that. You make her think you’re on board. Why antagonize for no damned reason?
Not to mention the North has barely any fighting force after years of getting their asses kicked by every single enemy they ever had. I was fully expecting to see the Glovers fall this episode as the zombie horde slowly made their way to Winterfell, but nope apparently all thats done with and the north has been reduced to whoever they could fit inside Winterfell. But go ahead and shit talk your future SIL Sansa, that’s exactly what Littlerfinger would not have done.
Plus this whole “who will rule” thing is nonsense. Jon and Dany marry. What? They’re related? So what? The founding Tageryen married his two sisters at the same time. Sure, people looked down on Jaime and Cersei-- but they are fraternal twins for chrissakes! After the dead ravage the land and all the people in it, you’d be lucky to find another person to marry who isn’t related to you.
Now don’t go thinking I’m all for relatives getting married in real life. Look what happened to the European AND Egyptian royal families when marrying into your own family was all the rage. Nothing but hemophiliacs, insanity,and club-footed genetic horrors (sorry 'bout that Prince Harry and William), but this is a fictional land where all they have to worry about is if their inbred children will be insane. Jaime and Cersei spun the wheel three times and only got one homicidal maniac.
Fixed. For some reason Wikipedia had “The Rightful Queen” as the title first before correcting it.
I can understand the producers wanting to save on the FX budget, but where are the dragons?
Dany’s dragons didn’t have anyone to cook this episode, but I’m wondering where the Night King’s dragon is. And that line to the side of the White Walkers did look like trees to me when I looked at the freeze frame.
I have to wonder how much military intelligence the Night King has. Why stop to assault Winterfell, which is probably the only place in the Seven Kingdoms with effective weapons against the Army of the Dead, when he could bottle the defenders up inside the walls, maybe raise some dead Starks in the crypts to sow some chaos inside the walls, and send his main force to Kings Landing to turn a million people into wights and use the zombie dragon to knock the walls down and burn the roof off the Red Keep.
Bran says the Night King knows where Bran is – has Bran been keeping an eye on the Night King all along as well?
Thanks Colibri!
NK has no reason to believe the forces they have wont seal the deal and get Bran. Maybe he never takes the field and goes to freeze the ocean to the Iron Isles.
Music-wise…interestingly since all the opieces have been set for years, and now were in the endgame…Ramin probably doesnt have to do a lot of new work here. Some of course, combining themes and such, but not nearly what Bear McCreary did for BSG. Bear composed an entire CD of new music just for the final episode.