Five episodes left, they must need Jon to be King badly to advance the story line. Otherwise, the conversation should have had Jon asking for proof before confronting Dany. As it stands, all he really has is Bran having visions and Sam Tarley who just had his brother and father smoked by Dany. So far there is no proof beyond reasonable doubt, that would give Jon legitamacy enough to order up reinforcements from the south.
Some kind of spear? With a detachable head? I speculate she takes a poke at the Night King down the line maybe? I dunno.
There are no reinforcements to order up. They’re all already on his side or with Cersei.
I liked it. The best thing about the show is putting new characters together, and this had a ton of that. Plus some of the best former pairings. The rest of the season will probably be tragic battle scenes, and I’ll miss these kinds of episodes.
My not-relevant-to-the-plot-prediction: Arya and Gendry get it on before the end of the season/show. You know they want to.
I liked it…sorta.
Seems to me the show has a lot to put to bed in seven episodes and we had precious little resolved/moved forward in this episode.
It was fun and would be fine if we knew season nine and ten were out there but they aren’t. We have six more episodes left. This one did little to start wrapping things up.
Season six and seven seemed to move at a brisk pace knowing they needed to start tying up various plot strings but S8E1 seemed a little aimless and meandering.
I thought Arya’s line that Sansa is the smartest person she knows is completely unearned. In fact, I think Sansa as a smart, developed player of the game is unearned. Yes, I understand the story has progressed in such a way that that’s supposed to be what we think, but it’s just weak writing.
Consider: Sansa’s moment where she’s supposed to have a triumphant scene in which she has grown into being a player in the game is when she showed up at the last minute with the Knights of the Vale and wins the battle of Winterfell. Oh, everyone discounted poor Sansa, but she’s actually super smart and saved the day.
Bullshit.
We had a specific scene in which Jon is arguing/planning out the Battle of Winterfell, and Sansa is a major player in that scene. She complains that no one asks her advice, that she’s never given proper respect as a powerful person and a player of the game. So Jon said “okay, so what’s your advice then?” and she says something like “I don’t know. I don’t know battles or war. I just know that Ramsay is tricky… so be prepared for something tricky.” - Yeah, thanks. You whine that no one asks you your advice, then when finally someone does, you have nothing. Not only that, but you were sitting on the information that could’ve totally swung the battle - that Littlefinger’s Knights of the Vale were in play. And you decided not to tell Jon. Because you’re an idiot and you were basically trying to lose the battle on purpose with your stupidity.
The army Jon scraped up together was personally loyal to him. If Jon had fell, that army would’ve immediately disintegrated. And the only thing that saved Jon was plot armor. He should’ve died. The battle of Winterfell should’ve been lost. Sansa should’ve rolled up with her super smart for hiding it secret weapon to find them too late.
And yet the scene is played off as triumphant. Oh, look at Sansa, she’s so smart, she saved the day! She really has grown up into a player in the Game of Thrones!
Fuck that noise, that’s a massive “show don’t tell” violation. You’re telling us Sansa has grown up, become super smart, and become a powerful force. But what you’ve shown does not indicate that. Just bad writing.
In other news, Jon should do one of two things: Either tell everyone “it doesn’t matter who the rightful king is, we can’t waste time squabbling over that shit” or he should usurp/depose/kill Dany. Dany is a very flawed queen, and I honestly don’t know if the writers understand this. Maybe it’ll become a plot point, and maybe they’ll just gloss over it. I don’t expect them to handle this one well.
She’s arrogant. She’s more concerned with being shown the proper respect and playing bullshit political games and have people treat her with reverance than she is about doing everything she can to fight for the living. We’ve seen that Jon is truly the leader they need - he has no ego, he doesn’t give a shit about his own position or power or glory, he is completely dedicated to fulfilling the role thrust upon him to defeat the Night King. Jon is the king the world needs, and Danerys is way too attached to southern games and meaningless political bullshit and having everyone show the proper deference for her royalty. Jon deposing/killing/whatever Danerys would be fully justified, in both a practical way, and in terms of the rules of royalty, if anyone even gives a shit about that anymore. I don’t think this is going to happen, but that’s the direction they should be going.
Instead, I suspect that Dany’s flaws will not cost her and that she’ll end up being triumphant and right and wise, just because the writers have decided that she is right and wise, and not because she’s earned it. Just like Sansa.
I am glad that they didn’t drag it out with [del]Jon[/del]Aegon/
I am also curious what Arya wanted Gendry to make
And yay for heroic Theon
Sansa has a point about supplies, but I’m not expecting a long war. (If they defeat the WW, will spring return?)
It does make sense that hey didn’t bring supplies – the Dothraki probably count on pillaging and the Unsullied are used to starving (though that has likely changed)
Brian
I hope they have the time to close out all those minor characters. I would like to know the fates Robin, the Sand Snakes and Edmure since we now know Jamie didn’t rally the Riverlords. I can’t tell if they should have put more work into this episode or not since the all the reunions and setting up new minor plot points had to be extremely unwieldy. The lineage reveal scene with John and Sam in the crypts was satisfying but the other reunion scenes ending too quickly or were generally mediocre. At least I have five more Sundays to look forward to though and I’m hoping the season ages well.
I think it would be weird. Arya has never evinced an interest in being girly and getting with a boy (womanly/man). Yeah they are flirting and it hearkens back to a very early episode but really…Arya till now seems to have had zero interest in sex. It just isn’t on her radar.
Sansa I could buy it. Not that she is a floozy (far from it) but she is far more feminine than Arya’s Tom Boy (and I know Tom Boy’s are still women and still interested in sex but Arya hasn’t been till now).
I was just joking with my wife that Jaime Lannister should show up and see Bran.
Then he did. We both laughed and cheered.
We could work for this show.
I agree with all of this. Although I’m not sure when’s the last time we’ve seen good strategy out of anyone. Littlefinger engineering a Bolton/Barratheon (Lannister) split in season 5? Most victories since then have been deus ex dragon or magical armada.
In comparison to Tyrion believing Cersei or him hatching the absolutely ludicrous “capture a wight” plot, Sansa knowing where Northern loyalty lies and not to trust Cersei is pretty smart.
Nah. Dany aint making it. And i suspect she’ll go out a boss.
I agree that Dany is flawed and we did see a change after she rescued Jon…but that seems to have backpedeled a little.
I HOPE we don’t see anymore ‘rightful king/queen’ bullshit. Im guessing battle of Winterfell takes up ep 3 and the good guys get their asses kicked. I hope they do cause if not we get 3 more eps of Gaming of Thrones and Im really done with Gaming of Thrones.
I just want to see Ragnarok and roll here on out after they wrap up what to do with a guy who pushes a little boy out of a window.
I think we are to get it from Sansa out-playing Little Finger (Lord Baelish) at his own game in season 7. Sansa says she is a “slow learner but she does learn” (right before Baelish gets his throat slit by Arya).
As an aside the fan theory I am going with is that Baelish is still alive. What we saw was a Faceless Man get it.
I do think that the one specific observation - that Sansa scoffed at the idea that Cersei would send help, was earned. If there is one thing Sansa does know, it’s Cersei. I just think almost every other instance of having us expect us to treat her as an intellectual/game playing equal as the great players is unearned.
When Arya said that about Sansa, I was…totally stunned. I’m thinking, wait…who has she met?
Ned Stark was certainly smarter. And Tyrion. And John. And almost everyone she knows or met. The faceless people were probably smarter on some level. Bran knows almost everything now. Certainly Brienne is smarter.
Who has she met dumber than Sansa? That chubby guy who cooks really well? Cooking is a skill, no need to count him out. Gendry is clearly at least Sansa’s equal.
She met Littlefinger, too. Yep, smarter than Sansa.
I think this is true, but it doesn’t feel earned because it’s obvious on its face that Arya isn’t trying to usurp Sansa to be Lady of Winterfell. Sure, she figured it out, but that never made sense in the show, just manufactured drama because the writing last season was very poor.
While I can see it is uncomfortable for Jamie I seriously doubt Bran gives a shit at this point.
He would not be the three-eyed raven at this point if it hadn’t happened and Bran is pretty much past petty revenge stuff. He’ll probably thank Jamie while noting Jamie was a shit for pushing him out a window.
Considering the number of other more important characters who have to be accounted for in this season, I don’t think Robin or Edmure are interesting enough to merit any screen time, especially since they are entirely irrelevant to the plot at this point. The Sand Snakes are all now dead. Ellaria Sand is still alive in Cersei’s dungeon. I wouldn’t be too surprised to see her surface, either to escape and try to take revenge, or for Cersei to finally kill her in some especially grotesque manner - maybe Qyburn trying out some new poison.