GAME OF THRONES

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

A Theory About Why Last Night's Game of Thrones Was Too Dark to Watch.

[Jay 37,323]

I too had a hard time seeing what was going on most of the episode, which I was especially frustrated by because I am paying HBO a premium price ($15/month) for their HBO Now service, it's not like I was illegally streaming or torrenting it or something.

 

It was also frustrating because I have a nice 4K HDR TV and there is no way to watch this show in that format.  It's weird that Amazon Prime lets me stream 4K HDR content at no added cost and Netflix streams 4K HDR content for a small increase in fee, but HBO offers no way for me to watch their content in 4K at all.  I think if I had been able to, it would have looked fine on my TV.  Oh well.

 

Maybe someday I will re-watch the whole show on discs (Blu Ray or maybe 4K Ultra Blu Ray at that point) and I can finally see this episode the way the makers intended it to be seen.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

I noticed the show was dark for me years ago, during season 5 or 6 I think. It's the only thing I watch where I have to change the settings on my TV to see whats happening during night scenes or dimly lit rooms.

 

Kinda weird to see everyone complaining all of a sudden

[Jay 37,323]

I never had a problem with any episode at all until this one.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

It seemed worse then usual yes.

 

 

 Anyone really moved to tears by any character deaths? Jorah, Theon?

[mstrox 6,647]

We turned the lights off immediately after the first scene, but once we did that we saw everything just fine.

[Disco Stu 15,495]

It's a very enthusiastic rave from the New York Times

 

Quote

Sunday’s final clash was a masterpiece of tension and release, goose bumps and heartbreak, grandiosity and intimacy. It deftly mixed genres (horror, action, melodrama), shots and planes of action as it shifted from the chaos of the fighting in and around Winterfell, to the claustrophobic terror of the crypts, to the dragon dogfighting in the winter sky.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/28/arts/television/game-of-thrones-battle-of-winterfell-review.html

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

The dragon dogfight was probably my least favourite stuff.

 

Did Jon's dragon die?

[Bilbo 3,709]

I watched it in a pitch black room around dawn with the brightness turned up on my MacBook. Any visibility issues were down to the poor quality stream from NowTv but nothing that prevented me enjoying it. I look forward to getting it on Blu-ray 

Just now, Stefancos said:

The dragon dogfight was probably my least favourite stuff.

 

Did Jon's dragon die?

 

No, he’s in the trailer for the next episode 

8 minutes ago, Stefancos said:

 

 Anyone really moved to tears by any character deaths? Jorah, Theon?

 

I don’t really cry and movies or tv deaths but I was moved by both deaths. 

 

I was sad to see Beric die because that dude could read the phone book and I’d pay attention. 

 

Delighted to see the end of Lyanna Mormont.

 

I might be the only Dolorous Edd fan in the world and I will miss him. 

[mstrox 6,647]

That sequence of the mob of wights taking down a dragon was incredible.

[Jay 37,323]

Both dragons survived.  The one that got covered in Wights was shaking them off as it took off into the air, and then they all disappeared moments later anyway.  Probably took roughly the same damage as the other dragon did after the arena battle.  Some recovery time will be needed, then they'll be fine.

 

I wonder if that Scorpion thingy Cersei had cooked up will kill one of both of them eventually.  I can't imagine the series will end with any dragons left alive, or any other magic left on earth.

[Holko 9,499]

I feel the crypt was also wasted. Until now we've pretty much only seen the main hall, now suddenly they were running all around in passages when the dead were rising - that is, they came out of nowhere, weren't really visible at all and only pulled a few people into the darkness. The show implied Ned's bones are back, wouldn't it have been cool to see a skeleton rise out from under his statue? Not even for the cool factor but for doing something with the location.

[Disco Stu 15,495]

Also are those crypts made out of paper?  Would a skeleton be able to punch through stone in one hit?

[Jay 37,323]

I agree, the crypts were a big disappointment.

 

It also makes the Night King's powers kinda wonky.  I mean, I can suspend my disbelief and say recently dead bodies that still have flesh around their bone and brains in their skulls can be re-animated by this magical bad guy.  Whatever.  But raw bones with no meat left on them and no brains left?  How are those moving around?  Where is their independent thought of who to attack coming from?  Etc.  It's going too far.

Especially since they apparently received super-human strength upon reanimating, able to punch through stone tablets!  I never got the impression regular wights were any stronger than the human was before turning.

[Disco Stu 15,495]

It might have been cooler if instead of breaking out of the crypts immediately, if they had heard them rattling around in there for a while trying to get out.

[Jay 37,323]

Yep

[mstrox 6,647]

 

3 minutes ago, Jay said:

Both dragons survived.  The one that got covered in Wights was shaking them off as it took off into the air, and then they all disappeared moments later anyway.

 

Yeah, but it was still a cool scene!

[Jay 37,323]

It was fucking awesome!!

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Amazing how first rate the visuals are!

[Holko 9,499]

7 minutes ago, Jay said:

I mean, I can suspend my disbelief and say recently dead bodies that still have flesh around their bone and brains in their skulls can be re-animated by this magical bad guy.  Whatever.  But raw bones with no meat left on them and no brains left?  How are those moving around?  Where is their independent thought of who to attack coming from?  Etc.  It's going too far.

Season 4's finale had quite old skeleton wights attacking Bran&co under the Great Weirwood before the earlier design of Leaf stepped in and fireballed them.

[Jay 37,323]

Oh yea, that's true!

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Hard to remember those kinda details right?

[Jay 37,323]

Well, it still doesn't explain why they could punch through stone tablets this week.  But no bother.

 

With this battle behind us, I suppose I should set my sights on the political intrigue of defeating Cersei and then deciding who will sit on the throne now that the Undead threat is over.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Not that much political intrigue left though, right? The North is pretty much decimated. We don't know how many survived, but the death toll was horrendous. 

 

Daenerys and Sansa could start fighting for control, i guess. But i wouldn't buy that. Too melodrama.

 

Cersei make exactly the right call not sending her armies. Everything happened as she anticipated.

 

She's probably the most suitable person for the Iron Throne.

[Wojo 2,453]

Three episodes left for Dany to become the villain. 

 

I wonder if Missandei will be the snitch on Sansa and Tyrion's scheming. 

[Disco Stu 15,495]

1 minute ago, Stefancos said:

 

 

Cersei make exactly the right call not sending her armies. Everything happened as she anticipated.

 

She's probably the most suitable person for the Iron Throne.

 

Average citizen:

 

"She gambled all of our lives on a bet to make it more likely she can hold on to power!  Clearly the most suitable person to rule us"

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

She got shit under control!

[Fargo 297]

So maybe it was here, or on Reddit, I saw an article someone posted saying GRRM's favorite part of LOTR was the Scouring of the Shire. Looking at what has happened with the final season, I can definitely see the similarities. The "big" conflict is over, but now our heroes have to deal with a smaller, and more personal, conflict.

 

I did enjoy GoT for the political-ness of the earlier seasons/books - so I don't think it's such a bad thing for The Dead to be dealt with, and now we focus on who's gonna be Queen, King, whatever.

 

I do think there has to be some division between Jon/Aegon and Dany, otherwise it's too simple. But at the same time I'm not sure how it's gonna happen with just three episodes left. I hope it has something to do with Jon's dragon now being loyal to him instead of Dany. Which could lead to another 'Dance of the Dragons'? I don't see the point anymore since Jon isn't Azor Ahai and Dany wouldn't be Nissa Nissa anymore.

 

Not the biggest fan of Arya being Kingslayer 2.0, but I don't think it was a bad episode or anything.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

So the ladies have a common foe, who wants to destroy whats left of them, but they start fighting each other instead?

 

God I hope not!

[Jay 37,323]

Is the opening titles still going to show a broken wall and blue Night King travel path for the next 3 weeks?

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Cersei Lannister Is Smarter Than All These Morons!

[Jay 37,323]

The “Great War,” the war of the living against the dead, the existential fight for the survival of life itself, was fought in one location, in one night, over the span of a few hours. The Night King waltzed into a trap the leaders of the army of the living whipped up in 30 seconds of planning conducted a couple hours before the battle began—Put Bran in the courtyard and surround him by 10 or so professional sailors wielding bows and arrows—and Arya Stark leapfrogged a hundred thousand wights and a half-dozen distracted White Walkers and stabbed the Night King in the belly with a little Valyrian-steel dagger, and he died, and all the White Walkers instantly died, and all the wights instantly returned to inanimate death, and that was it. The Great War—which turned out, for all the scuffling, to have been a far more minor matter than Stannis Baratheon invading the North with like 2,000 dudes—was over, the threat of the White Walkers banished forever, because somebody had the idea to wait for the Night King to come for the Three-Eyed Raven and then an assassin-school dropout jumped very far and poked him once with a knife that couldn’t even cut through Catelyn Stark’s fingers.

 

Hehehe

[Dixon Hill 4,233]

Frankly I can easily see them cooking up even MORE dumb infighting with 3 episodes left for sHoCk and TwIsTs.  I'll be happy to be proven wrong.

[Holko 9,499]

I hope it's as riveting as last season's Arya/Sansa/Littlefinger plot!

[bollemanneke 3,338]

Episode 3. I don't have time to read all your opinions now, will get to that in a minute, but here are some thoughts.

I'm going to be in the minority here, but just didn't really think it was all that great. That's undoubtedly because I can't see the dead, but I've just heard too many 'the dead are coming!!!' conversations in this series to be impressed/fearful/interested at this point. I know the stakes are high, but they made me wait so long for this moment that I just didn’t really cared all that much anymore. Having said that, Arya was great and Amelia Clarke was amazing. I do feel sad about Mormont being dead, but what's up with Mlllisandra and that 'what do we say to the God of death?' line? Is she an incarnation of Arya's sword teacher or did they just book the same guy for practice?

Now, the music. I'm sure I'm going to have more support here. Most of it just did not work for me. I loved Arya's theme in action at one point, but that finale... Am I becoming too apathetic, or was the repetitive piano-cello music that played during the Knight King’s approach to Bran music that one could dance to at a party if one changed a few instruments? Then as Dany was crying over Mormont, all that really moved me was the sound of her crying. The music just... just didn't do whatever I wanted it to do, maybe because, I dunno, there weren't enough high notes in it?

I feel I should be pleased/excited, but just can’t say that I am. Also, what's the final episodes going to be about now?

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

The final 3 eps will be The Scouring Of The Shire.

[Jay 37,323]

9 minutes ago, bollemanneke said:

what's up with Mlllisandra and that 'what do we say to the God of death?' line? Is she an incarnation of Arya's sword teacher or did they just book the same guy for practice?

 

Well Melisandre and Syrio Forel were both from Essos rather than Westeros and maybe that's an expression from over there, but I think in general it was just meant to show that Melisandre's powers including knowing about things she wasn't present for, and she was motivating Arya to go kill the Night King

[Glóin the Dark 1,220]

It's similar to the time that she said "You know nothing, Jon Snow".

[Jay 37,323]

Right

 

I was kinda bummed that she just walked outside and died at the end of this episode.  I felt like there was more to learn about her and her religion. 

 

And I mean.. why did she die?  Was is just the simple and direction conclusion to draw?  That she basically was very very old, and was using every last ounce of her power to stay young looking until her powers were needed one last time, and after starting 2 fires and telling Arya to go, she just had to let herself pass on? What would have happened if she just... didn't do that, just left the necklace on?   Or did she feel compelled to suicide herself, because of guilt over letting Stannis burn his daughter, and Davos demanding justice for it?

 

I still dislike that they turned her necklace into a magic once that changes her appearance, she had had a scene in an early season where she wasn't wearing it.  It's an unnecessary detail, they could have just said one of her powers was her young appearance.

[Bilbo 3,709]

9 minutes ago, Jay said:

Right

 

I was kinda bummed that she just walked outside and died at the end of this episode.  I felt like there was more to learn about her and her religion. 

 

And I mean.. why did she die?  Was is just the simple and direction conclusion to draw?  That she basically was very very old, and was using every last ounce of her power to stay young looking until her powers were needed one last time, and after starting 2 fires and telling Arya to go, she just had to let herself pass on? What would have happened if she just... didn't do that, just left the necklace on?   Or did she feel compelled to suicide herself, because of guilt over letting Stannis burn his daughter, and Davos demanding justice for it?

 

I still dislike that they turned her necklace into a magic once that changes her appearance, she had had a scene in an early season where she wasn't wearing it.  It's an unnecessary detail, they could have just said one of her powers was her young appearance.

 

Her purpose was to play a role in the downfall of the Night King. With that achieved she was allowed to let go. A reward I guess. 

[crocodile 7,990]

So is Arya the princess that was promised?

 

Karol

[Jay 37,323]

4 minutes ago, Bilbo said:

 

Her purpose was to play a role in the downfall of the Night King. With that achieved she was allowed to let go. A reward I guess. 

 

Allowed?  Reward?

 

Explain!

[Holko 9,499]

I saw it as her having a clearer conscience having helped with this important cause after all the shit she's done for the wrong reasons, and allowing herself to go out on this higher note.

[Fargo 297]

5 minutes ago, crocodile said:

So is Arya the princess that was promised?

 

Karol

 

She’s the deus ex machina that was promised. 

[Jay 37,323]

4 minutes ago, Holko said:

I saw it as her having a clearer conscience having helped with this important cause after all the shit she's done for the wrong reasons, and allowing herself to go out on this higher note.

 

Feeling you have a clear conscious now is one thing.

But letting yourself DIE?  Seems drastic.

[Holko 9,499]

She was really old

[Jay 37,323]

So?

Keep wearing that necklace and keep boning hot young dudes!

[Holko 9,499]

If there's a time to choose to die, it's after you helped save humanity.

I dunno, I didn't have a problem with it at all. Maybe even somewhat symbolic of magic passing from the world again.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

It kinda comes outta nowhere. Like a lot in this ep.

 

[Jay 37,323]

Since finishing adapting the original trilogy of books the showrunners have mostly been concerned with killing off as many characters as possible and streamlining the story to be about the mainest of main characters.  No more room for side characters and nuance and exploration of the religions and politics around Westeros!