I was disappointed in the defense of Winterfell btw

They should have lined their armies up behind a wall of fire. Trebuchets should been behind the armies. Why was there no oil/fire to pour down on the enemy from the castle?

Northerners suck

This isnt Bravehart, it's mother fucking GoT. Dave, go shove that slice of pizza up your asshole.

I'm just saying - this entire series has been leading to this war with the Night King. The very first episode was a forewarning of what was to come. This is the entire series laid before us, and they ended the greatest threat to the Seven Kingdoms with a knife stroke and no major deaths with literally no impact on the story. It's a farce and completely unsatisfying. Now let's watch Jon vs Dany vs Cersei.

Idk man. I think iron man didn’t deserve to die like that I mean Spider-Man should of saved cat woman from lighting man.

Battle scenes were all top notch. If that's the conclusion of the ww/nk/bran storylines though, then the writing is some of the worst I've seen in any show ever. As dave said, nearly a decade of build-up with that storyline with no backstory (who is the nk, why did they make the nk, did bran really just become the 3 eyed raven so he could be the wikipedia of westeros, etc) resolution and no major character deaths and it's just a huge letdown. If the final 3 episodes solely focus on Cersei vs Dany/Jon, the writers failed everyone.

ps> what was brann doing the whole ep? Flying around in some ravens yelling wheeee? No direwolf warging? No Dragon warging? No doing anything useful? Again (IF that's the final resolution) for bran/nk/ww storyline, it was an awful conclusion but with 3 episodes left, I'm hoping to see something more. Probably just wishful thinking though.

Children of the Forest created the Night King remember? To fight off the invading men at the time that were destroying the forests and trees and what not.

yeah my "they" was in reference to the children of the forest (sorry if that was unclear) - but if that extremely vague version of the backstory is all we get it's just not a worthwhile payoff for 8 seasons of buildup (in conjunction with the other things) -- the show started w/ a whitewalker scene, the final battle should be vs the whitewalker threat, not cersei who while a decent character, is underwhelming as a final villain

Oh don’t get me wrong that story arc gave me balls bluer than the NK’s eyes

Ugh can’t fall asleep, work going to suck

Inb4 north needs to use magic to defeat cersei, Jon thinks he can handle the magic better, becomes the new nightking, and restarts the entire cycle over

Agreed, especially in the books when bran and actually arya both warg with their direwolves. Battles were great and don't get me wrong I Like the outcome(that is that the NK loses) but so much more to be desired. Especially since I've read the books I expected far more.

But then I had to sit there and think "oh yeah grrm didn't write this filth" And I slightly got over it. They took all the main points from the books but because they had no idea what was the intent behind all of GRRMs build up they didn't know how to move forward and went with an outcome that they thought would make the majority of their viewers happy.

Truthfully I wish they would've stuck more strictly to the books but then again GRRM still hasn't finished the fucking things so theres that, and it was quite obvious a few seasons now has been showing signs of sloppy writing once they passed GRRM in his books.

All that said; still a fan, look forward to then finishing it. Dave get a life nerd.

The unfortunate side effect of trying to fit so much material into a smaller/tighter format.

They didn't even touch on Dorne if we're being honest. After Oberyn died that plot was basically thrown to the wayside. What about the fake Aegon Targaryen (Blackfyres) running around in Essos? Lady Stoneheart says hello, no wait, she doesn't.

It's been clear for a while you'll have to read the books to get full release and satisfaction.

I don't know why they didn't use pitch but a trebuchet is not a defensive weapon and furthermore I don't even think you could fit one into that tiny courtyard/common area winterfell has.

But anyhow this episode just confirmed that this show like alot of HBO shows dropped the ball before the finish line

This is all very "BuT dID yOu ReaD THe BoOK" of all of you.

Show is different from the books, has been for a while.

No major character deaths?

Theon? Jorah?

Say what you will about Theon he's had a way more interesting journey than some of the "major characters" you'd list.

I'd put Theon only behind Jon, Dany, Arya, Cersei, Jamie as far as importance to the show.

Theon's character arcs is one of the most interesting/compelling/redeeming in TV history. Started by pretending to kill the stark boys (anybody else taking winterfell would have killed them and how would that have turned out for the living?). He introduced the entire Iron Islands story line. Yara wouldn't be in the show at all. Euron would be very hard to add (currently baddy #2). Ramsey Snow (Huge baddy for a few seasons) would have not been important and we would have never seen battle of the bastards. I'd put Theon as a A- level character only paring in comparison to the afore mentioned.

Jorah, now not as important as theon or some others. Jorah has been everyones favorite loyal queensguard for every season. Exiled knight from a very important house who ends up guarding the "rightful" queen. Does everything for her is her right hand man for many seasons. Dany isn't alive without Jorah around. Combine his death with Lyana and the Mormont house is essentially dead. Remembering how important bear island actually is this is a very important death for the North. Also Jorah is such a good fighter it's a huge loss for the march to King's Landing, who else would be that extremely loyal to dany?

The entirity of the dothraki army on westeros is dead. Which was a huge chunk of the dothraki in genral. Wiped out more than half a race of people.

Then Unsullied are essentially dead. Very little survived after their heroic holding of the moat. One of the most feared armies ever is completely gone and there's no new unsullied to join the cause.

Millisandre. One of the key components of the earlier seasons until the whole burning of stannis' daughter thing. Without her they don't win this war. Showing the lord of light is real, magic is real, and she called arya killing NK from years away. One of the most powerful magic users to ever live fades into dust.


I'm not on board the whole "no major characters dying" if you thought jon/dany/arya/jamie were going to die at winterfell you weren't paying attention.

Watching Melisandre death made me believe the song Jenny was about her. tbh

Theon and Jamie have been the two most interesting characters for a while for me. Tyrion and Baelish held that mantle earlier on in the series. But their characters became kind of flat and predictable. You didn't know where Theon and Jamie would go.

I'm not too concerned about the lack of "major" characters dying because I agree - Theon, Edd, Jorah, Melisandre, Beric - all were pretty major.

I'm just bummed at how the White Walkers went out and when they went out. I think some of my disappointment is probably due to budget constraints the show has.

Budget constraints leads to limited seasons, this show could've easily gone to 10+ seasons but having to crunch it down to 8 is rough with all the "lore" involved.

they had to trim a lot of fat that you don't really get to bite into which sucks a bit. I just think with money/time constraints this was the best they could get.

As far as wights/nk dying I don't think that he ramifications of that are gone. I think there might be some lingering issues / stuff with Bran.

"I'd put Theon only behind Jon, Dany, Arya, Cersei, Jamie as far as importance to the show."

Hard disagree w/ this. Tyrion, Brann, Sansa are all more important than Theon.
I'd argue Sam and the Hound are also both more important than Theon.

Theon served his purpose and had no plot armor. The more interesting thing to do would have been to kill at least one or two characters that were perceived to have plot armor. You think Jamie's gonna kill Cersei? Not so fast. Dies to the undead. You think Cleganebowl is destined to happen? Sorry Hound's dead. All 4 Starks survive? lol. I wasn't expecting Jon/Dany to die (although it'd have been interesting to eliminate one), but there were prime targets that could have been taken out with the same effect of Ned, the Red Wedding, Oberyn, etc. The best part/s of the show/book were thinking anybody can die, but it's just turned into another show where that's not the case anymore. All the main characters are protected by plot armor because the writers are scared to kill anyone of major impact in the same capacity of the book influenced seasons.

I was a fan of Jorah, but he was an obvious death as was Theon (less a fan of him, but I guess they gave him a "heroic" ending).

If Arya kills anymore major characters, it'll be a huge disappointment.

(Stolen from Ernie)
GoT will literally proceed as follows to the finale:
>attack on King's landing
>Qyburn preparing wild fire for battle
>Arya appears behind him, chops his head off
>Euron Greyjoy eating grapes in the throne room while Cersei prepares for war
>Arya appears behind throne, slits his throat
>The Mountain, guarding Cersei's chamber door
>Arya appears behind him, she's disguised as the door, stabs him through the heart then dismembers him with three swipes of her blade
>Cersei in her quarters, there's a knock at the door
>Arya, but Cersei has something up her sleeve - the crossbow used to kill Tywin, she fires, hitting Arya in the chest, but it isn't Arya
>it's Undead Joffrey disguised as Arya
>Cersei says "if you're Joffrey disguised as Arya, then who is that behind me disguised as Joffrey?"
>she turns, but Undead Joffrey stabs her in the eye, killing her instantly. He removes his face to reveal Arya.
>Jon Snow and Daenerys enter the throne room and congratulate Arya for uniting the kingdoms
>Arya teleports behind them, stabbing them both at once
>Arya sits on the throne
>teleports behind herself
>stabs herself to death
>fade out

lmao, arya is the true killer of the show.

Theon is level with sam and sansa and slightly above the Hound.

I do agree brienne/thormund should have died though they served the purpose.

Don't put the bad juju in the air that cleganebowl won't happen. Thats all the fanboys have wanted for 8 seasons.