Jordan nailed how arya killed the NK.

Someone needs to pick up the red witch's necklace real quick. Im sure they could get like 20 bucks for it at least

Remember when Arya used teleportation jutsu on Jon ep 1, wild

My problem with Arya using the Faceless Man technique to get close to the NK... why did she take off her mask before completing the deed?

Like shouldn't she lunge, stab with the pointy end, then take off her mask?

Maybe she took the mask off just before leaping

Seems like a weird thing to do, surrounded by hundreds of dead zombie dudes and a dozen or so WW, plus the NK about to kill your brother, I would think you're too pre-occupied and in too much a rush to go taking off your mask in that kind of situation.

"arya trianed for six whole-ass seasons under the cruel tutelage of a succession of the most cold-blooded killers in the world, nearly losing her literal sense of self in the process, and mother fuckers are calling her a Mary Sue when Jon learned how to ride a dragon in 5mins"

but which one taught her the teleportation jutsu? couldn't have been the hound because he'd have teleported right the fuck out of that fire if he could have

(also i don't think anyone cares about jon riding a dragon or anything to that degree - the issue is jon's story was constructed around the whitewalkers. brann's storyline was constructed around the whitewalkers. the whole war was jon's war. the nk was built as something of an adversary to brann. arya knew about whitewalkers for a whole two episodes. ends the storyline with minimal affiliation to the story and nothing explained about ww/nk history and bare minimum interaction from the two characters who had the heaviest involvement in the storyline. it's not a knock on arya being a strong assassin. that knock is from the silly way they portrayed it.)

So reading elsewhere, the consensus seems to be that her training and stealth combined with her knowledge of Winterfell is how she got there.

I haven't rewatched, but apparently she sneaks up on Jon at the same spot in S8E1. Combined with her display of quiet stealth she displayed in the library earlier.

She won't be challenging the 4th Hokage any time soon it looks like.

the argument that "she snuck up on jon" (yes i've seen this) is kind of a moot point. was jon guarded by 10-12 ww's and an army of undead? knowledge of winterfell could maybe get her in the courtyard but you still have the aforementioned issue of two completely different scenarios, not to mention the angle they shot it from literally shows her flying in from the sky. NK's like 3 feet taller than her and her head level is some 2 feet above his on entry. the more plausible theory is she came from the tree but it'd be nice to see that so we're not all left guessing.

Bottom line is arya is way more badass than jon

Im sure there will be some explanation to how arya flying squirrel'd

I think the episode itself was extremely entertaining and gratifying in the moment. Looked like a lot of cinematic acrobatics and I can't imagine how difficult that must have been to create.

But from a storyline perspective, it does feel like a sugar rush that you come down from. Once the hype of the battle scene is over its kind of a let down since we've been following this shit for 10 years.

I guess it's not fair to judge it until the final few episodes, but with the build up of the NK, I was really hoping for a Hodor moment that connected storyklines in a brilliant fashion. I didn't really feel any emotional investment in the NK slaying and Arya's achievement - seemed contrived.

I'm thinking the salaries got out of hand for the actors who were being paid more and more per episode, so the solution was to have longer episodes but less of them. Hence, everything was rushed and squeezed in to tie a happy bow around the package. Very unlike the GoT that has been so Shakespearean.

yes - arya was meant to be more badass than jon (that's her storyline and she's lived it out by killing multiple people already) but that doesn't mean makes a mess of the storyline because arya's more badass. it just doesn't make sense from a storyline aspect when you have multiple characters who've developed with the storyline and then pull one with minimal relation to it to end the storyline (again w minimal interaction between the two/three that were integral to building it). If you want to have arya kill him later, then whatever - go for it - but a lot of stuff was left unresolved. I have hope we get a LOT more information (or a twist) later but that'd require finishing the cersei storyline quick and I don't think that's going to happen.

Salaries are definitely a reason why they (HBO) doesn't want to do anymore seasons. I'm not sure if that is why the seasons got smaller though. I think that was more so because they knew they needed 2-3 really elaborate episodes with epic battles and huge budgets. Which means instead of doing 3 episodes, they made one episode with the budget of 3 episodes.

The two writer/producer dudes have also gotten bored I hear (probably adds to the poor writing in some of the recent episodes).

Damn, count on Fax to put it better than I ever could. :< Just ditto Fax. The comparison to the hodor moment sums it up perfectly. That was amazing from a storyline aspect. The NK slaying? Not so much, and it was a HUGE moment in the show after such a build up, so the disappointment in my favorite element of the show (the narrative) is paramount. The episode was great, but the storyline fell apart.

I think the biggest issue I read as pertains to shorter seasons was the lack of being able to use 3/4 camera crews in the past, meaning we'd all be waiting even longer if the season/s was/were longer. All the characters are in one or two spots now so they're unable to shoot as much film at once, whereas previously you could be shooting an Arya scene in one spot, a Jon scene in another, a Dany scene in another and Cersei scene in a fourth location all at the same time. Since all the characters are in the same scenes, that is no longer an option.

I think it'd be silly to assume that there's no more twists or rammifications coming out of this. It's not like that's the complete finish of the storyline.

That's the hope, of course, but we'll see.
EP 4> Winterfell Aftermath / Cersei Build-Up / Post Fight Sex Scenes
Ep 5> Cersei Fight
Ep 6> ????

I'm hoping 6 isn't some stupid return of the king esque send off

Episode 6 aka 80 minutes of Arya sideboob.