FULL OF SPOILERS: As I was thinking, nobody died, no one major. No Tyrion, no Jaime, no Samwell, no Brienne. If they survived this far and against monsters, I highly doubt it they are going to die against mere mortals. I think the producers are going to play it real nice and all the major characters are going to live. Probably only Cersei is going to die.
I'm rating this episode a little lower than usual and think that the last 2 were better. I think they did not handle the Night King death very well. This was a very important moment and the deus ex machina solution at the last minute to resolve all this, did not work very well. We all knew that killing the Night King will resolve everything but they should have played it better. Arya jumping out of nowhere at the last minute was not elegant or satisfying. All the other White Walkers or the undead were carrots standing there? Allowing Arya to come close?
The best death was Lyanna Mormont. It was purposeful and believable. You say why she is going close, why she is willing to die crushed in the hands of the giant zombie, then you realize why she did that.
Something similar or more thoughtful should have been done for the Night King's death. Maybe it was Bran's job to resolve all this for such an important story-line or even if it was Arya alone, it should have been done in a better way.
Wow, this has to be the worst GoT episode period. First of all, everything was so dark that I barely saw anything. Most scenes were also done very sloppy and just with lots of movement so you couldn't even see what the hell was going on.
The story itself was also very thin, with huge gaps in how stuff can happen. I mean, how did Arya reach the Night King so quickly and unnoticeable while moments before she was near the Crypt and almost died handling a couple of white walkers. And how can it be that the army of the dead somehow obliterates the complete army of the seven kingdoms except the unsullied, which makes all of them join in as we know, but then just a couple of hundred of 'our heroes' are able to fight of all of them and most survive?
The biggest flaw is when Danaerys first was able to put the Night King into the flames, he then got out, raised the dead, her dragon got caught, Jon tried to kill him but was stopped by that army which he magically was able to fight off all hundreds of them, but just as he's about to die Danaerys comes along with her dragon again and somehow is able to put them all into a ball of fire again. Very conveniently not possible during the 2 minutes that Jon tried to track down the Night King. And then Arya somehow sneaks past everything and even the Night King doesn't notice (are you kidding me?) but just as she's about to strike him, he has one of his ultra reflexes, but fails to notice the Valaryan steel knife falling out of her left hand and into her right hand.
Damnit, ever since they caught up with the books and had to create the storyline themselves, it went downhill, but this was by far the worst episode ever. It's only because I 'invested' 7 seasons before and I know it's only a couple more that I will finish it, but otherwise this would be me saying goodbye to a series that started off as one of the better series in a long time.
No tension, filler scenes with absurd shaky and dark camera shots where literally nothing can be made out of, horrible plotting and a weird way to end with a The Pianist like score while action is going on. GoT has lost it, big time.
game of thrones season 8 episode 3 review: what a great episode for the new game of thrones. new game of thrones you ask? by that i mean that this is absolutely not the same show it was before the books were done being covered. Barely anyone died in this episode, i didnt cry over a death once and i cry at most things. I gotta say Jorah Mormont and Theon were the important good guy deaths and they matter but this is supposed to be the finale, the battle we've been waiting for. all the characters had crazy plot armor and were always last minute saved and people like jaime and brienne being literally squashed between a wall of rock and a wall of dead. how the hell are they still alive i dont understand. this never wouldve happened in the early season. the tactics were also pretty nonsensical. why did the dothraki (who had least killing power) charge first. to give the enemy more troops? why did noone shoot at the dead when they were all nicely lined up. why did they keep retrating but then un-retreating. so much confusion (although i realise the last example might be the correct way to do things but i definatley didnt understand why that would be.) This is a bit of an anti-climactic conclusion tot he wight arc, I was expecting the night king to win and then to be beat next time. I thought bran was a gonner. However on the other hand god fucking damn what a good episode. it was so well made and the tension was insanely high. even when i conciously thought "theyre delaying the events to build tension this is so slow" they still got me. i cried in relief when arya took out the night king. i genuinely believed at points that dany or jon were fucking dead. this episode was one hell of a ride. although i wouldnt put this into the same category as i would earlier game of thrones, i still got got by the fact that i love all these characters and production was amazing
Thanks to Melisandre we could actually see what the fuck was going on!
This episode was so dark, even the Night king's guard didn't see Arya coming...
My therapist will hear about this episode.
They didn't even need the Dothraki. Greyworm, Gendry, Tormund, Brienne, and Jaime killed like 2,000 wights each
The Night King was reduced to Tyrion level of Stupidity.
Confirmed death count: R.I.P
Edd
Beric Dondarrion (aka. Barricade Dondarrion)
Lyanna Mormont (Lyanna 'Giantsbane' Mormont. Killed a giant at the age of thirteen in the Battle of Winterfell. Her greatest and final act. And now her watch has ended.)
Theon Greyjoy
Jorah Mormont
Night King
Melisandre (Melisandre: "I will be dead before the dawn.")
99.8% of the Unsullied
99.9% of the Dothraki (Dothraki's flaming weapons slowly disappearing in the dark was the most terrifying scene EVER)
Confirmed living:
Ghost
Drogon
Rhaegal
Jon yelling at a fucking Dead Dragon!
Jon: We did it. We defeated the dead.
Bran: We don’t have time for any of this. Cersei has 4 elephants.
One of the Best part was the slow piano montage of everyone dramatically fighting to the last breath with a shot in the middle of Sam lying on the ground, sobbing uncontrollably.
RIP Azor Ahai Theories
RIP Night King
RIP Logic
RIP Lighting in the Episode
RIP Lyanna Mormont True King in the North
RIP Arya as a good character
RIP Melisandre the confused woman
RIP Theon protecting Useless Boy
RIP Jorah and Beric Defending Strong woman
RIP Good storytelling and 9 years of Hype
RIP Winter and the Long Night
RIP Me
None of the prophecies mattered, nothing was resolved between Bran and Night King, all eight seasons of build up and the NK dies from one quick stab. No surprising twists, no intelligent storytelling, the storyline ends like this. The whole long night ends in one battle.
The war council preparing for a siege, they send out their cavalry to die in the first 10 seconds, 20 or more wights surrounded every character, and yet every main character manages to retreat. Theon with around 20 archers managed to defend against a horde of wrights. We see Jon surrounded by a crowd of wights, and next scene there's no more wights left.
I think this time it's a bit of a stretch to say DB Weiss and David Benioff planned this well. By their own admission they've only known Arya was going to land the finishing blow for 3 years and when you account for the 2 year hiatus, that's just season 7. Even then, Arya got the job because she's a fan favorite, not because this is what she's been building up to. Her story never even had a hint of "White Walker" plot. I think Mel talking about shutting eyes forever back in season 3 was purely about her faceless man training. Mel said the "Blue Eyes" comment second in season 3 but they retro actively made it the last color while reiterating it this episode to force prophetic weight onto it.
From a story writing perspective this was not Arya's fight to win anymore than it would've been Oberyn Martell's. Her experiences made her a highly skilled fighter but her plot didn't set her up to be the savior of the realms of the living.
Very disappointing episode. Anyone saying it’s the best episode of this show is just caught up in the hype.
Visually, this episode was fantastic. And as a stand-alone episode, it was very good. But when you take this as an episode of Game of Thrones and think about everything that led to this, it’s undeniably disappointing.
Barely anyone died. Most of the characters had super thick plot armour. Lots of plot holes. Anti-climactic ending. I don’t mind that Arya killed the Night King. I also don’t mind how it happened. But for it to happen so soon... the army of the dead have been hyped up since season 1 as the true enemy, and we were told that they were the most dangerous army in the show. Yet all they accomplished was the deaths of a few side characters. It’s pathetic compared to the feats of other characters and armies in past seasons. The Night King should have taken Winterfell and killed at least a few main characters. The survivors should have them retreated somewhere and then beat the Night King in a later episode. The Night King and the army of the dead did not come across as very threatening by the end of this episode. They were unable to kill any main characters, and they were defeated in the first proper battle they took part in.
Very disappointing. My rating is only as high as it is because of the great visuals and the value of the episode as a stand-alone piece of television.
I love this show, and am writing this because I care about it so much. Along with many other people in this thread, I had some issues with story decisions made in this episode. Killing all the white walkers makes no sense to me, and here are the reasons...
Other than the White Walkers, there were a few other points I had...
I loved the tension through the whole episode. Gave some spots to recoup and recharge. The light from the Dothraki swords going out was a great spectacle. Felt very Helms Deep. It was truly an amazing production. The music, the action, the pauses between fights. So well done. However, the episode's decision to ignore all of what the series built up since the beginning felt like lazy writing, and didn't really feel like what Game of Thrones has been.
[6.5/10] This one was a real disappointment for me. It's not like there aren't high points there. Arya's badassery is rousing, Theon and Jorah's deaths are meaningful and affecting, and everyone from The Hound to Tyrion and Sansa get moments to shine and develop as characters amid the tumult.
But this one is just underwhelming as the climax of the White Walker story. The fact that this existential threat, the one that Jon has been crusading about for ages, that we were teased with in the series' very first scene, is quelled by the acts of one character slaying one enemy is just unsatisfying as a conclusion. The episode does a nice job of making our heroes seem overmatched and failure seem imminent, but that just makes the "the king goes down, they all go down" solution feel that much cheaper. It also takes some of the wind out of the sails of the show's final three episodes, as a fight with Cersei and her very human army can't help but seem a little anticlimactic after fighting ice demons and zombies in a dragon-to-dragon battle.
It doesn't help that the fight was almost impossible to follow. From the darkness and murkiness of the image, to the superfast cuts between scenes and images, the whole "fog of war" thing became overdone, to where it was too easy to lose who was fighting what and where, as the battle became one giant hodgepodge. That sort of disorientation can work when done well and not overextended (see: The Battle of the Bastards"), but here it just became tough to even discern what was happening at various points.
It's not like this is a bad episode or anything. There's still cool character moments and some tense and thrilling scenes. But as the culmination of eight seasons of storytelling and build, it can't help but come off like less than what we, or at least I, was hoping for. Particularly for a show that's done battles as well as this one has, the "Battle of Winterfell" is middling as a skirmish, and meh as the capstone to the White Walker storyline that has been with the series since the beginning/ Again, it's not bad, but I had hoped, and frankly expected, much better.
Eh wtf is this? Despite the huge hype for this episode it's probably the most dumbest, hilarious retarded shit I've ever seen. They literally killed their own infantry by sending Dothraki tribe first into the dark. Nice tactic, well played.
They could've lightened up the area with something to see what's coming instead of getting butchered like pigs. They had all the time in the world before the war and all they could come up with is a narrow burning trench? They already know there are lots of undead and no one saw that coming? So scared that they forgot to plan their defenses properly??
Jon and Dany, fuck were they doing so far away on the mountain top? They could've done some recon using the dragons or something, instead chose to watch lmfao.
How in the hell did Arya sneak up behind the night king without getting caught? The undead made up the path only to let The Night King in, if she were that invisible then she wouldn't have much problem escaping the undead previously in the library. It would've made more sense if she's up on the tree.
And Jon tries to close the distance between him and the dragon only to fucking shout at it?Without even trying to attack? Wtf was he expecting?
This is Game of Thrones we are talking about, not some B grade crap wth, totally disappointed.
i enjoyed the episode a lot, it was tense and bloody and full of great moments BUT i was left with many WHYs.
1. WHY didnt dany and jon torch the shit out of the dead before they collided with their armies?? jon didnt even want to intervene when dany did, if they waited more they would have probably lost most of their men after the first wave. 2. WHY didnt the dragons destroy every wight that was standing in front of the trench waiting, before they piled up and broke through. seemed like there was plenty of time to just burn them all, or at least most of them. 3. WHY were living dragons just biting or doing fucking nothing against the already dead dragon. its like they forgot they could breathe fire. not saying it would have definitely helped but the revived dragon is by all means a wight and we know fire works against them. 4. WHY didnt dany just immediately fly away after she saved jon. stupid bitch, drogon nearly died cause of her and jorah actually did. also wtf happened to rhaegal, i must have missed it. 5. WHY didnt it occur to fucking anyone that the dead in the crypt could rise considering they knew that the night king rises the dead. come on now.
So it looks like lots of people think it was the best or worst episode ever. I think it had its flaws, it's definitely not perfect, some things were huge disappointment, but it was a great episode and the good part, the overall atmosphere and some intense moments make up for it. It's been a long time since I've been so caught up in a tv show episode. That's something unique that can only come with time and growth. The time spent reading the books, the delight at the show annoucement, the dread at the idea that they might fuck it up, even worse, that it would be good but get axed because not enough people like it, seeing the result, the phenomenon it became, then several seasons, the whole time spent with these characters, then years seeing them, thinking about them, talking about them. That's something that's impossible to recreate in a single movie no matter how good it is. And this one is even more special as the books aren't finished yet. (Will they ever be though ? Didn't the show killed the books ?)
1) The darkness
So obviously it's too dark. That's the one thing I got spoiled from multiple sources before watching it. So yeah, it's a shame with all the money put into it, and as the culmination of 8 seasons hyping, even more as I started reading the books maybe 15 years ago, that we can't really enjoy the action that much. But it's perfect for the beginning. The tension, the waiting, the darkness, the deads are coming, they know they'll probably all be dead come morning, most of them haven't really seen the enemy yet, it's still part of legends, and still they are waiting for the attack, not even able to see where the enemy is. And when they're fighting, there's the extra confusion of combat and the blizzard. It might have been weird if all the fighting action was all crystal clear afterwards. I mean we're probably seeing much more than what people fighting there would actually see. That's less glamorous but that adds a lot to the desperation feeling it's supposed to convey.
2) The start of the battle
The battle in itself is ok. The wait is great. Melisandre setting the weapons on fire is a great start, making for great visuals and a huge "it's gonna be epic" feeling. Why not do it for everybody though ? What follows made no sense at all, why would you charge into the enemy before you can even see him when you're supposed to defend the place ?? But I guess Dothrakis are not really good defenders so... That also rendered the catapult useless, and they were never used again afterwards, why ? It did a great job darkening the mood a little further though, so the result it perfect. Though how awesome would it have been if the first wave was the dead Dothrakis already raised ?
The first wave is perfectly in line, just an overwhelming number of corpses throwing themseves on the defenders. It's not a fight, you can't see anything, there's no room to swing your weapon, just an unending wave of deads crashing into them. Again, it's perfectly in line with the feeling this battle is supposed to convey. They're not fighting to win anyway, they're jsut there to win some time. Then comes the only thing that works, dragons clear the field and the fighting can start. And yes, there should be a lot more deads and a lot more dragons breathing fire at them here... But one could accept that the blizzard is an effective anti dragon weapon and is there for this purpose (and not only for preventing us to see anything of the action).
Then the retreat into the castle walls, where you can see the Unsullied doing their job (contrary to all the rest of the troops, if we assume new deads are coming at the same rate, they're doing an amazing job at stopping them and enduring the assault. Makes you wonder why they were not put to better use than just cobering the retreat of lesser troops. Light the trenches! is the new Hold the door! At last some tactics in this battle, otherwise it looked like they were totally unprepared.And the tension again here, Melisandre's doubt and the ignition is a great scene.
3) The dragons and the army of the dead
Huge letdown. The dragons are the one thing that works in the battle, and... they don't do anything for 95% of it. When they do it's great, but they're hardly used. The whole thing is not really called Game of thrones, it's called A song of ice and fire, it's about this one moment, the confrontation of dragons and the white walkers. The dragon are idle, and we don't see a single white walker fighting ! Also there's only one giant ? And no other weird creature.
And the dragon battle was unwatchable. When the ice dragon first attacks it just looks like a 60's Godzilla movie.
Jon: Basically useless. He's supposed to be the savior, he does nothing. Not quite sure what happens to his dragon. One cool scene though, trying to avoid the ice dragon was pretty cool. You expect an awesome fight to happen at some point, but that never comes. Obviously couldn't die (again).
It was great to see Ghost before the battle, then... I don't think we see him again outside of this shot :/
Daenerys: At least her dragon had some use. Can't say any of her scenes is specially good. The fire attack on the night king was a good moement, but you don't believe for a second it would work. And why why why would she stay on the ground and almost lose the dragon ? Obviously couldn't die either.
4) The rest of the battle
Afterwards it's more individual stories than ranged battle. It's hard to say what the turn of the battle is, and it has almost no interest. The people fighting are pretty low in numbers. It's hard to say if it's because all the others are dead or not. No idea where all the Unsullied have gone for instance. There are no white walkers or anything other than grunt deads, so no occasion for main characters to display their skills, except for one giant. When we see known faces they are usually surrounded, but still, the quantity of wights seem pretty low. In the middle there's the expected raising of the deads scene, which is greatly in sync with the We're fucked! theme of the episode, and it was done at a great moment. Though at this point it looks like there's nothing much left, whether living or dead.
Arya: She has three big scenes and they are all magnificent. Seeing her fight is so much better than the knight and she's even more efficient. The library scene is pretty weird but awesome. How the hell is there a place so quiet in the middle of this ? But again mad display of skills and huge tension in the scene. And obviously, killing the night king. People complain but she was uniquely suited for that. She's a professional assassin. She could have died doing it, but I've been betting on the faceless men getting rid of her for betrayal for a while. If it doesn't happen before the end, I'll be hugely disappointed.
Jamie: Useless here. How could he survive. He should have died defending Brienne. But I'll bet on Bronn next episode instead.
Brienne: Useless here. How could she survive ?
Melisandre: Could have done more in the fight but has two great scene. Has done her job and just let go. OK.
Sam: Useless here. How could he survive ? Though he's basically the one thing justifying Jon's lineage, so there's that.
Lyanna Mormont: Every scene she has since she appeared she's the pure incarnation of the North, badass in everything, so commanding despite being a child. She does not disappoint here. Great scene. And great way to die.
Jorah: Mildly useful, does his job. Did anybody expect him to die in any other way than defending Daenerys ?
Clegane: Meh But he can't die, he needs to fight his brother in King's Landing.
Others: Who cares ? TheyBeric does a good job, but he was never that important anyway.
5) The crypt and the godswood
Obviously the crypts and people hiding are not the most interesting part of he episode Though what a bad idea. This was so obvious. A little disappointed, since the previous episode where they said they were going to the crypts I kinda hoped for a headless Ned cameo.
Sansa: Not her moment, maybe she should have died here to give it a little importance. It's not like she'll be going to King's landing anyway.
Tyrion: Some witty remarks as usual, that's it Couldn't die. I kinda hope he's the one who kills Cersei. Could be meaninglessly killed by Bronn, but I think he would go for Jaime first.
Defending Bran should have been a central point, why leave that to Theon and a few guys ? Apart from a very few, the fight is not about individuals so it's kind of a waste to have the heroes in the middle of a lost battle. All the best individual fighters should have been protecting Bran, they would have been more efficient there and could have had an awesome fight with the white walkers instead of hacking grunts.
Bran: Wtf man ! He goes all warg and you think "That's it, use your powers, do something!" And then... nothing. Not even a confrontation or some words with the night king. He litterally does nothing. Biggest disappointment by far.It's hard to be sure how important he is, but if he night king wants him that much he probably is. Hard to believe it though.
Theon: Meh, not sure he needed to be given that much importance. Sure he's probably the character that suffered the most, physically and morally, during the whole show, with highly conflicting loyalties, but for me the show never captured that copared to the book. He always felt secondary. So this redemption scene feels too cliche, with Bran telling him he's been a good boy. That's basically Bran whole action by the way.
The night king: Expected a better confrontation with Bran. I found almost ridiculous the way he walked after confronting Jon, you could almost see him singing lalala while jumping around, that was weird. I'm ok with the way he died, but very disappointed with his actions as the main villain. Well two good shots when he resist dragon fire (how ?) and the raising. Still a little lacking.
6) The final scene
The whole final scene is a great moment. Death everywhere, the impending doom, the atmosphere, the music! The music was perfect.
7) And ater ?
3 episodes left. We know we still need to fight Cersei and see who ends up on the throne, but it seems so... petty ? compared to this episode. I'm not saying prolonging this battle would have been a better call, and finishing it on a cliffhanger would have been worse, having to wait one week for the ending would have killed all the atmosphere the episode created, it would have killed it. I have lots of critics, but making it a 1h20 episode with the complete battle was probably the best thing to do. That's what made this episode so absorbing. I thought the two first, though great, were kinda wasting a short season time, and at the same time now, I'm wondering what can really happen in the three that are left. It feels like this should have been a bigger part of the season, but also that it probably would have failed if it tried to.
Pros
+Fight scenes were pretty intense and not as hammy as they have been in other episodes with The Others and Wights
+Melisandre returning was good
+Dragon fighting was great and properly brutal
+The Night's King's assassination was pretty great, I liked how they led us on twice with Dany trying to kill him with dragonfire and Jon trying to duel him fairly and both failing before Arya got him
+Theon's redemption was godly and I can already tell people are going to be overlooking it in favor of other scenes unfortunately
+Beric Dondarrion getting brutally stabbed in the hallway was pure cinema, great cinematography
+Brienne and Jaime's unbeatable tag team fighting was great
+Acting was noticeably solid this episode, even actors I don't exactly like did well here, the writing being more competent than most episodes definitely helped
Neutral
* the Dothraki getting all hyped only to do literally fucking nothing was actually hilarious
*Lyanna Mormont bit was the only really cheesy part but it was kind of fun
*Arya chase bit was a lot longer than it needed to be
*Sam just lying down on a pile of bodies doing nothing for the last half of the battle was kind of hilarious too
*Crypt parts broke up the action a bit and served their purpose but also didn't bring that much to the table
Cons
-There were a number of scenes that tried to create tension by prolonging whatever action was happening (like the absurdly long wait at the start, or when Melisandre set the fire to the moat, etc.) and I don't feel like most of it was necessary or added anything but time to the scene
-Not enough important people died for a show that made it's name for not giving plot armor to main characters, there were a few too many scenes where one should've died and was saved at the last second by another character that had no business being at that part of the battlefield (I'm looking at you Jorah! fucking teleporting outside of the castle to save Dany. I'm onto your sorcery)
-Too Dark, hahaha I know dumb complaint but it was noticeably annoying at points
-Didn't really explain why Bran just decided to control the ravens for a bit (I'm also secretly disappointed he didn't steal the Night's King's dragon)
-No giant ice spiders
-Tactics made no sense as usual but magic zombie fighting wouldn't anyway so that's not completely unforgivable.
yeah I know I put a lot of critical points here but the critical parts were all minor to me and the good parts wayyyyy outweigh them. It was a great episode, it sets up an interesting ending to the series. Never thought Cersei would actually be the big baddie at the very end when they could have the Night's King but I'm not against it either. Can't wait to see Jaime stab her and pull out a flaming sword :smirk:. also the Cleganebowl/Trial of the Seven/whatever shit they set up for the final encounter will be wonderful
Review by EmeliaBlockedParentSpoilers2019-04-29T16:40:55Z
I was so afraid that more people were gonna die, but honestly, this wasn't too bad! And deaths like Theon, Jorah, Edd, Berric, not to forget Lyanna Mormont, the way they all went out was just right. Thank you to the characters, and thank you to the actors.It was a rollercoaster, moments where I held my breath and didn't want to watch - but couldn't look away, sometimes given hope only to be taken away 5 minutes later. Just the way this episode had to be.
And wow I didn't see Arya coming, I totally forgot about her one second. Trying to find a way for them to win but I couldn't think of any. Looking back at it now, it feels so right. I have no idea how she managed to come from nowhere, but maybe that's the power of no one. No one killed the Night King. Thank you.
Can't wait for the aftermath from this.. Dany, what about the North? What will she do? What will Sansa let her do? And my faith in the kingslayer slaying Cersei is back. Oh but Gendry, what will happen to him? And his relationship to Arya? What is Arya gonna do, who is she?
Melisandre: "What do we say to the God of death?"
Arya: "Not today"
10/10