Game of Thrones

Game of Thrones S8E3

I love reading reviews of media that I’ve consumed.  I haven’t put too much into why. Perhaps it’s because with no immediate person for me to discuss what I’ve just seen/read, it’s the most convenient way for me to tap into that shared experience.  Maybe part of me wants an outside source to validate my feelings for something. Or maybe it’s a way to hang on to the high of what I’ve just seen, an attempt to keep it fresh in my memory for a little while longer.

In any case, I’ve read tons of reviews and listened to numerous podcasts about this episode in the days since this episode aired.  I doubt if there’s anything new that I can bring to the discourse. But I don’t suppose that’s the point of this, so screw it. My thoughts on The Long Night.

Arya!  (Quick aside: I have no patience for anyone using calling any character a Mary Sue.  If you don’t have a problem with John Wick, shut up.) I love that one of my two favorite Thrones characters saves the day.  She kicks ass with her spear, she’s a master of stealth, and she must have leveled up at least twice with her Night King kill.  “Not today” indeed.

Tyrion and Sansa have some nice moments.  I particularly like how he kisses her hand right before they leave the safety of their cover.  There’s genuine affection there, not just the final act of someone expecting to die. (Of course, what happens afterwards is a total letdown.  They run to the other refugees and...that’s it. I still don’t get how so many people are alive in the crypt at the end of this.)

In fact, I don’t get how so many people are alive at all.  The beginning of the battle shows just how difficult it is to hold off the wight army.  It’s like trying to hold back the crashing tide. So I find it practically impossible Brienne, Jaime, and Podrick survived with their backs to a wall for even more than 3 minutes, let alone however long the battle inside the keep lasted.  Sam? No way he’d last once he got knocked on to the ground. Not saying that I wanted them to die.  Just that if you’re going to have them live, make it more believable.  The Hound encountered fewer walkers and locked himself into a room. Sure, that I buy.  Davos was...presumably cowering somewhere. Works for me.

But Grey Worm fought on the front lines from the get go with no relief.  If the wights didn’t kill him, he’d have dropped from sheer exhaustion hours ago.  No way Theon and his party held off the walkers for so long with bow and arrow. The gap was closed after the first volley, but when we cut back to the action, all the attackers were teleported back out of melee range.   

Yet another example: Beric Dondarrion sacrificed himself to let Arya escape.  Very noble. But then they cut to the Hound and Arya draggin Beric into a room.  Did the walkers politely give them time to withdraw? When did this separation occur?  Storytelling here so bad!!!

Hmm.  Seems like I really can’t get over the discontinuity between the unstoppable wave of the walkers established at the beginning of the battle and the heroes’ ability to somehow stay alive with these things literally at their throats en masse.

Doesn’t help that their plan was shit from the get go.    

I didn’t not need to see Jon and Dany flying blind for however long they did.  The dragon fights were incomprehensible. Dany’s an idiot for letting her dragon get caught on the ground where, you know, ALL THE WIGHTS ARE.

Really, Jon?  You’re going to shout at the ice dragon?  Between you and Dany, the Seven Kingdoms have some top notch candidates to choose from.

The Night King falls prey to posturing.  Any reason why his mobs couldn’t have killed Bran?  He really needed to do everything in slow motion at the end?  He had a dragon. Couldn’t have just flown it over Bran and ice blasted him to death?

Poor Lyanna.  But what a way to go.

Was really hoping for more recognizable Stark zombies.  

Aiight, that’s all I’ve got to say about that.  It really was an amazing weekend for geekdom:

Thursday: Avengers: Endgame

Saturday: Magic: The Gathering War of the Spark prerelease

Sunday: Game of Thrones

And the Warriors beat the Rockets in game 1 of the second round.  Fun times all around.

It’s really the expectation of “Who’s going to die” that fuelled the hype for Avengers and GoT.  That unknown of ‘permanent’ change brought the speculation and energy up to feverish levels that may never be matched again in pop culture history.  At this point, they could still kill off everyone in the final three GoT episodes, but it won’t have the same build up, the same anticipation. Gotta say, it was pretty fun to have experienced it.  At the end of it all, Endgame surpassed my expectations.  Game of Thrones didn’t quite meet them, but I will say that when Arya struck the killing blow, I sat with my arms over my head in victory for duration of the white walker disintegrations.  It was super sweet.

OMG yes!