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By Sunday night dead. A lot of them dead.
Iron Man / Jon Snow / Captain America / Dani / Thor / Jaime / Hulk / Tyrion / Spiderman / Sam / Black Panther / Brienne / Rocket / Theon / Starlord / Tormund / Ant Man / Jorah / Black Widow / Arya / Hawkeye / Sansa / Dr Strange
I am sure the only thing anyone will be talking about it getting back to their rooms in time to watch GoT that night...reception ends at 9.
Guardians of the Galaxy 3 is coming out next year, so they’re all safe.
Bigger spoiler: Nebula is going to kill Thanos. Because that”s what happened in the comics.
Also, Hawkeye married Velma, so he’s likely safe, kids and a wife and all that.
Crawling up Thanos's arse and killing him from within?
is part of the undead masses.....
the dragon out of the frozen lake? Is that why taking so long make it to Winterfell?
The battles will come. Enjoy your favorite characters before they’re all fucking dead.
Plot and dialogue, not the “lack of action”
Story advancers.
who were not in it. Probably because many of those who took up so much of last night's episode are toast next week. They had their "good bye" moment, but Jim Cantore may as well have been part of the fireside chat.
Varys and Cersei, on the other hand -- safe.
A fun calm before the storm pause with lots of character moments.
But the writing and execution were comically bad. Describing it as big budget fan fiction is dead on accurate.
This is all Martin’s fault, that lazy asshole.
particulate.
Then crop dust the army of the dead with the dragons. Why they are trying to take them on one-on-one is beyond my understanding.
I think Jamie 'Kingslayer' Lannister kills the night king, and dies in the process. The ultimate redemption arc.
At the least, the army doesn't know if dragonglass dust would work.
Tyrion, hand of the queen, should probably have thought about that. I don't know if he was doing any reconnaissance
By why do they not have like catapults of dragon glass shrapnel that will actually penetrate the wights? Or drop like arrowheads of it from the sky? Make it rain guys.
With what looked to be dragonglass cannonballs being loaded in them.
Bronn kills Cersei quick & easy, makes the Imp double his fee.
You watching American Gods?
Is season 2 good?
I honestly have no idea why I like it.
then tested out some killing methods. Maybe just a light dusting will do the trick.
Maybe they will herd them all to King's landing and use the wild fire to blow that place, and everyone in it, sky high. I don't think Cersei used it all up on the Sept of Baylor. The Mad King's final instruction, 'burn them all' will finally be done. Maybe Jamie will light the match.
on to Cersei and Golden Company.
Or maybe Night King already killed them and bringing them with him.
Episode 3: Battle of Winterfell - looks like maybe NOT including the Night King. #DoDamage but ultimately the Undead rise from the Crypts
and force our heroes out of the Stark home. Retreat to Dragonstone or Iron Islands.
Episode 4: Regroup, recover, conceive a new plan. Maybe NK is coming at them from the South (as you say).
Episode 5: Final Big Battle for the Realm
Episode 6: New Paradigm of Rule in Westeros. Hot Pie is on the Troan.
This episode essentially used up the only room they had for a "down" episode
to the Grey Havens and singing songs LOTR style, I will be disappointed.
On the Iron Throne after all other claims die or in the case of Cersi get killed by Arya.
Arya shows up with Jamies face after he dies in the battle, she kill Cersei, Mountain kills Arya, Hound defends Arya and kill his brother.
Theon, Scar-Face Girl Who’s Gonna Defend the Crypt, Bran, Brienne, and Grey Worm are toast.
The others, yes.
More importantly, here’s who will still be alive at the end of the show:
Edd
Sam
Sansa
Bronn
Sandor
Gendry
Arya
Davos
Pod
One of Jon/Dany won’t make it.
Jorah got a Valyrian steel sword, chekov would be proud (6 eps, two eps per acts, showed the gun in the first act, gotta fire it in the second). He’ll likely die though.
The crypts of winterfell are bing played up to the nth degree, next ep should be fire.
One of the Lannister boys will live. Jamie likely needs to die, and i’d Put good money on him killing Cersei with Oathkeeper while saying “the things I do for Love”.
Also, Holland reed exists in-show, we may get him as deus ex machina to seal off the neck, unless Cersei sends her forces over the seas. Yara can’t get her ships to the opposite coast.
The citadel may burn, too. Too much set up in the books.
It will no doubt be Tyrion. And I bet Jamie dies killing the Night King. You heard it here first. OK, maybe you haven't heard it here first.
If so, he's back in play in a meaningful way.
The onion knight is toast. He saw shirine in the girl and when she is about to be toast he will sacrifice himself. There was too much foreshadowing of his ability to survive many battles. He won't here.
But have to watch the girl die in front of him.
the watcher of dying girls? Man you're cold.
the show runners have taken with Martin's material. The Stanis in the book would NEVER have killed that girl or allowed her to be killed - not even for the iron throne.
he was not there when Shirene was burned.
might be Melisandre.
She still needs to “Knight” someone after the battle.
My guess is later saving Jaimie from Bron's assassination attempt, where Jaimie finds out Cersi sent Bron. Jaimie realizes what's up and chokes out Cersi with a cold, gold hand and his warm hand.
Bran - I think his line was ambiguous, and traditional storytelling prescribes that Jaime must die once his redemption arc is complete. Never a guarantee with GRRM, though, but I've always felt like Jaime would die killing Cersei or just after killing her.
I also think after the speech last night about the NK wanting him dead because he is basically the only memory of the past he has to survive now. It basically said if Bran dies, NK wins.
Which makes me think the NK might detour Winterfell, burn down the Citadel then head east and level King's Landing while what's left of the northern army retreats south.
Remember when Sam checked in the guy told him that these books contain the entire history of man. Maybe NK goes there to destroy that first and then comes back for Bran. I dont think he goes to Kings Landing. He has to die at Winterfell. I still think there is something to do with the dagger Arya has that she got from Bran. I also think they foreshadowed it in E2 when she was throwing those daggers in front of Gendry.
I also think Melisandre has to show back up at some point in the battle too. Part of the endgame might be her having to burn the weir wood tree to keep the NK dead?
Is due to Dany's vision in the house of the undying that shows her the throne room, without a roof, and snow falling in it. And the dragon flying over KL that Bran sees in a vision.
until he kills Cersei. He and Tyrion still need to evade Bronn - a few more episodes for both Lannister brothers.
Brienne's though? Complete and toast in episode 3.
Also toast is Ser Jorah, Edd and Tormund.
Has to kill Cersei. And Cersei may be undead by then.
The prophecy refers to her 'pale, white throat'.
Don't be bound by episodes. We have 10 hours of storytelling to regroup...prepare for war...fight...and see what happens. t will be nearly impossible to critique this season until it's finished. If successful, episodic breaks will feel appropriate.
I found it to be beautiful TV. The moment where humanity, facing possible extinction, has arrived, after 8 seasons. The restraint shown to allow the myriad characters a chance to say goodbye to each other...face likely death...prepare for war...I found it appropriate and lovely.
I’m not sure what they’d do with her in this episode but no Lena is sad.
The lazy fookin' shiite.
but with a crossbow and little dragon glass spears about, I suppose Bron will take out the zombie dragon.
There was some truly terrible dialogue on that episode. There is also a complete lack of tactical thinking. Their plan for “baiting the night king” is really bad.
The fireside circle jerk was painful to watch. When did all these characters turn into such a bunch of pussies. They should just name Lyanna Mormont as queen and be done with it.
to the wrong people. I’m now with Molly M — they deserve what they get.
But no.
Vanilla Starks and Impulsive Targaryens know better than everybody else.
Stubborn and stupid.
60+ hours of character work earns you an episode like that.
We've spent seven seasons seeing the various ways that each character developed their mandate for power. And the episode started strong with Dany questioning Tyrion's fitness for hand of the king. She needed a hand that is both instinctual, intelligent, and ruthless when needed.
Jon was anointed king of the north through his battlefield victories over both the wildlings and Ramsey Bolton. Dany came into power through freeing the slaves and having dragons. Tormund's mandate is presumably through being the strongest warrior of all the wildlings. Sansa's and Tyrion's mandate are derived from their political cunning.
In this episode? Multiple men were asked to hide in the crypt instead of fighting. Sansa and Dany, the two most powerful women in the show, passive aggressively argue about a boy. Theon Greyjoy offered to defend Bran and everybody seemed ok with it. Jamie, who can't fight, offers to fight.
How does this army have any credible chance to defeat white walkers? They don't have any plan for the dragon (I'm assuming the dragonglass machete's aren't enough). Their leaders are defeated.
Their best chance has something to do with Bran's mystic energy, which we still know very little. And, he is being defended by Theon Greyjoy who's greatest military victory is conquering a defenseless castle. I don't think he's ever seen a whitewalker.
I'll go top 5.
1) Arya
2) Sansa
3) Jaime
4) Tormund
5) Brienne
Jon and Dany are somewhere near the bottom. Their story has honestly become the least compelling. The show started out strong for Dany, but since season 3 its just been a stunted slog for her character to get to this point.
Dany had about 8 minutes.
I am guessing a lot of the other characters die next week, so they gave those characters time to say good bye to each other and to the audience too.
Episode 1 was schmaltzy welcome back fan service and I thoroughly hated it.
Episode 2 was, dark fan service and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Every single fuck you to the audience was referenced and relished and put in its place...remember when we cared about all that?
Two table setting episodes for 80 minutes of gore. It was absolutely fantastic. Not every conversation landed but all of them were valid.
Arya wins the episode for putting every man she’s ever dealt with in their proper place, beneath her, figuratively and literally. Anyone ok with Arya killing a couple dozen people and using seduction to get close sometimes but NOT ok with a teenager fucking her crush has a weird set of priorities.
And I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Capturing the eve of battle - with all of its emotion - is hard to do well.
Some great scenes have warriors spending the last few precious moments in a lover’s embrace (Charlton Heston’s character in “The Warlord”), others have group prayer and reflection (The fireside scene in “Glory”). It’s where characters bare their souls.
Last night had a little of everything, and the dialogue was very well written. The tension was great. So was Giant’s milk.
There was just too much bad and lazy writing for me to call it brilliant.
Sansa and Daenerys have a conversation.
Sansa: What are you going to do about the North?
(convenient interruption so the writers don't have to flush out their disagreement further)
Jon for some reason decides to tell Daenerys about his true identity literally 45 seconds before the battle is going to begin.
(convenient interruption so we don't see the fallout of this)
What was so great about the first few books (and the first few seasons of the show) was that the motivations of the characters made sense and there was a certain unpredictability of who would die and what would happen next.
Now, Theon and Grey Worm (and a few others) might as well be wearing a neon sign stating "DEAD MEN WALKING." It's boring and predictable and just feels false to me.
Many of the scenes just came across as bad fan fiction.
The episode had its moments, but I wouldn't consider it brilliant at all.
story has unfolded, it is to resolved in a battle against a more powerful force.
My issue with the battle plan is that the battle will be about the dragons. Daney's 2 dragons will have to do more damage to the army of the dead than the Night King's dragon does to the living and hopefully there won't be another dead dragon resurrected.
They need to pay off the Lord of Light prophesies.
Who is the Price who was promised.
Why did Beric and Jon Snow get raised from the dead?
Anyone else have a “uh...is this ok moment”?
are almost a direct analog to Arya/Maisie Williams this season as far as character and actor ages. So to say that this scene is the one that turned people off really calls into question the use of nudity in the series as a whole. This is a reasonable point of discussion, and one that's certainly been discussed before.
A 24 year old you've never seen before vs a 21 year old you've been watching since she was 13 is very different.
up definitely made this episode creepier. OTOH the scene itself was pretty normal and natural, and Dany's was decidedly not.
I'm surprised that Dany was 18, though - I assume they upped her age for the show, probably for that reason? I thought she was 14 or so in the books. The fact that Arya was younger in the books as well didn't affect me as much as it did other posters. I haven't read them in years, they were ponderous and it was difficult to keep track of how much time had elapsed, and they never reached this point.
***edit*** Mitigating is obviously not the correct word. Not having any luck finding the word I was actually looking for. Getting old is hell.
Because book Arya is even younger, and she was just a kid when the show started. I couldn't handle it.
she wanted to know the feeling, too. It affected my gag reflex.
Wants to have sex the night before she will probably die and that’s gross? On a show that has incest multiple times, rape, burning children at the stake, and eating a sausage in front of a guy who’s dick was just cut off? But an 18 year old girl who wants to get it on is going too far?
trolling him for some up on the ramparts but then one-eyed guy comes along and cockblocks her.
But then she goes on to the blacksmith. She first quizzes him on his prowess with how many partners he has had, and then demands his body—after earlier in the day threatening him with a display of dagger throwing.
Not My Arya!!!!
I did predict that Arya would end up with Gendry, but I thought it would be a PG ending. While Maisie is 18, her character Arya can't be more than 15. I have to think that she wanted to do the scene and HBO allowed it. Still trying to process it - a huge leap forward in her story line that caught me by surprise.
chuck knives with aplomb but you're offended by her getting busy with a bastard? Interesting.
Oddly, I swore in the book that she posed as an actress and killed a guy mid coitus. I can't find that online.
Found the scene unsettling.
I don't know about "mid-coitus" but I think she lures him with the promise of premarital relations and then knifes him.
but knew I read it years ago.
Not that that makes a huge difference.
And let her choose how much to show. She obviously opted for a middle ground. I think it’s probably something that makes sense for her career — process thinking of her as a young woman rather than a little girl now, because she is 22 and does not want to be super-limited forever — but still, she’s like family and young family at that to the audience.
It seemed like a bigger leap to sexuality given the way Arya has acted and dressed over the years, and the fact that she looks younger than her age. Although Maisie is 22, I have a hard enough time getting to her screen age of 17 given those factors. Still, 17 is not young by Westeros standards.
I also agree with you from a career perspective. She has to move on with her acting life now. It will be hard enough as it is for her to get past this role.
She is the one who initiated it. It was her "choice." Perhaps a statement about women being sexual beings who can choose what to do with their bodies just as the men on the show can.
"She's not a kid anymore" idea. From a character arc perspective, it certainly makes sense.
It was also why I liked this episode as well. Seeing all the people in one place was actually fairly compelling, as it really drove home the scope of character development that's happened over 8 seasons.
I had to look it up as I assumed she was younger. I thought the scene was going to stop with the kissing and let the audience imply what happened.
I may have said the words “they had better not show her boobs.”
She looks 12, Gendry looks like a grown ass man.
(Ok me) that celebrates the entire catalog of female nudity in that show, that could have been a bridge too far.
Was it wrong I said “A girl has no virginity.”?
Personally and possibly all of mankind. Pretty big metaphysical moment. Thought it was done well.
And at the end it explains the stupid dragon joy ride last week. Jon and Dany are going to lead the battle aboard the dragons. They are both Targaryons, after all. The ultimate battle to decide the fate of mankind wouldn’t be the best time to go for your first dragon ride.
I got a kick out of them using the Jenny of Oldstones song, but it may have been a bit of foreshadowing.
when Jaime knighted Brienne.
Dunk was never knighted.
I was laughing my ass off.
Arya getting it on? cringeworthy.
Snow telling Dany that he’s her nephew before massive battle? Nice timing.
Right up there with Hoffman revealing he was banging Mrs. Robinson.
Bring on next week.
Night King not shown in preview, but I assume he’s rolling on the dragon.
If the NK doesn't even show up in Winterfell. He can make a new army wherever he goes.
The calm before the storm.
But I think that means we’ll get an ending for good or bad
for not completing the series of books in a timely manner. He is a lazy fookin' shiite. The publisher should let the "Dune" shitheads or Terry Brooks finish them, and fook GRRM! Justice for The Great White North! j/k
Ffs, just roll,with it, follow the family tradition, and all the 7 kingdoms are yours. Targs always ruled in a triad.
Jaime gonna boss though.