I have to say, after last episode I was very disappointed with the show and I began to see the cracks that this season had all along. Plot holes, poor writing, contrivances, nonsensical character motivations, etc, but this had it all.
Before I begin I want to say that this episode actually had some fantastic parts to it. The dragonpit was executed marvelously, we saw some great heart to heart moments between the lannisters, Jon being Jon, Winter finally arriving. However, this does not do enough to overshadow just how many problems there was. Let's address the biggest first. My review will focus on the negatives, the positives will be outlined by the many "10/10 BEST EPISODE EVER IM CRYING AND SHOCKED" reviews by fanboys.
The Winterfell Plot: Up until this season I believed that the Dorne saga was as low as the show could possibly sink, but boy was I wrong. Today's episode cements the plot as the currently worst plot line of the entire show. We see it end with a plot twist that Sansa and Arya were "just kidding" with their little rivalry just to play littlefinger. While this sounds fun, the biggest question is... why? There is no good reason for this at all, if their intention was to do this from the start they had plenty of evidence to begin with: starting with Bran the Plot Visioned-Three eyed raven. Sure this gives the sisters a nice little fist pumping GIRL POWER moment for some, but for me this is just cringe worthy awful (yes, I actually cringed when watching a Game of Throne scene). It all ends with Little finger putting on a pathetic display, and all this set up for his character was for nothing. In the end he became irrelevant, but of course the writers HAD to come up with a way for him to go out. However, this was the worst.
Moving on, let's address another sub-plot: The Jon-Dany romance. This was a romance that was shipped from the moment we saw them, and so many fan theories led to it happening. Well, it happened, but not in a way that was good. This is party due to less screen time, but we never really saw them fall in love. It felt extremely forced, and we only got hints of it when their aides told them they were staring at the other. Next up, they're basically wanting to bang each other in episode six, and here it happens, only it's weird. Not because of the incest thing (I'll get to that in a minute), but just how it happens. Jon just appears at her door and boom they have sex. Given how little build up we've scene between them, you'd think a little chat before hand would be prudent to give it some life, but nah let's show them bang. But wait, there's more: It's only for 20 seconds then cut away, and its more censored a PG-13 movie. Since when was Game of Thrones shy of showing sexual content? I'm not arguing for a porn scene but for real this is GoT, we don't need to be hidden from the dangers of fornication! Finally, I just want to point out that Grey worm and Missandei, who had the most pointless romance in the show, has 5 minutes of screen time for their love scene while Jon and Dany, the most important arguably, get's less than a minute. Think about that.
Next up: Jon is a Targaryan! - Who really saw this as a surprise at this point? The show didn't which actually is fine, and we actually saw Bran and Sam reunite which was actually one of the better parts of the episode, until the conversation came to Jon. Just as soon as Bran mentions Jon is a tagaryan and a sand, Sam immediately chips in that he's not and actually is a targaryan thanks to what was written in the High Priest's log.
Now, I'm not doubting Sam's memory here, I'm doubting his level as a human. His best friend just got revealed to be, I don't know, the heir to the entire kingdom and he shows NO reaction at all? This isn't the fault of the actor, this is the writing not allowing him to react. Clearly they wanted to get through their dialogue so they could show their PG-13 love scene and montage, but for god's sake allow your characters to be real for once, that's what made the show awesome in the first place, because this scene felt like the narrator was speaking the dialogue and not Sam and Bran.
Finally: The wall --> This also wasn't that poorly handled and was cool, we got to see zombie viscerion spit blue fire and the wall come down, while Tormund and Beric look down in terror. See, this scene was already impactful, but the writers took it away when it broke the rule of Game of Thones: As little to no plot armor as possible. Tormund already got a taste of death last episode but escaped thanks to the writers catering to fanboys, but magically he escaped again thanks to the wall falling down just short of where he ran from. Plot armor strikes again! You know, if it wasn't another close call I wouldn't be complaining as much, but all these close calls and nobody of consequence actually dying just makes those close calls mean nothing.
All together, I didn't hate this episode, but I didn't love it. It was just OK, and had the same problems this entire season had. I'm still going to watch, but I'm not going to expect the show to be anywhere as good as it was before, because clearly we're down to having just pure CGI but no substance beneath it, and sadly the fanboys will lap it up as gold.
Before I begin I want to say that this episode actually had some fantastic parts to it. The dragonpit was executed marvelously, we saw some great heart to heart moments between the lannisters, Jon being Jon, Winter finally arriving. However, this does not do enough to overshadow just how many problems there was. Let's address the biggest first. My review will focus on the negatives, the positives will be outlined by the many "10/10 BEST EPISODE EVER IM CRYING AND SHOCKED" reviews by fanboys.
The Winterfell Plot: Up until this season I believed that the Dorne saga was as low as the show could possibly sink, but boy was I wrong. Today's episode cements the plot as the currently worst plot line of the entire show. We see it end with a plot twist that Sansa and Arya were "just kidding" with their little rivalry just to play littlefinger. While this sounds fun, the biggest question is... why? There is no good reason for this at all, if their intention was to do this from the start they had plenty of evidence to begin with: starting with Bran the Plot Visioned-Three eyed raven. Sure this gives the sisters a nice little fist pumping GIRL POWER moment for some, but for me this is just cringe worthy awful (yes, I actually cringed when watching a Game of Throne scene). It all ends with Little finger putting on a pathetic display, and all this set up for his character was for nothing. In the end he became irrelevant, but of course the writers HAD to come up with a way for him to go out. However, this was the worst.
Moving on, let's address another sub-plot: The Jon-Dany romance. This was a romance that was shipped from the moment we saw them, and so many fan theories led to it happening. Well, it happened, but not in a way that was good. This is party due to less screen time, but we never really saw them fall in love. It felt extremely forced, and we only got hints of it when their aides told them they were staring at the other. Next up, they're basically wanting to bang each other in episode six, and here it happens, only it's weird. Not because of the incest thing (I'll get to that in a minute), but just how it happens. Jon just appears at her door and boom they have sex. Given how little build up we've scene between them, you'd think a little chat before hand would be prudent to give it some life, but nah let's show them bang. But wait, there's more: It's only for 20 seconds then cut away, and its more censored a PG-13 movie. Since when was Game of Thrones shy of showing sexual content? I'm not arguing for a porn scene but for real this is GoT, we don't need to be hidden from the dangers of fornication! Finally, I just want to point out that Grey worm and Missandei, who had the most pointless romance in the show, has 5 minutes of screen time for their love scene while Jon and Dany, the most important arguably, get's less than a minute. Think about that.
Next up: Jon is a Targaryan! - Who really saw this as a surprise at this point? The show didn't which actually is fine, and we actually saw Bran and Sam reunite which was actually one of the better parts of the episode, until the conversation came to Jon. Just as soon as Bran mentions Jon is a tagaryan and a sand, Sam immediately chips in that he's not and actually is a targaryan thanks to what was written in the High Priest's log.
Now, I'm not doubting Sam's memory here, I'm doubting his level as a human. His best friend just got revealed to be, I don't know, the heir to the entire kingdom and he shows NO reaction at all? This isn't the fault of the actor, this is the writing not allowing him to react. Clearly they wanted to get through their dialogue so they could show their PG-13 love scene and montage, but for god's sake allow your characters to be real for once, that's what made the show awesome in the first place, because this scene felt like the narrator was speaking the dialogue and not Sam and Bran.
Finally: The wall --> This also wasn't that poorly handled and was cool, we got to see zombie viscerion spit blue fire and the wall come down, while Tormund and Beric look down in terror. See, this scene was already impactful, but the writers took it away when it broke the rule of Game of Thones: As little to no plot armor as possible. Tormund already got a taste of death last episode but escaped thanks to the writers catering to fanboys, but magically he escaped again thanks to the wall falling down just short of where he ran from. Plot armor strikes again! You know, if it wasn't another close call I wouldn't be complaining as much, but all these close calls and nobody of consequence actually dying just makes those close calls mean nothing.
All together, I didn't hate this episode, but I didn't love it. It was just OK, and had the same problems this entire season had. I'm still going to watch, but I'm not going to expect the show to be anywhere as good as it was before, because clearly we're down to having just pure CGI but no substance beneath it, and sadly the fanboys will lap it up as gold.