Immediately after watching this episode, I thought it was amazing. It kept you on the edge of your seat for the whole episode. I loved that Arya was the one to kill the Night King, especially after they usually leave all the 'hero' stuff to Jon and it makes the most sense considering her training. But then it sinks in that nearly 70 episodes of build up has lead to that. We learnt nothing about the Night King and his motive leaving us to be believe that he's just another stereotypical random bad guy who wants to destroy the world for no real reason. The Night King and his army have been teased as the biggest threat for the whole series just to be killed like that and ultimately serve no purpose for the entire series. I'm hoping something happens in the coming episodes that changes this and shows that they were more significant than they seem to be but it doesn't look like that will happen.
Another issue is the plot armour that all the main characters had. It seemed as if all the significant characters besides Theon and Jorah (whose death everyone saw coming) were invincible. There were numerous times that characters were completely surrounded by wights and should have been easily killed just to be unexplainably saved. There is now way that Brienne, Jamie and Pod could have survived the wights being backed up against the wall like that no matter how good a swordsman they are. There's no way that Jon would have survived after the Night King raised the wights around him and having Dany save him at the last second was a cliche that the show has generally avoided up to this point.
If they were going to kill off the Night King in this episode, it would have been much better if it was in combat against Jon, have the Night King beat Jon and then have Arya come in, save Jon and kill the Night King. They've been teasing a fight between Jon and the Night King for years which amounted to nothing.
I still don't understand what the point of Bran is. Again, I'm hoping something happens in the coming episodes to explain why he did literally nothing. At this point, it seems as if he just warged into some ravens to watch the battle for a bit so I'm hoping that there was more to it than that. His character has just been annoying to watch since the end of season 4.
The battle plan also seemed pretty stupid. Why send the Dothraki into slaughter like that? It was obviously not going to achieve anything and just wasted thousands of good fighters. It was cool to see all the flaming swords die out to show the size of the army though. But that again raises the question of how did so many characters survive being surrounded by wights when they were able to immediately slaughter the Dothraki? Jon was also basically useless. Why does he need to be on the dragon when they're fighting? The dragons been fighting for Dany for years so why does she now need Jon as a pilot? He would have been much more useful if he was in the fighting. Also, I know this is besides the point but how could anyone possibly hold onto a dragon flying that fast? You would be thrown off in seconds if it were realistic. What was trying to achieve at the end when he literally just yelled at a wight dragon?
The episode wasn't all bad though, the action scenes were amazing even if it was too dark. Arya's journey was awesome to watch and it was amazing to see the pay off for all her training. Her scenes with Beric, the Hound and Mellisandre were amazing. Lyanna had the perfect death for her character, as did Theon and Jorah. Seeing Theon's arc come full circle was a very satisfying payoff. The acting was as good as always and I still thoroughly enjoyed watching it.
I think that the people complaining about Arya killing the Night King seem to be forgetting or ignoring that she's had years of training and can move silently in complete darkness which is how she was able to get to the Night King in the first place.
This episode could be improved if the next few episodes explain some of the biggest issues I have but currently it's hard to give it any more than 6.
+ Arya killing the Night King instead of Jon or someone else + Basically anything to do with Arya was awesome + Theon's arc + Perfect end for Theon, Jorah and Lyanna
Another issue is the plot armour that all the main characters had. It seemed as if all the significant characters besides Theon and Jorah (whose death everyone saw coming) were invincible. There were numerous times that characters were completely surrounded by wights and should have been easily killed just to be unexplainably saved. There is now way that Brienne, Jamie and Pod could have survived the wights being backed up against the wall like that no matter how good a swordsman they are. There's no way that Jon would have survived after the Night King raised the wights around him and having Dany save him at the last second was a cliche that the show has generally avoided up to this point.
If they were going to kill off the Night King in this episode, it would have been much better if it was in combat against Jon, have the Night King beat Jon and then have Arya come in, save Jon and kill the Night King. They've been teasing a fight between Jon and the Night King for years which amounted to nothing.
I still don't understand what the point of Bran is. Again, I'm hoping something happens in the coming episodes to explain why he did literally nothing. At this point, it seems as if he just warged into some ravens to watch the battle for a bit so I'm hoping that there was more to it than that. His character has just been annoying to watch since the end of season 4.
The battle plan also seemed pretty stupid. Why send the Dothraki into slaughter like that? It was obviously not going to achieve anything and just wasted thousands of good fighters. It was cool to see all the flaming swords die out to show the size of the army though. But that again raises the question of how did so many characters survive being surrounded by wights when they were able to immediately slaughter the Dothraki? Jon was also basically useless. Why does he need to be on the dragon when they're fighting? The dragons been fighting for Dany for years so why does she now need Jon as a pilot? He would have been much more useful if he was in the fighting. Also, I know this is besides the point but how could anyone possibly hold onto a dragon flying that fast? You would be thrown off in seconds if it were realistic. What was trying to achieve at the end when he literally just yelled at a wight dragon?
The episode wasn't all bad though, the action scenes were amazing even if it was too dark. Arya's journey was awesome to watch and it was amazing to see the pay off for all her training. Her scenes with Beric, the Hound and Mellisandre were amazing. Lyanna had the perfect death for her character, as did Theon and Jorah. Seeing Theon's arc come full circle was a very satisfying payoff. The acting was as good as always and I still thoroughly enjoyed watching it.
I think that the people complaining about Arya killing the Night King seem to be forgetting or ignoring that she's had years of training and can move silently in complete darkness which is how she was able to get to the Night King in the first place.
This episode could be improved if the next few episodes explain some of the biggest issues I have but currently it's hard to give it any more than 6.
+ Arya killing the Night King instead of Jon or someone else + Basically anything to do with Arya was awesome + Theon's arc + Perfect end for Theon, Jorah and Lyanna
- So many unanswered questions about the Night King - main question being what was the point?
- Lighting was too dark
- Plot armour saved too many significant characters/ unrealistic survivals
- What's the point of Bran?
- Apparent lack of battle plan
- Jon was basically useless