I’m calling it — this is the most important episode of the season thus far. Find out why!
SPOILER ALERT! If you haven’t seen episode 6 stop reading now, or you’ll regret it. ‘I’ve waited a week for this and I can’t believe you’ve ruined it, you monster’ regret. No one likes regret. So, stop thinking about it and just book a Mustang test drive already.
At Dragonstone, a lonely fire crackles as the camera pans over the ornate war table. At this point I suppose the writers will find any excuse to open an episode here.
Thematically it works though, the castle is rather empty now without Dany’s string of admiring men, as well as a good chuck of her Unsullied and Dothraki armies. It’s a keep lying in wait.
Meanwhile, our Party Posse beyond the wall walk towards their ridiculous quest line with the aid of some truly stunning aerial shots.
Seriously, why is this happening? And why send a king?
Jon inquires how Gendry is doing. It turns out he has never seen snow before. All the Jendry shippers snigger.
Tormund is stoked to be back beyond the wall because the South, AKA Winterfell, smells like pig shit.
Burn.
He also lays down some knowledge. Apparently the best way to keep from freezing your nads off is by doing the sex.
Jon points out that there aren’t any women around for 100 miles. Tormund rather saucily replies, “You have to make do with what you’ve got.” Jon proceeds to look at Gendry. I’m not even joking.
Tormund and Jon talk about how Gendry is apparently a good fighter and how they’re all dumb for coming up here to look for zombies. Accurate.
The conversation then turns to Dany, and how Jon won’t bend the knee. Tormunds compares him to Mance Rayder. “How many people died for his pride?”
I call foreshadowing. Also, I like that he is basically a Life Coach right now.
Meanwhile, Gendry is still pissed that Thoros and Beric tried to sell him to Melisandre.
- Beric — “Wars cost money, bro.”
- Gendry — “She tied me to a bed naked and had a leech kink!”
- The Hound — “Old mate here has died six times, get over it. Also do you still have that chick’s number?
Over at a different bro bonding session, Jon and Jorah talk about their dead dads and how honourable there were. Also, Ned wanted to kill execute Jorah. They’re both glad that the latter got away and tried to get pardoned by spying on a teenage girl.
Jon tries to Give Jorah Longclaw back, but Jorah convinces him to keep it. He doesn’t deserve it. Also, there’s a god damn giant wolf carved into the hilt now.
In Winterfell, Arya talks about how she once snuck out to shoot arrows and Ned was watching the whole time. She doesn’t expect Sansa to remember playtime outside because of knitting or some garbage.
Apparently the point of this longwinded story was to ‘J’accuse!’ Sansa about the scroll from last week. Arya doesn’t buy the excuse that her sister was forced into it and only 13 at the time.
No, a knife wasn’t at Sansa’s throat, but there was one at Ned’s. Come on.
There’s just a lot of childhood projection going on. Arya remembers about how Sansa was dressed for Ned’s execution because surprise, she was present!
- Sansa — “Hang on you were there?
- Arya — “YEAH AND I SAW IT ALL!”
- Sansa — “Okay and what did you do to save Father, Blood?”
- Arya — “I… err… totally wanted to.”
- Sansa — “Sorry I didn’t quite get that over the smell of pig shit.
Arya goes on a rant about how Sansa apparently betrayed their whole family for Joffrey, even though she knows she hated him. It’s dumb.
Luckily for us, Sansa pulls rank like a god damn queen and not-so-casually mentions how Winterfell was reclaimed thanks to her. Look, it’s quite pompous and reactive but honestly, I would be pissed at this point too. Also, she’s not wrong.
She also lays down a sick burn about her on her sister gallivanting around the world this whole time. It’s great and Arya has no real come back for it.
She does have the scroll though, and rightly surmises that Sansa is terrified about the Northern Lords finding out about it.
Even thought she’s right, this is stupid and bratty.
Christ, they’re the only two siblings left who aren’t chasing zombies or the dragon. Maybe they shouldn’t be bickering over superfluous stuff from the past?
Sansa points out that Cersei would that they’re fighting but Arya is too busy enjoying the sound of her own voice.
This whole plot is annoying and has made me like Arya a whole lot less.
Was it stupid of Sansa to believe the Lannisters way back when? Perhaps. But she was a kid whose life experience equated to not much. What were her other options, exactly?
I do like that Arya isn’t just a Mary Sue type chararcter anymore. She is complicated and frustrating.
And Sansa was right in calling her out for doing nothing during the execution and then buggering off to do her own thing.
Sure, we’ve seen Arya just miss reuniting with her family multiple times throughout the show, but she also had ample opportunity to divulge who she was.
Revealing her identity to Tywin, for example, probably would have landed her a prisoner or dead, so she didn’t, because it was dangerous. Also, she was busy chasing her own personal vendettas to avenge the dead. Yet she chides Sansa for writing one letter when refusal would have probably spelled death for both herself and Ned?
It’s hypocritical bullshit and it’s getting old.
Back beyond the wall, Tormund is having a great time annoying The Hound and trying to low key be his therapist. This may be my favourite GoT scene of all time.
It turns out that the former didn’t know what “dick” meant and is super excited to add it to his vocabulary. Bless.
Despite some sass from The Hound, Tormund doesn’t want to go down on him, because he’s still digging on Brienne. Theirs is the greatest ship on this show.
Of course The Hound is all ‘DAFUQ’ at this gossip and thinks he’s insane. Meanwhile, Tormund just wants to make giant babies with Brienne and it’s the cutest.
Further back in the pack, Beric doesn’t think Jon looks like Ned. I get the feeling he knows a bit about this whole situation.
They chat about being resurrected, which is a totally normal thing. Jon doesn’t see a point in serving a God when you don’t know what he wants, or why he keeps resurrecting people.
It turns out Beric thinks the true enemy is, death, even though you should always try to fight it, it always wins. They might not know why they keep coming back, but they can try to keep others alive. Cool story, bro.
The whole ‘have faith, you don’t need to know stuff’ spiel sounded like the same non-answers I used to get at church, but Jon seems inspired by it.
Also, The Hound recognises the mountain he saw in his literal heat vision, so they must be getting close.
Back in Dragonstone, Dany and Tyrion chat about how she likes that he isn’t a hero. Really it’s just an excuse to bring up all the dudes who have been into her, including Jon. Tyrion totally busts her on it.
Dany is all, “STFU, he doesn’t like me. Stop. Really? No he’s too short. Did he mention me to you? LET’S CHAT ABOUT CERSEI.”
There is a lot of talk about deceit and mass murder, and how those aren’t the best ways to win the throne. Fear is also Cersei has, and it’s brittle.
Tyrion reminds Dany that she said she wanted to break the wheel and to do that she has to be different. Also, please calm down on the temper tantrums that lead to impulsive decisions. And try to think like a Lannister.
Dinklage’s delivery of this speech is passionate and believable. I’m a real fan of his performance in this scene.
He also brings up the matter of succession and this pisses Dany off. She wants him to think short term rather than long term and won’t discuss it until she wears the crown.
That seems smart when your only children are dragons and you’re in the middle of a war.
On the other hand, who would she even name as her successor at this point?
Meanwhile, the Party Posse are making their way through a snow storm. There are giant zombie bears, because of course there are.
Much fighting and flaming swords ensue and it’s not looking good for the extras in the scene. The Hound faces off against one on his own, but Thoros steps in to save him and gets mauled.
He manages to survive though, through the power of alcohol and flaming-sword-cauterisation.
[clear]
Back in Winterfell, Sansa plays right into Littlefinger’s hands by telling him all his Scheme Scroll. He’s done a great job at being her manipulative boyfriend.
Also, he has NO IDEA how the letter fell into Arya’s hands. No ma’am.
He takes this opportunity to further solidify the idea of ruling over Winterfell in her mind. However Sansa, seems to think the Northern Lords are a bunch of fickle basics.
She also thinks that Arya would come after her if she thought she posed a threat to Jon.
Littlefinger thinks Brienne’s oath to protect both Stark sisters could be helpful here. She’s honour bound to protect them. So imagine if a threat was posed to one of them.
Oh dear.
I know it seems like the implication is that Brienne would kill Arya if she had to. But I wonder if Littlefinger’s plan is a simple as that? Perhaps it’s more about ensuring that she isn’t able to protect Arya if needed?
In the North, Jorah is asking how drunk Thoros was when he charged the breach. He fan boys for a bit and says the Iron Born thought he was a God.
“Nah, I was just crunk.”
Suddenly, noises! The Posse spot a small group of White Walkers and decide to lay a trap to capture their specimen.
Fighting ensues. Jorah gets choked out at one point and not in a fun way.
Eventually they take down the leader and the rest of the zombies crumble. INTERESTING.
They also manage to take one alive, so to speak. It does bite The Hound though. Does this mean he will turn? Is that how this works?
Before the get time to question it, there’s a rumbling on the horizon. Uh oh.
Jon orders Gendry to run back to Eastwatch to send a raven to Dany. Without his hammer. Because it will slow him down. THIS SEEMS SAFE.
Also, I guess they’ll be using the fast ravens this time around? How long did the “Bran and Arya arrive!” one take? Seriously, the travel times this season how been excessively inconsistent.
Anyway.
The rest of the crew run across some unstable ice that starts cracking under their feet, with thousands of undead at their heels who start falling through.
Our boys find a convenient rock to be surrounded by.
I WONDER IF A DRAGON WILL SAVE THEM!?
Meanwhile, Gendry runs like buggery and gets to Eastwatch by nightfall. What even is the timing and distance in this show? Jesus.
He makes it though, just. Thirstos comes out to collect him.
We cut back to the Posse the next morning. Their specimen is twitching around and The Hound kicks it.
Speaking of which, Thoros has died for good this time. I guess that means no more resurrections for Beric.
Jon mentions that they need to burn the body. Luckily they have those handy flaming swords.
Jorah and Jon chat casually about how they’ll all freeze soon. Also it was weird when all those White Walkers crumbled when they took out the lieutenant or whatever.
They theorise that it must have been because he’s the one that turned them and that by that logic, capping the Night King is the key to killing them all. Beric thinks maybe that’s maybe what Jon has been resurrected for. Jon would rather wait for Dany so they can get the zombie specimen back to Cersei.
In the meantime, Sansa has been invited to King’s Landing and asks Brienne to go in her place.
She doesn’t want to be a prisoner again. Also Brienne not being around to protect Arya would be A+ right now.
Brienne isn’t keen. She doesn’t trust Littlefinger and wants to leave Podrick behind for protection. Sansa is having none of it and basically tells her to GTFO in a really bitchy way.
I basically hate all of the true-born Stark kids at the point.
[clear]
At Dragonstone, the dragons are having a nap and it’s cute.
Dany is heading off to save all of her boyfriends and Tyrion isn’t happy about her risking her life. If she dies they’re all screwed.
She declares that she won’t do nothing ever again.
The most important part of this scene is her amazing outfit. About 1000 cosplays got started at this very moment.
Back to the circle of hell, The Hound is bored and starts throwing rocks. He’s quite pleased with himself when he hits one and takes the opportunity to drop an on-brand C-bomb.
He decides to throw another and it lands on some very solid ice.
White Walker — “WHO DA C-BOMB NOW!?”
The horde starts moving forward because the Hound is a stupid bitch.
The Posse starts fighting because they don’t have any other choice at this point.
What follows is an intense battle that mostly consists of psych outs aimed to make us think someone important is about to die. For example, things look really dire for Tormund at one point, which resulted in me screaming hysterically at my television.
Don’t worry though, plenty of disposable randoms who were allegedly in the party ALL ALONG, died just fine.
We’re treated to a bit of slow-mo action of our boys losing before we hear the dragon cry. And he lights that sucker UP.
Jon looks up and Dany is all, “Sup?”
Things are looking real good for their heroes… and then one of the Night King’s right hand men grabs a formidable looking ice spear.
Oh no.
Our boys hop on one of the dragons.
Oh no no no no.
The spear flies through the air and hits one of them directly, and he goes down hard and fast. The posse look on in shock and horror as the beautiful creature slips away into the ice.
Dany’s face registers pure shock. What I think is Drogon cries out for his fallen brother.
I’m not ashamed to admit that I’m crying at this point.
Meanwhile, Jon is pissed and eyeballs Old Man Winter… who is about to be handed another spear.
Fuuuuuuuck.
Jon yells at his party to leave and gets crashed tackled through the ice. And this is exactly why you don’t send a king off to do heavy work. It’s a super irresponsible move as a ruler.
Dany has more of a reaction to this situation than one of her children dying. She does take off though and fortunately the second spear misses Drogon.
Jorah nearly falls off but doesn’t, because no one super important dies in the same episode as a dragon-death. Except Thoros.
The White Walkers conveniently begin to disperse, allowing Jon to pull himself out of the water. But of course the spot him immediately and go in for another crack.
Fortunately, Uncle Where-The-Hell-Have-I-Benjen swoops in to the rescue. He sends Jon riding off on his horse and then sacrifices himself to the horde for absolutely no reason. Two people can rise a horse.
This is like The Titanic all over again.
[clear]
Back at Eastwatch, which basically just through the next clearing, the posse loads up their boat with the zombie specimen.
Tormund and The Hound share a vaguely respectful look, and the latter sasses Beric. It’s great.
On top of the Wall, Dany keeps a lookout for Jon. She’s seen this show before and knows falling through some ice with a bunch of zombies is NBD.
Jorah tries to lure her away, probably because he doesn’t want any more competition, but of course that’s when the horse shows up.
Cut to Jon passed out on the ship and being stripped down. Dany notices his very real scar around his heart and probably has some follow up questions.
Over in Winterfell, Sansa is is rifling through Arya’s things, because that’s a smart life choice that promotes sibling trust.
Naturally she discovers the creepy faces and gets busted.
Basically what transpires is Arya intimidating her sister for no reason. She talks about Braavos and the Faceless Men and how she could totally become Sansa if she wanted to. She’s successful in freaking her sister out but of course doesn’t actually do anything.
Honestly, this whole ‘I’m so creepy and mysterious’ vibe Arya has been laying down comes Across as so contrived. It’s like she’s playacting as Faceless Man rather than just being real.
I’m so frustrated by this whole storyline, but I’m in two minds about it.
I never expected Sansa and Arya to be best mates for life, but this warring between sisters seems purely based on childhood differences Arya can’t let go of. She’s tapping into jealousy and rivalry and disguising it as family loyalty.
Considering the fact that they are fighting against Cersei as well as the actual undead, this petty shit seems rather superfluous.
On the other hands, they are also still teenagers and Arya in particular never got a chance to develop any kind of emotional maturity since the age of 11 or so. She has been fighting for her life, often out in the wilderness, so perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that she’s been emotionally stunted.
She’s also been so single minded and bent on revenge for a long time — maybe she doesn’t know how to be anything else? She has to find conflict somewhere, even if its to the detriment of her relationships and her house.
In what seems like a nod to SnowStorm fans, their ship is literally sailing.
Also, I guess nobody thought Jon might want to pop over to Winterfell to see his not-dead brother and sister first?
Jon wakes up to a teary-eyed Daenerys. They stare at each other for a bit before he starts apologising profusely for getting her dragon-kid murdered with his dumb plan. They hold hands.
[clear]
Jon wishes they never went. SAME.
Dany is glad they went though because now she has seen his abs the White Walkers for herself. She reiterates how she’ll never have any children and how they will take down the Night King together.
Despite the huge deal Dany has always made about her dragons being her children, she seems surprisingly fine. Her tears seem to be more in relief that Jon survived.
Jon calls her Dany and she isn’t super down with it since that’s what her douche-brother used to call her. Sorry, Dany! Jon wonders whether “My Queen” would be better and makes a bending the knee joke.
They both wax rhapsodic at each other for a bit longer, hold hands again and engage in some intense stares. Dany goes to pull her hand away and Jon vice-grips it. This seems to spook her a tad and she She GTFOs pretty quick
There’s been so much ‘I can’t have kids’ talk in the last few episodes. Coupling that with Tyrion’s succession chat, I’m starting to think that when these two finally get down his magic incest seed will break the infertility curse.
Back beyond the Wall, the army of the dead are pulling some massive chains out of the water. Apparently they just had them lying around. And could swim down to attach them, even though the plot device surrounding this entire episode has been about how they couldn’t cross this same body of water. Just, what?
To no one’s surprise, the Night King approaches his prize, and creates himself a god damn ice dragon.
Things are about to get so real. Well, not the travel parts. But other things.
I’m wondering if Cersei will actually give a shit about the White Walkers, even when she’s presented with proof. She’s made it pretty obvious that she’s happy to watch the sept world burn (or ice over in this case) so long as her family is okay. And even then she was still threatening Jaime in the last episode.
I honestly don’t think she would be above selling humanity out for her own personal interests.
As for the ice dragon — damn. They’re gonna need to forge a giant dragon glass spears real fast.
See you for the finale next week!
[referenced url=”https://www.kotaku.com.au/2017/08/game-of-thrones-season-7-episode-5-recap-eastwatch/” thumb=”https://www.kotaku.com.au/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2017/08/Game-of-Thrones-s7-ep5-feature-410×231.jpg” title=”Game Of Thrones Season 7 Episode 5 Recap: Eastwatch” excerpt=”We’re in the latter half of the season and things are developing quickly. We can see this in the opening sequence where The Pyke has been replaced by this weeks’s episode title — Eastwatch.”]
That’s enough violence, flirting and scheming for one day. It’s time to stop thinking and start driving. Book your Mustang test drive today.
Comments
44 responses to “Game Of Thrones Season 7 Episode 6 Recap: Beyond The Wall”
Game of Warcraft: Wrath of the Frozen Throne.
@manbearcat The editor of Lifehacker thinks it’s all very Forgotten Realms at this point!
For reference:
I had the same vibe manbearcat did, that was so similar it almost felt like a deliberate nod. I doubt it was, but…still…
can’t decide what’s more hilarious, the fact the ravens traveled at hypersonic speed to get Dany to come to their aid or the Night King had not just the aim but the power to peg a stick at a dragon and bring it down. by that logic he could have killed Jon at hardhome
also that ending… where did the chains come from? i thought the zombies can’t swim? lol
whatever, should have just poked Blizzard and asked if they could recreate the wrath of the lich king opening cinematic
Maybe he hit the shot because the dragon was not aware of the threat. Jon at Hardhome could have seen it coming and avoided it. Does’t explain why he didn’t just throw it at Drogon though. If he is a Greenseer maybe he acts on the visions he sees rather than trying to change them.
No clue where the chains came from but I guess he just sent his most expendable wights down with the chains to attach them and then leaves them down there.
Pimp My Ride: Night King Edition
I think the biggest shame about how much they’re rushing through these big story beat is that we don’t get to spend more time with the wight catching crew. As a bonus they might have been have spun out that quest so that it seemed marginally less idiotic. Still, we have out requisite wight dragon now.
I’d still put money on Daenerys dying at some point. There’s more loose ends tied and foreshadowing in each episode.
I’d say Arya will roll out with Brienne. She has to have her shot at assassinating Circe after all. That journey to Kings Landing would be another that’d be nice to see for more than the 5 minutes they’ll likely have to cram it into.
There’s a theory floating around that would require Arya to stay in Winterfell and I really hope is true because it will totally make up for the last few episodes of frustrating bickering. I’ll spoiler tag just in case people don’t like reading theories:
It’s been suggested that the whole conversation about Arya wearing Sansa’s face was actually her alluding to her being able to wear Littlefingers face. The way that she handed Sansa the knife at the scene’s conclusion supports this. That way, Sansa would have the support of the Vale, while simultaneously getting Littlefinger out of her face, which I’m pretty sure she’d be all for.Hm. That is an interesting theory.
I think this theory is sound. That individual’s death and the perpetrator seem to be consistent with how the story arc has been this season.
Fingers crossed it happens next week.
Faceless men have to have killed them to use their face. Unless the show doesn’t care about that either. Also.. why isn’t she being hunted by the rest of the faceless men?
I would say that the show is playing fast and loose with the Faceless Men logic at the moment. The fact that she used a Walder Frey mask indicates that she can somehow make masks from her victims, as there was no way a Walder mask would have been in the Hall of Faces for the taking.
Edit: missed a word :\
A raven to Dragonstone would take about 10 days and that is being extremely generous assuming the bird doesn’t stop to eat/sleep (took a minute googling to find that out). 10 days on a rock with no food water in that environment… And the night king just standing there watching the whole time doing nothing? They are all dead there is no way they could’ve survived for that long. This episode is the worst of the series so far for teleporting ravens. Its just lazy writing (Or very rushed).
African or European?
So what happens now with the newly minted ice dragon? Can he still breathe fire, or would he perish like a snowman lighting his own fart???
I’m predicting it will be able to breath fire but the fire will be blue, which through some hand-wave logic it is impervious to.
Blue flame that freezes I reckon.
This. “A Song of Ice and Fire”
If nothing else it’ll probably be able to fly straight over the Wall.
Undead dragons breath negative energy. A wave of blue “fire” that drains life from those it touches
Did I miss something because I can’t figure out what this meeting Brienne is being sent to is about.
It’s surely not the meeting Dany wants to arrange.
I don’t care what anyone says I want the grumpy 10yo on the throne and Tormund and Brienne to have giant children together 😀
Next episode promo
anyone else read ‘Party Posse’ as ‘Parker Possey’?
So mad right now, Arya, a trained assassin getting played that easily. Robb, Catelyn & Maester Luwin (way back when) knew Sansa was under duress when she wrote the letter. Stop arguing and just stab Littlefinger for sucks fake. Bran could easily clear the whole thing up.
RIP Viserion & Thoros. Thanks to another one of Tyrion’s plans. Stop listening to him guys.
“Thanks to another one of Tyrion’s plans” What? Basically all Tyrion says is not to go.
Wasn’t it his plan to catch a Wight to bring to Cersei? Or was it Jon’s fault for thinking it was a good idea? Anyway the whole episode didn’t make sense.
Think he means the original plan of going out there to begin with. That was Tyrion.
Nope, this was not my kind of episode. Nothing made any sense, the choreography was about as walking dead as possible (not a compliment), they rush everything they should slow down with and slow down with everything they should rush. Nah. Not my thing. I might read the recap before watching the episode next time because this one wasn’t worth watching.
-rant follows-
The reason Game of Thrones stood apart from the other fantasy movies/series/books etc. is because it had a brutal consistency to its world – armies took whole books to move from A to B, ravens brought news far to late for anyone to do anything about it and if someone falls into freezing water weighed down by furs, armour and goddamn zombies they do not swim back to the surface. We all know he’s not going to die so stop pretending like he will with increasingly impossible scenarios.If GoT is going to throw out every element that made it special why in hell should I bother watching an hour of TV I can usually predict the outcome of within 5 minutes of it beginning, not to mention the theory-crafting fan base that between them has likely predicted every single event seasons in advance. The foreshadowing is so clumsy and heavy handed now and I swear the acting has taken a sharp downward turn alongside the writing that’s been slipping since the second season. And goddamn it if there’s another moment with Dany pausing to stare blankly at something significant in the midst of a battle I swear I’m going to stop watching, goddamn it those scenes are so cliched, unrealistic and focus so heavily on the worst actor on the show I find myself clenching my teeth just thinking about them.
GoT was one of the best shows on TV with daunting production values, interesting ideas, a novel universe and massive ambition. Now it’s barely more than a shittier Lord of the rings. This episode has to be one of the most disappointing of the whole show.
You make very valid points that GoT has deviated greatly from its original style; the show I would argue became less GoT with every season as it became more of a TV show and less of a TV book.
Some of your issues are fragile, in my opinion.
1. Yes, normally someone dunked in ice water would die. But Jon isn’t normal, and we don’t know what the long term effects of being resurrected were on his body. We don’t know enough to call bullshit on that scene yet.
2. Someone on Reddit did the maths for the raven message already. Eastwatch to Dragonstone is around 1800 miles based on map estimates. Carrier pigeons fly around 50mph, which would make a 36 hour flight south. It’s not unreasonable to imagine that ravens in GoT travel faster (they were selected to carry messages for a reason) so a 60mph raven flight would take 30 hours, 70mph would be 25 hours. Dragon speed is entirely down to what’s been mentioned in the lore, but based on mentions of dragons racing between King’s Landing and Dragonstone in the books, around 150-200mph seems to be general consensus among fans, which would make the return trip 9-12 hours. So the total round trip is likely to be somewhere from 34-48 hours. They showed the party on the lake through at least one full day/night cycle, so the timeframes seem to align with established canon.
3. The whinging about Emilia Clarke’s acting for Danaerys this season makes little sense to me. The whole point of what she’s trying to do is to project a regal air, which means controlled emotions and maintained distance appropriate to keep lesser people at arm’s length. Strip Cersei’s snark and she does exactly the same thing in public. Danaerys’ reaction to her dragon dying was one of pure shock and well done in my opinion, calling it a blank stare is completely missing the subtlety of the performance.
There are issues with the series and the translation from book to series was always going to be transformative, but it feels like you’re fishing for reasons to dislike the series. I don’t think the burden of suspension of disbelief has changed all that much from 1-7, but your willingness evidently has.
Birds need to sleep and eat. They can’t fly at full speed for days. A modern carrier pigeon can do about 600 miles a day. Ravens actually fly slower but maybe these are magic ravens so lets say 600 miles for them too. Thats still 3-4 days with nighttime temps below -40C with no fire or shelter… and the undead army just watching and doing nothing. They could’ve built a stone jetty out to the island in that time.
Why didn’t Jon just get on the dragon…
It’s not 3-4 days. For starters, 34-48 hours is 2 days, but the raven doesn’t do both legs of the flight, just one. Eastwatch to Dragonstone is 25-30 hours. As for rest breaks, they’re already factored: 50mph is the average speed of a pigeon over a complete flight, which includes rest. They can travel up to 90mph in bursts.
Where’s -40C coming from?
Who’s going to build a stone jetty? The undead completely surrounded the party so they weren’t going anywhere, and the undead aren’t exactly known for their construction skills so they weren’t going to be doing any building either.
Jon didn’t get on the dragon because he wanted to try to kill the Night King. The undead even made a path for him, the Night King wanted to bait him out. When he saw the Night King pick up another lance he realised he wouldn’t make it in time and tried to turn back but got swarmed.
LOL you realize this is a make believe TV Series not a documentary on Ravens?
1) I disagree that there’s any indication that he’s been altered by his resurrection, but even if he had been Jaime certainly hadn’t and he bloody well should have died. (Also the whole Jon Snow is dead thing is another example of something I just don’t think should have happened at all, repeatedly killing characters to have them come back weakens what little weight the series still has). I mean Jaime had a golden hand on top of heaps of armour and even if he/Bronn possessed the superhuman swimming ability to surface again at all, it certainly wouldn’t be far away enough from the dragon that they’d be alive. The show increasingly doesn’t care about having a consistent world and they sacrifice it for what? A lame scene everyone knows will be undercut by a refusal to kill a main character. See also Arya’s stabbing – none of that made any sense at all.
2 This would be fair, but 1. you shouldn’t feel the need to do math in order to have a major event seem possible and 2. Gendry had to reach Eastwatch first on foot. Given the episode’s break between leaving and arriving at the fist it feels like it took them a bloody long time to get there. Fair – we don’t know that, but if the creators don’t understand how an episodic release will affect your impression of the passage of time then they’re idiots (which they’re not, they just don’t care about consistency anymore and are far more interested in spectacle and false tension – false because the plot armour is awfully thick when it comes to Jon Snow)
3) Clarke was always the weakest of the actors on the show, but it wasn’t as egregious when they didn’t focus so much on her during ‘shocking’ moments (I can’t be the only one to think it was clearly foreshadowed that at least one dragon would die). If you compare Clarke’s performance to that of Lena Heady (who is fantastic) you have someone that can be imposing and someone that can’t, someone that improves upon the script via her performance and someone that makes it worse. I’m awfully harsh on Clarke, but when she’s surrounded by some of the best characters and actors (Varys, Missandei, Tyrion, Jorah) her performance has more in common with Daniel Radcliffe than Daniel Day-Lewis.
Personal taste here is certainly a thing, but I don’t think there’s anything subtle about Clarke’s emotional range – it’s just not there to begin with.
I’m OK with changing things, I’m OK with concessions and alterations in order to create a better show, but they haven’t made changes that make it a better show, they’ve only made it worse. The one change I liked was skipping the whole Heart of Darkness Tyrion river trip. That’s the only positive change I can think of. “I don’t think the burden of suspension of disbelief has changed all that much from 1-7” everyone will of course have their own reaction, but when some of the books’ best characters (the Sand Snakes) spout lines from a bad porno (“You want the good wife, but need the bad pussy”), when characters repeatedly get resurrected both literally and in the oh-it-turns-out-that-character-we-told-you-was-dead-actually-isn’t sort of way, when a journey that took a whole season is made in the gap between episodes – How can I not start to hate the writing? When the directors use cinematic language that in the past meant someone would die, even ignoring the logical issues with swimming in a full set of armour etc., how can I put any faith in the direction? Worst of all for me is the fact they -can- direct episodes well, their choreography -can- be fantastic, but again and again they undercut all the skill the team has in order to shock the viewer without understanding what made the shocking moments in the first 2.5 seasons so good.
The arguments I make aren’t specifically directed at this season or episode (although I obviously hated this episode), but rather rise from the examples in this episode as a reaction to everything they’ve been doing that, in my opinion, is leaving the show a jumbled mess of cliched lines, predictable events and utterly uninspired direction. It’s more of a the-straw-that-broke-the-camel’s-back type of reaction, but this particular bit of straw was particularly heavy.
It’s a little known fact that the water in Westeros has an incredibility high salinity rating. It’s like the Dead Sea but you are still buoyant in full armour and fur.
On point 2, the creators have said that the storylines aren’t happening on the same timeframe. They started that well before this season, because that’s apparently how Martin has written his books as well, and I remember Martin making a similar comment at some point that the time frames between focus character jumps often aren’t synchronous.
I’ve had a few nitpicks of details myself this season. Jaime’s underwater adventure was one of them, as was Bronn’s little dive from the ballista to avoid the dragonfire. But I think overall the series is still a great watch and it’s still telling a great story, whereas I read your post as sounding like you were just tossing the whole thing in the bin as ‘be perfect or die in a fire’. For me, the little things over the show don’t detract as much from enjoying the story that it does for you.
I think Emilia Clarke’s acting has improved greatly since the earlier seasons. I felt she was the weakest link early on, but has gotten much better.
I struggle with Circe’s obvious plastic surgery though.
I’m not 100% sold on these arguments. But this season is careening closer and closer to the feel of those “Game of Thrones Wish Fulfillment” videos Collegehumor posted in 2015ish.
Feels like this season has lost the whole GoT theme that main characters aren’t immune to death.
The first bunch of books were written without much/any influence from the TV series…the next book to wrap it all up is yet to come out. Will be interesting to read it when it does and see if it has become as cliched as the TV series.
Most of the time travelling I can forgive as them progressing different areas of the world and then jumping back/forth between them, effectively splitting the timeline until everything merges. Have seen plenty of books do the same but the way it’s done in the TV series makes it more confusing.
In terms of the latest trek out north they seemed to take most of a day to get to that mountain and then Gendry ran back and got to the wall some time at night – fair enough, balances out. The raven flight is more questionable though considering how slow they’ve moved through the rest of it until this season. It basically left at night and got to Dany with enough time for her to fly the dragons back by lunchtime or the afternoon. Ravens just aren’t that fast according to how they’re normally portrayed.
I agree with ctrlsaltdelete, minus the not watching.
I was finding it harder and harder to watch as it went on. Loved the scenery, enjoyed it still, but things like that stupid scene walking in the snow with each character giving character exposition, followed by a one liner… one… after… another. Was just so out of place for GoT with such care and detail usually put in to building a character. And the Red shirts… better bring along people to kill now that the main characters are invulnerable, can’t take risks with audiences anymore 🙁
The whole thing felt like a D&D game where the players are directing the story and the DM doesn’t want them to die so has to come up with encounters that don’t kill them.:
PC – “I want to capture an undead”
DM – “From the murderous army who overwhelm EVERYTHING that comes close to them?”
PC – “YEAH! It’s what my character would do”
DM – “But the Winterfel encounter, don’t you want to head there??”
PC – “UNDEAD ARMY!”
DM – “A bear stumbles in to view and attacks. Roll initiative”
PC – “The army must be here”
DM – “Umm, no. This undead bear is just wondering around… for reasons”
Lets all take a moment to appreciate the best moments of this episode, and possibly the season: The Hound’s lines.
Beric: Til we meet again Clegane.
I agree with @ctrlaltdelete the show is heading in a direction that doesn’t value character or story no longer, it values spectical & one liners. It’s gone from a well constructed drama to a Action movie with no substance (San Andreas). I’m not a professional writer, but there is a few things I wish they did in this episode rather then what they did, & still manage to get the same outcomes.
1. Uncle Benjen’s death was a waste. He should of showed up during bear fight. There should of been a reunion & ability to grow his character before his death. He should of led the Heist to get a wight as he knows the land. Then this would of made sense for him knowing of a perfect location to hold up battle, on that rock. He could of said things like it will take a few days for this ice to melt over again, giving us a passage of time for other stuff to happen. Then as he is devising a plan off the island, & the inevitable battle begins he could of died then, being a character to save & add days to the rest of the crews life.2. Thoros death, it should of happened during the bear fight & not in his sleep, freezing to death. Leaving us feel omg first death down, who’s next (enter benjen).3. The dragons saving the day why did she only take 2 & not 3 or just 1, She should of taken all three. They swoop in & create havok, all three land near or on the rock creating this epic 3 dragon stand off in a circle, killing wights left right & center. As they are attempting to get away & get on Dany’s dragon, The Night king goes gets his spear & throws it at the “on the ground Dragon, killing it (easier shot & now dragon is on ground rather then being in lake, easier to fetch) then as dany is leaving & Night king goes to throw a spear at Dany dragon with every one of them on it Jon snow falls off & is left behind. Dany commands her other dragon to go sweep in & protect him. As Dany leaves with the rest. Jon Fights for his life, the other dragon protects him, (just like his father did)”feels” then we see Jon snow get on that dragon ride it away by him self & survive.HBO you can hire me if you like. Tell me right now what i just wrote isn’t a better story then what you produced, still yeilding the same results
She did take all three dragons, and all three can be seen in the fight. Even the shot where Viserion is struck by the ice lance, you can see Rhaegal behind him.
if you watch again, you’ll see the dragon catches fire when it’s dying. Splashing down into the lake puts it out so the Night King could turn it.
I think killing Drogon while he was sitting pretty on the rock would have immolated and burnt to bone