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House Stark won this week's GOT
I think House Stark one this week’s Game of Thrones. This one is hard to judge for a winner because of three things that took seven years to happen all happened at the time:
1. House Stark has reunited and finally defeated Baelish who started everything.
2. The Wall comes down (although it’s been up far longer than seven years.) 🙂
3. Jon Snow is Aegon Targaryen!
This episode I give an 80 out of 100. The events in the last parts of the episode saved the score for me.
Overall I didn’t like the first 50 minutes of the show. If you compare how fast the last show went in terms of actions and locations to this one; it’s like going from one extreme to another. I felt like I spent 50 minutes waiting for Cersei to pay Dany lip service and lay out her true intentions to Jaime. All of that I knew was coming deep down in my thoughts a few episodes ago.
The execution and final comeuppance for Lord Baelish is 7 years in the making and it was a great book ending of the main story. The pack is split up by a common enemy; comes together; survives and avenges the death of it’s parents and punishes the separator.
The huge nuclear bomb for me was Sam and Bran’s scene with the montage of Rhaegar/Lyanna and Jon/Dany. We finally get to see Rhaegar and the reveal that Jon is Aegon Targaryen was wonderful! I would have appreciated 5-10 more minutes of that then the 50 minutes of Cersei persuasion.
I was expecting more of a fight against the White Walkers then what was delivered. It was more of an assault and fast destruction of the Wall and series of reactions by Tormund and Beric then anything else.
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Best lines:
The Hound: “That’s not how it ends for you, brother…You know who’s coming for you. You’ve always known.”
Sansa to Arya: “You’re still very strange and annoying.”
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Good:
* Finally the Stark redemption arc is completed. It took seven years, however from Dead Dire Wolf with lost pups in the first episode to the Stark pack avenging their dead parents by executing the man who started off this whole story, Lord Baelish’s end was satisfying.
* For me the most exciting and best part of the show was Samwell with Bran: Aegon Targaryen has now been revealed! and we got to see Rhaegar marrying Lyanna.
* It took seven years, however the wall comes down! The Night King scenes bringing down the wall were good! I thought they could have been done better. I loved the blue fire!
* The beginning of Cleghane Bowl! They had the stadium and we have seen the coin toss. When is the kick off?
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Bad:
* Great, Theon is off to rescue Yara. How the heck does he know where she is? Jon, Dany and Tyrion heard Euron say he was going back to the Iron Isles upon seeing the Wight. If what Cersei is saying is true (in strict confidence to Jaime) about Euron sailing to Essos to pickup mercenary soldiers, how does Theon know to go there?
Wouldn’t he be setting sail for the Iron Isles?
* Arya and Sansa scenes here were well played, however I feel like everything was done for my sake (the audience) instead of for the story’s sake.
1. How did they both go from distrusting each other last episode; and Arya threatening to expose Sansa to the North men over the Raven note to Winterfell asking Rob to bend the knee to Cersei to both of them coming together and putting one over on Lord Baelish?
2. There’s something missing there for me which would have shown Starks unifying as a pack to overcome their adversaries by overcoming their differences. Where is that the scene?
3. Arya never told Sansa where she got the Raven note after Sansa asked here. The dialog we heard last episode only works as a ruse (for sake of the story) if someone is there with them in the room to hear the ruse and there were no cup-bearers in the room for the conversations between Arya and Sansa; just us watchers of the show. So in one sense they were just trying to throw viewers off (instead of throwing off Baelish in the story) so they can surprise us with his execution.
4. What was it that brought Arya around to trusting Sansa and what was it that Sansa saw in Arya that brought them together? Since that is missing, the only thing that brings Baelish ruse around to this point plot-wise that makes sense to me is Sansa playing Little Finger in her conversations with him last episode.
* Tyrion goes to see Cersei all alone. Why? What did it actually accomplish? Why didn’t she just behead him?
* Cersei gave the Mountain the order to execute Jaime, yet he only drew his sword? She didn’t given any sort of signal to stop midway. It was just Jaime saying ‘Do it’. Does the Mountain also listen to Jaime or is questioning Cersei’s orders? Huh??
* Why didn’t anyone fire bolts from the Wall at Wight Viserion?
* What’s occurring to me right now is I had to sit through an unintended/intended incest sex scene between Dany and Jon (An aunt and her nephew). Yuck!
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Unknown:
* Is Yara on the Iron Isle or with Euron heading to Essos? Does Theon even know where she is? How could he?
* Is Jaime heading to Winterfell? Will Cersei call back all the bannerman and give them new orders to assemble in King’s Landing and go after Casterly Rock, Dorne and Dragonstone while Dany is up North fighting the Night King?
* What kind of impact will Jon’s legitimacy have on his relationship with Dany?
* Does the Mountain know the Hound is his brother still? I am going to guess he didn’t die all the way and Qyburn managed to revive him up to a point where he recognizes the Hound is brother.
* Will Dany and Jon’s meeting lead them to having a child?
* What did Ned tell Robert about Lyanna? Did he say he found her dead? Did Robert just find out on his own she was dead? That part of the story isn’t clear to me. Was Ned originally sent by Robert to find Lyanna or did he seek out Lyanna on his own?
* Tyrion knows Jon and Dany had sex. As this whole story started with crimes committed to conceal an incident of incest (Bran being pushed out a window by Jaime), will something bad happen to Tyrion to conceal Jon and Dany’s tryst?
* Did Tormund and Beric die in the Wall collapse?
Will Cersei make a play for Dragonstone while Jon and Dany are away?
* Will Cersei make a play for Dragonstone while Dany and Jon are up North since it is on an island and safe from the White Walkers and undead armies? (Not to mention it’s huge abundance of Dragon Glass. That would make it the most valuable property right now in Westeros, right? Of course, Cersei doesn’t know it has a huge source of Dragonglass.)
It’s time to acknowledge that the show has diverged from the books, not just in plot but in spirit. One of the things that made the show so different is that it tested the viewer through the loss of so many popular characters. This was when they had book plot to follow. Your average show wouldn’t have hurled a child from a tower, allow incest to go on without consequence, execute its main good guy. Since the show went past the books, the viewer has generally been given what they want: The Boltons destroyed, no popular characters killed off. Which brings me to this episode. There seems to have been a demand in the fandom for Jon and Danaerys to get together. There you go. I think we all hate Baelish, but no one can tell me the show isnt a more interesting spectacle with him in it. So it was with some relief that the Ckegane fight didn’t happen. No doubt it will in the future.
Good episode though. I thought Lena Headey was magnificent, as was Peter Dinklage opposite.
Not sure where we go from here. Jon may have the blood claim to the throne, but everything we’ve seen of him in 7 series suggests that would be the last thing he wants.
Little Finger Gets The Finger!
I love that this show is not afraid of killing off major characters and (not being someone who has read the books…) I love being shocked when it happens. It was SO gratifying to see Little Finger’s throat get slit last night! I’m not a violent person, by nature, but something about seeing that guy go down and having the truth about his actions revealed was very satisfying. And Cersei is just insane! It must be fantastic to play her!
I don’t enjoy saying I told you so but I predicted both Little Finger’s death and that Bran would just blurt out his revelation off screen in order to surprise us. I don’t say this to get credit. I am usually surprised by TV twists. But Benioff and Weiss have become predictable in a dull, annoying way. After all Baelish’s fiendish plans this was a mundane way for him to go.
The whole episode felt anti-climatic. A lot of teases to save stuff for next season. Even the Wall coming down felt flat to me. I always assumed that its collapse would send shockwaves through Westeros. But now that all the good guys are gathering to fight the Dead this doesn’t feel like the setback that it should.
Also I’m pretty sure women in the middle ages drank alcohol while pregnant. It’s not a question of ignorance, more about the scarcity of purified water.
You called it Robin
You were definitely spot on Robin about Baelish’s end. (You called it many episodes ago.) The show has progressively sacrificed more and more of the narrative to throw twists at the audience, which indeed have made things more predictable. In the Inside scenes for this episode, Benioff and Weiss say that they wanted to show the rift between Sansa and Arya all the way up to when it becomes about trial and sentencing of Little Finger. At a certain point, for me, that sacrifice of story for shock played off more like all the Starks were setting up Little Finger which confused me as to how Sansa and Arya went from being suspicious of each other to all of sudden working together to do away with Little Finger.
Alternative ending for Little Finger
I honestly thought a better way for Baelish to meet his end was him playing off the rift between Jon and Sansa; not Arya and Sansa. They could have done the same scene with Jon in Arya’s place next season. Since Dany would be up at Winterfell with Jon; and with Bran and Sam revealing Jon is really a Targaryen; I think the rift between Jon and Sansa would have been way more dramatic. The thing that could bring them together is Bran revealing Jon was raised by Ned and that he is a much a Stark as a Targaryen; playing into what Jon said to Theon about him being a Stark as much a Greyjoy and granting him foregiveness. Bran could also verify everything Sansa said Little Finger did. If anyone in the North questions his Greensight abilities, Bran could offer to each them knowledge no one else would know in the form of a whisper in their ears. All of this would have had more drama and emotion I think then the emotionless set of situations we were given this episode.
No baby bump. I am out. I really enjoy your show. Thank you for doing it.
This episode was boring, predictable and flat. Total disappointment. I guess incest is cool now.
I don’t know if anyone watched Son’s of Anarchy on FX but for a much smaller budget they put on seven excellent seasons where there were real stakes and no one had plot armour.
If the writers, show runners and directors no longer care then I will no longer waste my time.
Good but not great finale
I like the pacing of this episode, but it does feel a little out of place when you consider the frenetic pacing of the other 6 episodes this season.
Littlefinger’s death was satisfying and a long time coming, but it had many flaws. We really needed to see more of how Sansa, Bran and Arya set up his downfall.
I liked that Bran finally revealed Jon’s heritage to someone but I wish he told someone more important to him like his sisters. It was kind of awkward to get this reveal as Dany and Jon hooked up. The idea of incest in their relationship isn’t something I can support so it took away from the, getting together.
The Wall finally came down which was a brilliant ending visual. I wonder if Beric and Tormund will survive.
I wasn’t too impressed by Theon’s story. He has hardly gotten any focus this season which made me very disinterested in his storyline.
The big meeting was pretty enjoyable and I liked all of the interactions. I’m glad to see that Cersei stayed true to her character and wants everyone else to slug it out with the white walkers. Euron going after the Golden Company intrigues me.
Jaime finally left Cersei but I feel that the scene wasn’t as impactful as it should have been.
Oops I missed the feedback window
I loved this episode, the calm before the storm and the resolution of the machinations that no longer matter.
A few episodes the Archmaester mentioned a prediction that never happened – “the sea rose to greet Aegon Targaryen”. I guess that must be Jon and not the Mad King. I wonder how many predictions were about Jon and not the Mad King…
Loved the fall of Little Finger. After manipulating Kings and Queens its 3 kids that take him down. Imagine Varys and Tyrion laughing when they hear that.
So interesting that Yohn Royce was there. Through the show he’s been revealed to be a friend of Ned Stark and Jon Arryn, and his son was the snobby nightswatchman killed by a Wight in season 1 episode 1.
Tormund and Beric were running away from the sea end of the Wall and there seems to be a tiny scrap of Eastwatch left. If they’re still alive, I’m predicting that Tormund’s repeated comments of being ‘kissed by fire’ will be reflected in a fatally wounded Beric saving Tormund by passing on the remnants of his Lord of Light powers.
I wonder if the meeting of the Clegane brothers has had an effect on FrankenMountain. He seemed to be listening to Sandor.