Game of Thrones: 8.03 - The Long Night

[ctg]

Just published. They seemed to wait till I had put out my piece. LULz - what a coincidence.

This was out last night.

Why David Benioff looks so guilty in these pieces?

 

[Dave]

why is V-Steel so deadly for big Mother Ice Dudes?

Second video at 9.45 "It had to be Valyarian steel to the exact spot the where the child of the forest took the Dragonglass blade to create the Night King and he is un-created by Valyarian steel.

 

[The Big Peat]

I wondered about this also. I mean, none of the Stark children or the Lannister children look very alike either. However, I know that they are actors playing the parts. In real life, they ought to look very alike, so that you would be able to easily tell they were related. Jon and Dany ought to be similar enough that you could easily believe they were close relations but no one is making that deduction.

Jon and Dany looking nothing alike is book accurate; Jon takes entirely after Lyanna in his books while Dany is totally Targaryen. I think Catelyn justifies some of her dislike for Jon to herself because of just how much like young Ned he looked, while almost all her children took after her (Arya doesn't).


Re tactics (putting it in spoilers for people who a) haven't seen it yet b) Just don't care

Spoiler

I don't really see why they even bothered fighting in front of the castle. Castles are there for fighting in, not to be backdrops.

If you do have to do it, then I guess a tactic of charging all your cavalry in first is somewhat period appropriate (but only somewhat), but also dumb as hell. At the very least use the arty (maybe they had done their ranging off camera) and archers to break up the enemy formation first.

The infantry should have been protected by breastworks and stakes. As a general rule of thumb, putting your fortifications behind you where they'll complicate your retreat, instead of it front of you where they'll help you is... special. And I honestly can't think of an example of that happening in the real world.

Being in that crypt was so dumb.

 

[Koopa]

Maybe cause this battle was so hyped up, i was a bit underwhelmed. Ghost died a dumb death. They ruined one awesome book direwolf on the tv show. Jon and Dany barely defended Winterfell with their dragons. I Understand the plan was to fight the undead dragon 2vs1, but the moment Dany committed that went up in smoke. At least Jon's dragon properly fought the undead dragon. I do hope Rhaegal is still alive. He seemed to have mostly a very big scratch mark. The dragon battle was nice. Very much the mutual destruction description i got from grrm writings from a dance with dragons. Dany and Jon barely rained fire on the opponents allowing the undead to just pour over the defenders.

Mel just popped up out of nowhere, with the army of the dead all around... how peculiar.

The scene change with Arya was way too abrupt and unrealistic imo. A whole unending horde was pouring into Winterfell, yet she plays hide and seek with a few of them... . I also do not understand how people can be completely surrounded by undead enemies, yet live for more than a few seconds. I'm thinking Jon, Jorah, Brienne, Jaime, Sam, ... . They went full hero shield mode on that. Even the very best can't stop 10 swords coming at them from all angles at the same time.

Arya being the one to bring down the Night king is good, at least all that training she spent years doing means something now. Yet the way the episode went, they also made it impossible to go a different route. No escape from Winterfell. Jon and dany with the only real weapons against such overhelming odds bumbling about. And a clear cut drama suspense moment from just about every hero movie out there in which all seemed lost, which told you the reversal was coming.

I'm not sure how i feel about the budding romance between sansa and tyrion.

I actually think i will enjoy how the battle between the living will play out far more. And i hope that when i revisit this episode down the line, i will think better of it. I'm thinking i'm just a bit letdown to properly evaluate it cause of the hype surrounding it.

 

[Koopa]

I forgot to add, what was the point of Bran Warging, all we saw was some ravens flying...

 

[Al Jackson]

Ghost is gone with Dothraki. No more budget for the dog.

I'm slightly surprised that you also noticed the battlefield lighting issue. No range markers. Nothing. Where did that mysterious winter storm come from? Did the Red Woman do it?

Ghost is in the 'funeral pyre' scene in the preview of episode 4, both dragons are also in a scene in that trailer.
Check out the frames at :18 seconds.

The winter storm was produced by the NK.

 

[Al Jackson]

That seemed extremely anti-climactic. I knew that when the flames cleared, he would still be there. I did expect, however, his spiffy NK uniform to be at least slightly smoked.

The dragons are Old Valyrian magic just as V-Steel is, so I expected something!

 

[Al Jackson]

It thought it odd that the NK's 'captains' , white walkers, didn't seem to do anything during the battle , in earlier times they seemed to be directing the troops.
I thought what would happen is the White Walkers would be in the van guard for ol NK and would be fighting to clear the way for NK, so all our heroes left including Jon and Dany would be at least drawing their attention.

 

[svalbard]

Ok, the episode has just confirmed that I will finish the books if they are ever published. There is no way that it is going to play out like that on the page. Not a chance. Spectacular set piece aside I think the climax to the episode was a complete cop out. Not impressed.

Although I am somewhat mollified that they gave Jorah the send off he deserved. And a big salute to Lyanna Morning.

 

[Narkalui]

So how did Ghost die? I missed that!

 

[Koopa]

nice to know ghost lives after all, still the show is doing him wrong.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

So is Ghost alive?

 

[Al Jackson]

nice to know ghost lives after all, still the show is doing him wrong.

Yeah Ghost is still alive.... I think we will see both Ghost and Nymeria before this season is out.
I don't know why D&D keep claiming the dire wolves are hard CGI …. not at this late date of VFX.

 

[Al Jackson]

So is Ghost alive?

See my comment about the preview of episode 4.

 

[Koopa]

Ok, the episode has just confirmed that I will finish the books if they are ever published. There is no way that it is going to play out like that on the page. Not a chance. Spectacular set piece aside I think the climax to the episode was a complete cop out. Not impressed.

Although I am somewhat mollified that they gave Jorah the send off he deserved. And a big salute to Lyanna Morning.

Yeah, no way Arya will end up as the prince that was promised in the books. During their episode discussion they said they knew for 3 years now that it was going to be Arya that would kill the Night King. That makes one wonder why they even continued to mention the promised prince after stannis his death.

 

[zmunkz]

Ok, the episode has just confirmed that I will finish the books if they are ever published.

I’ve been thinking the same thing.

 

[ctg]

It thought it odd that the NK's 'captains' , white walkers, didn't seem to do anything during the battle , in earlier times they seemed to be directing the troops.

Yep. The NightKing never said anything and the Lieutenants never did nothing. I've always assumed that George had a plan for them and that at the end, he would give the NightKing a chance to clear out his thoughts. I mean it's very hard to use voiceless Main Character and make him or her ... or it menacing. There are stories where that works, and even though I bickering about it, HBO's Game of Thrones is a marvellous product.

My only guess for them to not wait till GRRM had put out the book is that they had those actors in contract, and not use them as established faces would had doomed the product. But if George had his way I would have assumed that those Lieutenants would have acted like Ring Wraiths. More like a team and not a walking set piece.

Overall the NightKing did most of the work, over anyone, as he commanded his army, raised another one and at the end was about to do the deed to glorify his destiny. It's just I don't get that if he'd killed the Memory of the World, how that would have solved the problem of man, for which the Children of Forest created him to crack in the first place?

There would still be millions, if not hundreds of millions of people living in the world. Unless it would have unravelled the creation of a man, and instead of the dead, they would have disappeared.

Yeah Ghost is still alive.... I think we will see both Ghost and Nymeria before this season is out.
I don't know why D&D keep claiming the dire wolves are hard CGI …. not at this late date of VFX.

It's the hair mechanics. To make it look realistic you have to crunch numbers, and that Ghost has more points to calculate in real time than the dragon. The dragon is much, much easier to do than a fully animated direwolf.

So how did Ghost die? I missed that!

He charged with Dothraki against the Dead, and he was not seen since. Hence I assumed that he was dead and they didn't dare to show how he survived or where he lied.

 

[Culhwch]

I was sure Ghost was going to save Jon after the Night King surrounding him with newly-raised Wights, but alas...

A good episode, but I feel it may have suffered from hype. Also it was so dark I could barely see anything! I much preferred last week's episode.

I also think - at this moment in time - that they messed up the order of the battles. I do feel this should have been the finale, after they'd been forced to deal with Cersei. That said, I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt until the last three episodes play out.

 

[Al Jackson]

Look at this , between , behind Dany and to the right side of Varys is Ghost. (From the preview of next episode)

 

[Al Jackson]

After watching again, I think D&D struggled with the screenplay on this one.
After hitting it out of the park with Hardhome and Battle of the Bastards Miguel Sapochnik also seemed to struggle too.
All in all the technical quality of the action is really quite good, it is the narrative flow that has seams in it.
It also seem like it needs a different edit, the flow seems to jerk around at times.
The tone of the story is the Crypts seem off , needed fixing.
I was entertained, I know of nothing like it on TV and even a flawed GoT episode is a good episode.