Game of Thrones

[Sacred Knight]

I'm thinking more ending things on a precarious note. Like the Long Night isn't really over and doesn't wrap up when the show does, rather actually just begins. That that's how it ends, knowing the surviors, the new King/Queen and all of Westerors will have to endure it again. Just a thought, probably way off but the idea isn't based around something to actually concretely overcome in just 3 more eps.

[Jackalope89]

The main fight was good. Seeing the massive and unrelenting horde of zombies smash into the forces. And the Dothraki...

Have D&D never studied historical war tactics? Or even played something like Rome Total War? You NEVER send light cavalry, no matter how many, straight at your enemy. You use them to harass the flanks and take out archers and what not. But in season 7, when they were sent head long into Jamie's army, they only won because Drogon burned big gaps into his forces. So, no surprise they were quickly snuffed out by the undead army.

What's more, the defense had me VERY puzzled. Only one trench, with the trebuchets and catapults on the OUTSIDE of it? No. You make a series of rings around Winterfell, with the outering on fire to begin with. The initial idea of having the Unsullied behind the ring is good. As the phalanx is great at defensive battle. Just, more rings, with the unsullied, supported by say, the Dothraki, between each ring. With a unit of Unsullied in the walls, guarding the gate in case something like a giant smashes through. What's more, rather than have all of your infantry out in the open, have them up on the walls, with the archers, ready to defend. With the artillery pieces either inside the walls or in the innermost ring of trenches. That way, you can keep firing them for awhile yet.

For the dragons, I would have had them be more proactive in roasting at least the first waves of undead. Lessening the waves that hit the defenders. And how many archers were there? Sure, some took fired arrows down there, but far less than what I thought they had. Honestly, seemed like the Ironborn did better in that regard (you did good Theon, RIP).

The Little Bear proved she was no cub at least.

The Nightking's tactics? Yeah. When you have an overwhelming horde that doesn't feel pain, fear, hunger, etc. No need for complex tactics. And using a few here and there to make bridges, was simple yet very effective tactic. With the body pyramids used to climb the walls? Yeah. It works.

And the GOAT, Ser Davos, is still alive!

[Arsenal]

The main fight was good. Seeing the massive and unrelenting horde of zombies smash into the forces. And the Dothraki...

Have D&D never studied historical war tactics? Or even played something like Rome Total War? You NEVER send light cavalry, no matter how many, straight at your enemy. You use them to harass the flanks and take out archers and what not. But in season 7, when they were sent head long into Jamie's army, they only won because Drogon burned big gaps into his forces. So, no surprise they were quickly snuffed out by the undead army.

What's more, the defense had me VERY puzzled. Only one trench, with the trebuchets and catapults on the OUTSIDE of it? No. You make a series of rings around Winterfell, with the outering on fire to begin with. The initial idea of having the Unsullied behind the ring is good. As the phalanx is great at defensive battle. Just, more rings, with the unsullied, supported by say, the Dothraki, between each ring. With a unit of Unsullied in the walls, guarding the gate in case something like a giant smashes through. What's more, rather than have all of your infantry out in the open, have them up on the walls, with the archers, ready to defend. With the artillery pieces either inside the walls or in the innermost ring of trenches. That way, you can keep firing them for awhile yet.

For the dragons, I would have had them be more proactive in roasting at least the first waves of undead. Lessening the waves that hit the defenders. And how many archers were there? Sure, some took fired arrows down there, but far less than what I thought they had. Honestly, seemed like the Ironborn did better in that regard (you did good Theon, RIP).

The Little Bear proved she was no cub at least.

The Nightking's tactics? Yeah. When you have an overwhelming horde that doesn't feel pain, fear, hunger, etc. No need for complex tactics. And using a few here and there to make bridges, was simple yet very effective tactic. With the body pyramids used to climb the walls? Yeah. It works.

And the GOAT, Ser Davos, is still alive!

I don’t know how much time they had to really prepare but it didn’t feel like a lot. I was honestly surprised they even managed to get that much set up as they did.

[MindofShadow]

For the dragons, I would have had them be more proactive in roasting at least the first waves of undead. Lessening the waves that hit the defenders. And how many archers were there? Sure, some took fired arrows down there, but far less than what I thought they had. Honestly, seemed like the Ironborn did better in that regard (you did good Theon, RIP).

Only problem with having the dragons be proactive is no knowing where the olympic gold medal winner in the Javelin is hanging out.

[Jackalope89]

I don’t know how much time they had to really prepare but it didn’t feel like a lot. I was honestly surprised they even managed to get that much set up as they did.

They had at least 60,000 at Winterfell. While the Dothraki may not be used to manual labor, 50,000 of them would have made it go fairly quickly.

[Doctor Know]

The main fight was good. Seeing the massive and unrelenting horde of zombies smash into the forces. And the Dothraki...

Have D&D never studied historical war tactics? Or even played something like Rome Total War? You NEVER send light cavalry, no matter how many, straight at your enemy. You use them to harass the flanks and take out archers and what not. But in season 7, when they were sent head long into Jamie's army, they only won because Drogon burned big gaps into his forces. So, no surprise they were quickly snuffed out by the undead army.

What's more, the defense had me VERY puzzled. Only one trench, with the trebuchets and catapults on the OUTSIDE of it? No. You make a series of rings around Winterfell, with the outering on fire to begin with. The initial idea of having the Unsullied behind the ring is good. As the phalanx is great at defensive battle. Just, more rings, with the unsullied, supported by say, the Dothraki, between each ring. With a unit of Unsullied in the walls, guarding the gate in case something like a giant smashes through. What's more, rather than have all of your infantry out in the open, have them up on the walls, with the archers, ready to defend. With the artillery pieces either inside the walls or in the innermost ring of trenches. That way, you can keep firing them for awhile yet.

For the dragons, I would have had them be more proactive in roasting at least the first waves of undead. Lessening the waves that hit the defenders. And how many archers were there? Sure, some took fired arrows down there, but far less than what I thought they had. Honestly, seemed like the Ironborn did better in that regard (you did good Theon, RIP).

The Little Bear proved she was no cub at least.

The Nightking's tactics? Yeah. When you have an overwhelming horde that doesn't feel pain, fear, hunger, etc. No need for complex tactics. And using a few here and there to make bridges, was simple yet very effective tactic. With the body pyramids used to climb the walls? Yeah. It works.

And the GOAT, Ser Davos, is still alive!

I believe D&D admitted they studied/watched LOTR Two Towers and Braveheart (Mel Gibson movie) for inspiration for this battle.

Watching the battle, I couldn't help buy feel the defense play wasn't as strong as it could've been.

I agree with you. More trenches, more spiked barricades (or just barricades in general), keep the cavalry to flank (pincer attack) their enemies. When the Wights started to climb the walls, I was thinking, they should've have pitch/oil ready to pour on the wights and set that ablaze. The inner court of the castle could've used more barricades and the main door should've been reinforced.

None of this would've stopped the wights, but it definitely would've slowed them and cut down on casualties.

Big props to the Unsullied. They held defensive phalanx. Shoulder to shoulder. Shield to Shield.

[ZeroBG82]

Arya stomping that icy weirdo was thrilling. She's of the Faceless Men after all, makes sense. Almost expected to see one of them show up.

I've always found the Night King to be a drag. I was hoping he would have more to him. A motive, personality, a reason for being. He's just bad guy because bad things for bad reasons? If that is the case, I'm glad they wrapped him up so we can move on to more interesting matters.

He's not really a person. He's a weapon, created to serve a specific purpose (destroy mankind) during a war. A fire and forget, supernatural superweapon. One gone so out of control that even his creators can't stop him. Basically, he's more akin to Dany's dragons than to the characters themselves.

He's not actually a villain in a practical sense. He's thematic. He's the awful and unforeseen consequences of murderous hatred. The Children of the Forest made him to wipe out Man while the two races were at war. Never thinking that the war could end, alliances change. And unleashed something they couldn't control or stop.

[Havok83]

I have no problem with Arya killing the NK but I do wish that Jon had gotten a chance to fight him. I could have taken him losing with him on the floor barely alive and the NK ready to go after Bran. The rest of the scene could have played out the exact same way

[MiddleMan]

Really? It just would have made Jon look even more useless than he already did

[Havok83]

Really? It just would have made Jon look even more useless than he already did

and Id be fine with it as I didnt like how he was handled in this episode riding around on a dragon like a chicken with its head chopped off. A sword battle with the NK would have been a more effective use of his skills

[Arsenal]

I believe D&D admitted they studied/watched LOTR Two Towers and Braveheart (Mel Gibson movie) for inspiration for this battle.

Watching the battle, I couldn't help buy feel the defense play wasn't as strong as it could've been.

I agree with you. More trenches, more spiked barricades (or just barricades in general), keep the cavalry to flank (pincer attack) their enemies. When the Wights started to climb the walls, I was thinking, they should've have pitch/oil ready to pour on the wights and set that ablaze. The inner court of the castle could've used more barricades and the main door should've been reinforced.

None of this would've stopped the wights, but it definitely would've slowed them and cut down on casualties.

Big props to the Unsullied. They held defensive phalanx. Shoulder to shoulder. Shield to Shield.

The unsullied did incredibly well considering their weapons (Spears) were incredibly useless on the field. The ones on the ground should’ve had swords while the ones on the walls should've (maybe) kept the spears.

[sunofdarkchild]

I think a simple fix would be to just have the wights created directly by the Night King die with him while the other White Walkers and the wights they directly controlled retreated when their leader, dragon, and most of their forces fell. That way they could remain a threat and a source of contention between Jon and Dani, since she'd want to go straight for Cersei while he'd know that as long as the Walkers existed they'd continue to grow their armies back to full size and remain a threat, plus if each walker was creating his own wights taking out any one walker would no longer have the effect of being an automatic win like taking out the Night King was. They could even have the walkers attack King's Landing later. I think that approach would fit the themes of Game of Thrones better.

[krazijoe]

Where did Brann send the Ravens?

[AndrewCrossett]

Where did Brann send the Ravens?

Up to the Night King on his dragon. I think he was just alerting the NK to where he was exactly, in order to draw him straight to him and end things sooner rather than later.

[SiegePerilous02]

I am both relieved and disappointed that they played it safe with the deaths. Relieved because I didn't want a lot of them to die anyway, but it also means the narrative loses some of its edge. Jorah and Theon are somewhat major deaths, but you could also see them coming a mile away. The rest were sad, but were all comparatively minor characters. It's a given that the Starks, Dany and Tyrion aren't getting killed off until the end (if any of them go).

Jamie, Brienne, Davos, Gendry, Grey Worm, Podrick, Sam, Tormund, Gilly, and Missandei ALL making it out alive seems a bit much, even if I'm not eager to see any of them go.

Arya getting the kill also seems out of left field. It was set up well in the episode itself, but looking at the whole series, not so much. She's barely interacted with this storyline and she ends it? The moment itself was badass, but it kind of displays the blatant favoritism the writers have for her. I love her too, but did she really need this on top of her other moments while Jon is kind of useless through the episode?

It was an engaging episode while I was watching it, but I don't think a lot of it will work on re-watch with the tension gone.