A Critique of Game of Thrones Season 8 (Part 1)

hello and welcome to my critique of Game of Thrones Season eight I had originally intended for my next video to be part one of my critique of The Walking Dead however after several requests and the fact I can't stop thinking about this awful season of a once-great show I've decided to postpone the Walking Dead series for a while in order to get this off my chest I'd like to start off this critique with the little catch-up first I had originally planned to do a full critique of Season 5 through 8 of Game of Thrones in that order however I've instead decided to tackle season 8 first I will eventually go back and do seasons 5 6 & 7 and it might be sooner rather than later as talking about season 8 coupled with the fact that many other youtubers and critics are acting as though the writing issues and quality drop for Game of Thrones is a new thing has really made me want to talk about seasons 5 through 7 also as you may have noticed this is going to be a long video critiquing an entire season of television even one as truncated as a final season of Game of Thrones takes an awful lot of time and this video quickly ballooned into an enormous project I once made a video solely focusing on the scene in which Littlefinger is killed and it ran 30 minutes hopefully that goes some way to explaining why this is so long as such I've decided to split this into three parts part 1 will cover episodes 1 to 3 and part 2 will cover episodes 4 to 5 and part three will cover episode 6 and examine the characters at the end of the series as compared to where they started the effectiveness of their arcs the flaws in the story as a whole in relation to the ending and I will give a comprehensive breakdown of how I think the season should have gone and how it could have been better especially with regard to paying off the audience's investment in this series I will break down each episode scene by scene and explain as best I can what works and what is an abject failure of writing whilst also covering other aspects of the show such as acting direction and cinematography when necessary and it should go without saying but I'll say it anyway throughout this series I will be thoroughly spoiling both the final season of Game of Thrones and the 7 seasons that preceded it if you have not watched the show yet and are worried about spoilers then I suggest watching this series when you're finished if you have watched the show or simply don't care about spoilers then stick around and without further ado let's begin the critique have you shot your final scenes yet and are you happy with how things ended bad season ever the episode begins with a little boy running to see the arrival of Queen Daenerys and the king in the North Jon Snow at Winterfell this has clearly done to reference Arya running to see the arrival of King Robert Baratheon and Queen Cersei in the pilot episode of the series arya even seems to give a knowing glance to the child and acknowledgment of this and yet something doesn't quite work here despite the inherently brutal nature of feeble error life the Winterfell of the first episode is a very different and much more pleasant place to live than the Winterfell of the season 8 premiere the series has spanned many years and this child may have been nothing but newborn when the story began as such his entire life he has known nothing but war and cruel violence his early years were lived under the destruction of the house of his Lord the Starks the murderous Theon Greyjoy we're young children were murdered and strung up as a warning in public and finally the Bolton's who would regularly Flay men and women alive he has also lived through two large battles at Winterfell the first being against Stannis and the second being the Battle of the bastards this child's life has been nothing but misery and death and that has typically come at the arrival of a new king or Lord while it is understandable the children would be excited to see their monarchs arrive at their home in much the same way people get excited for today I find out hard to believe this child would be too excited given that this is what happened the last time a new monarch arrived to Winterfell we then see Tyrion and Varys arrive at Winterfell and Tyrion makes an awkward joke about his balls and the fact that Varys is a eunuch but love telling you knew Terence why is that because I have bowls you definitely what have we got here [ __ ] comedian this one scene is basically Tyrians character post season four in a nutshell the bastardization of Tyrians character is one of the biggest stains on the show the writers have taken a once cunning and smart character who much like Littlefinger was forced to use his intelligence to best his enemies given his lack of physical strength and turned him into a running gag yes he was always a funny character prone to dark humor and rude jokes but that was never the totality of his character use my words I'm not as bright as you at least not until seasons five and six where his political cunning was dropped to make way for awkward time wasting scenes where he tells jokes to Musante and grey worm Jonah Daenerys arrived and went to felon we see the concerned or downright disgusted looks of the common northerners Daenerys inexplicably seems to take this personally as does Musante and gray where he would think that any rational and normal person would understand the reluctance of the northerners to accept new foreign rulers these people's lives have been held for the better part of a decade and here comes yet another ruler bringing her massive foreign army known for their raping and pillaging into their home it's understandable if they are worried about their children in their homes especially since it is self-evident that Daenerys and her army are here to stir up even more trouble why else would she march her entire army into Winterfell she clearly plans on a battle or war and these people are likely to become casualties yet again any decent person could forgive them a dirty look or two but then dragged on and regale Dany's dragons fly over Winterfell and roar menacingly scaring the frightened and impoverished citizens as Dany smiles her noble Queen must enjoy the simple pleasures after all burning men that have surrendered to death screwing her nephew and enjoy watching the first common people of her new Kingdom that she has just met cower in fear of her dragons John is swiftly reunited with bran however despite care Harrington's best effort this scene has no emotional weight whatsoever this is likely due to the fact that bran is essentially an emotionless robot is rather difficult for the audience to feel the decide emotion behind the embrace of two long separated brothers when one has the emotional range of a toaster oven John n introduces Daenerys to the noble people of Winterfell colluding his family this scene much like the first one is designed to mirror the scene in the first episode of the series when Robin Cersei arrive at Winterfell and agreed by Ned and his family however see if you can spot one important difference in the pilot episode the people of Winterfell rightly bow to their king has established his customary throughout the first few seasons however in this episode when Queen Daenerys has introduced to the people and there one bends the knee this has never acknowledged either which is bizarre given that much of Daenerys story out this season is based around Sansa and the northerners not accepting her his queen refusing to kneel in the presence of the queen is a pretty noticeable slight and something she should surely have mentioned given the number of conversations she and Jon have about the North not accepting her it actually might have made sense they refused to bend the knee to a foreign Queen given the sheer size and strength of Daenerys his army plus her dragons it doesn't really work however as far as their characters go and the inherent distrust the North has for foreign invaders I couldn't maybe believe that they would refuse differently initially to bend the knee to the foreign Queen the issue is that it's never directly raised by Daenerys or acknowledged by sounds or John but here is something even more odd they don't bend the knee to Jon either as far as they are concerned John is the king in the north as decreed by the very people in this scene and yet they don't even bend the knee to their own acknowledged king this makes absolutely no sense the north are willing to bend the knee to Robert Baratheon king of the Seven Kingdoms but not to the king of their own Kingdom this seems especially egregious given how honour bound and dutiful the North has always been betrayed given this and the fact Daenerys never raises the issue I think it's fair to say this was simply an error on the part of the writers or the director and it's a shame that such an obvious and glaring flaw was allowed through people can get worked up about a Starbucks cup or a water bottle making into the shot all they want and I certainly will when we get to it but this seems like a much more glaring error to me it's especially noticeable given the scene is so clearly designed to mimic the first season premiere from the children running to see the Royal arrival to the meet and greet with the nobleman of Winterfell how something like this was missed as frankly baffling Brandon interrupts the awkward pleasantries by making himself the audience surrogate and loudly proclaiming they don't have time for this if only he'd been around in the finale when John and Tyrion took 30 minutes to silently walk through King's Landing we don't have time for all this we then get a scene with John and Danny meet the northern lords and ladies little Lord umber is sent back home to collect his men and bring them to Winterfell and for some reason John allows this child Lord to retrieve his man with little to no assistance he sends a few men with him but think about this for a moment imagine you were on the verge of the most important battle in human history you need every man you can get an army of men is available to you but they need to travel to get to you and you know the greatest threat in history is coming towards you if the night King reaches the army first he will kill them and reanimate them to be part of his army and you just casually send the child back home with minimal support who would do that this is literally life and death why not fly on a [ __ ] dragon and guard the men as they get the hell out of there you could arrive in hours and have them leave immediately instead the child has to head back on horseback this is all precious time his army might not have oh well I'm sure they'll be fine I guess John had more important things to do so the living meme Lyanna Mormont asked John why he bent the knee to Daenerys when the North declared him King and I have to ask if he is your king why are you yet to bend the knee to him in fact why are you talking to him like he's still a common bastard and not your king so John explains that he had a choice keep his crown or protect the north and he chose to protect the north this is understandable from his perspective however the northerners are not pleased I can somewhat understand why the north would be upset given that Jon Snow left a king and returned having bent the knee to a foreign Queen however there is a much bigger issue here that no one seems to bring up the way John and the series has framed this and John had not been the knee to Daenerys she would not have come to help fight for the north so why aren't any of the northerners questioning why they are now expected to bend the knee to a foreign Queen that by her own admission wouldn't have helped save their lives if their King didn't kneel for them in other words her place as Queen was more important to her than their lives which by the way I can kind of see her point if the north were to acknowledge her as queen why should she find for them if they're not her subjects she has no obligation to help but it still comes badly if she come to fight for them without expectations in the hopes of winning the north over that would be one thing but her involvement in the war was conditional on John surrendering at least according to John which makes it seem as though she doesn't so much want to break the wheel but rather simply wants to be the one driving what's even worse about this as it seemed at the end of season seven that Denny had come around to John's side and was willing to fight with him and for the north and that is when he voluntarily bent the knee the way this scene played out it seemed as though he bent the proverbial knee for no reason she had Alba agreed to fight for the north this is just the beginning of the desecration of the character of John Snow in season 8 and I'll touch on it much more in part 3 where I'll go through the character arcs and resolutions for all of our main characters but this really is one giant ball of contradictions it almost seems like this revelation by John was designed to keep the north somewhat hostile to Daenerys to help build to her turn in Episode five it's a decent idea in theory but in practice it just doesn't work especially when it's been crammed into the space of five episodes speaking of the desecration of a character Tyrion joins the conversation and continues to be the antithesis of his former self now blindly trusting in sister Cersei of all people something Tyrion would never do Tyrion explains that the Lannister army is riding north to fight the dead and I still can't help but wonder why they are riding north to meet the army of the Dead instead of heading south and using something like moat Cailin to fight the army with a natural advantage now that the Bolton's and the phrase are all dead the Northern Alliance basically controls all of that land hell you could even use the twins these are both landmarks which have been established as damn near impossible to pass without those controlling them allowing you to I mean riding north to fight the army instead of staying south where it's safer would be like lining your army up outside the walls of your castle and who would ever do that Sansa then asks how they're going to feed the northern armies the Vale army Daenerys is army and now the Lannister army this is going to be especially difficult given that it's winter and Dany has two full-grown dragons eating food at an alarming rate I was actually pleasantly surprised when the riders brought this up in this episode it was a refreshing change of pace for there to be real-world problems for our characters to have to have a car there's something which has long since disappeared from the show and yet this has never brought up again in the entire season I suppose the writers didn't actually have an answer to the issue so it was swiftly ignored it's a shame I remember when this series employed character based reasoning for their characters to escape or overcome problems now they are ignored out of sight out of mind I suppose but it makes you wonder why they even brought it up in the first place it was likely just to stir attention between Danny and Sansa sounds of them mentions the dragons and asked what they eat - which Daenerys responds whatever they want yeah that's a great tactic to take Danny you were essentially a foreign invader in a land ravaged by war and you have now brought two dragons there two beasts long thought extinct they have already terrified the locals and now you have swage their fears by calmly borderline sociopathic Lee claiming they will eat whatever they want you could have just said sheep your [ __ ] [ __ ] Tyrion and Sansa then have a private conversation and reflect on their marriage Tyrion wonders what would have happened if they had stayed married and I hate to get bogged down in the details but what do you mean stayed married since when were the two of you divorced the High Septon never annulled your marriage you were married in front of gods and men and then Sansa ran away seemingly forgot she was married married Ramsay Bolton and then she killed him she is a widow to a man she should never have been married to because she was already married to you you are still married yours is the official marriage this is a feudal system do you think running away from your husband means you are no longer married why is this series punishing me for thinking Tyrion then says everyone that has underestimated Sansa is now dead like who exactly Littlefinger sure except he was training her or at least was planning to until the writers decided he would marry her off to Ramsay Bolton in season five for no reason nothing about that makes sense Littlefinger was in love with Sansa why would he marry her off to someone else anyway yes Littlefinger I suppose he underestimated her I mean did he he saw she was capable of in season four when she lied for him about is death but ok let's say he underestimated her and she had him executed with little to no proof of any of the crimes she accused him off then there's Ramsay Bolton she was only able to kill him because Littlefinger sent in the bail army to save the day for the north she had very little to do with it then there's Joffrey she was an unwitting participant in his death she had no idea the plot to kill him even existed and again it was Littlefinger who orchestrated it with Olenna Tyrell other than that who is there Cersei she's still alive his statement by Tyrion makes absolutely no sense he'll even if you count Littlefinger she's still cheated she killed him with no proof she only knew where he had done because of brands powers and she didn't even swing the proverbial sword she let our you'd do it for her Tyrion can you stop speaking this utter nonsense and start saying smart things again please I used to think you're the cleverest man alive we then see the reunion of Arya and Jon and this is actually a nice moment there's a callback to their scene in season 1 which may be a bit of corny fanservice but it was nicely done she shows him that she still has needle and he asked if she's had to use it which she said she has I think this could have been conveyed visually rather than spoken literally I can't believe I'm gonna say this given this is a show that is usually in desperate need of more dialogue and less silence especially in episode six we don't have time for all this but instead of saying all of this Aria could have just shown him needle and John could have noticed a bit of staining at the tip from the blood of those she stabbed or something it's also a shame that the horrors of her story haven't been properly conveyed to John she was a child of ten when the story began and then the following eight years or so she has traveled across two continents killed dozens of men been attacked and nearly killed and lives through the murder of her family in the destruction of her house despite how much the show tries to dress her up as a badass assassin arias story is a tragedy a little girl has had to enjoy far more and grow up far quicker than any charge at hefty I wish the show had better shown John's realization of what she's been through and how different she is now they then talk about family and Aria says Sansa is the smartest person she's ever met really the smartest person you've ever met smarter than Tyrion smarter than Jack and Hegar smarter than Littlefinger you even spent time with Tywin you little [ __ ] what a sands are done that's so smart exactly outwit Littlefinger it's kind of cheating when you have the personification of Google next to you I really wish the writers would quit forcing things like this we didn't see the golden company arrive in King's Landing led by Harry Strickland I read an interview where the actor who plays Strickland mark Richman said on playing the character I did some research into who this person was where he comes from and the books are quite precise and then you see in the scripts what is there what are the similarities were the differences so I did a bit of research on that especially since this world was so properly thought through we only get a couple of lines from Strickland in the first episode but I'm sure he'll be fully fleshed out by the end of the season I'm sure his inclusion in the story won't be one big waste of time [Music] urine has a conversation with Yara for no real reason other than to remind the audience these characters still exist it seems that despite being tied up here she is in otherwise good health which makes sense after all urine does seem like the type of person to look after his prisoners however I do have a couple of logical questions firstly why is she still alive why wouldn't your on just kill her she and Theon fled from the Iron Islands after urine was elected King because they were afraid he would kill them and that was established as his plan so why would he just keep her captive now he might think he'd want her as a hostage but what good is Yara Greyjoy as a hostage her father is dead and her brother has nothing to barter with for her return keeping her alive makes absolutely zero logical sense from Euron's perspective and if he kept her alive just to torture her why does she appear to be in such good health it's later established in the season that Daenerys going just a few days without food has withered and weakened her but Yara seems comparably healthy so it would seem that Euron has been looking after her my guess is that no one could be bothered to make this scene or the storyline with Yara makes sense we are firmly in wrap this [ __ ] up mode at this point in the show urine also says they are the last of the Greyjoy's at least the last with any balls I guess you're on forgot about his own brother Aaron it's not like he did anything important and crown you King personally or anything at least Victarion was spared the indignity of appearing on this show urine also mentions his crew are full of mutes okay that's weird does he mean he cut their tongues out or does he literally just mean they all can't speak naturally because how the hell would you find enough men on the Iron Islands that are naturally mute in order to man your ship you might be thinking that you're under those men before coming to the Iron Islands but it was established that Yara and Theon and their supporters stole the iron fleet from Euron in season six as he was being crowned king that's why he was forced to build an entire new fleet and that's why they all looked fancy and new but don't worry we'll come back to this in just a moment so you're on seducer Cersei and afterwards tells her he's going to put a baby in her which begs the question shouldn't she be showing by now she's been pregnant since season six think about everything that has happened since then you're on his side to Essos and back Jaime has travelled to Highgarden and back to King's Landing and then to Winterfell she should be six months along by now surely and yet not only is she not showing but urine wasn't even able to tell she was already pregnant plus she's now drinking again which she wasn't doing last season because she was pregnant for a moment I thought this might have been a subtle way of conveying to the audience that she had lost her baby but later episodes proved us wrong I should have known a subtlety isn't really a thing with this series anymore [Applause] Qyburn then interrupts bronzed time with some prostitutes to give him a crossbow and ask him to assassinate both Tyrion and Jaime for Cersei Carbon says she has a flair for the dramatic and Bronn knowingly says this [ __ ] family which is a funny line until you remember that the crossbow should mean nothing to Bronn the last time it was used was when Tyrion used it to murder Tywin it makes sense Cersei with one Tyrion killed with it has a poetic form of revenge but it shouldn't mean anything to Bronn given that he wasn't there when Tyrion used it to kill his father you may think of criticism like this as splitting hairs or nitpicking but I prefer to think of it as being precise this is a billion dollar franchise with $20 riding Theon then saves Yara rescuing her from what is presumably your own ship the silence while he is busy with Cersei boy I sure was lucky Theon know exactly which ship amongst the thousands of ships in the iron fleet Yara was being held captive on name I think it is logical to check the silence first after all it's dance the reason Euron would be holding her on his own ship okay but how does Theon even know which ship is Euron's remember these ships were built after Theon and Yara left the Iron Islands you might assume that the silence already existed but we never saw it until the iron fleet showed up in season seven having been built in between seasons six and seven and given the rest of the fleet looks very similar to your own silence and hear them muddled the new flea on his old ship or it was built brand new along with the rest of the fleet if it's new then I say again how the hell did Theon know which was Euron's or did he spend all night going from ship to ship until he found her and if it's old then it sure was nice of Theon to leave it be you're on when they stole the rest of the iron fleet in season six either way this small scene brings up so many problems with the internal logic of the show it's almost funny Yara then thanks Theon for risking his life to save her by head-butting him presumably as payback for Theon abandoning her when you're an attacked her fleet in season seven you're welcome [ __ ] even though Theon had literally no way of saving her he was unarmed and Euron was holding a knife to yaris throat having just murdered several skilled fighters Yara and Theon sail away from King's Landing and Yara says they can take the Iron Islands back since yarn is distracted in King's Landing and what do you mean you can take back the Iron Islands okay so you're on has the iron fleet in King's Landing and what do you think he's going to do when he hears his own seat of power the kingdom he is the ruler of has been taken over by his niece and nephew why wouldn't he just sail straight back to the Iron Islands and take them back and if you're counting on him being distracted by the war with Daenerys remember this is before the long night has even happened at this point in the story the living could lose that war and do you really think Euron hasn't left a garrison behind do you think he hasn't left a number of men behind to protect the Iron Islands while he is away or do you really think he has left them completely unguarded and even if by some miracle he has been stupid enough to leave them unguarded what makes you so certain you can just take them back from the people living there remember the Lords held an election and chose your honor's King they chose your on over you what makes you think they'll just welcome you back in as ruler with open arms this is the laziest type of writing there is it's the we said it happened so it just happened kind of writing or the shut up don't think about it kind well maybe that's fine for some people but I can't help but notice these things Theon says he wants to go and fight for the Starks of Winterfell and Yara says she will take the Iron Islands and Daenerys his name so she is unable to fight off the dead she has somewhere to go that Daenerys can't there's a point if the knight king wants bran why not take him to the Iron Islands he can't bring his army with him and we'll be forced to do it himself then he'll be exposed and you can kill him oh wait never he's a [ __ ] but we'll get to that so Theon's going to fight for the living and Yara is going to hide on the Iron Islands didn't you just headbutt Theon for being a coward so what does that make you and if she does decide to take the Iron Islands and then go and fight for the living at Winterfell how will she hold the Iron Islands while she's away with a group of troops designed to stay behind and defend the islands in your stead you know like you're on would have left behind back at Winterfell and Tyrion remarks that the Karstarks Eagle of the Black Sun is better than so Davos a sigil of the onion to which Davos agrees and sure the Black Sun is better if you ignore the how and why the onion became the sigil of the onion knife you know how Davos went from a simple smuggler to a knight by smuggling onions into storms end during the siege of the castle which kept Stannis Baratheon and his family alive which led to the forming of his house and the use of the onion is a symbol of the honour he had earned sure the Black Sun is better Dany then complains to Jon that Sansa doesn't respect her despite the fact that Dany has done nothing to earn respect other than arrived in Winterfell also she doesn't seem to have a problem with everyone disrespecting her by not kneeling earlier so this dialogue seems a bit odd now she tells John that her dragons are barely eating and they then proceeded to waste the dragons energy by flying them around the north hey maybe you could have flown them to help little Lord umber earlier John struggles to get on regal and Dany starts to show some personality again but poking fun at John the love story between the two was one of the most forced and shoehorned in recent history but this was a decent moment between the two and credit where credit is due the scene of the two flying over the snow-covered mountains and trees is visually stunning it seems like a whole lot of efforts a little payoff when the time and money could have been better suited to building a better story especially with regard to episode 3 onwards but as I say credit where credit is due the effects Department and cinematographer did an excellent job here still for a show with this bigger budget as Game of Thrones I'd expect excellent visuals it's the writing that really lets the series down and given the blank cheque HBO we're willing to write the creators of this series we really should be able to expect better writing as well especially given the creator's took two years to write this final season how embarrassing if you could describe the season finale of Game of Thrones in one word how would you describe disappointing episode two begins with Jamie being questioned by Sansa John and Daenerys Jamie claims to have come to fight for the living Daenerys quickly points out the most important issue that Jamie killed her father as if that currently matters at all if it were a matter of trust I could understand her concern if Jamie simply hated Targaryen Zand that's why he killed her father then sure I bring it up to actually know I try and convict him of the murder of my father and then execute him but Daenerys knows why Jamie killed her father he was known as the Mad King after all Jamie killed the Mad King to save the population of King's Landing so what exactly is the issue they've all been expecting the arrival of the Lannister army to help fight in the war with the dead so for all they know Jamie has brought the army with him camped them outside the walls of Winterfell and come in to make sure their agreement is still on after both Tyrion and Brienne vouch for Jaime Daenerys allows him to live and fight with them against the night king in his army and this would mean a lot more of Jaime's part in the battle amounted to anything Jaime then reveals that Cersei and the Lannister army isn't coming and the Cersei has decided to be the only semi smart person in Westeros and stays south and wait for the north to fight the dead and then do battle with whatever remains the villain for the second half of this season is smarter than all the heroes combined you know it makes it rather hard to root for our heroes when they all act like morons the army of the dead tends to move pretty slow they'd been marching south since season two and already just breached the wall you could have been marching south since Yuri captured Winterfell in season six the more space between you and the army of the Dead the better your chances the issue with stupid heroes is especially true of Tyrion in this season and in the previous three seasons for that matter he has nothing to do but recommend stupidity to Daenerys he of all people should have known that Cersei couldn't be trusted he of all people should have known there was no chance for Cersei to take her army north and fight a battle alongside her enemies when Jaime was surprised by her choice last season it at least made a certain kind of sense as Jaime has always wanted to see the good in Cersei the for Tyrion to fall for it absolutely no sense son sir claims that Jaime can't be trusted having killed stark soldiers in the past Jaime refuses to apologize for his actions during war which I actually appreciated and was one of the only instances in recent memory of the riders staying true to their characters Jaime has never been apologetic for his actions nor shitty as the Sirius is repeatedly shown he is one of the most misunderstood people in Westeros Brandon says the things we do for love referencing Jaime's words before pushing him from the window in Episode one and this line actually annoyed me because it's a half-measure what sense does it make for brand to mention this line all it accomplishes is to worry Jaime and it could have led the others to question what he meant which could have led to the revelation getting out this would have instantly led John and Sansa to execute Jaime and he might think that bran once Jaime dead ought to worry that he could reveal the truth at any moment but he doesn't when Jaime later apologizes bran doesn't even consider an issue worth discussing as he rightly believes there are bigger issues to worry about so again I ask well what's the point in brand bringing it up the reason I call it a half-measure is the line itself doesn't really accomplish anything other than have the audience wondering if bran is going to reveal what Jaime did to him he might as well be saying this directly to the audience it's just a tease with no payoff if you're gonna have brand say the line let's not be coy about it just have Jaime bring it up atone for his sins and have bran defend him short John and Sansa would likely want to kill Jaime but if Brienne Tyrion and most importantly bran defended him I think they could see reason it could also be a great scene for Jaime if he would have breakdown and essentially confess his sins and and asked for forgiveness to brand for his actions in his past life it could make for a brilliant moment for Nikolaj coster-waldau reminiscent of the I abandoned my child scene from there will be blood the half measure of just saying the things I do for love adds nothing of substance the full measure of a proper Jaime confession would give us a potentially brilliant scene and you might think this is a contradiction given I earlier said that Jaime rightly didn't apologize for his actions during war but it's not there's a difference between killing the Mad King to save half a million lives and throwing a little boy from a window to keep his incest a secret my point where this line is this either go all the way with it or cut the line out entirely don't waste my time teasing revelations when we're in the closing stretch of the series now is the time for revelations let me use a recent example to quickly illustrate my point I have my criticisms with the final eight episodes of Breaking Bad and one day I'll do a video explaining them regardless it's still a pretty decent ending to a brilliant show and even though I think the episode Ozymandias is overrated and not close to the series best episode I mention it for a reason could you imagine if instead of Walt telling Jesse that he watched Jane die he simply said Jane's name and nothing more it would Rob the scene of the gut punch it delivers Vince Gillian knew that fans wanted Jessie to discover Walt's hand in James death the series has been teasing a few years and it makes sense to tease it in season 3 halfway through your story is when you tease things for later the ending is when it's time for the payoff this is something episode 3 of this season could have learned to Danny then criticizes Tyrion for trusting Cersei and ultimately allows Jaime to live I'll get into a proper breakdown of the repeated character assassinations of Tyrion and others in part three but it can't be sitted enough just how much damage has been done to Tyrion in the second half of this show the Tyrion of season 8 is almost nothing like the Tyrion of season 1 even the drunken whoring Tyrion never would have been stupid enough to trust Cersei to do anything that wasn't in her immediate self-interest there is a reason even the most die-hard fans of this show have been criticizing this season and it's because of awful riding like that we then get a scene with Aria and Gendry and despite seeing the loss of the dragonglass wagons arriving in the previous episode we see more arrived in this episode are these the last of the wagons consistency what's that Gendry says she'll be safer in the crypts which is where the people who aren't fighting are going to hide because apparently everyone forgot the night king can literally raise the dead to join his army hiding with the dead bodies might be the dumbest thing they could do isn't there a wine cellar they could hide in or something how was the Crypt even going to keep them safe given the Sam was able to trip over and stumble across John in the crypts with little effort in the last episode Arie asks him what the dead are like because she hasn't seen them yet this makes sense as she's been off wandering around the Riverland and across the Narrow Sea and Braavos for the entire show in fact she's only just learned that the dead have risen and are marching towards them she only just learned of the night king the White Walkers and the entire army of the Dead I sure hope they don't have her be the one to wrap the entire story up Gendry tells her the dead are like death showing that his creative ability is on par with the writers of this season we also see arya throw some knives and while i'll touch on this in much greater detail in my season 7 critique i have bring this up here just briefly arias skills are one of the most ill-defined and poorly explained aspect of the show post season six in fact the audience seems somewhat split on this but even fans that are critical of the series have largely overlooked this in episode 3 when Aria kills the night king many people asked how was she able to do this and the prevailing answer appeared to be because she trained for several years with the faceless men to become an assassin and my response is always did she sure she was with the faceless men for a couple years but what training did she do exactly she swept the floor clean bodies and learned how to fight with the staff while blind useful skills to be sure but is that all it takes to be a master assassin when do we see Aria learn how to fight with a knife or how about learned to throw knives with pinpoint accuracy this is one of my biggest issues with aria her skills and her time with the faceless men not only was her time there a complete letdown that we barely saw her learn anything it seemed to me like the writers had no idea what was actually going to happen to her when she arrived I know they could come up with was two seasons of dull training that gave very little practical skills it's not like I don't buy that a little girl or a young woman could be an assassin I just need to see her skills be commensurate with her training I don't buy her abilities in season seven and eight given the training we see her receive in seasons five and six you'd be like if you hit the gym for a couple years and then all of a sudden did the same wrestling skills as GSP we then see a nice scene where Jamie apologizes to bran and he then volunteers to serve under Bryan's command on the battlefield which seems nice in theory but given the way the battle goes Brienne doesn't really command a bunch of anything still the scenes between Jamie and Brienne are usually pretty good as is this one all we need is for Jamie to save Brienne during the Battle of Winterfell next episode and their story will come full circle Jorah then vouchers for Tyrion to Dany defending his mistakes and praising his intelligence and honestly this scene makes little sense it comes off more like the writers trying to justify Tyrion stupidity to the audience than it does a scene between Jorah and Dany Jorah has shown little more than contempt for tearing up to this point and as Denny points out the only reason Jorah is not her hand because Tyrion is seeing someone defendant Aryans intelligence is also laughable at this point in the story as tiering hasn't acted like an intelligent person for the better part of four seasons outside of the odd scene here and there Tyrion has been largely a complete idiot I like the concept the show toys with that Terran might be subconsciously sabotaging Dany in order to save his family suffice to say Tyrion is not a smart man at this point and no amount of scenes featuring characters trying to claim he is will convince me otherwise if the writers want me to believe he is an intelligent man then show me scenes of him using his cunning wit and brain to formulate a plan that makes sense show me Tyrion being intelligent and then maybe I'll believe you show don't tell this is writing 101 we then see a conversation between sounds and Daenerys in an attempt by Danny to get Sansa to warm up to her it makes sense from a diplomatic standpoint for Denny to try this and that can appreciate an attempt by the writers of the episode to try and bring back some of the political diplomacy and scheming that the series build a cellphone in the first few seasons Sanz agrees with Dany that Tyrion was foolish to trust sir si but says that Dany was foolish to trust her too and while this is true to a certain extent I'm actually going to defend Dany here Dany was trusting her advisor Tyrion with his counsel about Cersei and took him at face value that he understood his sister this makes sense especially given she had not met Cersei prior to the meeting in the Dragon Pier in the seventh season finale sure says he was hostile in the meeting but she was staring down the barrel of two wars so a certain level of hostility towards the people she will likely be fighting against soon is understandable especially when the leader of her enemies has two armies of skilled fighters and two fully grown dragons so Denny trusting the Tyrion knew his sister better than she did makes sense it's tearing and trusting Cersei that's truly stupid here Sansa should be criticizing him or more importantly the riders that were stupid enough to write that nonsense Sansa says that Dany is manipulating John and Danny counters that she has brought her entire army to Winterfell to defend the north and that she is the one being manipulated the truth here is that neither of them are being manipulated Jon bend the knee to Daenerys for no reason because he's a [ __ ] now and Danny is doing what all leaders should do protecting her subjects from an invading threat Daenerys is going to sit on the Iron Throne that much is certain her army is a to large and powerful for any of the Seven Kingdoms to defend against and she has to groan dragons Danny will be queen in short order so it stands to reason she would use her power to defend her people what doesn't make sense is why she hasn't taken the Iron Throne already he has been her singular mission since the first season and while she has a new mission now to defend the north and protect the living from the dead why not take the Iron Throne first then he could leave Winterfell at this very moment fly to King's Landing kill Cersei and take the Iron Throne from there she would control the Lannister army and call all of the lords of the Seven Kingdoms to either march the Romneys south to keep them safe and for my last line of defense against the dead or to march their armies north to fight the dead head on either way with Cersei gone and Dany sitting firmly on the Iron Throne the army of the living would have a much better chance against the dead John and Danny aren't being manipulated here the only ones doing the manipulating here the riders trying to make us buy into all this nonsense Danny says John and Khal Drogo were the only men that were true to their word what about sir Barristan Selmy what about grey worm what about Yan Royce what about Daario naharis what about all the men that have fought and died in your name or your family's names Sansa tells Danny she wants a truly independent North okay fine if you want an independent north then you need to fight for her and defend it we used to be gorillas all we had is a wicked headache and defend this is a feudal era system where a king or queen rules over his or her kingdoms it doesn't really count as independence if you're just handed it I mean sure I suppose if the Queen says you can be independent and you can but it means much more if you fight and take your independence no one gives it to you it had the cage because if you were capable of that then it can't be taken away from you at least not easily compare Australia and America for example while both country is a technically independent of Britain America fought for and won its independence whereas Australia requested and was granted its independence the difference well Australia is still technically a part of the Commonwealth much like Canada and as such still recognizes the Queen as its head of state America on the other hand is truly independent with its own president when Robb Stark declared the north independent and was named king in the north he fought for the North's independence signs are just kind of whines and complains hoping that we'll get the north its independence Theon then interrupts and remembers to do what everyone else seemingly forgot to bow to the Queen we get a nice reunion between sons are in Theon and he says he has come to fight for her now fie Alan is pretty much the acting MVP of any scene he is in and despite some rather dodgy material he's been given over the past few seasons he always manages to pull something good from it a little girl then tells Davos she wants to fight in the battle with the dead and he rightly thinks it's absurd and yet a little girl actually does fight in the battle because this show can't keep things straight from one episode to the next anymore [Laughter] [Music] [Laughter] you serious torment and barrack tojon the umbers are dead and instead of saying I shouldn't have wasted time flying dragons with Daenerys I should have helped them he instead says nothing of importance Tolman then says the dead will be there before sunrise how do you know that answer me ginger okay so maybe he made an educated guess that just happened to be dead on but let's get this straight Tommen and beric were at Eastwatch when the dead breached the wall to stay ahead of the army of the dead they likely ran practically non-stop from the wall to the umbers to Winterfell you should be exhausted to the point of the brink of death you were going to be useless in the battle if you only have a few hours of rest before the Dead arrive how does this show explain this it doesn't bother and this has never mentioned once much like the food issue from episode 1 I guess ginjury coached them on running since he's the fastest of all of them we then see all the main players formulating a battle plan and for some reason it just seems to be universally accepted that the armies will be lined up outside the walls of the castle why why has no one questioned this in what world would any sane group of people get together and decide to put all of their soldiers outside the walls of the castle that's what the walls of the castle are for to protect its occupants against attackers the only way this would happen is if you were trying to lose the war his virus sabotaging Danny already that's not supposed to happen until episode 5 John says they can't beat the army of the Dead in a straight fight then why are you lining your armies up outside the walls of the castle why is this show punishing me for thinking John says if they kill the night king it will kill the army okay so line your army up on the walls of the castle and fire down on the dead as they arrive only go outside the walls if absolutely necessary and John and Danny can use the dragons to fly to the back of the army to kill the White Walkers and hopefully the night king no you're not going to do that are you Jamie says the night king won't expose himself and if this were a logical series still you'd be absolutely right from a logical standpoint there's no reason for the night to even stop at Winterfell what is that again the night king could just keep on moving while chunks of his army do the work for him bran then says the night king will come for him to erase the memories of the world the brand now carries with him how do you know that answer me bran the broken logic I know you can see the past and influence the future but can you read minds to wait if you can influence the future via the past and you know the exact moment the night King was created couldn't you just change it hey don't worry about the battle everybody brands going to save everyone's lives by using his magical and conveniently undefined powers to travel through time and prevent the night king from ever being created kind of like how he made Hodor become [ __ ] during the whole hold the door thing oh wait I guess bran kind of forgot he could do that Brandon says they should use him as bait to lure the night King out of hiding bran says the mark on his arm tells the night king where he is and he will come for it but how was that going to work when the night king has a dragon and could kill bran from a distance with Dragon Fire you'll obviously have to take brand far away from Winterfell to somewhere more secure like moat Cailin or the twins somewhere where the knight king's army and his dragons will be unable to kill bran which will either exposed that he doesn't really care about bran and has other plans or will force him to kill brand personally at which point you can ambush and kill him wait what you just want to sit in at God's wood and hope the night King shows up what if he just roasts you using vissarion we just shouldn't think about it I guess Theon says he and the Ironborn will protect bran which is a nice moment given the past between both characters once again the Riders showed their capable of decent callbacks and solid riding when they really put their minds to it and once again Alfie Allen has the best moment in the scene John says the dragons need to protect bran something I'm sure he will remember to do during the actual battle Arie asks if dragon fire will kill the night king and bran says he doesn't know as no one has ever tried remember that lion as I will have plenty to say about it when we get to episode 3 later in this video great worm and Masson day agreed to go to Nath after the war is over and as Preston Jacobs pointed out this will mean certain death for grey worm they the poisonous butterflies that inhabit Nath and are lethal to newcomers we then see Sam John ed on the walls of the castle looking out at the darkness ed says their watch has begun which is a nice sentiment and nod to the history of the characters and all but guarantees ed is going to die in the next episode ed and John crack jokes at Sam's expense and Sam is forced to defend his fighting ability this is something that is visually referenced again in the next episode has Sam is seen crying on the ground during the battle this is a rather annoying walk back of his character in fact this is something that has happened with several characters this season including Tyrion for much of the last few seasons and Daenerys in episode 5 much like the flimsy excuses people made to justify Daenerys his sudden turn in episode 5 is making sense I'm sure many viewers likely laughed alongside ed and John at the thought of Sam being an effective fighter after all Sam is useless in a giant coward right well no this is the point of character development characters change over time Sam started out as a giant coward sure but he changed gradually into a decent and formidable fighter sure he isn't on Jon's level and he's no Jorah Mormont but Sam is no slouch either he was the first man in thousands of years to kill a white Walker and he handled himself with courage during the defense of Castle black against the wildling invasion in the penultimate episode of season 4 this is something John and Ned should know as they both fought alongside Sam in that battle and it's certainly something the writers should be aware of we then get the start of was easily the best scene in the episode and perhaps the entire season although that isn't saying much Jaime Tyrion Brienne Podrick torment and Davos have a conversation around a fire and Tolman tells us an amusing story about the origin of his name we think after Arya having a drink with beric in the Hound nothing of consequence happens here and I assume it only occurs as a foundation for the reveal that the totality of Burke's story was to save arias life which is silly enough on the face of it until you realize he has had only a handful of scenes with Arya and not a single one since season 3 arya then gets her custom-made weapon from me entering and she learns the true meaning of the phrase stick them with the pointy end i've seen several people take issue with arya sex scene and nudity and while i can understand that fit with the scene what's creepy to me is that she has the scene with an actor who was already an adult when he had scenes with her in season 2 and 3 when she was a preteen we cut back to the group chat and Davos says he has no combat ability which seems ludicrous given that he was in charge of Stannis's fleet during the invasion of King's Landing and the Battle of Blackwater Bay in season 2 what did he expect to do when the ships for each land just stay below deck until the battle was over we then get the best moment of the episode as Jaime Knights Brienne making brand the first female knight of the Seven Kingdoms it's a really great moment the fact that it's Jaime that does it is a nice touch to their relationship which is sadly ruined just two episodes later but still for the moment it was a nice payoff for both Brienne as a character and her relationship with Jaime I wish Jamie could have read out the entirety of the knighting speech instead of just half of it but we can't have everything I guess here's how it should have gone by the way in the name of the warrior I charge you to be brave in the name of the Father I charge you to be just in the name of the mother I charged you to defend the young and innocent in the name of the maid I charged you to protect all women still slightly off speech aside it's a great scene and a great moment for a mostly great character especially like Jaime's line where he specifically refers to her as a knight of the Seven Kingdoms the line the way it was read and the swirling of music as well as the performance of Gwendoline Christie makes the scene the best of the episode likely the best of the season and one of the few truly great moments in an otherwise had bismal six episodes of television lady Mormont that explains to Jorah that she wants to fight in the battle compliance to be on the field alongside her men rather than hidden away in the crypts this is absurd as she is a small child and completely ill-equipped to fight in a battle of any kind let alone against an unstoppable horde of undead monsters Jorah rightly tries to talk her out of it and her response us to be rude to him this is something that needs addressing I think as many writers in recent years in what seems like an attempt to portray female characters as strong and independent end up writing them as unlikable and rude instead when fans then complained about the quality of the writing and the rudeness of the character they are typically labeled as sexist or misogynist I think the issue here is twofold firstly usually comes down to the incompetent writing it is not difficult to character female or otherwise assertive or even dominant while keeping her relatable and likeable logic is a key factor if her actions are logical then the audience is inclined to side with her take Helen Ripley from the alien series for example this is a routinely used example and for good reason Ellen Ripley is an excellently written and betrayed character who maintains illogical personalities throughout the series portrayal is also an issue though if you have a character behaving in a rude flippin arrogant or sarcastic manner then the actor needs a ton of charisma to offset this these are not typically pleasant traits in a person and can often be off-putting and yet if an actor is capable enough they can make the character endearing or even likeable take Robert Downey jr. as portrayal of Tony Stark for example fitting I suppose given the name in the hands of a different actor the character's arrogance and sarcasm may have come off as extremely unlikable to the audience but Downey's can a charisma made Tony a beloved character that was rather long way of saying this little girl is annoying and illogical but I think it was worth delving into also it's worth pointing out that given Jorah received a royal pardon for his crimes in season 3 he is a rightful heir to Bear Island and should be the Lord instead of Lady Mormont but why bother mentioning that it's not like his pardon was a major plot point in the series and for his character or anything oh wait no it was Sam then gives Jorah his ancestral sword hearts Bane before I delve into this I just thought it was worth pointing out that Jorah kills precisely zero White Walkers with this sword because we can't have nice things anyway this is another nice moment which would mean even more if it wasn't essentially an exercise in walking back Sam's character development with all due respect wouldn't have been much more rewarding to have seen Sam wielding his family sword on the battlefield against the white Walker imagine the visual payoff - the transformation Sam has gone through over the course of the series the man started the series barely able to hold a sword and thoroughly unable to defend himself even in combat training now years later wielding the sword that was by rights his but denied to him by his scornful father Samwell Tarly from scared boy unworthy of his warrior father's name - accomplished fighter fighting in the battle for the living and the continuation of his family name now that is how you pay off a character arc instead he just gives it to Jorah because he's a big old fraidy-cat yeah cool that's way more satisfying there's even another way this gifting of Hearts bane could have been more impactful but I have to take you back to season 7 last season when John and Jorah would be on the wall John offered to give his sword long claw back to Jorah as it was given to him by jurors father Jorah respectfully declined now instead imagine that when John and John returned to the wall that John insisted that George back he could explain his father once had a family sword and that he is sure he would want it to be returned to his children just to see is sure that geo would want Longclaw return to Jorah Jorah then graciously accepts and for the first time in years feels a connection to his family he once thought long-lost fast-forward to this scene and Sam could have given heart Spain to John a symbol of the trust and protection Sam has put into John over the years they've known each other as nice as the moment between Sam and Jorah is I think either one of these two moments would have been better we have been enchanted by the vocal talents of Podrick as we see a montage of soldiers prepping for the battle and stupid ways and then we get the second biggest scene of the season thus far John tells Danny about his lineage down in the crypts Johnny tells Danny about Lyanna stark and Danny expresses sadness that her brother Rhaegar kidnapped and raped her Howard has public knowledge that you raped her seems a little strange given the secrecy surrounding John's birth it's especially odd that Danny would just take in his gospel that her brother known for his kindness had raped a woman this is information espoused by the people that you served her father and destroyed her family house so it's odd that she would just assume it's the truth still John corrects her explaining that they were in love married and had a son he then reveals his ro name Aegon Targaryen Danny doubts his claim you'd think given Danny's knowledge of her brother and the events of that time that the first thing she'd do is question the name Aegon given that Rhaegar already had a son named Aegon but instead she says that would make John the last male Targaryen heir and we'll give him a claim to the Iron Throne before they can discuss it further the alarm sounds to signal the arrival of the dead and we see the White Walkers and the army just outside the walls of Winterfell and this is it this is the last decent moments of the season I have my criticisms of this episode and just wrote nearly 6,000 words about it but this episode is still the high point of the season by a mile it's all downhill from here the different stages you went through I mean it's pretty much one stage okay just episode three opens with a terrified Sam walking through Winterfell this is completely counter to the man he has become in the arc we have followed his character on through the series but trust me I'll get much deeper on this in a moment when in see Tyrion walking and walking and walking in a brilliant foreshadowing of his role in the finale women see the army of the living lined up outside the walls of Winterfell anticipating a charge by the army of the dead and already in the very first scene I have more issues than I can likely mention however I will quickly mention that the visual of all the armies lined up on the front line with many of the characters we have followed across the series all from vastly different locations and walks of life coming together in one scene was impressive it is colossal II dumb but visually impressive however what on earth are they doing outside the walls of the castle did none of you know how a castle works the walls are there to defend the occupants you're in a defensive position against an invading army also you might have noticed the trebuchet - outside the walls of the castle as well in what world would anyone with even a flicker of common sense put the trevor shades outside the walls of the castle are you trying to lose this war I actually think the writers realized that despite how much they've built the army of the dead up is a threat throughout the show they aren't actually much of a threat in siege warfare our heroes actually have a pretty easy victory ahead of them if they just use their brains so the riders needed to [ __ ] them with stupidity at every moment in order to make it a fair fight I'll also briefly touch on this here and then expand on it later but I could barely make out what was happening throughout parts of this episode due to the abysmal lighting I liked the idea of using natural light and making the battle seem more realistic by not lighting it like a fake misho but at times this episode was so dark it drifted into incomprehension but as I say we'll get back to that in a moment so the Dothraki cavalry are out in front of the army and sorry hold on what do you mean the cavalry are out in front of the army do you know what a cavalry is so Melisandre shows up and for some reason she rides towards the Dothraki from the other side of the battlefield why how did she get there did she arrive in Winterfell and then go outside the walls walk out past the army just to dramatically walk back towards them she's lucky someone didn't immediately kill her for fear she was part of the army of the Dead and speaking of Melisandre what is she doing here how did she know to arrive at this moment did she see it in the flames because those haven't been the most accurate gauge of what's going to happen and if she did know she needed to be here to help in the battle it sure is lucky she arrived just in time or did she actually arrive weeks ago and has just been hiding out on the outskirts of Winterfell waiting for her moment better yet what is she actually here to do she lets the Dothraki zorax but that doesn't matter as they all die immediately she then lets the perimeter fire but that doesn't matter because the whites quickly breach it I suppose you could say if she convinces Arya to kill the night king and trust me we'll get into that in a moment but I highly doubt Arya needed much convincing in that regard Melisandre basically accomplishes nothing the one thing she could have done resurrecting beric Dondarrion she doesn't do and what is she even doing here didn't she leave last season to go to volantis what did she do there did it have any bearing on the events of this episode it didn't seem to but we don't actually know it's never explained and speaking of her lighting near acts for the Dothraki wouldn't that spook them it's well established in the series of the Dothraki have a great fear of magic and distrust those that practice it and not only that but it was Dani and her use of fire that got them to bow to her in the first place fire a magic of the two things the series has previously established the Dothraki fear and here we have Melisandre using magic to create fire to help the Dothraki and they barely flinch but what does continuity even matter right Melisandre also says Valar morghulis or must die to grey worm who responds with valid ah Harris or all men must serve grey worm is from marine and Melisandre is from volantis neither one of which is Braavos it makes no sense for either of them to be speaking Braavosi especially since neither of them worships the many-faced God in fact Melisandre very expressly worships for a law she is even a priestess and her devotion to the Lord of Light is pivotal to the series her character and this episode itself funny how just four words shared between two characters can make such little sense but the general audience knows the saying so I guess the writers thought it would be cool to put it in the series before a big battle okay that's the first 30 seconds covered now let's get to the rest of this dumpster fire so the Dothraki cavalry charges into the darkness and hang on I have to stop there [ __ ] I can barely get a single sentence describing this nonsense out without having to explain how stupid it is in what world would any sane army send a huge wave of hood soldiers out into the darkness where they can't even see their enemies and why were the horns blown at the end of the last episodes are secretly arrival of the dead when it's established here that it's too dark to see the army isn't that a contradiction if it's too dark to see them how do you know they're there in fact without the litter racks they wouldn't have been able to see anything kind of like the audience with the rest of this episode what if the army of the Dead had dug a massive ditch in the ground and filled it with spikes as a trap for the opposing soldiers that made it that far out into the battlefield they would have all ridden their horses right into the hole and diet why wouldn't they just wait until the enemy came to them well there are two reasons the first is that the writers realized that if I heroes actually had two brain cells to rub together they would have used the castle Wolves to their advantage and attempted to engage in siege warfare and they probably would have won that fight very quickly that's why the army was lined up outside the walls of the castle to give them a weakness to make the battle almost impossible to win to give the episode some attention that's not to say that a logical defense of the castle from within and atop the walls wouldn't have been tense and exciting I think it could have been and in fact was in the season 4 episode the Watchers on the wall where mance rayder's wildling army attacked Castle black I just think the writers either didn't care too or were intellectually incapable of taking the time to write the Battle of Neurological and simultaneously exciting intense way it's much easier to just put the entire army in the field than to carefully put out logical battle plans the second reason is to create a simple way to effectively wipe out the Dothraki from the story if it hasn't been clear to you Benioff and Weiss have been desperately trying to clear the board of players in the game for several seasons and as such have been haphazardly killing off characters in increasingly unsatisfying and ridiculous ways were you curious as to Roose Bolton's plans well don't worry he's just been killed in the most obvious and intelligence insulting way imaginable were you excited to see how Stannis the manases story plays out will forget about it because we butchered his character and killed him off and we didn't even let you see it we just cut away speaking of cutting away this episode was littered with the worst kind of cop out riding imaginable the cut away every time one of our heroes was overrun by whites and all hope seemed lost the episode just cut away to something else and when we come back the hero in question is fine we repeatedly see characters such as Brienne Jamie and Sam overrun and smothered by whites they are surely dead when the director cuts away and when we cut back they are fine this is intelligence insulting to a ridiculous degree it's the textbook definition of plot um it's not time for these characters to die so they just don't even if logically they should all be dead there is a simple way around this just don't write them into this situation in the first place it's also absurd that these characters have armor that seems to hold up brilliantly given they don't suffer a single stab wound and yet later in the episode armor is just about useless for Theon Jorah and barrack we get a scene where bran is swarmed by the dead she is covered and screams in fear and pain and then Jamie hits one of them and they all die because who even cares anymore right guys the Jaime saving bran is a nice moment and it brings their story full circle as Brienne has repeatedly saved Jaime's life and he has now returned the favor it's a nice moment utterly ruined by the stupidity of the scene if this was still the Game of Thrones of the first four seasons bran would be dead but it's not and thus she is fine for reference Sam is taken down and nearly killed by just one white just moments later which is even dumber when you take into account that he too is swarmed later and they use the old away trick to explain away the fact that he is unharmed by the ordeal so the Dothraki stupidly charged headfirst into the darkness and it quickly killed off in one fell swoop and yes seeing the flames of the irax all go out was a nice shot it was an impressive visual in a series filled with impressive visuals but the problem with impressive visuals is they don't mean a whole lot when that's all you've got there are plenty of films and series that look amazing but are saddled with bad writing a grand visual shouldn't be enough to ignore terrible writing I wish more people would be willing to demand better from the entertainment they consume yes visuals are important but they are no substitute for good writing and rather the two should go hand-in-hand and should be expected to do so by the paying audience basically what I mean is don't settle for crap just because it looks good so the Dothraki are dead or not actually there are a few still alive and look there's another one so at least a few dozen survived I guess though they will likely be picked off later in the battle I'm sure it won't be laughably claimed in the next episode that half of them survived when the point of this visual that receives so much praise was to convey that they were nearly all killed this is literally what's claimed me the next episode the Dothraki had been killed and the unsullied are being overrun her retreat is cold because the army is being slaughtered because the plan was stupid from the get-go the army of the living needs to ignite the fire perimeter surrounding Winterfell to keep the army of the Dead at bay cool why didn't you do that from the beginning the flame arrows being shot at the perimeter are being put out by the cold weather that the 19 is brought with him wait you have fire arrows fire them at the army of the Dead you idiots their two weaknesses are dragonglass and fire shoot the fire at them all hope seems lost until Melisandre comes out to light the fire using the power of the Lord of Light and could you move a little faster love this is literally the battle between life and death and life is losing the enemy of the god you worship the great other is here and is about to win could you not move your arse a little so Melisandre struggles to light the fire and just as a white is about to jump across and kill her she gets it going remember when this shows verted cliches now it just subverts good writing the fire perimeter is lit and our heroes are saved except a few whites stack themselves up on the fire and they enable the rest of the army to cross hold on has been established that fire not only kills whites but it's like a lit match to gasoline and yet after seasons of establishing this after establishing it in the very last episode that the fire kills and quickly spreads on whites the series abandons this to shoehorn in more tension and despair I get that the writers thought it was logical for our heroes to light a fire perimeter around Winterfell and it was they also realized that for the episode and the battle to not just end there they needed the whites to get past the fire so instead of following the rules of the series as laid out as recently as the previous episode they instead decided to just say screw it don't think about it shut your brain off and enjoy it they say well I'm sorry but logic is a thing that exists if you don't want your series or film to be taken seriously that's one thing but this is a show that prided itself on being grounded and realistic and now you want me to switch my brain off no how about instead of asking me to turn my brain off the writers of this garbage turned theirs back on here's an idea just moments ago was established that individual flame arrows couldn't light the fire because of the harsh winds brought on by the night king in the army of the Dead so maybe despite Melisandre lighting the fire the Lord of Light is struggling to keep it a flame against the storm that has just arrived and after a few moments the fire goes out you could even have Melisandre say to Jorah or to someone that the Lord of Light is struggling against the great other and will not be able to hold him off for long to add insult to the intellectual injury here when the fire is lit it is revealed that Jon Snow riding the dragon Rago is literally right next to the perimeter and could have lit it with a single blast of dragon fire in fact that was the original plan for Daenerys and Jon to light the fire if the forces were overwhelmed and then protect bran in the godswood whilst awaiting the arrival of the night king we then see arya fighting the whites on the walls of Winterfell and I have to ask when exactly did she become such a brilliant warrior her expertise is supposed to be as an assassin right and I have my issues with that given the training shed she received don't get into that in my critiques of scenes five and six but when exactly was she trained to fight as a soldier in an army area then finds herself inside Winterfell and despite being a badass and taking on multiple hordes of whites at the same time just moments ago she is now tiptoeing around the library which I could have sworn burned down and seized a one afraid of making noise for fear of alerting them to her presence Aria you were just in the middle of a battlefield fighting dozens of them and now you're scared I think I know what happened here Benny often wife's were likely worried that aria would seem too powerful and it would dilute the tension especially in her climactic scene with the nine King later so they decided to go back on her character progression with this scene they've actually done this several times this season after inexplicably turning her into an emotionless psychopath in season seven they clearly realized that fans loved aria and turning her into a robot takes away her endearing qualities so they worked that back by giving her emotional scenes such as being reunited with Joan this scene was a way to make her seem vulnerable so that it wouldn't seem like a guarantee that she would be able to kill the night king later it's all rather stupid and rushed but that actually describes this entire season so Aria the hound and beric Dondarrion are fighting through the castle when they begin to get overrun by the dead berrak saves aria from certain death with his flaming sword and then uses his body as a makeshift barrier to allow Arya and the Hound to escape he is stabbed several times and is very subtly visualized as a religious symbol Barret then catches up with Arya and the Hound despite being stabbed several times and they barricade themselves behind a door along with Melisandre and before I get into how dumb the following scene is let me explain how dumb the manor they arrived here was firstly we are led to believe that beric Dondarrion is capable of holding off an entire wave of the dead on his own when the entire unsullied army was struggling to do the same i guess they should have had barrack training the unsullied in the art of holding back the dead except if you look closely you'll notice Lee he actually only holds back to whites secondly the point of Barrett holding back the dead it seemed will still allow Arya and the Hound to get a head start and escape seemingly sacrificing himself in the process and yet moments later he's caught up to Aria in the Hound how was he able to catch up to them when he had been stabbed several times and was literally the anything holding back the dead remember the whites are running as fast as they can to catch them and somehow barrack is able to run off catch up to Aria and a hound and create some distance between himself and the dead all after being stabbed multiple times in fact given the fact that some of the dead have a head start on beric because he wasn't able to hold them all back it seems his feat of catching up is even more miraculous as he was able to catch up and get past the dead and then catch up to Arya and the Hound Barrack then dies a Melisandre explains that his purpose in being resurrected multiple times was to save Arya so that she could kill the night king this seems like an awkward retcon in order to give his deaths meaning but it leaves several questions unanswered the first would simply be how do you know that Melisandre hasn't exactly been a hundred percent accurate with her predictions in the past the second question is why are you not resurrecting him again it has been established that Melisandre has the power to resurrect people using the will of the Lord of Light and clearly the Lord of Light has seen it fit to bring Barret back multiple times so why not at least try and bring him back again if his purpose really has been achieved then it won't work but again I must ask what if you were wrong what if Barrack has been brought back again and again because he is the one destined to defeat the night king you want to subvert expectations how about having a relatively minor character whose defining trait is the fact that he has been resurrected multiple times using the power of the Lord of Light be the one to fight and defeat the night king almost no one would have seen that coming and it actually would have made a certain type of sense Arya story has had no connection to the white Walker story at all and yet Barrack actually seems somewhat of a perfect fit into this story given his repeated resurrections with Barrack now dead Melisandre explains to Arya that she must kill the night king she repeats a prophecy she told Arya back in season 3 did you notice a subtle difference there let me play it again Ron eyes green eyes and blue eyes brown eyes blue eyes very nice in the original prophesy blue eyes were mentioned second and in the new variation blue eyes I mentioned third with more emphasis this is too retro actively imply the Melisandre new area would be the one to defeat the nine king and the army of the Dead is far back as season 3 this is a lie or what's known as a wreck on there is a reason why Melisandre originally said blue eyes casually in the middle instead of dramatically at the end as she does now because back then she was talking about the eyes of the people on Arya's list of names she planned to kill in this scene they have tried to change the context of the prophecy to apply to the night king this is because even the writers know that Irena killing the night king doesn't make much sense as she has never even been so much as tangentially connected to the white Walker storyline there have been many claims that this scene and the prophecy are a clue to the fact that Arya would be the one to kill the night King and many fans of the episode and the decision Ferrari to be the one to kill the night king have cited it as a defense of the scene however this is objectively not true and the writers have admitted as much they recently revealed that the decision for Arya to be the one to kill the night King was made a few years ago around season five or six so it would be impossible for them to be leaving Clues back in season three if they hadn't even decided on this until season five also the writers deciding this back in season five is even more of an indictment on their writing as since they had known this was the plan for the last four or five years there should have been actively working on bridging arias story with the white Walker plot instead Arya only found out about the White Walkers in season seven and it means that all of the scenes teasing a confrontation between Jon Snow and the night King were a pointless red herring from the get-go if the writers are to be believed that Arya killing the night King was a plan since season 5 then all of the time setting up Jon Snow versus the night King was done deliberately to mislead the audience perhaps instead they could have spent that time in other ways maybe showing the Dornish plot and the fans excited for it the respect they deserved or perhaps they could have cleverly tidy and Arya straining at the house of black and white to be relevant to her being able to defeat the army of the Dead something other than awkwardly shoehorning the character into the plot and having her be the one to resolve it without properly building towards it would have been preferable even the actress who plays Aria Maisie Williams spoke about the logic of Aria defeating the night king over John speaking to Entertainment Weekly Maisie Williams explained that she didn't know it was her character is stark who was going to kill the night king until the table read also because she was in the dark about it until then everyone acted weird toward her however when she finally read it for the first time she was conflicted it was so unbelievably exciting Williams told Entertainment Weekly but I immediately thought that everybody would hate it that aiya doesn't deserve it the hardest thing in any series is when you build up a villain that's so impossible to defeat and then you defeat them it has to be intelligently done because otherwise people are like well the villain couldn't have been that bad when some 45 kilogram girl comes in and stabs him you got to make it cool and then I told my boyfriend and he was like hmm should be John though really shouldn't it Jon Snow and Daenerys then have a dogfight with the night king with their dragons they all fly high and appear to be fighting each other in the night sky over Winterfell I think this is what was supposed to be interpreted by the audience because I could barely make anything out the shot was already incredibly dark but then someone made the decision to add storm effects and the entire thing became borderline incomprehensible so the night king gets knocked off Vissarion somehow I really couldn't tell it was so dark and Daenerys has him dead to rights she roasts him with the dragon fire and he just stands there and takes it the fire has no effect and he smokes at Daenerys for good measure this show might actually be dumber than the walking dead at this point these few seconds of screen time leave the viewer with so many questions firstly the night King makes no attempt to dodge dragons fire so it's safe to assume that he knows the dragon fire won't do any damage to him okay how how does he know this dragon fire will stop him I don't know no one's ever tried the White Walkers have been gone for thousands of years in fact they've begun for so long their fallen into myth with most people around the world waving them off as a northern conspiracy theory and Dragons have been gone for hundreds of years as well so how could the night King possibly know he was immune to dragon fire did he stick his hand in vissarion's mouth and make him breathe fire to test it out he has no actual way of testing to see if he's immune and even if he did why would he would you really run the risk of ruining your plan that you've been building for thousands of years just to test to see if you had immunity to something otherwise deadly remember if he dies so does his entire army that would be like you thinking you have immunity to boiling water so you stick your hand in a pot of boiling water to check are you thinking you have immunity to lava so you jump into an active volcano just to be sure it makes no sense but that's just one angle think of this Dragon Fire doesn't kill him it has no effect he is literally able to laugh it off it also has no effect on his armor or weapons it seems damn Theon and Jorah could have used some of that armor so the knight king is immune to dragon fire but Valyrian steel is deadly one stab from of Larian steel dagger kills the night king and destroys his entire army now why does this not make sense well I'll give you a moment to think about it did you get it that's right Valyrian steel is unique because it is forged in dragon fire so dragon fire as in the fire from a literal dragon will do nothing to the knight king but a blade forged in Dragon Fire will kill him instantly that is spectacularly stupid writing Jon Snow then confronts the night king on the battlefield surrounded by the bodies of fallen soldiers this is it the fight the series has been building to for three seasons finally it's the battle between Fire and Ice personified a man turned into ice versus a man resurrected by fire and then the night King raises the dead around them to fight Jon allowing the night king to escape as Jon is forced to fight them off this makes a certain type of logical sense however it also denies the viewer the proper confrontation between Jon and the night king and that's not to say the show has to have this confrontational fight but the showrunners are the ones that decided to tease this fire three seasons if they didn't want to have these two characters fight perhaps they thought it was a touch too obvious then why tease it in several scenes over multiple seasons this would be like Vince Gilligan teasing a face-off between Walter White and Gus fring and then it never happens that would be absurd if you don't want the confrontation to happen why are you spending so much time setting it up so Jon Snow fights off the whites and starts heading to the godswood to fight the night king this is a fight that never takes place as he is heading there he sees Sam his best friend swarmed by White's Sam is dead unless John saves him and here we see one of the only truly decent moments in the episode John pauses to look at Sam as he struggles to stay alive and then he chooses to continue on towards the night king he wants to save his friend but he knows that defeating the night king is more important and so he marches on this is a really great character beat for Jon and is made all the more important given that Sam has brutally killed mere moments later oh wait no the show just cuts away and when we cut back to Sam he is fine there are no whites warming him he is alive and well with barely a scratch it is some of the laziest writing and filmmaking in the entire show the plot armor for these characters is now at laughable levels as Jon has then headed to the godswood he is confronted by the undead dragon Vissarion blocking his path Jon is unable to continue past the dragon and just narrowly escapes death by dragon fire by hiding behind a large rock which is presumably rubble from the Dragons earlier attack on the castle walls okay let's pause here so you mean to tell me the vissarion's fire is strong enough to destroy the walls of Winterfell strong enough to destroy an entire section of the wall at Eastwatch but as unable to destroy a small rock whilst Jon Snow is hiding behind it this is the very definition of bad writing and plot armor Jon isn't going to die here the writers have plans for him throughout the rest of the series but they've also decided that Arya is going to be the one to defeat the night king so Jon can't be allowed to make it to the godswood but also can't be killed so he's confronted by a dragon and instead of riding and exciting and interesting scene where Jon is forced to use his cunning to outwit and defeat an undead dragon he just hides behind a rock a rock that shouldn't be able to protect him given what the show even the current episode has previously established about vissarion's fire I guess for serían just forgot he could destroy things this is a prime example of where objectivity is important as a viewer and fan of the series you may think this is a good scene perhaps you enjoy the visual splendor perhaps you thought the scene was incredibly tense but objectively this is bad writing the scene contradicts a previously established rule in the series for the sake of saving the life of a character the show isn't done with you yet the only other thing Jon Snow accomplishes in this episode is to inexplicably stand up and autistic least reach a fuss Ariane just moments before I react us the night king simultaneously killing Viserion in the process so Jorah hears Daenerys is dragon in the sky and telepathically knows that she is in trouble or that she will be in trouble in a minute I don't know on the grand scale of things this is a relatively minor quibble but honestly this episode makes such little sense that the big issues are almost covering up the smaller ones so for no apparent reason Daenerys lambs dragged on in the middle of the battlefield because she's a [ __ ] there is no other explanation for this she is just stupid remember when I said the writers had to [ __ ] AI heroes with stupidity in order to make this a fair fight well this is a prime example it's already been established in the episode that Dragon Fire can easily wipe out entire sections of the army of the Dead but I guess Dany got tired and needed a break so dragon is quickly covered in white sand Dany is knocked off of him as he tries to shake the whites off Dany is now alone unarmed and unprotected on a battlefield covered in raging zombies whose only goal is seems is to exterminate all life she is absolutely a goner the night King arrives in the godswood to confront bran Theon out of arrows and surrounded by whites and white walkers takes his spear and charges the night king only for the night King to snap the spear in half and stab the on with it once again armor is worthless in this universe unless it is of the plot variety now let's pause here for a moment and talk about Theon many people have said that at least Theon got a fitting death redeeming himself for his past misdeeds and dying protecting bran like a hero if one was so inclined one could say he had come full circle it's years ago he murdered two children and claimed they were bran and Rickon and now he has died protecting brand fitting death and it would seem well I have to disagree Zeon may have sacrificed his life to protect brand but think of it this way the undyed thinking he had failed the undyed believing brand was about to be killed by the night king theone died moments before aria would jump out of nowhere to save the day i have a great deal of criticism but the setup of this episode and this season and indeed the several seasons preceding this one but let's assume everything up to this moment had to happen exactly like this with the night king stabbing and mortally wounding Theon so how would I fix things to make Theon's death less disappointing and less inherently tragic well it's really quite simple Theon's death could have been much more fitting if he simply didn't die until after re-add killed the night king instead of dying immediately the night king could have recognized that Theon was bleeding to death and moved on to bran then arya does her thing and bran and Arya are able to speak to Theon before he dies bran could thank him for giving his life to save him and Arya could call him a hero claiming that she wouldn't have had time to say bran if Theon hadn't sacrificed himself perhaps he could even survive long enough for Sansa to say goodbye although that might be stretching things logically a bit although that's never stopped his show in the last few seasons this is such a simple yet important change it baffles me that the writers didn't think to make it but then that could be said for most of this episode season and frankly the show itself or at least the second half of it so the night king is about to kill Brad when suddenly out of literal nowhere arya jumps in to save the day and we need to pause again as this entire sequence is cosmically stupid firstly why on earth with the night king risk everything risk his plan they've been working on for thousands of years by risking his own life just to kill bran why wouldn't he just have any one of his generals do it for him or he could have sent in the whites to do it for him they are all surrounding the godswood at this very moment well because we need Arya to kill him now so that's why but okay he wants to do it himself convenient sure but maybe he has some master plan that will be revealed personally to bran or maybe not and then Arya jumps in from literally nowhere and I'm not using literally wrong here I don't mean figuratively nowhere I mean so literally nowhere that had to build a platform in the godswood for Maisie Williams to jump off of this shot right here shows definitively a lack of care for the product being created I could understand if the godswood had a sloping hill that she was going to jump from and for safety reasons to protect the actress they built a platform instead that would make sense but no the godswood has no sloping hill there's no rock or tree or horse that she's jumping from she is literally just jumping in from nowhere and the craters are clearly aware of this that's why they built the platform they were clearly aware that this made no sense and they did it anyway and the thing is I can kind of understand the logic behind it let's say instead of her jumping in from above she simply ran up behind him and stabbed him well that wouldn't be quite as dramatic Arya's entrance is shot this way to make it seem as epic and grand as possible and I understand the instinct to do that but in doing so they sacrificed one of the most crucial elements to any scene logic movies aren't about logic also if Arya had just run up behind the night king and stabbed him we wouldn't have got the knife drop scene and while some people likened it to the awful scene in the last Jedi where Ray does something similar I think that is an understandable if somewhat unfair comparison at least when Arya did it it made a certain kind of sense wow I can't believe I'm defending the logic of this episode in comparison to something else that shows just how broken the last Jedi is when Ray did it in the last Jedi it made no sense as her weapon was the only thing saving her life at least here the night King catches just one of her hands which allows Ahri to drop the dagger into the other hand for the kill now sure the night King could have just snapped her neck I suppose that's not quite as egregious as the fact that Arya suppose it Master Assassin screamed out as she lunges at the night King no wait back up how does Aria even get into the godswood when it's surrounded by whites and white walkers wait back up again how does she make it across an entire battlefield mid-battle to even get to the godswood in the first place so Aria who at this point somehow has the advantage of surprise throws that away to scream loudly alerting the knight King to her presence it sure was good of all those white walkers and whites to stand perfectly still and just let her past them and for all of them to stay silent and not alert the knight King to her presence and then to stay still and not try and kill her while the knight King has her caught and it sure was nice of the knight King to not snap her neck instantly or to not drop her as she tried to do the knife trick also in episode 2 of this season we see Arya practicing throwing knives this has never brought back into the rest of the season or the Battle of Westeros at the climax of episode 3 when throwing the cat's poor dagger at the knight King would have been the best logical chance of killing him given that he was surrounded by guards she decides instead to jump out of nowhere while screaming savagely the lack of logic in this scene is compounding on itself and the episode is thoroughly broken given that this is the climax of eight seasons of buildup one could argue that the lack of logic in this scene alone is enough to break the entire show one could do that here I'll do that the show is broken and then like flicking a switch eight seasons of build up a story first tears in the very first scene of the very first episode of the show is all flushed away [Music] well that's just [ __ ] great the night King dies from his stab wound by a blade forged in dragon fire not literal dragon fire that did nothing but a blade forged in dragon fire just thought I'd put that out again with that the night King died and with him countless theories and ideas there were many fan theories as to who or what the night King was and what he wanted theories that bran was actually the night king or that Jon Snow was actually azor Ahai the prince that was promised and came back from the dead in order to kill the night king a fire white killing the ultimate ice white yes those theories may have sucked had they come to fruition but you know what is worse than those theories doing nothing the night King just dying and leaving a myriad of unanswered questions in his wake is worse than those theories screen writers and filmmakers posing a question to their audience and then getting mad when the audience demands an answer is a growing trend in Hollywood I don't know if this comes from a sense of superiority from the writer towards the audience an expectation that the viewers are dumb enough that they'll accept anything perhaps it could be an intentional way of conveying contempt for the audience or it could simply be a case of bad writing incompetence laziness or a lack of talent could all be the cause regardless one thing is clear to me you can't pose a question and then get mad when your audience wants an answer so the night king is dead and there are a ton of unanswered questions left behind questions like what was his goal why did he wait thousands of years to cross the wall did the wall have magical properties the preventive from passing it if he didn't have a dragon what was his plan why did he risk his life and thousands of years old plan to kill Bram why was killing Brian a priority how was he able to leave a mark on brand how was he immune to dragon fire before noble to steal forged in dragon fire why would he risk dying by attacking a castle like Winterfell when he could just move his army past it his killing bran his ultimate goal if so what would he do once he accomplished it would he just go back north why didn't he destroy most of Winterfell with Viserion before sending his army in to kill off whoever is left man getting stabbed with dragonglass turned him into the knife King was magical so used to create him is he vulnerable to magic --get brand have controlled him by walking into him why didn't he try that the entire battle could have been avoided if he is immune to dragon fire why does he even need armor if he is vulnerable to Valyrian steel why doesn't he have much stronger armor how is his armor impervious to dragon fire but vulnerable to Valyrian steel why doesn't he snap his neck as soon as he catches her why didn't he send his generals to kill bran or his whites instead of risking his own life to do it himself what is the point of creating other White Walkers if killing the night King destroys the entire army we never see other White Walkers create whites so what is their purpose what is the land of always winter lake why did the storm suddenly show up does that I can control the weather what other magical abilities to the night king have it's his goal to kill all of mankind if his goal was to kill all of mankind then what is his goal after he accomplishes this why does he smile after being roasted with dragon fire a smile implies he has emotions and feelings so does he is he actually more human than we've been led to believe why does the show spend so long building the night king and his army up as a threat only to kill them off in the very first battle is that I king code for anticlimax okay so now that we've gone through the entire episode let's examine what the characters could have done to avert almost all of this from happening firstly the fact that they Lydon their soldiers off outside the walls of the castle makes absolutely no sense the unsullied Dothraki the Vale who was still there by the way and the northerners should all be behind the walls of the castle now the perimeter of fire idea is a decent one just not the way it was actually done with everyone behind the walls of the castle they should have spent all of their preparation time building a moat around the castle two or three times as big as they did and then they should have lit it before the battle even begins instead of just standing around and waiting to die they could surround a castle in fire they know fire as one of the Dead's weaknesses there should have begun construction on this before Jon Snow even left Winterfell to go meet Daenerys in season seven when you spot the army marching on Winterfell you light the perimeter also you don't use brand be in the godswood who would do that if you really want to use him to lure the night king out why not take him somewhere you have a direct advantage someone like moat Cailin it's been established that you can't just walk around McKellen you need passage through it hell you could have moved the entire army there and wait for the dead to arrive and use your advantage to pick them off but anyway back to the battle so I'd line the walls of the castle with arches despite the build-up of the threat the army of the Dead is actually pretty useless in siege warfare they tend to mindlessly run at their targets so just wait for them to charge at the castle the fire perimeter will stop them and the archers will now have a sea of sitting ducks to pick off from on high also this episode establishes that one shot from Dragon Fire wipes out a decent chunk of the dead it's more effective than hand-to-hand combat could ever be let's assume from this shot that one blast of dragon fire takes out 200 White's and there are approximately a hundred thousand White's in the army of the Dead it would take 500 shots to wipe out the army at about 5 seconds per shot that's about 2500 seconds or about 40 minutes let's be generous and say it takes an hour with two dragons they could wipe out the entire army in 30 minutes with the archers picking off whoever is left sure that might not be as epic and spectacular but then the spectacle shouldn't get in the way of logic they should instead work hand in hand the writers wrote themselves into this setup if the logical conclusion isn't as epic and spectacular as you might want the answer is not to simply throw out logic the answer is to write a better setup it gets even more absurd when you remember that season 7 established that if a White Walkers killed all the whites under his control had killed too Daenerys and John could have just made a beeline to the back of the army and roasted every white Walker they saw remember the night King is the only one with a dragon the rest are on horseback there was a lot of debate about this episode and about subverted expectations some arguments against the criticisms were that it just wasn't what those complaining had wanted to happen or that it was designed to subvert expectations well allow me to retort if the writers really wanted to subvert expectations they could have subverted both the audience and their own characters simultaneously how about this the North prepares for battle exactly as I've just previously explained only for the night King to recognize that the battle is over unwinnable and divert the army around Winterfell and continue to head south the entire army passes by Winterfell without a single person dying after the Army has passed there is a mass internal debate in the north on how to proceed John and the light-minded want to warn the south and travel by ship to fight with them others want to build a new wall to separate the north from the south to prevent the army from the dead ever returning to the north and to leave the south defend for themselves the knight King's logic could be to bring the harsh winter with him to leave those that retreat to the safety of their castles to freeze to death inside their walls that could even be part of Jon Snow's argument my house has always said that winter is coming well now winter is here the army of the Dead may have passed us by but do any of you really think that will save us they brought winter with them and now it has come for all of us hiding in the north won't say if you're freezing within the walls of your castles there is only one way to win and that is to stand and fight together for the first time the North must sail south and fire as one stark Targaryen Baratheon Lannister it doesn't matter the only line that matters is the line between the living in the dead buck weed now I'll get more into how I'd have written the final season of this series in part 3 of this critique however I do have one more idea to posit to you about subverting expectations while simultaneously calling back to season one suddenly writers seem obsessed with in season 8 how about this the battle does take place and the army of the living wins just as shown in this episode I mean maybe not exactly as shown as there are so many logical inconsistencies and contrivances in this episode it's downright embarrassing but let's say the battle is won the day is saved and Arya kills the white Walker in charge of the army of the Dead that is attacking them however the night King never shows up then in the distance dragon can be heard roaring John turns to see both dragon and Rhaegar perched on the walls of Winterfell and then it dawns on John the night king has pulled a bait and switch much like his brother Robb pulled on the Lannisters and seized won the battle which claimed the lives of some and damn near destroyed those left standing was just the beginning this battle was a mere teaser of the war to come the night king sent in the equivalent of the Dothraki charged a group of Fighters designed to be killed I wanted to see what you do and you didn't disappoint he let people die this was all just a distraction allowing the rest of the army to pass Winterfell and head south the night King now has a one-day head start with a healthy army moving south there is no way John of Danny's armies can catch them on foot and even if they could they have been seriously depleted and are physically exhausted the celebration was premature and the battle must continue after this you could have the internal arguments between the northern Lords on how to proceed as I mentioned earlier and I have other ideas for the rest of the season but I'll delve into that all in much greater detail in part 3 and we have now come to the end of part 1 of my critique of Game of Thrones season 8 thank you all very much for watching this quickly blew up into a much larger project that I had imagined and it was necessary to split it up into parts part two will cover episodes four and five and then part three will cover the finale the dangling plot threads character arcs and my ideas to fix this horrid mess I don't have an exact timeline for in part two we'll be out I hope to have it out in about a month but really it just comes down to how long it would take to write record and edit I've started working on the script but there is still quite a bit to do but rest assured it is coming until then I'll see you in part two the times when you get to be legitimately violent against women is one of the joys in life noe girls never spaceman came down to answer some things the world gathered round from palms to kings let's see your questions I'll answer them true I'll show you the way you know what to do who is wrong and who is Right yellow brown black or white space money answered you no longer mind I've opened your eyes you now colorblind racial so can I see what Wow

Channel: moneymedia

Views: 551,434

Rating: 4.6982241 out of 5

Keywords: A Critique of Game of Thrones Season 8 (Part 1), A Critique of Game of Thrones, A Critique of Game of Thrones Season 8, Game of Thrones, GOT, Daenerys, Jon Snow, Arya, Night King, Long Night, Game of Thrones Review, Game of Thrones Sucks

Id: Xbh9uzow_Ow

Length: 101min 52sec (6112 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 18 2020