Yeah I'd like to get an explanation on this though I doubt it's coming.

I can def see wanting to avoid a prolonged siege but I mean they'd have had pre-pincushion Wun Wun so idk

Yeah, I would be zigging and zagging, even stopping and starting.

My other idea was to jump behind one of the burning X's they had out there until Jon could get to him.
This one was the most believable for sure. LF wouldn't just run in there and lose a bunch of men. He would wait until he didn't have to sacrifice much and until it was clear that he won it for them.

I can't think of an explanation that isn't convoluted.

Every time this happens in a movie or anything DODGE!! Run sideways ffs!

Fairly stupid having Sansa with the Vale Knights, but I suppose she couldn't be in the Frey either.

Solid episode but predictable and not quite hitting the highs of last season ep 8 and 9, shame Wun Wun and Smalljon Umber fell. All Dany and Tyrion scenes were good which makes a nice change.

No resurrection for Rickon then? Not deemed worthy. Mel should be asking LoL to resurrect everyone for the big war to come.

Just nice to have an episode focused on 1 or 2 plot lines for a change instead of skipping all over the place.

That makes sense from LF's perspective. Sansa being with him is what's confusing. She obviously would not have been OK with that plan.

Who gives a **** about rickon. Ressurreict Wun Wun pls

She sends a raven, LF receives it and realizes riding towards her is faster than sending a raven saying ''We're on our way''. Somewhere during the battle LF runs into Sansa and rest is history.

Seriously doubt she knew. Wouldn't make any sense, then again a lot doesn't so who knows.

Have to laugh at how easy it was to take back Winterfell. Bust through one wooden gate and you own it lol.

I sort of wonder if the preview scene from next week relates to that issue. I thought the same thing you did during the show -- especially when Sansa is arguing to Jon that he should wait, why the hell doesn't she say "Littlefinger is on his way with a thousand horse that will torch these guys?"

The encirclement scene sort of goes to show what a phalanx could do in its day, doesn't it?

theon did it with like 20 men. he didn't have a giant either

Poor Rickon. If only there'd been an actress nearby.

pretty predictable but satisfying

sansa not telling jon about the knights is beyond ******ed

Really enjoyed the Tyrion, Dany, Yara exchange. Almost felt like GRRM wrote the dialogue there.

People don't actually believe this is the case right? In what world would that make sense? Lets risk my brother and only chance of getting back my home for what exactly?

Greyjoy's teleporting to Meereen is still lol but whatever

its already been ******ed though shes already had no reason not to trust him at any time.

"maybe we could wait for reinforcements"...

Jon: WE DONT HAVE ANY REINFORCEMENT ARE YOU ****IN STUPID



lul


ps: where were the greyjoys with the prostitutes a few eps ago?

wasn't that already in Slaver's Bay?

pretty sure it was Volantis

so they were basically there in show got timespace

Exactly, I have secretly sent out a raven but haven't received an answer back yet, would make infinitely more sense than ''Jon I am hinting you should wait but I won't tell you LF is coming, so if you still go, you may die, but maybe we'll come in time and you'll survive''

you guys complain about the stupidest things. Sansa had no idea when or if Littlefinger was coming. There, problem solved.

It's not ****ing 21st century America with phones in everybody's pockets and ****. The Vale of Arryn is like weeks' and weeks' ride from Dubfell. This was an era of communications whose real-life parallel created conditions where you were considered a great strategic commander if you managed to get all your forces together where they needed to be on the day of a battle, because it was a momentous achievement if there was any non-trivial distance to close before tactical maneuvering started.

Get the **** out of here with this 'Sansa should have told about the magical horsemen that might arrive, maybe, if this little girl who lives in a big log cabin on a frozen rock happens to employ a guy who owns a ****ing bird that was born somewhere near wherever the **** Littlefinger happens to be concealing his Arryn forces presently and somebody can get this note tied around the bird's goddamn leg to him.' (She should have sent a rider, but it's clearly suggested she sent a raven - nitpick about that if you want, at least it's legitimate. That's what it takes to 'bring in the Vale knights.' Who just happened to show up on classic Tolkien-style Battle of Helm's Deep schedule, but that's a fantasy trope for a reason, it's how pre-gunpowder warfare works, castles and sieges and elite heavy horse carrying the day as siege-breakers if the besiegers aren't in a position to counter-fortify (and they aren't because medieval Europe was a completely savage place logistically.)

Jon and Davos put their best plan on the table, basically trying to recreate the famous battle of Cannae as Hannibal, always a good play but if you don't have the edge in horse you're ****ed - and they didn't, so it didn't work. Jon further queered the deal by going on ****tilt just the way Ramsay invited him to and getting the order of commitment of forces to all favor the Boltons, whose crack reserve of Dreadfort elite shieldwall spearmen suggests that getting the other side to attack in a variety of nasty ways like this is probably a Bolton trademark. Jon and Wun Wun made up for this by taking about 100 guys between the two of them.

The Bolton family set-piece battle strategy + superior numbers + a crack reserve versus a bunch of barbarians basically was good enough for the dub, the gambit to troll Jon was a brilliant success, basically all players put their best play on the table and the stronger force was set to win a crushing victory that should have put flaying poles on display from White Harbor to the Wall for the forseeable future.

Only reason the script flipped was Littlefinger drawing out a huge piece of his social capital and Sansa drawing on that in turn as a wing and a prayer, because A RAVEN IS NOT A ****ING TEXT MESSAGE AND IF SHE HASN'T SEEN LF OR AN ARRYN THIS MORNING, SHE HAS ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA IF AND WHEN THEY'LL ARRIVE AT ANY POINT WITHIN THE NEXT MONTH.

She drained a halfcourt three with no time remaining and 80% of the Cav and G-State benches dead. This is not a strategy one would ever think they could have relied on to victory to the point where they could have planned for it with their regime's co-leaders in advance. For ****'s sake.

All Sansa ever said in the warmup act was - we don't have enough d00ds. (true) Don't get trolled, Jon. (good advice, he then went and got trolled.) Two for two. Iou had to see it coming when they aged Rickon's show character up to an age that the audience wouldn't experience burning-Shireen level pain to see murdered. There's no Skagos or Manderly conspiracy or Stannis probably about to win his first battle, lose under the walls of Winterfell, burn Shireen, get wiped out, and then leave the seconds for Jon that we just witnessed. Rickon has nothing to do on the show. He was already dead, emo boy.

tldr

Is that final scene better if we assume that some level of starting, even unconscious, is involved?

Even though I should know better I'm appalled that I come in this thread after that ridiculously awesome ep and most of the posts have been nitpicking. Yes it's easy to nitpick a show that has 10 hours of TV a season and has dozens of large to semi large characters with dozens of storylines, of course they don't do a thorough job explaining everything, or making the travel time realistic, you're all so smart for pointing all these obvious, and mostly understandable flaws out, congrats.

In general I don't mind some of the nitpicking, I take part too, but come the **** on only finding things to be negative about with this ep.