The episode apparently took 55 below-freezing nights to film.

No, they are both alive.

I expected alot more, episode was also to dark. Where's the GOT that isn't afraid to kill of main characters. No suprises, this all played out very safe/much to safe for GOT. Arya killing the NK.. meh. I shouted wtf? at the tv.

It was still a good episode, some parts were amazing + it was almost impossible to live up to the hype (however Endgame pretty much did it).. But could have been much better.

The music and slo-mo before arya killed the NK were awesome though.

The whole way the dead attacked seemed way too World War Z like at times, except, of course, harder to see due to the darkness. Dragon fighting in midair was a total waste because it was all over the place and impossible to follow. And while the suspense was good, wtf at only small swaths of the dead being indoors chasing Arya et al. If some got in, wouldn't tons have gotten in?

And I totally agree that with the lack of big characters dying the previous episode just seems like a waste in hindsight.

everyones already covered how hard it was to see what was going on and the useless dragon fights. stalking arya in the library was wtf. they are a zombie hoard, they swarm the enemy in sheer numbers they dont have ten split off to find one person.

how often did you see a major character outnumbered 50 to 1, then when it cut back to them all of a sudden they are just 1v1 fighting? theon looked like he had 100 wights charging at him but is able to just shoot them down one at a time.

grey worm is still alive somehow? his scene made it look like he was ready to sacrifice himself and his platoon in order to "protect the retreat" which would have been a great story.

in the end it feels really cheap that after 8 years of build up the NK just exposes himself while surrounded by his lieutenants and dies instantly. the longest night lasted about an hour.

said this in the SE thread but I was hoping for some sort of reveal like the NK attacked winterfell just for the bodycount so that he could resurrect the dead unsullied/dothraki on his march to king's landing. when he re-animated everyone and they didn't do anything I really thought he was just going to take his multiplied army and leave. next guess was some sort of big reveal between him and bran.

Agreed. I set my expectations so low that I was pleasantly surprised. There was a lot of eye rolling but ultimately it was a good hour of tv. I have given up on it being up to par with the first 4 seasons for some time.

The Dothraki charge was lolbad, as was the heroes of Westeros's hatred of chokepoints, but ultimately the fire charge and our favorite characters fighting off hordes of undead while surrounded makes for better shots.

This was my favorite part. I believe Jon had wanted to make Bran's cohort seem weak, and then he and Dany would surprise the NK. If Bran was too well guarded then the NK would not come until everything was 100% clear. Jon and Dany got drawn into the battle though and that plan went to ****. Jon was trying desperately to get back to Bran, and Dany decided to ground her dragon for whatever reason, so they were unable to follow through. I thought it was quite nice that Jon's plan failed, and someone else had to save the day.

Yeah. There were so many better scenario's possible, like that one, and they went with this.. ugh.

Bigger issue was I thought Theon had his hands mutilated to the point he couldn't use a bow and arrow (why he used an axe when saving Yara). But I am probably confusing with the books.

The dothraki charge in battle, it's what they do. They're not gonna just sit there behind a wall and wait. They dgaf about "tactics".

This episode sucked balls, lol @ landing the dragon for a second, lol @ putting people in the crypts and lol @ a bunch of people who had no reason to live living and nobody important dying. Except the NK, who at least should've taken a stark with him.

the dothraki should have positioned wide on the flanks then charged in. why go out into the dark abyss? at that point I still didn't know if there was even an enemy there.

Night King was the only important character that died. Beric Dondarrion was a great character though, so I guess he's a big loss in that way.

I don't get people being upset that "a small dagger can kill the night king". It's been established since season 3 that dragonglass kills white walkers, when Sam killed one in similar fashion. The only silly part was the NK exposing himself to the danger of being attacked up close.

I thought Dany was about to die when she was caught outside the castle with Jorah at the end. I think that would actually have been a great plot development. It's starting to feel like they're just gonna go all the way without any main character dying.

I thought the same. Jaime and Brienne were caught up against a wall at the end. At one point it looked like Jaime was brought to the ground with a bunch of wights on top of him about to eat him.

It made no sense how those people made it out alive.

How many times did a zombie knock a door completely out of its frame and onto the ground? That's just shoddy craftsmanship.

I think it makes sense for the zombies to knock down the doors easily since they are unhinged.

For those like me, that wanted to see the prophesies AA/PTWP fulfilled in some way and not just totally dropped in the show...

My initial reaction to Arya killing NK was huge letdown. Then I remembered that several characters (Jon, Dany, Beric) each exhibited bits, but not all, of the signs in the prophesies.

Had the story been such that Arya was the only person to somehow be previously connected to all three exhibiting partial signs, but showing no signs herself, it would have been fantastic writing for her to be the hidden AA/PTWP. But as far as I remember, she is connected to Jon (growing up) and Beric (captured by BWB) during the story, but never Dany. That correct?

So the dead army wipes out the entire Dothraki army in minutes - but then people like Sam and Dany have no problem defeating them in hand to hand combat?

And it still didn't make Viggorous happy.

Think with AT&T getting gaped on all fronts they probably gave the order to not kill the popular characters in case they need to bring the show back since its by far their most valuable piece of content.

Also the prequel will probably be a failure.

I thought the whole point was they realized they were all dead unless they killed the NK. Blondie and Jon snow were waiting with the dragons for the NK to reveal himself to try and take him out. The actual battle didn't really matter unless they could kill the guy who can raise the dead to join his army. The Dothraki charging into the darkness, why not? What else can you do? You aren't going to win the war vs the undead unless you take out the leader. The Dothraki were pawns in the overall plan, but Blondie got all riled up and took out her dragon too soon.

The NK end seemed fine to me. He was coming for Bran. He wasn't going to do that till he felt he was safe. Only Arya had the skills necessary to sneak up on him the way she did.

Also thought the first 10 minutes or so was perfect. The shots, the music, the suspense. I felt really excited/uneasy the whole time.

It wasn't dragonglass, it was Valyrian steel. In fact, it was the very same dagger that an assassin tried to use way back in S1E2 to kill Bran. He dropped the weapon and Catelyn Stark found it, then later gave it to Littlefinger, who gave it to Bran, and he in turn gave it to Arya.

Arya was forecasted to be the killer of the Night King several times throughout the series by the Red Woman, who told her on at least two occasions that she would kill someone with brown eyes, someone with green eyes, and someone with blue eyes. I guess we can presume that Bran was aware of the prophecy as well, which prompted him to engineer the climax as he did.

I could be wrong but it seems like all the major survivors of the melee were the ones carrying the Valyrian steel blades.

Meanwhile winning the battle with the Night King is only a precursor to the final climax of the show. Cersie is in King's Landing with an army of 20,000 men, plus the ships of the Iron Fleet and now the army of her major antagonists (the Dothraki, the Unsullied, and the army of the north) have been 95% decimated from the Battle of Winterfell. Thus she can in theory swoop in and finish the job and secure her place on the throne.

At the end of the day the major arc of the entire GoT has been the conflict between the Starks and the Lannisters. THAT will be the final act of the series imo.

Great episode with many memorable momemts

The Night King was just one of many contenders for the Iron Throne that failed. The story is called the Game of Thrones not the Attack of the Night King. There is a lot more to the story.

There were several aspects of this episode that weren’t great. But Arya killing the Night King was perfect. It wasn’t “deus ex machina” at all; it had been set up throughout the entire episode and throughout the entire series.

For those who are saying “the Night King proved to be so weak” or “why didn’t someone just shoot the Night King with an arrow?” or whatever, I think there are several examples in the episode that disprove this. We see the Night King confront various obstacles, each representing a standard fantasy storyline, and overcomes them all. Dany tries to defeat him with pure firepower and he proves immune. Jon, up till now the most iconic “hero” of the story, pursues him carrying Valerian steel, and he raises the dead around him to assure they will never meet. And of course Theon, representing the redemption story, makes a last desperate attempt, and he crushes him with almost comic ease. None of these characters could kill the Night King (and neither could a random redshirt), because none of these characters was destined and prophesied by the Lord of Light to kill the Night King.

It is very reasonable to say the Night King resolution was fantasy trope-ish. But the entire Night King story line has been fantasy trope-ish. He represented naked evil/death without any sort of human motivation, and the whole concepts of destiny and prophesy fall in line with generic fantasy.

That’s why I can’t agree with those who are saying this should have been the final battle. Most people love Game of Thrones because it so frequently subverts generic fantasy. And making the battle with world-ending evil incarnate resolve in the middle of the final season, with the real, presumably messier, resolution still reasonably far in the distance, is itself a big subversion.

And the fact that Arya was the prophesied hero is also a huge subversion. In the end, Arya’s path turns out to be very typical “hero’s journey” seen throughout fantasy and across the folklore and myths of countless cultures. But usually, the audience follows the journey knowing who the hero is supposed to be (even if the hero doesn’t realize it him or herself). But Arya grows and learns everything she needs to learn to fulfill the prophesy not with any grand heroic goal in mind, but rather to act out petty vengeance of those who have wronged her personally. The fantasy tropes of destiny/prophesy and the hero’s journey come together here perfectly. But in the moment of the episode they come as a surprise, it’s only clear how they tied together in retrospect.

GRRM talked the plot armor of stuff like LotR but ironically we've now seen 2 almost exact copies of what turned the tide in LotR.

Sansadalf saving Jon by finding Lord Eomer Baelish and returning just in time as it looks darkest in BotB exactly like in helms deep and now the biggest baddest guy of the show gets stabbed by a girl and dies as soon as he tries to actually do something.

Edit:

Arya killing him and it being by a knife is also fine, the wheels come off at spending 8 years (the first scene in the entire show is about them) and probably 30-50+ hours of building him up only for him and his army to lose an hour after they actually do anything. That's just bad writing. They could've stretched the battle to two episodes because there really was no need for a standalone "tying up"-episode when virtually nobody of importance died anyway.

My expectations are pretty low at this point and that episode still manages to disappoint. lol. First 10 minutes or so were actually pretty good, building tension and then having the dothraki charge in and watch their swords blink out one by one. That was awesomely done, albeit horrible tactical use of cavalry as someone pointed out.

Rest of the show was just utter mess of repeating deux ex machina rescues of main characters and wasted opportunities.

Just one example of stuff that annoys the **** out me. Zombies start pouring over the walls, Arya leaps in and just starts laying waste to them, kicking ass left and right. Ok, Arya is supposed to be a badass, cool. I like it. Then literally two minutes later she is running through the crypts in a panic from....some regular zombies which appear to number about the same amount that she gleefully leaped into and laid waste to moments before.

What the actual ****? They show her running through the crypts in the trailers and we are meant to think this must be something special she is running from. Arya has seen and done it all, this has to be some kind of special threat. (i.e. A white walker or the night king himself, maybe something personal to Arya, some Stark relative risen from the dead or something entirely new. Ha ha, nope, just run of the mill zombies that she was absolutely wrecking before but for some reason is now terrified of. Ok, nice job.

OAFK1 nailed it, they take a show that actually did something differently for the first 3 seasons or so and let it become just run of the mill ****ing idiocy. The people who are loving this, what did you think of the first 3 seasons of the show? Do they seem the same as the last 3 seasons? Do you notice any difference at all?

Does Arya have the night kings face now?

A lot of people forget this, but much of the first season of the show is basically a criminal procedural with Ned trying to solve the mysteries of the murder of Jon Arryn and Joffrey's parentage. Is that what you wanted the whole show to be? The show evolved significantly during the first three seasons, and it has continued to evolve after them.

The pure fantasy elements of the show has always been present (it is the first scene of the pilot), and have always been somewhat separate from the rest of the show, which is much more human and subtle and surprising. The zombies and white walkers have never really been framed as anything more than pure straightforward fantasy, and they resolved within this framework.

This is not my favorite part of the show, but it is very much a part of the show and always has been. I think this part resolved well, but I am glad they completed it with another half season remaining to get back to the parts I think most of the audience loves the most.

Yes, previews for next week showed Arya picking through the ice shards saying “haha got your nose”