It's not like anyone moved when Theon made his charge either. NK seemed to order everyone to stand down so he could show Bran how powerless he was. Arya sneaking/jumping/whatever is irrelevant - she didn't need to.

That scene with Jon at the magic tree asking Arya, "How did you sneak up on me?" and Arya staring at him in response is all the explanation I need.

Who cares how Arya got there lol. That's like #1,239 on my list of problems with the ep and I didn't even hate it.

I didn’t much care that or was a deux et machina, which it was. What bothered me more was the obvious and annoying Hollywood timing of it. The NK comes in to the godswood. Pause so that Bran and Theon can have a conversation. Dramatic futile spear run. Pause. Finally Arya kills him. I hate this Hollywood formula, which has been done at least a thousand times.

The night king doesn’t seem like he should be a character that pauses to float over his impending victory against Bran.

Still, I can’t hate the episode or the show.

"hey, let our troops get slaughtered, and when we are dust the night king will come so we can kill him!"
"great idea but why waste our army that way for no reason?"
"well we need to keep the fight vs cersei balanced"
"ah right"

worst part of the episode was the protection of the main characters, killed all tension.

I mean the army of the death WASTED a dothraki horde in seconds, blasted trough the unsullied like they weren't even there but Sam & CO fought them off on their own literally doing nothing, da faq?

The NK did the same thing with the last 3ER - he stood and stared him down for a while. Just no one there to take advantage of it.

Seeing how years after years OOTV has been tarding up TWD threads acting all "I don't buy it", I don't see how a show like GoT that actually generates expectations could possibly escape this kind of comments.

I for one couldn't care less about how Arya got there, and if you really want to find an explanation, "she managed to sneak in, jumped from a tree/wall/fortification" is fine by me. For how many seasons now have we seen her training exactly for that kind of stuff ?

What is Arya if not a stealthy assassin ?

Are you putting "being right" in a tv opinion forum on your work resume under skills or personal interests?

I thought the scene where the dragons went above the clouds, into the moonlight was very pretty.

The opening 10 minutes was tense.

The Dothraki charge was obviously dumb, but the result - the people at the castle looking on as one by one the flaming swords are extinguished - was pretty satisfying. It's still disappointing to see such a dumb plan - military strategy has mattered in this series (Whispering Wood, Blackwater Bay), last episode had all the leaders huddled around the table to plan this attack, and that's the best they could do. They could have got there with the Dothraki coming in from a flank while the unsullied engage the front, and the Dothraki still getting overwhelmed. Then you could still get the visual of Dany watching the swords' flames dying, without Tyrion/Jon/Grey Worm/etc designing such a dumb attack.

Having Lady Mormont kill a Giant in basically the same way Arya gets the NK was overkill.

I was entertained, but I agree that the show has moved too much towards standard "play bad, get there" TV.

It seemed like sometimes the dragonglass would turn the wights to dust, while other times they'd release spurts of blood. I tried rewatching the episode on a different tv and messing with the picture settings, but I couldn't get it to where I could actually tell what was going on. I've seen people claim that certain torrents/streams had much better picture with screenshot proof, but I'm not certain I believe it.

She stabbed the giant with a dragonglass dagger, which permanently kills them. That and Arya killing the NK were the only scenes I remember liking. As in, they have been building it up for seasons and the way she did it made sense as well given her Faceless Men training. Beyond that they ran the entire NK storyline into the ground with this repulsively weak and anti-climactic plothole filled episode

And given that Arya can kill the NK like that, she can also sneak up to Cersei and stab her in the face, so we can skip that storyline lol

Eight seasons of Daenarys BS while our true queen only had like 15 minutes of screentime, salute:

Somewhere in this vid Peter Dinklage looks really depressed saying something like "Tyrion is smart, but apparently not smart enough to realize hiding in the crypt isn't a smart move against a guy who can raise the dead". I can imagine some of the actors must hate the drop in writing quality the past couple of seasons as well

stuck the landing this time

or snuck up super stealth ya

who cares, it's a fantasy show

Similarly, didn't Arya kill one in the library to be quiet and it acted like a normal body would?

One thing i find interesting from a back story/lore perspective:

Is Arya devoted to the many faced god in any way or are there no ties anymore?
Because the Lord of Light directly influenced her fate etc, multiple times.
So those two gods collaborating to destroy the NK is interesting from a theological perspective.

ya getting arya to this point seemed like a long-time collab between the faceless men & lord of light

at least now that whole storyline not making sense makes more sense

It originally acted like a normal body - gush of blood then slumped forward, but I can’t recall if they later showed it disintegrating or just a body on the floor or what, I’d have to go back and check.

Maybe length of time as a wight has some bearing? Like if the body would already be dust then it turns to dust with the right weapon, but if it would still be rotting it stays intact? No idea honestly.

I interpreted that scene as indicating Bran knew Arya was on the way and needed a distraction to get through, so he gave Theon that little pep talk to induce action.

I like to think of her move as a drive to the basket where she went for the one handed dunk, got fouled hard, switched hands while in the air, and scored with a layup instead. # hangtime.

That scene and the witch lighting things on fire were awesome. The little girl killing the giant silly.

what was up with ghost's suicide?

the wrap-up of Beric "i was resurrected 7x times so save Arya's life"
and Melisandre "lord of light brought me here to tell you to have a go at the night king, job done bravo i really needed magical powers for that, not like bran could have done that"
was so cheap

Some of the memorable scene in this great episode in no particular order:

• Dothraki flaming swords blazing , charging forward, and than dwindling away
• Dany uses her dragon to blaze the Night King
• The Unsullied form a defense blockade
• Dany flies her dragon to burn off hundreds of attacking wights
• Arya tiptoes and bleeds in the library to avoid attracting a horde of wights
• Dragons fight each other in a foggy sky and Night King falls to the ground
• Melisandre’s slow encantation eventually lights the oil trench
• Theon “You’re a good man”, bravely fights the wights and is killed by the Night King
• Joran death scene with Dany
• Little Lyanna Mormont dies as she kills a giant wight by stabbing as a precursor to the Night Kings assassination
• Jon approaches the Night King alone on foot on the battlefield who then raises the dead
• Rhaegal the dragon is attacked by wights on the ground and flys up with wights attached,survives
• Brienne and Jamie encircled by wights
• Melisandre leaves the castle for her final end
• Arya kills the Night King as could be expected after being told “bue eyes” and “not today”

This is nice and all, but we're still not really sure where Arya jumped from, so you know...

Do you put stupid enough to tell people to stop debating a tv show in a thread dedicated to debating said TV show in yours?

Ya who cares how an elite assassin with mystical abilities kills an ancient power capable of raising the dead etc. I mean watching that unfold in any detail would be boooooring as ****.

No way could you for example devote a whole film or series just to that premise alone.

Just spare us and show us the assassin teleporting out of nowhere (via a jump that comes from the ground btw). In fact lets follow this line of reasoning to its conclusion and conclude that even the leap is boring needless exegesis, all we needed to see was the stab.

I would preferred the battle of Yavin if they skipped the whole Luke gets into his ship, flies through the magnetic field, dog fights above the death star, shoots some gun towers, red one saying dont cover me get set up for your attack run, flying down a trench etc if they had just showed the deathstar ominously moving towards Yavin then cut to your all clear kid, close up of Luke pulling the trigger, death star explodes.

Its just a si fi film after all.

Better yet would be if this was after the attack of the death star was in fact the culmination of 8 films worth of plot building.

Actually I dont mind the above at all, but a minor character stabbing a giant, oooh that really gets my goat.

I know you are being flippant, so am I, but **** is so obvious reading this thread how hollywood can get away with releasing the same film 100 times a year.

Just to clear something up, deus ex machina is the exact opposite of what happened in the episode.

Here is how:

1, we knew that there is a causal relationship in the magic that killing a creator kills the created. It was speculation that it worked NK to white as well as white to wight, but the ground was laid and the show always presented this as truth.

2, the line of Arya closing many eyes, brown and blue and green is pure prophesy fulfilled.

3, what do we tell death?

4, "He says every swordsman should study cats. They're as quiet as shadows and as light as feathers. You have to be quick to catch them." NK was quick, but:

5, her killing blow was already shown last season against Ser Brienne. We saw first hand she was capable of this. Everything the show told us is that Arya is physically capable of this.

6, within this season we have Arya stating she wants to see his face, then she does. We always knew she was mentally capable of this.

7, what happened in the battle was the plan all along, more or less. We get Bran to the godswood. The iron islanders led by Theon keep him safe. They all die long enough to bring out the NK. They kill the NK and win it all. It was their only chance.

8, we have actually tied up a lot of lord of light prophesy and everything he touched has been about Arya. Note that Renly becoming king means Arya doesn't complete her journey. Arya has the blood of kings defending from the Starks who go at least as far back as the age of heroes as kings of winter. Beric was brought back repeatedly and the Hound won his trial all so that they can be there at the end to protect Arya with the Hound taking her from brave but foolish kid to deliver her to the point she had to go be trained for this moment. Then together via fire vision they were led to winterfell for the battle just to save her to get her into the room with Mel. Jon was brought back from death to win the battle of the bastards, unite the north and give Arya a reason to travel north at the crossroads inn and give them a place to make a final stand.

9, Last season we also have Bran give her the Valerian steel blade that was in the citadel book and was a key piece of the entire saga.

Now, go look up what a deus ex machina is and stfo about it.