Arya sneaking up on the NK still annoys me way less than Jaime/Sam/Tormund/Brienne/Jon/Dany all surviving situations that should have gotten them killed in 10 seconds. Plus the crypt being overrun with wights but all the named characters surviving.

The main problem for me is that they built up the NK to be so powerful that it was always gonna feel a bit underwhelming when he died. The guy tanked a hail of dragonfire with a smirk on his face. He had an army that could only ever grow in size and never get smaller since he just resurrects everyone again and again.

The NK could have easily won the battle by just staying out of Winterfell and just resurrecting the dead every 30 minutes. There was no way to defeat him that wouldn't spawn the reactions we are seeing. Probably a result of the NK not being in the books and being D&D's creation, and we all know storytelling isn't their strongest suit.

Yeah there was no satisfying conclusion given the time frame left in the show, which is why I was fine with the Arya dem.

It even shows in the title: The Long Night is resolved in one episode/one night.

Its pretty common for an enemy figure to seem totally OP and unstoppable and yet is stopped somehow in a reasonably satisfying way. Making bad guy seems unbeatable is a standard trope as it increases drama.

Its also fairly common for that beating to be very unsatisfying due to bad writing and this is just another example to add to the list.

Its actually one of the distinctions that separates good hollywood from bad hollywood.

There is another big media title out at the moment dealing precisely with getting of a totally OP baddy who spent a whole film getting moah and moah OP.

I have not seen it yet, wonder how satisfying the resolution of that issue is. Please no spoilers.

Does another stark potentially save the day in this as well?

D&D probably gonna go for the ultimate cheesy ending and have Sansa kill Cersei.

OAFK must be fun to party with.

Seriously though, please make him stop.

Just found this thread and not going to catch up on all the hundreds of pages. Have read the last couple though.

Pretty on board with the feeling of disappointment at NK's demise and how it seems to have all been a bit "what.... really?"

The battle for Kings Landing is going to be quite predictable in nature now and I am fully expecting Dany/Jon to kill Cersei then to frag it out between themselves.

Ive grown out of pass the parcel so probably would not enjoy your parties that much.

You might want to keep your emotions in check oafk and take a walk, yes the ending of last ep was a bit of a let down, the episode was still pretty good and we are all looking forward to the next 3 episodes

https://www.cosmopolitan.com/enterta...he-night-king/

Need to rewatch, but the idea that the dragon would be fixated on Jon as Arya runs past them the same route the NK took to the gods wood to save the day definitely feels like deus ex machina

I mean it is all completely consistent and as logical as you get in a fantasy story but you know we didn't actually see that wide shot showing what we know happened.

If an article opens with "Like, no shade intended, ", you should just close it.

I don't understand this whole debate.
If you feel frustrated that we didn't see how Arya got to NK: Sure, I understand. It's kind of frustrating but it's obvious they did not show this because they wanted it to be a "surprise" moment.

If you feel like it's a DEM or that Arya did something impossible, that's just bull****. It was established for 7 seasons that Arya is good at being sneaky and she was trained to be an assassin. The episode establishes that Arya is good at sneaking past the NK his army as well in the library scene. The episode establishes that the NK his army aren't just random killing machines that always attack, but are somewhat under his control (Theon running up to NK and nobody stopping him, the army not immediately attacking Jon when they surround him,...). The episode establishes that the NK seems momentarily distracted because he finally is eye-to-eye with Bran.

I really don't see what the issue is.

Holy ****, do you even watch this show? Arya has always had this ability. Were you ranting this much at all the Faceless Man stuff and the killing of the Freys?

If you ignore the last episode there was more than enough evidence that Arya could easily sneak around, kill Jaime (or Euron, or a whole ****load of other people), take their face, get close to Cersei, and stab her in the heart.

I agree with this. Good SF/Fantasy establishes a universe and physics with established rules. Then they have to live with it.

But that’s what I find so funny about this Arya ****. They established that she was super crazy assassin girl. They established that the NK would likely be vulnerable to certain materials. They established that killing him would take out everyone else.

It was kind of a lame ending in some ways but it didn’t come out of nowhere. It followed pretty well from the past.

Between this thread and the soccer ones OAFK is easily the most insufferable poster I’ve seen.

The wights could hear Aryas blood dripping on the floor. They couldn’t hear her walking. So it was clearly established, in this freaking episode!, how quietly she could move.

Just end all this stupid DEM talk. It’s not DEM.

If the NK killed Arya and then Bran suddenly got mad and shot lasers out of his eyes - that’s DEM. If Bran warged into a raven and dive bombed the NK with a piece of dragonglass in its beak and killed him - that may or may not be DEM. Having a character use skills that they’ve developed over years and were explicitly shown using them multiple times including in the same episode - not DEM.

I also don't get the complaints that the Night King was dealt with too quickly or easily, or was never portrayed as a sufficiently powerful villain.

We've already seen THREE season-defining battles in which the "heroes" are essentially defeated by the NK ("Hardhome" in Season 5, "The Door" in Season 6, and "Beyond the Wall" in Season 7). Even within this episode, we see the NK toss aside all of the heroes' planned strategies before finally being defeated by a supernatural force of equal power and destiny.

Additionally, the show spent one-third of the entire final season of the show just showing the final battle and the preparations for it. Between the 2nd and 3rd episodes, this is not just the longest battle in the history of the show, it might be the longest depiction of a single battle in the history of popular television and movies.

There are some valid criticisms here. Namely, that the NK's motivations were never anything more that generic evil, and this he was never a very interesting villain. And because of this, the NK never represented the best aspects of the show, or even what drew people to the show in the first place.

And that's why I think it's very good that this wasn't the final conflict, and we still have 4 hours of the show left to get back to what is really important and interesting.

What's truly amazing is you have reached this conclusion in complete ignorance of his contribution to politarding, which as you can imagine is on another level entirely.

yep, arya clearly op

the guy who knows everything (and can do anything? from the comfort of his home office) not
the really dumb guy who is more invincible than kevin garvey jr not
the girl with the big dragons not

show ruined

got it

really interested what the major mindblowing twist could be now
can't think of anything they could do so hoping for a real, quality surprise

twist: bran is the nk and has been doing all of this bc ???
where ??? = some important truth that they've forgotten, that will make the world a harmonious place


or if the show is really dumb the battle vs cersei will be lost and then bran will dem a W, and everyone who remains will live happily ever after

easy

daenerys becomes crazy like her father, arya or jon kills her (probably Jon now since arya got the NK kill)

Sansa is killing someone. Not sure if Dany or Cersei though.

+1

The problem with Arya being OP is she didn't finish her training and got her ass kicked by that lady and should be dead.