Game of Thrones (season 8)

[7evens]

What decision?

The decision to completely resolve the conflict with the Army of the Dead earlier than we all expected, and to have the final three episodes be all about who gets the throne. I think a lot of people, myself included, expected Winterfell to fall last night, for the Northerners to retreat southwards, and for the final battle with the Night King to be in King's Landing. I expected the impact of the Army of the Dead to be much heavier this season, which means that last night felt slightly anti-climactic, but a lot depends on how these next few episodes pan out.

What the show has essentially done with 'The Long Night' is boldly move Westeros into another age where magic is mostly gone from the world, returning to the state it was in during the first season. Sure, we still have Bran hanging around, and two dragons. But the White Walkers are now myths once more, and though the Lord of Light might still be operating in the background, the last three people who had the ability to communicate his messages (Melisandre, Thoros, Beric) are all dead. We've gone back to the semi-primitive society we saw in the first season, and I appreciate the symmetry if nothing else.

 

[Barcon]

Is it the 2.3GB torrent? That's the one that I watched and it's not amazing quality. Watch it in a dark room and it'll be watchable though. I'm currently downloading the 1080p 5GB file, which might be better.

ETA: Just downloaded it and there's not a massive difference. I think both are probably better than the streams most people were watching. HBO apparently have one of the worse bandwidths and everyone was watching at the same time.

It is the 2.3gb mate. I have a plasma tv and will watch it at night in a dark basement, so it should be decent. 22 hrs later and I'm 83% done. Woohoo.

 

[adrianr]

Re: Lighting, I imagine the episode will be well worth a watch on a decent OLED or Plasma when the BluRay comes out. I didn't have any troubles on my plasma with the copy I was watching, just had to turn all the lights off. I agree with an earlier comment that the point was for it to feel disorientating, and I felt like there were enough points throughout the episode to re-ground the viewer.

Spoiler

I think once the snow/fog came in that was maybe a little heavy, although the shots of the dragons when it first started coming in were spectacular.

Missus and I both absolutely loved it. Was long but rather that than it feeling rushed. Gave you time to become immersed in it.

 

[urban genie]

Like it. I always felt that Samwell was essentially a representation GRRM (a bookworm, a nerd, the fat kid, etc.)

A rag though so hope he gets filleted by the end ;-)

 

[Scottyboi]

A rag though so hope he gets filleted by the end ;-)

Was in the year above me at school a good lad John West but I fucking hate Sam his whole character is shit.

 

[urban genie]

Was in the year above me at school a good lad John West but I fucking hate Sam his whole character is shit.

Sam is the necessary opposite personality to all the self serving cunts in westeros tbf.
And yeah in real life John comes across as decent bloke when interviewed

 

[Scottyboi]

Sam is the necessary opposite personality to all the self serving cunts in westeros tbf.
And yeah in real life John comes across as decent bloke when interviewed

He is just a fat bumbling idiot never liked the character, but I understand his importance to the story haha.

 

[SebastianBlue]

Didn't add up to much in the end, did it? I expected Rickon to resurface and chase Sansa or something, but the closest we got was the one wight who looked a bit like Maester Luwin dragging some Redshirt Northerner into the darkness.

But hey, we still got that great moment between Sansa and Tyrion, in which Sophie Turner and Peter Dinklage communicated so many feelings without uttering a word, and the crypt functioned nicely as a way of avoiding the "battle fatigue" the producers were worried about. I mean, it wasn't a patch on Cersei psychologically deteriorating while and drunkenly abusing Sansa in 'Blackwater' (which remains the best battle episode in the show's history), but I think we've been given a couple of important breadcrumbs in these scenes.

Tyrion has just shared a moment of tenderness and true vulnerability with Sansa there that he never has with Daenerys (except maybe when she named him Hand). With Dany challenging and questioning him so much lately, an arm round the shoulder from Sansa might just be what Tyrion needs to convince Dany even further that democracy is the way forward, as opposed to another Targaryen dynasty. She's not taken kindly to that idea in the past...

It was much like Alexi Sanchez’s passing: so obviously telegraphed and then, even given plenty of time, poorly executed.

Also like Sanchez, the show was once much better than what it is currently able to offer.

Even further, if Sanchez had strode out in front of the Winterfell walls without armour or weapons, with a prominent musical flourish to announce his arrival (perhaps a recording of his United announcement sonata with Ed Sheeran singing a campfire ditty), he would have likely miraculously survived the battle despite having been in three separate positions where reason and the show’s (now almost entirely abandoned) “rules” and focus on logical outcomes from all previous choices and events would have seen him perish.

But he’d be around for another middling cameo, such is his way, so who can complain, really.

 

[argyle]

Loved it.

Didn't breath for a full hour.

 

[HellYeah]

Loved the whole thing, great episode. Really felt the tension in the build up and the panic during the battle scenes

As for the dark aspect, read about that before but not sure what the issue was. It was dark but certainly didn't detract from what was going on and added to the confusion of battle (although to be fair I've not experienced a battle of any kind)