(Spoilers) House of the Dragon/Game of Thrones

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The real javelin MVP.

I felt the “epic battle” in the latest episode was lacking somewhat but not entirely sure why.

I’ve rewatched the S5 attack on Hardholme and it’s immense. Real slow build up of tension, a real sense of fear, desperation and hopelessness. The zombies are scary and relentless, Tormund is in tears at the end, you don’t know who’s going to make it and you’re left wondering how the fuck is humanity going to defeat this army of the dead? i only watched that 15 min scene (didn’t bother with the whole episode), knew everything that was about to happen and had chills all over again. There’s no real storytelling per se but the action alone is executed in a way that it’s enough and most importantly it’s believable.

Contrast that with this episode where hound and co are just whack-a-moling them left and right, nobody really feels in danger, nobody with a name or face dies (except Thoros who dies off camera ffs! And is a relatively minor character and nobody seemed to care too much) and for me that sense of immersion just wasn’t there. They’d already showed Dany wanting to fly up there and save Jon so there wasn’t even a will she / won’t she element to it and then he survives 3 separate things. There was really no sense for me that this was a fearsome and unstoppable army of the dead and that’s kind of the opposite of what this whole show, from literally the first scene of the first episode, has been trying to say. And now they have a dragon, it’s just going to be the dragon of the dead that is scary.

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Not disagreeing at all, simply playing devils advocate here, however these were a collection of some of the best fighters alive, they had Valerian steel and dragon glass, and they took on a fraction of the total army, and minus Dany, they would all be dead.

It certainly felt like a scene plucked straight out of lord of the rings, and in no way captured the essence of game of thrones. Tormund dying would have at least given the viewer something to mull over, and the bear attack should have ended with the immediate death of Thoros, no two ways about it.

I guess minus the ice dragon and the initial scene of the guys chatting it was a bit of a hollow episode, almost felt like filler tbh

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Had GRRM written that scene Tormund, Jorah and Dondarrion would all have died and Jon would have lost his right hand and an eye haha

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Did they have dragonglass?

I don’t know I agree with @Craigie, the two battles depict essentially two different foes.

At Hardhome we see the WW jump off a mountain in order to get at the enemy; in the last episode we see them unsure if they can even cross a moat! Even when it’s iced over they don’t even know they can cross except by accident, and they are meant to be Kings of the Ice.

I also feel they were too easily killed. They don’t seem anymore like any kind of threat.

And I didn’t feel it was shot very well either, something I will usually give a lot of credit to D & D for. It was very bitty, everything a bit to close up.

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Jorah was wielding two Dragonglass daggers WoW-rogue style (ahh how I long for the days of 2005 vanilla WoW). Jon had Longclaw. Does the Hound not have a Valerian steel sword? I feel like he got one. Thoros and Berric both had fire swords. Gendry had his hammer and Tormund had his axe.

In fairness, it seems to me that Dragonglass and Valerian steel are only necessary for the Wight Walkers and not the zombies themselves.

Also, correct me if I’m wrong, but weren’t all of the undead in the books Wight Walkers with bright blue eyes a la the Night King and his executive command?

I don’t think there was ever any distinction between Zombies and Wight Walkers, it was just that everyone who was brought back to life became a Wight Walker and could only be killed by DG/VS but in the series zombies can be killed by anything and are basically the cannon fodder foot-soldiers while the NK and his crew are the more powerful Wight Walkers.

I’m pretty sure that in the books they were only ever called The Others or Wights. It wasn’t until the show we started hearing “White Walkers/Wight Walkers”.

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wights = zombies
white walkers = blue eye dudes

If I recall correctly. may be very wrong.

Yep, no distinction, except for the King and his chiefs. They are hard to kill in the books. But yeah, in the series’ armed with dragon glass then, it looks way too easy for men to defeat them.

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Pretty sure you’re wrong, no offence haha :stuck_out_tongue:

Bend the knee and pray for @Oliver forgiveness.

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I yield to thee, @Oliver, and beg forgiveness. Spare a man his life!

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In the name of Arsene of the House Wenger, manager of the Arsenal, Lord of the FA Cup, and Protector of the warchest, I, Oliver of the House Lister, Lord of tits and warden of wine, sentence you to delete your account and join Arsenal-Mania.

SUCK IT NON BELIEVER.

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nah! I demand a trial by combat @Cristo @Oliver

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Can we pick champions?

Lil, ninjahavingassmotherfucker!

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sadly no 4th place trophy this time, only Europa.

For anyone interested in speculation about possible end game scenarios this link is really good:

It’s an intelligently written piece analysing the symbolism used in both books and show, and uses it to make conclusions about the ending, which to me sound very plausible. In fact, I’d be delighted if he was right. Nice and bittersweet as GRRM promised, and surprising as well.

Maybe not everyone here will want to see this discussed, so if any comments on it, perhaps spoilers?

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:cech:

Sooo, anyone wake up like a child at Christmas and watch the finale?? Pretty predictable set of events I have to say, save a few eye brow raising moments.

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Yep, literally woke up, brewed up some coffee and put it on, I agree some developments were predictable, especially the ending however I still thoroughly enjoyed it.

It was quite surprising that the finale shunned lots of action in favour of dialogue, character development and plot, almost the inverse of recent seasons which have built up to somewhat epic finales but I thought it worked really well and set the stage for the final curtain next year.

I was particularly pleased that Tyrion, who is probably my favourite character and has had relatively little of his best on display this season got to be so central to this episode and delivered some of his trademark wit. I really enjoyed the little reunions between him and Bronn and Pod, as well as that of Jaime and Brienne. I’m a little surprised that Jaime appears to be full on defecting, I really thought things were building to him and Brienne having to face each other on opposite sides of a battlefield. Also loved the hint at a future Hound/Mountain showdown.

I thought the reveal of Jon’s heritage set against a montage of him getting it on with Dany whilst the voiceover explained exactly why it was incest was a bit weird though…

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