Game of Thrones - mostly

[SuburbanFarmer]

Night Kong’s big mistake was impatience. He took like 8 years to get there, then attacks as soon as he arrives?

He just had to siege the castle for a month with undead troops that never get hungry.

[Kath]

Kath called it on Arya taking out the Night King, was a good choice, especially with dagger that had once been used in an attempt to assassinate Bran. Better than Jon or Dany killing it, or a dragon killing it. Can't give Arya the advantage of knowing exactly where you are going to be in a place she knows that well, while tunnel visioning on something else and live to tell the tale. In the end, The Night King's fatal flaw was smugness.

Glad they got the ice zombies out of the way, so they could focus on the backstabbing to go out strong, keeping the ice zombies around any longer would have been far less encouraging in regards to the ending, than taking them out now.

The Ice Zombies were always overrated as fuck, people who are just now realizing this are feeling let down, but they were only good when we barely knew anything about them, just glad the writers were smart enough to ditch that baggage and make the ending about what the show is actually good at, well hopefully anyway.

Still think they could and probably will fuck up the ending, but this was strategically necessary to give the ending any chance of being good.

I'm stunned you aren't trashing the episode due to the obvious strategic flaws made by the North. Refreshing.

B&W said all along that they'd deal with the NK in the first half of the season, in order to focus on the big chair.

[Kath]

Night Kong’s big mistake was impatience. He took like 8 years to get there, then attacks as soon as he arrives?

He just had to siege the castle for a month with undead troops that never get hungry.

He spent those eight years trying to figure out how to bring down the wall. He would have been there in year 1, had he gotten himself a dead dragon. Once he made the wall go bye-bye, he was ready to go. He had a giant army before we met him, and then he spent the next years making his undead army larger. Hardhome didn't hurt him.

[Kath]

This series had massive potential...

But there have been signs that the writers don't exactly know where they are going with this...

If the author of series was the reason the series had potential... and he choked on his own ideas... and never completed them.

What are the odds the writers of this series are going to turn this into a legitimate work of art?

It doesn't look promising at this point.

But the jury is out.

And at the very least there were some cool dragons and zombies and we all had a lark... I'll drink to that.

That's one of the dangers of investing in a story like this. The last season of Lost was tragic, and the last episode was icing on the tragedy cake. They had a wickedly cool idea, left dozens of unanswered questions, most of which didn't ever get answered, and then when the final episode came along, they just threw some shit at the camera and hoped it all worked out.

This is much better than that.

Next, keep in mind that they definitely sacrificed good strategy for good film. Watching the Dothraki get swallowed up was powerful tv, even though I groaned at the strategy as they set out.

Last thing is that none of these people have read The Art of War, and none of them are genius generals. Jon proved his incompetence in the Bastards, Dany has always gotten by just sending her hoard in and Davos & Brienne had no real experience being a general. The only one who comes close is Jamie, and he wasn't high up on the, "trust this guy," list.

[Montegriffo]

[SuburbanFarmer]

This series had massive potential...

But there have been signs that the writers don't exactly know where they are going with this...

If the author of series was the reason the series had potential... and he choked on his own ideas... and never completed them.

What are the odds the writers of this series are going to turn this into a legitimate work of art?

It doesn't look promising at this point.

But the jury is out.

And at the very least there were some cool dragons and zombies and we all had a lark... I'll drink to that.

That's one of the dangers of investing in a story like this. The last season of Lost was tragic, and the last episode was icing on the tragedy cake. They had a wickedly cool idea, left dozens of unanswered questions, most of which didn't ever get answered, and then when the final episode came along, they just threw some shit at the camera and hoped it all worked out.

This is much better than that.

Next, keep in mind that they definitely sacrificed good strategy for good film. Watching the Dothraki get swallowed up was powerful tv, even though I groaned at the strategy as they set out.

Last thing is that none of these people have read The Art of War, and none of them are genius generals. Jon proved his incompetence in the Bastards, Dany has always gotten by just sending her hoard in and Davos & Brienne had no real experience being a general. The only one who comes close is Jamie, and he wasn't high up on the, "trust this guy," list.

Let’s just imagine that you’re writing/directing the biggest show on television, set in a medieval period. You’re not even going to look at actual medieval tactics?

[DrYouth]

He spent those eight years trying to figure out how to bring down the wall. He would have been there in year 1, had he gotten himself a dead dragon. Once he made the wall go bye-bye, he was ready to go. He had a giant army before we met him, and then he spent the next years making his undead army larger. Hardhome didn't hurt him.

These are the undead...

They are nightmare creatures.

And victory over monsters has always involved superstition... not strategy.

Crosses for vampires, silver bullets for werewolves.... etc.

They are not complex personalities... they are boogeymen through and through... Cersi, for example, is a different matter.

So the NK's behaviour makes perfect sense as nightmare creatures that do not pursue human logic.

That being said, the humans are expected to at least attempt human strategies... so some effort to portray the human strategy as realistic would have been nice... I think they get part marks for that.

[GloryofGreece]

The people that want other people to be pissed or disappointed and then are not mad enough are a hoot to watch. Its glorious to see others upset that others are not upset. "Don't yall all know this is not high art and don't you all know you should be mad that you wasted hours of your free time on this!!!"

[Kath]

Let’s just imagine that you’re writing/directing the biggest show on television, set in a medieval period. You’re not even going to look at actual medieval tactics?

Addressed in my post.

The people that want other people to be pissed or disappointed and then are not mad enough are a hoot to watch. Its glorious to see others upset that others are not upset. "Don't yall all know this is not high art and don't you all know you should be mad that you wasted hours of your free time on this!!!"

I refuse to be upset that a story based on pure fantasy, isn't realistic enough.

And victory over monsters has always involved superstition... not strategy.

Crosses for vampires, silver bullets for werewolves.... etc.

They are not complex personalities... they are boogeymen through and through... Cersi, for example, is a different matter.

So the NK's behaviour makes perfect sense as nightmare creatures that do not pursue human logic.

The NK was both sentient and smart. He knew how to direct his "army." Do you think those creatures decided to create a mound of bones over the fire moat for the other creatures, without direction from NK?

Any creature that is part and/or ex - human is not solid monster who only functions on raw instinct. I believe the only reason he didn't attack sooner was the problem with The Wall. He was already ready for war; he just needed to solve for the wall.

[DBTrek]

The people that want other people to be pissed or disappointed and then are not mad enough are a hoot to watch. Its glorious to see others upset that others are not upset. "Don't yall all know this is not high art and don't you all know you should be mad that you wasted hours of your free time on this!!!"

Who’s mad, sourpuss? I don’t see any anger, aside from you rushing on here after every critique to get all defensive ... as if you had anything to do with the show beyond mindless consumption. Don’t take it so personal, guy. You have literally nothing to do with the production of the show. No one is criticizing you.