Only thing I can think of is they didn't have enough time to fortify the entire castle 360. So they had no time to have more earth and timber fortifications.

What they did drove me nuts. I literally lost sleep last night over the incompetence. Maybe they were just trying to control the attack path vs being surrounded?

4/29/2019 4:24:05 PM

4/29/2019 4:27:23 PM

Hey btw to people who say "the night king is 2nd today cersei" and "this is Game Of THRONES after all!!"

The very first scene of the show and very first chapter of the book are each about the walkers

And

While the TV show is called Game of Thrones, *nerdiest voice imaginable* the book series is called A Song of Ice and Fire. Only the first book is Game of Thrones.

4/29/2019 4:35:22 PM

Quote :

"They mentioned something in an earlier season about a wargs body dying while warging and that their soul stays in that animal I think."

I’m not sure if this is explicitly stated in the show universe but it is in the books and gets brought up a lot in theory videos. Some thought Jon warged into Ghost after he was stabbed to death but the show didn’t credit that.

The show has mentioned that killing the warg animal like that wildling with the hawk or whatever can super fuck up the warg.

Y’all are being a bit critical of Jon on the bad general stuff. I agree it’s really dumb but he decided all of this stuff in a room full of military leaders. Him (bastards) and Dany (winterfell) impulsively/emotionally deviating from the plans is kinda the bigger fuckup. Do agree that I’m not sure what the dothraki were supposed to accomplish with what looked like their standard steel ankhs

4/29/2019 6:55:59 PM

the WWs are like the 2007 Patriots.

4/29/2019 8:17:40 PM

i think ep3 was meant for the big screen. Streaming was fucking with the black pixels too much or the compression based on connection. blu-ray release will be on point.

4/30/2019 7:40:30 AM

I have the same complaint as everyone else - the show was just too dark to see anything. Streamed it on a Surface tablet.

4/30/2019 8:15:31 AM

So what do we think will happen the last 3 episodes? I noticed Miguel Sapochik is directing episode 5 so I'm wondering if that means the Kings Landing battle will be then and next week will be fallout from the Battle of Winterfell. Maybe we'll find out where Bran went for the majority of the battle

4/30/2019 8:39:55 AM

Next episode will be recovery from the Battle of Winterfell and setting up ep 5, which will be the attack on King's Landing.

Ep5 will be the battle itself. Climax of the battle will probably be Stark/Targaryan forces storming the throne room and the Mountain hacking them to pieces. Then the Hound will come in an there will be an epic battle between the two.

Ep6 will be Cersei's death and whatever the final outcome as to who sits on the Iron Throne will be. OR, since this is GoT, there will be some kind of unexpected ending where Cersei wins or something crazy like that.

4/30/2019 9:38:20 AM

Quote :

"So what do we think will happen the last 3 episodes?"

So let's take a look at the plotlines that are resolved, and ones that need to be resolved. I think next episode will largely be a regroup/setup. Episode 5 could very well be the battle. Episode 6 the fallout/epilogue maybe.

Characters/Plotlines now dead:

Dolorous Edd - Night's Watch plotline is over. Don't see what more is left with them and the wall.
Lyanna Mormont - Not sure they'll do anything more with Bear Island
Beric Dondarrion - Companions and red god plotline over.
The Night King - Bran explaining what he saw when he ravened / was that close to the NK is the only way we'll know anything more than we do now about him. Seems like this is more likely as a spin-off.
Ice Viserion - Over.
Jorah Mormont - Token death. Plotline over.
Melisandre - Red god plotline over, though it probably shouldn't be because it's clearly demonstrated magic (mass fire, resurrections, demons, etc.)
Theon Greyjoy - The only surviving plotline from dead characters.

Basically, I think they have a funeral or some kind of morning for the dead and then trying to figure out how to rally their forces against Cercei. During the funeral/mourning maybe they'll be some random wrap-ups like who gets Bear Island, Heartsbane, etc.

As far as mobilizing the armies of the North I think this is where Yara will come back into play with the Iron Fleet. I guess they'd call for the Knights of the Vale and maybe deal with the disloyalty of House Glover.

There hasn't been much said about Dorne. Maybe they'll join up and help corner Cercei from the south (she mentions having enemies to the north, south, west, etc.). They butchered this plot line.

The Tyrion/Bran conversation likely has to resolve. Tyrion will also likely shine next episode to make up for all of his recent strategic shortcomings.

There will probably be some new/solidified alliances based on the comraderie of defeating the NK together. Dany and Sansa have to reconcile their distrust, which might be helped by the fact that...

Jon and Dany have to reconcile who has the claim to the throne. Wouldn't be surprised if they marry next episode. Joining the houses should help tie up everything between Jon/Dany/Sansa/Northmen.

There's the Iron Bank and Golden Company subplot and that could come into play here. This video does a good job outlining some theories on that https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCL4HmdSIPs. Basically, there is a ton of foreshadowing that you don't fuck with the Iron Bank or they fund your enemies, but have been unable to do so because the crown/Lannisters owe so much that it makes more sense to collect first. Cercei supposedly paid this debt in full with the Highgarden assets, but the Iron Bank, using the Golden Company may end up setting an example on her. I think this would be an interesting ironic twist on the Rains of Castamere, with Cercei being the "proud lord" that wouldn't bow to the power of the banking institution.

In either case, without the Dothraki and ships to take on Euron's superfleet, I'm not sure how else the North would have the strength to fight her, given the time and resources she's had to prepare.

Zombie Gregor vs. Sandor / Qyburn - Cleganebowl? Seems like even if this was never going to happen in the books, it will in the show. It's just too popular of an idea. Will the crossbows bring down another/both dragons? I don't see this finishing up with dragons flying around. I could even see the last scenes being the discovery of previously unknown eggs, hinting that the cycle of power/war is likely to continue in the future (I think that's the main metaphor here - a little more on that below).

Arya - I'm not sure what she has left to give to the plot. She's either the tragic main character death or she sails off into the sunset. Maybe Gendry comes into play here as a callback to season 1 where Ned/Robert talk about joining houses, etc. I don't see her making another big kill or Gendry going back to making armor. My money is on him winning the throne just to return back to where it started, i.e. war/politics is cyclical and harmful for no real gain.

Faceless men - are they still after her? was the NK just her ultimate test? this would have to be a quick resolution. maybe J'aqen H'agar (spelling?) meets her in passing and tells her he's proud or something and that the debt to the god of death is squared. Maybe he/they kill her afterall?

Missandei/Grey Worm - this is stupid and I hope they die, but this show has lost its teeth in that department. Maybe they'll be the token deaths in future episodes.

Jamie/Cercei + Tyrion/Bronn - I think Jamie will end up killing her, but regardless this has to resolve. Bronn will probably double cross Cercei.

Sam will survive to tell the tale. I guess the wifey and baby do too.

Not sure about Brienne and what's left for her to fulfil. I think we'll see Podrick (ultimately survives) knighted soon.

No idea what they'll do with Varys and if he'll have any big reveal or something that helps the good guys win.

I'm sure I'm forgetting some other things, but this is what came to mind and it's a ton to resolve. It will be interesting to see how they do it in three episodes and, no doubt, some of it will get left unexplained.

[Edited on April 30, 2019 at 10:08 AM. Reason : .]

4/30/2019 10:03:51 AM

Are the dornish girls still captive in King's Landing rotting away? I don't think they need to close anything out there just curious if they may come up again.

4/30/2019 11:13:56 AM

they kill her daughter in front of Ellaria with a poison kiss from Cercei (like Ellaria did to Myrcella), and then leave her corpse in the cell to rot, promising to keep Ellaria alive to watch. can't remember if it's implied that Gregor is gonna have his way with her like he does the Septa she has prisoner down there as well.

totally might/probably is the last we see of her but if they do anything to tie up the Qyburn mad-scientist torture dungeon thing I guess they'd have to come back to it and maybe show she's dead? she's the de facto ruler of Dorne and a sworn ally of Dany.

4/30/2019 11:33:14 AM

Quote :

"As far as mobilizing the armies of the North I think this is where Yara will come back into play with the Iron Fleet. I guess they'd call for the Knights of the Vale and maybe deal with the disloyalty of House Glover. "

The only "iron fleet" is eurons. Almost all of yaras ships were destroyed.

Knights of the Vale were already at Winterfell and mostly killed Sunday night. Or at least a large portion.

Glover storyline was closed in episode 1 of this season

Edit: actually I think you mean Umber/Karstark. Either way, that's done

[Edited on April 30, 2019 at 12:54 PM. Reason : E]

4/30/2019 12:52:07 PM

Seems like the Iron Fleet is the ripest to get picked off honestly. You have an armada of wooden boats and 2 dragons. I didn't see any of those boats armed with the big javelin gun, so they're basically just sitting targets if they're still at sea.

That being said, their entire point was bringing the mercenaries in, so I'm guessing the ships will end up burning or just sitting out in the sea during a massive land battle. Potentially they're spared so Yara can reclaim them after the battle.

I just don't see how the North has enough able-bodied fighters after the Battle of Winterfell at this point. They had to lose 75-80% of their fighting force, but I guess having 2 dragons makes up for a LOT.

Will be interesting to see where they're able to get extra forces from, because the Lannister army is just sitting their fully stocked and waiting.

4/30/2019 2:00:18 PM

Who cares about their fighting force. Have the dragons kill the fighters and have arya kill cersei and euron. Game over. Anything more complex than that is bc the writers can't make it that easy. Arya will probably become burnt out about killing now.

4/30/2019 2:32:26 PM

They don't seems capable of writing anything more complex than that these days.

4/30/2019 2:53:51 PM

4/30/2019 3:06:37 PM

rwoody the Umbers were the ones that got destroyed with the kid mutilated. House Glover was the one that sent a Raven saying they weren't going to come help. Maybe they were overrun as well, but it's not certain. Still, they might not even come back to it at all.

You're right about the Iron Fleet. I still feel like Yara is going to miraculously show up with a bunch of ships, though, somehow. we've seen them crank out ships at an impossible pace before so I just don't see the Iron Islands sitting this out. Maybe she gets the iron fleet to betray Euron (but I guess she would have done that before if she could) by appealing to their water god leader selection ritual? Who knows.

Going back and looking at pics/episode 2 it looks like the Knights were in the battle after all, under Brienne's command. Reddit seems to think there are massive foces in reserve from the Vale since they haven't been affected much by the War of Five Kings, they have small houses to call upon, and may be the defense point for a retreat by either Winterfell vs. the dead, or for Dany's Army vs. Cercei.

Regarding resources:

Quote :

"Prior to the Battle of Winterfell, Daenerys had approximately 10,000 Northerners, 10,000 Knights of the Vale, fewer than 8,000 Unsullied, and fewer than 100,000 Dothraki...On Cersei’s side, she’s got 20,000 strong from the Golden Company (at a heavy cost to the Crown), a small Lannister army that’s probably less than 10,000 soldiers, and around 30,000 Ironborn from Euron. She also likely has more ships than Daenerys, given that Euron built 900 ships, as revealed early on in season 7...Cersei could also have more wildfire, not counting the stores she used to blow up the Sept of Baelor in season 6"

https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/29/18522103/game-of-thrones-got-season-8-hbo-final-battle-of-winterfell-daenerys-targaryen-cersei-lannister

So yeah, either there has to be a massive reserve army, a doublecross, or some other tricksy trickses.

4/30/2019 4:29:29 PM

Or just dragons and arya. Also 30000 from euron?

Are they missing a decimal place? As I'm typing this I went and looked that euron said he has 1000 ships. That is either hyperbole or this show is even more fantasy then I thought.

You're right about the Umbers thing, was so light in forgot about it. Seems strong/cruel to call that disloyalty but we'll see (maybe? I would be less surprised if we never heard from them again). The Reeds weren't there either.

4/30/2019 5:24:04 PM

great posts ncsuallday!

4/30/2019 8:07:07 PM

Daario and the Second Sons?

5/1/2019 8:00:28 AM

^ Good point, I feel like he has to show up somehow. Maybe in the closing scene Return of the Jedi style

5/1/2019 12:31:47 PM

Bran wakes up from season 1 and says "I just had the weirdest dream!" and the TV turns black.

5/1/2019 12:48:29 PM

Hahaha that would be great

5/1/2019 12:57:42 PM

Maybe Ghost finds Nymeria (Arya's Dire Wolf that fled back in season 1 when Cercei ordered it her to be killed) and her pack, and they replace the Dothraki Calvary in the upcoming fight against Cercei. Would be so tight.

5/1/2019 1:40:08 PM

^^^Na, Bran wakes up and he's in a church surrounded by a bunch of people he doesn't know. He talks to a few people and meets Dr. Jack Shephard and Kate Austen. He finds out that they've all been dead the entire time.

Fades to black.

Internet explodes.

5/1/2019 1:52:02 PM

i want to know the story of the catspaw dagger, it was in the book sam read at the citadel so it's obviously more significant than we know

5/1/2019 2:26:35 PM

I think it ends with someone saying "winter is coming" indicating the cycle continues.

[Edited on May 1, 2019 at 3:16 PM. Reason : .]

5/1/2019 3:12:18 PM

Quote :

"great posts ncsuallday!"

thanks, yo

Quote :

"Daario and the Second Sons?"

I forgot all about that dude. I thought him staying in Mereen was just a consolation prize for getting dumped, but it might be intentional that the audience forgot about him. I'd be surprised if he makes another appearance though.

Ha Nymeria and the super pack would be so awesome and I loved hearing whispers of them in the books in the Brienne/Riverlands chapters, but D&D have said that the reason we don't see the wolves more is that with CGI it's easy to make a dragon because we have no basis of comparison for how they move, whereas CGI wolves just look wonky.

I watched episode 3 again last night and maybe it was just because it was on my computer, but I feel like they adjusted the brightness as a whole. I felt better about it after watching it again and having a better sense of what was going on, but holy shit the amount of totally overrun people that look like goners and then surivive was just stupid.

Side note - watching with Hue lighting and the LightSync app was incredible. the scenes going from like pitch black to a flash of fire and your whole rooms lights up was almost blinding. definnitely recommend them, but they're also super addictive.

5/3/2019 9:52:16 AM

^HBO definitely changed the brightness from Sunday. We watched it Wednesday night on the same TV and it was a lot brighter this time around.

5/3/2019 10:18:19 AM

Wish I could embed twitter videos but:
https://twitter.com/DragonflyJonez/status/1124157417787396097?s=19

https://twitter.com/iseelucidly/status/1124165409039687680?s=19

5/3/2019 10:37:34 AM

^ I really enjoyed that first video.

So much laziness/incompetence from the director and cinematographer. My wife and I switched from "good" (0.27 GB of data per hour) quality on Amazon HBO's subscription service to "better" (0.77 GB/hour) quality and didn't notice hardly any difference. Apparently, darkness is a metaphor for the allies struggles and represents their uneasiness in a battle with the night army. It sucks that they chose this style of filming because other battles have had smooth sequences in the past 7 seasons.

https://comicbook.com/tv-shows/2019/04/29/game-thrones-long-night-battle-winterfell-lighting-dark-cinematography/

5/3/2019 1:15:25 PM

I have never been more creeped out than when those Dothraki lights went out and when the first waves of undead hit the battle line.

I have some issues with the setup for the battle. They knew better than to sit and wait for the endless horde of undead.

And way too many main characters survived.

[Edited on May 4, 2019 at 10:52 AM. Reason : fsdf]

5/4/2019 10:52:02 AM

Alt Shift X nailed it: https://youtu.be/fwWqI4AJLmY

This episode was pretty fucking bad. I hope the last three episodes make up for it, but with the writers having no creativity without GRRM source material I'm not counting on it. At least their Hollywood writing will ensure we get the Clegane Bowl

5/5/2019 8:16:54 AM

I think I just uncovered a really sneaky easter egg from last Sunday's episode. I think this easter egg tells us who is going to ultimately win the Iron Throne.

This is an overhead shot of Winterfell's main gate before the battle starts. The gates are swinging open, and the light from the torch's on the other side begin to illuminate the muddy foot prints that fan out from the gate inside the castle.



Then, the shadow of a lone person begins to creep up the middle of the shot, as you can see here:






And that's when I realized- The footprints fan out in such a way to make it appear that we are looking at a stylized silhouette of the iron throne (example below).





And the shadow cast by the person coming through the gate? The one who's shadow "sits" upon the iron throne?


MELISANDRE.





This means Melisandre is gonna likely be the person who gets the throne in the end. Which would be a helluva twist since we saw her die and turn to dust in the episode. But we also know that death isn't very permanent if you are a red priest in this show. I just think there is no way they insert this obvious "throne shot" by accident. Melisandre will rule the 7 kingdoms- Or maybe she won the throne on behalf of her god?






[Edited on May 5, 2019 at 1:09 PM. Reason : Queen Meli]

[Edited on May 5, 2019 at 1:11 PM. Reason : All Hail]

5/5/2019 1:04:40 PM

supposedly ep 4 has leaked. careful of the interweb.

Also some posters who posted a nice list of spoilers have been 100% correct so far, beware of that list.

Tl;DR writers fucked this show.

5/5/2019 5:08:11 PM

My Melisandre theory is based on observations from last week's ep. So not technically a spoiler, but I'm pretty sure it's gonna happen

5/5/2019 8:04:21 PM

Cersei is very on again off again with wanting to kill tyrion

5/5/2019 10:24:59 PM

^^ I just rewatched the entire series and Im pretty sure this checks out.

5/5/2019 10:31:17 PM

Jesus the writing in this show has really just gone to shit. I actually enjoyed the buildup of the first two episodes...but the last two have just been so fucking horrible. Its obvious they just rushed to put this together...and it sucks.

For instance...all the death in ep 3 but they want me to believe now that half the dothraki and unsullied are still alive? Go home benioff and weiss...youre drunk

5/6/2019 12:26:47 AM

How the fuck do a bunch of ships sneak attack two dragons

5/6/2019 12:33:37 AM

My recollection is them showing dramatically smaller unsullied troops and I don’t remember seeing any Dothraki in the last episode.

5/6/2019 1:05:57 AM

Cersei hates Tyrion more than anything. Why not shot him after beheading Missandei? Shit why not just aimed all the heavy arrows at the last dragon.
Theres gonna be a lot of "dafuq" moments.

5/6/2019 1:06:34 AM

I took it as she saw the ships and were heading in to attack them not realizing they had the arrows on board capable of killing the dragon. But maybe it was suppose to be they were hidden and a surprise attack?

I liked the events of -> coming to attack -> dragon dies -> whole fleet blown to pieces -> retreat after total disaster -> show up at castle and be like, “hey you should really give up.”

5/6/2019 5:20:29 AM

These dragons are worthless

5/6/2019 6:15:13 AM

Even if, somehow, Dany didn't see the ships coming while a thousand feet in the air and Euron really did sneak up on them, why wouldn't Dany simply fly behind the ships and light them up? It's not like the ships could move, and the scorpions look pretty stationary.

Then there's the undressing of Jaime's redemption story arc

And the coffee cup that was left on screen in Winterfell.

I'm trying to enjoy this season, but man the writers suck

5/6/2019 6:53:03 AM

they basically blew the budget on the dark ass winterfell ep, and now have to kill off CGI. kill a dragon and send ghost with the wildlings

Dany keeps picking her Dragons over here people. left the fleet to get fucked up.

some good stuff and some really bad stuff. so far not sure if it worth the wait.

5/6/2019 7:41:44 AM

The writing in last night's episode was such bullshit. Everyone's already bitched about the ships and dragons; my thoughts echo that.

Seriously, WTF???

5/6/2019 8:37:13 AM

Quote :

"half the dothraki and unsullied are still alive?"

During that season I let out an audible "HALF!?!?"

5/6/2019 8:39:58 AM

I didn't understand the timing of Jaime's decision to leave. Is he going to try and save Cercei or does he now think that Cercei will win and is switching to the winning side? The former doesn't make since because he knew they were going down to kill her.

5/6/2019 8:49:59 AM