I think it would have been more realistic when Jon Snow found out that Daenarys was his Aunt if he had that look of surprise and disbelief melt away and turn into disgust and then he throws up.

I thought the single best scene in the episode is where Sam meets Danaerys and he finds out what happened to his father and brother. What a powerful piece of acting that was.

Very true, we had just ordered HBO just for this through Amazon. On a smart TV you scroll over to GoT and there were these small clips that I'm assuming are place holders for each episode. One of them shows where they all were when they started. Sam only had 3 hours of camera time before his first scene and John had his first in episode 1.

Where were random tragic events? All your faves have survived, and the one-dimensional bad guy was defeated by surprise out-of-nowhere trope.

Dothraki, an entire race, all gone in two minutes. No examination of that.

The crypt - yeah. Part of The Poor Plan No real examination of the effect of family members breaking out to attack.

The Poor Plan in general, doesn't anyone imagine the night king would sniff out the most obvious trap ever devised? And to have only Theon as the plan's guardian, the most central strategy is left to him?

Lots of characters getting into impossible positions, yet somehow finding themselves in a non-impossible position a few minutes later.

Lots of characters almost being killed, only to be saved at the last second by surprise rear attack from another character. Meh.

Night King defeat from nowhere. Maybe the next episode will provide flashbacks to make this not nonsense, fingers crossed.

I would have liked to see more of the zombie animals. Polar bears, horses, even the giant ice spiders from the books

The giant was awesome.

The sense of dread.

The Unsullied performed impeccably, as you would expect. They just did everything they were supposed to correctly.

Dragon on dragon action. Woof.

Maybe it was just the mood I was in, maybe I have to watch it again, but I think I liked the Battle of the Bastards more than I did the Battle of Winterfell. I really felt more for the characters there, especially for Jon Snow, especially when he was being trampled unknowingly by his own men...there was alot of empathy there. Then the outcome and how Ramsay got his just desserts wrapped everything up well.


The Battle of Winterfell, I too had the issue that out of nowhere here come Arya Stark. the way she kills the Night King was great, but WTF did she come from? It seemed like lazy writing to me. But, I think overall it was not bad. I had a hard time dealing with the whole episode being at night at first because they filmed the fight scenes with such a close angle you really couldn't tell how was hacking who. I did get used to it after awhile and then the whole battle just became creepy. You can't see who is who, you don't know who you are fighting or who will jump you next, and they're DEAD to begin with.

It really sucked that the Dothraki were wiped out in an instant, but it was cool in the manner that they filmed that, seeing their flaming sickle swords going out one by one. Then the few horses coming back riderless...

Melisandra...It was good I thought that she was there to redeem herself, and to ultimately give herself up in the end. I almost forgot about her amulet...I kinda wish they showed her growing old as she walked off into the....sunrise?

Sansa sure has alot of explaining to do. I can see the Crypt survivors going, "Hey, she was gonna run and leave us and bring that imp with her!"

The Hound---I have a feeling that really was keeping him from fighting back was that there was so much fire involved.

Did Tormund survive? I hope so. What about the dragon that was overrun by zombies? I wasn't clear on that. What exactly is the undead dragon breathing? I keep thinking back to my AD&D days and how blue dragons had icy breath...what was his dragon's blue flame? Also, what about Sam? Did he live?

That really sucked when the Night King raised the dead just as Jon Snow got to him. I'm very surprised that he survived that.

It also sucked when the crypt corpses came alive. That was a dirty trick on the Night King's part. Man it would suck to be say Sansa and get killed by zombie Dad Stark.

MVP fighter of the Battle of Winterfell? Lyanna Mormont. She kept rallying the troops throughout, keeping command and control, and despite being in a killing crush of the giant, she friggin took him out singlehandedly! Way to go! Then, she rises from the dead to wreak more havoc (well, onto her own side, but hey, she kept fighting!!!)

Most heart-wrenching death? Jorah Mormont. After all he'd been through, for Danerys, and there he was at the end, fighting for her, and slipping into death after saving her without even a last word.

Next most heart-wrenching death? Theon Greyjoy. Again, after all he'd been through....seeing him lying there slowly dying as Brann gets overrun...that sucked.

Most useless and wasteful person? Brann. Never liked the guy, and especially now. OO, he turned to the 3 eye crow and can see what is going on. Big deal, give the engineers of Westeros enough time and they'll have a drone too. All those people died for him and for what? What did he possibly contribute to the cause? I thought that if they really wanted to make it interesting, they should somehow reveal that he and the Night King are somehow one and the same, or have some kind of symbiosis going, because all this time I kept thinking about how similar the two looked.

"there was alot of empathy there."
I think that everyone was in a nearly panic state. There were too many of them and it was all you could do to watch your own ass let alone watch someone elses.

"...out of nowhere here come Arya Stark."
Yeah, honestly, that was lazy writing. I would rather have seen her slowly working her way towards him. The suspense of wether or not she would make it. The last time we see her before that, it doesn't seem as though she was anywhere near there. But, what the hell.

"The Hound---I have a feeling that really was keeping him from fighting back was that there was so much fire involved."
I thought that was exactly the reason. He certainly wasn't somone to avoid a fight.

"What about the dragon that was overrun by zombies? I wasn't clear on that"
Wasn't he the one that joins her when the batle is over. He lands next to her and protectively wraps a wing around her. Or was that the wounded one that Jon was on? I thought Jon's dragon crash landed and died. Maybe I'm not clear on that, either.

"he and the Night King are somehow one and the same,"
There is a possiblity that this is the case. That he wanted to kill Brann so that he would never become the Knight King. There are a lot of hints to that effect during previous episodes. In one episode, they show the man who became the Knight King with his arms stretched out in a Christ on the Cross type of pose. Brann sees this, and when he goes back into his own body, the camera pans out and he is in the same pose.

I didn't think the battle would end there. There are still a couple of more episodes. Will they attack Cierci for betraying them? Do they even have a large enough army left to fight with? We shall see!

I wondered so as well, especially with the one of them turning his head just before her attack. But then again, them white walkers tend to break into shards when killed - would need a lot of superglue to put a face back together
Regarding the Dothraki charge instead of flanking and harassing against vastly superior numbers - indeed a strange way to apply a light (and ranged - haven't seen any of that) cavalry - but I would put the blame on the general coming up with such a cunning plan. Must have been the same guy that taught Theon about attacking with a spear - he did a great job in the defense, stabbing them at range etc. But as soon as he goes on attack, charge into enemy melee range - didn't work out very well… Maybe Bran should have warged into him? Or maybe he did - he never was a great fighter
Regarding the story and plans of the Night King, I hope in the books we will get an hour or five of Bran reciting at the fireplace.

Lots of fans were unhappy with how this episode worked out, I was happy with it and enjoyed the outcome of the battle -- mainly because I never cared that much for the Night King anyway.
I cared a long time ago about the Night King, but after years of not really learning about his character motivations, goals or even much about his origins, he just became a hindrance in many respects. He was as was said many times "death" personified -- it sure looked for 90% of the episode like our heroes had no chance, and either the Night King or Bran was going to die and by this point neither of them were particularly interesting to me.
There is a name for characters like Bran and the Knight King, sort of like the stolen money in Psycho or the briefcase in Pulp Fiction, and after 7 years of GoT that is how I feel about TNK and Bran frankly.

That being said, I was glad to at last see some gratitude from Bran Stark.

But, then we wouldn't have got a admittedly cool visual mechanic of all the flaming swords being extinguished.

what does Jon shout when he stands up to the dead dragon? Could it be "Go!"

The Unsullied held the ranks of their formations and weren't shaken even under the heaviest onslaught, maintaining discipline the whole time.

Considering their whole purpose and training was to defeat the Dothraki, it makes sense that a mass charge against them would generally fail.

When given the order to retreat, it meant an ordinary withdrawl in good order, not a rout like everyone else.

This explains to the fire trench behind them. Nobody thought they'd stand their ground that long; so when the regular folks all ran into the castle (and it was time to light it) they were on the wrong side of the final protective line before the wall itself.

Greyworm gets a serious ding for closing the ditch with Unsullied on the other side yet. He should have given them the order to retreat through it.

Still, even at the end of the battle with the Army of the Dead defeated, there were still Unsullied out there in the middle of the horde thrusting away behind their shield walls.

Did Gilly and little Sam survive the crypt? I don't remember seeing them at the end.

that's exactly what I told my wife last night when he left to go back. Use his cover to get close to her, but then kill her because she promised herself to the other dude.

Having seen some of it now, as we talked earlier about military plunders - why not scout with the dragons from high up and burn them (especially Eurons fleet) in the night?!?! Burn the gates and some of the Scorpions in the night and similar such stuff... They would hardly be able to man and turn the scorpions in time to react to sweeping attacks before the dragon would vanish in the dark of night again (should probably be moonless/clouded nights)...
I am kind of glad that Tormund seems to sticks to the initial plan and that they don't draw him south with similar arguments as for the BoB.
And shall it now be Grey Worm vs. the Mountain, like Oberyn with the spear? Naaah, it's going to be Clegane Bowl, it must be!

had to bait the wights into fighting as they were just standing there waiting. It was only when they were close to defeat when the night king came out and that was their only chance to win the war.

Cavalry charge as a first move into an unseen enemy of unknown numbers and makeup? Bleah I think it was done for the (admittedly cool) visual mechanic of flaming swords being extinguished.

Artillery at the front? Artillery at the back. You want to use it for as long as possible. Probably best not to send your cavalry in frst to lower their use even more :/

All the infantry in front of the trench? With the "plan" to all move across the tiny bridge when the moment seemed right? How were they expecting to do that while under zombie rage attack? :/

Everyone stares at each other when the trench is eventually lit. Why archers not frantically picking off as many as possible from the walls? :/

The great plan of having Bran in the Godswood, the most obvious trap in the world that a 8000 year old death warlock has never seen before. :/

Night King's main power is to raise the dead. Lets put our most vulnerable people in the crypt :/

The Mountain will be revealed to be a wight (Benjen Stark like) - might happen in a fight with Grey Worm dealing supposed to be deadly blows that the Mountain shrugs off (and ultimately kills the attacker). Hound to win the day, but how? Well why, kill it with fire , of course! It's the foundation of their whole story - the Hound overcoming his fear for fire to defeat his tormentor.

Everything has turned to **** and nothing planned turned out the way they thought. Except maybe Sandor's. Daenerys's vision from several seasons ago seems to have come to pass. I don't know why she rained hell onto civilians and not go straight for the keep, but hey-ho. Mad is mad.