The episode was perfect! Have to keep in mind this a 73 episode show. This was the (first?) climax. 2 episodes to deal with Cersi then last episode is a 1 hour denouement. Also, to anyone that wanted more the Knight King, Why? It's a story and it has to end at some point!

I feel like the plot armor got way too thick in this episode, but it was amazingly directed and while it did use a few tired tropes, it was an exciting watch from start to finish.

But I would really like it explained why only one fire trench was dug, and why the Dothraki were simply told to go instantly die in the dark for no reason.

Also catapults/trebuchets in front of the army and only fired once...huh?

Why couldnt Arya disguise herself as one of the night King’s generals and ice him before he staked Reek? Poor Reek. And Bram is just an annoying hipster at this point, why couldnt he send those crows on recon the night before? Next week Jon raises the unsullied and marches on!

@3: yes, those things and more.

and like, zero magic besides Melisandre and dragons? A zillion wildfire petards from the trebuchets would have been smart - and Tyrion is the one who used them in a battle previously.

But, it's a show where no one wears a hat in the winter, so...

@5: I can excuse the lack of wildfire, as it is feasible that there was no one in Winterfell who knew how to craft it, or that the ingredients were not able to be procured on short notice. Also, the narrative/aesthetic choice of the orange fire against the blue ice of the Night King makes sense to me.

Still though, a wildfire trench would have been an interesting addition, and a little nod to Tyrion's past tactical planning.

@6: Have you tried reading the books? They were what got me interested in seeing how it all ended, since It is doubtful Martin will actually ever finish them.

Wait, I thought it was too dark to see anything.

Are you sure stuff happened?

@7 I haven't read GOT but this sounds like Robert Jordan with the Wheel of Time. Too many characters, too many tangents, too unwieldy to wrap up coherently. These authors should read Jin Yong, master of long-ass but epically awesome adventure novels.

I liked the episode but it wasn't as moving to me as ep 2 this season. In fact, I feel ep 3 might end up being one of the more forgettable ones. No great dialogue that I can think of. No completely shocking deaths. Everyone that died was either a minor character or their storyline had essentially come full circle. The dothraki flaming sword charge with the siege engine fire flying overhead was the best part of the episode and that happened in what, the first 10 minutes? The dread of all their lights going out was the most tense part (though Arya's tiptoeing through the wight infested library was a very close second).

The wildfire explosion and Tyrion's battle made the blackwater episode a memorable one. The battle of the bastards was memorable, hardhome was memorable (mostly for the giant). This episode though? Just a lot of people getting out of impossible situations again and again and again. I don't mind that, and I don't mind the weird "how'd they manage that?" moments... it's fantasy/sci-fi after all... but it needed more really striking or shocking moments.

just my humble opinion.

What a storytelling disgrace. We graduated from George RR Martin - a trollish jerk but unquestionably brilliant writer, to a pair of 3rd graders with too generous mothers.

Seriously,
We heard about how many prophecies, feared the dead for how many years and screen hours, concocted how many plans to avoid the coming of the second long night and the ultimate answer was... just anyone can stab him with any old valyrian steel blade, and completely end the threat?

It doesn't need to be lightbringer? We don't need Azor Ahai? Or The Prince That Was Promised? Or the Last Hero? Or The Stallion Who Will Mount The World? Like, none of them?

So much of what happened in seasons 1-7 are rendered basically pointless. Thrones the books are a lot like The Wire in that All The Pieces Matter (a general hallmark of good storytelling) - GRRM, over something like 4,000 pages, has thus far only stuffed it with stuff that matters. The TV show is stuffed with stuff that doesn't matter.

So, to me, the battle was amazing. I loved (slash feared/dreaded) the Dothraki being killed, their swords snuffed one by one. I like how we only go a brief look at the undead horde as they approached. At several points I thought - the dead are going to win. They're going to kill EVERYONE. Now that's what I call subverting expectations - Jon and Dany's lifeless corpses, reanimated only to then march south and kill the rest of the living, ushering in a new long night - and the series ends in a few episodes with only the merest glimmer that the Long Night will end. But alas, we get Arya's leap from nowhere (seriously, the Heart Tree is at least 50 feet from the nearest structure of any kind) to kill the Night's King in one shot. On a fucking jump scare. Jesus christ guys, can you respect the previous 70 hours and millions of fans next time?

@3 insanely bad battle plan, nothing else to say. But Jon's record in battle is pretty darn bad. He also forgot that the NK can re-raise slain wights, so why was there such a plan to kill so many of them? Literally spending finite resources that the enemy can replace freely and infinitely is a one-way ticket to losing a war.

@4 She'd need a Night's King face to do that, and Others don't leave bodies when they die.

@5 Who has magic? Only pyromancers can make wildfire and almost all of the known resources were used in Blackwater, and any discovered after that were known only to Cersei and Qyburn and used to blow up the Sept at Baelor.

@10 I don't understand why they gathered all the heroes together to drink and sing songs the night before the big battle if most of them were going to survive?

@12,

I know. I'm not rooting for my favorite people to die, but c'mon... there's only 3 eps left and this was the perfect opportunity to simply do some brutal pruning, especially of people that are important but who the writers know for a fact have no further part to play. Not ALL of them, just some of them, some of the beloved ones.

As for the writing not being up to par with GRRM. What can you do... these guys aren't critically acclaimed writers and it shows. I was sorta kinda hoping the story would still hold out after they'd passed the books. But alas, it didn't. Not surprised, just disappointed. There's only so many GRRMs in the world.

Basically for the remaining episodes I'll expect a Michael Bay style treatment. Fun and flashy but utterly forgettable.

No staff predictions of Clegane Bowl, eh?

@6: The important thing is that you found the will to come into the comments to let us know.

@11: I was actually expecting the Dothraki riders to be snuffed out, then come charging back out of the darkness toward their former comrades, eyes blazing blue. I thought it would have set the table for just how overwhelming the enemy is. I was a little disappointed that didn't happen, but the literal wave of undead that appeared instead was inventive.

As for the prophecy stuff, you have a good point. I have been wondering for YEARS who might be the new embodiment of Azor Ahai, but I guess it's no one, because why the hell would he need to come back to kill... Cercei? As for the Stallion Who Mounts the World, well, Mirri Maz Duur took care of that one preemptively. It's worth remembering that most of them were glossed over for the show, those still might be explained in the final books (if we ever see them).

Guys, ARYA is the prince(ss) who was promised, and the embodiment of Azor Ahai. "Lightbringer" is merely the weapon that she ultimately used, the Catspaw Dagger. The prophecy was completed when she ended the long night and destroyed the white walkers entirely. The whole reason Melisandre came back was to basically tell you this explicitly in her scenes with Arya. Why do you think she chose to die at the end? She had seen the prophecy play out, and her role was done.

The whole point is that it was NOT a noble male warrior with a sword as bright as the sun, as everyone figured. Prophecies do not work themselves out literally in this world.

@15 There's a way the showrunners could have made Arya into Azor Ahai with only minimal changes, but as of right now, Arya does not fulfill ANY of the associations with the various prophecies. Did she retrieve "a burning sword"? Was she (re)born amidst salt and smoke? Did she forge lightbringer by attempting to quench it in the heart of her Nissa Nissa?

I'm all up for alternative prophecies, but the basics are: Notable [re]birth; failure leading to sacrifice, and eventual victory. Where are parts 1 and 2? The dragon must have three heads - it is known.

@16: The whole point is that it was NOT a noble male warrior with a sword as bright as the sun, as everyone figured. Prophecies do not work themselves out literally in this world.

It is a large point in the books that no one is really sure exactly how "magic" works, and no one is really sure why the "gods" choose those that they do. Melisandre is very clear that everything her god tells her is merely what she interprets, and that she could very well be wrong. This includes her visions and her prophecies. Didn't you notice that whenever she uses her "magic," she is never actually sure or confident that it will work?

Demanding or expecting a 100% literal and concrete prophecy that uses no wordplay or stretch of the imagination is extremely bizarre in light of this.

Arya is the closest you are ever getting, and the show was so clear on this, they were basically smashing you over the head with it the entire episode.

@15/16 Azor Ahai also needs to have Targaryen Blood, which is why Rhaegar was so adamant about having a third child when Elia Martell couldn't have anymore children. But perhaps the darkness that the prophecy alludes to was never the Night King, but something else.

"One Who Was Promised, the One, a prophesied savior in the religion of R’hllor who is the reincarnation of legendary hero Azor Ahai, is destined to “lead the people against a darkness” by wielding a flaming sword called Lightbringer."

@17 there's a huge gap between "resolved literally" and "completely a red herring". It was garbage. They took a prestige show then imported plots worth of Baywatch or Home Improvement. The issue isn't who struck the final blow, it's that as written, Bran and Melisandre were completely invalidated. The story would not have changed in any meaningful way had Bran been killed when he fell out of the tower; or had Melisandre never believed in the prophecy. Every single screen minute with them had no impact on the final story.

Check the R=AA J=LB theory for great ways to resolve the plot points literally.