I think this was fine. The leaders have been shown to do things at their own pace when they feel they're in control. They have emotions and get cocky. I think he was just enjoying the moment.

The purpose for him dying was mentioned in the behind the scenes thing, the writers wanted to send him off with the death he always wanted - protecting the Queen he loved when she needed it most. As for why they put him on the front lines and immediately plucked him back out? Beats me.

The dragon was in immediate pain and it's been shown before (in the fight arena in Meereen) that the dragons can't just immediately take flight when under fire, they have to gain some momentum first. Maybe a deer in headlights moment.

Literally everything else though, lol yeah.

Being able to hide behind bookshelves is one thing, slipping through both an army of wights and through all of the actual Walkers is another...

What an awful conclusion to the army of the dead

Literally the lamest way to kill the night king

Show should have just been delayed until the new books come out last 2 seasons have been a shadow of the shows prime

imagine hyping up a villain for 7 seasons just to have him die in about 5 seconds to a character hopping in from off-screen

i was expecting some kind of depth of the night king to be revealed? george martin is always talking about how he hated the whole good vs. evil trope yet the night king and his army are just evil incarnate and then to top it off they just get deus ex machina'd

This is very true. Although it did at least make sense in narrative terms as Arya had trained with the faceless men, so it makes perfect sense that she would be the one to assassinate the Night King. Despite all the problems with the episode I loved Jorah and Theons death scenes and they wrapped up the arcs of both characters very well.

Basically the REAL villain of the show is Cersei and the whole Army of the dead buildup existed solely to cripple Daenerys' army. Her fight against Cersei would have been over in 5 minutes if she had her entire army and 3 fully grown dragons.

Really disappointed in this episode tbh because I think this is the culmination of what has been a recurring theme throughout the series of characters essentially fucking up massively by any calculation of the rules of the world and willingly putting themselves into a terrible situation, only to get saved through sheer blind luck. It's the exact same with the Battle of the Bastards: Jon has a clear battle-plan and a possible way to win but he gets baited by Ramsay and makes a ridiculously stupid mistake of charging with no formation that should really have cost him the battle and his life, were his plot armour not so thick. Just as in this episode, pretty much every smart military plan they had made (holding the dragons back for the night king, lighting the ditch with Drogon when the dead get close) they fuck up, not to mention the ridiculous amount of utterly retarded and nonsensical mistakes (the most obvious of which was feeding the Dothraki for literally no reason, as well as forgetting that the Crypt is where corpses are put), but finally at the end they are bailed out by something that is a complete ex machina. It all feels very unearned - with the amount of great military minds in that castle you'd think someone would've had the idea that charging in all their cavalry alone at the start of the fight was a bad idea.

a small part in me just hopes that this isnt the final end of the night king and its all a massive bait or something along those lines

No wonder a tactical genius such as Eemes would highlight the crucial flaws in the strategy !

I dont actually know how to feel about the episode overall.
Like Stark mentionned, really disappointed that we get no explanation as to why the WW do what they do. Maybe we'll learn it in the coming episodes, but they Night King seemed too smart to me to just be plain evil without actual purpose.
The big tactical flaws were also really bugging me, as other mentionned before me (the crypt being safe, the Dothraki charge).

The death of the Night King is actually pretty fitting in my eyes. When you think about it, there was no "fair way" for the livings to defeat the deads, and if we know this, then so does the NK. His last scene makes sense, he thinks he has won so why hurry ? It's a common evil mistake but if we allow it in other creations, why not here.
As to why Arya was allowed to get this close, in that moment everyone thinks it's over, so the WW most likely have their guard down, and thus can just be surprised/taken aback by Arya appearing (she learnt how to move discretely). Now is the NK actually gone, i have no clue. I wonder if the mark he left on Bran doesnt work as some sort of Horcruxe, Harry Potter style.

A main character death would have made sense on a realistic standpoint (honestly Brienne or Jaime should have died), but there is still 4 more episodes. Let's just hope we're not going toward a lame happy ending.

Part of me has been hoping that the night king wasn't like the real enemy or something and he's working for someone or something. Doesn't really feel like any purpose is fleshed out and that doesn't make sense to me.

Also can Arya not do faceless men things anymore or what?

She just sneaked through multiple wights in the library thing, bamboozled the White Walkers and assassinated the Night King, what else do you need ?

I mean the whole faceswapping thing, does that just not work on white walkers?

I feel like Theon got close enough to the NK to pull of pretty much the same trick Arya pulled and I would have preferred it that way because it would make the Theon character arc ending even stronger and because when Arya does it it just feels like someone pulling a WWE signature move out of no where.
I also agree with Eemes' analysis except for the Crypts part because i felt like because of Stark's history the bodies would be buried well enough so they won't be turned to zombies and try to kill everyone.
Also most deaths were pretty cool

did anyone get a charge of the light brigade feeling with the dothraki charge?

feel like the show has really moved away from its roots at a basic level. Atleast before I'd describe GoT as a "realistic fantasy show", meaning it's set in a fantasy world but still rooted and confined to some general realism. Some of the stuff in the latest episode I feel was worse than ever before tbh

The Dothraki feeding in the first 10 min of the episode was the best part honestly, shame they didn't build up better on that.

Also bran goes like " theon gtg" then just plays Crow Flight simulator 2000 while everyone dies? Wtf was that about, they better explain this.

This isn't true and I agree with Ombrack here. Bran could probably see what was going to happen and knew Arya was coming. There is absolutely no way Theon could have just charged in and killed the Night King surrounded by White Walkers. The show had spent seasons with Arya training to be a Faceless Man, who are basically known to be the most silent and deadly assassins in the world.

It was anti-climatic and I think the show could have used an extra season but having Arya be the one to kill the Night King was very clever. She sneaks past the White Walkers and when the Night King grabs her by the neck she stabs him in the tiny gap in his armor. NO other character in the show would have been able to get past the white walkers and kill the Night King other than Arya.

Theon's arc thoughout the show (and books) is about his betrayal to the starks and then his redemption in sacrificing himself and I found it a fitting end for him.

I think people are being a little harsh on this episode and in my opinion and this season (so far) has been better than the last 3 seasons, Also people say that no main characters were killed but most of them were in the crypts and Jamie, Brienne and the Hound are 3 of the strongest and smartest warriors and they know when to retreat and where to position themselves.

Their whole plan was to bait the Night King to Bran as that was the only way they could win. Bran was basically using his warging powers to scout for the Night King and to see what's going on from what I can tell.

would've been dope if the dothraki charge in, lights go out, and then they charge back as undead back out of the darkness

As unbelievable and shitty as much of the episode was, I can't say I'm not happy that the whole white walker plot line has ended. Hopefully the show can go back to having some semblance of political intrigue again (probably not).

Was just considering how long the high sparrow arc was.... and then how this episode just went... rly makes you think

Can anyone explain why the plan consisted of fighting the undead army in front of Winterfell instead of just holding the city walls initially? I feel like that would of made lighting the trench much easier as well. I understand that their plan was to lure the night king to Bran but that makes the makes the entire battle before the night king made it to Bran feel so pointless. Was the battle outside Winterfell, the following retreat to Winterfell, and the subsequent undead swarm and breach of Winterfell somehow supposed to lead the night king to Bran?

There are so many ways the fight could of been done to be not be ridiculously dumb. If you want to effectively buy time just light the trench beforehand with the dragons and hold the walls with the entire army. Instead of sacrificing all of your Calvary right at the beginning of the battle maybe use them to send a strike force while the undead are focused on the city walls to kill the night king? I think calvary leading a charge through the undead with dragons breathing fire to break a path open would of made for an awesome scene.

I like the idea of Arya killing the night king, but why not instead of having her pop out of no where after somehow sneaking through the city, maybe have her take on the face of an undead and have her approach from behind as an an undead only to stab the night king. Would of put more meaning to Arya's faceless men arc.

I think it's pretty thoroughly shown that the faceswapping stuff takes time, and you essentially remove the face from a corpse. Not sure how it would work on corpses that aren't preserved (she killed Walder Frey with the intent of taking his face).

overall it was a good episode, albeit one with weird plot holes in places and barely any character progression, and one that needed to be had since there's no other way to end this plot arc than a big fight and someone striking a key blow which will always feel anticlimactic. they made an hour long battle scene not boring, and the music and cinematography of the final few minutes made the end enjoyable

Arya is a sick spy main. Even stabby stabby was impressed by that trickstab.

at least they have enough food for everyone now