Game of Thrones Season 8 Discussion Thread

[Mr. Morden]

I have no idea how anyone can think this episode was rushed.

The Theon/Yara story was rushed.  The way Theon's story was set up at the end of last season, with him being the one person among our heroes who wasn't going straight to Winterfell, made it look like he was being set up for a multi-episode arc in that rescue.  But he managed to rescue her in like 30 seconds in the first episode of the season.

Also, the fact that Euron is already back in Westeros and Theon's rescue of Yara happens in Westeros rather than Essos, means that we really are presumably done seeing Essos for good.  Which I guess means that we're unlikely to see Daario again.

In other news...am I alone in wondering if Tyrion actually made some kind of secret deal with Cersei, or otherwise has something up his sleeve that he's not sharing with the others?  Sure, Sansa's got a point about Tyrion being naive to believe his sister.  But the fact that the show went out of it's way to tell us that Tyrion was naive to believe her, followed by an awkward Bran stare down of Tyrion, made it seem like the show was trying to tell us that Tyrion is hiding something here.

A less likely conspiracy theory I thought of is that Cersei didn't actually order Qyburn to commission Bronn to kill her brothers, and that Qyburn himself is doing this on his own for some unknown reason.  I really don't think that theory is true.  I just wanted to mention it so that I can get credit for thinking of it in the unlikely event it pans out. 

[Mr. Morden]

I was disappointed that the first episode only had 50 minutes.

I seem to remember that they said each of the final episodes would be 90 minutes long ...

I think they said the "average" was going to be 90 (or whatever) minutes per episode, not that they would all be 90 minutes long.

No, none of them are 90 minutes long.  Though episodes 3, 4, 5, and 6 will all be over 75 minutes.  Here are the runtimes for all of them:

https://www.buzzfeed.com/crystalro/game-of-thrones-season-8-run-times

[Mr. Morden]

What if the White Walkers only want to abduct their long lost brother, Little Sam (Gilly's son)?  They invade Winterfell and grab him, and then immediately turn around and return north, never bothering the Seven Kingdoms again?

So anyway, is there any chance Melisandre shows up in the next episode to play some role in the fight against the dead (ideally with some elephants)?  Or hey, what about Nymeria?  Maybe Bran can warg into all the animals in the forest, to help fight on the side of the living?

[Mr. Morden]

My own Hail Mary theory is that Melisandre has further developed her power to raise the dead, so that she'll show up and convert (some of) the Night King's army back to their side.

She should return with an army of red priests, who'll all spend the whole battle resurrecting everyone who falls.

[Mr. Morden]

My friends are giving me so much shlt (while also agreeing with me, I might add) since my nightmare scenario of D&D going 110% in on dumbing down the White Walkers and defeating them halfway through the final season only for the final conflict to be two aristocrats battling for the same old throne actually came true ... absolutely amazing episode until the end.  I was livid afterward, lol.  This sums up my thoughts quite nicely, but in the end they simply threw out eight years of foreshadowing and thematic progression in favor of simplicity, and it's sad:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BgnxTWW7sc

*In principle*, I don’t mind the White Walker storyline ending with 3 episodes left to go, but I agree with the rest of your post.  The White Walker storyline ended in the dumbest possible way, with our heroes pulling a The Phantom Menace and disintegrating the entire Army of the Dead just by offing its leader.  We don’t even get any additional mythology that fleshes out their motives.  Apparently “The CotF made them and then they got out of control” is the entirety of the WW mythology.  They’re just cartoon villains and nothing more.

l was hoping at the very least that there might be some wrinkle in the Night King death scenario whereby the other White Walkers are freed from his spell and now go off to make their own destiny.  But alas, they all just shatter.

[Mr. Morden]

Guys, the books are the books and the show is the show.  We have both to enjoy for what they are, so let’s do that instead of getting angry that the show and books aren’t the same (because that ship sailed in season 2, for better or worse).  I say that as someone who far prefers the books to the show.  Expecting them to be the same at this point is like asking a mongoose to be a horse.  You can scream until you’re blue in the face, but it ain’t happening.

I haven't read the books, and am just concerned with the show.  I'm saying that I think the way the WW storyline ended on the show was dumb in and of itself, without regard to how it relates to the books or anything else.

[Mr. Morden]

So is Euron going to pick up on the fact that Tyrion apparently knows about "his" baby?

[Mr. Morden]

Screw Sansa. If she ends up on the throne or ends up living while Dany dies, I'm gonna be pissed. She'd be dead if it weren't for Daenerys.

If it wasn't for Daenerys, the White Walkers never would have gotten a zombie dragon, and they'd still be stuck north of the Wall, no?  I think Sansa would still be alive in that case.

[Mr. Morden]

So do people think that's the last we see of Sam, Gilly, and Tormund, or will some subset of them be back for the finale?

Also, I'm still wondering if the demise of the White Walkers means the show is totally done with the  supernatural angle, or if there might still be some supernatural twist at the end.  The one hint in this episode is when Davos muses about what the Lord of Light really wants.  Will there still be some kind of LoL witchcraft coming into play at the end?

[Mr. Morden]

I can't believe how terrible Tyrion's advice has been.  He sucks as Hand of the Queen.  This episode showed that Dany could have gone with her original plan in the first place when she arrived in Westeros: Attack King's Landing directly, rather than "starve them out".  In this episode, she used Drogon as a precision weapon: destroying the city's air defenses and then smashing through the city wall, to let the invading army in.  Sure, in this particular case, she then went on to burn everyone anyway once the battle was won, but that's because she went crazy due to circumstances that wouldn't have applied if she'd done this in Season 7.

By following the advice of Tyrion and Varys, she failed to win a quick victory over Cersei.  If she'd won that quick victory, there would have been no reason to send an expedition north of the Wall to convince Cersei of the White Walker threat, and all three of the dragons would still be alive, and the White Walkers wouldn't have been able to make it through the Wall without Undead Dragon, so a lot more people would be alive right now.

[Mr. Morden]

I didn't understand what they were implying happened with Jon at the end.  So he joins the new Night's Watch, which seems like a pointless organization at this point, with the White Walkers being gone and the Wildlings now seemingly being on decent terms with the 6 Kingdoms.  But then he ends up riding off with the Wildlings.  Is he ditching the new Night's Watch to live with the Wildlings?  Just escorting them somewhere?  Or are the Wildlings now part of the Night's Watch or something, and he's going ranging with them?