Game of Thrones Review: Season 8 Episode 3
What do we say to the god of death?
NOT TODAY!
Guys, that episode absolutely destroyed me! I was a nervous wreck the whole time! I was literally shaking when it was over. But, seriously, it made me horribly anxious. About half way through, I checked the time stamp, and I was like "I still have 45 minutes of this! I'm not going to make it! It's too intense." At that point, I actually wanted to stop watching because it was too much, but, by the same token, I had to keep watching.
Usually, I watch each episode several times, but I don't think I'm going to be able to watch that again! Once was enough of a heart attack.
Typically, I try to go through the events in each episode in chronological order, but I'm not even going to try to do that this week. I'm too overwhelmed by what happened to try.
Now, as much as I was shocked and overwhelmed by this episode (in a good way), and, as much as I appreciated it, I do have some nitpicks that I want to get out of the way. While I was watching the episode, I was too emotionally overwrought to care about any of these things, but now that I've had some time to process, these problems do stand out to me.
1) This episode was way too dark (in terms of lighting). I get that it was supposed to be night, but I was straining to see what was happening the whole time. True, it's realistic, but it didn't need to be that dark!
2) I always found the White Walker plot to be the least interesting element of the show. That part of the plot was rather one dimensional. Even so, they set up the threat of the White Walkers for like eight years, and then they destroyed them in one episode. I feel like that was a bit too easy. I mean, I'm glad we dealt with them, and I feel slightly relieved because now we can go on to the rest of the season and deal with Cersei without the army of the dead hanging over our heads. However, I think it would have been more true to the show if the living had lost the Battle of Winterfell. I would have liked to see the living retreat on dragon back to the Neck and meet up with the Reed family. Then, we could have had the dead in the marshes like the marsh of dead faces in Lord of the Rings. Anyway, it didn't happen, and I've moved past it. I just wanted to point out that this ending to that particular plot was not true to the expectations set up by the show.
3) What's the point of having a burning moat of fire if your infantry isn't behind it. Why not make the dead cross through the moat of fire, or, better yet, two moats of fire (if they could manage it) before they got to the soldiers? It doesn't make much sense.
4) To that point, maybe they all should have been defending the walls to begin with. It was cinematically cool to see them fighting outside the walls, but the living should have tried to prevent their people from being killed for as long as possible. Once they die, they become part of the army of the dead. That was bad planning.
5) More people should have died. Way too many main characters made it through, especially since so many people were set up to die last week. Melisandre says at one point that this is the end of the world; if this is the end of the world, more people should have died tragic, gut-wrenching deaths. Just saying.
6) What was the point of the Dothraki charge? It was just a waste of Dothraki, if you ask me. Wait for the army of the dead to come to you! SMH.
7) The crypt. No one considered that the Night King might be able to raise the dead in the crypt? No one even thought to station one or two fighters down there with them? Or give them dragon glass? Come on.
Okay, nit picking over. Moving on!
I love that the episode opens with a shot of Sam's hands shaking. I feel like we're all Sam as we're watching the episode. You really feel that fear and anxiety.
One thing I really liked about this episode was there wasn't a lot of dialogue. I felt that it really added to the tension and emotional intensity of the viewing experience.
Of course, after the armies line up, we see Melisandre riding out of the darkness. I was a bit disappointed in her role in this episode. Aside from lighting the trench (which ended up not making a huge difference after all), she didn't do much that was significant. Also, (skipping ahead here) there was no reason that she really needed to die at the end of the episode. It was all theatrics really.
Anyway, Melisandre gives the Dothraki flaming blades, and we see them charge the army of the dead. It was really cool to see the group of lights moving across the ground from above, and it was a really interesting shot to see the lights going out one by one. I think this was done to show how overwhelming the army of the dead is. However, as I said above, I feel like they wasted the Dothraki for a small payoff.
From there, things go from bad to worse. We see the defenders have to retreat very quickly, which is not too surprising because the dead just keep coming. The dragons aren't very effective because the army of the dead brings darkness and storms with them.
Now, this is where the issue with the visibility really started to come into play. When the Night King showed up on his wight dragon, I really could not see which dragon was fighting which. The scenes were cool, but I really could not figure out what was going on. My favorite shot of the entire episode was when the dragons flew up over the clouds. That was gorgeous!
Another really cool scene was when Arya was in the library with all the wights walking around. That scene reminded me so much of the raptors in the kitchen scene from Jurassic Park. That scene gave me so much anxiety, I couldn't stand it! It was fantastic though. Great television.
Of course, the best scene of the episode was when Arya killed the Night King. Everything worked in this scene: the lighting, the music, the timing; it was all great. Of course, it was really surprising when Arya jumped on him, but, of course, I didn't think that he was actually going to kill Bran, but it was still shocking when Arya killed him.
Overall, I'm relieved that the Night King has been neutralized, and I'm looking forward to seeing the show go back to dealing with politics. I think there were better ways to deal with getting rid of the Night King, but it is what it is and now we have to move forward with the plot. Game of Thrones, from my perspective, is first and foremost a story about people, not a story about magic. Many people complained that the Night King didn't get the ending he deserved as a primary villain, but I think that's because the human villains in this show have been so good. I'm looking forward to getting back to the human villains in this show.
Valar dohaeris.
NOT TODAY!
Guys, that episode absolutely destroyed me! I was a nervous wreck the whole time! I was literally shaking when it was over. But, seriously, it made me horribly anxious. About half way through, I checked the time stamp, and I was like "I still have 45 minutes of this! I'm not going to make it! It's too intense." At that point, I actually wanted to stop watching because it was too much, but, by the same token, I had to keep watching.
Usually, I watch each episode several times, but I don't think I'm going to be able to watch that again! Once was enough of a heart attack.
Typically, I try to go through the events in each episode in chronological order, but I'm not even going to try to do that this week. I'm too overwhelmed by what happened to try.
Now, as much as I was shocked and overwhelmed by this episode (in a good way), and, as much as I appreciated it, I do have some nitpicks that I want to get out of the way. While I was watching the episode, I was too emotionally overwrought to care about any of these things, but now that I've had some time to process, these problems do stand out to me.
1) This episode was way too dark (in terms of lighting). I get that it was supposed to be night, but I was straining to see what was happening the whole time. True, it's realistic, but it didn't need to be that dark!
2) I always found the White Walker plot to be the least interesting element of the show. That part of the plot was rather one dimensional. Even so, they set up the threat of the White Walkers for like eight years, and then they destroyed them in one episode. I feel like that was a bit too easy. I mean, I'm glad we dealt with them, and I feel slightly relieved because now we can go on to the rest of the season and deal with Cersei without the army of the dead hanging over our heads. However, I think it would have been more true to the show if the living had lost the Battle of Winterfell. I would have liked to see the living retreat on dragon back to the Neck and meet up with the Reed family. Then, we could have had the dead in the marshes like the marsh of dead faces in Lord of the Rings. Anyway, it didn't happen, and I've moved past it. I just wanted to point out that this ending to that particular plot was not true to the expectations set up by the show.
3) What's the point of having a burning moat of fire if your infantry isn't behind it. Why not make the dead cross through the moat of fire, or, better yet, two moats of fire (if they could manage it) before they got to the soldiers? It doesn't make much sense.
4) To that point, maybe they all should have been defending the walls to begin with. It was cinematically cool to see them fighting outside the walls, but the living should have tried to prevent their people from being killed for as long as possible. Once they die, they become part of the army of the dead. That was bad planning.
5) More people should have died. Way too many main characters made it through, especially since so many people were set up to die last week. Melisandre says at one point that this is the end of the world; if this is the end of the world, more people should have died tragic, gut-wrenching deaths. Just saying.
6) What was the point of the Dothraki charge? It was just a waste of Dothraki, if you ask me. Wait for the army of the dead to come to you! SMH.
7) The crypt. No one considered that the Night King might be able to raise the dead in the crypt? No one even thought to station one or two fighters down there with them? Or give them dragon glass? Come on.
Okay, nit picking over. Moving on!
I love that the episode opens with a shot of Sam's hands shaking. I feel like we're all Sam as we're watching the episode. You really feel that fear and anxiety.
One thing I really liked about this episode was there wasn't a lot of dialogue. I felt that it really added to the tension and emotional intensity of the viewing experience.
Of course, after the armies line up, we see Melisandre riding out of the darkness. I was a bit disappointed in her role in this episode. Aside from lighting the trench (which ended up not making a huge difference after all), she didn't do much that was significant. Also, (skipping ahead here) there was no reason that she really needed to die at the end of the episode. It was all theatrics really.
Anyway, Melisandre gives the Dothraki flaming blades, and we see them charge the army of the dead. It was really cool to see the group of lights moving across the ground from above, and it was a really interesting shot to see the lights going out one by one. I think this was done to show how overwhelming the army of the dead is. However, as I said above, I feel like they wasted the Dothraki for a small payoff.
From there, things go from bad to worse. We see the defenders have to retreat very quickly, which is not too surprising because the dead just keep coming. The dragons aren't very effective because the army of the dead brings darkness and storms with them.
Now, this is where the issue with the visibility really started to come into play. When the Night King showed up on his wight dragon, I really could not see which dragon was fighting which. The scenes were cool, but I really could not figure out what was going on. My favorite shot of the entire episode was when the dragons flew up over the clouds. That was gorgeous!
Another really cool scene was when Arya was in the library with all the wights walking around. That scene reminded me so much of the raptors in the kitchen scene from Jurassic Park. That scene gave me so much anxiety, I couldn't stand it! It was fantastic though. Great television.
Of course, the best scene of the episode was when Arya killed the Night King. Everything worked in this scene: the lighting, the music, the timing; it was all great. Of course, it was really surprising when Arya jumped on him, but, of course, I didn't think that he was actually going to kill Bran, but it was still shocking when Arya killed him.
Overall, I'm relieved that the Night King has been neutralized, and I'm looking forward to seeing the show go back to dealing with politics. I think there were better ways to deal with getting rid of the Night King, but it is what it is and now we have to move forward with the plot. Game of Thrones, from my perspective, is first and foremost a story about people, not a story about magic. Many people complained that the Night King didn't get the ending he deserved as a primary villain, but I think that's because the human villains in this show have been so good. I'm looking forward to getting back to the human villains in this show.
Valar dohaeris.
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