BleedBlueGold
Well-known member
- Messages
- 6,271
- Reaction score
- 2,496
Here's a reddit post with a brief outline of all the obvious strategic blunders included in S8E3. GRRM knows enough about medieval history that you never stop and say, "Why the fuck would they do that?" when reading the books. Makes it difficult to suspend disbelief and just enjoy the scene. Other things that would have helped:
- Some revelation, probably through Bran, regarding the why and the how behind the White Walkers.
- Explanation of Melisandre's origin (how old is she really, how/why she maintains her youthful glamor, etc.) and a more meaningful death for her than simply walking out and collapsing in the snow.
- Many more deaths of face characters (Brienne, Tormund, Grey Worm, etc.) That victory did not cost them nearly as much as it should have.
- Some meaningful interaction between White Walkers and Valyrian Steel/ Dragonglass wielding heroes. A lot of those characters wield legendary swords, yet they apparently made no difference. And the show spent a lot of time focused on the importance of dragonglass, yet it also seemed to be irrelevant.
- A more appropriate death for the Night King. It didn't need to be Jon prevailing in a 1 v 1 duel, but Arya teleporting behind him was too deus ex machina. Why not have Jon, Bran and Arya all cooperate with their impressive powers to bring him down? The NK was built up as the Supreme Baddie for 70 hours of screen time, and his death was really anti-climactic.
Yes, that was obviously what they were going for. Create an impressive spectacle to start the battle (a horde with flaming arahks), only for their inspiring charge to get quickly snuffed out. It was great cinematography, and effectively created a sense of dread inevitability. But good story-telling requires a lot more than impressive visuals interspersed with a few predetermined moments of bad-assery. You've got to make the reader/ viewer feel like the characters/ actors are people in a real world; not disposable extras in video game where the protagonists have invincible plot armor. Obviously irrational plot developments, like starting a battle against an innumerable horde of zombie with a cavalry charge in pitch darkness, weakens their story.
That would have definitely improved the episode. And I truly don't mean to disparage shownlies. They just have totally different expectations from GRRM's fans. Might be better to separate out posts like mine and greyhammer's into a separate thread since it seems to be interfering with the ability of some to just enjoy the show for what it is here.
I agree with all of this. I mentioned in an earlier post that I felt it could've been better (citing more main character deaths as something that just made sense, for example), but overall, I guess I'm just glad that I'm not that emotionally invested in the series to rate this episode the way everyone else seems to be. Those 90 minutes of television battle allowed me to briefly escape reality and be entertained, which is the big picture point, imo.