Other picks coming tomorrow. I can't suffer through this again tonight.

Ok because. I hated the deaths we got, especially Theon, my precious angel. And Lyanna (even though she went out as a total fighter and hero).

But because I also loved everything Arya in that episode and some quotes that gave me a lot of emotions. So the math makes it an ok.

@ Dasm and Bibi: link

Wanted to love it, but a really big distraction through most of the episode was how dark and hazy it was. There were patches of a lot of quick cuts too, so it became very difficult to tell which bearded man was dead and which was still alive, especially as everything remained dark/hazy and everyone got bloodier and dirtier. I appreciate that GOT has often done the dark, dirty, frantic thing with its battles to also increase audience anxiety and throw us right into the action, but damn near a whole episode of wondering who I was looking at and what was going on did take me out of the battle, rather than pulling me into it.

I also expected more big name casualties (not that we didn't have plenty to mourn), but obviously some peeps were wearing very strong plot armor today... and others not enough...

But there were some truly awesome moments!
- ARYA. DEFEATING. THE. NIGHT. KING.
- Everything else Arya did.
- Lyanna's death was so fucking badass, but I am traumatised, jesus christ.
- Theon was extremely heroic.
- Very proud of Samwell. He did his best!
- Cool to see Daenerys fighting.
- The Hound was spectacular. Loved the callback to his Battle of the Blackwater moment and how he made different decisions this time... eventually.
- That Sansa and Tyrion scene was beautiful. Hit me right in the feels.
EDIT - forgot to mention the scene where they/we are all watching the Dothraki lights go out. Horrifying, but spectacularly done.

Well, deaths were expected by me... That doesn’t mean I didn’t cry. Thanks to the Theon moment, I couldn’t stop myself from tears. But, Arya <3 When your fav character turns out to be the real hero. Nothing feels better than this. I'm so proud of her. I am such a fanboy for her.

@misanthrope : I agree! The Sansa x Tyrion part was quite the thing <3 So many memories and feelings were rising up in my mind

But, honestly speaking, right before the Arya's finishing scene, there should have been a scene like Night king vs multiple major character fighting, but they losing... Should have given more resistance. Night King going down without a proper combat feels a bit off. I feel bad for him in a way because of this.........

Some heroic moment saved the episode, but the writing was awful and editing or effects were trash too.. It was completely dark and I hardly understood a thing. Acting and choreography was great as always. But, oh my god. Years... No. Not just years but almost a decade of build up ending so easily is just disappointing. I'm sorry for ranting like this, but as a fan who is watching this over the years, I just can't. Nothing makes sense.

I've watched it a second time, for the picks and whatnot, and my original assessment stands: Disappointing.

They've been building this up as the battle to end all battles. I expected a massive death toll. I lost a few favorites, but they had more of a personal significance to me than to the plot as a whole. How is it that all the main characters were spared?

Also had trouble with the haziness of it. Had to turn the lights out so I could see better, then still couldn't tell who was who half the time. And did it really need to be that long?

I'm not sure if it's official GOT accounts or fan things that keep bringing up the Battle of Helm's Deep, but I think it did this episode a huge disservice. Had that comparison never been drawn, perhaps this would've seemed like a good episode. Once that connection had been made, I was constantly comparing shots and circumstances. Especially the kid close ups in the crypts. ("Are these the director's kids?" I wondered.)

I loved this episode! The best of this Season so far. I can understand people's disappointments though, since this is the conclusion to the war against the Night King.

Personally the only thing that really annoyed me was the amount of plot armour that some of the characters had, like Jaime, Brienne, Gendry, Samwell and Podrick especially, they were bitten, they were stabbed, they were overwhelmed for most of the episode really, but they just NEVER EVER die, while most others dies in seconds... That is just super annoying and unprofessional.

But other than that I was deeply invested in this episode and the drama of it had me really nervous and worried, like it should be. Now I would never say that an episode sucks because a character I loved died, that to me has nothing to do with how great the episode itself was, and in this case we should even have expected more deaths than what we got, I was honestly surprised that so many survived even if there were certain characters I knew would live (I'm looking at you Jon Snow)

And while I tend to find Jon Snow and Daenerys boring and not care about them much at all, I actually found myself rooting hard for them in this episode.

I would have loved it if it wasn't for the effects like you guys already mentioned. I didn't know what I was looking at half of the time because the screen was dark. In the end I'm just glad Sansa and Arya are still alive.

Everything @DarkSarcasm said.

I mainly love it for the atmosphere and tone - I loved the horror and dread, and the sweet moments between the characters. All of the deaths that did happen, I was for the most part satisfied with.

Most of my grievances are similar to what most people are saying - I think the death toll should've been higher, I was disappointed with the build up of the White Walkers for it to be (likely) resolved in one episode, and some of their battle strategies were poor (especially the Dothraki charge, though that scene was undeniably one of my favorites anyway due to the beauty and terror of it). Also, I didn't like that the bodies in the crypts got out of their tombs so easily (and quite a few of them should've been nothing more than dust and bone).

Surprisingly the darkness didn't irritate me too much.

^Agreed about the crypt bodies! They said in the Game Revealed featurette that it was based on real mummified bodies, but I still have trouble believing there'd be that much left of any long-departed Starks. And what were the tombs made of, paper?

I agree about the battle strategies too. I did a fair amount of yelling during the episode, mostly at Daenerys and Jon for not properly utilizing those damn dragons.

There were flaws and I found some characters weren't utilised very well. With that being said this episode had me so hyped up and yelling and shit. My partner and I have never been that loud while watching a GoT episode hahah.

Entertainment-wise, it was quite brilliant. Making a battle last such a long time on screen is a very difficult feat. But I'm not blind to the flaws.

1: too dark like wtf i expected a massive battle THAT YOU CAN SEE WHATS GOING ON OR a battle when every one goes directly into battle, the dothraki suiciding WHAT THE FUCK was that like seriously now

2: not to many characters die, apparently the directors just dont care but i am still hoping for this "last war" to make things alot more interesting AND to be an mindblown war but hey i dont know we'll see if it goes like the previous one then, ugh.

3: the prophecy doesnt mean a thing apparently, THERES NO LEGENDARY HERO AZOR AHAI who they had been mentioning all this years so jon snow apparently came back to life to do sex to daenerys apparently no other reason to live lmao (WTF AGAIN XD) and i was hoping to see jon snow striking down azor ahai or daenerys or somebody to be the hero they all been mentioning all this years but NOPE just a huge "fuck you" XDD


4: godamn bran is useless, like completely useless i thought he will do some amazing warging like go inside viserion, but anyway thats all my list i hated this episode.....but i i picked "disappointing" but i still kinda wanna pick hated it and btw nice sword of azor ahai we all seen it wow (And yes sarcasm) but anyway thats my opinions not everybody has the same and thank you for reading~

Agree with a lot of wheat's been said by misanthrope, darksarcasm and others.

It was really well-executed and absolutely engrossing. The cinematography, staging, all visuals were gorgeous. And the music. Omg the muuuusic.

Things that were amazing:
- Our lord and saviour Ramin Djawadi
- Some of the scenes that people have already mentioned: watching the dohtraki's lights go out, jorah's last battle
- THEON: His character arc was completed perfectly. It's one of my favourite arcs in any show and it was accompanied by amazing acting from Alfie. Every single moment of loving Theon, to hating him, to feeling sorry for Reek, to rooting for him again, to cheering for him (through near-tears tbh) in his final moments. He had always run away from danger in the past, but now went head-first into it... finally feeling the bravery that was expected from him. Everything came full circle: all he has done has allowed him to protect the Starks in the end. Perfection.

Things that weren't-so-amazing:
- Should've been more deaths to be realistic and capture the bittersweet victory that most wars are. Episode 2 seemed like a goodbye to many of the characters, and honestly it would've been a great dedication to them before their deaths. Like, Brienne's character progression seems basically complete: she was knighted by her beloved Jaime, finally recognised as one of greatest knights in Westeros due to her "bravery... justice... and defence of the innocents". It would've been a beautiful send-off. But the both somehow survived the unrelenting zombie horde for hours on end.
- I don't mind that Arya is the one to kill the Night King but I don't like the way it was done. Would've been way better if someone like Jon was fighting him, losing, and then Arya steps in when all seems lost. Or Bran does some cool warg-ing shit. The way it was done has reduced Jon and Bran's narrative importance in the entire story, seeing as their entire narrative was based around the Night King and Winter.... Like what substantial thing did Jon actually do in this battle? And the whole Three-Eyed Raven thing with Bran? After all that's he's been through, was his place in destroying the Night King literally just "play bait"? Feels unsatisfying in light of all the prior seasons.
- Would have liked the White Walker threat to continue for longer. The battle for the dawn lasted one night? All of that buildup through eight seasons just for the Nght King to be completely defeated in his first real battle against a prepared human army? And Westeros didn't even have to unite to defeat him? It was basically Dany and her army from the east + the North + some wildlings. Dorne didn't have to care, Cersei didn't have to care, the Iron Islands stayed out of it.
- Related to this: The Iron Throne is the final conflict in this series?.The fundamental premise of the books is "The game of thrones is just a distraction from the true threat of the White Walkers". It seems the show has done the opposite: The White Walkers were a distraction from the game of thrones. And I feel that undermines a key message the story was supposed to convey: that human squabbles for power shouldn't matter in the final battle for the survival of the human race.

Way too much filler and fanservice.