{"id":46570,"date":"2019-05-01T21:33:35","date_gmt":"2019-05-02T01:33:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/?p=46570"},"modified":"2020-08-10T21:33:47","modified_gmt":"2020-08-11T01:33:47","slug":"lets-talk-about-game-of-thrones-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/?p=46570","title":{"rendered":"Let\u2019s talk about Game of Thrones"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/span><\/p>\n

Normally, I haven\u2019t really posted much about Game of Thrones<\/em>.\u00a0 It\u2019s one of those properties that I really love, and I often times don\u2019t really write about the things that I really love until they\u2019re over, be it being between books, seasons, or a definitive end of some sort.<\/span><\/p>\n

But with the show winding down, and that we\u2019re getting to the point where the remaining episodes presumably are all going to be epics in their own right if episode 3: The Long Night<\/em> was any indication, I\u2019m finding it difficult to contain all the things swirling around in my head about GoT, and by the time the next episode rolls around, I\u2019ll probably lose my shit if I don\u2019t take the time to do any writing about it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Plus, speaking of writing, it\u2019s pretty clear to me that George R.R. Martin isn\u2019t actually ever going to finish the actual book series,* so as far as I\u2019m concerned, the tv show is pretty much shaping the end of the series, definitively.<\/span><\/p>\n

*Even if Martin finishes, I have little faith that the evolution of the show will mutate all of the thought processes that went into the original five books, to where he\u2019ll deliberately alter and swing the story (and not in good ways) to keep book followers on their toes, and there\u2019s no way he\u2019s not going to be picturing Kit Harrington, Sophie Turner, Peter Dinklage, Lena Headey or any other actor in his head when he\u2019s writing key characters.\u00a0 The books will DJ Tanner Wrestle tragically as a result, and it\u2019s at this point where I\u2019ll bust out the phrase \u201cDextering\u201d again, named after the shitty way Jeff Lindsay steered the <\/em>Dexter book series long after the television show started and ended.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

SO, the Long Night \u2013 needless to say, this is where I write my disclaimer about how there will be spoilers, but also the fact that I\u2019m still offline, and there\u2019s no definitive timeline to when I\u2019ll ever be back online, because I never have any time, and even if I did, by this point, I\u2019ll have nearly four years\u2019 worth of posts to back fill into the brog, which is a Sisyphus\u2019 boulder in its own right.<\/span><\/p>\n

SO, the Long Night \u2013 fucking incredible.\u00a0 Kind of everything I had imagined the inevitable, eight-year build up to the battle between man and dead would be.\u00a0 I can\u2019t really think of anything that I was legitimately disappointed in, and despite the fact that a lot of my GoT death pool predictions did not come true, I still felt a sense of great satisfaction when it was all over.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Needless to say, it seemed pretty obvious to me that the entire battle would have to start and end in one episode, as giant as it ultimately was.\u00a0 One, because there exists a CGI budget, and reality dictates that as much as people would love to watch a 30-minute dragon dog fight in the skies, making that shit happen would cost more than HBO was willing to spend.\u00a0 And two, when the antagonist as absurdly OP as The Night King is, it goes without saying that the conflict with him was going to be as swift as he was powerful.<\/span><\/p>\n

The real questions for me going into The Long Night really were which named character(s) were going to die, and who was going to kill the Night King?\u00a0 Everything else to me seemed like somewhat of a foregone conclusion.\u00a0 The battle was definitely going to start and end in Winterfell, and there were going to be many key survivors in the end, because we still got three more episodes to go, and somebody\u2019s got to still be standing to go up against Cersei.<\/span><\/p>\n

I predicted way more named character deaths were going to occur than actually happened, but among the ones that seemed like layups, we lost Jorah Mormont and Beric Dondarrion.\u00a0 Of course they had to die, as both were basically on borrowed time as it already were, the latter way more so than the former.\u00a0 Theon Greyjoy biting the dust seemed inevitable, since he a had a lot to atone for, and frankly I\u2019m glad he died before the Sansa-Theon ship could even get boarded.\u00a0 I absolutely thought Grey Worm was toast, but I almost feel like it was HBO trolling the viewers by having him make it out.\u00a0 Tormund was a surprise survival for me, because frankly I couldn\u2019t see any wildling having any substantial role anywhere south of Winterfell, but he remains among the living going into the second half of the season.<\/span><\/p>\n

I thought there would be one major death in The Long Night, be it a surprise killing of Jon Snow or Daenerys, considering the big reveal, one of them isn\u2019t necessarily necessary going into Kings Landing.\u00a0 Or I thought there was a possibility that Brienne was going to eat it, because I could see her dying in order to rescue Jaime Lannister.<\/span><\/p>\n

As for all the other players, it seemed obvious that they were going to survive; Jaime and Tyrion can only die in Kings Landing, likely at the behest of Cersei.\u00a0 The Hound was absolutely going to survive the night, because he has a date with the zombie Mountain, and the fans will absolutely get the Cleganebowl we\u2019ve all been anticipating.\u00a0 Sansa lived because it was clear she was never going to be a part of the fight, and Bran survived because he\u2019s basically on a god-tier being the Three-eyed Raven.<\/span><\/p>\n

But in the end, it was all about Arya who not only survived the night, but was the one who put an end to it outright, taking the almighty title of Night Kingslayer<\/strong>.\u00a0 Honestly, the thought had crossed my mind that she was going to die during the battle, because I thought her character was getting a little too big for her britches, and I could see her overconfidence getting her killed in battle against the unconventional dead.\u00a0 But at the same time, I also figured she had a role to play in Kings Landing, since Cersei is still the key name still on her list.*<\/span><\/p>\n

*as is Ilyn Payne, whom viewers haven\u2019t seen in ages, but either he\u2019ll be written out outright, or something\u2019s going to happen between Arya and Podrick, whom many might have forgotten is his dad<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Frankly, I thought the only person in the series that was destined to take down the Night King was the obvious choice in Jon Snow, and I\u2019m pretty sure the showrunners were banking on fans to stick to that line of thinking, so they could pitch them a curveball with Arya.\u00a0 But I definitely knew that it wasn\u2019t going to be Daenerys, because she can\u2019t fight with weapons, and there was no way that even dragon fire was going to stop someone as OP as the Night King.\u00a0 In fact, her overconfidence that the dragons could destroy anything was what I thought might have gotten her killed, but the Night King chose to smile and not slay after no-selling the Dracarys command that had ruined hundreds before him.<\/span><\/p>\n

One thing was absolutely sure though, the Night King would only go down to Valyrian steel.\u00a0 There was no way fire was going to kill him, and as big of a deal it is for everyone to have armed themselves with all the dragonglass, it was hard to believe some hastily made weapons were going to slay the guy that was basically created, with dragonglass.\u00a0 Going into the battle, I\u2019d made sure to document all the Valyrian steel weapons in play, which were swords held by Jon Snow, and Brienne, and although I don\u2019t remember it, supposedly Jaime still wielded Joffrey\u2019s old Widow\u2019s Wail.\u00a0 There was also House Tarly\u2019s Valyrian greatsword that Sam entrusted to Jorah.\u00a0 And then there was Littlefinger\u2019s dagger, held by none other than Arya.<\/span><\/p>\n

Man, I loved the finish too.\u00a0 So often, conflicts are built up for varying degrees of time, but then they turn into these convoluted shit shows of disappointment.\u00a0 Either they try too hard, or they\u2019re deliberately trying to piss people off by poor executions or some other reasons, but they just suck in the end.\u00a0 I feel that GoT isn\u2019t getting enough credit to how they finished the Long Night, whether it\u2019s because people expected to see Jon Snow slay the Night King, or Daenerys melt him into oblivion or something.<\/span><\/p>\n

I think the episode did a good job of deliberately focusing off of Arya going into the second half of the episode in order to build back up a little bit of a surprise that she was still in play.\u00a0 I mean, I didn\u2019t really think of her when the Night King stood over Bran, all I could think of was the fact that Jon was pinned down by zombie Viserion and wasn\u2019t going to be able to get there, and Daenerys was pinned down with Jorah by a circle of dead.\u00a0 So I\u2019ll admit that I was definitely surprised when Arya flew into the fray, and then bust out the same knife-drop technique she demonstrated while sparring with Brienne, that made me almost<\/em> react like basketball players<\/a> when they see a monster dunk.<\/span><\/p>\n

And then thinking back to everything, it seemed so obvious that it was going to be Arya in the end.\u00a0 From the sheer irony of the dagger that was meant to kill Bran was now the weapon that was going to save him.\u00a0 The spar session with Brienne demonstrating a slick move that they showed it, so piggybacking onto the Shakespearian notion that if you introduce a dagger (and a slick move) in act 1, it\u2019s only a matter of time before (they) gets used.\u00a0 And then there was the obvious conversation with Melisandre who basically told her that she was going to kill the Night King with her \u201cand blue eyes\u201d remark.<\/span><\/p>\n

I loved that final scene.\u00a0 I\u2019ve rewatched it<\/a> like ten times on YouTube.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t know I loved it this much until I kept wanting to watch it over and over again.\u00a0 Arya isn\u2019t even my favorite character, and not by a long shot.\u00a0 But it was just so perfectly well done, that I just want to watch it again and again.\u00a0 It\u2019s a lot like the scene of Cersei blowing up Baelor\u2019s Sept; I detest the character, but respected the execution, and it was just shot so well, with a perfect music score behind it all, that I love watching the scene again and again.<\/span><\/p>\n

But now that the night is over, we all know what comes next: Kings Landing for the final showdown.\u00a0 Cersei has the Golden Company\u2019s 20,000 soldiers but no elephants, as well as her own forces.\u00a0 Euron Greyjoy gives her more soldiers as well as an armada, but I don\u2019t think an armada is going to come into play unless the show wants to give Asha<\/span> Yara one last paycheck.\u00a0 Additionally, Cersei has Qyburn and zombie Mountain at her side, and currently has Bronn on the payroll to kill Tyrion, although I suspect he will cash in on the suggestion to consult him before following through.<\/span><\/p>\n

On the blue team, remains Jon Snow, Daenerys Targaryen and her two dragons.\u00a0 The Hound is coming to Kings Landing to fulfill destiny.\u00a0 Tyrion and Jaime Lannister are coming, to likely meet their ends with Cersei.\u00a0 If Jaime is going, then Brienne is going, and if Brienne is going, then Podrick is going; and if Tormund is committed to the chase, then I guess he does have a reason to go south of Winterfell after all.\u00a0 Grey Worm is going because his queen is going, which means Missandei is coming, to which may as well bring Varys along too, because he\u2019s inevitably going to appear out of thin air there anyway.\u00a0 Sansa will likely remain in Winterfell, because a Stark must always be there, and Bran doesn\u2019t really count, and Arya is definitely coming to make a play on Cersei herself, which means Gendry is coming, because frankly as of current time, he\u2019s the true heir to the Iron Throne.<\/span><\/p>\n

The thing is for me now though, is that what is absolute is that a bunch of these people are going to die.\u00a0 I have my ideas of who I think will live and who will die, but prior to the battle of Winterfell, I had marked Arya as a survivor.\u00a0 But now that the show has basically blown their entire wad with Arya, she now shifts into dangerous territory on my card that puts her in the line of fire to potentially die.\u00a0 Which kind of sucks, because Arya reached immortality status by killing the Night King, but dying in Kings Landing kind of burns it all down.<\/span><\/p>\n

But I can see her making a play at Cersei, using some of her Faceless Men training stealth, but I think she\u2019ll get caught by zombie Mountain, because although she can fool ordinary people, zombie Mountain is no longer ordinary, and he\u2019ll have some unnatural sense and sniff her out at a critical moment, and rips her head off or something, accelerating the start of Cleganebowl.<\/span><\/p>\n

Or, she goes after Ilyn Payne first, to which Podrick wishes to save his dad, and one of them ends up dead, with there being a possibility of Brienne being forced to kill Arya.\u00a0 Or, Podrick dies at some point, and Arya uses his face to sneak in and kill Ilyn Payne.<\/span><\/p>\n

The thing is, after being given so much accolade for killing the Night King, I think it puts Arya at greater risk than ever, to be on the chopping block soon.\u00a0 Granted, that\u2019s just the nature of the show, but I think Arya\u2019s death meter just went red now.<\/span><\/p>\n

Although given how tame the show\u2019s been with killings thus far, I could just as easily see a fairly cleanly wrapped up conclusion to the story with minimal deaths; just to troll fan expectations of a bloody battle royal.\u00a0 All I really stand by is that the following deaths are still inevitable: Jaime and Cersei are guaranteed to die, at each other\u2019s\u2019 hands.\u00a0 The Hound and the Mountain both die fighting each other.\u00a0 And whether it is Jon Snow or Daenerys, one of them is going to die.<\/span><\/p>\n

I do think Sansa lives, Bran lives, Varys lives, Sam Tarly lives and Podrick lives.\u00a0 My death pool actually has Gendry taking the throne, although I do think that\u2019s a long shot now, three episodes in.\u00a0 Everyone else, is still kind of a jump ball, when it comes to their survival.<\/span><\/p>\n

Three more episodes left!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Normally, I haven\u2019t really posted much about Game of Thrones.\u00a0 It\u2019s one of those properties that I really love, and I often times don\u2019t really write about the things that I really love until they\u2019re over, be it being between books, seasons, or a definitive end of some sort. But with the show winding down, … Continue reading Let\u2019s talk about Game of Thrones<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[74,178,83,69,182],"class_list":["post-46570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brog","tag-books","tag-game-of-thrones","tag-observations","tag-television","tag-tryharding"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46570"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46570\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46572,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46570\/revisions\/46572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}