Well, we know he isn't the undead Christian Hackenberg!. Not only does he hit a large, moving dragon from hundreds of yards away, he does so while an immobile, bigger, closer dragon sits nearby with anyone capable of stopping him sitting on its back.
Both work on White Walkers so presumably the Night King is made of the same stuff. Valyerian steel is rare but dragonglass -- heck they have a whole mountain of it.
If it were me, I'd strip mine the stuff and have every able-bodied person in my domain occupied making dragonglass arrows, spears, weld dragonglass dust to the edge of every sword and axe. Maybe glue it to armor or the toes of boots.
Figure out how to make dragonglass fragmentation bombs. Take some of those cool flaming tar balls that the Slavers were hurling into Mereen and add a bunch of dragonglass and launch them at that little platform where the Night King and his blue court are always standing as they watch the fighting.
I'm gonna have to start watching more closely.
sheesh.
I enjoyed a ton about the episode, but I agree with Canuck, the last second rescues are becoming tiresome. Part of what made this show great is that it didn't do that constantly. Sometimes bad stuff just happens. Now every single precarious situation works out beautifully. And the dragon raising thing was pretty obvious, I think that been predicted in these threads before. Once again convenience dictated that strengths be balanced out. Finally and I'll stop bitching, I hate everything about Sansa/Arya's little arc. To be played so easily by Littlefinger....just hate it.
I think the finale isn't going to be very exciting. It's just going to be an episode setting up the final season.
I guess I'm alone here, I've found this season very meh. Everything that happens now is so convenient, so cliche with the last second rescues every time, the love with Dany and Jon was forced too quick because they decided they had to finish everything in X episodes. I don't know, we had a show that slow burned for so long, doing incredible character and story development, and now everything has to be rushed because they had to finish in 13 episodes.
It's like you smoked a brisket for 12 hours, and at the end threw it in the microwave to finish.
those were some of the absolute best scenes of the entire series.....with Tywin and Arya as the "serving boy"....he knew...
Tywins introduction to the show was fabulous as well:
I agree to an extent on the chains being around was convenient. I was shaking my head for a day or so on that. However....
...no one, myself included, ever wondered how the giants git a big chain to try and rip the doors of Castle Black back in season four.
I agree to an extent on the chains being around was convenient. I was shaking my head for a day or so on that. However....
...no one, myself included, ever wondered how the giants git a big chain to try and rip the doors of Castle Black back in season four.
The Ringer has done a better job expressing my disappointments with this season:
Regarding last episode's fight w/ the wights:
"Let’s start with the setup for that battle, which strained credulity even before its plot-serving purpose became nakedly obvious. In order to fully invest in a conflict, it’s necessary to understand and believe in what’s at stake for both sides. That’s what made “The Spoils of War” such remarkable television: not the spectacle of the fighting itself, per se, but our sympathy for the combatants and comprehension of the circumstances that put them at odds. “Beyond the Wall” goes the opposite direction: I don’t believe that bringing a wight to Cersei would persuade her to lend Jon her support; I don’t believe Dany would be so casual about her prospective ally and love interest turning to her direct competition for help; and, most importantly, I don’t believe so many people would uncritically accept this convoluted scheme as a good idea. Before the credits even began, then, I was immediately less engaged with the events of “Beyond the Wall” than I have been with other Thrones face-offs, largely because the story was conspicuously short on the internal logic Thrones prides itself on.
But “Beyond the Wall” is short on a much more basic form of internal cohesion as well: the logistical kind. Benioff and Weiss have played notoriously fast and loose with information flow and travel times all season long. This episode, however, exaggerates that hand-waving to an almost preposterous degree. Though it’s not exactly clear how much time Jon’s raiding party spends trapped on the rock surrounded by the wight army (several hours? several days?), it doesn’t feel like nearly enough for Gendry to run all the way back to the Wall, the maester in residence to send a raven, Daenerys to receive said raven, and the dragons to fly all the way from Dragonstone to Jon and friends’ precise location—just in time to rescue every character of importance with zero major human fatalities. (Sorry, Thoros, but you don’t exactly count.)"
On last episode:
"1. What is your tweet-length review of “Beyond the Wall”?
Mallory Rubin: I don’t want to write a tweet-length review because I don’t want to encourage the belief that rushed exposition makes for good storytelling.
Alyssa Bereznak: Incredulously stupid suicide missions beyond the Wall sow incredulously bad GOT episodes.
Andrew Gruttadaro: Thirty seconds after the episode: “That was fun!”
Sixty seconds after the episode: “Man, that was rough.”
Ben Lindbergh: For the first time, Game of Thrones feels as dumb as any other big-budget CGI spectacle.
Juliet Litman: This was among the worst episodes of this otherwise excellent show because the entire premise was absurd."
And;
3. What was your least favorite part?
Bereznak: Tyrion’s conversation with Dany. It reminded me that Tyrion, who was once a freewheeling delight of a character, is now just a bland voice of reason who is supposedly responsible for keeping an ill-tempered queen under control. I miss the drunk, womanizing Tyrion of the past. At least he always had jokes.
(Also, while we weren’t watching, raven technology was vastly improved and a messenger bird can now apparently travel at the speed of a single tweet.)
Baker: I could pretty much deal with a far-too-conveniently-timed appearance by one fire-wielding beast, but layering Benjen Stark's arrival on top of that was a bit much. Also, I was kind of hoping Jon Snow would stay dead?
Gruttadaro: It says a lot about the Arya-Sansa plot turn that amidst all of the absurdity north of the Wall, the Arya-Sansa plot turn was the only thing that made me yell at my television.
Rubin: Every line Arya uttered. I used to laugh at the “Arya is really the Waif!” and “Arya is really Jaqen” theories, but now I kind of, sort of (OK, not really, but still) want them to be right, because either twist would feel less befuddling than Arya, an expert character study who’s literally been trained to sniff out deception, not being able to tell that Sansa’s being truthful. I hope that Arya’s playing some sort of long game and hasn’t really morphed from one of the most compelling characters in literary history into a cartoon villain, but even then: Play it with Littlefinger, not your sister.
Litman: Among all of the daft aspects of the episode, the sloppy development of Arya was in sharpest relief. I have so many questions: Wouldn’t her training in Braavos have taught her to not let her sociopathic tendencies become apparent? Shouldn’t she know that Littlefinger was setting her up? Have her own memories of Ned’s beheading dissolved so that she has forgotten Sansa’s own hysterics? Is it really wise to transport the faces in a random briefcase?
Kram: Amid the mishmash of mishegas that transpired beyond the Wall, the most annoying moment was Benjen showing up for another 54 seconds of screentime—I counted—before dying. Rhaegal rescuing Jon would have combined symbolism with fantasy-genre wonder; instead, the show offered "Hey! I know that guy!" fan service as a pure plot device.
Lindbergh: Benjen saying “There’s no time!” and making a pointless last stand. No time to … get on a horse?"
Pretty spot on though I'm holding out hope Arya has everyone fooled - even us.
I was thinking that Viseron, who is now dead, would have a connection to Jon, who was also dead, and Jon would be the one turning him from the Night King.The scene with Dany and Jon was very telling... 'The dragons are my children as I can have no others. You do understand what that means?' Jon 'Yes'. They aren't talking about having wild, under the fire, sex. To me this is a 'mutual bond of Queen and King' where neither bends the knee and they rule in unison and neither's voice outweighs the other's. This is actually how things are in my wife's and my house. I think this is also leading up to the conversation Dany told Tyrion has to wait till she sits on The Throne. The 'love' between Dany and Jon is much deeper than many of us realize... respect, dignity, desire for that which you cannot have, love, passion, understanding - they have it all between them and would sacrifice everything for the other... very powerful.
It will be interesting to see Viseron's reaction when he sees Mommy again. Which will be more powerful a draw - the bond between the woman who gave him 'birth' or the dead man who raised him from the dead... is true life more powerful than walking dead? Maybe this is what is meant by 'Fire and Ice'? (Life and Death)
Cersei has already had four children, unless the one she had with Robert doesn't count because it didn't survive very long.
Pretty spot on though I'm holding out hope Arya has everyone fooled - even us.
The 7 Kingdoms are on one continent, Westeros. The others are on the continent of Essos. Sotheros is to the, well, south of Essos.The 7 Kingdoms is one island. Are the Dothraki, Pentos, the Free Cities on another?
What's the rush? They did not have a way around the wall until now. The dragon will help them get past the wall. If he is an ice dragon he will freeze the sea and let them walk around it. If he is a fire dragon he will melt the wall...I'm a little off on the size/time sequence of the wall. The Army Of The Dead and the White Walkers are walking towards the wall for what seems like years and years and year. But they seem to never be able to reach The Wall. Yet Jon and his band can casually take a stroll and meet The Army Of The Dead in no time at all. And then, Robert Baratheon's Bastard Son can simply take a run, and get back to the wall very quickly. .... who knows maybe Robert Baratheon is not his Dad, maybe his dad is an Ethiopian Marathoner??
I was thinking that Viseron, who is now dead, would have a connection to Jon, who was also dead, and Jon would be the one turning him from the Night King.