Ok, I’ve got to get this off my chest, and I’m probably going to be in the minority here, but personally I didn’t like it.
I’ll explain why, but first let me say what I did like.
The Dothraki and their flaming swords were superb. From the way the blades ignited, to their charge, to their inevitably slow extinguishing, that scene was really well shot.
The Unsullied moving together in unison, was also very cool.
Arya creeping around Winterfell, dodging the dead, was more suspenseful than most modern day horror films.
The Night King resurrecting the dead was atmospheric and sublime. It genuinely gave you that feeling, that this was a battle against a never ending enemy, and there really was no way of winning.
Now for the bad parts....
Anyone have any night vision goggles I could borrow? That was hard to keep up with, at times.
I said I liked the part with the Dothraki, and I did. But I can’t believe they’ve fallen so easily. Throughout the programme, the Dothraki have been a violent, vicious and unforgiving bunch, who have been feared throughout Westeros. They way they cut through the Lannister armies in the previous season, really marked their arrival & it seemed like what Robert Baratheon had said about them, was fairly accurate. Yet they fell within seconds. I get it, it’s to advance Dany’s upcoming storyline, but to me it was just lazy writing.
This show has produced some excellent battle scenes over the years. Blackwater, Hardhome, Beyond The Wall & of course, The B@stards, instantly spring to mind. Some of those scenes were spectacular. Think about the the gritty realism, from BOTB, where Jon is being trampled. That was probably the first scene I’d witnessed on any TV show, or film, since Saving Private Ryan, where you could actually feel the realism and intensity of the scene.
But this one, Battle Of Winterfell, had none of that. The poor mix of CGI, darkness & fast/shaky camerawork, really made it difficult to keep up with all that was going on, and in-doing-so, lost the intensity that it had not only promised, but thoroughly deserved.
The budget for that battle was huge, and the time taken to make it was extensive, so expectation levels were sky high. IMO, it didn’t reach those expectations.
In the annuls of history, the supposed “Long Night”, the previous one, lasted for generations. People lived & died, all during this one Great War. But this modern day mob managed to knock it out in the course of an evening? For two years, we’ve been teased & promised this great battle, the one to end all battles, against the most fearsome army the Seven Kingdoms has ever known. And they crash it out, all in time for breakfast? Right.
And I’ve saved my absolute worst for last. The Night King. What a let down.
For the best part of 5 years, we’ve seen and heard about this all-powerful, all-encompassing, all-commanding being, who is meant to be pretty much indestructible. He was billed as the ultimate super-villain, made from pure magic. The dude literally took a fire shower, from the biggest dragon Westeros had seen in thousands of years, and just stood their grinning.
And a little girl with a small knife whacked him? Get the **** outta here with that ****.
It’s so anti-climactic. We didn’t see him have one square go. Not a single one-on-one row with anyone. They’d been teasing a great showdown between him & John for years, ever since Hardhome In fact. The whole story had been building towards that one specific showdown. That was the ultimate payoff, seeing them two have it out, possibly Jon being recognised at Azor Ahai. But they substituted that in favour of shock effect? Poor, lazy writing IMO.
To sum up, despite having all the time & money in the world to produce his episode, it felt rushed & lazy on the whole. Some excellent and stunning scenes, marred by some really poor writing & the poor execution/production of other scenes.
