8x03 Review Thread (Spoilers)
Apr 30, 2019 21:06:53 GMT
kingeomer, day dreamer, and 3 more like this
Post by Mecha-StannisForever on Apr 30, 2019 21:06:53 GMT
This is a really, really difficult one for me. I love the episode, but at the same time, I hate it. In order to be fair, I'm gonna rate the episode from both a technical, then narrative standpoint. I'm going to ramble for fucking forever because there's just so much to say about this.
On the technical side, 10/10. There's no way around it. That was the single greatest battle put to film, perhaps ever. The cgi, the action, it was intense, and brutal as it was often confusing. It was chaos which is exactly what they were trying to convey, so kudos to the directors for making something that felt and looked authentic. As someone who's been on film sets before in the cold weather, I can only imagine what the actors and the crew had to endure over the gruelling weeks spent making this thing. Kudos to them, no sarcasm. That was literally a piece of cinematic history right there.
The dragon fight between Viserion, Rhaegal and Drogon was beautiful. There have never been Dragons in any piece of media that have ever looked this good. It was stunning. That scene of Dany and Jon chasing the NK up above the clouds was one of the greatest shots in the series. Melisandre emerging alone from the darkness, lighting the Dothraki swords, and the subsequent cavalry charge was also an incredibly intense visual sequence. Arya evading the dead in the library once again, was a great sequence.
The short of it is that the visuals are great.
On the narrative side of things, I wanna say 8, but it feels more like a 7. I love this episode, but the issue is that for a series that has thrived for so long by subverting tropes of the fantasy genre, much like Beyond the Wall in season 7, it seems to have completely surrendered to these tropes. First of all, the battle plan makes no sense... at all. WHY ARE THEY IN FRONT OF THE TRENCHES??? That's not how trenches work! Why are they sending lightly armed, unarmoured cavalry to battle a foe that they know 1) Will not flinch in the face of a cavalry charge 2) Is 100,000+ strong so it's not like you're going to break through their lines anyway and 3) You can't even see them to begin with, so you're going in blind. The spectacle of the scene was amazing, but it was purely that. There was no reason for it other than that. Why are there no actual defences on the walls, like dragonglass spikes or something? Now, I know the reason is very obvious, it's TV, but still...
Now there's the gripe people have that the death count is low, which isn't an issue for me, since they still have 3 episodes left to fill. What is an issue is the amount of times they show characters almost die, just to be saved at the last minute by someone else. It happens to Sam like four fucking times. There are frequently scenes where characters are surrounded by Wights, like when NK does his whole waking the dead act, and Jon is surrounded by, let me remind you, very, VERY slow moving Wights that appear to be putting in the minimum amount of effort. Cut away as they close in, and next time we see Jon he's handily hacking his way through the dead. But it isn't just him. Inside the walls, we see the same happen with Tormund, Brienne, Jaime, Podrick, et al. All the main characters survive, while the nameless Vale knights, Northmen and Unsullied are hacked apart by the merciless and uncompromising hordes of the undead. At least, uncompromising when it comes to extras. It just feels very predictable.
I think my biggest issue, personally, is that the whole thing felt like such a let down. The Night King was never that interesting to me. He's a character that was created solely for the purposes of the show. A physical foe for them to defeat, as opposed to the abstract concept of the Great Other that's associated with the White Walkers in the books. He was an easy out for a show that is very low-fantasy, to escape the army of the dead without going to far into the realm of magic that it has pretty much avoided establishing in the show, and I get that. Not everyone gives a shit about the magic. I do. Bit of a twist since most people would imagine Stannis is my favourite character. He isn't, he's one of my favourite, but not my favourite. My favourite character is Bran. In the books, and somewhat in the show as well. I love all the magical elements of the series, from Melisandre, to Bloodraven, the Children of the Forest and in a strange way, even Euron. Bran's arc has always felt like this descent into a world of fantasy, that masks beneath it, bleak and unfathomable horror. Magic was Bran's escape from life as a crippled boy, dismissed at first by people like Maester Luwin as the workings of a child's imagination that is later revealed to be quite possibly the last hope for humanity, but to embrace that magic, Bran must abandon his innocence, his family, and quite possibly himself, and in the end, is Three Eyed Raven truly the saviour? Plenty of stuff seemed to be pointing at the idea that the Three Eyed Raven, the Children weren't as noble as they appeared. Namely all those skeletons on the floor in the caves, and the suspiciously Jojen flavoured paste. Point is, magic is presented as a double edged sword. The Night King, and the White Walkers themselves are the result of magic gone awry. The warlocks of Qarth (at least in the books) are pathetic beings that linger in this world by feeding off of others with greater magic than themselves, Stannis is an uncompromising man who is becoming increasingly affable to blood magic to fuel his desperate and doomed campaign, Euron is a monster who is willing to do utterly anything in pursuit of power. Magic in ASOIAF is power. Power corrupts. Those who surround themselves with magic, are ultimately doomed, hence the dwindling of the Children. It is a dying art, and Bran, Bloodraven claimed, may be, or at least possess the potential to be the most powerful magical being that has ever lived. I saw infinite possibilities for Bran in this episode because he is the Three Eyed Raven. He has that kind of power, and he's shown it before. I mean, he warged through time itself! But here he's ultimately useless. Unless you believe he was somehow manipulating the battle, and the events of the series to a greater extent, and hey, if it turns out later on that he was, I rescind this entire rant. But until that point, the lack of all of the above is, for me, just completely a let down.
I loved a lot of things about the episode though. The major character deaths that did occur, Jorah and Theon were incredible, and very beautiful. Ramin Djawadi, as always, went above and beyond with the music, especially during that sequence of the Night King strolling on into Winterfell.
Theon's last moments, with Bran telling him that he's a good man before he charges to his death genuinely made me tear up. It felt like such a perfect ending to one of the series best told character arcs. Theon has always wanted to, and finally did prove that he was a good man. While he's not always been one of my favourite characters, there's no denying that he was one of the MVPs of this episode.
Jorah dying in Dany's arms was also beautiful for a character who has devoted himself utterly to serving her, to the one person who has really been there for her entire journey, it felt like such a great moment. Him popping up in the right spot, outside the walls, at the perfect time, might seem convenient, and me giving it a pass might seem hypocritical, but fuck it, it was a great scene, and it made so, so much sense from a narrative perspective. He was the first of her queensguard after all.
Melisandre was incredible this episode from her first scene, emerging from the dark alone, to her last scene, wandering out into the rising sun and dying at last. I loved that little shot of Davos following her, ready to kill her, only to see the true ancient form of Mel collapse into the snow. It felt so final, like this is what she'd been preparing and waiting for all those years, and now at long last she can finally rest. The rendition of the Lord of Light theme that played when she lit the trench was amazing.
I also loved the Unsullied's last stand. I'll admit, I'm a real sucker for these heroic last stand moments, and that was up there with the best of them. From all the stories we've heard, we've never really seen this from them before. If there was gonna be a group to stand against the Wights, it would be the Unsullied. The idea of them holding the line to the end was pretty emotional, even if they are just nameless characters. The vale knights and Northerners running away from the battle, while they were the only ones to hold the line says so much about what these characters are. Grey Worm's last look at his men as he leaves them says so much about him as well. He's no longer a slave who is trained to view himself and him comrades as weapons, but he sees them as his men, and that hesitation to abandon them, and that concern showed it.
I mentioned the Dragon fight earlier, but honestly, I really, really hope we get some sort of Dance of the Dragons mini-series at some point, because that Dragon fight is something that this episode did right.
I'll say 9 all in all because again, I want to love it. It deserves to be loved. I just can't help but feel so let down that all that magic and mystery that's been building up for years was all for nothing, and in the end, one deus-ex-machina leap from out of nowhere (like seriously, where did she come from), a little prick with a dagger and it's all over. Then again, Bran did give her the dagger to start with... and the White Walker was created with his magic... Shit, Bran is the Great Other confirmed... Now I've gone and gotten my hopes up.
But seriously, if this next 3 episodes is just regular old GoT hijinks with Cersei, Euron "Big Cock" Greyjon and Harry Strickland's Generic Company, I'm gonna be severely disappointed.
On the technical side, 10/10. There's no way around it. That was the single greatest battle put to film, perhaps ever. The cgi, the action, it was intense, and brutal as it was often confusing. It was chaos which is exactly what they were trying to convey, so kudos to the directors for making something that felt and looked authentic. As someone who's been on film sets before in the cold weather, I can only imagine what the actors and the crew had to endure over the gruelling weeks spent making this thing. Kudos to them, no sarcasm. That was literally a piece of cinematic history right there.
The dragon fight between Viserion, Rhaegal and Drogon was beautiful. There have never been Dragons in any piece of media that have ever looked this good. It was stunning. That scene of Dany and Jon chasing the NK up above the clouds was one of the greatest shots in the series. Melisandre emerging alone from the darkness, lighting the Dothraki swords, and the subsequent cavalry charge was also an incredibly intense visual sequence. Arya evading the dead in the library once again, was a great sequence.
The short of it is that the visuals are great.
On the narrative side of things, I wanna say 8, but it feels more like a 7. I love this episode, but the issue is that for a series that has thrived for so long by subverting tropes of the fantasy genre, much like Beyond the Wall in season 7, it seems to have completely surrendered to these tropes. First of all, the battle plan makes no sense... at all. WHY ARE THEY IN FRONT OF THE TRENCHES??? That's not how trenches work! Why are they sending lightly armed, unarmoured cavalry to battle a foe that they know 1) Will not flinch in the face of a cavalry charge 2) Is 100,000+ strong so it's not like you're going to break through their lines anyway and 3) You can't even see them to begin with, so you're going in blind. The spectacle of the scene was amazing, but it was purely that. There was no reason for it other than that. Why are there no actual defences on the walls, like dragonglass spikes or something? Now, I know the reason is very obvious, it's TV, but still...
Now there's the gripe people have that the death count is low, which isn't an issue for me, since they still have 3 episodes left to fill. What is an issue is the amount of times they show characters almost die, just to be saved at the last minute by someone else. It happens to Sam like four fucking times. There are frequently scenes where characters are surrounded by Wights, like when NK does his whole waking the dead act, and Jon is surrounded by, let me remind you, very, VERY slow moving Wights that appear to be putting in the minimum amount of effort. Cut away as they close in, and next time we see Jon he's handily hacking his way through the dead. But it isn't just him. Inside the walls, we see the same happen with Tormund, Brienne, Jaime, Podrick, et al. All the main characters survive, while the nameless Vale knights, Northmen and Unsullied are hacked apart by the merciless and uncompromising hordes of the undead. At least, uncompromising when it comes to extras. It just feels very predictable.
I think my biggest issue, personally, is that the whole thing felt like such a let down. The Night King was never that interesting to me. He's a character that was created solely for the purposes of the show. A physical foe for them to defeat, as opposed to the abstract concept of the Great Other that's associated with the White Walkers in the books. He was an easy out for a show that is very low-fantasy, to escape the army of the dead without going to far into the realm of magic that it has pretty much avoided establishing in the show, and I get that. Not everyone gives a shit about the magic. I do. Bit of a twist since most people would imagine Stannis is my favourite character. He isn't, he's one of my favourite, but not my favourite. My favourite character is Bran. In the books, and somewhat in the show as well. I love all the magical elements of the series, from Melisandre, to Bloodraven, the Children of the Forest and in a strange way, even Euron. Bran's arc has always felt like this descent into a world of fantasy, that masks beneath it, bleak and unfathomable horror. Magic was Bran's escape from life as a crippled boy, dismissed at first by people like Maester Luwin as the workings of a child's imagination that is later revealed to be quite possibly the last hope for humanity, but to embrace that magic, Bran must abandon his innocence, his family, and quite possibly himself, and in the end, is Three Eyed Raven truly the saviour? Plenty of stuff seemed to be pointing at the idea that the Three Eyed Raven, the Children weren't as noble as they appeared. Namely all those skeletons on the floor in the caves, and the suspiciously Jojen flavoured paste. Point is, magic is presented as a double edged sword. The Night King, and the White Walkers themselves are the result of magic gone awry. The warlocks of Qarth (at least in the books) are pathetic beings that linger in this world by feeding off of others with greater magic than themselves, Stannis is an uncompromising man who is becoming increasingly affable to blood magic to fuel his desperate and doomed campaign, Euron is a monster who is willing to do utterly anything in pursuit of power. Magic in ASOIAF is power. Power corrupts. Those who surround themselves with magic, are ultimately doomed, hence the dwindling of the Children. It is a dying art, and Bran, Bloodraven claimed, may be, or at least possess the potential to be the most powerful magical being that has ever lived. I saw infinite possibilities for Bran in this episode because he is the Three Eyed Raven. He has that kind of power, and he's shown it before. I mean, he warged through time itself! But here he's ultimately useless. Unless you believe he was somehow manipulating the battle, and the events of the series to a greater extent, and hey, if it turns out later on that he was, I rescind this entire rant. But until that point, the lack of all of the above is, for me, just completely a let down.
I loved a lot of things about the episode though. The major character deaths that did occur, Jorah and Theon were incredible, and very beautiful. Ramin Djawadi, as always, went above and beyond with the music, especially during that sequence of the Night King strolling on into Winterfell.
Theon's last moments, with Bran telling him that he's a good man before he charges to his death genuinely made me tear up. It felt like such a perfect ending to one of the series best told character arcs. Theon has always wanted to, and finally did prove that he was a good man. While he's not always been one of my favourite characters, there's no denying that he was one of the MVPs of this episode.
Jorah dying in Dany's arms was also beautiful for a character who has devoted himself utterly to serving her, to the one person who has really been there for her entire journey, it felt like such a great moment. Him popping up in the right spot, outside the walls, at the perfect time, might seem convenient, and me giving it a pass might seem hypocritical, but fuck it, it was a great scene, and it made so, so much sense from a narrative perspective. He was the first of her queensguard after all.
Melisandre was incredible this episode from her first scene, emerging from the dark alone, to her last scene, wandering out into the rising sun and dying at last. I loved that little shot of Davos following her, ready to kill her, only to see the true ancient form of Mel collapse into the snow. It felt so final, like this is what she'd been preparing and waiting for all those years, and now at long last she can finally rest. The rendition of the Lord of Light theme that played when she lit the trench was amazing.
I also loved the Unsullied's last stand. I'll admit, I'm a real sucker for these heroic last stand moments, and that was up there with the best of them. From all the stories we've heard, we've never really seen this from them before. If there was gonna be a group to stand against the Wights, it would be the Unsullied. The idea of them holding the line to the end was pretty emotional, even if they are just nameless characters. The vale knights and Northerners running away from the battle, while they were the only ones to hold the line says so much about what these characters are. Grey Worm's last look at his men as he leaves them says so much about him as well. He's no longer a slave who is trained to view himself and him comrades as weapons, but he sees them as his men, and that hesitation to abandon them, and that concern showed it.
I mentioned the Dragon fight earlier, but honestly, I really, really hope we get some sort of Dance of the Dragons mini-series at some point, because that Dragon fight is something that this episode did right.
I'll say 9 all in all because again, I want to love it. It deserves to be loved. I just can't help but feel so let down that all that magic and mystery that's been building up for years was all for nothing, and in the end, one deus-ex-machina leap from out of nowhere (like seriously, where did she come from), a little prick with a dagger and it's all over. Then again, Bran did give her the dagger to start with... and the White Walker was created with his magic... Shit, Bran is the Great Other confirmed... Now I've gone and gotten my hopes up.
But seriously, if this next 3 episodes is just regular old GoT hijinks with Cersei, Euron "Big Cock" Greyjon and Harry Strickland's Generic Company, I'm gonna be severely disappointed.