Rate/Review 7x06: Beyond the Wall!

8.
LIKES
*As ridiculous as the wight hunt is, that entire sequence was really well done and I loved all the character development we got.
*Viserion's death was even more brutal on my big TV.
*Tyrion and Dany's scene.
*Acting was on point all around.
*UnViserion. Oh God.

DISLIKES
*Winterfell. I tried to take into account everyone else's interpretations of it. How Arya was just testing Sansa and what not, but I still can't help but be really annoyed with how they are characterizing Arya, and how silly they made Sansa look after LF tells her Brienne can protect them, then she sends her away. I felt like the writing almost went an extra step to make them dumb. I think they could've had these same disagreements, just played better. I never liked lettergate, even when I read about it in the leaks.
*I wish I shipped Jonerys because then their scenes together wouldn't be so cringey to me. Like Jon somehow knowing her nick name is "Dany" and I felt like they made Viscerion's death all about her feelings for Jon. It's like she didn't get to mourn her son. I think better editing could've still given Jonerys shippers what they wanted, and also have her mourn her child more clearly
*And finally, formula. This episode had so many tropes. Carefully placed red shirts, a chance for the main hero to look around at all the chaos while everyone fights around him and he doesn't get touched. Hero charging at the villain etc. They were good scenes but it just wasn't very original and that stops me from giving it a 9 or 10, even though I enjoyed the episode.

As much as how epic this episode felt, it doesn't hold the candle as the best episode of this season for me however. Giving it an 8.

I absolutely love the interactions among the wright hunters. The conversation between them is enjoyable as these develop the characters to a greater scale. Tyrion and Dany's scene is refreshing. The wright battles are solid. And everything about Viserion, from his death to becoming a wright are disturbing as hell (i wonder how the scenes would be executed if the episode is direct by Sapochnik).

The Winterfell scenes... Dear lord, wtf is up with the writing, the character of Arya and Sansa has become of a mess. I get that they try to present the Stark conflict, but the way they executed it was all over the place. Also, while the wright battles are epic, some of the action fell very flat.

There are a ton of moments I loved, like the first 20 minutes of character interactions, and the amazing set pieces and action sequences, but there's just something stopping me from giving this a 10, and I don't know what it is. It was almost...underwhelming in a way?

I am kind of into Winterfell.

Littlefinger is taking advantage of the preexisitng drama between the remaining Stark siblings, spinning a whole web of lies. The fact that Sansa and Arya have never really like each other isn't helping, either.

Should’ve been a stone cold classic. Instead it was one of those good-to-average episodes with a classic scene in as opposed to the real deal.

Some decent interactions (Jorah/Jon, Tormund/Hound etc) in the earlier moments but then it all went to pot for me, tbh, with too many convenient saves, plot armour and contrivances with the passing of time.

Enough’s been said about supersonic ravens and Gendry’s marathon sprint, but the weird pacing really was some of the worst I’ve seen in Thrones. We cut straight from slow night-time haute tension on the lake to the immediacy of Dany leaving with her dragons at an undetermined time of day, then back. Slow pace - fast pace - back to slow ... then there she is, right on schedule. It diluted the momentum you get in episodes like Blackwater and Hardhome, and where Ramin’s music usually finesses things to compensate, it didn’t.

I felt browbeaten by clunky writing, exposition and foreshadowing in Beyond The Wall ... A LOT: Hound identifying the mountain peak from his vision when based on his expression I’d already figured that out for myself ... or yet another closeup on LF’s dagger, now making it inconceivable that weapon won’t have a role to play in the finale (fucking thing is in almost EVERY Winterfell scene now. Okay. We get it. Shit will go down with the dagger.)

Then there was the irk that for the second time this season, Beric basically said "er... dunno" when quizzed about the Lord of Light gig. Way to demystify the character. That shit wouldn’t fly in earlier seasons – or at least was done more interestingly when Arya quizzed him and Thoros – and what disappoints me is they still have a tonne of great unused dialogue for Beric to draw upon, and didn’t. So sure, have him give the old "God moves in mysterious ways" schtick again. But why not do it in a different or more artful way when there’s still untapped book dialogue to be mined? E.g:

Jon: "How did it happen - the first time?"

Beric: "Can I dwell on what I scarce remember? I held a castle on The Marches once, and there was a woman I was pledged to marry, but I could not find that castle today, nor tell you the colour of that woman's hair. Who knighted me? What were my favorite foods? It all fades. Sometimes I think I was born on the bloody grass in that grove of ash with the taste of fire in my mouth and a hole in my chest."

To be fair, D&D have done a great job establishing the growing (thawing?) relationship between fire & ice this season, but at the expense of so much else – Greyjoy subplot jettisoned midway through the season and Sansa being weirded out by both her reunited siblings included. I mean, take the Northern Lords this season. Glover’s shaming and very public change of heart was presented as an authentic seachange moment for that guy in the season 6 finale, now he’s scheming with known cunt LF against Jon the first opportnuity he gets and Sansa decries him as a ‘weathervane’, as if that oath was all for show. Erm .. it wasn’t. The guy was practically in tears. It’s awful, lazy writing and wrecks the power of that moment in S6. And I don’t know how you burst the bubble of supended disbelief for that opening scene of Arya Frey any more than the actual scene itself, but showing her little saddle bag of rubber Halloween masks she picked up the bargain bin at Wallmart is probably somewhere close.

Bar the genuine emotion of the Jon/Dany sickbed moment and obvious chills of the denouement, this episode reminded me of 7x03 (by way of 4x09) weirdly. An episode where I was expecting super-memorable dialogue for big first time encounters and definitive action scenes, only for them to feel half-baked leaving the episode to be saved by a big, iconic death scene.

So yeah, Viserion was great but the rest? Thoros v Bear was no Brienne v Bear, and the SFX pretty much everything I feared it would be on paper (i.e: Golden Compass.) The wights were their usual mixed bag (+ a dusting down of BOTB’s “encirclement by enemy horde” CGI for a quick repeat n’ rinse) and the new NK was his depressing post-Hardhome self, less the satanic lovechild of Darth Maul and a popsicle than, um … Squidward?


 Fear Factor: 10 ...




  Fear Factor: 0 ...




Now more than ever, when we needed that mofo to glower with chilling charisma, it’s becoming pretty obvious the loss of Richard Brake has proven the worst recasting choice this show ever made. Is it just that fake Groucho nose they altered? Not sure. I’ve nothing against Furdik, and he was fine playing his flesh self in the COTF scene in S6. But for whatever reason, wearing the same basic prosthetics, the character’s look has literally gone from menacing to entirely unconvincing, and how this keeps on slipping past the production/ VFX team, I‘ll never know.

What I do know is the hype for this one being bigger and better than Hardhome was just that. Hype. Only Viserion's fate gives it the edge. The rest, from scripting to plot continuity and logic, was nearly all inferior.

But that’s probably also because, from an audience point of view, it’s easier to believe in characters like Karsi being ambushed out of nowhere than The Fellowship of The Wight walking into an ill-conceived threat and lobbing rocks to get the dead’s attention, with their eyes and ears wide open.

8/10 (but should’ve been an easy 9.) 

I am disappointed in the Night King I think he would only last 1 second in the ring with Sauron.

What the heck

RIP Viserion

Something did feel wrong about this episode. It was really predictable, and some things tested my belief in the plausibility of how the events unfolded.
For example, they must have walked for days to get to this mountain, and then Gendry runs back in half a day. Then a raven is sent to dany before the night king attacks.
The night king seems very slow to attack, why? can't his mere presence freeze things?
I don't know if this is where the plot is going in the books but i can't see this happening, at least in the way they've set it up in the show.

The second Sansa and Arya scene annoyed me, i get why Arya is mad at Sansa, she did pick Joffrey over her family. But to discredit Sansa's suffering is also wrong. But then again- Sansa wasn't wandering around, fearing for her life, starving.

I don't understand why Sansa is sending Brienne away (tbh it's probably because Brienne isn't supposed to be in the North to begin with)



Positives

Really lovely scenes between characters- dany and jon is a winner and i'm not even a great shipper of them. I'm really glad Dany saw the dead and night king in a way, it was wayyy too dangerous though and stupid.

The Hound and Tormund scene was really light-hearted, and hearing them both talk about Brienne was hilarious.

The Dany and Tyrion tension is really great, i'm liking that.

Littlefinger's plan is making sense, from the point of view of him wanting to get rid of arya. I'm not sure why he wants that though, he wants Sansa to himself? or he wants to remove her? he knows the Northern Lords would never follow him but they will follow Sansa. i'm just confused. Something is going to happen here.

8/10 .... i think.

I wasn't expecting how I felt about this episode to be a common theme here...so I am probably repeating so much already.

I gave it an 8/10

Visually it was stunning. Especially everything beyond the Wall.

The writing, though, was horrid.

What I liked:
Sansa informing Arya that if it wasn't for her and the Knights of the Vale pledging to help HER, Jon would have lost the Battle of the Bastards and as a matter of fact was losing. Sansa has been running the North without a word from Jon.
Arya reminiscing about Ned watching her practice archery. Sansa also stating how fair weathered the ShowNorthern! Lords are (they would NEVER in the books), which is why Jon's long absence and zero communication with her seems really stupid.
The writers remembered the Hound's fear of fire.
Tyrion giving Dany the straight dope of what she doesn't want to hear. Um, perhaps we should try to avoid a succession crisis?
Visually the stuff beyond the Wall looked great.
Hound and Tormund talking about Brienne.

What I didn't like:
The rest of Winterfell, the manufactured drama between Sansa and Arya. Are we supposed to believe these two have not spoken about what they have seen and been through since they last saw each other? Sansa doesn't know that Arya was literally minutes away from reuniting with Catelyn and Robb & saw what they did to Robb and Grey Wind? She didn't tell Sansa she killed the Freys? She keeps faces that somehow don't magically rot in a bag? Sansa doesn't tell Arya about the abuse she endured under the Lannisters and Ramsey??? I'm not saying the Stark reunion has to be all sunshine and rainbows but come on... And where the fuq is Bran?
We need to have a Jaime and Brienne reunion and that's why Sansa sent her away. At least Sansa refusing to go to Kings Landing felt in character and since Jon totally abandoned the North (and is the Worst KiTN ever) and isn't even telling Sansa what he's currently doing, at least she's remembering her duty and doesn't trust Cersei or have a reason to. I also think Sansa sent Brienne away because she's afraid Arya will do something crazy and doesn't want Brienne to kill her (or vice versa).
The Hound is stupid enough to throw rocks and snowballs at the army of dead?
No one seems too upset that Thoros died?
Shouldn't the Night's King have thrown his javelin at the dragon with the people on it? For fucks sake Jon, get on the damn dragon.
Jon and Jaime are the luckiest people alive: you can wear heavy armor and fur and still not drown. Amazing.
The Deus Ex machina was strong with this show: the dragons and Benjen save the day.
I still don't see chemistry between Jon and Dany And him calling her Dany was cringy as fuck and not in tune with the show.
Frankly Tyrion should give Dany the double middle finger salute and go to Winterfell and tell Sansa that perhaps he and her are the only people in Westeros with half a brain to run the whole thing.
Emilia was weak in her scenes with Peter by the way.

@igrewupinkl, I have no idea what Littlefinger's plan in Wintefell is. He knows Sansa's position is precarious. And he has a trump card over her, if it wasn't for his Vale Army, the Starks wouldn't have Winterfell right now. I think he either wants WF for himself and by turning Sansa and Arya against each other, he can achieve that better. If Sansa is focused on Arya and Arya focused on Sansa, neither one of them are hip to his scheming?

pour one out for Thoros and Benjen.

I have loved every one of their scenes before this. And although I enjoyed the scene itself, Jon calling her Dany felt so contrived. She even says the last person who called her that was her brother, so why the hell would Jon call her that? It felt like it was just put in for the shippers (which is why I'm very hesitant to say this on the other forum for fear of being fucking slaughtered).