Game of Thrones (TV series) excitement

[MinionZombie]

A pretty epic day of viewing there then, bassman. So, after that episode, consider myself sated (for a week). I'll talk more about it in the spoiler tags below.   As I was wondering, just the one episode to bash out the White Walkers, which kinda makes sense. The whole show has been about the rightful heir to the Iron Throne, so you don't want to short change that. I figured either 803 & 804 or just 803 to deal with the snow zombies and yep. Now, I was kinda expecting it to be Jon Snow who killed the Night King, but that was a nifty thing with "brown eyes, green eyes ... blue eyes" as targets of Arya's blade, and a deft move there to knife the bastard, haha. I figured Theon would go out bravely, albeit somewhat pointlessly ... but mostly bravely. Bran/Three Eyed Raven told him what he wanted to hear and, I kinda think sacrificed Theon in order to bide enough time for Arya to show up. Or could there be a smidge of vengeance from Bran still in there? Maybe, maybe not. Ser Jorah Mormont's last stand with Khalessi was friggin' epic. Now that's some full blown hero stuff right there. Each time he got stabbed or slashed he got up again to protect his Queen, and then when the fight was won it was all over. It's interesting in that there were basically no final words for anyone's death, for the most part, more last acts. Jorah never got to say anything more, for example, but had a very fitting death. The battle with the White Walker giant was pretty awesome as well. Oh, and Drogo's men with their flaming swords just being snuffed out in the darkness was awesome. So many huge scale moments, too, truly awesome. A few bits were a bit too choppy with the editing, which made a few bits hard to follow (moreso with the sheer darkness pervading many scenes). Some nice surprises in there, and some twists on expectations - e.g. The Hound protecting Arya but not dying in the process was nice to see. I'm still a bit unsure about certain fates - what about Gilly and Greyworm, for example? There's so much going on and you're not entirely sure who's got it and who hasn't amidst the chaos. Hopefully tonight's "Thronecast" will shed a bit of light on all the deaths for an official tally. I imagine next week's episode will have a lot of post-battle shit to be dealing with and then getting the final two episodes set up. But yeah, 803 certainly was fucking epic. No wonder it took them so long to shoot, haha!

[bassman]

MZ :   Bran and Theon - before the fight was brought to the tree, Theon started to apologize to Bran for the past, but Bran says something to the effect of “everything you’ve done has brought you back to where you belong: home”. So because of that, it gave me the impression that Bran had seen Theon’s whole journey and knew that he would redeem himself with that last act of loyalty. Thus Bran was more forgiving because it was how it was always meant to be? A smaller scene, but one of my favorites from the episode was the interaction between Tyrion and Sansa while hiding in the crypt after the dead have risen. They’ve always cared for each other on some level, so it was great to see them express that through very little. It’s still hard for me to accept that the White Walkers’ story is over. It’s been a constant looming threat over the entire series, starting with the very first scene of Season One, so to have them defeated in one episode just doesn’t feel right to me. I’m satisfied with the episode, but there’s something in the back of my mind screaming “it’s a ruse!!!!”

[Neil]

No open spoilers, but whew!! What an episode! A few expected things, but also some nice curve balls! Having watched Avengers: Endgame and this episode on the same day.....my nerdy side is just exhausted! *SPOILERS* Enjoyed it BUT:- 1) Why piss away the Dothraki? We don't know what's ever there... We have no need to attack yet... But heck! They'll be OK! 2) Why put cavalry on the front line? 3) Why put artillery on the front line? 4) What the f*** was Bran doing? 5) Could Melisandre not have died in a more interesting way? 6) The copy shown in the UK on Sky had the worse compression banding (in the darker scenes) I have EVER seen

[MinionZombie]

*SPOILERS* Enjoyed it BUT:- 1) Why piss away the Dothraki? We don't know what's ever there... We have no need to attack yet... But heck! They'll be OK! 2) Why put cavalry on the front line? 3) Why put artillery on the front line? 4) What the f*** was Bran doing? 5) Could Melisandre not have died in a more interesting way? 6) The copy shown in the UK on Sky had the worse compression banding (in the darker scenes) I have EVER seen 1) Didn't the Dothraki launch off on their own rather than take an order to do so? I recall Jorah being taken by surprise a bit. The Dothraki are like a barbarian horde, it's bull in a china shop tactics, and they soon found that approach was useless. The overwhelming Dothraki finally faced a force that they could not overwhelm head-on. 4) Well, he's not going to be an awful lot of use in a wheelchair on the battlefield, although it was mostly just using him as bait to get the Night King to go to a specific location so they could attack him and take them all out. Ultimately it worked, but it was a bit curious that Bran/TER just warged into some ravens for a looksee but didn't really do anything useful with the power. Perhaps we'll see more of him being of use in a future battle? 5) Her use to the lord of light had been fulfilled and her being centuries old she was ready to die. Her purpose had been filled and so she could finally give in to death. 6) What's compression banding? Speaking of the darkness, there were lots of people complaining about it. Now, a few shots were quite difficult, although I just closed the blinds and curtains and was able to watch the episode just fine (well, like 98% of the time). Sure, it's dark, but the battle does take place in the middle of the night amidst a huge snow storm that's blocking out the moon, so it'd be a bit daft to have a load of light filling the frames. I was more concerned with some of the editing in the opening minutes of the battle (after the Dothraki have been dispatched). Too many split-second shots, plus the darkness and rapid moment within the frame, made it hard as balls to figure out what was happening beyond "battle stuff" in a few parts. Fortunately it settled down soon after, but I do wonder why on earth some of those moments were edited so aggressively.

[bassman]

I believe what Neil is referencing is the compression that takes place when the episode is broadcast, which then crushes the blacks, making the darkness seem much worse than intended. Basically, if you consider how the film is edited, color corrected, etc....they do it all on large screens with 4K+ clarity. As the episode is then aired, whether it be on the network, app, or what have you, it streams at a much more compressed rate and lower quality, thus creating the crushed black effect that we’ve seen everyone complaining about. Even if you’re signed up for the highest quality, the streaming/broadcast reduces that quality. HBO actually did a big screening of the episode for critics in LA in an attempt to show that it looks much better viewed in the larger and higher quality format. It should ultimately look great on blu ray, as well, as that format has a drastically lower, almost non-existent compression rate, as compared to the streaming sources. And THAT kids, is another reason why physical media is so important!!!

[MinionZombie]

And THAT kids, is another reason why physical media is so important!!! Hooray! Personally I didn't find it too hard to watch, really. I've got my telly set up nicely so it wasn't much of a struggle to see the darker bits. You do have to wonder with some people as I've seen people posting their TV setups on Twitter complaining about GoT's darkness - and there's TVs set up directly in front of a bright window, for example. Gee, I wonder what that's gonna do for the contrast in your eyes?

[Moon Knight]

Kinda wanted the Night King and his army to put up a better fight after all these years waiting.

[Neil]

Hooray! Personally I didn't find it too hard to watch, really. I've got my telly set up nicely so it wasn't much of a struggle to see the darker bits. You do have to wonder with some people as I've seen people posting their TV setups on Twitter complaining about GoT's darkness - and there's TVs set up directly in front of a bright window, for example. Gee, I wonder what that's gonna do for the contrast in your eyes? It wasn't the darkness. It was the god awful compession of the darker areas leading to huge rainbows of compression artifacts there

[Moon Knight]

People complain about the darkness in TWD too but I can always see fine.

[bassman]

Soooo.....Cersei is still pure evil. In other news, water is wet. I really enjoyed this fourth episode of the season. I was a bit disappointed that the White Walker story was over so quickly and feared the show would start to drag, but they managed to keep me on my toes!

[MinionZombie]

I figured that this episode would provide a chance for a breather after last week's massive ruck, a chance for Winterfell to get organised a little bit, and for the politics of King's Landing to be resumed, plus a little skirmish to keep things interesting - and I got what I expected in that regard. I think Khaleesi has just tipped into "Mad Queen" territory now. She is so pathologically focused on killing Cersei and assuming control of the Iron Throne that she is blinded to all of the good she strived to do in her journey to this point. The deaths of Raegar and Missandei didn't help that, that's for sure. Was Missandei saying "Dracaris" the last little shove she needed to push her over the edge? There was some interesting discussion on Thronecast about Jamie, saying he was quite callous ... however I read it differently. It seemed that, albeit crudely, Tyrion kind of nudged Jamie in the direction of Brienne, and then Jamie (who had intended on staying with her in Winterfell) had this kind of guilt-driven awakening. He doesn't feel he deserves anything good, and perhaps he feels he needs to attempt one last act of good to try and better balance the scales. At the very least, he's drawn to Cersei and some kind of conclusion ... unfinished business. I think his words to Brienne were more to encourage himself to leave when he really didn't want to. I wonder if Jamie will die down south ... and who knows, maybe Arya will get to perform one last face-off moment and kill Cersei? Mind you, they are quite different in terms of height! Not sure how her powers work in regards to that sort of thing, haha! Looking forward to next week's "Last Battle". I imagine Greyworm will die in battle (I just knew there was no happy ending for him and Missandei), and I also reckon that Euron will get taken out, perhaps by Khaleesi in revenge for the killing of Raegar. Hopefully "The Last Battle" will live up to The Battle of Winterfell ... and occur under sunlight and moonlight, haha!

[Neil]

The coffee cup was epic! My theories - I'm wondering if we're going to see The Hound vs The Mountain? Maybe Arya gets killed and The Hound goes full jihad? And dragon fire vs John, who should be immune to it?

[Moon Knight]

Lot's of GoT fans trashing the writing this episode. Cersei not killing Tyrion and Missandei getting captured so lazily got ppl in an uproar among other things. Yes, the Starbucks coffee cup too. lol.

[MinionZombie]

My theories - I'm wondering if we're going to see The Hound vs The Mountain? Maybe Arya gets killed and The Hound goes full jihad? And dragon fire vs John, who should be immune to it? Ooooh ... might we see Dany vs John? She goes full blown Mad Queen and tries to take out the rightful heir to the throne, but it can't be done? Hmmm... Lot's of GoT fans trashing the writing this episode. Cersei not killing Tyrion and Missandei getting captured so lazily got ppl in an uproar among other things. Yes, the Starbucks coffee cup too. lol. I don't think Missandei's capture was "lazy". She was on a ship that got ruddy sunk and it was chaos out there, plus she's Dany's right hand woman, so she has value. As for Tyrion? Hmmm ... Cersei's a sadistic bitch, so she probably wants him to witness the fall of the side he opted for as punishment and then personally kill him at close range. Hopefully she won't get what she wants!

[Neil]

Cersei not killing Tyrion Here "Hand" was out with the other group to discuss "terms"? Maybe she feared him being killed if Dany's Hand was killed?