Canadian Politics Today

That was so contrived. A real battle would have had the Dothraki do hit and fade flank attacks in the *daylight*. I suspect Melissandra's bit was to add to the drama so the defenders could watch the lights go out from the castle walls.

It might have been stupid from a tactical standpoint, but it was an amazing visual.   First, Melissandre shows up, and we get this brief moment of hope... seeing the fires light up in a wave along the front, and seeing how the defenders reacted to it, it seemed like they had a chance after all.

And then the second awesome visual was the Dothraki charge, with the flaming swords and the flaming trebuchet projectiles flying overhead like comets... it was almost as cool as the Riders of Rohan charging into the Battle of Pelennor Fields in Return Of The King. 

And the third incredible visual was the charge as seen from high up where Jon and Dany were watching.   The dots of flame rolling across the battlefield like a wave.

And then, chillingly... the wave stops, like an ocean wave breaking against a granite cliff, breaking up, dispersing.    I liked that this was left completely to the imagination...  we got the one brief visual of the riders meeting the Night King's hordes, but aside from that, it was all implied by the torches.  The torches stop in their tracks, and start disappearing, winking out like snuffed candles.   Terrifying to imagine what must have been happening out there in the darkness, but all we could see was the flames disappearing.

I think the beginning of the episode was brilliant film-making.  From the tension of the opening preparations and the unstated sense of doom conveyed, to the brief glimmer of hope provided by Melissandre's magic and the ferocity of the Dothraki, to the part where the flaming swords have vanished... this was all just stunning to watch. I think that might have been among the most brilliant 10-15 minutes I've ever seen on television.   Pure magic, in my opinion.

The rest of the episode wasn't quite as good. A lot of sound and fury, but it was hard to really get a sense of what was going on.   The scenes in the clouds were especially confusing. 

My "pick 5" dead pool idea turns out to have been terribly misguided. I'm assuming any characters we didn't see die are still alive, of course, but we only saw Theon and Jorah die (plus Lyanna Mormont...)    After several seasons of expecting this to be a cataclysmic event, I somehow expected more than 2 of the main characters to check out for good.   The armies of the living suffered thousands upon thousands of casualties... but amazingly, just two main characters.  It feels like the writers chickened out.


And a lot of people-- including Maisie Williams herself, apparently-- were wondering why it was Arya, and not Jon, who did the thing.  Like, why did Melissandre bother bringing Jon back at all?  Wasn't he supposed to be the guy she'd seen in her prophecy?  Of course she's been wrong about stuff before... she'd thought Stannis was the guy at first, so maybe her prophecy meter is a little broken.  Still, everything seemed to point at Jon being the guy.   But sometimes unexpected stuff happens on the way to the fireworks factory.

I also thought Bran's mystic tree spirit **** would play some kind of role in the conclusion.  Nope.  He just sits there like a lump and doesn't do jack ****.  I wonder what further role he can have from here on out? 


 -k