Hmmm... a lot of thoughts, now that I finally caught up, a day late.
It was a difficult episode to watch.
Firstly, because of the actual filming. It was dark, a lot of the bodies looked the same, the dragons REALLY looked the same, there was a lot of swirling snow, and there was a lot of "Character A magically appears next to Character B, even though they were nowhere near each other."
Secondly, for me, because it was just terribly brutal. Sure, maybe not for our named characters, but christ, the sheer scale of death was a lot to take. Every single dothraki, it looks like almost all of the unsullied, we didn't see a ton of the wildlings but I think we have to assume them, too, and then a lot of the crypt... the North is basically wiped out, and all of Dany's armies that she built up over the last seven seasons, gone too. And horribly, too... what a terrible death for so many people. Listening to the slaughter in the crypt made me a bit sick.
Not a fan of the tactics. I guess it makes sense that the Dothraki would just charge... that's clearly their way, and they clearly will be most effective doing that, rather than fighting on foot behind walls... but still, just felt like suicide. And the unsullied... throughout the show, they never really fought in the shield wall/phalanx formation that spears and shields would imply. I expected them to make a big ass wall of shields and have the dead smash into them for a good long while... instead, the dead just flowed right over them like water. Maybe the idea is that the humans didn't REALLY get how deadly the dead were?
I was shocked that more named people didn't die, but in the end I am glad. I was not ready to say goodbye to a lot of these characters. But yeah, it was WAY too convenient... they were all surrounded by dead bodies and wights, but all managed to survive, without any regular people around them surviving? WAY too much plot armor.
Interesting that Arya turned out to be the one the prophecy was talking about. Didn't expect that. But so then why did Jon come back to life? What was his mission? Was it basically the gathering of the people to defend the North?
The cleanup would be INSANE. Like... it would take months and months. I guess you'd just have the dragons burn the bodies? What a horrible job. BTW, can't believe that it seems that both dragons (and Ghost?!) survived the battle! Sooo... now how does that impact what happens in Kings Landing? The image of Drogon hopping away covered with the dead was pretty brutal.
Will winter now end? Like... will the weather turn good now? I'd be down for that, I think.
I am actually thrilled that the Night King storyline appears to be done. The dead and the Night King were never the shows strong point; the strong point has always been the characters and the interactions. The "next week on" made me very happy... all faces we know, all well-lit, and looking like the GoT we know so well. I have high hopes for the last three episodes, especially since we sort of knew what was coming to this point (big battle, good guys win.)
I am also starting to have some hope, that in the end some of the characters we love will survive.
