Both Arya and Sansa are playing their own game within Winterfell that will spell the end of Littlefinger next week, but each of them are getting in the others way.

Then again I expect the Night's King to make it past the Wall next week so maybe it's for the best Arya and Sansa make a run for it and just leave Littlefinger behind at Winterfell.

Tokyo 2020

https://68.media.tumblr.com/3909763c...cxsyo1_540.png

As soon as they showed the Wight Bear, near the beginning, it was obvious that they were hinting at a Wight Dragon. It was always pretty obvious that the Fellowship was going to run into trouble and Danny was going to ride in to help. It was also always obvious that one of them wasn't going to make it back... And IMO pretty obvious who it would be (because of the implications for Beric).

So while it was another brilliant episode; I personally don't think there were too many surprises? It was also pretty obvious that Jon, Beric and The Hound and (because he's only just come back ffs) Gendry would survive. I was worried for Tormund at one point though :worry:

Highlight of the episode was Tormund and The Hound talking about Brienne. "... You DO know her!" :joker:.

Obv now that Viserion is dead (RIP :'( ) he'll begin to rot, whereas Drogon and Rhaegal will continue to grow, i imagine the night king is only going to use him to bring down the wall and doesn't actually expect him to be much use afterward

Arya was annoying af reading that note, I knew one of the dragons would die eventually but maybe in a later episode, happy Benjen saved Jon, Thoros dying was tragic, Tormund hilarious as always, Dany made a stupid move taking 2 dragons, we need more Missandei, and probably more but that's all I can think of atm

Named characters only. Including extras the Frey's are far, far, far in the lead.

Females married into another family are categorized into the married family, excluding Cersei.
Cersei & Jaime's children are categorized as Lannisters, as the last official Baratheon (Stannis) considered them such, and they don't have any Baratheon blood.
Jon is categorized as a Stark because he'll always be one in my eyes.

Lannister - 9 (Alton, Martyn, Willem, Joffrey, Tywin, Myrcella, Lancel, Kevan, Tommen)
Stark - 6 (Ned, Robb, Talisa, Cat, Rickon, Benjen)
Baratheon - 5 (Robert, Renly, Shireen, Selyse, Stannis)
Frey - 4 (Black Walder, Walder, Stevron, Lothar)
Tyrell - 4 (Margaery, Loras, Mace, Olenna)
Bolton - 4 (Roose, Walda, Roose & Walda's newborn, Ramsay)
Martell - 3 (Oberyn, Doran, Trystane) (7 inc. Sand Snakes & Ellaria)
Tully - 2 (Hoster, Blackfish)
Arryn - 2 (Jon, Lysa)
Greyjoy - 1 (Balon)
Targaryen - 1 (Viserys)

Characters alive per family:

Stark - 4 (Jon, Sansa, Arya, Bran)
Greyjoy - 4 (Theon, Yara, Euron, Aeron)
Lannister - 3 (Cersei, Jaime, Tyrion)
Tully - 3 (Edmure, Roslin, Edmure & Roslin's baby)
Arryn - 1 (Robin)
Targaryen - 1 (Daenerys)
Baratheon - 0 (1 if you count bastard Gendry)
Tyrell - 0
Bolton - 0
Martell - 0
Frey - 0

And it was all because of the poor TV-esque forced conflict between Sansa and Arya as well as the continued out of nowhere Dany paranoia at the beginning.

Neither Arya or Sansa are dumb but they are being made purposefully dumb in order to force this storyline along. Arya would have understood Sansa's perspective if this was any other season and Sansa wouldn't have been dumb enough to buy into Littlefinger's obvious plot. It's contrived and it's piss poor writing. The plot should fit around the characters, characters shouldn't be changed to fit the plot.

Dany questioning everyone that has stuck with her thus far for no other reason then to create a bit of conflict is equally annoying especially considering her scenes in the last half of the episode where she felt like a completely different character. The paranoia scenes go against everything they've developed with Dany so far and they stick out like a sore thumb. She's a positively schizophrenic character at this point and it's purely down to these poorly written scenes. It makes no narrative sense for Daenerys to doubt Tyrion after everything, it's just another forced plot contrivance.

The rest of the episode with the Westeros Avengers beyond the wall was really good but the bad writing in the other scenes just completely ruined the episode for me. I liked how it ended although I admit I'm getting quite bored of the White Walkers, there's only so much you can do with a villain that is essentially a force of nature rather than a character especially in a show like this which is very much character focused. Unless the Night King suddenly becomes chatty and interesting, I'm not looking forward to a potential season of him. I'm hoping my theory from last week is correct and they are dealt with quickly as the main narrative pull of the White Walkers is seeing how everyone will work together and the writers have set up that alliance already and it'll probably happen in the next episode. Anything else in the White Walker storyline ultimately feels like padding.

Viserion's death was well done and sad although the first trailer for this season that showed a dragon with blue eyes spoiled the twist and we could have done without. It's nice that the writers remembered for a few moments that Daenerys isn't a random paranoid mess too and I liked the cementing of the alliance between her and Jon.

Poor Thoros gettting such a crappy death.

I do feel like they've set up a potential swift end to the Walkers now, with the realisation that killing a walker kills all of those "under" that walker... And so if someone can kill the Night King, the rest will be dust. Most likely scenario would be Dany et al leading a huge battle as a distraction while Jon gets in close for the kill.

I just sort of wonder where they go after that though? Switch back to the war for the throne? There's not that much of Westeros left to rule at this point... Half the ancient noble houses are extinct and no one really cares anymore :joker:

Thankfully, in my opinion. I feel like the only juicy part of the White Walkers storyline if it lasted a season would be how you'd get everyone working together and they've set how that will happen up in the space of two episodes. I say give us a big feature length episode with everyone vs the White Walkers next season and be done with it. The White Walkers are basically a plot device for big spectacles, I don't think there's a need to drag their storyline out any further and risk the spectacle getting boring and overplayed.

The rest of next season will be about Dany vs Jon, a second Dance of Dragons, if you will. Jon's true heritage will be revealed and they'll end up turning on each other. The whole shipping of them this season is setting them up for a tragic storyline next season I think.