I think the Night King doesn't mind seeing people suffer and he knows he is far more powerful then any human so he is very cocky. I bet he let the lake freeze naturally as a form of mental torture and he chose to kill Viserion so that they could see him fall from the sky.

Plus we don't know how much the Night King sees with his own version of three eyed raven time space internet.

Beyond the Wall? More like Beyond the Shark, amiright?

(I kid, but there's a lot of salt out there following this episode. This might season might have a lot of fast travelling and a lack of character beats, but I'm still enjoying it).

4 hours ago, HaranHaste said:

I dont understand why the undead army was just waiting there.

Because the dead don't eat. The dead don't tire. And the dead don't feel cold.

Jon and his merry men do need to eat, do need to rest and definitely feel the cold The Night King had them surrounded. There was no way out. Why rush in? Eventually they'll weaken, pass out and freeze to death.

On 8/21/2017 at 10:01 AM, HaranHaste said:

...

I dont understand why the undead army was just waiting there. Obviously, the ice broke, but last I checked, the White Walkers bring extreme cold with them and would just freeze the water back to ice. Also, there looked to be 5 White Walkers, I am no mathologist, but I think those 5 plus the army could easily have handled Jon and his group. The obvious retort to that is the Night King knew the dragons were coming and they needed to see Jon and his group in order to be low enough for a spear attack to turn one.

I've read the speed of the ice freezing back wasn't as much of an issue as the weight of the mass of zombies breaking it in the first place, breaking every time because of their combined weight. So it had to be thick enough for it to take the weight of all of them swarming across at the same time.

On 8/21/2017 at 7:41 AM, BlodVargarna said:

Was sad to see expendable dragon number one go. Horrified at prospect of Night King plus Dragon.

There was a lot of suspensions of disbelief in this episode:

super fast guy running back to Eastwatch, email raven to Danerys, supersonic dragon flight to find John Snow with his locator beacon. Snow coming out of the lake to be rescued by Uncle Ben.

But I don't care about that. I got to see what I've been waiting to see for years now: Dragons burning zombies!

Who thinks John Snow is going to kill the Night King in single combat?

*raises his hand ? *

Add to that list Clegane not continuing to smash the ice with that huge hammer after he realized he could, he then switched to dragonglass daggers?! He could have been creating a broken ice perimeter but instead he egged on the zombies with stones.

Yea Sandor is a moron for that. Dumbest thing he's done in the entire series. Just break the ice and its over!

10 minutes ago, TasteTheRainbow said:

Yea Sandor is a moron for that. Dumbest thing he's done in the entire series. Just break the ice and its over!

He couldn't break enough ice fast enough.

Why didn't these guys each have 2 doz dragon stone tipped arrows and longbows?

Wow...just saw it. I'm somewhat underwhelmed by this.

So...Poor Gendry. Managed to swing the hammer for a bit, but running the Marathon seems small improvement from rowing.

Gotta love those chains though. Wonder what else those wights have been hiding in the snow.

Another issue I just realize. Clearly the wights can't swim. How'd they get chains attached to a dragon corpse on the bottom of a frozen lake?

1 hour ago, BadMotivator said:

Another issue I just realize. Clearly the wights can't swim. How'd they get chains attached to a dragon corpse on the bottom of a frozen lake?

They may not be able to swim, but they don't have to breath either.

I'm very disappointed in this season, the show has definitely lost its way. Another poor episode in a season that's just dragging itself down under the weight of its own exposition.

33 minutes ago, Stay On The Leader said:

I'm very disappointed in this season, the show has definitely lost its way. Another poor episode in a season that's just dragging itself down under the weight of its own exposition.

I think it shows how GRRM influenced the show through the detail in the books. It can be assumed that the producers got to see some of the book 6 material for season 6, but now without that help, they just phoned it in and got to the action. I do enjoy the action, but the time jumping and loss of what is happening with some characters is sad to see. They easily could have made 2 full seasons and not felt like they were just trying to finish the series.

3 hours ago, HaranHaste said:

I think it shows how GRRM influenced the show through the detail in the books. It can be assumed that the producers got to see some of the book 6 material for season 6, but now without that help, they just phoned it in and got to the action. I do enjoy the action, but the time jumping and loss of what is happening with some characters is sad to see. They easily could have made 2 full seasons and not felt like they were just trying to finish the series.

I kind of agree and I kind of disagree.

There's no doubt this season feels really rushed. There's no doubt the story jumping all over the place is becoming distracting. And there's no doubt that the story is missing the compelling interactions, intrigue and character beats of the earlier seasons.

But what precisely can the show producers do? Martin has no doubt given them the broad strokes of his vision for the final books to work from, but they're not acclaimed fantasy writers; they're out of material to work with, and if they tried too hard to right their own it would come off as phoney (because it would be).

They've chosen instead to focus hard on the action, jump from set piece to set piece and hope that the thrill ride to the finale makes up for the loss of subtlety. It doesn't, but there's no doubt that they're delivering on the spectacle at least.

Yeah, this season definitely feels more like a long movie then a TV show. Still enjoying it though.

You know that sound you make when you move your mouth, that's whinging.

Maybe HBO is pushing them for closure. But on the other hand they can't spend a whole episode showing Sam emptying bedpans and other mundane matters. And it has to keep a pace that doesn't drag for a normal viewer. I certainly would have like to see more of Aria's journey, but I believe that's how GRRM wrote her movements in the books. Plus they are trying too hard to end on cliffhangers or big reveals. Why didn't they show the little details, like the raven arriving at Dragonstone? I think it all boils down to pace.

OK, predictions for the season finale? Surprise deaths? Betrayals? A massive cliffhanger?

13 minutes ago, FTS Gecko said:

OK, predictions for the season finale? Surprise deaths? Betrayals? A massive cliffhanger?

Epic Boat Sex

2 hours ago, BlodVargarna said:

Epic Boat Incest

Fixed that for you.

I wouldn't be opposed to seeing a Tormund/Brienne hookup. Complete with roaring and ginger fur flying everywhere.

1 hour ago, FTS Gecko said:

Fixed that for you.

I wouldn't be opposed to seeing a Tormund/Brienne hookup. Complete with roaring and ginger fur flying everywhere.

Who are you to judge Westerosi culture?!

1 hour ago, FTS Gecko said:

Fixed that for yu.

I wouldn't be opposed to seeing a Tormund/Brienne hookup. Complete with roaring and ginger fur flying everywhere.

I dont know what humping your aunt/nephew is, but i dont think its incest. Thats specifically siblings IIRC.

Plus by Targarian standards they're practically unrelated.

3 hours ago, BlodVargarna said:

Who are you to judge Westerosi culture?!

Dunno about you, but I'm a biologist. I can only reconcile it by thinking targs aren't human.

4 hours ago, BadMotivator said:

I dont know what humping your aunt/nephew is, but i dont think its incest...

Er... nope, pretty sure it's incest, all right.

5 hours ago, TasteTheRainbow said:

Dunno about you, but I'm a biologist. I can only reconcile it by thinking targs aren't human.

Homo Sapien Targaryansis

9 hours ago, TasteTheRainbow said:

Dunno about you, but I'm a biologist. I can only reconcile it by thinking targs aren't human.

Lets be fair. Real life history has had multiple examples of royal families marrying their very close relations. The Egyptians made it almost standard practice.

Color me satisfied.

So what was the wight waiting for when the Hound opened the box? I mean was he stuck in some way or possibly confused by how much warmer and brighter things had gotten?

Anyways awesome finale.