Hate how dumbed down they’ve made Tyrion, it’s painful to watch what they’ve done to my favorite book character. Then again, it’s painful to see what GRRM did to him in book 5. Meh.

 

Was it an episode on the level of early seasons and books? Definitely not. Can't say I didn't enjoy it for what it was. A reunion of all favourite characters before the long finale starts.

 

Where is Ghost? Did they kill him off-screen to make way for dragon-riding or am I forgetting something?

 

Nah. He had a scene written for him last season, but it was tiny so they cut it. He apparently has several big moments in season 8 though.

 

I enjoyed the episode, although I'm getting real tired of the girl power trope, e.g. Arya Stark and Lyanna Mormont.
Sansa's still rocking it, which might be my .. preference for the actor shining through.

Spoiler: Spoiler

It was odd, yeah. I like to pretend she was just dumbfounded / believe in Jon being her true love, who will join her on her dragons like the Targaryens of the old.

Really digging Daenerys getting more and more power hungry the last few seasons. The scene with Sam was beautiful and one, that I looked forward to seeing since the Tarlys' execution last season.

 

I took the scene where she tells Sam that she executed his father and brother as her just being honest and hearing it from the horses mouth instead of someone else. Not her trying to be cruel.

 

Drew up some new words for House Glover.

 

Spoiler

Just for a prediction that won't age well: Jon Snow, the only person who seems to realize that there's a giant army of the dead marching towards them is going to rock the boat? For the past seasons he's been doing nothing but trying to get everyone on the side of the living, he's not going to blow it up over his least favorite sister sabotaging him.

 

Surprise no one else has mentioned how they appropriated the Baratheon theme for Jon and Danaerys arriving in Winterfell. It's the perfect example of the rule-of-cool approach the last couple of seasons have taken, compromising the themes the show carefully established for lowest common denominator entertainment. Showrunners thought: "hey wouldn't it be neat if the first episode of Season 8 mirrored the first episode of Season 1, and we used Robert's arrival music when Jon and Danaerys arrive?"

Never mind that the tune had previously exclusively been used for Robert and Gendry. Never mind that the Baratheons are the usurpers who destroyed Danaerys' family. Let's just slap their family music on her arrival because it's cool!

 

The entire thing was just one awkward "slap in the face" mirror after the other. King and Queen riding in, courtyard audience filled with awkward tension, missing Arya, crypts.

 

"Aegon Targaryen, VI of his name."
I thought they wouldn't use that line.

"Sansa is the cleverest person I know."
The bid to prop up Sansa as a major player without anything in the plot to base it on.

I complaint enough about the plot becoming hollow once the show-makers ran out of GRRM's stuff, but watching season 8 shows why these complaints are not trite despite years of making them.
The highlights of every season are individual scenes thrown in together to look cool, but as a whole the episodes are just not memorable. Season 8 seems to be on the same track.

 

What's the harm in a few fanservice parallels?

 

The concept of the first episode of the last season mirroring the first episode of the series is a good one. My problem is with the confused execution which runs roughshod over the show's established mythology and themes.

And yeah, not sure if Sansa has really done anything that can be described as clever. It's characterisation by fiat rather than by earning it. She was dumb as bricks for at least 5 seasons and now we're supposed to buy that she's the cleverest person in the world because a few times she's pointed out the obvious to characters who were holding an idiot ball.

I like the idea of Sansa becoming a political badass through learning from all of her experiences. But the show just hasn't put in the leg work. Even as late as season 6 she was still making the same mistakes.

 

I think most of this episode is a pretty good setup for E2, the Kingslayer trial.

My prediction for the next episode is that Dany stands up Jaime for the killing of her father, and Jaime finally, finally drops the bomb of Aerys' plan in the last moments of his kingship, to her and the whole North. Dany tries to naysay it (with good reason, that's a huge argument for the Targaryens Bad side), and Brienne steps in to back him up as a character witness, followed shortly by Tyrion (and maybe Pod) who is Dany's literal Hand, who used the wildfire to destroy Stannis' fleet.

Where Dany goes from there is a coinflip. A rage-out with Jaime still being imprisoned is possible if they want to milk the 'Dany is a megalomaniac' thing, especially if the North backs Jaime (possible, considering they definitely dislike Dany more than the Lannisters). If they want to put a nail in the coffin of that, Jaime is forgiven or something similar.

 

@Taure

I agree about Sansa. Consistently one of the most underwhelming characters. D&D set her up well for a "learning to be Machiavelli" arc in 4x08 and then promptly threw it in the trash in S5. S7/8 Sansa seems like the result of an arc that never happened in S5/6. At this point her character's strength just comes from momentum. Sansa skipped the whole middle of her development.

 

I mean say what you will but Sansa might have been the most sensible person in this episode.

 

"The dead are literally coming to kill us all and wear our skin and play badass death metal with our bones, I brought a couple dragons and a lot of meat shields for the low price of our kingdom being what it had been since Aegon's landing. We did pretty good for that bit of time. Hopefully we do as good for the next bit of time - read. we don't all die. Also FUCK Lord Glover" - Jon

"Yeah but your crown, Jon. IT was important, like, IMPORTANT, plus how do we feed the meat shields and dragons, Jon? Like, they need a lot of food [THEY EAT WHATEVER THEY WANT LOL] . Like, duh. Also, annoying young Bear Island Girl disapproves and that should mean something because she's fierce. Also, ignore the House Stark part of Lord Glover's vow Jon, like he ended it with "I will Follow Jon Snow", that like overrides the first part." - Sansa.

Still, episode 2 looks like it's going to be dope as fuck. Hopefully this was the last bit of reunion fanservice. I mean don't get me wrong, I enjoyed it and recognize its necessity, but let's get this shit on the road.

As another aside, Sansa is far more attractive this season somehow. Like, eerily so.

 

Yeah she has been quite hot but she has this weird thing where it's like they've dyed her hair to be even more red than normal and stained her scalp.

 

Is it just me or do the dialogues seem far more shallow than usual? Something about the writing just feels off to me.