Surprised that Jon only executed 4 people. Weren't the traitors ... a lot more?

Really fucking surprised that Jon noped out. I did not see it coming, I'll admit. Wonder what he's thinking.

ScottPress Dunno, dual wield felt pretty necessary when surrounded from all sides.

 

Thanks, fixed

Or they could have given him blades that were actually meant to be dual-wielded. Then again it would be pretty weird for a Westerosi knight to fight with hook swords or sai or a daisho pair, but a sword and a main gauche would probably have been fine.

Edit: I suppose he only executed the prominent conspirators. And that scene was pretty funny imo. "Okay Edd you're the Lord Commander now, good luck with the Others, peace out"

 

This. Or a fucking shield. Two swords are actually higher maintenance out in the middle of nowhere than a sword and shield. Look, Rep, I'm all for the Rule of Cool, but even I draw the line somewhere.

 

This fight was not designed for rule of cool though(since, y'know, it wasn't and didn't try to be), so I don't get your point.

 

The war was lost for the Targaryens and Ser Arthur was too loyal to bend the knee to not-yet-fat Bobby. Why would the Sword of the Morning need a shield when he was good enough to kill the entire raiding party all by himself? And he 'was' going to split Eddard from brain to balls.

Going by the current fight, I actually want to see Old! Barristan with 2 blades carving his way through Joffrey' guard in a more violent dismissal scenario.

Its pretty clear that the Kingsguard under the Targaryens were on a wholly different level.

Ser Arthur Dayne finds himself another new fan today.

 

Most likely. Without fAegon there is no need to bring Blackfyre Rebellions and without them it really doesn't matter who the three eyed raven is.

That's my take on it too. I'm know very little about real fights with swords, but choreographically it was probably only way to portrait 4 against 1 when they actually attacked him at the same time. The fight itself wasn't the best in the series (for me it's the Hound vs Brienne), but it was decent. Fortunately a lot closer to the best than to the Water Gardens skirmish.

The rest of the episode was fine. Jon's decision, while a little surprising, made sense. He did what needed to be done and now his watch has ended. What he will do next is a mystery to all, probably even himself.

 

I was impressed just by that actor's dexterity swinging two big fucking swords around. More than enough cool factor IMO.

 

Maybe I need to rewatch this fight a couple times.

 

Of course it was intended as Rule of Cool, the dude was swinging around two goddamn swords.


...after ditching his magical one. Because reasons, I guess.

 

Few more points about this episode, scene by scene.

Jon was suitably freaked out for a guy who just returned from death. Mel just found herself her new personal Jesus. Davos as always is the most grounded person around and Jon will be lucky to have him as his advisor.

Tormund's wins an award for the best funny line in the episode.

Sam and Gilly travel. Since they plan to visit his family first, I'm not sure if we will see Oldtown in the season.

ToJ as predicted was split into two parts.

Khal Monty and his friends were funny in the first episode. Unfortunately, Dany's return to Dothraki isn't really that exciting to me. It's probably important to the endgame though. Got a laugh when they stripped Dany and HBO didn't show anything to the viewers.

Varys chewing the scenery was nice, but it was hardly his best speech and manipulation.

And for these doubting 13 episodes is enough to finish the series. If D&D have time for filler Tyrion scenes like this one, they probably can wrap it up in just seven ten episodes seasons and anything more is just HBO asking for additional year.

Does Qyburn have his own agenda or he's just happy to help someone who allows him do his precious experiments?

Kevan and Olenna treating Lannister twins as little kids was hilarious.

High Sparrow vs Tywin Lannister would be really cool, but if the old lion was alive he would never allow something like that to happen anyway.

Arya's training montage was nice, but I can't figure out how a ninja girl is going to fit in the show once she's back in Westeros. They better learn from the Sand Snakes what to not do with her.

Poor Osha and Rickon. It would be better for them if the show just forgotten they existed.

Another characters gone. If they keep this speed, they will kill half of the supporting cast before the season ends.

A crazy theory. Thorne speech to Jon was actually prophetic and Lord Snow will live and fight forever as a new Night's King or simply his counterpart.

 

Not that crazy actually, especially if we were to get a scene showing Beric Dondarrion's sudden perma-death. If that happens, we could then assume that the role of Azor Ahai / PwwP might just be a nonspecific mantle/burden that can pass from candidate to candidate; that R'hllor essentially chooses whichever warrior he/she/it feels is best suited to destroy/contain the Great Other when someone says the words of resurrection over them, and then they can be eternally resurrected.

Logically, only when someone more suitable comes along and/or the Great Other is defeated would resurrection no longer work and Jon be allowed to perma-die.

So maybe Dany or Bran will eventually take up the mantle if they buddy up to a red priest.

 

A funny image, but also a spoiler based on rumours about what's going to happen in the North in the future episodes.

Spoiler

 

^

This. I want it. I need it.

 

So I watched the Tower of Joy fight on YT a few times and I still don't like it. This dual-wielding is straight out of anime. I do like young Ned though. Props to the actor.

 

It wasn't a very plausible fight, but it was certainly beautiful.

 

He's Arthur motherfucking Dayne. Plausible? Fuck that noise. If he wants to have a broadsword in each hand, who's gonna stop him?

 

Howland Reed?

/I had to

 

So Karma does exist in the Asoiaf universe. Ned killed Arthur Dayne because of a backstabbing and gets killed the same way decades later. Stabbed in the back and helpless to do anything.

 

GRRM posted a TWOW chapter on his site. It can't be called entirely new since it's one of these he read to people before. After his additional comments I'm starting to expect a situation where the show is finished and the sixth book is not. I doubt even the biggest pessimists were predicting something like that in 2011.