OK, I thought that was pretty great!
Also, I have complaints.
Spoiler:
Obviously this is going to be Helm's Deep, and having a whole episode as night-before-the-battle makes a lot of sense. Lots of great character beats here.
The long last-night discussion among all the not-rulers was a great scene.
And I teared up at the knighting of Ser Brienne. I really did.
Lady Mormont deserves her own series.
Jaime is doing well as a great character even with his diminished powers.
I'm a complainer, though, so here are some bad points:
1) I really didn't need an Arya sex scene, even an implied one. I know the actress is 22, but I still can't shake the sense that the character is just 13 or 14. (How many years was she in Braavos?)
2) Daeny was miffed and petulant throughout the episode. She's losing her aura of command, and I'm not sure it's intentional.
3) The Hound continues to be criminally underused so far in season 8, and his presentation reflects none of the character arc that changed him in his most recent major episodes.
4) I've been watching season 1 again, and it is *so much* richer and more intricate than anything we've seen recently. There's really a sense of everything being on rails now. I don't think collapsing the drama of the kingdoms into a Final Epic Battle against Unambiguous Necrotic Evil is good for the tones and themes that clearly motivated the series from the beginning.
The long last-night discussion among all the not-rulers was a great scene.
And I teared up at the knighting of Ser Brienne. I really did.
Lady Mormont deserves her own series.
Jaime is doing well as a great character even with his diminished powers.
I'm a complainer, though, so here are some bad points:
1) I really didn't need an Arya sex scene, even an implied one. I know the actress is 22, but I still can't shake the sense that the character is just 13 or 14. (How many years was she in Braavos?)
2) Daeny was miffed and petulant throughout the episode. She's losing her aura of command, and I'm not sure it's intentional.
3) The Hound continues to be criminally underused so far in season 8, and his presentation reflects none of the character arc that changed him in his most recent major episodes.
4) I've been watching season 1 again, and it is *so much* richer and more intricate than anything we've seen recently. There's really a sense of everything being on rails now. I don't think collapsing the drama of the kingdoms into a Final Epic Battle against Unambiguous Necrotic Evil is good for the tones and themes that clearly motivated the series from the beginning.