I think the White Walkers story in general was just a way to bring all the main characters together - and guess what, it worked! Even if the White Walkers were defeated a couple of episodes later, you'd still have had the story of the who ends up in the Throne. Now you have 3 people who could lay claim to the Throne and depleted armies.

 

Personally I would have loved to have seen a few of the characters battling white walkers themselves, I feel that would have been epic.

It is funny to think about how defeating the Night King has been the primarily goal for a good 2-3 years now at least (obviously more or less depending on the characters) but at its heart the show is about the Game of Thrones. All of Ned, Cersei, and Littlefingers quotes especially from the earlier seasons are still the core of this show. It’s about who ends up on the Iron Throne and all the bumps in the road along the way. The show centres around Kings Landing but these 3 episodes have mostly been focused on The North, now that threat is over we move back to what GoT was about in the beginning.

 

Saying that, IF the books are ever completed I can see the final book being wildly different from this final season. “A Song of Ice and Fire” doesn’t make you think of kings and crowns, war or politics it makes you think of what is now the war between fire and ice. If ASOIAF finishes with the Night King sitting on the throne or at least dies AFTER The Last War I think it would be the perfect ending to the book series and fans would be very happy.

 

It means that the rest of this season is moving on from the Night King which in terms of climax it does seem like we’re over the hill from an audiences point of view, but as far as the game of thrones is concerned we’re back on track after a huge detour ever since the Battle of the bast*rds

I started watching the show thinking the whole focus was one who will get the throne and when Hardhome was broadcast, I was like wtf this show isn't The Walking Dead. But with the increased focus, I understood and was also led to believe that the show was wayy more than the throne and the throne was like a macguffin, especially with poor Tommen sitting there for forever. Unless the show ends with the destruction of the throne or some form of coalition, there's always going to be a fight for the throne and so how can a show like this end if it is all about who ends up on the throne? Everyone but Cersei may have joined together against the Night King but how long will that last? We saw last week there's already fractions between Dany and Sansa and then Dany and Jon (which is randomly dropped this week). With the White Walkers gone, there's nothing at the moment to secure that unification (especially once Cersei's inevitably gone).

 

It is largely a problem inherited from the source material (which is 100% never going to be finished) resulting in the show being a bit lost in what it's actually about and I do think the concept of the White Walkers fits uneasy with the other main power storyline which is why I was hoping and expecting more from the reasoning behind the White Walker storyline. It just feels like they shoved it out of the way in favour of a spectacle. Maybe this will be resolved with Bran over the next three episodes but that still won't make me feel gutted that Cersei never faced them.

 

It was always going to be tough to end this show, it just feels bizarre for a large part of the series to not really come to anything other than bringing characters together.

 

Also, isn't the Night King a character created by the series?

I'm not sad at all the Night King's gone, I was never rooting for him and obvs there was nothing really to him except as a force of destruction and I'm very pleased that it's going to be a human character focused dilemma especially with the characters we've connected to so much, as I've liked that the show at least (I can't speak for the books) has a human core to it as that's always made it stand out a lot amongst other fantasy tales, it is ultimately a political story.

 

I'd just rather have not had it built up so much that he is the ultimate enemy, that he could wipe out humanity, that everyone will die, that the stakes are sky high and for him to just be offed so easily, we also never learned anything about him, his connection to Bran, how he came to be...it just felt far too quickly brushed aside coming from a show that always gave a lot to character development (even the non human characters like the dragons and direwolves have felt fleshed out!).

The Night King came to be by the little faerie folk under the tree north of the wall, who felt threatened by Man and turned one of them into a creature that eventually turn on them and would wipe them out as they saved Bran in order for him to get Holdur to hold the door as they ran away so he could be the bait for his sister to end the threat to all living things everywhere bar none (season 6). Everything is beautifully plotted and linked, it's not been thrown together.

 

As for comments about "easily defeated", errr the longest single battle in television and movie history! Whole armies wiped out in minutes! A dead dragon and giant causing havoc! Hordes of Undead slicing the living to bits! 8 years of waiting! I mean, how much destruction do you want? :lol: The First Of The Blue Eyed had to go, he was shown to turn the dead to the undead, turn babies, and to be in total control, and it was the single ONLY way to defeat the undead, that's why Destiny was key. No different from Avengers, where the out of millions of alternate realities there was only one way to save the universe - so that was the one that had to be, with key heroes dying in order to make it so.

 

Both of last week's key movie & TV events of 2019 were pretty much saying the same thing: there is only one way to beat impossible odds, and that's by things turning out EXACTLY as they did. It's a plot device that can;'t be used too often, only in true epics. GOT can do it because it's ending. Marvel can't do it again or they'll get slagged off for cheaply repeating the same basic plot. Savour the moments and deliciousness of 2 of 'em in a week, I say, it won't happen again!!

I never quite understood that Bran storyline at the time so fair enough I may have not been paying attention to his origin story, but there was still an awful lot of unanswered questions about him and depth missing from other show villains, I suppose how enigmatic he is made him so intriguing but even so.

 

I emphasise again though, my problem was not with the rest of the battle or the way he had to die, that was extremely well done having Arya do it, it was the fact he was built up for eight seasons as the biggest threat to humanity the seven kingdoms had seen. For him to be dealt with in a single night just undermines him completely to any old generic, one-dimensional villain, and it peeves me a bit because I don't expect something like that from this show.

I never quite understood that Bran storyline at the time so fair enough I may have not been paying attention to his origin story, but there was still an awful lot of unanswered questions about him and depth missing from other show villains, I suppose how enigmatic he is made him so intriguing but even so.

 

I emphasise again though, my problem was not with the rest of the battle or the way he had to die, that was extremely well done having Arya do it, it was the fact he was built up for eight seasons as the biggest threat to humanity the seven kingdoms had seen. For him to be dealt with in a single night just undermines him completely to any old generic, one-dimensional villain, and it peeves me a bit because I don't expect something like that from this show.

 

I think the problem is, and I think it was Klaus who eluded to it, The Night King is a character created for television purposes. I don't think he exists in the books (at least not yet). You have to have a figurehead of the White Walkers - which is personally all I think he was, nothing more. From watching Behind the Scenes, obviously GRR Martin told the show runners that Arya has to be the one to kill The Night King, which we can suspect is a larger part of her arc.

 

I can't stop listening to the score of the final 10 minutes. It finally clicked what it reminded me - The Leftovers "Departure Suite". It's almost uncanny. I can't help but feel some inspiration was lifted from that show. This score was always used when we saw characters in the show going through moments of loss, helplessness, despair and grief.

 

 

I never quite understood that Bran storyline at the time so fair enough I may have not been paying attention to his origin story, but there was still an awful lot of unanswered questions about him and depth missing from other show villains, I suppose how enigmatic he is made him so intriguing but even so.

 

I emphasise again though, my problem was not with the rest of the battle or the way he had to die, that was extremely well done having Arya do it, it was the fact he was built up for eight seasons as the biggest threat to humanity the seven kingdoms had seen. For him to be dealt with in a single night just undermines him completely to any old generic, one-dimensional villain, and it peeves me a bit because I don't expect something like that from this show.

 

Sorry Chez, I should have made clear I was referring back to general comments from quite a few folk about being disappointed with the manner of the sudden ending - I wasn't referencing your points after the faerie folk origin explanation. I can't argue the White Walkers were anything BUT one-dimensional, but as a means to an ends (what comes next) it pretty much did the job in the same way that a sudden deadly plague would serve the purpose - to create drama and conflict amongst characters.