Game of Thrones: Why Episode 3 Was Unsatisfying

Spoilers Ahead!! (the episode has been out for a while now so catch up already)

On the April 28th season 8 episode 3 airing of Game of Thrones on HBO, the long awaited Night King and his army of Wights and White Walkers arrived at Winterfell. Although it’s been 8 seasons and lots of characters have traversed beyond the wall and returned (many times) and Daenerys has crossed the Ocean to land in Westeros, the Night King and his army of Wights have managed to slow walk to Winterfell.

MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW!

During this battle for Winterfell, many of our favorite characters prepared to face off against Death cumulating in the most exciting and action packed episode since the Battle of the Bastards really. Don’t get me wrong, the episode was gripping but fell short in its conclusion.

No, this isn’t about the fact that, SPOILER— Bada*s Arya Stark was the one to finally end the Night King for good, it’s about the fact that for so long, the big bad wolf who seemed bigger than life and death itself ended up being not that big of a deal. The show even mentions in its preview for the next episode to air May 5th, that they had won the Great War but would win, the last war. I mean does the last war matter after defeating the impossible? Seems like a piece of cake after battling death.

The fight against, arguably the biggest baddest threat in all the realms isn’t even the last battle. It’s a prelude to the actual battle. This diminishes the effort of the past 8 seasons in painting the Night King as a force to be reckoned with. I mean, not even Dragon fire could kill him.

Then there are his generals, the White Walkers, who did literally nothing more than walk and look menacing the entire episode. A gust of wind blew and not a one stirred. They seemed much more capable in earlier seasons.

Characters seemed to ignore the huge army of undead surrounding Winterfell and came and went as they pleased, I’m looking at you Melissandre. I mean how did she casually stroll into Winterfell when it was already surrounded by the army of undead? In the scene when she encouraged Arya about killing someone with blue eyes, how was she in a room with undead when Arya, the Hound and Beric Dondarrion had so much trouble getting there? Even during her demise, the army of undead seemed to vanish as she walked onto the ice and died. Where did they all go and where were all the dead soldiers turned into undead by Night King? Also, why was Ser Davos always there watching her?

This brings me to the biggest irrelevance in the entire show; Bran. What was the point of Bran throughout this entire show? Like for real, he’s the three eyed raven but then so what? Considering his story line occupied a pretty sizeable amount of the show thus far, his plot line and character really serves no purpose other than to “observe”. Cue eye roll. The only interesting thing about him was finding out Hodor’s origins. That’s it.

Some other points worth mentioning:

Why must Danny insist on landing her Dragons in irresponsible places? She could’ve taken off after Jon left but instead stood there in the middle of a battle field until Dracarys was overwhelmed by Wights. WTF.

The army she’d spent the entire show gathering, The Dothraki, The Unsullied and her right hand Knight perished in an instant. Hard to believe she had the best fighters in the land when they all died in an instant.

Although Arya is talented and has trained so long as an assassin and a swordswoman, it’s hard to believe she developed the skills to pass by the Night King’s general when just scenes before, she was having so much trouble dealing with the Wights and had to be rescued. If the show had previously established what kind of assassin skills she had besides stealing faces, it would be more believable that she could swoop with a gust of wind. Seeing her deliver the last blow to someone like Cersei after overwhelming an opponent like the Mountain would’ve been more believable.

Sansa is and always will be useless and moody.

Overall the episode was amazing and brought together characters and story lines we’ve been watching for so long. The scale and scope of the set and battles were intense and out of this world.

Now it’s on to “The Last War”.

Episodes of Game of Thrones airs on Sundays on HBO.