I'm surprised some werent keen on this episode. I thought it was one of the best of the whole series. I'd take it over an action only episode like Blackwater any day. Fine set-up of what should be a huge third episode.

BTW - I still dont think the big showdown with the NK will happen in Ep 3. A little too early IMO.

Since Bran can enter beings and control them why can't he just control the Night King and expose him? Maybe get himself killed and the NK at the same time.

The good guys defeating the Night King at Winterfell, and then going to King's Landing to defeat Cersei, is too convenient.

I think they'll suffer a pretty major defeat at Winterfell, but will discover a way to kill the Night King. I'm expecting one of the main characters (Jon, Dany, Tyrion, or Arya) to die next episode. The remaining survivors will manage to escape and make their way to King's Landing.

The episode would have been great if it was the 7th part of season 5. As the 5th to last episode I would have liked a little more.

This episode was kind of perfect in its own way.

Another really strong battle episode as you’d expect. Arya wins the show.

Incredible episode, the greatest sword battle put on film.
The only gripe was the night kings death, i saw it coming a mile away, as soon as melisandre said what do we say to the god of death and arya left i knew she would be the one to kill him, i knew she was going to pop out of knowhere at the last second.
Beside that gripe the episode was amazing.

They had me fooled. I thought The Night King was gonna kill Bran then they’d all just leave for some other mysterious purpose.

The first 15 minutes or so of this episode were incredible. So much tension and suspense. The entire episode was great, of course, but the moments leading up to the start of the battle were extraordinary.

Arya was really the only one that could kill the Night King, unless they went with the obvious choice in Jon Snow (which explained actually in the after episode), so no complaints there. But it was, as you said neo_wolf, a predictable outcome -- which I'm fine with.

And... thank god Drogon survived! It seemed like a near certainty that all the wights were going to kill him, which would then cause Dany to fall to the ground. This probably would have been the "better" choice, rather than him managing to break-free (since "abandoning" Dany felt... unnatural). Now he just needs to survive a damn scorpion bolt at King's Landing...

It was so hard to see what was going on because the screen was dark, it was blizzarding, and the cuts were shaky and fast. I literally missed Beric and Jorah’s deaths because of that. Otherwise it was fine. No one died who was still useful in any way to the story.

The Arya moment was incredible.

I think the only way for them to top that is something ridiculous like Sansa gets Cersei.

Her moments with Tyrion this episode make me think it could happen.

Her story arc is the most lacking but it's building up...

Jon brought the Northerners together.
Daenerys crossed the seas and combined with the Northerners.
Bran is human history and lured the Night King to where he needed to be defeated.
Arya takes him.

Sansa either will rule the 7 kingdoms or take out Cersei. Her arc is the most in need of a major event.

Also on a side note, Maisie Williams popularity on social media and Youtube video responses to that scene could get her an Emmy, and give her a Emma Watson type career in movies.

I was hoping for something more surprising, but it was fantastically made episode that makes me wanting more.


This was also a bit of a shame for me, so I think you just need a really good screen and high-res copy to really enjoy this one.

I didn't have any issues seeing what was going on. I mean, it was intended to be difficult to "see" as winter hit the battlefield and Winterfell (and to show the sheer number of enemies that were swamping them), but it wasn't obstructive.

Any issues I had with the episode were completely undone by that masterful scene. The music, the buildup, the staredown, the white walker noticing the faint breeze, the angle over Night King's shoulder as Arya swoops in, and the end result. Fucking incredible. Up until that, it was an exceptional feat in television storytelling, but that put it as one of the best moments, not just on Game of Thrones, but on television. You have this incredible buildup for the whole series of one enemy no one knows how to contend with, and it's dealt with by someone who started off weak and too young but fiery and has only grown and evolved for the entire run of the show.

I expected there to be some showdown between the Night King and Jon and that Jon would somehow destroy him, which felt a bit cheap and obvious. I never did get to rewatch the series so there were lots of clues to Arya being the one that I had forgotten, so it was really special to see. The whole episode really ramped up once Arya was featured so prominently, but I expected her to die, not save the whole fucking day.

I did have issues. I think seeing Brienne, Jamie and Tormund throwing swords at the dead was a bit overkill if none of them died. I expect Jon Snow to be Mr. Hero, but someone bigger should have perished there. Even Samwell, who it seemed spent most of the battle on his back, drearily observing the action and narrowly avoiding death, should have went in theory. Yeah, some of the episode was dark, but I'm not going to say it ruined anything for me. I saw the noteworthy characters die.

I'm a bit shocked about any major negative reaction to the episode though. IMDB has it at 9.6 right now. I expected 9.9, especially in the day after it aired.

The episode was dark and the snow made it hard to see and HBO doesn’t have 4K, but I was still able to make out what was happening at all times on my TV.

People who download the episode on a laptop are going to struggle though.

What an episode. It felt more like a movie. The whole series has set up a battle with Jon and the night king. And out of nowhere come Arya with a swift ninja dagger move to destroy the army of the dead. Absolutely freakin loved this moment! Out of all the character deaths seeing Jorah die defending Daenerys was the most touching.

I don't know how they can top this episode as it felt like the series finale.

Yeah, the show never had any major moments shrouded in darkness that were missed. Everything with meaning was well-lit, or lit enough to see what was happening. I think it was a good choice (well besides the fact that it would be silly if the whole thing happened with daylight or proper illumination, as that wouldn't make sense), especially in scenes like when the swords on fire all slowly extinguished. That was super eerie.

Even some critical response to the episode is mixed. I kind of don't get it. Especially the constant lighting criticism. The episode was called The Long Night. What more did you want? The important scenes weren't pitch black and impossible to see.

The episode was amazing!

Loved it.

Looks like major complain and some fans not liking it is cause of being extremely dark as they struggled a lot to see with eyes wide open.

I’ve also seen a lot of people upset by how easily Arya killed The Night King and how it affects the prophecies and endless speculation on said prophecies the show has never addressed. It definitely shorthanded the magical elements of the book in favor of human politics.

That being said, reactions seem to be mostly positive. Will be remembered as one of the best episodes.

Indeed (many expected Jon to be the one). And also some didn't expected NK chapter to be closed in this episode itself.

Its a brilliant episode in its own right.

I think the "too dark, couldnt see anything"complaints are nonsense, however I can understand people have issues with how easily the NK was killed (especially after his showy performance of not being burnt) and being built up since the first episode of he series (i.e. Winter is Coming).

But the showrunners have obviously decided that the real focus of the series will remain the "Game of Thrones'" and not "The Song of Ice and Fire" so the main battle will be in King's Landing.

Still 3 epsiodes to go so plenty of time to see what happens with the war for the throne - first against Cersei and then perhaps resolution of the Dany/Jon issue.

Count me disappointed as well with what/how quickly happened with the Night King overall in the episode and the dragon fights (I mean the fights and not the clarity of the video). Night King and the "white" dragon were mostly hiding for the better half. Does anyone know how/where Arya snuck-up on White King? There were so many white generals standing behind even with her "powers" she couldn't have done that because there was no one nearby Bran and the King. I also didn't like the whole Arya being scared in a room part it added nothing to the chapter but came it like a segment they thought would be relevant and had to fit it in. Basically the first half was brilliant but it went downhill when they tried to close the arc.

Regardless this episode is possibly the best on TV ever, though GoT hardly feels like TV anymore, the scope and production value is better than a lot of theatrical releases.