.....Woof, what a ride.
So the casualty list stands at:
Edd
Beric
Jorah
Lyanna Mormont
Theon
Melisandre
Samwell? (he wasn't shown to be alive post battle, but he probably is)
Majority of the Unsullied army
Vast majority of the Dothraki
Ghost? (considering how he has literally been a "ghost" for the better part of 3 seasons, I think he might be dead off screen)
Unknown number of Wildlings
Night King and his army wiped out
I have to say I echo the majority of peoples opinions here. The episode was very entertaining while simulataneously being somewhat underwhelming. I am legit more surprised about who survived rather than who died. Tormund, Gendry, Greyworm, Rhaegal the Dragon, Davos, Brienne and Podrick all could have died for the sake of the episodes payoff and would have had very little if any tangible effect on how the rest of the season plays out. Apart from a couple of salad dressing scenes similar to Tormund and the Giants Milk and Pod singing, I would bet anything that the role of all these characters from this point on will be little more than foot soldiers while the likes of Jon, Dany, Cersei and the Starks take center stage for the final dance.
Arya killing the Night King.....Well yeah alright, the use of the special hand swap move she showed Brienne last season was pretty cool, but I feel it could've been done better, like Arya having taken the face of one of the Wight Walkers and was hiding in plain sight amongst the Night Kings army waiting to strike. I feel that would've been a lot more of a "Ahhhhh yes of course" moment then Arya just lunging in.
I have to admit I thought Melisandre's arc worked out better than I thought it would. Linking the Arya > Night King moment up with the prophecy she told Arya about the eyes she will close many seasons ago was a great way to tie off the string. The scene where Melisandre died was also a great way to do it, almost as if she was embracing death like a breath of fresh air after waiting perhaps centuries to fulfill her goal.
Lyanna's death, yeah okay it was very fan service, but I think you'll find if her death was a lot more low key, like suddenly she dropped the tough child persona she had run with for so long and instead was stabbed or eaten while cowering in some corner, people would have been more pissed off. Instead she stabbed an undead giant in the eye while having her insides destroyed in a death grip. An awesome character deserves an awesome send off.
Biggest disappointments for me, were the Dothraki being swept away so quickly and the nature of Theon's death. By following up the amazing scene of Melisandre lighting their swords on fire with such a limp dick out of sight massacre after building up the Dothraki as this big deadly force of horse riders I think was a very cheap out. Also what's with them just charging in head on like that? They're f**king Light Cavalry, Where are the tactics? I mean comeon. As for Theon, well his death was just stupid heroics for the sake of stupid heroics. Charging the Night King like that with a spear, what did he think was gonna happen? Another character arc seemingly brushed aside with a piss poor ending.
I'm interested to see how the forces in the North recover from this. They still have 2 Dragons yes, but judging by how the battle played out, their armies have been all but decimated. They had better hope their army recruiters have silver tongues, because Cersei's army is rested and reinforced. Plus she still has the trump card of the wildfire nuke hidden under Kings Landing.
A solid 7/10 from me. A decent episode which I enjoyed, but certainly a lot more they could have done better. Also how about the f**king mess that has to be cleaned up afterwards? There has to be close to a million bodies littered in and around Winterfell. Ah but don't worry, they have them all piled up on the pyre within days lol.
