What the hell happened to TV and movies being fun or entertaining?

Watching a show about DRAGONS and UNDEAD and MAGIC and WHITE WALKERS and FACE-LIFTING ASSASSINS and DIRE WOLVES and WARGING.....etc. And people get their panties in a wad over how Arya managed to get the drop on the NK.

Arya knows Winterfell as well as anyone and would have known the best place to go, or at least to start from on/in the walls around the godswood.

Arya knows how to jump from high stuff. (see gif above with the waif chasing her...)

The White Walkers and the wights that were in the godswood stopped at the NK's "order". He was going to kill (or do whatever) to Bran. They were told to stand there and watch. We had seen them do that a LOT.
Recall when the NK speared the dragon north of the wall..."Hey Chilly Joe, get your cold ass over there and bring me that ice spear". All the rest of them sat there on their horses with their icy thumbs up their frozen arseholes.

Other than the encounter with Jon and Dany when he was on the blue dragon, he kept himself AND the WWs out of the battle. The numbers of wights in his army were overwhelming
and WAY more than had been accounted for. Even though the humans knew they were vastly outnumbered, they grossly underestimated the numbers, hence the Dothraki demise because they got cocky.
The NK's forces had conquered Winterfell's defenses, overtaken the castle and he laughed off Drogon's flames and strolled into the godswood to claim his prize. There was no need for him to engage the WWs.
They were all just generals in the war tent, anyway. NK was running the show.

The situation flipped and the NK got cocky.

The WWs are posted up on their dead horses, doing nothing. They've strolled into the godswood with the NK with nothing to do but observe.

The NK, about to claim his prized victory, is focused on nothing but Bran and ending humanity or whatever. Having killed Theon Jenkins, there's now no barrier between him and Bran. He lets down his guard. The NK
and Bran are locked in this weird lovers' gaze thingy. Bran looks at the NK and then appears to look at the hilt of the NK's sword. The NK does this "dog turning his head in response to funny noises head turn" as if he noticed
what Bran was thinking like "Oh yeah? Really?". Alternatively, Bran might be communicating with him on some level that we can't see (I think this is the case). Essentially, he's distracted and thinks it's all over but the swordstrike.

Arya gets the drop on the WWs. With her training, her knowledge of the castle layout and obviously being "in the zone" after Mel's reminder about blue eyes and pep talk about "not today" (there is also an element of fate happening here),
she blows past the WWs who are sitting there on their horses with their frozen little thumbs in their chilly little arseholes (again/still), weapons sheathed, watching the NK about to claim his victory. They don't have any supernatural sensory
abilities. They were asleep at the wheel. Whether she jumped from height (wall or tree) or even ran past, it was too late. We see the hair of a WW blow as something goes past. It's too late for them to do anything at that point.

Whatever Arya's method to get past the WWs, the NK senses/hears her coming and turns and catches her by the throat and the dagger arm in mid-air, but her assassin training comes through. No panic. Dagger flip/drop (which we had seen
before, and shouldn't really be all that unbelievable for the character). Stab with Dagger of Destiny®. End NK. End WWs. End wights and blue dragon. End war with the dead.

ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?!?!?!????!!!!

Newest theory is that Jon Snow helped distract the ice dragon who was guarding the entrance to woods....... he yells "gogogo" to Arya.

The WW noticing something (a slight breeze) was Arya sprinting past to do the leap.

John Snow gets the assist?

That’s a lot words trying the justify the deus ex machina ending.

Just my take based on what the show (not the books) has shown us.

Flame here ----->

The beginning of The Night Queen.

Someone posted that a few pages back.

The subtitles however don't show him yelling "Go".

The High Valyrian subtitles show him yelling,
"Leroy Jenkins"

meh....it certainly wasn't a perfect example of deus ex machina.  She had extreme motive.  There was substantial foreshadowings of the event, both in this particular episodes, and prior episodes.  Also, Arya didn't just come into the picture.  She was focused upon in this episode, and has been a primary character throughout the series.

She didn't just arrive on the scene.  She was there long before the antagonist.  Throughout the series her abilities have been demonstrated time and time again.  She was trained to be an assassin by the faceless man, and demonstrated extraordinary abilities of deception and stealth.

The fact that what seems like an unlikely jump for the actor doesn't really qualify as deus ex machina.  Besides the series was filled with such events, and the jump was within her demonstrated ability.  It was entirely possible for the character to have done, what she did.

Eddard Stark showing up and killing the Night King is a good imagery example of what would have been deus ex Machina.  Arya doing it, is not.

The ending of Mass Effect 3 was Deus Ex Machina. This wasn't contrived at all to me, it makes sense. Arya is a major player and was in my top 2 to kill the NK. Jon obviously was the other.

Woops... sorry bout that.

Deus Ex Machina would have been Bran unleashing some kind of superpower not previously shown in the series, like warging into the zombie dragon, taking control of one of the white walkers, or casting Valyrian Magic Missile (Rank 7) at the last moment, or standing up and drawing a sword, or something like that.

I guess I always thought it was going to be Jon.  But I don't feel bad about it, because until the actors read the script they thought Jon was going to be the one.  But after watching the the episode, and upon reflection of past episodes, Arya doing it does feel right.

As to the an extraordinary jump in a series filled with such jumps.  I didn't think twice about it on the first watch of the show.  It didn't seem the least bit controversial to me until I read comments here.  The 'character' Arya had already demonstrated extraordinary skills and abilities.


Season 5?

And where exactly is the ledge in the god woods?

Great, ten fucking pages of Arya's jump discussion.

"I can't believe that idiot Lucas actually had Luke destroy the death star! That was Red Leader's kill!!!!"

would you rather have 10 pages of book snobbery vs show plebs?

Better than 20 pages about rape.

Ready to feel super sad?

"HOLD THE DOOOORRRR"

How about 10 pages of someone arguing that modern sexual assault laws in the real world somehow apply to a fantasy world?

There were locations that she could have made such a jump.  But, there is no need for one.  We never saw her more than a couple of feet off the ground.  I think she made the jump from ground level.  I just used that animated gif to demonstrate a more extraordinary jump she made in season 5.

Or 10 pages of gold not making it to King's Landing?

Yeah, that made no sense. Why would you send cavalry out a mile from the castle in the darkness without knowing exactly where and how the enemy was set up?

Put the unsullied and other foot solders INSIDE the moat BEHIND the static defenses. Have them then take care of the trickle of wights that get through, and have the Dothraki and other cavalry moving to cover any breaches.

Eh, I cared more about Summer.  At least Hodor got a good death.

Most of your list happened in S7 when D&D just decided to make Arya kill the NK. Arya's story always pointed to her just being a ruthless/heartless assassin around westeros.

Then please explain why everyone who was wearing plate armor died by rusty old iron blades from the wights.

Come to think of it: of the 6 Stark direwolves 4 are dead and not one of them was given a good onscreen death.

Lady obliviously gets her throat cut.

Grey Wind gets killed with crossbows while he is caged due to his owner's stupidity.

Shaggydog gets killed off screen.

Summer was given the best death by far and it was simply him lasting about .87 seconds against wights before getting stabbed to death.  He sacrificed his life to buy Bran an extra two seconds.

Things could have been worse, at least they didn't have her execute a SPETSNAZ backflip Valarian steel dagger attack...

Attached File

Significant items on that list happened seasons prior to season 7, the plan for Arya to kill the Night King solidified in season 5.

He wasn't the prince who was promised or Azor Ahai, duh.
Oh, he was literally brought back from the dead too?
No one special tho.

I can't believe how sillly eeeeeeeeeeeeeeveryone was, thinking he was going to kill the Night King
Everyone needs to feel so dumb for thinking the "Promise me Ned" guy, who was half Fire and Ice - and the entire continent was ravaged by war to make that happen, Ned Stark and Rhaegar laying down their honor to make that happen, was the prince who was promised.
That's simply a doofy fan theory the audience made up allll by itself!
"Promise me Ned "
Can you believe how silly everyone was!!! What would have given them these silly theories!!!!!!!1!!one!!1


Nope! He is clearly just a guy.
Bushes jump finish, it was "obvious", and no legitimate discussion can be had about it.
Which is why no one was discussing it, even the high intellect dick-wavers citing buzzfeed for evidence.
Can you believe it though?
There were things in Season 7 and some quotes before that totally could have been used by the showrunners to have it seem to make sense, IF the ending was changed, that made bushes jump make sense.

See,
Muh.
Dagger.
It sort of makes sense, but makes less sense than the other theories people had, mostly makes sense in retrospect.
Because the eyes quote too.
Get it?
Eyes quote, and the dagger.
Duh.

Fuck that whole war, the ruined marriages, the ruined honors of two of the most noble people in Westeros, not one but two prophesies - Can you believe how SILLY people were for thinking it might be Jon Snow killing the Night King?
Clearly it was just a silly fan theory, and not where the story seemed to be pointed, which is why large swaths of the audience believed it.

In bullet points
- I love the show, the episode, and Night King dying gave me an ending I wanted. I jumped in my seat.
- There are question marks about some of the elements the story presented the audience, they may still be answered in the final episodes
- The show is and was a 10/10 as was the episode, I look forward to seeing the remaining episodes.
BUT I think the dismissal of the "hey whoa whoa, what about Azor Ahai?" stuff is dopey.
-If It was a purposeful misdirect, as an audience member I'm allowed to question the decision.
- I think there's reason to believe the ending got switched, it may not be correct, but it's not silly to consider the idea, nor is it a mark of serious brainpower to dismiss what almost all of the audience believed as "some dopey fan theory".

Jon didn't know Arya was going to make a run on the Night King. Only Mel knew (the Hound was also in the room but I'm not sure he understood what Mel meant)

Randyll Tarly: "All the gold's safely through the gates of King's Landing."

People after watching the episode: "DANY BURNED UP ALL THE GOLD! CERSEI CAN'T PAY BACK THE IRON BACK! SHE'S FUCKED!"

I hate that Dumb and Dumber have, well, dumbed-down the show so much to cater to lowest common denominator, but after reading stuff like that I can definitely understand why they did.

source?

D&D said 3 years ago in the after show, which would have put them in production of season 7.

Olenna was badass!

No, that post lays it all out pretty good but some people have to be spoon fed everything.  You might  want to look up what Deus ex machina is because you look like a fool when you keep claiming it is, when its not.

Here, I'll help you out.  https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DeusExmachina

[Bran] "The Night king is tracking me
He wants to kill me, to wipe out the history of the living.
Then he wants to wipe out everyone else, that's his goal.  [/Bran]

In a story that's known for how it advances the story by using like a dozen character's worth of viewpoints and details.

Arguably the biggest mysteries left in the story, jammed into 30 seconds.

Okay, you got me. I was thinking of actual people.

ETA: (not 100% sure Mel qualifies either, but she gets a pass for her magical titties)

Showing her running off a ledge and falling isn’t exactly an “extraordinary jump”.

The camera view of the scene is from bran’s perspective. In case you missed it he’s in a wheelchair. We see roughly half of Arya’s body coming flying in over his shoulder from that angle. She’s got a 6’ vertical jump?

Not mention she someone avoided all the white walkers and wrights in lead up to unrealistic launch.

Everything pointed to Jon.  I thought it would be Jon.  All of the actors thought it was going to be Jon.  Almost everyone thought it was going to be Jon.

But most viewers want to be surprised, so writers and directors strive to it.  The writers of the show took over fully, from the source material in season 5.  In 2016 they decided that Arya would be the one, and started giving the character considerable backstory that would make the feat plausible.

I think they legitimately wanted to keep everyone guessing.  I can't count the number of movies and television shows I've seen that use misdirection and surprise endings.  ...it's a lot.

In the end, Arya killing him felt good to me.

That would have been better than what we got.

If you pay attention to the show, most of the human characters do not get a good onscreen death either.  This last episode was unusual that a lot of the good guys died heroically in battle.  Throughout the series most characters die by poisoning, getting their throats cut, head chopped off, smothered or died in bed/on the ground from wounds, suicide, assassination, or explosion.

See this is reasonable ^


I personally felt they should have done the conventional, and run beastmode from the 1 yard line.

There's merits to the switcheroo, and merits to the "obvious" paying off for the audience.

I do think a change was made, interesting we're in agreement, only "disagreement" is on the timeline of when they did.
IMHO it's a serious thing to consider.

While I would have gone with Jon?
At the absolute worst, and I'm withholding judgement until the season ends, hypothetically I might bump the Show down from a 100% to a 99%
It's still one of my all time favorite shows, and  I'll be watching again

ETA: I think this is why the final book is taking so long, GRRM has to re-write some things to make the pieces fit.

Your right, I was wrong.  I thought they said for 3 seasons, but they actually said 3 years.  They've known since 2016, and started foreshadowing in season 7.

So when all hope is lost and the army of dead is on the verge of complete destruction on Winterfell.....

It’s suddenly stopped by a girl flying through air to make the kill.....

Nope, not even close to DeusExMachina.....

A Deus ex Machina (pron: /di??s ?ks mæk?n?/ for Britons, /de?u?s ?ks m??k?n?/ for Americans; /deus eks ma?k?ina?/ in the orginal Latin) is when some new event, character, ability, or object solves a seemingly unsolvable problem in a sudden, unexpected way.

IIRC as late as 2013 GRRM was talking a "Bittersweet ending" and stuff like that?

Which Makes me think from 2013 to 2016, Fame is setting in, GRRM hadn't released the book, D&D started persauding him.
2 years in they got him to relent, and the story changed.
Now there's more "fan service" stuff, better scenes, "Better deaths" for main characters, things of that nature.

I'm gunna side with the King of Pakitape on this one

Whoever wrote that article is an idiot.  The "Free Folk" are immigrants?  WTF?  And did all the Dothraki women, children, old and infirm men, etc. charge into battle with the warriors?  Nope!