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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.

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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.

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You know that's another interesting thought.  If you go back and look at the scene, there are all these heavy iron grated baskets that Theon's men were using for their arrows and fire.  They look about two, maybe two and half feet tall, and pretty solid.  The actress that plays Arya is only 5'1 and the actor that plays the Night King is 6'1, so with a running start, and using the iron baskets to gain some jumping height, maybe the trajectory seen in the film really wasn't all that extraordinary for the character Arya.

Damn, if you really look at the scene, and what's around, there are all sorts ways Arya, with her particular skill set, could have made that jump running from a hidden position.  ...hmmmm.  Again, no flying, and no unusual magic needed

Quoted:
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.

Note that there are a number of requirements for a sudden plot development to be a Deus ex Machina:

1    Deus ex Machina are solutions to a problem. They are never unexpected developments that make things worse, nor sudden twists that only change the understanding of a story.
2    Deus ex Machina are sudden or unexpected. This means that even if they are featured, referenced or set-up earlier in the story, they do not change the course of nor appear as a natural or a viable solution to the plotline they eventually "solve".
3    Deus ex Machina are used to resolve a situation portrayed as unsolvable or hopeless. If the problem could be solved with a bit of common sense or other type of simple intervention, the solution is not a Deus ex Machina no matter how unexpected it may seem.
4    Deus ex Machina are external to the characters and their choices throughout the story. The solution comes from a character with small or non-existent influence on the plot until that point or random chance from nature or karma.

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No, I don't think so.

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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?!?!?!????!!!!

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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.

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Game of Thrones Keeps Killing Off Entire Immigrant Populations, And It's a Problem

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I'm just going to say this:

GoT is famous for killing off everyone's favorite and not sticking to usual tropes.
Arya is a badass and was a favorite of many viewers. NOW she's a freaking legend since slaying the NK. She fulfilled the biggest purposes of one the main plots.

Click To View Spoiler

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I'm just going to say this:

GoT is famous for killing off everyone's favorite and not sticking to usual tropes.
Arya is a badass and was a favorite of many viewers. NOW she's a freaking legend since slaying the NK. She fulfilled the biggest purposes of one the main plots.

Click To View Spoiler

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I get it, you're still upset that your precious direwolves didn't get more screen time.  Don't worry, they will get plenty of action when the rest of the books get published.  GRRM says it will only be a couple more years, he promises.

Well the problem goes back to GRRM introducing the faceless men into the story.  You create a group of unstoppable super assassins and send one of the major characters to go train with them and become one of them, what do you expect to happen?

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https://i.imgur.com/q0RzcyB.jpg

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I've been on team Arya since that move at the Twins. I think her and The Hound are the best Characters on the show.

They will be kicking ass tother in the final battle (from leaked shots)

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Yep. I really hope this doesn't end in "you go girls!"

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Skipping to the future...

Cersei has made a MST of enemies by her betrayal (in alphabetic order by last name):

Sandor "The Hound" Clegane
Tormund Giantsbane
Asha Yara Greyjoy
Jamie Lannister
Tyrion Lannister
Podrick Payne
Davos Seaworth
Arya Stark
Brann Stark
Sansa Stark
Daenerys Targaryen
Jon Snow Targaryen
Brienne of Tarth
Samwell Tarly
Lord Varys
Grey Worm

She'd best sleep with both eyes open.

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Since I haven't seen it mentioned yet, I'd like to give a shout-out to the winterfell courtyard team of like 6 people for being absolute tanks and holding off thousands of wights that just cut through an entire army

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Looks Familiar.

https://www.AR15.Com/media/mediaFiles/244342/deus_ex_arya_jpg-930726.JPG

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I think Jon killing the Night King would have been too obvious and anti-climatic.

Quoted:
I'm just going to say this:

GoT is famous for killing off everyone's favorite and not sticking to usual tropes.
Arya is a badass and was a favorite of many viewers. NOW she's a freaking legend since slaying the NK. She fulfilled the biggest purposes of one the main plots.

Click To View Spoiler

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Also not if he stabbed through Dany to do it.

You get your Nissa Nissa and you get rid of awful Dany.

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

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It would have been better if Jon cut down old blue flames, ran in and dove in front of the Night Kings killing blow with Long Claw, fights NK pitifully holding onto hope and just at the moment when you know NK is going to run Jon through, Click To View Spoiler

Would've been so much better.

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They’re hardly unstoppable. Jaquen was captured and going to die in a cage until Arya saved him.

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So you'd be cool with a cliché and predictable prophecy fulfillment outcome like that but what did happen was a bridge too far?

How would Jon Snow getting into a 1v1 with the Nightking and winning be any less of Deus ex Machina than what happened?

Arya killing the Nightking is the Red Wedding of plot devices to y'alls hopes for what should have been but wasn't.

The Nightking should have steamrolled everybody, everything else is bad writing. Change my mind.

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So you'd be cool with a cliché and predictable prophecy fulfillment outcome like that but what did happen was a bridge too far?

How would Jon Snow getting into a 1v1 with the Nightking and winning be any less of Deus ex Machina than what happened?

Arya killing the Nightking is the Red Wedding of plot devices to y'alls hopes for what should have been but wasn't.

The Nightking should have steamrolled everybody, everything else is bad writing. Change my mind.

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You somehow missed that she evaded an entire army of soldiers in an open field without being noticed. Was she wearing Frodo’s cloak of invisibility?