Game of Thrones: The Long Night Review

   

Well, we're halfway through the final season of Game of Thrones. It's been a fun season so far. The first two episodes were developmental episodes for the characters we have been watching for years. Last night's episode; however, focused on action. I had mainly positive things to say about last night's episode, but there were negatives. I do not believe this to be the best Game of Thrones episode to be honest. That title still belongs to "Battle of the Bastards" with an honorable mention going to "The Rains of Castamere."

     I thought there would be more character deaths in this episode to be frank. The biggest death we got was either Jorah Mormont's or Theon's. I would give the bigger death to Jorah's because he had many ties to the characters especially Daenerys. He went out in a heroic way, defending his queen until his final moments. I'm so glad they brought his character back for these final two seasons. Theon's death was also very bold and powerful. I loved how the producers had him fighting for Bran when earlier in the series, they were at odds with each other. It was a tremendous redemption moment for Theon, so I was satisfied. Speaking of Bran...WTF? What purpose does he serve to the show like seriously? He transforms into the Three-Eyed Raven only when necessary. He did jack shit in last night's episode. I even think Theon was like, "I'm dying for this shit?" I thought Bran had something up his sleeve to kill the Night King because they have been building them up as having a confrontation, which they did, but Bran had nothing. So strange. It's fine. I would have rather seen Arya come out of nowhere like a badass and kill the Night King, anyways. I cheered when she stabbed him. I knew they were setting her up to do something big in this episode, but I didn't know it would be literally saving everybody who was still alive.

     Melisandre made her reappearance in this episode. I'm glad they brought her back. She was definitely an MVP in this episode. Though none of her powers really proved effective in the long run, she fulfilled her purpose. One of my favorite scenes from the episode is at the end when she takes off her necklace and dies from her old age. From a character that was so ruthless and despicable, I finally realized yesterday that she did mean well this whole time. But let's talk about Lyanna Mormont getting bitch-slapped by that giant. At first I was like "That's it? She dies like that?" No. She gets up and faces the giant and as it crushes her bones, she stabs it right in the eye. Bra-frickin-vo. She was such an underrated character, and her reading every one that was in a room with her will always be a highlight of the series for me. She will be missed. Oh, yea and Beric Donadarrion died. Ok. Whatever. I really had no attachment to him anyways. I liked that he sacrificed himself to save Arya, but meh. Other than that, I really wished that more big deaths would have occurred. I know they're probably saving a lot of them for when Winterfell fights Cersei's army, but still. These were White Walkers. They're more powerful than men as seen time and time again. I thought they could have at least killed Gendry and Podrick. I like those characters a lot, but for story purposes, I feel like it would have made sense. Gendry just had sex with Arya an hour ago. He would have been fine going out.

     A scene that I liked that did not involve main characters dying were when Arya was sneaking through the library, trying to avoid the White Walkers that lurked in there. The scene had me on the edge of my seat with suspense. I probably would have pissed my pants in that situtation. It just goes to show you what a machine Arya is. Another scene I loved was when Jon is running through the courtyard and Daenery's undead dragon is just flopping all overWintefell's structure as he's breathing fire at everyone. I loved how the viewer could only see darkness and then blue fire lights it up. Such beautiful cinematorgraphy. It reminded me of when Jon was observing all the chaos going on around him in "Battle of the Bastards."

     Ok. Things I did not like about the episode besides the lack of character deaths included the lighting. I thought my TV was the problem because I had to turn the lights out in my room to see what was going on, but no it was supposedly just how the episode turned out. I wish they would have turned the brightness up a little especially during that first battle scene on the field since it was barely lit in the show, itself. I probably would have enjoyed the episode a little more if that problem hadn't been a thing. Something else I hated was the amount of time that Daenerys and Jon were in the air. Good God. I literally kept looking at my phone thinking "Ok. This has to go somewhere because I am bored with these two." Aside from Jon running around the courtyard in that amazing scene I talked about earlier, Jon (like Bran) really did jack shit this whole episode. He failed to kill the Night King before he raised his victims. He did not even try to help Sam as he was screaming like a mad man as wights and White Walkers are crawling all over him. He didn't do anything on the dragon in the air. It was just not a great episode for Jon. I'm expecting him to do something in the final battle with Cersei, though. If he doesn't, then what a big letdown for his character arc.


     Was this the best episode of Game of Thrones? No and honestly it's not even close in my opinion because "Battle of the Bastards" was groundbreaking especially that one take shot that happened during it. Oh my God. That was extraordinary and one for the history books. This episode was very good, but the detractors I talked about really brought the episode rating down in my opinion. I will give "The Long Night" a 7.5/10. This season is halfway over already. Can you believe it? I am expecting next week to be a very calm, slow episode which is fine because I think we all need it with all of the action we witnessed on this episode.

Thank you for reading my thoughts on the "The Long Night!" What did you think of the episode? Di you like it or not like it? Leave a comment!