The Nights Watch: GAME OF THRONES SEASON 8 EPISODE 3. April 29 UK. Spoilers after 2 am.

[OneInAMillionYou]

Come gather brothers and sisters of The Nights Watch. The Battle of Winterfell will soon be upon us.

Valar morghulis

I loved Melisandre in this episode. Did anyone notice at the end when she discarded her necklace, the ruby glowed for a moment and was then extinguished?

They showed the clip on Thronecast last night of when she took it off and showed how old she really was. The ruby did the same then-I think it just only charges and lights up when she’s wearing it .

It was pretty epic but as they went full populist with no major character deaths and arya killing the NK I am not expecting them to bother fleshing out the Bran storyline.

Concrete? What even makes you think it was concrete? I don't have details of funerary practices in westeros but I would guess that the crypt would have numerous resting places carved from the bedrock walls and as each one became occupied the opening would be plastered over. Plaster is very easy to bust through.
Meanwhile the wight in a box was also bound with iron and the buried dead were unbound.

I am still trying to process it all this morning! I don't normally get this invested in TV shows... I think it because of all the depth and theories around GoT.

More emotional about Lyanna's death now than I was at the time. Poor Edd coming back as a Wight when he had specifically reminded Jon and Sam to burn the bodies. Loved the scenes between Tyrion and Sansa. Bran telling Theon he was a good man and then Theon charging the NK had been in tears and then Jorah straight after... Theon was so badass in defending Bran and interesting that apart from Arya he came closest to the NK.

I would quite like a Brienne/Jaimie moment now... Before the battle I didn't want them to get together as I felt it would have reduced Brienne's strong knight story arc but now they have fought alongside one another I've changed my mind!

Other than that though I am quite ambivalent about watching the remaining episodes. I just don't care about the politics around the iron throne or Cersei. I would be happy with them toasting the fallen and celebrating their victory and then it ending. In my head the north would separate from the south (don't ask me how that would be squared away between which of Jon/Dany/Sansa rules the north) and there would be an uneasy truce between the two countries until more fighting breaks out in about 10 years time (because that is how medieval politics worked!). But that would be another story...

That's a good point Redforshort

We have no idea how much Arya has shared with even her family about her time away from Winterfell. We've seen her refer to her 'training' and tell Jon she'd used Needle "once or twice" but the true extent of her killings she may have kept to herself.

I'm fascinated to see how much she shares with everyone next week about the killing of the Night King. Might she even imply that Bran was responsible? I don't expect she will take a lap of honour 😀

It does seem to be men on Twitter complaining that Arya was the hero(ine).

I also can't decide whether to rewatch it... I kind of want to but not sure I can bear seeing Lyanna, Beric and Theon die again. Plus there won't be quite the same tension knowing they win (honestly I still thought it wasn't going to be the decisive victory over the NK until about half way through the episode)

We have no idea how much Arya has shared with even her family about her time away from Winterfell. We've seen her refer to her 'training' and tell Jon she'd used Needle "once or twice" but the true extent of her killings she may have kept to herself

Davos' face when he watched her fighting suggested he at least had no idea how much she could kill!

And if course it's menz who are annoyed a woman could kill the NK as if there wasn't enough male heroism out there through all the rest of the episode! I mean there were what 4 named female characters (and a few female extras) actively fighting to how many male characters...

Having seen the preview for last night's episode we knew to turn out the lights and watch it in the dark - but either nowTV or Virgin cable doesn't have the data capacity to provide enough data at peak hours for things like this. We had to stop and restart 3 times when the picture quality got too bad (restarting the modem seems to help) which was frustrating.

I didn't feel that enough major people died though I am glad that many of our heros had good and honorable deaths. There ought to have been a bit more failure though - someone dying to protect the one they love but the one they love gets killed anyway. Someone taking a million to one chance and it NOT succeeding.

I thought the melissandre stuff worked fine. We already knew she was ancient and desired death but had to stay alive for this battle. That she is fallible and makes mistakes - like Bran said (who presumably has much better prophecy talent) you just get mixed up fragments not a coherent story. She probably didn't realise Arya was TPTWP just knew she had a role. Likewise she probably didn't know exactly why it was important that Beric should be immortal, but once she saw him die things clicked into place for her, she realised that he had fulfilled his task and that protecting Arya for this moment was the only reason they were both alive. I think she was grateful to be allowed to take the necklace off and find rest at last.

I thought Bran and the night king stared at each other a bit too long - there is unfinished business there. Bran may be the night king and nk may remember seeing his death at this moment and know he cannot prevent it.

Someone taking a million to one chance and it NOT succeeding.

Like Theon? And Jon's desperate run for it?

I thought the death of the NK in episode 3 was fitting, unexpected and bloody great! Now it's all about Cersei and the throne.....lots more deaths to come. Hopefully in daylight.

Brienne and Jamie do now need to shag each other good and hard (if not too injured) to celebrate both having survived that battle. If that isn't a scene next episode it will just be because they couldn't wait that long to tear each other's armour off.

Lungelady the trailer for episode 4 does provide hope that future deaths will occur in daylight!

I couldn't sleep last night. Felt so drained. We are off to GOT exhibition in Belfast this week.

There's been a lot of foreshadowing of the Arya vs the Night King showdown - it's just that you only make the connection with the benefit of hindsight!

Interesting that they seem to have made a point of killing off the young lords/ladies of the northern houses. Lyanna Mormont fighting the giant, Thingumybob Umber in the Night King's art installation, and Alys Karstark (presumably) fighting alongside Theon. I wonder if it's going to be particularly significant for the Starks to be the only surviving northern house.

I want to Brienne to throw Jamie over her shoulder & rip his clothes off.

The northern houses would take the brunt of it though wouldn't they? Geographically at least.

Lucky you LungeLady.

Phew!! Barely breathed for the entire episode

From my point of view, I liked:

• that no one I was really rooting for died
• the shot of the flaming Dothraki swords racing across the battle field
• was anyone else reminded, when Arya was trying to escape from the library, of Jurassic park where the annoying children are stalked in the kitchen by the raptors?!
• shots of the dragons above the clouds - absolutely beautiful, like in How to Train your Dragon
• respectful and fond interaction between Sansa and Tyrion
• Arya’s epic save!!

Did not like:

• not enough Tormund!
• that the Dothraki were snuffed out so easily
• Bran - he’s just dull
• usually fond of Sam but he behaved like a twat in this episode, refusing to go to the crypt, having to be saved and getting Edd killed
• wanted some more tender words at the end of Ser Jorah Friend-zone from Dany

The whole thing was unbearably tense! Unlike a lot of others, I am glad the whole NK thing is over. I hate the threat they posed esp to the wolves and dragons (!) and much prefer the politics and machinations rather than a straight fight against the boogey man, iyswim. Cant wait to see the aftermath and what plans evolve to tackle Cersei.

I loved the bit where Jon thinks he’s got the Night King on his own bit then the Night King raises his hand to do his resurrection move-Inspired!!

I guess the Umbers and Karstarks were problematic for the Starks because despite their current loyalty they have betrayed the Starks very badly in recent years so it might be a relief they are gone. I am much sadder to see the end of house Mormont but going down fighting is in keeping with the attitude of Lyanna and her 60? fighting men since season 6.

The only problem I have with Brienne/Jaimie is, could you forget he just spent the past however many years shagging his sister....

And now I think of it is Jaimie going to stay with the northerners? He said he intended to keep his promise to fight the dead but that was a promise made in a truce scenario. Did he actually swear himself over to continuing to fight for the north once the dead were defeated? I'm not sure the did.

A couple more thoughts from me:

I really liked the opening sequence. It must have taken a hell of a lot of rehearsing to get the focus on Sam and his movements, to Tyrion and then to Bran all in a single camera shot. I thought it was clever. Then again, I know nothing of film production.

Are sworn shields not a thing in Westeros any more? Don’t we have kingsguard, queensguard or any other guards? If so, why the f*ck was there not one single capable fighter assigned to protect the Lady of Winterfell? The crypts were supposedly safe, but there was always the possibility that they would be compromised. In the Westeros I have always read about, someone would have been assigned to guard the crypts from inside.

Does Jon even have a purpose now? Sam and Bran seem to want him to take the throne, but why? It seems a bit unearned in the way the story has been told. He nearly b*ggered up the battle of the bastards, he led a futile and pointless mission north of the wall which ended up with the wall falling and a lost dragon, and the Ford Anglia saved the day in the Godswood. His story arc has been a bit, well, pants.

SweetSummerchild Brienne was Sansa's guard up to now but that seemed to go by the wayside when she got diplomatic/battle responsibility and they didnt replace her. It does seem odd but I guess they were working in the grounds of really needing every person they could get fighting outside so normal guard rules were abandoned?

I also don't see the point in Jon at the moment!

SweetSummerchild, the sweet camera movement around the whole scene is fantastic but I think they did a much better job in the episode The Watchers in the Wall. That battle scene was brilliant and the camera did that thing were it sweeps round to watch the different fights all taking place at the same time. Much more intricate I think.

It's going full Lost.

They won't tie up any if the loose ends

I miss the sex! Fondly remember ygritte and Jon, sigh.

Their thinking was that if they he army of the dead broke through the lines and got all the way into the crypts, then the battle would have been lost already. Having a sworn shield or a queens guard in the crypt would have made no different at that point because they wouldn’t be able to kill the whole army and get Sansa and the others to safety. Might as well ave everyone capable fighting in the battle, because those in the crypts would die even with a guard if broken into.

It's going full Lost. They won't tie up any if the loose ends

Yeah

I was disappointed when it happened with Lost and kinda devastated to see how it’s going here. But I shouldn’t be surprised.

All that aside, as a stand alone piece of television there were lots of positives. The snuffing out of the Dothraki was chilling. The way they built tension superb.

There was lots of very good acting, Maisie Williams was magnificent thoughout the whole thing. Also shoutout to Pod. While he didn’t have a huge amount to do he conveyed the terror better than anyone really.

And Jorahs death was genuinely moving.