I need to think about this one some more, but here are a few of my thoughts as of now:
Visuals at the start were awesome. The Glorious Dothraki Charge with flaming swords, the wights' initial charge crashing into the defenders, men fighting for their lives as dragons burned **** in the background, all that looked great. Also, that Dothraki charge: I've never been much of a fan of the Dothraki, myself, but I was expecting them to play an important role in the battle. Everyone talked about how devastating they could be in an open field; I expected their cavalry to kick major ass. When I saw the flaming swords disappearing into the darkness, I was like "Holy ****. If that doesn't do anything to them, what will?" That was a cool moment.
Lyanna Mormont's death was over-the-top to the point of being silly. I didn't want her to die, she was one of the people I was rooting for. I don't think they needed to kill her. I felt sad that she was dying, and yet... the scene started feeling silly. The conflicting emotions there felt weird. Another thing that didn't feel right was the sudden shift from battling to Arya playing cat-and-mouse in the library. The change of pace was jarring, and I felt like that and the hallway chase scenes took too long, because I wanted to know how the fighting was going outside. Lastly, the piano music at the end sucked. I thought it felt out of place, like something somebody on YouTube would edit on over the scene.
Bran vs. the Night King: I felt like this was a missed opportunity for Bran to say something like "Hello, [name]" as he looked up at the Night King. Bran's probably seen who he was before he became a White Walker; it might've been cool to learn some more about him. He wasn't a character we knew much about. Partway though the scene, I was wondering if instead of killing Bran, the Night King was going to pull up a chair and sit down for a chat.
Silly, I know, but it would've been the sort of unexpected thing filmmakers do sometimes after building up tension. Never occurred to me that Arya would be the one to get him. I was expecting a final duel between Jon and the Night King. I'm not complaining; in fact, after sitting there feeling the hopelessness that the characters were experiencing and expecting to have to wait until next week to see how it would end, that made me sit up and smile when she got him. I'm sure people are going to complain about how the hell she got through all the wights; I guess the library scene showed us that she can walk silently and be sneaky, but I have no answer as to how she got through a ring of wights and White Walkers unseen. Oh well. I'm not going to ***** about that.
