And at last, the long night begins. When will it end? 2018? 2019? 3053? We may never know as it’s looking more and more like The Winds of Winter might come out before season 8…Ha. Yeah right…Anyway, now that life is once again meaningless and full of pain and with no indication that season 8 is on the horizon anytime soon, the only things to look forward to are school, work, and…the future! But before we do that, let’s revisit the Internet’s critics one last time in 2017.
I needn’t remind you to read my Sullied recap – you’ve already done that. You devoured Oz’s unsullied recap the moment it was uploaded. So what else can you do? Well let’s dive in, and find out!
Alan Sepinwall, UPROXX – In which he thinks the show should stop pretending that anything other than the White Walkers matters anymore.
Alex Mullane, Digital Spy – In which he short story loved it, long story wished the reunions and various pairings had more room to breathe and had longer scenes.
Alicia Lutes, Nerdist – In which she retitles the name of the episode to ‘The Dick and The Cock.’
Alyssa Rosenberg, The Washington Post – In which she pines for the human drama and is not anticipating the living vs. dead war we’ve all been promised.
Andrew Snell, Mirror – In which he mourns the loss of the possibility for Littlefinger to try negotiating terms of bribery with the Night King
Bennett Madison, Vanity Fair – In which he has had it up to here [indicates high place] with Theon’s torment and doesn’t have time for it.
Dave Gonzales, Thrillist – In which he didn’t like the way in which Littlefinger [spoilers] dies.
David Crow, Den of Geek –In which he identifies the electricity sparking through Cersei’s and Tyrion’s scene, or more appropriately, Lena Headey’s and Peter Dinklage’s.
David Malitz, The Washington Post – In which he suggests the episode was too predictable.
James Hibberd, Entertainment Weekly – In which he praises the episodes ‘contemplative tone’ under the ‘masterful direction by Jeremy Podwesa.’
Jen Chaney, Vulture – In which she praises the tasteful nature of the brief sex scene between Daenerys and Jon.
Joanna Robinson, Vanity Fair – In which she wonders the same thing I did and questions if Littlefinger’s face is really gone from the show.
Josh Wigler, Hollywood Reporter – In which he praises the ‘stunning season seven finale.’
Kaitlyn Tiffany, The Verge – In which she thinks that the lead up to the Dragonpit was like watching the cast of a musical do their pre-show prep.
Kim Renfro – Business Insider – In which she explores 9 pieces of the episode you might have missed.
Laura Hudson, WIRED – In which she firmly believes the show has failed its fans and is simply a meandering cartoon.
Laura Stone, Hey Don’t Judge Me – In which she makes us all imagine our Aunt having sex with us.
Melanie McFarland, Salon – In which she argues that GOT slowed its roll and worked to get us back on its side again…with varying success.
Mike Bloom, Parade – In which the White Walkers were kind enough to post a ‘Notice of Demolition’ on The Wall.
Myles McNutt, The A.V. Club – In which he has a very interesting take on the Cersei/Tyrion reunion that I’ll let you enjoy for yourself.
Neil Miller, Film School Rejects – In which he explores the importance of the Jon reveal.
Nina Shen Rastogi, Vulture – In which she compares the GOT of early seasons to the GOT of now.
Rob Bricken, io9 – In which he believes that the finale climbed the season out of its rut.
Sean T. Collins, Rolling Stone – In which he liked the wrap-up to the Sansa/Arya plot.
TK, Pajiba – In which he commends the episode for its taught visuals and terrific performances.
Sarah Hughes, The Guardian – In which she loves the expertly paced, deeply satisfying finale.
For the final time this season, whose reviews did you love/hate, with all due respect of course, and as always?
Doesn’t sound like it was as well received as previous finales
WOTW staff: Thanks for a great season. Appreciate all the work you folks do in maintaining this site. See you next year. Cheers.
Jack Bauer 24,
It certainly was not well received by me and the people watching with me. It was simply eighty plus minutes of disappointments brought on by promising everything and delivering nothing.
Dany and Jon were shafted as were Rhaegar and Lyanna. Just a total mess in all regards and… but I still love it.
Jack Bauer 24,
It was well received by the general public. 9.7 on IMDB.
Honestly although this finale was epic, it was certainly predictable or a the very least had little surprises compared to other finales
I can handle and understand a lot of criticisms, but if you’re complaining about the invasion and army of the dead being the main focus when the series has clearly been building up to it from the start, then I just can’t take you seriously. Granted, I don’t read all of these reviews. But this is a sentiment I see expressed a lot. The game of thrones is over. It ended when Dany got her army, and most importantly, her dragons, to Westeros. This is now squarely ‘The Song Of Ice And Fire’.
Game of Thrones has become a victim of its own success, almost how Little Finger became a victim to his own games.
People have created an almost unattainable expectation from this show, which in many ways is a credit to itself, and Im not sure there is anything Dan and Dave can do that will make everyone happy, fans and critics alike.
Some are loving it, others are disappointed. Its quite the contrast. I find that even though the pacing did seem to gloss over certain aspects, given the arc of the story as a whole, it had to change, to the dismay of those who loved the pacing of the first 4 seasons. The story just isnt what it once was (GRRM even admitted that at the end of the day, its a story about Dany and Jon), and Dan and Dave are trying to finish it in the most dramatic way possible, as they see it. Its a massive story, and for whatever reason, they decided that they couldnt or wouldnt try and extend it out for 9 or 10 seasons. And it might not be as simple as they just dont want to. There are a host of behind the camera logistical issues that come into play.
As far as being predictable, well, given that its a story about Dany and Jon, unless the Night King wins, it is roughly going to be a classic story of good versus evil. There will be some twists before all is said and done, but this show is under such a ridiculous microscope, its going to be impossible to please everyone.
When the Targaryen ship that Queen Daenerys and Aegon are shipping in is shown after the shipping is shown… it looks like the
The Targaryen sigil on the sails is seen and slowly goes black and nothing is seen on the sails…
I hope this is not a foreshadowing of something Tyrion does in season 8
Am I the only person who thinks they should all travel north quickly (the wights are slow anyways unless attacking) and sneak through the gate at castle black to the real north … I mean can you imagine the night king getting to winterfell to find every1 gone … getting to moat Callum to find every1 gone … gettin to riverun to find every1 gone then getting to KL to find Cersie tweedling her fingers picturing every1 dying in the north to save her ass
Where would they go?
Tyrion Pimpslap,
Amen.
Jack Bauer 24,
To northos … I still believe there is such a place … we can’t have westeros Essos and southos and not have a northos
MC Gendry,
Yeah, there were fewer surprises because characters were acting like their characters. “Surprise” is not a virtue in and of itself.
Ser Broccoli McBroccoliface,
It’s not good vs. evil. It’s humanity against an existential threat. Good and evil has nothing to do with it. If or when the White Walker threat is defeated, then the human players will once again arrange themselves along the spectrum of good and evil.
Lol at Nina Shen Rastogi pining for the old days. She was constantly down on pretty much every season. Season 3, 4, 5. All mediocre from what she said. Now they’re the golden days? I really don’t get how some reviewers get their assignments.
Tbh the most puzzling question I have at this point is: Will the Night King continue his 1 mile per episode pace or is he now in Westerosi time, capable of teleporting anywhere he wants?
i thought it was a superb episode, one of the best.
i liked how the winterfell plot ended, and i dont mind that we were not explicitly telegraphed the exact details and timings of the conspiracy against LF.
the dragons arriving in the dragonpit were awesome!
loved how the pace slowed a bit for the finale and i think all the scenes were powerful and advanced the narrative beautifully. acting was amazing.
I enjoy the reviews that are expressing my feelings about the show and the season finale: it was f…amazing!!! 🙂 I was suprised to see some negative ones.
That said, I really won’t get into any discussion about it: there are millions of people who disagree with ill advised reviews and negativity and watch the show with the same excitement and joy as ever. That is the answer to all those who try to get a few more reads and references by trying to degrade the show
I can’t load Laura stones site – anyone else have this issue?
It baffled me that some critics bashing Theon’s scenes. Saying “who care?!” “He’s not important!”, “The worst scenes of the episode”.
Like really? Alfie is the best actor of that episode and people just skip him off like that because they’re just too dumb (sorry) to understand it?
Poor Alfie. His talents is really wasted in this fandom
MakeThemBurn,
He was obviously killing time, trying not to let his followers cotton on that he had no earthly idea how he was getting past the Wall…
My favorite scene of the episode was the Theon/Jon scene. But most people only want fire and blood. Such a shame.
I would like to take this opportunity extend my deepest, most sincere, and heartfelt condolences to any reviewer of this fine program who is perturbed or upset that as it enters its final season, Game of Thrones is finally positioning itself to pay off the massive physical and existential threat of the White Walkers that it set up in the very first scene of the entire show. Truly no one, no matter how extensive their powers of insight and understanding of narrative, could ever have seen that coming. The show was really duplicitous about its endgame on that front.
Sean T. Collins and David Crow were highlights this week. Hibberd, Hughes, and Wigler as well. Sepinwall needs to get back to his vacation. Some of the others … LOL.
Ser Broccoli McBroccoliface,
Agreed. As the recent viewership numbers attest, at least 31 million people now watch this show, and that’s just in the United States. Factor in total viewership from the ~200 countries around the world in which Game of Thrones is broadcast, and that number soars to unprecedented heights. You can’t get more than 31 million people to agree on nearly anything that isn’t presented as simple, binary choice between limited options, or as basic as “I enjoy breathing oxygen and continuing to exist.”
When it comes to a show this complicated, with this many characters and attractive qualities that allowed it to cultivate such a massive audience in the first place, the range of opinions and expectations are going to be almost unspeakably huge. The fact that the conversation remains overwhelmingly positive and the audience continues to grow is a testament to how successful the show has been at telling its story. But the discordant voices will always draw more attention, and thanks to the Internet, every one of them has a platform. At its best, the result is a thriving and passionate discussion about the merits of all possible viewpoints. At its worst, the result is a cacophony.
heh, what is amusing is how contradictory many of the reviews are!
However, one thing that is going to happen here is that reviewers, viewers and fans (which really are three distinct camps) are going to fall into distinct groups:
1. Those who anticipated what was going to happen;
2. Those that did not.
We can divide both of these groups into two other groups.
1A. Those people who applaud the show doing anticipated things on the grounds that this means M,B&W laid out the ground work well (i.e., guns were hung, guns were fired.);
1B. Those people who criticize anticipated things coming to fruition as being “predictable” or “fan-servicing;”
2A. Those people who anticipated things that didn’t happen (horns taking down Walls, Daenerys being “evil,” Sansa being “evil,” etc.) and do not like having been wrong;
2B. Those people who have not anticipated much of anything and thus were not surprised at being surprised.
An awful lot of the viewers are in Category 2B. They like the show, they might even make time for the show (as opposed to watching when convenient), but they do not think about the show much.
One would expect most of the reviewers to be in Category 1A. Curiously, many of them seem to fall into Category 1B. However, one wonders how many of them would have then blasted the show for Deus ex Machina and arbitrariness had it really whipped out surprises?
“In which he has had it up to here [indicates high place] with Theon’s torment and doesn’t have time for it.”
Theon’s redemption is most likely going to be one of the few decent storylines next season, so this reviewer should take several seats.
The viewers and reviewers don’t deserve Alfie’s talent.
Wimsey,
I’m 1A mostly, if you hang the gun, you should fire it. If you look at the past many amazing scenes was in the category 1A. The battles of 2.9 and 4.9 and 6.9 we all knew that they were going to happen. We all knew that Walder had a plan in 3.9 because it was episode 9 so something needed to happen. We all knew Shireen was going to burn because it was set-up in season 4. Sometimes predictability is a good thing. Look at for instance Breaking Bad that’s considered the best show ever by a majority of people. The last 8 episodes were pretty damn predictable we knew that eventually that was going to happen. But damn, they were great. Had they gone with a more unpredictable ending arc I think the show would have failed.
Be predictable but consisted when need to, and be unpredictable when you can be, too many plottwist can ruin a story.
We all knew the wall was going down, what would be unpredictable but boring was if in episode 7×06 the NK would have died. Nobody would have expected that, but it would be so bad storytelling.
Some people just simply don’t care about the Greyjoy subplot regardless of how well Alfie does. I am mildly interested in what happens with Yara and Theon on the show but I do admit that I really wasn’t much at all while reading. There typically isn’t an excessive amount of their stuff on the show for someone to get their panties in a bunch about though.
I did like the conversation between Jon and Theon. I think it was an important piece to kickstart Theon’s redemption. Last year when we got a spoiler that “one of the Greyjoys is captured by Euron,” I was one of several that assumed it would be Yara because it does set up his redemption arc. I thought it would be resolved this season… It does feel like it’s his destiny to kill Euron now so I guess that needs to wait. // I also feel like Jon’s words to Theon could be used next season to him as well. “You’re a Greyjoy… and you’re a Stark.” He’s likely to have some brooding to do when he finds out who he is and someone will probably tell him, “You’re a Stark, and you’re a Targaryen,” in the same accepting manner.
Clob,
For the record I enjoy Alfie Allen and I am still somewhat interested to see what happens to Theon.
I think the problem with Theon at this point is that he had his chance at redemption earlier this season during the naval battle, but he blew it.
We went through 2 seasons of him acting like an asshole (seasons 1-2), 3 seasons of him as reek (seasons 3, 4, and 5), and the last 2 seasons of him trying to redeem himself (seasons 6 and 7). Yet here we are, with season 8 approaching still waiting for Theon to redeem himself. It just gets tedious after a while.
I enjoyed his scenes in this last episode. I’m just ready for the redemption to happen already and move on. This story has lingered too long and is too repetitive.
Why don’t I deserve Alfie’s talent?
Mr Derp,
Yep, I’m with you on all of that. I expected some kind of resolution for him one way or the other by now. However, I didn’t predict them tying Euron so tightly to Cersei’s surprisingly-not-yet-finished story, which in effect ties Theon to it as well.
Heh…good breakdown. What about 3) Those meta viewers who categorize, classify and analyze the reactions of other reviewers, viewers and fans? 🙂 One comes to mind…
Hey, W…remember 1-2 years ago, we had a hive discussion regarding the overall direction of the show? Either it would be
1) Fight for Westeros rule then fight/comprehend the WWs
or
2) Fight/comprehend the WWs then fight for Westeros rule
I originally was partial with #2, then it seemed like this season was leading to #1…but suddenly via Cersei’s sleight of hand/Euron we may have #2 again! Or maybe a mix of both. Crazy but fun. Cheers!
Flayed Potatoes,
Theon is one of the characters I’m most interested in. Alfie’s acting is top drawer, one of the best in the show. His arc is also one of most fascinating to follow.
But then a reviewer is simply one person with an opinion. I don’t place much weight on reviews of anything, never have.
I always got the sense from Alan’s previous reviews that he never really liked this show, but he respected it for the ambitious nature and scope of both the narrative and the production involved. He seems to have really turned uber-negative this season, however, almost in the same way that he turned on Walking Dead before he stopped reviewing it altogether. Which, for the record, is COMPLETELY FINE. No one is forcing anyone to have to like GoT (or Walking Dead, for that matter) if it’s not your thing. The whole “turd in a punchbowl” routine, however, is really grating after a while, though.
I was terrified after the finale even though I read the script. So I believe it might be the best finale so far. Still, there are question marks as always. How does Jon know that they can’t swim? If he saw they can’t swim when he fell to the water, then how do wights take Viserion out of the water? Second question mark is about Tyrion’s look. I don’t believe he loves Dany, otherwise we would’ve seen something about it. So, why was he looking like that? Maybe he was just suprised?? But he seemed like he was suspicious more than suprised.
Obviously, the “dream” is to have Sixth Sense moments, where it all comes together and everyone kicks themselves for not knowing.
However, here is a little game I like to play. (Sorry, couldn’t resist!) Imagine that we were watching Sixth Sense in installments of ~15 minutes including 3-4 scenes. It would be sort of like novels used to be published back in the 19th century. However, unlike the 19th century, let’s imagine that there is an Internet, and that we are able to discuss and group-think what is happening.
How many more of us would have realized that BLANK was actually BLANK? (On the off-chance someone here has not seen it, I can only say: watch that movie and do NOT read anything about it first!) I think that between the lot of us, all of those little clues that all came together in the crunch would have been brought out and linked. Moreover, there would be some people saying: “that’s too obvious” and even claiming that the ending was written to fit the “favorite” fan-ideas (as some Harry Potter fans accused J.K. Rowling of doing!).
I guess the one way to run a side-experiment is to find someone somewhere who would enjoy this sort of show but who still has not seen it, and then get him/her to binge watch it without taking long Internet breaks. Would Season 7 seem to come together from what was presented in years 1-6? I think that it would: but I no longer have an unbiased or objective view.
Really? Who? I’d like to meet this person: he/she sounds like my kind of Homo sapiens!
Why am I humming Disturbance at the Heron House all of a sudden?
Lol.
“Try to tell us something we don’t know…”
You get my point however you want to massage it.
Wimsey,
So true, that’s why I watched season 7 in one run this past weekend. Everything was soo neatly done. I wont say there are no mistake. Because there are obviously, but I think they did the best they could.
Personally I think the bigger mistake was season 5, what they did was changed a lot in season 5 because they thought that the book material wasn’t that great. It’s true that book 4 and 5 are less appealing for a tv media. I think that season 5 would have been worse if they did it more like the books, it would have dragged a lot more. The only problem that they forget is the domino effect. They made season 5 better but at the same time the problems arise, that we felt in season 6 and season 7. What they should have done was be more like the books, there’s a reason that those books were slower, season 5 would have been liked less, but season 6 and 7 would have been better because the groundwork in season 5 was more solid. I hope you understand what I mean with this, it’s a bit like season 1, the first 4 episodes were very slow, but that give us a much better episode 7-10 because of the ground work that was done.
It’s a shame that D&D didn’t think about that, the only concern for them was the season they were in, how can we make this as best as we could, and they didn’t think about the domino effect for later on. (a big domino effect for me was the Sansa/Ramsay storyline, for season 5 it was better, for later seasons it gave a big problem, same as the Jaime storyline, they should have send only Bronn and Jaime to the riverlands in my opinion).
And of course they should have waited till the books were all done (or at least book 7 was halfway done). But for me this is a dillema, the show would have been better in later seasons, but we wouldnt have the great cast that we have now.
There seems to be more photos from episode 7 on this site including some of Rhaegar and Lyanna I hadn’t seen before.
Not sure where to put this.
Apologies if it’s already been seen
http://www.farfarawaysite.com/section/got/gallery7/gallery7/gallery.htm
Hodors Bastard,
Don’t forget the monkey numbering!
Ha – You know the answer to that question :O
Streetad,
I have always been under the impression that the White Walkers could not come south until Winter arrived. The Long Winter. Which is now arriving in the south–snow is falling in King’s Landing.
So, now the army of the dead might be moving a bit faster, but I don’t think they could have traveled beyond the Wall if they had arrived there early…
And by waiting, the Night King now has a souped up ride + blue nuclear weapon.
For my money you cannot beat Hannah Soles’ Ghosts of Thrones” recap. Its my absolute favorite,: viewing the week’s episode through all your favorite dead GoT Characters. its brilliant. Want more lady Olenna? Miss Oberon’s sexuality, or Robert’s sense of humor? Maybe you book readers just miss lady Stoneheart– well, pine away no more suckers!
http://www.pajiba.com/game_of_thrones/the-ghosts-of-thrones-recap-the-dragon-and-the-wolf.php
nope, I didn’t get paid for this, I’m just really a huge fan.
Those Rhaegar/Lyanna photos were not in the episode.
Jack Bauer 24,
Which is why people may like to see them 🙂
LA Juice,
oh I loved this, thanks for sharing!
LA Juice,
Thank you. I really enjoyed reading that.
I thought this was a really great episode, I personally loved the last episode as well, but what was best about this episode was the tension in Kings Landing and the amazing dialogue. I found it satisfying seeing the winterfell plot getting resolved in the way that it did. How could any show watcher not love this episode? It’s the moment that we have all been waiting for ever since the first scene in season 1, how could we not know this was happening? Knowing what was going to happen doesn’t diminish the excitement because words alone can’t really convey the feeling that we got from seeing that final few minutes of the episode, and the music was just epic.