Quote (Kayeto @ May 13 2019 01:42pm)
If the show hadn't ever implied a deeper connection, then I wouldn't have complained about it.
But when we saw things like:
A WW looks like right at Sam and walks away while he sits there
The deal with Craster
The fact that wights stayed at the edge of the frozen lake instead of killing the crew in the middle
The fact that he was able to 'mark' Bran by touching him in a vision
It led us to belief that NK had knowledge of the dragons and he was laying a trap for them. It built anticipation of learning more about their nature. The show implied that we would later learn of a connection between him and the magical elements of the show (greensight, winter, 3ER, Targaryen destinies)
To reveal that that were no connection is a failure to payoff cliffhangers that were previously used to build hype.
If they weren't going to make the WWs important to the plot, they should have just left them off the show. The mild plot impact they had could have been better accomplished by an army of wildlings. They would have been more appropriate external threat to the North. Mance Rayder was a very interesting character. And since Jon had once been part of them, it would have given an extra layer to that plot.
No human threat would have been enough to rally Jon and Danny together. I wanted more as well, but it shoved the true protagonists together, which in-turn led to one's downfall and the other rising up. There's always the possibility that Martin's way of going into that stuff was too convoluted for television and the writers didn't know that at the time of adding in those other meaningful scenes, or it could be another typical bait and switch by Martin. Pulling your attention towards this looming threat, for it to instantly collapse and be meaningless. Until the book comes out, we can't know for sure and we'll never know what Martin actually told them, if he withheld important information, or what.
I'm satisfied with the way it's playing out and we're going to get other stories that delve into the mythology of Westeros, and that should be fucking epic. I wanted more as well, but it's not the end of the world, it didn't ruin the show and we're still getting an entertaining and worthwhile season imo.
Quote (Kayeto @ May 13 2019 01:47pm)
I agree that it could have been fleshed out more. The rushed nature of the final NK kill sequence is on par with the rushed nature of S7/8. I've come to expect that and am not bothered by it.
My only problem is the NK doing nothing while he was still alive. There should have been a flashback/vision of some sort tying the WWs into the story.
I'm pretty sure this was done on purpose. I'm almost positive we're going to get to find out a lot more regarding the WW, but it'll be in one of the other shows. It's a lame way to go about it, especially because you almost can know for sure that Martin will include all this in the books, but I'm guessing that'll be a main focal point for at least one of the spinoffs, or a S1/S2 finale, where we actually get some closure on that end.