are you hyped i'm hyped

I wouldn't be surprised to see Rickon get killed off, maybe even in this next episode. But yeah the rest of the Starks all seem to be locks to last until at least the last few episodes of the series

Great episode, the Mereen shit notwithstanding. I was so disappointed that they didn't make this a single location episode (though I guess it was 2/3 at Winterfell at least). Those scenes were so incredibly rushed, especially the way Theon/Yara suddenly just APPEAR out of nowhere, no scenes leading up to it with their ships at least coming into bay. That was so choppy, but I guess it's nothing that new as of late. Plus we got to see heaps more Smug Dany oh joy. At least they're starting to acknowledge how crazy she's becoming

The Winterfell stuff was gr8 though. That long shot of Jon slashing people in the heat of the battle, and that shot of Jon emerging from all the corpses were amazingly shot. For some reason I legitimately felt fearful for Jon's safety when he was getting buried alive, which is surprising. This battle easily joins the ranks of Castle Black/Hardhome for me

And even though the Littlefinger Rohirrim was very predictable, the scenes afterwards were good. rip Wun Wun :( And although the way Ramsay died was also somewhat predictable, it would've been hard to find a more fitting way for him to go

But Dany's already in the show

As far as how I think I'd compare this to the other big battles:

CHARACTER WORK:
Blackwater > Castle Black >>> Hardhome > Winterfell

PURE ACTION:
Winterfell > Castle Black > Hardhome >>>>> Blackwater

I don't disagree that there were some logical leaps, but I don't think anything was that bad

- Jon didn't purposefully charge at Ramsay's army alone. He had a choice between forging forward or trying to retreat. If he did the latter he would've been shredded by the Bolton archers just like Rickon, so he made the only play he could. It was the whole point of Ramsay's Rickon ploy, to lure him out into that impossible situation and in turn throw his whole army off

- Ramsay firing arrows at his own men shouldn't be surprising at all considering he's probably the most ruthless/sociopathic person in all of Westeros

- The Littlefinger "rescue" is no different from how Blackwater ended, or how the battle at the Wall ultimately ended, or how most of the battles in LOTR ended. True, they could've subverted the trope this time, but I think the fact that Sansa hid it from everyone at least adds some intrigue to it going forward. Even though it was super predictable, I think the execution of the battle more than made up for it. Predictability doesn't automatically equate to being bad

lol it's funny you mention Lost S6 Wikey, because sometimes I feel like I'm the Curtis of this show now, defending it while most have started to hate it

As to your points:

- Yeah I think you're right that it was meant to be more of an emotional decision than a rational one. Only thing I'd say to that is I think this IS a different Jon than we've seen before, after coming back from the dead. He's more reckless now, even basically telling Mel that he has a death wish. It IS kinda weak though (but again, I can look past it just for the execution. That shot of the cavalry stampeding towards him while he throws his belt/sheath aside was incredible)

- This is also true, but I think this extends FAR beyond the arrows thing. Ramsay has transparently been a piece of shit, and yet has been met with almost unwavering support from the North this whole time. There was virtually no "North Remembers" plot outside of the Mormonts and some old lady in Winterfell. So basically I think this extends far beyond this episode itself. They even had Roose point out to Ramsay how stupid he was being and how he can't instill loyalty if he keeps acting like a mad dog, but in the end it looked like it didn't even matter. But as for the arrows thing itself...to be fair, we never really got to see the result if the Boltons had won the battle (not that it's likely the writers would've had them desert him, but still)

- I absolutely don't think it was meant to be a surprise. Why would they have all that set-up with Littlefinger at the Wall, Sansa's letter, etc? They could've explained it away afterwards if they REALLY wanted to keep it a surprise. There was far more set-up for this than there was for the Tywin rescue/Stannis rescue. When the horns started to blow I didn't see it meant as a "WAIT WHAT WHO COULD THAT BE" moment so much as a "FINALLY" moment

I dunno, like I said before there were definitely some logical leaps, but the show's had more and more of those in general ever since they ran out of book material. As long as they're not glaring (like the recent Arya shit) I can look past them and still enjoy the show when it's as amazingly executed as this episode was

This one works even better

https://i.imgur.com/u4Dg5KC.gifv

That build-up