Well, I was thinking and hoping that there was more to it--that there was some deeper connection between Bran and the Night King. I actually thought there would be some dramatic development between them when the Night King confronted Bran. But if there is anything particular connecting them, it appears it's not going to be explored/explained, which is frustrating. Arya killing him (or Jon killing him) seemed boring. I was hoping for something more interesting, some deep truth that we'd discover that might reframe the whole situation.
I'm still holding out some hope. Not that it'll be good or satisfying, but that there's more to it. Bran didn't simply peace out into a flock of ravens for nothing, did he? I think these writers are shit, but they can't be THAT shit.
Star Wars Spoilers if you haven't seen The Last Jedi: Spoiler This episode reminded me of The Last Jedi. They built Snoke/Night King up to be this super villain and then kill him off rather easily without any real explanation as to why/how they are the way they are. I'm not trying to bash Disney because I have kids and they put out a lot of quality things but the last few seasons after they got past the books have become Disneyfied. Maybe the Night King thought if Bran died all the humans would die like was the case with him and the white walkers? It is very odd that his seemingly sole purpose for attacking Winterfell was to kill Bran in a personal manner.
Personally i think the Great War should have been the final battle with all the survivors of the kings landing war vs the dead. I hope GRR goes that way in the book.
I loved the ending to "Lost." One of my staff hated it. He was so caught up in wanting to know what the numbers meant. I always saw those things as McGuffins. I was more interested in the characters and how they developed and interacted and did I actually know people like them or did parts of them remind me of me, and I got invested in several of them, just like GoT. Then I just looked at it as life. We seldom get all the answers. The important thing for me was resolution for the characters, and I thought that was a great way to wrap it up.
I blame GRR, he sold the rights to his books to HBO. He could see the time frame as the series was being filmed. The series actually helped sell a hell of a lot more books. He needed to finish the story before HBO reached the end. Now we're going to be stuck with different endings and different character arcs. It's a giant fail on his part.
My take on this episode is 1) They must have gotten their battle strategy from Zapp Brannigan. 2) The plan was a setup for the Night King to walk right up to Bran, just so no one would kill him. 3) I am going to miss old blue eyes.
I'm okay with different endings. The show ending would have been different probably anyway, since it's cut out a lot of the plot arcs that exist in the books.
I read somewhere that his latest excuse for the delay, is he killed off a character that was needed to move the story along, and he's even considering ret-conning the earlier books to fix the issue. I have no idea who that character would be or why it can't be cured by magic. So, I call it an excuse instead of a reason. There's a lot contributing to why they're not getting written, but first and foremost is he let his imagination go too wild in the last two books, introducing way too much for one man to jigsaw himself. He already uses Ice and Fire historians (super fans) that he uses for things he can't remember about characters and historical events, and it wouldn't surprise me if he brings in someone or someones to help him finish the remaining books. He sounds defeated in his interviews.
