Board Thread:TV Show Discussion/@comment-1600847-20150615133347/@comment-250644-20150616003929

I thought it was a good episode. Shocking, yes, but a fitting finale.

As a Stannis fan (albeit somewhat less so after the last episode!) it was obviously pretty galling to see him go out with a bit of a whimper. I certainly didn't really expect him to survive all the wau through, but I thought he would at least have lasted long enough to actually fight the White Walkers. From what was on screen, it looks like he may well have been outnumbered even if half his troops hadn't deserted. Nevertheless, I thought his death was handled well. As others have pointed out, he clearly realised his time was up when he saw the Bolton army approaching (and probably even earlier, when Melisandre fled), and it was fitting that Brienne was the one to do the deed. I'm glad it wasn't Ramsay!

Jon's death was more shocking even though it was more predictable. Both his and Stannis' deaths were somewhat signposted by all their remaining allies and inner circle either dying or leaving in the recent past. Going into this series, again I'd have been confident that Jon would be around to lead the fight against the White Walkers, but the growing discontent was built up effectively over the last few episodes, and it was undoubtedly moving to see him die alone in the snow, especially after Olly delivered the final blow. As Draevan said, I don't see Melisandre resurrecting him as she was clearly surprised when Thoros managed it, and I doubt she's learned how to in the interim.

With Stannis and Jon out of the way, it does look rather as if the North is totally screwed. The wildings and Night's Watch will presumably go back to killing each other, and the Boltons will have absolutely no regard for the bigger picture, I imagine they'll continue to concern themselves with securing their own position. The gradual forging of alliances to combat the greater threat seems to be in ruins, so unless the Walkers really can't climb the Wall I don't fancy anyone's chances up there. Also, I'm not sure I'd be too keen to volunteer for Lord Commander given the increasingly fashionable trend of Death by Mutiny.

Myrcella's death was totally unexpected for me. The Dorne plotline was a bit of a damp squib overall but that moment certainly caught me unawares. I'd guess Trystane will now be a hostage of the Lannisters, with a nice fresh dose of war to follow. I wonder if Bronn will have time to get married.

I'll be interested to see what happens with Sansa, Arya, Daenerys and her Merry Men. Sansa's storyline hasn't been great this season, but at least she's brought out whatever scrap of decency is left in Theon. I'm not really sure where she can go now - back to the Vale so Littlefinger can bring her along again when he returns to the North with his army? Arya's storyline was better but pretty slow, so I'll look forward to seeing what happens when (if?) she gets her sight back. With all the Stark children, I do wonder how much they'll actually be able to influence events when it comes to the crunch given how far off their goals seem to be. The reappearance of the Dothraki was another surprise. As there's now the option of Drogon Saves the Day, I couldn't really guess how long they'll hang around this time, but I would rather like her to get a move on and start saving Westeros sometime soon. Now that I don't have to worry about her beating Stannis, her and her dragons can have a clear run at the White Walkers as far as I'm concerned. Good to see Varys back, I'd love some more interplay between him and Tyrion next season, so hopefully their double act will last a bit longer than it did this season.

I'm not sure yet how I'd rate this season compared to the others. At the moment I'd probably put it about level with the last one as my least favourite. I still thoroughly enjoyed it, but with so many strands to keep going it's still a bit too disjointed, and even though Hardhome was awesome, spending long chunks of time on certain strands means that others get overlooked, but equally it wouldn't be satisfying to zip through all the various strands just for the sake of fitting them all in. Maybe that's partly why they were a bit more ruthless in killing off characters compared to the books. My general sense is that the first time at the end of season I am now waiting for the endgame rather than waiting to see what the next strand to be introduced will be, so I hope there's more concrete progress towards that in the next season.