Seems to be a lot of speculation online about the scenes with Arya. They feel like it's out of character for Arya to be so dumb; asking for passage to Westeros and flashing money in public, just standing nonchalantly out in the open, not being suspicious when approached by a random stranger. Especially when at the end of the previous episode, she retrieved Needle and appeared to be waiting in the dark. Showing that she knew that the faceless men would be after her and was preparing for their attack. Some think that wasn't actually her getting stabbed, but instead she swapped her face with another girl in the streets in order to fake her death and escape. Or get the waif/Jaqen's guards down so she can kill them. Other theories include that Jaqen/Arya are working together to kill the waif and that was Jaqen posing as Arya, or that Arya got fake blood from the actress in the previous episodes and she had a pouch of it under her shirt to make them think she was wounded. I agree that I think Arya wouldn't be that stupid and should've come up with some plan to get out of Braavos more quickly or kill Jaqen/the waif before they got to her. And I also could see why Jaqen would actually be conspiring to kill the waif because she seems to be acting on a petty emotional grudge against Arya which is a big no for a faceless man. But none of those other theories seem to make any sense. If Arya didn't really get stabbed, or if it was someone else posing as Arya involved in some trap for the waif, why would they stumble around in panic/confusion after the stabbing? So at this point I'm just taking these scenes at face value and chalking it up to mediocre writing. The faceless men are basic assassins simply there to serve as filler and generic villains against Arya. And Arya is kind of stupid and has her guard down since she's happy that she can stop pretending to be no one, and has plans to go back home.
I wouldn't expect great things from D&D. It probably was Arya. Now, she'll get help from the acting group and sail with them to Westeros. Lame...
Mainly I just don't see why Arya is walking around nonchalantly when she knows the faceless men are going to come after her. And then also, if we're to take things at face value, the faceless men just seem like a cult of douchey assassins now. Maybe it's because I liked Jaqen in season 2, but I just assumed he'd be a good guy with some grand scheme that would end up helping Arya. But nope. He's just trying to brainwash Arya into being his obedient assassin puppet. And not even assassinations that have purpose. They're trying to kill Arya because she refused to assassinate an innocent woman. The contract for this assassination came from a petty young actress who was simply jealous and wanted a bigger role in a play. Jaqen now wants Arya dead because Arya let her emotions cloud her judgement ... so he sends the waif out to indulge in a personal emotionally charged vendetta against Arya. If there's no twist at play here, then this mysterious group that's been teased to be of importance are just aimless hitmen with little motivation or internal logic to their villainy. And Arya who has been portrayed as incredibly cunning has regressed as a character, and is suddenly much less savy to the threats around her.
I honestly don't mind them being just assassins. That's fine with me. A clever, undercover assassin group that uses the faces of thousands of people that have passed to blend in with society is still pretty damn cool to me. I never really thought they were all that important. I always figured them to just be an outlet for Arya to learn some cool stuff. I don't think Jaqen is being emotional about this. In fact, he was being emotional just giving her a second chance. Now she broke the rules and she's got to die. That's the definition of unemotional! The other girl is definitely emotional about it though. She's clearly got a weird obsession with Arya. I suppose it is strange Arya was so confident in getting away, but I figured it was because she knew she had to act that way to get on a boat with a bunch of dangerous looking older guys who could easily take advantage of her. I don't know. If there's a twist to this that's fine, but if not I'm okay with it too. It shouldn't be easy to get away from these guys and maybe that's the only point we're supposed to learn from the last episode? Honestly if anything should bug you about the assassins: shouldn't there be more assassins? There's just the girl and the guy? I thought the society was bigger than that.
I suppose we could just accept they are all just out on missions...all the time. Maybe The Hound IS actually dead and he's an assassin trying to infiltrate King's Landing!
So no Cleganebowl, no Lady Stoneheart, Blackfish dies off screen, Arya plot line ended up being exactly as expected (with the exception of Jaqen's reaction making no sense). Disappointing. Loved the scenes with Brienne and Jaime. I'm guessing next episode is going to make for a cool "action/battle" episode with Jon seeming to be outnumbered until Littlefinger comes through with the Knights of the Vale to save the day.
The last episode was a letdown. It was the first time I felt like I was watching a television show, a poorly written one at that, instead of being transported into another world. It seriously felt like the writers ran out of ideas and just threw things out to pass an episode. No trial by combat? Thanks D&D for blueballing the entire fanbase. Tyrion and friends telling jokes and drinking for like..10 minutes? Then Dany shows up and that's the end for that subplot in the episode. Uh, okay. The entire Blackfish subplot was a complete waste. What was the point of that dragging out over a few episodes? The army he was defending the castle with suddenly decide to not listen to him because Edmure is "free." Then he doesn't go with Brienne and Pod and decides to die......offscreen..........for what? It's not even like the old "I'll hold them off while you get away," the guards didn't even find them yet. Just stupid. The only good part was with the Hound exacting his revenge and running into Beric and Thoros again (love those guys). Total filler episode. I swear, the next episode better make up for this week's stinker. I'm honestly worried that the quality of the show could start to quickly roll downhill since it caught up with and passed the source material. Guess we'll see.
This is just my opinion, so please don't take offense, but I don't think this episode was bad at all, I think you're all just spoiled by this show. It's at such a high level most of the time that there's not much to nitpick as bad.
You're not wrong. I like nitpicking because I think things could be even better, but at its worst, the show is still an 8/10 and much higher quality than most other shows. I guess I'm also a little bitter because I think the books are setting up things in more interesting ways, but I get there are constraints when making a TV show.
I'm dissapointed. Maybe the previous seasons spoiled me (the books did for sure). Arya's arc in Braavos was a waste of time, Blackfish acting like a damn idiot, Dany showing up just like that and Miss, Worm, Tyrion scene was a torture.
The Tyrion scene with Worm and Miss was bloody awful. But the other things, I'm not sure they're pointless. Arya's arc isn't NEAR complete so it's waaaay too early to call is a waste of time. It might end up being so, but not yet. Dany showing up...we don't know how long that siege was lasting, and we know from when she hopped on her dragon she was likely going straight home. Not sure how I feel about Blackfish. Did seem a bit weird with all that build up to have him simply die off screen like a moron.
While watching the episode, I find entertainment in scenes like the one with Tyrion, Greyworm, and Missandei. It's mildly humorous and it's cool seeing characters I like have a simple interaction like that amidst the chaos. I get excited when I see the pyramids of Mereen getting attacked by a huge siege and Tyrion and them thinking they're about to get breeched, until it turns out to be Dany on her dragon. And here comes the nitpicking: Then when the episode ends and I have time to reflect, I get disappointed. One of my favorite characters, Tyrion, who used to be involved in complex political intrigue, has now been relegated to comic relief. Even though this season is almost over and he hasn't even had much to do at this point. Dany returning on her dragon was such a predictable "TV trope" that this series is usually good at avoiding. The masters backtracking on their deal with Tyrion (again, someone who is supposed to be so savvy in political negotiations) and resorting to violence against Mereen didn't seem like something that was given much development. Just something to put some action into the final episodes. I saw an interview with the director who kinda made sense out of the Arya stuff. He said that Arya was careless because she kind of breathed a sigh of relief upon deciding to go home. She was soaking in her last days in Braavos since she enjoyed the city, let her guard down, and got stabbed. The point being, she's still a little girl. Still don't get how she so quickly got over those brutal stab wounds likely infected as she jumped into dirty water. The actress conveniently being a good nurse because she used to stab her boyfriends or whatever wasn't sufficient explanation in my opinion. But regardless, if that's the interpretation they're going for in Arya's carelessness, that she's still a little girl prone to stupid mistakes, where's the character development? I thought she'd be trained into a badass assassin while in Braavos and then use those skills to cause havoc in Westeros. But nope, she's still just a little girl and a very sloppy assassin (like really, when she tried to kill the actress initially, her plan was to drop some poison in her drink out in the open for everyone to see, and she didn't even have a story planned for why she was backstage?)
I've enjoyed the season thus far. My only gripes are that the Black Fish and Waife kills were off screen. The last episode was the only one that let me down.
