[Ginkasa]

Pretty crazy episode. The battle was directed really well. It was pretty cool to see Our Hero really just another dude in the middle of a bunch of other dudes killing each other rather than the One Guy Who is Doing Anything Productive like a lot of other fantasy stories, and even GoT in previous battles, do.

On the flip side, I was kind of annoyed that they had literally everything go against Jon and Co. until Sansa's hidden army rode in to save the day in the nick of time. I'm not one to usually complain about plot armor. Of course our heroes aren't going to die; that's how a narrative works. But having literally everything go wrong and having so many specific moments where Jon probably shouldn't have survived and didn't stretched it a little thin for me. If the battle had been just the tiniest bit less one sided or if Jon had known about the Knights of the Vale and the plan was always to just hold out until they arrived I think they could have achieved the same Saving Private Ryan effect without making Jon and Davos and Tormund all surviving feel less ridiculous.

Also, I enjoyed they continued the Mereen storyline as well. I was a little worried they'd focus entirely on the North we'd have to wait until episode 10 to see the follow up to Dany's return.