Zevvion

I just rewatched the episode and before I said I liked it, but I have to lay down some criticism here. I know this thread is supposed to be fun talk, but I only have to write this once since it will likely be my criticism of every episode onward: it is too short for the amount of episodes they are aiming for this and next season compared to where we are in the story. Read further:

Don't count on that. They said S7 would have 70 minute episodes and S8 an hour and 20 minutes. This first episode was 57 minutes. That is pretty much the same as the average episode of S6 (ranging from 52 - 60 minutes) and way less than S6 finale which was 68 minutes.

This is a fear I started to have at the end of season 5 up to now and this latest episode did not take that fear away, it only reinforced it. We have spend several seasons dealing with 'just' a stagnation of story development in several area's of Westeros and beyond. Before that, we had a slow but deliberate and effective build up of what's to come, which took about 2+ seasons. Ever since the end of season 5, things have gotten into overdrive. I like season 6 probably the most out of any season so this may come across as weird criticism, but it could have been even better if they didn't try to rush through things.

Why did we not see Sansa's reunion with Jon be a big deal? It was just 'here they are, they are happy to see each other. Alright! Done! Let's move things forward now'. They could have spend a couple of episodes or at least one episode showing them talking about what they have been through. We've heard the High Sparrow talk about religion (which turned out to be pointless by the by) for two seasons, why can't they develop these characters when it is needed?

I don't like several things of what the first episode of season 7 did in relation to this pace. For example, why is there no conversation with Davos? He served Stannis, then quickly tried to help Jon and now he is just quietly sitting in the corner? Why do we see nothing of Theon and Yara? We didn't see their reaction to the dragons, we didn't see their reaction to allying with Daenerys and now we don't see them helping her. Jon is claimed the White Wolf, yet it sure seems like he has no wolf at all. I understand that it costs money, but they are making tons. Why do we not see it at least once in a while?

The series has started to not mention lots of things and if we are lucky, they are just getting implied somewhere. I do not like this. It is not consistent with the pace the series has had for ~5 seasons. They said they would up the run time of each episode to compensate for having fewer and they didn't do it.

They will have to step their game up.

Have they definitely said it would be one subclass only? They kept talking about 6 subclasses at E3 for the beta (that's two for each class) which would mean Striker, Sentinel, Arcstrider, Gunslinger, Dawnblade, Voidwalker. The only news I've found so far that there would be only one subclass each was on Polygon, which had entirely inferred it from the beta announcement which didn't officially state that.

Edit: Looked it up. It is very likely 6 subclasses. Bungie have said 6 since E3 and the sources that claim 3 have no official source to back it up.

Edit 2: It is 6.

Edit 3: This is a good time to remind everyone that we have two major Giant Bomb clans. Cerberus Wolves, which I created and BatmanBatmanBatman, led by @hestilllives19. You are free to join these clans!

What Cerberus Wolves is about:

'We're a clan that is as dedicated to D2 as we are flexible. We're going hardcore Raiding, Nightfalls, Trials and every other endgame activity, but we also do casual activities regularly. We have and support every skill range imaginable. You're welcome regardless of skill level or dedication (though keep in mind that you will need to meet certain requirements for certain activities depending on how good everyone else is, there's just no way around that).

We'll try to include you as much as possible, but don't be afraid to join the party on your own initiative!'

We currently house around 60 members, but I am expecting some of them to drop off. If you are looking at this and think: 'Hm... having a group to do things with would be handy but I don't know if I shou...'YES! You should! We could really use you and are happy to play with you. You're doing us as much of a favor as you are yourself. Send me a message on this website or on PSN and I will invite you to the clan on July 25th.

Nioh without having to think about it. Bloodborne is the weakest Souls game in the core franchise I've played, and I played all of them. It misses the mark on literally every aspect that makes a Souls game good except world building. The combat is weak, the game is too easy mechanically and too predictable, there is next to no build variety/world variety/gameplay variety, the combat system is superficial for this type of game and it doesn't offer tempting replayability.

Nioh almost wins by default. The only Souls game I wouldn't pick over Bloodborne is Lords of the Fallen and possibly Demon's Souls. I haven't played that newest game from the Lords of the Fallen guys, but I suspect I would also not like that one (which is why I didn't play it). On top, Nioh is actually pushing things forward for the Souls template, whereas others are just trying to refine it. If that.

I do get why people like Bloodborne, but the people that do are often playing these games for something entirely different than I am.

I've stopped my need to finish games and also stopped being interested in games I will only play once or not enough. It's odd, for most people it seems to work the other way around, but I am only investing my time in games I can lose myself into. I'd rather play 4 games a year that are extremely good and I will play for hundreds of hours (some of them anyway) than play 30 games a year, all superficially.

This year, Destiny 2 and XCOM 2 will get the vast majority of my gaming time. I will also put at least 200 hours into Andromeda (yes, I like that game). That's really all I need, though I do play some small games here and there still.

The implication was Balon focused on conquering land and not on building a fleet. Euron focused on building a fleet exclusively and said 'fuck it' to conquering land and castles.

It was a sick burn.

:D

@bladededge Yes. I hate how likely that is. In fact in the books (concerning Euron's gift): Euron actually destroys an entire fleet with clever tactics. I don't believe it was Daenerys' fleet, but I feel that for the series it will be applied to hers. Alternatively, it would have to be the horn that controls dragons, but that hasn't been a thing in the series at all so I don't think it likely.

It would suck if true though. I was hoping we would be moving towards everyone being on one side to fight the Night King by the end of this season. But I am starting to suspect the final two episodes will be dedicated to fighting the Night King and everything up to then will continue to be 'a game of thrones'.

@buds312: I kind of liked that scene. It would have been better/funnier if it was directly after Arya's training compilation.

@zolroyce Yeah, I am very interested to see how they will showcase the upcoming battles. I really hope they don't fall into their habit of 'it's too expensive to show, so we will just imply it'.

@zolroyce: They were just dead brought back to life though, seemed to me. Not actual White Walkers.

@jonny_anonymous: Sansa did unintentionally give Jon even more respect from the other houses it feels like to me though. I'm not sure if they are all just acting as if they are cool with whatever he does, but when he said this is my decision and it's final, they all clapped after the descendants of the slain Lords pledged their houses to him.

From my own perspective it seemed like Jon made all the decisions to unite the North instead of pushing his own power or claim whereas others always seemed to rule for power. It seemed to me like this message was getting across to his bannermen as well, but again I have no idea if they were just pretending to like it.

@spaceinsomniac: It does. I wonder why they never addressed that. I get why they don't make the D-Pad useful for weapon or loadout swaps as they want you to be committed to the gear you have equipped for the activity you're in. But it always seemed odd that you couldn't remap every option to an emote you paid for.

They must have had a reason. I truly wonder what it was. And now that I am writing this down, I am realizing that if they had a reason other than technical, we might see the exact same in D2.