wow that just happened
this episode has the worst "ending" i have ever experienced since The Mothman Prophecies. I felt like absolutely nothing got resolved about the Forrester situation, no explanation about why the hell Gared even went through all that BS to get to the north grove(...why should we even care if he lets it burn to the ground or defend it to the death?), and Mira, what the heck was up with just killing her off all of a sudden? you wrote in cliffhangers but you couldn't wait to just have her killed off asap. really ruined a good storytelling opportunity there and everywhere with how this finale was handled.
First of all lets look at Gared. he goes through all this trouble and and the only thing i can remember about why this place is important is because "it is a refuge against the long night" and there is some power that can fight the wights. ooh whoopideedoo why would Gared care about any of that? seriously he has no knowledge that this place could be important for the survival of mankind (which takes precedent over saving one house) and you couldn't take a few minutes to explain that to him? giving what he has gone through honestly he should have the choice of just letting it all burn to the ground and join the bad guys because where he is right now doesn't serve his primary motivation of helping house Forrester. when did that change for him? why did he have that change of heart? does he even still care about those people to the south? none of this was addressed at all in season 1
next lets look at Mira. what i completely useless character. if you don't think so then why just cast her aside so quickly and completely mess up whatever revenge story you could have going in future episodes to attempt to free her only to fail and then take revenge on those responsible? nothing and i mean nothing you might do at this point can fix that because in all likely hood no one is going to care about what anyone in King's landing does from this point on in regards to the Forresters. you could try making us care about what tom does or what happens to him but he has no ties to the other protagonists.
finally lets look at the main problem with having Whitehills and Forresters still alive after the all or nothing gamble at the end. you can't seriously think anyone is going to buy that all of a sudden either side is going to forget. the Forresters were already pretty much on their last legs and this travesty of and ending has just killed whoever is left. the only conclusion is whichever Whitehill lives will spend the rest of his life hunting down Forresters. he will have no other reason to live given how you have portrayed them this whole time.
this episode is 2/10 and the whole of season one now has to be rated down to a 4/10 because nothing the players could do could avoid such a horrible season finale. if Martin cares at all about Game of Thrones he would take away your rights to tell any more stories about it.
Comments
As for Gared, winter is coming. That's all I'm gonna say. His plot made a lot of sense actually, now that I realize that.
It wasn't about saving the Forresters now, it's about preserving the house through winter.
Seriously Asawasa how negative can you get?
That guy just obeyed his Uncle and Lord
All of this is because of season 2. I wouldn't count out the whitehills yet. We still have an ally with danearys. Maybe even 2 if tyrion arrives there. We also still have the north grove. It might be usefull in aiding the forresters
Regarding the whole mira story. It was actually my favorite. She was just a simple handmaiden that was thrown into the wolves of kings landing and had to find a way to keep her family safe. You had the choice to play her as a true northener with honour or have her put her own needs before everyone else. In the end she managed to stop ludd from getting an even bigger army and it saved talia, ryon, asher and beshka.
I also think that she had the best ending so far. It didn't only show you how treacherous kings landing really is, it also put me in quite a few situations that tested mira's honour. She died with honour and managed to defeat morgryn. He will never have her as his wife and house forrester lives another day. It still was a happy ending for me. It just depends on your outlook.
Iron from ice, till the very end.
Well unfortunately that's how it was going to be with this finale from the get-go, either everyone was going to die and that would have poorly resolved the Forrester's story or this would have happened where there are unresolved plots but that's because there will more likely be a 2nd season. I'm sure TellTale probably worked it out and has some contract to last them 2 maybe 3 seasons to do their narrative, and since they have that, you're not going to complete an entire set of character's stories within one season. Sorry if that doesn't jive with you but that's how it was going to be from day one. Now let's look at your other points.
So you're complaining that Gared's whole quest was pointless yet you're wondering why there isn't an option to burn down the North Grove? Do you not understand the hypocrisy of that? In truth, you can virtually do the same thing where you chose to stay at the Grove or not so there ya go, just walk away from it and you're happy. The Grove is still important regardless of the fact that we don't know it's real power/purpose, beyond just having the Forrester bastards, it's some kind of magic source and last I checked, very few magic related things in the Thrones universe have even scratched the surface on being explained.
Mira appears to be useless but you can't ignore the fact that she did hurt Ludd's forces so thankfully it wasn't a total blow-out for the Forresters at Ironrath. She provided that balance that we need in Thrones where she's playing the cut-throat political game which was quite fun. Mira was basically the same as Asher since he didn't even get back to his family until episode 5, even though they're both far away from their home (like Gared too) they were still doing everything in their power to help it. And on top of removing a couple hundred soldiers from the Whitehills, Mira also managed to temporarily create a very important trade option with the Crown.
I don't think anyone believes the recent history made between the two families is just going to be swept under the rug. Naturally Gryff/Ludd will hunt down the survivors and that can actually be a fun segment in season 2, especially given how the Boltons will back them too so it'll be very interesting to see how the Forresters get out of the situation.
The very fact that you're calling this season 1, you should understand this finale was setting up things for the next and if you're a fan of any series, you can't be so naive to believe everything would be wrapped up and all answers given. Sorry that you can't realize that but just chill please, we've merely played part 1 and when we get the next dose I'm betting you'll be pleased with it then.