Way too damn dark and yes, you had to suspend disbelief for a lot of the fight. The shows writers suck really. I am definitely finishing out the show but extremely disappointed in some of the stuff they have done to this point when they had to make their own story.

I think he went out to get the NK's attention. Once he did that, was when the undead and NK (once he dealt with Jon) moved on the Wierwood. Although they said since he was marked the NK knew where he was already, so that doesn't completely jive.

I wish when they questioned how the NK would know where he was, he would have just said something along the lines of being able to get his attention, after seeing how it went down.

Remember that 10 minute library scene to re-enforce her stealth abilities? She killed a woman white-walker as she slipped out, then used her face + eyes to 'blend in' with the walkers that escorted the NK to Bran. When NK goes to draw his sword, it cuts to one of his captains noticing a slight breeze, as he sees arya make a dash. That's how the NK turns and catches her because they are linked and he saw her through the captains eyes.

The more I think about the episode, the more irritated I am. We spent a ton of time in the this show talking about valyrian steel and dragon glass so that people could kill walkers. So then we get to the final battle and no one actually fights one? WTF?

Enjoyed what I could see in the episode. Kept hoping for sunrise so I could see what the hell was going on.

Did anyone have buffering issues?

Id say that's one part that definitely disappointed me. Thought they tried too hard to preserve main characters. Like jorah surviving the attack where all the dothraki died. Or samwell somehow surviving. But then, I think the only way to solve a battle this ambitious is to extend it out to a few episodes which I think would've drove people even more nuts. It's not perfect but I get why they thought the episode needed rapid closure even if that meant hurrying things up too much.

I'm glad I had a new TV for this, my old one would have been too dark, but the 4k one I bought recently turned on to its brightest setting really did the trick as I had no problem seeing what was going on.

Recall that they also did the big Blackwater battle and the big Wildling vs Nights Watch battles in the dark too. It's a budget thing. If you have a full blown movie budget, you can do daytime battles, but on TV budgets, even large ones like GoT, day battles are too expensive to do well.

My plasma TV held up great for the dark scenes.

Yes, drove me nuts in the middle of the battle.

The NK holding his generals back from the battle and letting the grunts fall over dead was a good strategy. Then bring his Generals and himself in for the final blow.

Bran gave Arya the dagger bad ass

wow good catch. I will have to re-watch it now.

It wasn't just the white walkers it could kill, it was all of the wights. Ordinary weapons wouldn't work against all the wights (the regular dead), White Walkers, and Night King. That was made clear at the meeting with Cersei when they brought the wight down from beyond the wall).

And then they stand there like a bunch of pissants as a teenage girl runs through and kills their leader.