I love the episode, but wholeheartedly agree with the take that all the redshirts die and none of the a-list players encounter any real danger. I noticed it last season during "Beyond the Wall" when the magnificent seven ride out and the only main person who dies was the cnut with the top-knot, Thoros... I figured they'd make up for that by needing everyone they could at the Battle of Winterfell, but the same thing happened. I thought I saw several characters die multiple times and then they came out unscathed, in the biggest battle of all time, with every no-name dying around them, and it seems out of place for a show that was so great at making every character surviving a battle feel like a blessing. Now if a character dies it's almost certainly to have them redeem themselves for past sins, giving them a happy ending in their own way.
At this point I think the show has used all of the suspenseful "anyone can die" good-will that it earned over the first 4-5 seasons... if there was a time to cash in on that, it was this episode. If by some chance they have a giant battle at King's Landing with drastic consequences I'll eat crow, but until then I'm just going to see this as an extremely well done show that's mostly going to stay within the tropes of usual television.
John and Danny work it out, Gendry and Arya get together long term, Sam and Gilly live happily ever after, Grey Worm and Missandei run away to start a new life, Sansa rules the North, Tyrion gets Casterly Rock, the Hound wins Cleganebowl, Brianne gets to serve an honorable king/queen, Jamie gets several pages of achievements in the White Book/Book of Brothers, Bran lives out his days as a mole man, Bronn gets his Castle, and Podrick runs a chain of successful brothels. Hell, maybe they can reanimate whatever's left of Hodor's corpse and have him keep Bran company like the scene in the end of Shaun of the Dead.
Also, I think that Arya's scene with the Knight King should have killed both of them. Like other posters have pointed out, you now have Arya killing the Knight King, Walder Frey, Meryn Trant, and Little Finger. How is she possibly going to top that? Cersei's on her list, but then it's basically the Arya Kills Everyone show, and she should be able to take out Cersei easily. They should have had the Knight King grab her by the throat and pull a throat rip while she stabbed him, so she goes out in style like Rambo/Patrick Swayze/McGruber AND pads out the main character death toll.
