Game of Thrones

[Tawmis]

Since we're on the final season of Game of Thrones... and tonight's episode was pretty epic...

Curious if anyone else is watching?

Any comments at all about this season, please use the spoiler tags.

[MusicallyInspired]

Aryaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Seriously, though. Sansa and Tyrion should have died in that crypt. Or at least WAY more people should have died. It almost didn't even feel like Game of Thrones. If ever there was an episode where a good solid chunk of leading characters should have died off it should have been this episode. Quite a few people are upset about so much plot armour going around haha.

Speaking of which, isn't it interesting that for this show people have turned around from "don't kill off my favourite character or I'll never forgive you!" to "why haven't you killed off my favourite character yet? Not good enough for you?!?" lol Killing off a character is a high sign of respect now.

[Tawmis]

Aryaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Seriously, though. Sansa and Tyrion should have died in that crypt. Or at least WAY more people should have died. It almost didn't even feel like Game of Thrones. If ever there was an episode where a good solid chunk of leading characters should have died off it should have been this episode. Quite a few people are upset about so much plot armour going around haha.

Speaking of which, isn't it interesting that for this show people have turned around from "don't kill off my favourite character or I'll never forgive you!" to "why haven't you killed off my favourite character yet? Not good enough for you?!?" lol Killing off a character is a high sign of respect now.

Heh, I do not want them to kill any of the characters I care about - namely Arya, The Hound, Jon and Denarys.

I am curious how many mothers will be naming new born daughters "Arya" in the coming year.

They did some great heroic deaths... Theon's was amazing... as was... ugh... the guy with the fire sword...

I will echo a lot of people's complaints that the entire thing was too dark... there were times I couldn't even TELL what was happening because it was SO dark...

[Tawmis]

So last night's episode...

You knew that Dani was going to suffer the Madness that runs in her family; so from Mad King, we now have a Mad Queen.
Unfortunate, because it was so easy to side with her in the beginning.
But when they rang the bells to surrender; and she took to the air and began murdering the innocent - the very thing she stood against (freedom from tyranny), her appeal dropped to zero.
And the main Unsullied guy who followed her; he needs to die a slow, painful death. He was always very honorable. I get that his woman had her head cut off by the Mountain, but when he killed the unarmed Golden Company guys after they threw down his weapons; I wanted him to die a slow death.
I knew the Hound was going to die in the fight against his brother... I think, despite me wanting him to live, he died pretty well.
Jamie and Cercise's death was absolutely weak sauce. Pathetic as in poor writing.
Arya running from wanting to take down Cercise also was weak writing. There should have been another reason (if any) for Arya to leave. Like seeing the innocent people and Hound telling her to help them. Something. Other than being afraid of dying. She went up against the Night King, for crying out loud. She literally faced death.
Her riding away on the white horse, is an over the top obvious sign of "Death rides a pale horse."
Which means, she's probably coming for Dani. Which I am fine with.

[MusicallyInspired]

This whole season has been weak in the writing department. Just tying up loose ends way too fast. I don't argue that things turned out the way they did, rather how they turned out this way. Nothing felt earned. Too many characters motivations suddenly flip a switch on a dime. What a disaster. This doesn't make me want to rewatch it. It's really turning into another LOST and How I Met Your Mother for me.

[Tawmis]

This whole season has been weak in the writing department. Just tying up loose ends way too fast. I don't argue that things turned out the way they did, rather how they turned out this way. Nothing felt earned. Too many characters motivations suddenly flip a switch on a dime. What a disaster. This doesn't make me want to rewatch it. It's really turning into another LOST and How I Met Your Mother for me.

I agree... this season feels very rushed. It's funny because previously - it took forever to build things up. And it's not HBO telling them to rush it - HBO is telling them to take their time, but the writers declined and wanted to knock it out in six episodes instead of 10.

[Tawmis]

I can honestly say I am surprised...!

I will also say that the season did feel very rushed; compared to the others. The previous seasons were a slow burn, where as this felt like "Hurry up and get to the finish line!"
After 8 years of doing this show, the writer's may have just wanted to finally get to the end.
The thing between Jon and Dani was... foreseen. Almost from the beginning once we learned Jon's origin.
The Dragon doing what it did after - to the throne - was unexpected. But to me, that was the dragon realizing, despite his love for his "mother" the curse of madness for the throne is what killed her - not Jon - and also resulted in the death of the two dragon's siblings.
Bran as the new king; was a twist. But I liked it. Especially after Tyrion's reasoning.
Overall, the previous 7 seasons were indeed much better than Season 8. The madness Dani goes through definitely needed more time to mature to make it feel worth it.
Dani went from "questionable" hero (like the Punisher) to outright villain in one season, and within one episode (yes, we see signs of her worries of betrayal a few episodes before; but she still seemed reasonable). I would have liked to have seen Dani build up to being completely mad.
But over all, I definitely still liked it. Weakest season of all 8, but still satisfied. Though I wish I could have seen Greyworm die a slow, painful death...

[Tawmis]

Non Spoiler - but some rock/metal icons do a Game of Thrones cover - and it's amazing.

[MusicallyInspired]

I hate this show. What a colossal waste of time the past 9 years were. 8x03 did it in for me personally because to me the Night King and the whole "Winter is coming" line and putting aside banners, political espionage, and petty vyings for the throne not mattering was the whole point of the story. Everything that came after was a shoddy rushed meaningless emotionless mess. It hurts doubly so because I went back and watched season 1 again and boy if it doesn't have some of the best writing, character development, build, setup, storytelling, stakes, tension, acting, direction, and anything else you can name knocked out of the freaking park. It's so sad to see it devolve into this petty mass of tropes and mediocrity. I felt nothing in that final episode. Nothing but boredom. Never have I felt like anything was being rushed so much and yet in each and every episode everything just seemed to drone on and on and on. Like the extra half hour they put into those later episodes could have just not been there and it wouldn't have made any difference. Like they just adding in padding so that people would feel like they're getting more bang for their buck since the season only got 6 episodes.

And I do not believe for one solitary second that they were all sitting there peacefully discussing matters in the couple weeks or whatever it was after Jon did in Dany. Grey Worm would have been murdering them all like he was at the beginning of the episode. At the very least he'd never let Jon go to some meaningless wall and Tyrion become the Hand of the King of all things, after just telling him he didn't have any right to speak....and then proceeds to let him speak. It's all so stupid and horrible. I'm supposed to buy any of this? If this is the kind of writing they started the whole show out with they wouldn't have even finished the first season before getting cancelled. I just don't believe any of the character motivations in this entire season. I don't know who any of these characters were but they were not the characters we all came to know and love and journeyed with over the past 7 seasons prior (maybe 6 and a half). And to top it all off, everyone got a happy ending. How about that? Game of Throens got a happy ending. And we're all ok with that? What happened to subverting expectations? Well, as far as that goes I guess this was master of all subversions. I just didn't care about anybody or anything that was happening. My wife watched with me and she was still interested after 8x03, but even she said it was all disappointing.

Do I sound bitter? lol Sometimes I hate that I care so much. Not about the story (because the story made me not care about anything that was happening) but the fact that the whole story was completely screwed over. Oh well, never watching this show again so I don't have to care anymore. Just a bloody shame. You can really tell D&D they just wanted to get on with their lives. But man, their legacy in this is going to be so tarnished now. If they wanted to get on with things they should have left the show years ago. HBO should have gotten new showrunners entirely. Then if it still ended badly at least D&D would have gone out like legends. People would have been saying "if D&D were still doing it they'd have done it justice!"

Sigh. It's just a show, it doesn't matter. It's just a show, it doesn't matter...

[JasefWisener]

I loved the ending and felt they really stuck the landing.

[MusicallyInspired]

I would like to say that despite what I consider to be awful writing, everyone else who had a part in this show did a phenomenal job. The actors, effects people, lighting people, directors, cinematographers, costume designers, composer, etc etc all did truly phenomenal work this season. Probably some of the best of the entire show's history. It's just a shame it all was built on a shoddy framework.

I shall now move on to The Orville which I am thoroughly enjoying. And possibly The Expanse, if the rumors are true.

[Collector]

Agree with you about The Orville. I love The Expanse. After a long period of bad horror and fantasy shows being passed off as SF we are starting to get some real SF again.

[Tawmis]

What I would have loved to have seen as a stinger for GoT post credits - even though the series is over is - after the credits go rolling by. Show Dani laying in the snow, dead. Her eyes suddenly open up - and they're ice blue. She becomes the Night Queen. And the cycle of the the White Walkers begins anew.

[MusicallyInspired]

Apparently there was a rumour from the leaks (which mostly turned out to be true, though I didn't read them) where after John and Tormund and the Wildlings go north of the wall they come upon another of those swirly symbols made out of body parts....freshly new. That didn't happen, though. I would have taken that.

[MusicallyInspired]

Lol I've been watching this guy's videos for a little while and his latest "Pitch Meeting" episode didn't disappoint. XD (here's a tinyurl link so the video doesn't embed)

https://tinyurl.com/y4j5pnef