Quote:
Originally Posted by DJ's left nut
But as of this very second, I'm pretty disappointed. This was a really weak facsimile of the Battle of the Bastards and some of the other high points of the series thus far. When compared to season 6, almost all of what we've seen since has been pretty flat.
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Totally fair. I think D&D really surprised everyone after a "flat" season 5 by delivering on what's considered to be the best season by many fans (and the one with biggest payoffs). They even hinted at feeling a ton of pressure after Season 5 to "deliver after a down year" and have said Season 6 has been the season they're most proud of as filmmakers.
Looking back on Season 6 is interesting.
While the season was heavily advertised as being the first to "go beyond the books", it was actually quite reliant on a lot of source material. They brought the ironborn back from the source material (Even though we got a Captain Euron Sparrow, we did get the "I am the storm" line). They used a lot of the set-up for the Battle for Ice in books for the Battle of the Bastards (will that be just one long siege/battle in the books instead of two? Let's be real, for a seasoned military commander, Stannis having his entire force just sort of "standing around" to be slaughtered by the Boltons is a bigger crime than any committed by The Long Night).
They also surprised everyone by bringing in Jaime's Riverrun storyline. It did not come close to the book story, but it was still excellent - and as always D&D proved that their flourishes (such as bringing Brienne, Pod, Bronn & Jaime together in that storyline) work best when they have source material to work with. This allowed them to revisit Walder Frey in a sensible way as well. Coincidentally, that military conflict has been the most sensible military engagement they've had since Season 4, which again supports just how vital GRRM is when constructing/writing military conflict.
Bran's story, while not having source material, was directly inspired by Book 1 text (the Tower of Joy) and from GRRM's outline he gave them concerning Hodor.
Blowing up the sept also was a marvelous deviation from the source material. They were able to use pre-established text in the source material (the wildfire) built up that plot through Tyrion and Cersei knowing about the rumors, and when the moment happened, it was incredibly impactful due to its meaning and finality from many characters in the source material.
Battle of the Bastards was incredible. There were leaps in logic as pronounced as The Long Night but I think that was more forgivable to the fandom when the outcome was earned and consistent for all characters. Contrast that to "The Long Night" where many argue that killing the WW with one fell swoop wasn't an "earned" victory.
Now that I think about it, D&D do always try to honor the source material since passing the novels. The "Wight Hunt" was inspired directly from text in Book 1, and Arya killing the NK started with text in the books (i.e her connection with the God of Death, and a line in the show from S3 and the build up with the dagger since the start of the series). As they've gotten further away from the source material, I think these connections become more and more of a stretch as the series approaches the endgame.