Game of Thrones Seasons 7-8

[keg in kc]

About to hit the 5000 post mark on the old thread, the first season 7 trailer today seems like the right time to start the final Game of Thones thread.

I'm going back to the original rules pre-2015. I don't think we need supervision or bannings. Just don't be a dick. Post anything you find online that hasn't aired yet inside of spoiler tags. That's pretty much it. I think we can all handle that...





For future us, 2015 thread is here: Link

[Amnorix]

Originally Posted by lawrenceRaider

So he'll hire a ghost writer to do it for him? It's totally out of his control.

GRRM has said he won't do what Robert Jordan did.

But his estate probably will, because his heirs presumably aren't stupid and will want the $$$$. But good luck to any bastard trying to finish off the books. You think D&D got roasted...? Sanderson -- who took over for Jordan -- had tons of notes, recordings, and most critically, Jordan's WIFE, who was VERY actively involved as an editor from the very beginning, to help. It was CLEARLY Jordan's ending, as written by Sanderson.

Whoever tries to finish GoT won't have any of that.

[Hawk]

I enjoyed the finale a lot more than I did the prior two episodes.

Rhaegal getting killed and them standing there where Cersei could (and would) have taken them out was dumb. Dany going mad queen was not something I liked and was rushed in the show (though I have no doubt that story came from GRRM and not D&D).
While this episode still had a few dumb things, I really enjoyed it much more than I thought I would.

Things I didn't like:

-I'm not buying that Grey Worm took Jon prisoner and didn't kill him after that
-Sansa being Queen of the North. Felt unnecessary, she could have been warden of North and pledged loyalty to Bran

Things I did like:

-Tyrion finding Jaime...sad
-Arya sidling up on Jon again after Dany's speech
-Tyrion convincing Jon what he needs to do
-Jon killing Dany (once she went mad queen, it had to be done)
-Drogon nudging dead Dany and then screaming before melting that damn iron throne (this was my favorite scene this episode)
-Electing a king, probably won't last, but it's good that the wheel got somewhat broken and they took a step toward democracy
-Brienne writing Jaime's history into the White Book (paused and read it all, she did well. Another of my favorite scenes in this episode)
-Starks rule the world! Nice ending for the Starks. Bran is king, Sansa is queen, Jon goes north again and is basically king beyond the wall, Arya goes adventuring. I liked it
-Jon reuniting with Ghost and going north with the wildlings'

All in all a fitting ending and I was much happier with it than I thought I would be going into it given the last couple of episodes.

In the books Jon will kill Dany to fulfill the Azor Ahai prophecy I think, but who knows if we'll ever get the books. I can live withthis ending if we don't, but I hope we do because the book ending will be better I'm sure.

[chiefzilla1501]

Good ending but, like all elements of the story, it was rushed. I wished it could have gone 10 or so more episodes with less rush, but I still stand behind how rushing to an end is better than milking this for another 5-10 seasons. At least we got to an end, and D&D for all the shit they got deserve credit for managing to wrap up a LOT of storylines. Was there any major loose end that didn't close? I can't think of many. We may not have liked how we got to that closure, but it's closure. Just pray now that grrm either has the motivation to let the books tell the proper background story or that he finds a talented writer who can close the story out for him.

[Mecca]

The way I would describe this is being ridiculous to be ridiculous. I almost felt like it was not giving people the storylines they were wanting just do to that.

I think that is fine sometimes but not having the show finish with Jon Snow as king was kind of stupid to me. I felt like it would have been like after I watched 10 hours of the LOTR that Aragon would have just ****ed off while some scrub was made king.

[chiefzilla1501]

Originally Posted by Mecca

The way I would describe this is being ridiculous to be ridiculous. I almost felt like it was not giving people the storylines they were wanting just do to that.

I think that is fine sometimes but not having the show finish with Jon Snow as king was kind of stupid to me. I felt like it would have been like after I watched 10 hours of the LOTR that Aragon would have just ****ed off while some scrub was made king.

If they would have better developed bran instead of treating him like a one liner doofus, it would have been a very satisfying ending. I love the idea of Jon snow being king beyond the wall. The ending was decent. It was the road to get there that probably troubled most people.

[Mecca]

Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501

If they would have better developed bran instead of treating him like a one liner doofus, it would have been a very satisfying ending. I love the idea of Jon snow being king beyond the wall. The ending was decent. It was the road to get there that probably troubled most people.

It's just really annoying that after 8 years a character that most people didn't really like or even consider remotely important is the king.

All of the characters that were really invested in by the people watching didn't get nice endings or the endings their fans wanted.

[Fish]

It was truly one of the best TV series ever. With unfortunately one of the worst series endings ever. The signs were there last season. But I don't think I could have anticipated an ending that felt so opposite from everything the show had come to represent in the first 6 seasons. What a shame....

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by Hammock Parties

Well...I'm fine with the ending, even if I don't like how they got there. I think Dany's character would have been better served sacrificing herself with Drogon to win the battle at King's Landing.

But I don't think I've ever cried and laughed so hard at the same time with Jon petted Ghost.

So...I'll allow it.

Good finale.

Yeah, that's where I am.

I got a genuine chill for the first time in a looooong time watching this show when Tyrion dropped "you are the shield that guards the realm of men..." on Jon.

The Bran thing I could definitely have lived without. Like, literally anyone else would've been preferable to me, but I think it's also ultimately irrelevant to my enjoyment of the show/ending. The only real impact it had was setting up that hokey council meeting with some forced jokes for the sake of levity. I mean all that needed was an 80's sitcom 'freeze ending' with them all laughing over a brothel joke. Do I really care that this is setting Westeros up for a cycle of ineffective leaders or open warfare over the next century+? No, not really. That's for a different story.

But the first 40 minutes were absolutely riveting and where the remaining characters ended up (Bran excluded) was incredibly satisfying. The Stark sail was especially awesome as Arya headed west. I do take some umbrage to Bran's sudden ability to kinda see the future. His line to Tyrion "why do you think I came all this way?" and Jon "You were right where you needed to be" suggest that he knew this was all pre-ordained, which diminishes what came before it a little bit. But I'll get over it.

Some people have a problem with Tyrion finding Jaime/Cersei but I think I just read it a little different trying to watch it through Tyrion's frame of reference. All he knows is that the bells rang and he found them dead under rubble. He doesn't know that Jaime hadn't talked her into leaving (and that it took Dany's ass whupin' to do it). As far as Tyrion knows, he was right. He got Jaime in there, Jaime got Cersei to surrender and leave but because Dany flipped shit and brought the keep down, they died. To me that was the hammer blow for Tyrion because now Dany has, for all intents and purposes, killed his family when they were leaving for a new life in Essos. And Dinklage killed the scene.

I won't say they 'stuck the landing' because the pacing took the impact out of several key developments down the stretch. If we're talking in landing terms, it's one of those where you maybe need to take the plane for servicing because you put some stress on the landing gears when you hit a little harder than you'd like but ultimately no real damage was done.

I re-watched Episode 3 with nuked settings and some diminished contrast to soften some of the pixelated edges due to HBO's streaming app and it helped me appreciate the visuals a lot more - the story was still poor, though; still forced to effectuate an end-game. But otherwise I thought this was a good season. I wish to hell they had another 4 hours or so (2 episodes/season in seasons 7 and 8) to be more meticulous in their plotting, but if I'm willing to insert some details myself, the story makes a lot of sense. If I don't have to have it spoonfed to me, I can make every decision they made make perfect sense.

I think they did a fine job when all was said and done.

[mlyonsd]

Great show, somewhat disatisying final season after taking over a year to rewatch the entire series one episode a time on Sunday nights. Sad to see it over.

On to Deadwood. We haven't watched that at all yet and hear it's worth the time.

[Frazod]

Originally Posted by Discuss Thrower

For the story's faults, it at least set up Westeros with the last two established Six Kingdom powerbases that were in place before the events of Robert's death have King Bran's back: The Vale (Lord Royce can puppet Robin Arryn who is a kin to Bran by being a Tully) and the Riverlands (Edmure the Effectual also being a Tully).

As for the other four? Gendry just has to convince whatever bannerman of the Stormlands to be on his side but he also has the benefit of growing up a commoner so he could plausibly rally smallfolk to his cause. Dorne's ostensibly Martell-related Prince might follow the Sansa's lead and go full independent since we dunno anything about their motives with Doran/Oberyn and Ellaria Sand being wiped the **** out. Bronn is going to be content with being a Lord Paramount in High Garden and can be reined in by Tyrion.

The Westerlands are the issue since the Lannister's powerbase, the gold mines, are tapped and Tyrion is rightfully the most hated man in the Six Kingdoms. I'd guess if the books play out just like Season 8, a conspiracy between the Maesters and the Hightowers could try to usurp him out of control.

Speaking of Dorne, I wonder if anybody ever bothered to check the dungeon and free Ellaria? Probably too late for the cute daughter, though.

[Frazod]

Originally Posted by mlyonsd

Great show, somewhat disatisying final season after taking over a year to rewatch the entire series one episode a time on Sunday nights. Sad to see it over.

On to Deadwood. We haven't watched that at all yet and hear it's worth the time.

The final season of Deadwood wasn't nearly as good as the first two. Much like GoT, it felt rushed. Still worth watching, though. I'll probably rewatch a couple of the last episodes before the movie comes out.

[KCUnited]

I highly enjoyed the first half of the episode. The imagery of Kings Landing was fantastic. Very post apocalyptic. The overhead view of Tyrion with Jaime/Cersei buried in the rubble was nailed. Dany's speech to her armies felt truly frightening, it kinda reminded me of a medieval version of Pink Floyd The Wall. The Drogon scene was powerful.

Then the fast forward to the meeting of the house lords and everything kind of whimpered out for me. Overall, I was okay with it though as they had to wrap it up somehow. I'm happy it's over.

[Chiefspants]

They didn't cheat the ending - despite how angry so many fans are about Dany's resolution.

Cheating the ending would be Bran going back in time to prevent the war of the Five Kings, the whole show being a dream, fading to black (ala the Sopranos) and then changing your mind about what the significance of the fade was, even Breaking Bad is starting to worry me in this regard with more cast members and writers saying that Walt survived the finale.

They worked to give pretty definite endings to all of the main storylines. I didn't hate King Bran (I had been spoiled about this) as much as I thought I would when I realized it was actually King Tyrion.

With a world class writing room, I do think the story could have had a satisfying conclusion in 75 hours. I actually dislike Season 7 so much more than I used to (and actually prefer 8 to it by quite a lot). Ultimately, Season 7 missed the opportunity for key character development that could have helped the main beats in Season 8 "land" more than they did. Overall, I was satisfied with how it wrapped up for the survivors. But, this ending could have felt as impacting as the previous seasons, but because of the build-up, it fell short. It takes a show I had thought might be my favorite of all time and transformed it into one that I thought was "top 10". Still great, but it could have been more.

[GloucesterChief]

I don't think Jon was sure that he was going to kill Dany until she started talking about how she liberated Kings Landing. That convinced him that he was dealing with a crazy person who couldn't be reasoned with.

[chiefzilla1501]

Originally Posted by Mecca

It's just really annoying that after 8 years a character that most people didn't really like or even consider remotely important is the king.

All of the characters that were really invested in by the people watching didn't get nice endings or the endings their fans wanted.

The Bran decision made me laugh at first. It still makes me laugh because his character was so badly developed, nobody could have possibly felt excited about it. Like the mad queen heel turn, it was the right decision, just not the most masterful path to get to that point. I disagree that the other starks didn't get what they wanted. Arya felt a bit like a throwaway but the more I think about it, the more I like Jon's fate. It would have felt weird to put him on an iron throne he really didn't want.