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Game of Thrones Season 8 (NO BOOKSPOILERS) thread


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Esquire’s tv critic didn’t pull any punches. 

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We've spent months hearing about the third episode of Game of Thrones. Fifty Five (55!) night shoots! Brutal conditions! They endured all of this for what was hailed as the biggest TV battle of all time. And all that work paid off. It wasn't perfect, but it was big. Then, after all of that immense effort we get an episode that leaves a modern Starbucks cup on a table in Winterfell's great hall. We get an episode where the writers don't even bother to name the "new prince of Dorne." It's as if the writers, the entire crew, the showrunners got through the Battle of Winterfell and simply gave up. This, sadly, was Game of Thrones at its worst—Episode Four is reminiscent of some of the lowest moments of Season Seven. It's nonsensical, lazy, and cringeworthy from beginning to end.

https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a27372333/game-of-thrones-season-8-episode-4-analysis-spoiler-recap-review-writing-failure/?source=nl&utm_source=nl_esq&utm_medium=email&date=050619&src=nl&utm_campaign=16801695

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4 hours ago, bschoolprof said:

D&D are such fucking hacks. We're all in on this because of the story, the setup, and the characters.  But the execution over the last few seasons has been terrible.  

Not that it makes a shit, but a few plot point questions:

-- So the original plan is everyone is marching south to defeat Cersei, while Jaimie is hanging back in Winterfell to fuck the big woman.  But then suddenly once Cersei pulls some Cersei shit with the iron fleet, everything has changed and Jaimie just has to go ride south to help her or kill her?  Why?  What changed in his mind?

-- Although some in the audience may care about Missandei, there's no way either side should in the grand scheme of things.  Does anyone honestly think that in a major military battle someone's handmaiden/translator is going to be used as a bargaining chip?  When William the Conqueror landed in England, do you think he was looking to capture Harold's butler to force him to surrender?  It's pure nonsense.  

I took the Jaime scene as saying he hates Cersei for all the horrible things she’s madd him do and hearing that she may win is what prompted him to go South and killed her.

I’m not sure why everyone is acting like he’s definitely going South to protect his sister, and why would him hearing she’s winning suddenly motivate him to do that when he was fine to stay North before when he thought Cersei was more likely to lose? 

1 hour ago, TheFlyingBoat said:

I don't think even Cersei ever killed anyone during a parley. Generally a thing that isn't done.

Her dad, who she admired as a leader and wants to be like, killed a bunch of people during a wedding violating guest right and she, among other things, blew up the fucking sept with a bunch of innocent people inside.

She’s literally a terrorist and you think killing her brother, who she hates more than anyone, or Dany and her dragon, who are the only real threats to her reign, are crossing a line for her? Seriously?

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I was yelling out loud at the TV when Jon just walked away from Ghost like that. I was legitimately pissed. I must have gone on about it for 30 seconds while the show was still going. 


Same here. What a dick. Isn’t Jon the mfer who found the litter of Direwolves and said to Ned how this is the family’s sigil and should be kept etc. ?? Traitor!


Grabbed my lab and rubbed his belly.


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Varys' flip-flopping feels a tad dumbed down for his character. He's not owning the fact that he and Tyrion's advising, plans, and strategies have fucking sucked ass up to this point.  And hey, maybe Dany has a right to be a little impatient and pissed off. They're getting their asses kicked up and down Westeros by a pirate. And he still insists on doing this conquering stuff off without a single civilian casualty. 

I thought the Varys and Tyrion stuff was some of the strongest stuff of this season. I don't think Varys flip flopped at all. He's been noticing for a while now that maybe Dany ain't as great as advertised by Tyrion. But he was still on board until now bc the only viable alternative was Cersei.
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2 minutes ago, utxmike05 said:

My money is on Brienne becoming a weak fighter now. It all makes sense that she was fighting with the virgin rage. Explains all the grunting when battling.


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Tennis players are virgins?

Who knew?

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I’m in the minority here but I’m ok with them speeding up the pace.  First regarding all the Sherlock Holmes dissecting every bit of the show please remember your watching a show about dragons so pump the brakes on bitching about every plot hole.
Also GOT can be notoriously slow paced, which not surprisingly coincides with the episodes following the books.  Everyone knows books will always provider greater detail so when following the books the show could get a little boring (I’m sure some people still bitched about missing details, which is surprising given which thread we are in) but now that there are no books and especially for a final season it’s less about every small detail and more about speeding us along to what will hopefully be a satisfying ending. 

In theory, I agree with you. I'm on record in this thread saying that not every little comment and prophecy from 6 seasons ago will end up meaning something.

But it's not just details they're glossing over. They built the NK up for 8 seasons. All this mythology about the Children of the Forest, etc. Then Arya runs up and stabs him in one episode and we're moving right along. Same with Bran - build him up to be almost godlike, then he ends up being just a stoned piece of bait. Direwolves follow the main characters around for 8 season....adios.

Obviously yeah a lot of that rich backstory and buildup comes from the show interpreting the books and now we've moved beyond. But clearly the showrunners wanted to focus on the Jon/Dany/Cersei three way to the near exclusion of anything else. It just makes a lot of the previous 7 seasons feel like a waste of time.
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2 minutes ago, longhornmatt said:

Arya getting both of the big kills - NK and Cersei - seems like it would be too much.  On the other hand, she and Sansa are the only characters that haven’t turned into idiots and/or otherwise regressed since D&D took over, so maybe.

They've fucked up Arya too, making her a superhero now.

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Giant crossbows.  Fired from a bobbing ship.  They aren't using an accelerant like gunpowder.  The force required to hurl a giant metal bolt (mass) thousands of feet into the air (acceleration) also creates enough force that would rip the things off the deck (cause it to spring forward).  

Maybe they are on treadmills. Ever think of that smart guy?
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3 hours ago, BabaYaga said:

I'm no historian, but there was a measure of ceremony here.  The initial offering of peace before the battle.  All that nonsense.  

This was one of the small measures of semi-intelligent writing here.  Cersei & the castle are vulnerable.  She knows she is vulnerable.  She's bringing in people as human shields.  But she has to feed them.  House them.  Keep them from revolting.  A long, drawn out siege is exactly what she can't manage - so she is drawing them in.  Playing to their emotions to force an assault on her terms.  Pulling them off sides.

or she could have killed dany, her hand, her general, and her last dragon and the war would've been over right then.

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Maybe we need a new thread called “Ooh, my balls: GOT edition” for the people that believe plotholes and character development dont matter in the fantasy genre.

They can talk about which “talkie” scenes they fastforwarded through so they can discuss dragon or zombie splatters.

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4 minutes ago, gsoda3 said:

or she could have killed dany, her hand, her general, and her last dragon and the war would've been over right then.

She'd still have to deal with the Starks, but yeah in her mind Dany and the dragon are the threats to her, but this is parlay and that's a no no.  Even though she at least thought about offing Tyrian as he approached it never occurred to her to just simply off the Dragon Queen.

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Who rules the seven kingdoms at then end?

King of the North (Winterfell) - Sansa Stark

King of the Mountain (Vale) - Robin Arryn

King of the Isles and the Rivers (Riverrun) - 

King of th Rock (Casterly Rock )- Tyrion Lannister

King of the Reach (Highgarden) - Bronn of the Blackwater

King of the Stormlands (Storm's End) - Gendry Baratheon

King of Dorne (Dorne)  - Unknown Name Prince of Dorne

Ruler of the Seven Kingdoms - John Snow

 

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1 hour ago, Phoenix said:

in hindsight, there really shouldn't be a TV/Movie adaptation of a story until the story is complete

Yep. These producer/writers don't have a fraction of the imagination of the man who created their playground. They couldn't bring themselves to sacrifice a single major character in the battle with the dead even though all of them outside of the crypt were placed in hopeless situations.

They didn't bother to learn anything about battle strategy in setting up the big battle with the dead. The episodes before and after the battle were similar to some of the self-loving character studies that spelled the decline of The Walking Dead.

Dany outside the walls of Kings Landing was jarring for all the reasons stated. I don't know if someone mentioned that the geography was even different. I have the feeling that they didn't have time to add CGI to recreate the forests that we've seen in that area. For several moments I was waiting for an explanation of where they were and why Dany had appeared with so weak a force.

The Euron ambush was stupid and just raced through. Why wouldn't Euron follow up and destroy everyone including those who somehow swam ashore? In daylight, there is nothing to stand against him. Why wouldn't Dany go after them at night when they wouldn't be able to see the dragon to shoot at it? Why split your forces and go to Dragon Stone?

I never watch the "Behind the Episode" pieces that accompany TV shows. I have some background in filmmaking and the droning of directors/producers about their genius decisions grates. Just the sight of these guys makes me angry. They were given a great story that they have executed well. They've proven that they don't have the mettle to create on the level required.

I sound angry, but I'm still enjoying the story despite its decline in quality. There will never be another surprise like the Red Wedding or the execution of Ned Stark. I don't foresee an elegant or clever ending to GOT, but I still like it. The story telling has grown poor, but the momentum of the excellent story telling of the past still works. I care what happens.

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25 minutes ago, Burt Macklin said:

 

I took the Jaime scene as saying he hates Cersei for all the horrible things she’s madd him do and hearing that she may win is what prompted him to go South and killed her.

I’m not sure why everyone is acting like he’s definitely going South to protect his sister, and why would him hearing she’s winning suddenly motivate him to do that when he was fine to stay North before when he thought Cersei was more likely to lose? 

 

Because of what Jamie says to Brienne in their final scene together.  His speech didn't leave much room for interpretation. If we take what he says at face value, Jamie's poignant 7 1/2 season character arc has suddenly reversed course.  

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5 minutes ago, Neonmoon said:

Who rules the seven kingdoms at then end?

King of the North (Winterfell) - Sansa Stark

King of the Mountain (Vale) - Robin Arryn

King of the Isles and the Rivers (Riverrun) - 

King of th Rock (Casterly Rock )- Tyrion Lannister

King of the Reach (Highgarden) - Bronn of the Blackwater

King of the Stormlands (Storm's End) - Gendry Baratheon

King of Dorne (Dorne)  - Unknown Name Prince of Dorne

Ruler of the Seven Kingdoms - John Snow

 

No way it ends well for Bronn.

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Guest Lobo

Can we make a meme that has the hot translator passing a note to Danneys like Brando in "Apocalypse Now" that says, "Burn them.  Burn them all!"  

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7 minutes ago, MNLonghornFUKM said:

Who is r/free folk? He had like 500 threads opened after last nights episode.

 

It's a lightly moderated game of thrones/ASOIF (bookfag) subreddit. Didn't know it existed until those dank memes from last week popped up over here.

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37 minutes ago, Burt Macklin said:

 

I took the Jaime scene as saying he hates Cersei for all the horrible things she’s madd him do and hearing that she may win is what prompted him to go South and killed her.

I’m not sure why everyone is acting like he’s definitely going South to protect his sister, and why would him hearing she’s winning suddenly motivate him to do that when he was fine to stay North before when he thought Cersei was more likely to lose? 

Her dad, who she admired as a leader and wants to be like, killed a bunch of people during a wedding violating guest right and she, among other things, blew up the fucking sept with a bunch of innocent people inside.

She’s literally a terrorist and you think killing her brother, who she hates more than anyone, or Dany and her dragon, who are the only real threats to her reign, are crossing a line for her? Seriously?

Yeah, I'm starting to think Jaime is going to kill Cersei himself and die while doing it.

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I see a lot of people upset that Jaime had a sudden unexplained change of heart when he rode off for King's Landing. There is plenty to be frustrated with right now, but I think this is pretty low on the list until we see how things play out. We have no idea his motivations so it's equally possible that he's going to help Cersei or that he's going to attack Cersei. I'll give his character a temporary pass until we see that.

In the event he does kill Cersei, which people have speculated about since last season, it will be interesting that he will be killing his own baby in the process. At least the way things currently stand with Cersei's pregnancy situation.

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9 minutes ago, CurlyDumps said:

Because of what Jamie says to Brienne in their final scene together.  His speech didn't leave much room for interpretation. If we take what he says at face value, Jamie's poignant 7 1/2 season character arc has suddenly reversed course.  

Or maybe he figured it would be easier for Brienne to get over him if he reminded her how shitty a person he once was.

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12 minutes ago, CurlyDumps said:

Because of what Jamie says to Brienne in their final scene together.  His speech didn't leave much room for interpretation. If we take what he says at face value, Jamie's poignant 7 1/2 season character arc has suddenly reversed course.  

i interpreted his speech to mean he hates cersei for all of the things she inspired him to do.  and now that he'd just heard she'd gained a major victory against dany and stood a realistic chance of winning, he was going back to KL to ensure cersei didn't win.

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19 minutes ago, CurlyDumps said:

Because of what Jamie says to Brienne in their final scene together.  His speech didn't leave much room for interpretation. If we take what he says at face value, Jamie's poignant 7 1/2 season character arc has suddenly reversed course.  

You think I'm a good man? I pushed a boy out a tower window, crippled him for life for Cersei.
I strangled my cousin with my own hands just to get back to Cersei.
I would have murdered every man, woman and child in Riverrun for Cersei.
She's hateful.
And so am I.

I think that could be pretty easily interpreted as "Cersei made me do terrible things, I hate what she made me, and now I have to go do what's right."

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1 hour ago, CurlyDumps said:

The pacing is so just all over the place.  D&D are like a kid playing with a VCR remote. Spend 25 minutes on drunken hook ups, then 90 seconds deleting Rhaegal attack ships abandon ships swim shore Missi gone wait wut?

Jamie's crisis of conscience, odd. Like someone else mentioned, what changed? Unless he lied to Brienne so she wouldn't try to follow him to KL? and his plan is to try and end this shit before KL is leveled?

I didn't get Tyrion insisting that it's all over for Cersei.  The whole "you have no shot, just surrender" speech. Seems like the two sides are about even right now.

Ned lied to his own wife for 20 years to protect Jon - a lie that besmirched his honor (kind of a big deal for Ned) - but Jon can't at least wait until the war is over to go run and tell his sisters? Why did they HAVE to know this information yesterday?

Varys' flip-flopping feels a tad dumbed down for his character. He's not owning the fact that he and Tyrion's advising, plans, and strategies have fucking sucked ass up to this point.  And hey, maybe Dany has a right to be a little impatient and pissed off. They're getting their asses kicked up and down Westeros by a pirate. And he still insists on doing this conquering stuff off without a single civilian casualty. 

Jon ditches Ghost, his loyal companion, and can't even be bothered to go give him a PAT ON THE HEAD? After everything Ghost has done for him? WTF?! WTF?!  Worst scene in the series.  Jon is the shittiest pet owner in Westeros.  

Jaime clearly lied to Brienne. He is going to try to kill Cersei and most likely die trying.

Tyrion was implying that she has a high chance of losing and even if she won she'd be ruling over ash.

Ned lied because so long as Robert was alive nobody could know. He also swore to Lyanna not to tell. Robert is now dead. He swore an oath to no one and in fact Sam wanted him to tell the world and Bran put him in a position where he had to tell when he said your choice. The stupid part was not showing their reaction. That would have been interesting to see. We know Sansa reacted favorably but what about Arya? 

I actually liked Varys discussing his desire to flip. He's always claimed to serve the realm and this sets up the potential for an interesting next two episodes. Seemed relatively in character for him.

 

Ditching Ghost like that was fucked. That was such a shitty scene and totally out of character for Jon.

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30 minutes ago, CurlyDumps said:

Because of what Jamie says to Brienne in their final scene together.  His speech didn't leave much room for interpretation. If we take what he says at face value, Jamie's poignant 7 1/2 season character arc has suddenly reversed course.  

Eh. Idk about that. I get that’s the most obvious interpretation, but I think his quote left a lot more wiggle room than you’re indicating.

He listed all the horrible things he’s done because of her/for her that he’s no longer proud of and may actually hate himself for, then says “she’s hateful and so am I.” I think D&D could easily intend to twist that into him saying he hates her for causing him to do all those things and then leaving him and threatening to kill him anyways, so now he’s going to put an end to her.

i don’t think it’s some foregone conclusion that he’s completely reversing his character arc.

Edited by Burt Macklin
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7 minutes ago, Chuckie Finster said:

You think I'm a good man? I pushed a boy out a tower window, crippled him for life for Cersei.
I strangled my cousin with my own hands just to get back to Cersei.
I would have murdered every man, woman and child in Riverrun for Cersei.
She's hateful.
And so am I.

I think that could be pretty easily interpreted as "Cersei made me do terrible things, I hate what she made me, and now I have to go do what's right."

The two scenes leading up to that very clearly show Jamie reacting emotionally, experiencing a change of heart, and being torn over the reality of Cersei's imminent death. 

 if your interpretation is correct, why doesn't Jamie say as much to Brienne? Maybe he's lying to protect her, but I doubt it.  The way the scene played, it felt like an honest, soul-baring moment.

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Just now, CurlyDumps said:

 

 

The two scenes leading up to that very clearly show Jamie reacting emotionally, experiencing a change of heart, and being torn over the reality of Cersei's imminent death. 

 if your interpretation is correct, why doesn't Jamie say as much to Brienne? Maybe he's lying to protect her, but I doubt it.  The way the scene played, it felt like an honest, soul-baring moment.

Torn over her imminent death? Sansa literally just told Jaime that Cersei killed a dragon and she’s likely going to win the war. The preceding scene has nothing to do with Cersei’s imminent death. It’s the exact opposite.

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Just now, Burt Macklin said:

Torn over her imminent death? Sansa literally just told Jaime that Cersei killed a dragon and she’s likely going to win the war. The preceding scene has nothing to do with Cersei’s imminent death. It’s the exact opposite.

Do you not remember what Sansa says? "I wanted to be there to see Cersei get executed, looks like I'm going to miss it."  

That scene is all about the fact that Dany is about to retaliate and wipe Cersei out.

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Just now, CurlyDumps said:

Do you not remember what Sansa says? "I wanted to be there to see Cersei get executed, looks like I'm going to miss it."  

That scene is all about the fact that Dany is about to retaliate and wipe Cersei out.

Right, Brienne even tells Jaime that the city is going to get nuked with everyone inside.

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33 minutes ago, RomaVicta said:

Yep. These producer/writers don't have a fraction of the imagination of the man who created their playground. They couldn't bring themselves to sacrifice a single major character in the battle with the dead even though all of them outside of the crypt were placed in hopeless situations.

They didn't bother to learn anything about battle strategy in setting up the big battle with the dead. The episodes before and after the battle were similar to some of the self-loving character studies that spelled the decline of The Walking Dead.

Dany outside the walls of Kings Landing was jarring for all the reasons stated. I don't know if someone mentioned that the geography was even different. I have the feeling that they didn't have time to add CGI to recreate the forests that we've seen in that area. For several moments I was waiting for an explanation of where they were and why Dany had appeared with so weak a force.

The Euron ambush was stupid and just raced through. Why wouldn't Euron follow up and destroy everyone including those who somehow swam ashore? In daylight, there is nothing to stand against him. Why wouldn't Dany go after them at night when they wouldn't be able to see the dragon to shoot at it? Why split your forces and go to Dragon Stone?

I never watch the "Behind the Episode" pieces that accompany TV shows. I have some background in filmmaking and the droning of directors/producers about their genius decisions grates. Just the sight of these guys makes me angry. They were given a great story that they have executed well. They've proven that they don't have the mettle to create on the level required.

I sound angry, but I'm still enjoying the story despite its decline in quality. There will never be another surprise like the Red Wedding or the execution of Ned Stark. I don't foresee an elegant or clever ending to GOT, but I still like it. The story telling has grown poor, but the momentum of the excellent story telling of the past still works. I care what happens.

That’s about where I’m at. I’m still really enjoying the hell out of the show. 

The biggest part of the problem is them trying to cram what should have been at the very least 20 episodes into 13. I think if they had given it a full 2 seasons (maybe 3) they probably could have avoided a lot of then clunkiness and given what the vast majority would have considered a satisfactory ending. But god know how long that would have taken them. 

But I guess we really shouldn’t be surprised when two guys that did an excellent job of interpreting a fantastic story for tv aren’t up to the task of writing the ending in 1/20th of the time that it’s taken the actual writer to do that while trying to put it to screen. 

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1 hour ago, Burt Macklin said:

 

I took the Jaime scene as saying he hates Cersei for all the horrible things she’s madd him do and hearing that she may win is what prompted him to go South and killed her.

I’m not sure why everyone is acting like he’s definitely going South to protect his sister, and why would him hearing she’s winning suddenly motivate him to do that when he was fine to stay North before when he thought Cersei was more likely to lose? 

Her dad, who she admired as a leader and wants to be like, killed a bunch of people during a wedding violating guest right and she, among other things, blew up the fucking sept with a bunch of innocent people inside.

She’s literally a terrorist and you think killing her brother, who she hates more than anyone, or Dany and her dragon, who are the only real threats to her reign, are crossing a line for her? Seriously?

The Red Wedding resulted in the Brotherhood killing a bunch of Lannisters and Freys. Killing Catelyn turned Petyr and thus brought the Knights of the Vale to the North. No one could prove she blew up the Sept as everyone who knew her plan basically died.

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7 minutes ago, CurlyDumps said:

Do you not remember what Sansa says? "I wanted to be there to see Cersei get executed, looks like I'm going to miss it."  

That scene is all about the fact that Dany is about to retaliate and wipe Cersei out.

That's wishful thinking and false bravado on Sansa's part.

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