Game of Thrones, continued

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i just feel badly for everyone who named their dog (or daughter) Khaleesi these past few years.
 
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Sandor yelling "fucking die already" at Gregor while jamming a sword into his neck really sums this season up.

This.

There are about 7900 unforgivable things that happened in this episode, including the entire first 45 minutes or so (not that the rest was much better) but the one thing I'll never get over is that STUPID scene with Euron once again unbelievably showing up in the right place at exactly the right moment and getting the last laugh. Why do they have to insult us this way, just let us all mourn already.
 
I read this somewhere but can't find the source, so I'll paraphrase. The most annoying thing about Dany's behavior in this episode was that they did not even portray her descent into madness as a dilemma. Slightly better writing would have presented the situation to her as a choice - do I live with mass civilian casualties as the consequence of taking the throne? But the way they told her story, there was not even a choice to be made. She had the throne and chose to destroy the city. It's utterly unbelievable, even if you want to ascribe her behavior to becoming crazy.

There's also something quite perverse in the storytelling making the main female character of the show emotionally unhinged to the point of destructiveness while all the men around her behave rationally (and one could make a similar point about Cersei).

Edit: the post-show explanation provided by Weiss is even more ludicrous. “It’s in that moment on the walls of King’s Landing, when she’s looking at that symbol of everything that was taken from her, that she decides to make this personal.”

Just fucking die already.
 
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There's also something quite perverse in the storytelling making the main female character of the show become unhinged/emotional to the point of destructiveness while all the rational men around her behave calmly (and one could make a similar point about Cersei).

We've all read that tale before, the woman who loses her children and goes hysterically mad. It's as old as time. And of course there's a stable, great and honourable man there to swoop in, and either save her from her worst impulses, or save the rest of the world by getting rid of her.

Heck of a wheel broken, though. :crack:
 
When you take a source that relies so heavily on POV and turn it into a show, you're already kinda asking for trouble. Compound that with the poor writing and you have this sad, rushed mess.
 
I wouldn't have. If I'd had my way I'd still just be waiting to read about what happens from Martin.
 
I would love if you all individually shared how you would have gone about writing this season. :)


Would’ve considered making the battle for the throne coincide with the white walkers. Would’ve considered having the two separated in two different seasons (8 and 9). Would’ve considered not having less episodes in a final season that so desperately needed more, not less.

Would’ve attempted to make viewers believe Dany’s breakdown, rather than have her just irrationally unleash fire on civilians before having gone for Cersei.

I won’t pretend that I could write game of thrones, but if you gift wrapped me seasons 1-7 and asked me to storyboard the ending, pretty sure I could do better than that.

Wouldn’t have had hard feelings were it not for episode 5. Everything else was acceptable in my books. They really dropped the ball on this one.
 
Well I would have had some women writers, for starters.

Oh there aren't any? Yes, I could see that being improved.

Would’ve considered making the battle for the throne coincide with the white walkers. Would’ve considered having the two separated in two different seasons (8 and 9). Would’ve considered not having less episodes in a final season that so desperately needed more, not less.

Would’ve attempted to make viewers believe Dany’s breakdown, rather than have her just irrationally unleash fire on civilians before having gone for Cersei.

I won’t pretend that I could write game of thrones, but if you gift wrapped me seasons 1-7 and asked me to storyboard the ending, pretty sure I could do better than that.

Wouldn’t have had hard feelings were it not for episode 5. Everything else was acceptable in my books. They really dropped the ball on this one.

:up:
 
Does anyone know the reason why they had to end this season?

I get the idea the episodes were getting more and more costly but given the popularity of the show I still find it confusing.

Given the constraints they had to work with this season - having to wrap up this massive story in 6-8 hours - is a recipe for disaster... This was always never going to end in a truly satisfying manner, who are we kidding?
 
Oh there aren't any? Yes, I could see that being improved.

There have been 4 in the entire 8 season run of the show.

None are credited for any scripts this season.

Does anyone know the reason why they had to end this season?

I get the idea the episodes were getting more and more costly but given the popularity of the show I still find it confusing.

Given the constraints they had to work with this season - having to wrap up this massive story in 6-8 hours - is a recipe for disaster... This was always never going to end in a truly satisfying manner, who are we kidding?

From what I understand, HBO wanted to have the final 2 seasons be 10 episodes each. Benioff and Weiss wanted to do it in less. So the blame has to lie with them.
 
Probably, but I doubt they would be able to keep all those actors under contract that much longer.

Expanding the lengths of the seasons themselves wouldn't be a problem in that regard.

Assuming that if 7 and 8 had been 10-episode seasons we wouldn't have the feature length episodes as in this season, but had they done it HBO's way there would still be like 5 extra hours with which to finish in a more intelligent fashion.
 
Probably, but I doubt they would be able to keep all those actors under contract that much longer.


I think this is pretty much it. The pacing could have been better if they could have kept the actors for 10 seasons, but I’m sure the actors know of the show’s popularity and would expect to be compensated accordingly, and that would cause the episodes to cost a lot more to produce. Unless they’d just gone the way of the battles in season 1 and just shown the outcomes.

Also, I just marathoned the entire series over the last 2 weeks and am currently midway through 8:4 and I don’t think the writing is significantly worse in the recent couple seasons because I still find it an enjoyable show. The pacing is different, sure. But that’s to be expected when they’re trying to fit 3,000 pages of story into ~15 hours.

I’ll be interested to see what happens in the books since there are whole plots that were left out of the show. Maybe I’ll reread the series when the last two books are announced.

Wonder if the pair of Amazon-produced fantasy shows will be as good as this show has been.
 
Dany taking a dragon and burning King's Landing to the ground has been hinted at for years. I enjoyed it. A lot.

Also enjoyed Clegane Bowl. The shot of the two of them with Drogon flying above was beautiful, like something out of an old Arthurian fantasy illustration.

Jaime and Cersei's death scene was lame, though. What the fuck did Cersei do this season? I can't remember a single thing. She was barely in the season. What a waste.
 
And when was that ever hinted at?
There was an image of Drogon flying over King's Landing like five years ago in Bran's vision.

Also, Dany has explicitly referenced "burning cities to the ground."

Also, Dany's father wanted to burn King's Landing to the ground and there have been countless references to Dany's lineage and whether or not she will follow in her father's footsteps. It all kinda added up.
 
Ha yeah, of course I have. So good. The best thing involving her recently though is the video of her at the New York Rangers hockey game. They put her on the big screen and she chugs her wine and hits the dab on em. It's very funny.
 
The reason the Mad Queen stuff doesn't work is that I've yet to find a clear consensus on what Dany's motivation is. This is a significant major character and nobody is sure what truly motivated her or what she's thinking.

I've seen three schools of thought:

1. Dany has truly gone insane like the Mad King, implied by her actions and the voices she hears during the Previously On. Oh wow, the show is taking a nihilistic stand on nature vs. nurture! It's depressing, so that means it's deep!

This would justify firing on her own soldiers while skipping over the Red Keep, except that Dany doesn't think burning down a city will cause her to transcend and become a dragon or some shit. The Mad King was really, truly insane and had been for a long time before he committed his worst act. There's not a great deal of parallel to be had in their stories.

2. Dany was Mad about her dragon and friend and wanted to seek revenge on a piece of shit ruler. That's only fair, right?

Sure, except this doesn't explain why she skipped over the Red Keep and put her own army at risk. Further, D&D themselves said the burning of the city was not premeditated. So this motivation is garbage.

3. Dany felt empty and alone after her victory and said "fuck it, burn em all." If only Jon had done his part and had sex with his aunt.

I actually have the most sympathy for this motivation, but the least amount of time and effort was put into developing it. This motivation requires a ton of historical context and internality that we don't get and, frankly, it turns her character into a weak, unlikable asshole that's a mile separated from the Dany we grew to know.

The real problem is that D&D thought it was better to film the battle from the perspective of those being destroyed in order to make a comment on war, instead of putting us in the head of a major character with only 2 hours left in the series. Because of the third person limited perspective that Martin employs, this never would have happened in the books. We would have seen at least some of this story through Dany's eyes and her motivations would have been explored. Instead, we got this shit.
 
Or, I should say, I just don't agree with it.

I will also say, the amount of people I've seen (both in real life and online) who have said "We didn't actually see Jaime/Cersei die...maybe they're still alive" is staggering. You've gotta be really dumb, or just bad at watching TV, if you think there's any chance those two are still alive.

It's nobody in this thread, but they're out there. Numbskulls.
 
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