*Spoilers* Soooo...any Game of Thrones fans?

[Poser]

While I agree the writing was notably subpar beyond the book content, especially in season 8, I think that the show asked the audience to make some significant plot inferences rather than hand out details to deliver these plot leaps. Certainly there was much to infer about Bran and his purpose and character understanding that was just too much for the average audience member, particularly who hasn’t also read the books. The same applies to understanding Danny’s turn in “The Bells” episode. It was foreshadowed if you considered she threatened to or contemplated burning every city she encountered since fist acquiring power, but the 10 second switch that took place in the show asked the audience member to make significant inferences about Danny’s POV, which was probably too much to ask.

I’m kind of either way on it. On one hand, Bran is the only pragmatic character on the show and, let’s make a case for pragmatic leadership trumping all other characteristics of leadership. Jon never wanted to rule and may very well have gone North of the wall on his on had he not been banished. The only time in his whole life that he was happy and free was his time spent with the free folk.

As far as the NK, that particular threat was played up heavily in the show vs. the books and because of that, they weren’t left with anywhere to go with that plot. Also, the NK backstory will be addressed in its own series, “Blood Moon” which is already in production.

I also understand that the show was contracted for 70-75 hours of content and there may have been time management mistakes made in the last 3 season that left season 8 with an impossible task. Realistically, the show needed 2 full seasons (8 & 9) or 20 hours of content to wrap up the story and that wasn’t available. Also, I don’t think most fans wanted it to end so they weren’t going to be happy with any ending.

In the end, long form TV shows have been raised to a new level of expectations and no plot will escape influence expectations set by GOT. The death of Ned Stark and the red wedding may be the single most influential modern plot events even conceived and realized. Also, the spin offs and prequels will get full budget from the get go.

 

[Dizzy_higg]

All ruined
I am only thru season 3

 

[Shrek]

All ruined
I am only thru season 3

It’ll be ok ! It’s still good fun. I’m a hundred pages into the second book as I type this. I’m still enjoying the books even though the series kept very close to the books.

 

[Dizzy_higg]

Read the books before watching
Much preferred the books and imagery over Hollywood

 

[seldomseensmith]

If you put a gun to my head I couldn't tell you a thing about it.


To many interesting non-fictional things I need to spend my time learning about before I check out.

WtF would someone do that ^ ? Do you just randomly go on threads that you have no interest in just to tell the people on that thread that you have no interest in the subject that IS VERY CLEARLY SPELLED OUT IN THE TITLE OF THE THREAD?



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[as.ks.ak]

So my thing is with Jon Snow’s real title
Of Aegon Targaryen not ever being revealed. Why did we go through the pain and dread of Dany finding out and the secret needing to be kept if it was never used to thrust him into power even if that’s not what he wanted? A true waste of a build up.

Also, Cersi. That bitch deserved a much more horrible death than in the arms of her weak minded lover brother. She deserved the worst death the series has seen, yet she got the easy way out.

If I was a writer, I think the best they could have done with the same outcome is have a battle type scene where Cersi dies from the dragon, Dani falls off the dragon and dies at the same time after the mountain does something to kill the dragon, leading into the hound and the mountain scene. There was no gut wrenching like there should have been. This series was full of too much foreshadowing to end the way it did. I leave feeling very unsatisfied.

Kind of like they procrastinated their essay until the night before and just threw it together last minute between Spanish and weights class. Figure. It. Out.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Felix40]

.

 

[Midwest.Bushlore]

So my thing is with Jon Snow’s real title
Of Aegon Targaryen not ever being revealed. Why did we go through the pain and dread of Dany finding out and the secret needing to be kept if it was never used to thrust him into power even if that’s not what he wanted? A true waste of a build up.

Also, Cersi. That bitch deserved a much more horrible death than in the arms of her weak minded lover brother. She deserved the worst death the series has seen, yet she got the easy way out.

If I was a writer, I think the best they could have done with the same outcome is have a battle type scene where Cersi dies from the dragon, Dani falls off the dragon and dies at the same time after the mountain does something to kill the dragon, leading into the hound and the mountain scene. There was no gut wrenching like there should have been. This series was full of too much foreshadowing to end the way it did. I leave feeling very unsatisfied.

Kind of like they procrastinated their essay until the night before and just threw it together last minute between Spanish and weights class. Figure. It. Out.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I pretty much agree with the whole post! So many interesting plots and subplots introduced only to be abandoned. It felt like once the showrunners ran out of GRRM's material they floundered, and the last couple seasons were subpar (but with some good moments).

As Chekhov said, "If in the first act you have hung a pistol on the wall, then in the following one it should be fired. Otherwise don't put it there." So many great tales set up, then aborted.

I cancelled HBO five minutes after GoT ended. Don't really foresee being interested enough to rewatch it to pay $15/mo til the end of time.

 

[ozyclint]

I lost interest at about season 5 or 6. Have watched any since. Took too long to tell the story for me.

Que the movies to tell sub plot stories like star wars just to keep the money rolling in.

Would bet the make a prequel on the battle of the trident.

 

[Akwoodchuck]

Never watched the show, but not too surprised Hollywood butchered Martin's work....they've done the same with Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Terry Brooks, Stephen King, so many great fantasy writers....
....on a side note, I just found out they're making a Downton Abbey movie...I'm REALLY excited about that!

 

[Midwest.Bushlore]

GoT maybe be over but we still have a Song of Vanilla Ice & Fire!

 

[Kootenay Hunter]

I pretty much agree with the whole post! So many interesting plots and subplots introduced only to be abandoned. It felt like once the showrunners ran out of GRRM's material they floundered, and the last couple seasons were subpar (but with some good moments).

As Chekhov said, "If in the first act you have hung a pistol on the wall, then in the following one it should be fired. Otherwise don't put it there." So many great tales set up, then aborted.

I cancelled HBO five minutes after GoT ended. Don't really foresee being interested enough to rewatch it to pay $15/mo til the end of time.

I agree, but the books also have sub-plots and characters that are just abandoned. If only Martin has King's work ethic... When he comes out with his final book of the series, I probably won
't be bothered to read it, even the books kind of went downhill after the first two. The writers started off okay on their own, then it went downhill. Wait two years for 6 episodes, half of which are CGI....kind of a let down.

Hopefully HBO learned a lesson on taking on a book series which isn't complete.

 

[DAOutfitters208]

I thought the last season was rushed, until I saw the final episode! After 7 seasons of rooting for Dany and her Dragons to get the Iron throne, in 2 episodes she goes from hero to Mad Queen and must die. Cersi was a bitch since season 1 episode 1 and it took 8 seasons to kill her! That was the biggest let down. Every time she conquered a city and sparred people, there was unrest and rebellion (i.e Mereen). I wasn't pissed she finally pulled the trigger and said no, I'm not taking a chance here, I will make sure I get what I came for. She lost her dragons and a lot of her army defending the 7 Kingdoms, and then they off her like she is a minor character!
After that, I figured, well at least a Targaryen will reclaim the throne, the true heir. Nope, lets just send him back to the Knights Watch. Why was his true heritage even revealed??? What was the point? All that build up to just pretend it never happened in the final episode?

I think Ill start reading the books now, by the time I get through them all, GRRM may have finished his and we can have a proper ending to this story.

 

[DAOutfitters208]

WtF would someone do that ^ ? Do you just randomly go on threads that you have no interest in just to tell the people on that thread that you have no interest in the subject that IS VERY CLEARLY SPELLED OUT IN THE TITLE OF THE THREAD?



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

He is miserable and wants attention he isn't getting in the real world. I wonder what interesting non-fictional things he is referring to? How many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop?

 

[ChrisS]

King Bran ain't Brandon Stark. He's said so repeatedly. He's the Three-Eyed Raven now and he's essentially immortal (the previous 3ER had been alive for "thousands of years", can visit and/or influence the past and fairly omniscient. He's a very powerful supernatural being who can also mind control animals and people. He'd been contained in the far North until Bran Stark visited him and then became him.
Season 7, episode 3:
“I can never be Lord of Winterfell,” he responds. “I can never be Lord of anything. I’m the Three-Eyed Raven.”
Season 8, episode 2:
“I’m something else now,” he says.

In the finale, he's changed his house sigil to that of a raven (Brienne's armor). He's got a small council who manages the kingdoms, while he's now off to find the last remaining dragon which is the GoT equivalent of a nuclear weapon. He ended the last of the Targaryens by banishing Jon to the north.

That episode ended on a supposed high note, but it's more sinister than it first appears.

 

[ChrisS]

While I agree the writing was notably subpar beyond the book content, especially in season 8, I think that the show asked the audience to make some significant plot inferences rather than hand out details to deliver these plot leaps.
...

I think so, too. But the problem is that a lot of the same obstacles that the show writers dealt with unsatisfactorily (post-season 5-ish) are the same ones that Martin has been banging his head against a wall for coming up on two decades. Assuming that the general plot points are the same (Jon killing Dany, Bran/3ER becoming king, Jon going North of the Wall), then the the transition from the Red Wedding to the finale then Martin has a hard time doing it as well. He wrote the, fantastic, first three books over six years. The next two took 11 years, and the 6th has taken 8+. He's obviously had some issues figuring out how to get from point A to Point C and he doesn't have to deal with the hard deadlines, budgets, and employees of a television show.

 

[Boarmaster]

I was surprised the last episode wasn't a two hr program. Another hr woukd have given more time to spend on each main characters demise. Seemed to me the shows producers where just ready to wrap it up.

 

[Kootenay Hunter]

I was surprised the last episode wasn't a two hr program. Another hr woukd have given more time to spend on each main characters demise. Seemed to me the shows producers where just ready to wrap it up.

Very much in the way of HBO, they often kill series when the show seems to really get going. They played this one too long and the quality faltered, especially considering how long it took to film the last 6 episodes.

 

[Desk Jockey]

I am a fan. I think the last season rushed things and for reasons that aren’t obvious to me but I am sure reflect the economics of production. Like I am sure, in part, the reason the last season was only 6 long eps instead of more regular length one season is that the actors were getting paid by the episode.

While my negatives reaction isn’t as strong as some, I thinking the writing could have been tighter toward the end. Even just a little bit of exposition by someone like Samwell while he was writing the history could have filled in some of the holes around the night king plot. The battle for kings landing wasn’t terrible for the most part. I actually liked most of it. A little scene about how she was flying low and the arrow launchers couldn’t point down might have made it a bit more believable that suddenly no one could shoot worth a damn after they stoned the other dragon one episode a go.

As far as who won the throne and who ended up where, it feels like they built up a lot of options to keep you guessing up to the end and that ultimately leaves a lot of those options unresolved. Would the dwarf pick up where the Varys character left off and try to poison her. Would Arya ninja her wearing someone else’s face. Were the Lannister twins really dead or would Jamie crawl out of the rubble and judo chop her with his golden hand. Leaving those options open until late in the game meant that there was a lot of build up to make them plausible which left a bunch of unused character and plot development.

I can’t say the last season was my favorite or that I loved how it all wound up but I enjoyed the overall series. Like a lot of this HBO crap, I will binge it again in 5 or 10 years and then maybe change my mind.

 

[Poser]

Very much in the way of HBO, they often kill series when the show seems to really get going. They played this one too long and the quality faltered, especially considering how long it took to film the last 6 episodes.

I was reading today that HBO was fully behind extending all aspects of production for more seasons. This assumes that they could get the actors to extend contracts and it seems many, especially Kit Harington, were ready to move on with their careers for fear of being typecast, but D&D wanted to end production and move on with their careers themselves. The more that the ending sets in, the more necessary it would seem to have had a minimum of a season 9. All that being said, I’m not sure if the ending ruins the series as a whole. I watched the series through season 6, read the books between 6 and 7, rewatched the series through season 7, watched season 8 and then rewatched the entire season for a 3rd time with my GF. I can see revisiting it again somewhere down the road, but I probably lack the motivation to pick the books back up for 2 more rounds (if that were an option) at this moment and it’s going to feel like a huge time lapse if they become available more than a couple of years down the road.