Game of Thrones S8 (Here be spoilers)

Small Screen. Bigger Screen.
User avatar
Achtung Englander
Posts: 2196
Joined: Sun Aug 12, 2018 6:37 pm
Location: Wokingham

Re: Game of Thrones S8 (Here be spoilers)

Post by Achtung Englander » Tue Apr 23, 2019 10:49 pm

if they didn't we are talking 15 seasons !
Games playing : Bioshock (Remastered) / Total War Britannia / Dirt 4

User avatar
Wrathbone
Local
Posts: 3631
Joined: Fri Aug 10, 2018 6:08 am

Re: Game of Thrones S8 (Here be spoilers)

Post by Wrathbone » Mon Apr 29, 2019 11:27 am

Episode 3:
Spoiler
Somehow intense and underwhelming at the same time. I think when you go into an episode with the expectation that a whole bunch of characters are going to die, each death becomes more of a box-ticker than an emotional gut-wrench, and as such I didn't really feel anything watching great characters like Ser Jorah and Theon bite the dust. Frankly I'm amazed at how many survived, apparently because they're all wearing on-brand, reinforced Plot Armour. The amount of times I saw Sam, Jaime and Brienne get partially mauled and then escape got a tad silly. Were the wights giving them a big hug or aggressively tickling them? The frequent dark, blurry action made it hard to tell.

I also struggle to fathom how they all spent so long preparing for this fight, then chose the path of tactical insanity by sending 40,000 Dothraki riders to get slaughtered and join the army of the dead before sending in the dragons. Why?! Oh, and surprise surprise, putting all the vulnerable people in a crypt while being attacked by someone who can raise the dead turned out to be a bad idea. With this level of rampant stupidity, they all deserved to die. Maybe they'll try to defeat Cersei by challenging her to a wine drinking and incest contest.

Other niggles include Arya creeping round the library for reasons unknown, Melisandre appearing out of nowhere at the most conspicuously convenient time and Lyanna Mormont being slowly picked up by the giant so she could stab it in the eye. That reminded me of LOTR where Sauron reaches down to Isildur for no reason at all so he can get his fingers cut off.

Aside from all that, it was great!

Not sure what to think about the ending. Is that the army of the dead done, then? My gut feeling is that it's not over, and Bran has some part to play in that yet. The good news is that Cleganebowl is most certainly still on the cards.

User avatar
Hatredsheart
Posts: 1341
Joined: Fri Aug 10, 2018 7:43 am
Location: Raging against the dying of the light

Re: Game of Thrones S8 (Here be spoilers)

Post by Hatredsheart » Mon Apr 29, 2019 3:10 pm

Spoiler
I also felt the end of the episode felt a bit underwhelming for such a climactic event. And your plot armour comment was spot on.
Also I agree, why weren't the dragons used to clear and protect the walls? And why send the whole of your cavalry where you're literally in the dark as to what's waiting for them?
And ofc it was nighttime, but why was the whole thing so very bloody dark? I had to make my living room virtually into an isolation tank to see what was happening. :lol:
Formerly Dr@gon-UK, but still the Forum Fossil

Image

𝕯𝖔𝖓'𝖙 π–‹π–Šπ–†π–— π•Ώπ–π–Š π•½π–Šπ–†π–•π–Šπ–—

User avatar
Wrathbone
Local
Posts: 3631
Joined: Fri Aug 10, 2018 6:08 am

Re: Game of Thrones S8 (Here be spoilers)

Post by Wrathbone » Mon Apr 29, 2019 3:17 pm

Regarding the darkness, I was watching in a dark room on an ipad with brightness turned up to full and I still couldn't see what was going on half the time. :?

Also I probably need new retinas now.

User avatar
Raid
Local
Posts: 4820
Joined: Fri Aug 10, 2018 9:07 am
Location: Keep of the Lead Lord

Re: Game of Thrones S8 (Here be spoilers)

Post by Raid » Mon Apr 29, 2019 3:46 pm

I would say just don't bother trying to watch the episode during daylight hours unless you have proper blackout curtains. In the ten years I've owned my current TV, never before have I had to go looking for the brightness control because I genuinely couldn't see what was happening.
Spoiler
That was a bit underwhelming really. It felt like the vast majority of major characters spent their entire screen time just shouting and swinging their assorted weapons. While it's not unusual for Lyanna Mormont to steal a scene, I was not expecting her to do the most interesting thing in an hour-long battle. There weren't even any big, meaningful sacrifices; someone meeting their end doing something heroic.

I think I'm actually glad that few named characters met their end this week, because it would have felt like a waste. We lost, by my reckoning, Theon, Jorah, Beric and Melisandre, only one of whom I think I'll really miss (Jorah, if anyone's interested). That's not much of a bodycount considering how frequently it looked like people were being cut to ribbons.

It was exactly how I was worried the whole Army of the Dead plotline would end; a big, bland CGI battle. That being said, I can't say I found the whole plotline to be that exciting anyway - the political machinations in Westeros were always the show's highlight, and an army of zombies was never going to be a distraction from that.

User avatar
Tichinde
Posts: 354
Joined: Thu Aug 09, 2018 11:28 pm

Re: Game of Thrones S8 (Here be spoilers)

Post by Tichinde » Mon Apr 29, 2019 5:28 pm

Spoiler
Once upon a time, a friend of mine bemoaned the first of Bays Transformer flicks because you couldn't tell what the fuck was happening in the fights. Compare that shit storm to Battle of the Bastards, it's like night and day (fnar!)
Sums this up neatly as everyone else has already said.
Horribly predictable spots, overly dark, and plot armour everywhere. Disappointing end to the whole affair with the classic drop the knife, stab with the other hand trick (straight outta Far Cry 3 among others).
Worst episode of the season so far.
[-(
"Religion, shit it" - Stephen Fry

User avatar
Maturin
Posts: 1568
Joined: Fri Aug 10, 2018 8:48 am

Re: Game of Thrones S8 (Here be spoilers)

Post by Maturin » Mon Apr 29, 2019 5:37 pm

Although the series has a huge budget overall, I do wonder sometimes whether on a scene-by-scene basis they're too rushed to spend enough time lighting their night-time sets properly. At least I hope that was the case; if it was intentionally unwatchable for some 'artistic' reason or something that's pretty stupid.

User avatar
Raid
Local
Posts: 4820
Joined: Fri Aug 10, 2018 9:07 am
Location: Keep of the Lead Lord

Re: Game of Thrones S8 (Here be spoilers)

Post by Raid » Mon Apr 29, 2019 5:55 pm

I think it's less to do with spending money on lighting as much as not spending enough money on sets (perhaps understandable given the scale of this series). Poor lighting hides a multitude of sins.

User avatar
Alan
Posts: 2240
Joined: Sun Aug 12, 2018 2:35 pm
Location: Through that hairy wormhole.

Re: Game of Thrones S8 (Here be spoilers)

Post by Alan » Mon Apr 29, 2019 8:24 pm

Well that was annoying.
Spoiler
Everything they did seemed daft. From suiciding the dathraki for no reason to John, on a fire breathing dragon, just watching as the dead made body bridges to get through the moats.

Nobody of consequence really died (though I’ll miss Jorahs voice) either despite many of them being on the very front line. Grey Worm should especially be dead!

Why did Arya go from badass to scared girl to end up pulling of some stealth that Solid Snake would be envious of. She couldn’t get through a library with 6 walkers but she stealthed through the entire army of the dead for her big moment?
How much of a say does RR have in these? Is he in on the writing, did he just give them a framework or are they just winging it?
A man who could tell more truth and eat fewer pies.

User avatar
Hatredsheart
Posts: 1341
Joined: Fri Aug 10, 2018 7:43 am
Location: Raging against the dying of the light

Re: Game of Thrones S8 (Here be spoilers)

Post by Hatredsheart » Mon Apr 29, 2019 8:30 pm

Maturin wrote: ↑
Mon Apr 29, 2019 5:37 pm
Although the series has a huge budget overall, I do wonder sometimes whether on a scene-by-scene basis they're too rushed to spend enough time lighting their night-time sets properly. At least I hope that was the case; if it was intentionally unwatchable for some 'artistic' reason or something that's pretty stupid.
https://apple.news/AgJBdxJOjT1Oc9XlusCU04A
Formerly Dr@gon-UK, but still the Forum Fossil

Image

𝕯𝖔𝖓'𝖙 π–‹π–Šπ–†π–— π•Ώπ–π–Š π•½π–Šπ–†π–•π–Šπ–—

User avatar
Drarok
Posts: 940
Joined: Tue Aug 14, 2018 10:12 pm

Re: Game of Thrones S8 (Here be spoilers)

Post by Drarok » Mon Apr 29, 2019 8:39 pm

That "article" is garbage.

Episode was too dark, ye bastards! 😠
Raid wrote: ↑
Thu Jan 28, 2021 2:24 pm
And that's the story of why I'm not allowed near pregnant women for the next few weeks.

User avatar
Animalmother
Local
Posts: 2916
Joined: Fri Aug 10, 2018 3:44 pm

Re: Game of Thrones S8 (Here be spoilers)

Post by Animalmother » Mon Apr 29, 2019 8:45 pm

Thank fuck, I thought there was something wrong with my screen. Helm's Deep had a nighttime battle in the pissing rain but you could see everything #-o
Spoiler
Yeah, I was thrilled and also disappointed by all of that. Three episodes in and they rushed and mishandled what should have been a 2 parter at least. Some fantastic visuals all the same, the stupid horse charge was pretty epic.

User avatar
Mantis
Landlord
Posts: 3474
Joined: Wed Aug 08, 2018 5:39 pm
Location: The Grid

Re: Game of Thrones S8 (Here be spoilers)

Post by Mantis » Mon Apr 29, 2019 8:49 pm

Pretty much exactly as I expected, utterly underwhelming.

Pity, because it started so well with the sense of horror watching shadows of the wights plough into the Dothraki and then simply envelop their infantry lines. (Though as others already mentioned, charging all of your cavalry into the pitch black against a swarm of the living dead was probably the single stupidest tactic they used in this battle). Best part of the episode though in terms of atmosphere.

9 years of building up to the biggest threat mankind has ever faced and it turns out that they didn't even need Cersei's help anyway, not when you've got a dream team of Jaime, Pod, Brienne, Grey Worm and Tormund; who I'm pretty sure were repeatedly shown to pretty much be the only people left alive at several points towards the end. When you see the huge wave of undead rush the front line at the start of the battle, realistically you'd have expected all of those characters to bite the bucket because they were all slap bang on the front. Instead we get the usual montage of hack and slash, followed by every major character yelling "Fall back!". Zero sense of danger or tension after about three minutes of the battle starting.

I hope to gods this isn't how GRRM planned on ending the books, because that was a pure schlocky piece of piss of all style and no substance. They should have beat a hasty retreat south and been faced with a showdown with Cersei with the undead hot on their tales.

Lyanna Mormont being a bad ass fan fiction character and somehow being allowed to stab a giant in the face was pure dross. And Jorah dying defending Dany was a nice finale for his character, but why the hell did both dragons just randomly disappear after she fell off? It makes no sense that they both just left her outside the walls. Rhaegal completely vanished for seemingly no reason after Jon fell off. Ran out of CGI budget? Poor story plotting? Could be the former, since they wrote Ghost off at the beginning of the episode by having him be a part of the cavalry charge for some reason.

I can't believe we literally only get a single episode where the undead threat finally becomes reality and hardly a single significant character died. We didn't even get to see any of those bloody Walkers themselves cutting people down.

This show fell off the wagon big time when it ran out of source material and the writers let pleasing the audience become their main priority. You used to have to use your brain a little bit to watch this show, now you can safely just switch off entirely.

User avatar
Drarok
Posts: 940
Joined: Tue Aug 14, 2018 10:12 pm

Re: Game of Thrones S8 (Here be spoilers)

Post by Drarok » Mon Apr 29, 2019 8:58 pm

Mantis wrote: ↑
Mon Apr 29, 2019 8:49 pm
You used to have to use your brain a little bit to watch this show, now you can safely just switch off entirely.
To be fair, you have to have a very high IQ to understand Game of Thrones. The plot is extremely subtle, and without a solid grasp of historical knowledge most of the story will go over a typical viewer's head.
Raid wrote: ↑
Thu Jan 28, 2021 2:24 pm
And that's the story of why I'm not allowed near pregnant women for the next few weeks.

User avatar
Mantis
Landlord
Posts: 3474
Joined: Wed Aug 08, 2018 5:39 pm
Location: The Grid

Re: Game of Thrones S8 (Here be spoilers)

Post by Mantis » Mon Apr 29, 2019 9:05 pm

Not exactly saying that though am I, quote me alongside some random internet neckbeard to try and diminish my point all you like. Since around about season 5 it has just been ridiculous situation after ridiculous situation with plenty of fan service and pointless throwbacks chucked in for good measure. The show now demonstrates just about all the nuance of a Marvel cinematic universe movie.

It's not that I don't enjoy this show anymore. It's simply that I am consistently gutted at how far it has fallen short of its potential.

Post Reply