Game of Thrones S8 (Here be spoilers)

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Wrathbone
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Re: Game of Thrones S8 (Here be spoilers)

Post by Wrathbone » Mon May 13, 2019 6:21 am

Episode 5:
Spoiler
Not quite as bad as the battle of Winterfell, but still rife with idiocy (nobody in Westeros understands how a castle works) and perfunctory deaths for principal characters with no poetic justice. Cleganebowl was shit, hype is dead. Dany has gone full bananas with little justification - there was a moment where you could even see her morality meter flip from Dubious to Murdertron. Meanwhile Arya farts around the city playing with a horse.

I don’t care what happens in the final episode. Dany probably dies, something something Tyrion, Jon Snow the rubble king. Does it matter now?

EDIT - More musings.

- I like how Dany suddenly discovered Drogon's dodge button, which makes him invulnerable to ballistae.

- Jaime and Cersei (especially Jaime) were treated like the past 8 seasons never happened. Who needs character development when you can whip them back full circle to the selfish, incestuous scumbags they were right at the start? What was the point in slowly bringing out Jaime's human side, his decency, exploring extensively what virtue does and doesn't entail when it comes to being a knight, what lengths can be justified by love, only to have him end like that? What was the sodding point?

- Varys. It was inevitable, yes, but I stagger to believe Jon just stood by and watched without saying anything or trying to stop it, knowing full well she was about to summarily incinerate Varys. If he'd walked into the scene at the last moment and been too late to stop it, thus horrified by Dany's actions, it would have made much more sense.

- Strategy for Lunatics, take 3. Got a big castle? Under siege? Put your troops outside the walls! If you put them on top of the walls they might fall off, and if you put them inside then they could get claustrophobic.

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Re: Game of Thrones S8 (Here be spoilers)

Post by Strudel » Mon May 13, 2019 8:57 am

Completely agree with all that. It was just so boring.
Spoiler
I really didn't like that Arya just turned around and walked away after trekking for weeks from Winterfell, and only then did the Hound say, "You know what? Probs not worth it" and she's like "OMG you're right. TTFN."

And then she just became Random Plot-armoured Peasant Girl. Seriously, how is she the only person to some how survive all that.

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Re: Game of Thrones S8 (Here be spoilers)

Post by eny » Mon May 13, 2019 9:09 am

Its a testament to how I feel about GoT now, that I dont give a shit about spoilers anymore.....I dont see any need to hide them now....it's car crash TV... [-(
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Re: Game of Thrones S8 (Here be spoilers)

Post by Wrathbone » Mon May 13, 2019 9:21 am

Strudel wrote:
Mon May 13, 2019 8:57 am
Completely agree with all that. It was just so boring.
Spoiler
I really didn't like that Arya just turned around and walked away after trekking for weeks from Winterfell, and only then did the Hound say, "You know what? Probs not worth it" and she's like "OMG you're right. TTFN."

And then she just became Random Plot-armoured Peasant Girl. Seriously, how is she the only person to some how survive all that.
Spoiler
Also, how did Arya and the Hound leave before the Northern army and somehow arrived after them? Did they spend a few days making bread with Hot Pie?

And you're right, it was stupid that all it took to defuse Arya's List of Death revenge mission was the Hound going "Revenge is bad, don't do it."

And Arya's response. Cheers mate, see you about! :lol: I'm half expecting Dany's madness to be resolved with a quick exchange between her and Jon. "Don't be queen anymore", "kk, bye".

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Re: Game of Thrones S8 (Here be spoilers)

Post by Strudel » Mon May 13, 2019 9:51 am

I bet Jon gives her a hug and they live happily ever after.

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Re: Game of Thrones S8 (Here be spoilers)

Post by Wrathbone » Mon May 13, 2019 10:45 am

This is the only twist I want to see in the ending:
Spoiler
Image

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Re: Game of Thrones S8 (Here be spoilers)

Post by Mantis » Mon May 13, 2019 11:31 am

Haven't seen the episode yet but I read the leaked info on Reddit last week because I just don't care anymore.

The whole thing about Jaime is that GRRM wanted his arc to ponder the question of whether or not someone can even be redeemed when some of the things they've done are so terrible. Obviously the show handles it in the worst way possible though by having him develop as a character right up until the last episode before doing a sudden about face. Ironic because he's pretty much the only character who's had any development in the show since the end of season six.

I think the Dany story is ruined too by not having all the other elements influencing it, like FAegon from the books.

They've rushed so quickly to the ending that all these late character changes feel incredibly hollow and meaningless.

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Re: Game of Thrones S8 (Here be spoilers)

Post by Mantis » Mon May 13, 2019 6:32 pm

Seen it now. It delivered in a weird way because I am thoroughly on Team Dany but for different reasons. "Fuck it, kill them all!"

Now that the show has managed to spoil the ending of the books and not even manage to do it in a satisfactory way I'm enjoying seeing Westeros burn.

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Re: Game of Thrones S8 (Here be spoilers)

Post by Strudel » Mon May 13, 2019 6:51 pm

So basically, it's gone Hard Brexit.

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Re: Game of Thrones S8 (Here be spoilers)

Post by Mantis » Mon May 13, 2019 7:11 pm

Spoiler
Image

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Re: Game of Thrones S8 (Here be spoilers)

Post by Raid » Mon May 13, 2019 7:21 pm

Wrathbone wrote:
Mon May 13, 2019 10:45 am
This is the only twist I want to see in the ending:
Spoiler
Image
Genuinely burst out laughing at that.
Spoiler
That was... spectacular, but it made fuck-all sense. I can understand Dany wanting to kill Cersei, and all of the people surrounding her in the Red Keep, but what in the fuck were they thinking making her raze the actual city proper? It's like they brought in someone who'd never seen the show, never read the books, not even briefly glanced at an appropriate subreddit, and then forced them to write a screenplay for a different show.

Varys was almost certainly going to meet his end in an execution, but that was a bloody disappointing final scene for one of the show's most interesting characters. Qyburn probably had one of the most appropriate deaths in the entire show (it's just a shame that they'd already done it with a nameless character a few seasons earlier), and I personally quite enjoyed the final showdown between Greggs and Pasty-face.

Jaime and Cersei.... not sure how to feel about this one really. I would never in a million years have expected Cersei to meet her end to rubble. Sure, it was Dany flying around on a dragon bringing the rubble down, but after all that build up, she dies in a hole with her lover's arms around her. Jaime, too, I expected to meet a more violent end. It almost feels like they stuck that fight with Euron in because someone watched the episode without it and decided Jaime's end just wasn't interesting enough, so they had him have a pretty uninteresting fist fight where nobody else could see. Euron too went down too easily; I appreciate he'd just swam the length of Blackwater Bay, but he was the leader of the Ironborn, surely that's how he winds down after a tough day pillaging.
Last edited by Raid on Mon May 13, 2019 8:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Game of Thrones S8 (Here be spoilers)

Post by Animalmother » Mon May 13, 2019 7:56 pm

I actually enjoyed that, despite how fucking dumb it all was. I assume the entire seasons budget went on this one episode.

The bit with Jamie and Tyrion was pretty great.

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Re: Game of Thrones S8 (Here be spoilers)

Post by Raid » Mon May 13, 2019 8:34 pm

I hasten to add that I did enjoy it, for what it was. I enjoyed last week's too. I seem to have a knack for putting my disappointment aside and just enjoying what's on offer these days.

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Re: Game of Thrones S8 (Here be spoilers)

Post by Wrathbone » Mon May 13, 2019 9:56 pm

I also still enjoy it, but it’s bad now. Really bad. When a single episode can render entire character arcs pointless and create a megavillain in a blink with zero rationale, your show has gone to hell. The more I think about it, the more I’m convinced this was worse than the Long Night.
Spoiler
Forget all the other minor issues - this is about Dany and Jaime.

Dany struggled to win the respect of the Dothraki, and eventually commanded them to stop raping their victims. She used her cunning to free a slave army and persuade them to fight for her. She killed the Masters and freed the slaves in three cities - the people loved her and called her Mhysa. She went to great lengths to prevent further slavery and postponed the invasion of Westeros precisely because she wasn’t convinced she was a good enough ruler. She chained up her dragons because a single child was burned by Drogon. She recognised the madness of her father and swore she would not be the queen of the ashes. During the invasion she made difficult choices, including executions, but there were reasons behind those decisions.

And then the bells rang, and King’s Landing surrendered. So she burns the city and everyone in it. For no reason. Even the Mad King had some twisted reason for wanting to burn them all - he thought it would turn him into a dragon. Before anyone suggests it, her choice to rule by fear is not a reason that makes any sense because nobody can fear you if they’re all fucking dead!

Jaime’s end is a perfect example of how not to resolve a character’s story. Every ounce of development he underwent over 8 seasons was reversed in the space of an episode to the benefit of nobody. It’s nothing short of Darth Vader stomping on Luke’s face as the Emperor zapped him, or Marty in Back to the Future 3 deciding not to destroy the Delorean so he can give Grey’s Sports Almanac another go. I honestly can’t think of a less appropriate ending they could have conceived for Jaime.

The episode was a fucking travesty of writing.

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Re: Game of Thrones S8 (Here be spoilers)

Post by Tichinde » Mon May 13, 2019 10:02 pm

Great spectacle, utter bilge.
That episode has heaped the apathy on me so thick I can't be bothered to complain about it beyond "it was ass".

Perhaps tomorrow when I've slept and my usual levels of bile and hatred and back up to peak levels.
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