Game of Thrones: Season 8, The Final Season (spoilers)

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Some final ramblings before moving on with my life.

-Who knew the best stuff was back when we got cut scenes of battles, Robbs Direwolf takes care of a couple of Lannister soldiers then it's straight to the aftermath and the good talking stuff. Who knew that a huge increase in budget to do big battles would spoil it.

-The World is so empty of secondary characters in s7 and 8, each character was separated before and had their own little supporting cast, Robbs camp with Rodric, Greatjohn, Catelyn, Lord Bolton and Talisa, then the drama later with Karstark, Freys, Blackfish, Edmure. Those were the good times, Tryion maneuvering in KL around Shay, Varys, LF, Cersei, Pycelle. The Dragon pit scene at the end of s7 and especially 8 were so empty. What ever happened to Manderly and Glover post Jon's KITN s6 scene?

-Jon's disappointing s8 arc, previously discussed. Davos was a disappointment too, would love to have seen him have a scene with Daenerys, he was perfectly equipped having served unbending Stannis for years.

-Lots of hanging unanswered questions, Warging was forgotten about, Lord of Light? What was the point of Arya's faceless men training, we'll find out in the books I guess.

-D and D deserve lots of hate, not for messing up the ending but rather wanting to rush it to move on to other projects. It seems there was a behind the scenes tussle with HBO, with the latter wanting more seasons/episodes. Basically more time and care for the finale, but D and D held the rights. They could have passed it on to others. Sold those rights, but looks like ego got in the way.

-Season 8 actually exceeded my expectations up to ep 3, before dropping off a cliff for the last 3. The battle of WF would have been a logical end to s7 and would have been ep10, then you could have had a much better finish, not crammed and rushed into 3 episodes where characters completely change in super quick time, and illogical events are thrown at us to make that change happen.

-Silver lining is the story is unfinished in book form and the poor finish of the show might actually incentivise Martin to set things right.

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This made sense he way it played out. She absconded with a face when she left the House of Black and White, and used it to assassinate Walder Frey. She would have had to go back to the temple to get another/more faces. I liked this restriction...otherwise Arya would have been too powerful in too many situations and would have added another writing nightmare, which I am sure would have been handled poorly.

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The Frey killings were a fantastic payoff, but it certainly seemed to me at the time that Arya was merely at the beginning of her payback. Sansa discovers her faces again in s7, I think more than 2 faces, then they was the last time it was mentioned.

Am I wrong in assuming Arya can kill anyone and take dace rather than return to the temple? She took Walders after killing him.

Forgot about both of those things!

I think in the after episode discussion, D and D talk about wanting to surprise everyone by having Arya kill the NK.

So that suggests they couldn't think of what to do for her faceless man ability, so they've seemingly robbed Jon of killing the NK aswell by giving Arya her moment. Sounds like another example of poor long term planning resulting in a disfigured ending. Perhaps there are omitted book characters that Arya will go after.

You know, here's what I liked about some of those deaths and fates at the end of this series: they're all more like Martin would have sketched them out. Sure, they lacked his attention to detail and his sweeping character arcs. But I'm talking about if you'd see a storyboard or just a quick outline of everything that's happened.

Surely we all remember big characters who went on to seemingly pointless and shocking deaths... or just realistic deaths. Characters who did things we didn't expect. So why are people suddenly saying they wanted noble deaths or arcs where characters HAD to be on the throne or HAD to kill some other character, simply because the series might have been pointing in that direction? If any series (of books or TV shows) knows how to deflect the expected twists, it's this one.

So, even Bran being crowned king, though unexpected, had a certain George-Martin-esque feel to it (though happier than most of his other big twists because nobody died during that scene).

Frankly, I think everybody's pissed off because there haven't been any explicit sex scenes since Bronn's four-way tryst in episode 1 this season.

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This wins the internet today. Please tell me you tweeted this, too.

Agreed. I remember thinking, "He's the last Lannister." And then as soon as Dany died, thinking, "And Jon's the last Targaryen."

Well, that was kinda my point with the word "Google," but you did it better! It's like you're George Martin and I'm D.B. Weiss!

If Bran knew all along that he would be king why tease Jon and create all the potential conflict by telling him about his lineage?

Had he NOT told Jon, Jon would have remained faithful and true to Dany without the baggage of who he is. Had Jon been faithful (through Dany's eyes), then she might not have lost it. She would not have felt competition from him at least and, instead, could have leveraged his leadership and trust of the North into her own. In context of all else that happened to her, having him closer by her side might have been the one thing that kept her sane in the end. She might still be alive and actually happy with Jon as her partner to rule with over the still alive and thriving people of King's Landing. Because Tyrion wouldn't have told a secret he didn't know, Varys would still be alive, and there would have been no (added) pressure from Sansa after having learned of Jon's past.


That Bran. A little egotistical sociopath, eh?

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I think that fits, actually: telling him leads him to tell others, and the fact that he's a threat to Dany now is specifically cited by Tyrion and others as one of the reasons he has to turn on her, because she's going to turn on him eventually anyway.

But would that have happened had he not said anything? Better, had he not even known?

I'm trying to remember how the confirmation between Sam and Bran went. Had he (Bran) not told Jon, then the only other person who would have known was Sam. Would Sam have revealed his discovery to Jon had he not learned of his father's and brother's executions? I think Sam is smart enough to measure the risk in that reveal to Jon, all things considered. She really only felt threatened by Jon because he confessed to her who he was. If he never knew, things may have played out very differently without all of the betrayals playing out around her---all triggered by Jon knowing.

For sure, the entire thing is premised on the idea that Bran is a magic wheelchair wizard and knows how it'll play out. Though I find the way it plays out to be pretty believable anyway. That's a pretty huge secret to carry around.

Well they whiffed on that to me. Him jumping on a dragon with consent from Dany or trying to get burned but it not working would been a great way to nod to his Targaryen blood. Otherwise him being Targaryen was pretty damn useless.

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Jon's only half-Targaryan, so obviously if he'd been burned he'd just look like this:

Damn, he still knows nothing.

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This is hilarious. Maybe you guys will LIKE this ending instead!

OMG that is so great! LOVE THAT STRONGBAD REFERENCE!!!!!