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

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You ready? You look ready.
@John McClane ... you seem to just post negative comments here. Why are you even watching then? Go watch something else so you don't waste your own time. You're a serious buzzkill. (I'm mostly kidding. Mostly. We know you're not happy with the show. I'm not sure you need to keep posting about it every episode at this point.)
Oh no, I definitely need to share my complaints. I loved this show from the moment I watched the first episode, so I think I have every right to trash it now that it has gone down the tubes. Only reason I am watching is because there's only 6 episodes, so don't blame me. Blame the show creators.

About the only thing that has not suffered this season is production values, but when you have poor writing and lame action it kinda takes away from the production. I am tired of having to suspend my belief so some character can do something insanely stupid and out of the norm just to advance the story. No, I think I will complain after every episode. Unless everyone dies. Then I'll give it
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I'm sure you've all heard by now, but a Starbucks mug was left in one of the shots last night. I'm guessing instead of Riverrun, Bronn is getting a Starbucks franchise.

My biggest problem is the motivations of characters from a tactical perspective that make absolutely no sense. Both Euron and Cersei basically had Dany and what was left of the unsullied in the palm of their hands, but neither went in for the kill.



You ready? You look ready.
They're telling us a story. A lengthy story. Now they're wrapping it up. And they're telling the story the way THEY wrote it. Not the way WE wrote it. Perhaps it's just my viewpoint as a reader and writer, but I tend to allow a writer to tell me his or her story their way. (Let's filter out bad writers here. This is a generalization, I know.)
We can’t filter out bad writers because then we wouldn’t be able to talk about this season.

I guess what I tend to hear when people continually say they don't like a story (but keep listening to it or reading it) is: "This isn't how **I** would have told it!"

Well, fine. Then go tell your own stories and we'll listen to them. If I start a book or movie or series and it doesn't strike me, I stop. My time is worth too much. And if I do like it, especially a series, there are always spots that I didn't like along the way. Always. Even my favorite book series ever, Gabaldon's Outlander series, has parts in those eight big books that just didn't do it for me. But I'm VERY much invested in how Gabaldon is telling HER story.
They can tell their own story however they like and we, as the consumers, can REACT anyway we like. This includes gushing at its awesomeness or acknowledging the one last grab for cash. This is clearly a case of “oh God I hope I’m not left out of this season because I have a pool boy I still need to pay”.

I'm hoping Game of Thrones goes out strong, and if not, then I await the book versions and will read them and hope for the best yet again.

My two cents on that. I love this discussion, even when some of it makes me scratch my head.
I hoped it would go out strong but so far it’s been just a whimper. It has been an alternating dance between the only two types of episodes this show has used: action and talking. Previous seasons gave us build up and release. But this season has been so predictable: pillow talk, sexy action, pillow talk, sexy action, pillow talk, and you get the idea. There’s no build up and so there’s no release. You can wrap up a story without doing this bad of a job. At least the shows you mentioned with bad endings made an attempt.

The decision to only shoot 6 episodes was egregious and it clearly shows. If they hadn’t taken so long to put this season out then I probably would have had nicer things to say, but to make us wait nearly 2 years for 6 episodes of dung. They had their shot and blew it.



I look at thing from two different angles. The episode was great, a lot of things coming together (or falling apart depending) :
  • Jon revealing to his sisters who he really is.
  • Honoring the dead
  • Brienne/Jamie relationship
  • Varys/Tyrion discussion
  • Gendry's proposal, Arya's "no" - earning Storm's End
  • Death of Missandei
  • Death of 2nd Dragon
  • Bronn still being Bronn
  • Daenerys on brink of losing her ****/mind
  • Arya and the Hound on their missions
  • Could be the last time we see Ghost, Tormund, Sam and an expecting Gilly?

There are other things like the partying and celebrating that was also needed and humorous for the most part.

My issue is not with the episode itself, although Jon should have had a more heartfelt goodbye with Ghost. Hell he should have given at least as much affection to him as he did Sam. I also hate Starbucks and hope that placement was not on purpose and perhaps Bran has been time traveling or dimension hopping. No my issue is that they only have two more episodes and now in order to finalize certain things (if they even do) it will feel rushed to me. I can only expect a lot of deaths or a happy ever after ending now, it cant be both. It CAN be a little of both I suppose, but god I hope not. This felt more like an episode that belonged in a regular season and not in the last one, as far as the pacing goes I mean.

Do not get me wrong, I am loving this show, always have and even though I can understand how some are not happy with how things are going I just here for the ride wherever it takes me, I just do not want to be dangling over a cliff at the end.
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“The gladdest moment in human life, methinks, is a departure into unknown lands.” – Sir Richard Burton



This week, I really felt the downside of the compressed season/episode count. Really felt like they needed two episodes to do the post-Winterfell stuff and the sudden trip to King's Landing (which was bizarre in how sudden it was), rather than one long one.



28 days...6 hours...42 minutes...12 seconds
Okay, I've been meaning to ask this. Grabbed this screenshot from the opening credits. What is going on here? For some reason my brain isn't registering what these images are. Whose head is that? Who's holding it? WHAT IS GOING ON?

It looks like a human holding up a wolf's severed head... with the wolf body in the middle... and a lion on the left? So is that someone holding up Ned Stark's head in front of a Lannister? Or Rob's wolf's head? Or ... what?

I believe this is the Red Wedding. You see the Lion elevated, in charge. Tywin's plan is working. The dead wolf hanging from the Twins with arrows in his body, is obviously Rob Stark. The other side is the flayed man holding the head of the wolf, this is Catelyn.

The original was the history of Westeros with Baratheon taking over. Now moving forward it's the history we are currently seeing.


My random thoughts:

As for the episode, there were mini-moments that I loved. Everything Varys and Tyrion was great and reminded me of season 1.

The Hound and Sansa, great interaction there with a great ending line of feeding Ramsay to the hounds.

Danny finally playing the Game of Thrones instead of relying on her dragons. She successfully put a Baratheon away from the Throne.

Danny with that final shot looks to be transitioning into the Mad King. With the loss of Missandei being the last catalyst. Sad to see her go with chains around her wrists. She survives everything only to die back in chains.

No reaction shot of Arya or Sansa? What? No good-bye to Ghost? What? Glad to see Sansa becoming a little bit like Littlefinger though.

But you're telling me Euron steals her and leaves everyone else alive on the shore? What? Or that Danny, flying a dragon high in the sky can't spot a fleet in the water? Or that the show up to King's Landing with a dozen or so people and a wounded dragon. Why Cersei didn't kill them all right there and then is beyond me.

Any last words? Missandei should have just grabbed Cersei and jumped off the edge. I kept yelling at her to do so.

I never bought the Brienne / Jamie relationship beyond becoming very good friends.

In the final stretch of things, it's sad to see so much compression happen. In order to afford the big spectacle episodes they went with a shorter season. Kind of a lazy way to speed things up if you ask me. We're feeling that story-wise right now.
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Oh no, I definitely need to share my complaints. I loved this show from the moment I watched the first episode, so I think I have every right to trash it now that it has gone down the tubes. Only reason I am watching is because there's only 6 episodes, so don't blame me. Blame the show creators.

About the only thing that has not suffered this season is production values, but when you have poor writing and lame action it kinda takes away from the production. I am tired of having to suspend my belief so some character can do something insanely stupid and out of the norm just to advance the story. No, I think I will complain after every episode. Unless everyone dies. Then I'll give it
I don't mind you voicing complaints. But a few of yours lately have just been statements like, "This episode was lame." To me that's not a proper complaint.

But this post I just quoted at least fleshed out your concerns. I totally respect that. It's the offhanded one-line gripes from folks that I scratch my head at.



The Adventure Starts Here!
What strikes me as interesting (and somewhat amusing) is that I have a handful of writer friends who are also watching GoT. All of us tend to be enjoying this season and wrap-up. (And by the way, even when I say I loved an episode, I'm not saying I loved every jot and tittle of it. I'm just saying I loved it. A general statement just like some of the negative general statements.)

For some reason, my fellow storytellers and I are thoroughly enjoying the plot points along the way here, even if some of the pacing or production choices aren't as good as early seasons.



The Adventure Starts Here!
I'm sure you've all heard by now, but a Starbucks mug was left in one of the shots last night. I'm guessing instead of Riverrun, Bronn is getting a Starbucks franchise.
Ha ha haaaa...

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Yes, even I yelled at the TV toward the end: "Why doesn't Cersei just hit Dany with that big scorpion crossbow??"
I half expected Qyburn to suicide bomb himself with wildfire.



The Adventure Starts Here!
Okay, rewatching now (mostly to see the Starbucks cup, ha ha)... The way they positioned a few shots in the "Previously on..." segment in the beginning made me realize something. Probably I'm late to this party but...

... Cersei tells Jaime that she'll tell people he's the father of her baby. (Some are not convinced there was a baby at this point.) But would she?

... Cersei, for some reason I couldn't fathom, sleeps with Euron. (Honestly, WTF?) He says he's going to put a prince in her belly. She wryly smiles. I'm still wondering if she's already pregnant at this point or not.

... Tyrion and Jaime discuss whether the baby is real. Jaime says yes, just as their conversation turns to how Cersei has been a liar all her life.

... Cersei tells Euron she's pregnant.

--

So, has she really been pregnant all this time, and did she sleep with Euron only to cover up whose baby it is? Or did she lie tell Jaime she was pregnant because she knows that would protect her from probably either of her brothers killing her outright... and then sleep with Euron precisely to GET pregnant so that she'd be protected from various male parties, including Euron if he goes rogue?

Geez, this is sounding like a soap opera.

Add on the Jaime/Brienne triangle, and IT IS A SOAP OPERA.



We've gone on holiday by mistake
Yes, even I yelled at the TV toward the end: "Why doesn't Cersei just hit Dany with that big scorpion crossbow??"
It was really just a badly put together scene so Dany would be forced to watch Mrs Sunday die and go mad Queen. Literally no reason Cersei doesnt take them all out there, never mind how do they get to the mainland.
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We've gone on holiday by mistake
Not sure we're done with the Direwolves yet, ghost or Nymeria.



I think Cersei's thing is: I'm pregnant, tell Jaime so he'll side with me. Eventually it's too much for him, so she sleeps with Euron to simultaneously keep his allegiance and "cover up" the fact that it would be Jaime's.