Game of Thrones Seasons 7-8

[keg in kc]

About to hit the 5000 post mark on the old thread, the first season 7 trailer today seems like the right time to start the final Game of Thones thread.

I'm going back to the original rules pre-2015. I don't think we need supervision or bannings. Just don't be a dick. Post anything you find online that hasn't aired yet inside of spoiler tags. That's pretty much it. I think we can all handle that...





For future us, 2015 thread is here: Link

[Chiefspants]

Originally Posted by DaFace

It's like people (and the directors) have forgotten that Game of Thrones was just the first book. The series is called Ice and Fire for a reason.

(Don't throw things at me, but there's reason to suspect GRRM planned for that title to refer to Jon and Dany).

I'll see myself out.

[DaFace]

Originally Posted by Chiefspants

(Don't throw things at me, but there's reason to suspect GRRM planned for that title to refer to Jon and Dany).

I'll see myself out.

Fair point.

[Chiefspants]

Originally Posted by DaFace

Fair point.

I'll go on the record with this.

I wanted the NK to win. I wanted Dany to take out a handful of survivors on Drogon and Jon on Rheagal. I wanted them to be separated, with all hope feeling lost, and I wanted them to converge on King's Landing when the NK began to wreck the city, Cersei, and shit-eating ShowEuron.

But, the more I look into GRRM's quotes - I just don't that that's where he's going with this thing. The show NK isn't really even in the books. The show just made him as a personification of the WW threat. The problem, I think, is that while George chooses to eschew writing POV accounts of Hardhome and instead gives subtle hints of the horror there, the show chose to actually go there. At the time, this was praised as a wonderful deviation. However, it was done so ****ing well that the NK antagonist altered the show's center. The politics that made the show (and there are good moments of those politics in S6) immediately took a backseat to the WW - so much so that that WW threat became prioritized above all else to the viewer (for better or for worse). I’d also argue that this is where the show exploded from a super successful HBO show to the global phenomenon that it is now. Season 5 actually had been declining ratings wise from Season 4 - then Hardhome happened. The NK became embedded in the show’s lore, when he was never a true character in the books. On a personal note, this is how I’ve hooked two of my friends who gave up on the show after being “bored” with Season 1 - but they LOVED Hardhome with zero context to Jon’s development and multiple characters who were featured in it.

I've accepted last night's WW fate the more I read into GRRM. He just loves the idea of politics and ruling and how the elite class will always be a factor in our world, always, even in the face of extinction.

However, my opinion of this episode will likely forever hinge on the next three. If there is a Hodor level twist coming (possibly something to do with the foreshadowed burning of King's Landing we've seen in Bran and Dany's plots) and stick the landing (meaning a satisfying enough ending that doesn't betray the arcs of the main characters), I'll be happy with the episode.

But if I just don't care after this, if we just get a 4 hour Scouring of the Shire like epilogue to the series that honors GRRM's planned ending after last night, then D&D will have failed and needed to realize that the Game of Thrones show ultimately went a different direction than the ASOIAF. That's what the HIMYM showrunners couldn't accept. The characters in the show went a radically different direction in 9 seasons of development than when they filmed the original ending in S2 (when they thought it was a 3 season series). However, all of the GOT showrunners seem confident with the ending, and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms was so good for the characters that it's keeping me hopeful that they're going to stay true to them in the ending - especially since these characters are what make up the fabric of the series.

We'll see. Valar Morghulis and what not.

[BigRedChief]

Originally Posted by Chiefspants

If there's any solace in all this, it's that GRRM and the creators have said they've done everything they can to avoid a "LOST" ending and want the direct type of ending that Breaking Bad gave its fans.

Originally Posted by FAX

Like many people, I became interested in this show and picked up the books. Then I became intrigued by the complexity. Then addicted.

Now, after a 7 season investment in these characters, the world they inhabit, and the various, interconnecting plot lines, my expectations grew in a way proportionate to the quality of the writing ... which has been awfully damn good.

But this season has been, for me, a disappointment. It's subjective, of course, but I've noticed a noticeable decline in story-telling since the source material dried up.

8/3 was a shoot in the dark that turned this epic saga (from the medieval soap opera I saw in 8/2) into a medieval night of the living dead. Once fascinating character arcs are now flopping about like decapitated limbs.

Remarkably (and based on internet feedback), millions of people are apparently rationalizing and justifying (not that I blame them) instead of "enjoying". That's sad and I fear that a "Lost" ending coming our way. Hope I'm wrong.

FAX

both George RR Martin and D/D have said there is a conclusive ending. That doesn’t mean we get resolution on every character just who sits on the iron throne at the end. Or what comes after the throne.

[BigRedChief]

Originally Posted by Detoxing

Here's what i think:

I think this show was a lot more ****ing enjoyable before reading you ****s.

like others mentioned as an analogy, Breaking Bad ending was trashed by many but now viewed as brilliant.

[BlackOp]

Originally Posted by FAX

That's sad and I fear that a "Lost" ending coming our way. Hope I'm wrong.

FAX

Unfortunately, I have the same bad feeling. They have to wrap up the story in 3 episodes...one of which will obviously be a battle for the Throne.

Too many developed characters to properly give them enough screen time to resolve each scenario in a natural way. Not having any major characters die yet...has me worried it'll be all Disney and roses.

They need a full 10 episode season to conclude this properly...

It's also a bit anti-climactic, after just having this epic battle with a super-natural villain that can control the dead...to have another war episode with Cerise Lanister. I mean she's a wicked woman and all...but she's no Knight King.

I think they screwed up by not having them take the capital first, paint a picture of potential peace for the 7 kingdoms...then having an epic good vs. evil ending against the dead...who threaten to take it all away and have a dragon.

The major threat is already dead....

[BigRedChief]

Originally Posted by MagicHef

I actually did not realize that the wights attacking everyone in the crypts were the old Starks, I thought they had broken in from outside. I couldn't see anything happening on the screen well enough to know any differently.

I’d like someone to put put a “regular” lighted episode out so we could see what was happening.

[BlackOp]

Originally Posted by BigRedChief

I’d like someone to put put a “regular” lighted episode out so we could see what was happening.

It looked great on my 4K Samsung...but then I saw the "making of episode 3" on my computer and couldn't make out much detail.

I think you need a high contrast screen to view it...

[GloucesterChief]

Theories:

Only Jon or Dany will be alive at the end. Jon for the more fairy tale ending or Dany for the darker ending with more war to come once winter is over.

Sandor dies after killing the Mountain.

Tyrion and Sansa remarry. The bring in the Vale and Riverlands and form the Kingdom of the North.

Arya and Gendry head off to Braavos particularly if Dany is the one on the throne.

Sam is appointed as lord of the reach. Could have strained relations with Dany or cordial relations with Jon depending on who survives.

Jamie dies doing something noble.

Brienne becomes commander of the Kingsguard.

Tormund is given a lordship in the North.

[FAX]

Originally Posted by Detoxing

Here's what i think:

I think this show was a lot more ****ing enjoyable before reading you ****s.

LOL

FAX

[BigRedChief]

Originally Posted by BlackOp

It looked great on my 4K Samsung...but then I saw the "making of episode 3" on my computer and couldn't make out much detail.

I think you need a high contrast screen to view it...

I spent way too much money on my TV. State of the art.

[Iconic]

Maisie Williams on finding out she kills the Night King (as reported by Entertainment Weekly):

"I immediately thought that everybody would hate it; that Arya doesn't deserve it. The hardest thing is in any series is when you build up a villain that's so impossible to defeat and then you defeat them...it had to be intelligently done because otherwise people are like, "well, [the villain] couldn't have been that bad when some 100-pound girl comes in and stabs him.'"

[DRM08]

Originally Posted by BlackOp

They need a full 10 episode season to conclude this properly...

It's also a bit anti-climactic, after just having this epic battle with a super-natural villain that can control the dead...to have another war episode with Cerise Lanister. I mean she's a wicked woman and all...but she's no Knight King.

I was hoping at the end of Episode 2 where we see the White Walker generals but not the Night King, maybe he was flying his ice dragon south to take out Cersei in a sneak attack. This would have been a way to clean up the story so it's not cramming two wars into a very limited number of episodes.

[eDave]

[BlackOp]

Originally Posted by BigRedChief

I spent way too much money on my TV. State of the art.

Is it properly calibrated? You SHOULD be able to see those dark scenes on a quality 4K.

You could create a preset just for that episode...