Game of Thrones Season 8

[ariotofmyown]

After the bad guys chopped off Missandei's head, why didn't they then send down a rain of arrows onto the small army below. They had those giant crossbows that could destroy ships, reckon they could have gone thru the unsullied shields/the dragon queen's face.

[Stagtime]

1 hour ago, ariotofmyown said:

After the bad guys chopped off Missandei's head, why didn't they then send down a rain of arrows onto the small army below. They had those giant crossbows that could destroy ships, reckon they could have gone thru the unsullied shields/the dragon queen's face.

Because there’s 2 episodes to go.?

[GenBr]

10 hours ago, Alpha said:

Yeah but they're now at a stage where people expect everyone to die and so they can't do surprises like the red wedding. They can only mess with the timing. 

I mean they could kill off Jon and have Sam head south to avenge his death, killingl the mountain in an epic sword fight. But that wouldn't wash either. 

I think every character has been given a good and bad ending. Take Grey Worm, The Hound and Arya. I can see any of those killing The Mountain. But I can also see The Mountain killing 2 of the 3. 

I can see Dany becoming a villain and Jon living happily ever after. But also I can see "typical Thrones" and Jon getting killed off again. 

The surprise factor has gone. But I still don't think its predictable. Only in the sense that you can predict that 1 of 4 teams will win the play offs and there will be goals and controversy.

At the start of the season I couldn't see Dany becoming a villain. I didn't expect the Night King to die already. But neither we shocking either. 

It's as wide open as any story I've read or watched. 

Dany as the mad queen has been on the cards ever since she used her dragons to burn 2 people alive last season. 

I wasnt arguing for more surprises. I was merely suggesting i wasnt surprised with the two deaths in that episode. I would have been more surprised if Tyrion had been turned into a pin cushion at the end there. I dont care if there are no further surprises. As long as the characters dont say much and they stick to the big set pieces the series should be able to end fairly well. Whoever writes the dialogue now has been doing a phenomenally poor job this season.

I'm expecting the death of Bran to be the thing that kills all the undead people walking around including Jon Snow.

[Mr. P]

Them dragons are the crappest scouts since we bought Mikel Beck! How do they not see them ships from hundreds of feet up! 

[Carl Sagan]

The idea that Jon would be a better ruler than Danaerys is laughable. She has learnt to rule and rule wisely. He's so impulsive he always does stupid things. Episode 4 failed because Dany was made to look an evil power-hungry cow when she has always tried to do the right thing. 

And doing the right thing included killing Sam's rellies in the last series. As she said at the time, "it was necessary". 

Talking of Samwell Tarley, no way should he still be alive. There was a moment in The Battle of Winterfell when Jon was rushing to reach Bran and passed Sam being who was engulfed by the killer zombies. Sam called out but Jon knew he had to save the world rather than his friend. 

Had Sam died as he should have, Jon would have been a better character for it, having failed to save either the world or his friend. 

However,  Cersei not using Tyrion for target practice was clever. Danaerys has no idea what he said to his sister. Perhaps they were conspiring? Perhaps she can no longer trust him? Perhaps she will have him killed? Given the writers have totally changed her character. 

[GenBr]

9 hours ago, Carl Sagan said:

The idea that Jon would be a better ruler than Danaerys is laughable. She has learnt to rule and rule wisely. He's so impulsive he always does stupid things. Episode 4 failed because Dany was made to look an evil power-hungry cow when she has always tried to do the right thing. 

And doing the right thing included killing Sam's rellies in the last series. As she said at the time, "it was necessary". 

Talking of Samwell Tarley, no way should he still be alive. There was a moment in The Battle of Winterfell when Jon was rushing to reach Bran and passed Sam being who was engulfed by the killer zombies. Sam called out but Jon knew he had to save the world rather than his friend. 

Had Sam died as he should have, Jon would have been a better character for it, having failed to save either the world or his friend. 

However,  Cersei not using Tyrion for target practice was clever. Danaerys has no idea what he said to his sister. Perhaps they were conspiring? Perhaps she can no longer trust him? Perhaps she will have him killed? Given the writers have totally changed her character. 

Most of the major characters should have died in episode 3. The writers have just given them all super thick plot armour all of a sudden.

I disagree that Daenerys couldnt hear the conversation between Cersei and Tyrion either. Perhaps it is the case that she was tryinv to sow dissent, but that isnt how it appeared on the show.

Frankly Cersei should have just fired all her ballistas at that small group or had thousands of knights charge out and kill Daenerys and end the war - would have been super easy , barely an inconvenience. If she can blow up a sept full of innocents and religous figures she wouldnt have any qualms about breaking killing that group even under truce.

 

[jono]

On 06/05/2019 at 17:07, BurtonRam7 said:

SPOILERS BELOW

 

Did you honestly see Rhaegal's death coming? The way it came out of nowhere was brilliant. And I partially agree about Missandei but you could be forgiven for thinking she'd be safe for at least this episode after surviving the Battle of Winterfell.

Well I sort of did when a few episodes back we had Anton Lesser ( what a good actor ) showing the giant crossbows. But I didn’t expect to see hundreds of them mounted on ships and the technician in me is dubious about the rate of fire, the materials needed to give a big heavy arrow that much range and momentum. And that’s before we even start on targeting .. but I am a bit saddo about stuff like this ?. I mean taking out the side of a sea going battle ship with a big arrow ? cannon balls bounced of ships if they weren’t big enough and fired hard enough. 

Yeah i know, I need to get out more 

[AndyinLiverpool]

1 hour ago, GenBr said:

Most of the major characters should have died in episode 3. The writers have just given them all super thick plot armour all of a sudden.

I disagree that Daenerys couldnt hear the conversation between Cersei and Tyrion either. Perhaps it is the case that she was tryinv to sow dissent, but that isnt how it appeared on the show.

Frankly Cersei should have just fired all her ballistas at that small group or had thousands of knights charge out and kill Daenerys and end the war - would have been super easy , barely an inconvenience. If she can blow up a sept full of innocents and religous figures she wouldnt have any qualms about breaking killing that group even under truce.

 

The thing is, Cersei has had more than one opportunity to kill Tyrion with minimum fuss - once here and once at the end of the last series. But looking him in the eye, she couldn't do it.

Why?

[GenBr]

32 minutes ago, AndyinLiverpool said:

The thing is, Cersei has had more than one opportunity to kill Tyrion with minimum fuss - once here and once at the end of the last series. But looking him in the eye, she couldn't do it.

Why?

Well i would like to agree that there is more to it, but in this case at least it just appears she was swayed by his tugging at her heart strings. In either case she sent Bronn to kill both her brothers, so cant really see her having anymore of a plan to use Tyrion. She could have easily killed Daenerys as well, but she didnt - why?

If George R R Martin was still involved i would agree with you and i'm sure they will prove me wrong, but the writers are doing a **** poor job now that they dont have any source material to work from. This season especially has been all over the place from a writing perspective.

[Anag Ram]

3 hours ago, AndyinLiverpool said:

The thing is, Cersei has had more than one opportunity to kill Tyrion with minimum fuss - once here and once at the end of the last series. But looking him in the eye, she couldn't do it.

Why?

She fancies the arse off him!

 

[Ramshankered]

Unpopular opinions time:

I'm finding the new season deeply problematic. The writing has been – for the last couple of episodes at least – pretty darn bad. Characters behaving in ways that ignores all previous development (Hello Danny!). Military decisions that make zero tactical sense (let's charge ALL our calvary into an undying army we can't see!). Time-jumps that happen in the blink of an eye (Danny starts episode in Winterfell / ends episode at King's Landing). It's all gone very Hollywood.

I've loved the show so it's quite hard to take. Like watching a once-majestic beast murdered spectacularly by it's own writers. 

[maxjam]

43 minutes ago, Ramshankered said:

Unpopular opinions time:

I'm finding the new season deeply problematic. The writing has been – for the last couple of episodes at least – pretty darn bad. Characters behaving in ways that ignores all previous development (Hello Danny!). Military decisions that make zero tactical sense (let's charge ALL our calvary into an undying army we can't see!). Time-jumps that happen in the blink of an eye (Danny starts episode in Winterfell / ends episode at King's Landing). It's all gone very Hollywood.

I've loved the show so it's quite hard to take. Like watching a once-majestic beast murdered spectacularly by it's own writers. 

I've mentioned before I'm not the biggest GoT fan, mainly watching it cos the missus has it on.  Season 1 was awesome though, I got less interested when magic and dead people not staying dead became more prevalent in following seasons but the stories and character arcs were always interesting. 

You can really tell with this season that it hasn't been written by the same guy, the standard has dropped right off with several character arcs being apparently dumped and time jumps and questionable decisions being made by others.  The next two episodes have a lot to do but I think they will trot on to a largely predictable end.

[SaintRam]

Season 6 was alright. Season 7 was poor. Season 8 started with promise, because there was basically no plot, but now we're seeing plot, it's looking to be the worst season. 

It was nice to see some scheming, some playing of the game, but the dialogue was really basic.
The dragon/fleet scene made zero sense.
The Bron scene turned THE "street smarts" character, developed over the entire show, into a complete moron in about 30 seconds.
Dany's descent into madness is being sped up to fit it in to the new rushed show's timeline at such a rate that it looks like she's been drugged (although I've never liked her and was always pretty confident the general narrative was going to lead her to being a bit mad, so at least the finish line is the same).

Also, the directing was just atrocious. It was like watching a mediocre TV show like Gotham. The scenes and cuts were all over the place. Why would they think we wouldn't be interested in seeing Arya and Sansa's reaction to the news that their brother isn't actually Ned's son? Seems pretty important.

 

Shambles, really. Such a shame. Show needed 2 seasons, and it needed George R.R Martin to be as involved as he was in the first 5 seasons, when the show was truly exceptional.
 

[Ramshankered]

25 minutes ago, SaintRam said:

Season 6 was alright. Season 7 was poor. Season 8 started with promise, because there was basically no plot, but now we're seeing plot, it's looking to be the worst season. 

It was nice to see some scheming, some playing of the game, but the dialogue was really basic.
The dragon/fleet scene made zero sense.
The Bron scene turned THE "street smarts" character, developed over the entire show, into a complete moron in about 30 seconds.
Dany's descent into madness is being sped up to fit it in to the new rushed show's timeline at such a rate that it looks like she's been drugged (although I've never liked her and was always pretty confident the general narrative was going to lead her to being a bit mad, so at least the finish line is the same).

Also, the directing was just atrocious. It was like watching a mediocre TV show like Gotham. The scenes and cuts were all over the place. Why would they think we wouldn't be interested in seeing Arya and Sansa's reaction to the news that their brother isn't actually Ned's son? Seems pretty important.

 

Shambles, really. Such a shame. Show needed 2 seasons, and it needed George R.R Martin to be as involved as he was in the first 5 seasons, when the show was truly exceptional.
 

Bang on.

TBH, I get the feeling they've been keeping the scripts so secret, they failed to have anyone outside their inner circle review and point out the gaping plot holes. 

Also recently found out show runner David Benioff was the guy who wrote Wolverine 1 (the really bad one) and Troy ?– which helps explain the sudden slump in quality.

[Ramshankered]

56 minutes ago, maxjam said:

I've mentioned before I'm not the biggest GoT fan, mainly watching it cos the missus has it on.  Season 1 was awesome though, I got less interested when magic and dead people not staying dead became more prevalent in following seasons but the stories and character arcs were always interesting. 

You can really tell with this season that it hasn't been written by the same guy, the standard has dropped right off with several character arcs being apparently dumped and time jumps and questionable decisions being made by others.  The next two episodes have a lot to do but I think they will trot on to a largely predictable end.

Apparently this is how GRRM envisioned the books ending. So the core story beats are true to his vision (allegedly). The execution though...is a total letdown.

I'm of the impression that if GRRM had written it, it would've a) paced way better and b) be far more plausible / subtle / nuanced when certain characters start becoming more villainous. 

[TigerTedd]

2 hours ago, SaintRam said:

Season 6 was alright. Season 7 was poor. Season 8 started with promise, because there was basically no plot, but now we're seeing plot, it's looking to be the worst season. 

It was nice to see some scheming, some playing of the game, but the dialogue was really basic.
The dragon/fleet scene made zero sense.
The Bron scene turned THE "street smarts" character, developed over the entire show, into a complete moron in about 30 seconds.
Dany's descent into madness is being sped up to fit it in to the new rushed show's timeline at such a rate that it looks like she's been drugged (although I've never liked her and was always pretty confident the general narrative was going to lead her to being a bit mad, so at least the finish line is the same).

Also, the directing was just atrocious. It was like watching a mediocre TV show like Gotham. The scenes and cuts were all over the place. Why would they think we wouldn't be interested in seeing Arya and Sansa's reaction to the news that their brother isn't actually Ned's son? Seems pretty important.

 

Shambles, really. Such a shame. Show needed 2 seasons, and it needed George R.R Martin to be as involved as he was in the first 5 seasons, when the show was truly exceptional.
 

It’s the rushing the ending that’s effecting it so badly I think. Last season was very rushed. Where you’d have people travelling from Riverrun to kings landing over the course of 5 or 6 episodes, it’s now feasible to travel twice the distance in half an episode. Before it would have been as much about the journey as the destination, and the little conversations had along the way. 

They’ve put an end date on it, said we’re finishing this in a truncated 8th season and that’s that, so they’ve got so many story arcs to tie up, in a comparatively short amount of screen time. 

Its why grrm keeps saying ‘it’ll be finished in the next book, oh wait, I’m going to split that book into two, oh wait, I’m going to split those 2 books into a new trilogy, each part of which consists of 2 parts, cos I’ve invented such a rich world, smooth so many amazing characters, that I have to now do them all proper justice. But now it’s all so complex and in depth, that I can’t actually be arsed to finish it.

You can’t really do that with TV. You can just about do it with books, as long as you don’t die before you’re finished.

Its still the best thing in tele though. A bad episode of GOT is still better than the best episode of most shows imo. 

[SaintRam]

7 minutes ago, TigerTedd said:

It’s the rushing the ending that’s effecting it so badly I think. Last season was very rushed. Where you’d have people travelling from Riverrun to kings landing over the course of 5 or 6 episodes, it’s now feasible to travel twice the distance in half an episode. Before it would have been as much about the journey as the destination, and the little conversations had along the way. 

They’ve put an end date on it, said we’re finishing this in a truncated 8th season and that’s that, so they’ve got so many story arcs to tie up, in a comparatively short amount of screen time. 

Its why grrm keeps saying ‘it’ll be finished in the next book, oh wait, I’m going to split that book into two, oh wait, I’m going to split those 2 books into a new trilogy, each part of which consists of 2 parts, cos I’ve invented such a rich world, smooth so many amazing characters, that I have to now do them all proper justice. But now it’s all so complex and in depth, that I can’t actually be arsed to finish it.

You can’t really do that with TV. You can just about do it with books, as long as you don’t die before you’re finished.

Its still the best thing in tele though. A bad episode of GOT is still better than the best episode of most shows imo. 

"On TV" might be true. But there are better TV shows out there online etc. which is how I watch stuff.

Game of Thrones was definitely in my top 5 all time over the first 5 seasons, but its relative downturn since then and this awful season is really in danger of pushing it out of my top 10. I'll probably have to split it in half for any future rankings I get asked to make ? 

[SSD]

Cutting the season to 6 episodes was an error and the writers haven't helped themselves by keeping many of the major characters.  The last episode was the weakest in quite some time. A tardis has been invented for the last 2 seasons. Characters usually took 3-4 episodes to travel hundreds of miles. It now takes 30mins. The creators even said they wanted to finish GOT quickly because they want to move onto new projects. And it shows. They should have made this series at least 8 episodes. I understand the battles are expensive, it shouldn't compensate for poor writing. It's not a terrible final season. Prison Break's was worse.

[TigerTedd]

11 minutes ago, SouthStandDan said:

Cutting the season to 6 episodes was an error and the writers haven't helped themselves by keeping many of the major characters.  The last episode was the weakest in quite some time. A tardis has been invented for the last 2 seasons. Characters usually took 3-4 episodes to travel hundreds of miles. It now takes 30mins. The creators even said they wanted to finish GOT quickly because they want to move onto new projects. And it shows. They should have made this series at least 8 episodes. I understand the battles are expensive, it shouldn't compensate for poor writing. It's not a terrible final season. Prison Break's was worse.

It’s like when you’re playing Zelda, and you have to gallop or sail for hours across the map. But as you get closer to the end, you find the special item that lets you warp from one end to the other, and it’s bye bye epona (ghost). 

If they’d have found that special item in the first series, the whole thing would’ve only lasted about 2 series. 

[AndyinLiverpool]

I'm enjoying it.

We've been rewatching earlier series and I have to say the stuff with Stannis Baratheon is insufferably bad and really spoils quite a few episodes from 3 and 4. Similarly with the three-eyed raven stuff. I wouldn't necessarily have thought that had I not rewatched them.

My point is, I suppose, that some stuff is just not as good as we remember.