I have been waiting for Dany to control her dragons probably for so long - this episode was so satisfying in the aspect of the dragon finally living up to its reputation as a force to be feared by.
If you love the show, don't watch this episode. I'm so disgusted by it that right now I feel physically ill. I mean, last two episodes were suggesting that things won't go well, so it wasn't a complete surprise, but I never thought it will be this bad. I'll never watch the last episode because I couldn't care less about what happens next. What a terrible ending to what used to be the best TV show ever.
Absolutely Agree, Dany getting Immune this turn and Overkill can attack again is so OP I thought I was watching Avengers EndGame
Drogon consumed souls of his brothers and gained the ability to spit hyperspeed plasma bombs. The force of fire was so immense that it blew 500m3 of brick stone to pieces. I find it very dumb, the dragon could have been the saving grace of episode 5.
Massive Balerion the Dread burned all the people in Harenhall, not bury them under the stone.
I read the books first, then watched the series. The series is struggling for the same reason the books are struggling: It can't figure out whether it is The Game of Thrones, a drama where kings, queens and commoners battle for thrones, or High Fantasy, with magic, evil and undead monsters. The books and show would have been much better off just dropping the entire Night King plotline.
That being said:
The absolute lack of explaining any backstory of the Night King, who he was, how he came to be, what he wanted, etc. was a total failure in episode three. Listen, I get that that plot line was in the way of what made the show great, but spending 15 minutes in the episode to explain that character would have gone a looong way to tie up the second biggest plot line of the series. They had the time, we didn't need 15 more minutes of impossible-to-see battles.
Westeros is a world where every bad person has a shade of good, and every good person has a shade of bad. However, we get this one pure evil monarch who apparently was just bad, needed to be killed, but we don't know a thing about him. The show hinted at his story, and so do the books . And we had Bran who knows the history of *everything* (another total failure of GRRM: You don't want Gods in your books or else they become entirely uninteresting), yet offers no hint of who this Night King was. A 700 foot magical wall was created thousands of years ago to keep him out, entire armies protected it for those millenia, he has the ability raise the dead... and then Arya appears out of nowhere and stabs him, and that's that. OK, time to move on.... nothing to see here... what?!?
I didn't really like the Night King story line. In the books, it felt like GRRM trying to stick to High Fantasy "standard", even though he didn't really want to write about it. Who got this castle or who got that castle is insignificant when compared to this immortal undead army to the North, and he generally undermined any drama in the game of thrones. However, he *was* a major character for the entire series, and should have been addressed.
However, the total lack of any backstory or any understanding that we were given to the character in episode three basically caused the show to jump the shark for me. You have Bran, who *knows* the entire backstory, yet doesn't say a word about him. You could have had his death somewhat dramatic, but instead Arya disappears for 30 minutes, and just appears next to him and stabs him. It was the most anti-climactic, how-did-that-get-out-of-the-writer's-room moment in any quality show I've ever watched. I really lost interest the show after that.
There is no Night King plot line in the books. Its been thousand pages since we last had any sight of the others
I felt equal parts fine with and bothered by this last episode.
This episode felt like the intended justification for the weak character arcs this season, as if the writers had to contrive these suddenly amnesiac people who had - up to this point - had learned so much, only for them to start making wildly rash decisions and losing their cunning in favor of a fevered charge to the end of the series.
I also found some justification for most of what happened. Big old spoilers incoming.
Cersei has been absolutely overconfident in the Red Keep and the position she'd held on the Iron Throne, so it made some sense that she would expect to watch Drogon get shot down instead of the entire Iron Fleet getting dive bombed from the sun and struggling to turn their Scorpions fast enough for a low-flying dragon to raze them at top speed. She's become comfortable with her dominance, the lack of opposition, because she hasn't faced a full attack. When Dany went full Mad King and started burning the entire city (side note: Drogon added Fus Roh Dah to his fire breathing, must have leveled up last episode), Cersei lost her focus and mental foothold, and began clinging to the concept of the Red Keep's legendary status and unconquerable.
Also, can we appreciate how the Scorpions weren't rapid-reloading like they were last episode? That made sense, and it also makes sense why the writers worked so hard to kill the second dragon; two napalm-dropping jets in that battle would have been a savage blowout, not the surprise solo blitzkrieg Dany pulled off.
Euron got a decent send-off, thought I wanted his death to be a bit more ignoble. He's an annoying pirate dumpster person, so dying with the thought that he killed Jamie felt a bit gracious for such a usurping scoundrel. Yeah, he basically said "But I tagged you back," as he bled out from Jamie spinning his sword in his gut for a good 30 seconds (a weak line at best for a dying man), but Euron is arrogant enough to enter into death thinking that's a win. I'd have liked him to have died with a hollow claim that felt more pathetic. He's just so hatable, so at least he's dead.
Jamie's character arc felt more like a circle, looping back to finish by dying alongside Cersei under the rubble of the Keep. He had gone from arrogant yet talented knight to broken yet seemingly-reformed and honorable man. We were given no indication that he was still so slavishly attached to Cersei, and not communicating that makes it seem like the writers leaned on standing facts like "Well she is carrying his baby." It doesn't take much to slip in a moment or two here and there in which we get either inference or direct dialogue that addresses any conflict Jamie has. Just give me a little something.
Arya's arc is exciting and I loved that Clegane was able to show her that following revenge to death isn't worth it, that she can do more with her life than just murdering Cersei in her crumbling castle. I'm very excited by the possibility that she brings about another turn of the circle in Westerosi history and kills a mad tyrant Targaryen, because that would have a nice symmetry that we don't often see in GoT (correct me if I'm wrong here).
Clegane Bowl was as good and dull of nihilism as I could expect. The Hound knew he wasn't likely to win, but he was determined to make sure his brother didn't. death by fire was poetic but a little lost given he also fell a few stories onto any number of hard or even pointy things. The fire was not the cause of his death, but it was the surety that killed Gregor "I'm Kind of a Zombie" Clegane, a fitting end to such a despicable man. Sandor became a good man who learned to care and overcome his fears, but had resigned himself to ultimate revenge against his brother. Goo character arc about revenge consuming even those who take a turn for the better in their lives.
Hopefully, Jon saw more than enough to either abandon or turn against Dany. He's too honorable to accept that kind of action from anyone, and I'll be severely disappointed if he sells himself whole cloth to the idea of her reign without regard to her actions.
I'm dying to see what Sansa does next episode. She's become such a powerful figure in spite of what she's lived through, and to have her fade into the background because of a dragon and a burning city would be a shame.
Tyrion is in for some real trouble, since his gambit on the bells was a moot point and Dany decided that a barbecue was in order. I'm not sure how this shakes out for him, but unless he goes far away and very fast, he released an enemy of his queen in favor of saving the life of both the prisoner and the rival queen.
Grey Worm going all in with Dany made perfect sense. He lost the only person he's ever loved, so why shouldn't he follow the queen who seeks to punish those responsible with as much pain as possible?
Idk what Brann is doing at this point, but I hope it's going to live in the woods or something. The longer he's the Three-Eyed Raven, the less interesting he becomes in his interactions with everyone else.
I'm sure there's more, but that's all that comes to mind for now.
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In case you don't know, the end is from the forthcoming books and it was also pretty obvious from the start. GRRM, the author of ASOIAF said the ending would be bittersweet.
The show just shoehorned everything together because the final two books haven't been released yet and they for some reason completely rushed through books 4 and 5, ommiting everything that had to do with characterization or worldbuilding, and also cutting a major plotline entirely.
In case you don't know, the end is from the forthcoming books and it was also pretty obvious from the start. GRRM, the author of ASOIAF said the ending would be bittersweet.
The show just shoehorned everything together because the final two books haven't been released yet and they for some reason completely rushed through books 4 and 5, ommiting everything that happened in past seven seasons and ruining characters arcs completely.
Tolkien's watch has ended. We shall never again see his like.
I have no idea how one can enjoy this episode after the end of ep4. Apparently, scorpions were nerfed hard last week, but I missed the GoT patch notes.
7 minutes for the epic battle of King's Landing. Then Danaerys kills some peasants in the worst shot angles possible.
But, taking a more holistic approach, I'm sort of glad. These whole decade-defining epics are doomed to failure because the powers that be are influenced by politics and the promise of future checks. I hope to God that GRRM releases Winds of Winter and then dies before the final book is started. It would be a wonderful lesson we all (me definitely included) need to take to heart.
I don't have it in me to type the thirty pages it would take to go through all the lost and forgotten plot elements of this season. I definitely don't have it in me to type the BOOK about how much better the books are. But, my original statement stands. I hope we never see the "real" end to this.
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Way too many haters on the last episode. Drogon and daenerys watched as their brother/child Rhaegal suffered a painful death with a scorpion arrow through the throat. Then, Cersei murders that ebony lady (I forget her name.. Messelei or something), so what was Cersei expecting??? I liked how this episode showed how brutally powerful Drogon was, he’s basically a Deathwing in arena.
The relentless massacre of thousands of innocent was tough to watch, but it’s GoT and this show is never easy to watch. Daenerys is becoming the new mad queen and will kill anyone in her way to reach the throne. Now the tables have turned and she is the tyrant.
and for those saying “oh the scorpions got nerfed” I mean really? Do you have any idea how hard it would be to hit a flying dragon with an oversized crossbow that is heavy and hard to maneuver? How fast does Drogon fly, like 70 km/hr? I’ve been hunting before and it wasn’t the easiest thing shooting a flying duck with a shotgun so I couldn’t imagine taking down a dragon
Way too many haters on the last episode. Drogon and daenerys watched as their brother/child Rhaegal suffered a painful death with a scorpion arrow through the throat. Then, Cersei murders that ebony lady (I forget her name.. Messelei or something), so what was Cersei expecting??? I liked how this episode showed how brutally powerful Drogon was, he’s basically a Deathwing in arena.
The relentless massacre of thousands of innocent was tough to watch, but it’s GoT and this show is never easy to watch. Daenerys is becoming the new mad queen and will kill anyone in her way to reach the throne. Now the tables have turned and she is the tyrant.
and for those saying “oh the scorpions got nerfed” I mean really? Do you have any idea how hard it would be to hit a flying dragon with an oversized crossbow that is heavy and hard to maneuver? How fast does Drogon fly, like 70 km/hr? I’ve been hunting before and it wasn’t the easiest thing shooting a flying duck with a shotgun so I couldn’t imagine taking down a dragon
1. "becoming the new mad queen" In scope of 1 episode, right. Helluva character development.
2. Yet it wasn't an issue to 3 out of 3 a flying dragon just last week. From a moving fucking boat.
You're right about the show not being easy to watch though. Not for the right reasons.
My opinion won't be the most popular one. But this episode has become very philosophical.
-Varys, the king of spies. Being betrayed by his only friend. Consumed by the fire of one of the many royals and leaders he helped. -The hound; a true warrior, dies like a true warrior. -Sir Jaime and Queen Cersei Lannister, the weight of being royalty was too much them. In the end they were captives by theyre own royal status. In the end they got crushed by theyre own palace. Figurally and litterly speaking. -Euron Greyjoy dies while saying he killed Jaime Lannister. But that wasn't the case. Just shows Euron Greyjoy was all talk.
Game of thrones promised us to show us the ugly face of war and death. And they delivered.
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Now that I had a night to digest that episode, I can fairly say the show just ruined itself. I had thought episode 3 was bad, and it stretched the believably of the series, but this one went right over the cliff. The show has ruined so many characters and plotlines in this last season. I feel as if the writers felt that it needed to keep up the drama of the show, and facing a plot of just "good vs evil" left going into season 8, went way overboard to manufacture drama just for the sake of drama.... and totally failed. In detail:
Dany:
Let's start with the big one. Everything about her character in season's 1-7 was that 1. She wanted the throne at all costs and 2. Would not be an evil tyrant and just burn the city down. So at the exact moment that she finally got 1 and 2 and the bells were ringing, she says F it and decides to become the exact person she spent 7 seasons not becoming. Um... OK? And to those of you who said it was being foreshadowed, sure, it was being foreshadowed in the previous two episodes. The writers manufactured this for the sake of the show.
No, sorry, this is just lazy writing. I feel that the writers felt the need to make us uncomfortable, to have a Red Wedding type moment in season 8, but totally failed to understand what made the Red Wedding great. Moments like that reinforce our feelings for our characters, make the victims loved more and the enemies hated more. It adds fuel to the fire, so when the vengeance does come (see: Arya vs the Freys), it is even more powerful and awesome. All Dany's Mad-King does is ruin all our emotions and connections to the character. And the only anger we have is not to another character in the show, but to the writers for doing this.
Seriously, after all she's been through, rape, slavery, losing her child and husband and god knows what else,.. her friend is beheaded and she has doubts about her claim, and NOW she goes all mad? It's entirely implausible. Watch the earlier seasons and ask yourself if this is the same person who was who she was all through the first 7 seasons. It's not, and "she went mad" is not something we were building up to except for what the last episode hinted at. Sorry, can't buy it, and if you can't buy this turn, the show is lost. You DON'T make the protagonist the antagonist in the second-to-last episode of a 80+ episode show with only one previous warning that this might even happen.
Sandor/Arya
They got this one right, at least the part where Sandor saves Arya from herself. It's a great character arc, Arya falling from "princess" to a servant of the God of Death, meanwhile Sandor starts out with no value for life to someone who ends up saving one. And Sandor saves Arya, and then Arya sees death for what it is in the streets. The battle between Sandor and his brother was the most obvious and least unexpected battle of the series, and that's fine. Figured Sandor would kill him with fire, but whatever. The point is, sometimes a simple character arc (good to bad to redeemed for Arya, and bad to good for Sandor) works, it's satisfying and it's ultimately what people want to see in the show, which brings us to...
Jaime:
My favorite arc in the books, and the book's most interesting character. I'm not sure how this one /should/ have ended up, but Jaime, after 7 seasons going from the ultimate bad guy to the guy who could remake himself as a good guy, decides F it, I'm a bad person all along. Again.... OK? While this is more plausible than Dany's turn, it's still straight up stupid and just bad writing. We're going to spend 7 seasons turning the worst guy into someone we can sympathize with, only for him to say "Nope, sorry, I'm evil", walk back home and just die. That's it!... cool, right? Just like Dany, basically this turn in the final season completely invalidates almost everything he did to get to this point. Why would I even rewatch this show knowing how these characters are going to end up?
Cersei:
Meh, her demise was disappointing in that she never saw the face of a Stark when she went down (although I'm glad it wasn't Arya). I'd say it was anti-climactic for the arch-villain to die when a rock fell on her head when she was running away, but then again, the entire season 8 was anti-climactic for her. She just spent most of it staring out of windows. If they wanted drama this season, they should have used, you know, the queen of drama, not manufacturing it with Dany going off the deep-end. Her death-by-rock-on-the-head kinda summarizes how the writing has gone this season: "Um... we don't really know how she should die, so let's somehow get her brother with her and just hit her on the head when they are holding each other. Ok? She wasn't too important to the series."
The Night King:
Yeah, this was episode 3, but it bears repeating here as we point out how the writers are screwing up the character arcs for these people. I said it before on this episode, but just making this guy straight evil, with no explanation and no backstory, is a failure. NO character in the book is completely evil, and NO character is all good. That's what makes the books and show great... and this character should have been explained. He lived for thousands of years, created back when the children of the forest existed to protect against mankind. We had a huge magical wall and thousands of men over thousands of years protect mankind from him. He has incredible powers. Annndddd.... he's going to attack a castle, and die when he gets stabbed in the knee.
OK, we know he was going to die, but you know... for someone who has been the arch-enemy of all of humankind for 7 seasons and thousands of years, we should have gotten at least an explanation. Maybe from...
Bran:
OK, this guy sucks, and it's GRRM's fault mainly. He wrote him to be an all-knowing God in the books, and when someone is super-powerful, they, well.... become really uninteresting. That being said, my GOD did the show not know what to do with him. He just sat around and stared, and stared, and stared. You know, you COULD have used his knowledge to explain the Night King (see above), and you know, maybe had that knowledge be a part of how he was killed. You know, instead of Arya appearing out of nowhere and stabbing him at the last second.
You also COULD have had his knowledge to add drama to the season. Maybe he knew that X and Y had to happen for things to work out, so the drama is in getting X and Y to happen. It almost seemed like that would be the case, when he forgave Jaime because he was here in the fight. Maybe Jaime had to do something in the Night King fight or the later fight for the good guys, but... nope.
Varys:
Here's the storyline for Varys for the season. "Varys finds out that Jon has a better claim to the throne than Dany, and doubts if Dany would be a good queen. He starts doing his Spider thing to try to rig it so Jon is on the throne. However, he is caught by Tyrion and betrays his friend to the queen, and is executed."
Sounds promising, eh? Here's out it all went down: "Varys is writing a note. Greyworm comes in and takes him to his execution. Tyrion apologizes".
If this was season 3, what would have happened is Varys would have talked to the Northern army and told them that Jon is the rightful king. Drama would ensue where we wonder if the Northeners would turn on the Unsullied. Just when we think we might get a civil war, Dany captures and kills Varys, striking fear into the Northeners, and Jon has to play diplomat between Northeners and Dany and succeeds. However, this act pushes Dany further into this "Mad Queen" persona, ruling by fear, and driving a rift between Jon and her.
Of course, doing it this way would then make us think Dany really will burn the city down when the time comes. But this time, the bells ring and she doesn't and defers to Jon wishes and they rule together, and HBO saves 20 million dollars from their CGI budget and uses it on another episode to actually do proper character arcs and writing.
Bronn
I only point him out in that, when you look at his only appearance this season, really looks stupid now that Jaime is dead. Whatever, he's a side character and it's not a big deal, but it just shows that the writers were more interested in drumming up "drama" for the sake of the show, instead of doing what the characters would do normally.
I'm not going to even cover Tyrion (supposedly the smartest Lannister screwing up constantly for the past 3 seasons) and Eamon (contrived scene with Jaime). All the show had to do was a simple lay-up.... give the payoffs for the characters that have been building up over 8 seasons. Don't get fancy, don't try to go for shock, and you'll have one of the best series of all time. Sometimes keeping it simple and giving us what we want works best. We know a whole bunch of people will die, that's fine, but tie up the arcs nice and neat.
They did this with Sandor, and well, that's it. They totally screwed up everyone else. The last episode doesn't even matter anymore. Hell, the whole series doesn't matter anymore. All that build up, all the years of history, is for naught.
I found it funny, when you looked down at all of Kings Landing burning, honestly, I found it a fitting picture of what just happened to the show.
Way too many haters on the last episode. Drogon and daenerys watched as their brother/child Rhaegal suffered a painful death with a scorpion arrow through the throat. Then, Cersei murders that ebony lady (I forget her name.. Messelei or something), so what was Cersei expecting??? I liked how this episode showed how brutally powerful Drogon was, he’s basically a Deathwing in arena.
The relentless massacre of thousands of innocent was tough to watch, but it’s GoT and this show is never easy to watch. Daenerys is becoming the new mad queen and will kill anyone in her way to reach the throne. Now the tables have turned and she is the tyrant.
and for those saying “oh the scorpions got nerfed” I mean really? Do you have any idea how hard it would be to hit a flying dragon with an oversized crossbow that is heavy and hard to maneuver? How fast does Drogon fly, like 70 km/hr? I’ve been hunting before and it wasn’t the easiest thing shooting a flying duck with a shotgun so I couldn’t imagine taking down a dragon
1. "becoming the new mad queen" In scope of 1 episode, right. Helluva character development.
2. Yet it wasn't an issue to 3 out of 3 a flying dragon just last week. From a moving fucking boat.
You're right about the show not being easy to watch though. Not for the right reasons.
Lol they got blindsided when they weren’t expecting it and were flying in a linear path. Apparently dragons are very intelligent creatures, so do you not think Drogon learned how to adapt to being shot at? For example like I don’t know maybe flying super low against the sea, always maneuvering, being very aggressive.
And also it wasn’t in one episode she turned. I think Daenerys started to change when she found out about Jon's true identity. Think about it man, she’s been basically getting shat on ever since she went north to help out.
I have been waiting for Dany to control her dragons probably for so long - this episode was so satisfying in the aspect of the dragon finally living up to its reputation as a force to be feared by.
Absolutely Agree, Dany getting Immune this turn and Overkill can attack again is so OP I thought I was watching Avengers EndGame
The goal of all life is death.
Meanwhile, back in Essos:
Drogon consumed souls of his brothers and gained the ability to spit hyperspeed plasma bombs. The force of fire was so immense that it blew 500m3 of brick stone to pieces. I find it very dumb, the dragon could have been the saving grace of episode 5.
Massive Balerion the Dread burned all the people in Harenhall, not bury them under the stone.
when all the CGI budget got burned for dragons so you don't have to fight for your life in some incest-riddled shithole
I tried having fun once. It was awful.
There is no Night King plot line in the books. Its been thousand pages since we last had any sight of the others
I felt equal parts fine with and bothered by this last episode.
This episode felt like the intended justification for the weak character arcs this season, as if the writers had to contrive these suddenly amnesiac people who had - up to this point - had learned so much, only for them to start making wildly rash decisions and losing their cunning in favor of a fevered charge to the end of the series.
I also found some justification for most of what happened. Big old spoilers incoming.
Cersei has been absolutely overconfident in the Red Keep and the position she'd held on the Iron Throne, so it made some sense that she would expect to watch Drogon get shot down instead of the entire Iron Fleet getting dive bombed from the sun and struggling to turn their Scorpions fast enough for a low-flying dragon to raze them at top speed. She's become comfortable with her dominance, the lack of opposition, because she hasn't faced a full attack. When Dany went full Mad King and started burning the entire city (side note: Drogon added Fus Roh Dah to his fire breathing, must have leveled up last episode), Cersei lost her focus and mental foothold, and began clinging to the concept of the Red Keep's legendary status and unconquerable.
Also, can we appreciate how the Scorpions weren't rapid-reloading like they were last episode? That made sense, and it also makes sense why the writers worked so hard to kill the second dragon; two napalm-dropping jets in that battle would have been a savage blowout, not the surprise solo blitzkrieg Dany pulled off.
Euron got a decent send-off, thought I wanted his death to be a bit more ignoble. He's an annoying pirate dumpster person, so dying with the thought that he killed Jamie felt a bit gracious for such a usurping scoundrel. Yeah, he basically said "But I tagged you back," as he bled out from Jamie spinning his sword in his gut for a good 30 seconds (a weak line at best for a dying man), but Euron is arrogant enough to enter into death thinking that's a win. I'd have liked him to have died with a hollow claim that felt more pathetic. He's just so hatable, so at least he's dead.
Jamie's character arc felt more like a circle, looping back to finish by dying alongside Cersei under the rubble of the Keep. He had gone from arrogant yet talented knight to broken yet seemingly-reformed and honorable man. We were given no indication that he was still so slavishly attached to Cersei, and not communicating that makes it seem like the writers leaned on standing facts like "Well she is carrying his baby." It doesn't take much to slip in a moment or two here and there in which we get either inference or direct dialogue that addresses any conflict Jamie has. Just give me a little something.
Arya's arc is exciting and I loved that Clegane was able to show her that following revenge to death isn't worth it, that she can do more with her life than just murdering Cersei in her crumbling castle. I'm very excited by the possibility that she brings about another turn of the circle in Westerosi history and kills a mad tyrant Targaryen, because that would have a nice symmetry that we don't often see in GoT (correct me if I'm wrong here).
Clegane Bowl was as good and dull of nihilism as I could expect. The Hound knew he wasn't likely to win, but he was determined to make sure his brother didn't. death by fire was poetic but a little lost given he also fell a few stories onto any number of hard or even pointy things. The fire was not the cause of his death, but it was the surety that killed Gregor "I'm Kind of a Zombie" Clegane, a fitting end to such a despicable man. Sandor became a good man who learned to care and overcome his fears, but had resigned himself to ultimate revenge against his brother. Goo character arc about revenge consuming even those who take a turn for the better in their lives.
Hopefully, Jon saw more than enough to either abandon or turn against Dany. He's too honorable to accept that kind of action from anyone, and I'll be severely disappointed if he sells himself whole cloth to the idea of her reign without regard to her actions.
I'm dying to see what Sansa does next episode. She's become such a powerful figure in spite of what she's lived through, and to have her fade into the background because of a dragon and a burning city would be a shame.
Tyrion is in for some real trouble, since his gambit on the bells was a moot point and Dany decided that a barbecue was in order. I'm not sure how this shakes out for him, but unless he goes far away and very fast, he released an enemy of his queen in favor of saving the life of both the prisoner and the rival queen.
Grey Worm going all in with Dany made perfect sense. He lost the only person he's ever loved, so why shouldn't he follow the queen who seeks to punish those responsible with as much pain as possible?
Idk what Brann is doing at this point, but I hope it's going to live in the woods or something. The longer he's the Three-Eyed Raven, the less interesting he becomes in his interactions with everyone else.
I'm sure there's more, but that's all that comes to mind for now.
Rage quitting: the best way to ensure your opponent knows they beat a giant baby.
In case you don't know, the end is from the forthcoming books and it was also pretty obvious from the start. GRRM, the author of ASOIAF said the ending would be bittersweet.
The show just shoehorned everything together because the final two books haven't been released yet and they for some reason completely rushed through books 4 and 5, ommiting everything that had to do with characterization or worldbuilding, and also cutting a major plotline entirely.
Ep 4 and 5 could be described as "the harsh reality of war and death sets in" for many character arcs.
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Tolkien's watch has ended. We shall never again see his like.
I have no idea how one can enjoy this episode after the end of ep4. Apparently, scorpions were nerfed hard last week, but I missed the GoT patch notes.
7 minutes for the epic battle of King's Landing. Then Danaerys kills some peasants in the worst shot angles possible.
But, taking a more holistic approach, I'm sort of glad. These whole decade-defining epics are doomed to failure because the powers that be are influenced by politics and the promise of future checks. I hope to God that GRRM releases Winds of Winter and then dies before the final book is started. It would be a wonderful lesson we all (me definitely included) need to take to heart.
I don't have it in me to type the thirty pages it would take to go through all the lost and forgotten plot elements of this season. I definitely don't have it in me to type the BOOK about how much better the books are. But, my original statement stands. I hope we never see the "real" end to this.
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Being the greatest of all time sure does make everything fall to shit at the end. Surely a burden hard to handle.
"To err is human..."
Way too many haters on the last episode. Drogon and daenerys watched as their brother/child Rhaegal suffered a painful death with a scorpion arrow through the throat. Then, Cersei murders that ebony lady (I forget her name.. Messelei or something), so what was Cersei expecting??? I liked how this episode showed how brutally powerful Drogon was, he’s basically a Deathwing in arena.
The relentless massacre of thousands of innocent was tough to watch, but it’s GoT and this show is never easy to watch. Daenerys is becoming the new mad queen and will kill anyone in her way to reach the throne. Now the tables have turned and she is the tyrant.
and for those saying “oh the scorpions got nerfed” I mean really? Do you have any idea how hard it would be to hit a flying dragon with an oversized crossbow that is heavy and hard to maneuver? How fast does Drogon fly, like 70 km/hr? I’ve been hunting before and it wasn’t the easiest thing shooting a flying duck with a shotgun so I couldn’t imagine taking down a dragon
I'm really shocked at how much negativity Ep 5 is receiving, almost to the point that I feel like we watched different episodes.
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1. "becoming the new mad queen" In scope of 1 episode, right. Helluva character development.
2. Yet it wasn't an issue to 3 out of 3 a flying dragon just last week. From a moving fucking boat.
You're right about the show not being easy to watch though. Not for the right reasons.
My opinion won't be the most popular one. But this episode has become very philosophical.
-Varys, the king of spies. Being betrayed by his only friend. Consumed by the fire of one of the many royals and leaders he helped.
-The hound; a true warrior, dies like a true warrior.
-Sir Jaime and Queen Cersei Lannister, the weight of being royalty was too much them. In the end they were captives by theyre own royal status. In the end they got crushed by theyre own palace. Figurally and litterly speaking.
-Euron Greyjoy dies while saying he killed Jaime Lannister. But that wasn't the case. Just shows Euron Greyjoy was all talk.
Game of thrones promised us to show us the ugly face of war and death. And they delivered.
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Now that I had a night to digest that episode, I can fairly say the show just ruined itself. I had thought episode 3 was bad, and it stretched the believably of the series, but this one went right over the cliff. The show has ruined so many characters and plotlines in this last season. I feel as if the writers felt that it needed to keep up the drama of the show, and facing a plot of just "good vs evil" left going into season 8, went way overboard to manufacture drama just for the sake of drama.... and totally failed. In detail:
Dany:
Let's start with the big one. Everything about her character in season's 1-7 was that 1. She wanted the throne at all costs and 2. Would not be an evil tyrant and just burn the city down. So at the exact moment that she finally got 1 and 2 and the bells were ringing, she says F it and decides to become the exact person she spent 7 seasons not becoming. Um... OK? And to those of you who said it was being foreshadowed, sure, it was being foreshadowed in the previous two episodes. The writers manufactured this for the sake of the show.
No, sorry, this is just lazy writing. I feel that the writers felt the need to make us uncomfortable, to have a Red Wedding type moment in season 8, but totally failed to understand what made the Red Wedding great. Moments like that reinforce our feelings for our characters, make the victims loved more and the enemies hated more. It adds fuel to the fire, so when the vengeance does come (see: Arya vs the Freys), it is even more powerful and awesome. All Dany's Mad-King does is ruin all our emotions and connections to the character. And the only anger we have is not to another character in the show, but to the writers for doing this.
Seriously, after all she's been through, rape, slavery, losing her child and husband and god knows what else,.. her friend is beheaded and she has doubts about her claim, and NOW she goes all mad? It's entirely implausible. Watch the earlier seasons and ask yourself if this is the same person who was who she was all through the first 7 seasons. It's not, and "she went mad" is not something we were building up to except for what the last episode hinted at. Sorry, can't buy it, and if you can't buy this turn, the show is lost. You DON'T make the protagonist the antagonist in the second-to-last episode of a 80+ episode show with only one previous warning that this might even happen.
Sandor/Arya
They got this one right, at least the part where Sandor saves Arya from herself. It's a great character arc, Arya falling from "princess" to a servant of the God of Death, meanwhile Sandor starts out with no value for life to someone who ends up saving one. And Sandor saves Arya, and then Arya sees death for what it is in the streets. The battle between Sandor and his brother was the most obvious and least unexpected battle of the series, and that's fine. Figured Sandor would kill him with fire, but whatever. The point is, sometimes a simple character arc (good to bad to redeemed for Arya, and bad to good for Sandor) works, it's satisfying and it's ultimately what people want to see in the show, which brings us to...
Jaime:
My favorite arc in the books, and the book's most interesting character. I'm not sure how this one /should/ have ended up, but Jaime, after 7 seasons going from the ultimate bad guy to the guy who could remake himself as a good guy, decides F it, I'm a bad person all along. Again.... OK? While this is more plausible than Dany's turn, it's still straight up stupid and just bad writing. We're going to spend 7 seasons turning the worst guy into someone we can sympathize with, only for him to say "Nope, sorry, I'm evil", walk back home and just die. That's it!... cool, right? Just like Dany, basically this turn in the final season completely invalidates almost everything he did to get to this point. Why would I even rewatch this show knowing how these characters are going to end up?
Cersei:
Meh, her demise was disappointing in that she never saw the face of a Stark when she went down (although I'm glad it wasn't Arya). I'd say it was anti-climactic for the arch-villain to die when a rock fell on her head when she was running away, but then again, the entire season 8 was anti-climactic for her. She just spent most of it staring out of windows. If they wanted drama this season, they should have used, you know, the queen of drama, not manufacturing it with Dany going off the deep-end. Her death-by-rock-on-the-head kinda summarizes how the writing has gone this season: "Um... we don't really know how she should die, so let's somehow get her brother with her and just hit her on the head when they are holding each other. Ok? She wasn't too important to the series."
The Night King:
Yeah, this was episode 3, but it bears repeating here as we point out how the writers are screwing up the character arcs for these people. I said it before on this episode, but just making this guy straight evil, with no explanation and no backstory, is a failure. NO character in the book is completely evil, and NO character is all good. That's what makes the books and show great... and this character should have been explained. He lived for thousands of years, created back when the children of the forest existed to protect against mankind. We had a huge magical wall and thousands of men over thousands of years protect mankind from him. He has incredible powers. Annndddd.... he's going to attack a castle, and die when he gets stabbed in the knee.
OK, we know he was going to die, but you know... for someone who has been the arch-enemy of all of humankind for 7 seasons and thousands of years, we should have gotten at least an explanation. Maybe from...
Bran:
OK, this guy sucks, and it's GRRM's fault mainly. He wrote him to be an all-knowing God in the books, and when someone is super-powerful, they, well.... become really uninteresting. That being said, my GOD did the show not know what to do with him. He just sat around and stared, and stared, and stared. You know, you COULD have used his knowledge to explain the Night King (see above), and you know, maybe had that knowledge be a part of how he was killed. You know, instead of Arya appearing out of nowhere and stabbing him at the last second.
You also COULD have had his knowledge to add drama to the season. Maybe he knew that X and Y had to happen for things to work out, so the drama is in getting X and Y to happen. It almost seemed like that would be the case, when he forgave Jaime because he was here in the fight. Maybe Jaime had to do something in the Night King fight or the later fight for the good guys, but... nope.
Varys:
Here's the storyline for Varys for the season. "Varys finds out that Jon has a better claim to the throne than Dany, and doubts if Dany would be a good queen. He starts doing his Spider thing to try to rig it so Jon is on the throne. However, he is caught by Tyrion and betrays his friend to the queen, and is executed."
Sounds promising, eh? Here's out it all went down: "Varys is writing a note. Greyworm comes in and takes him to his execution. Tyrion apologizes".
If this was season 3, what would have happened is Varys would have talked to the Northern army and told them that Jon is the rightful king. Drama would ensue where we wonder if the Northeners would turn on the Unsullied. Just when we think we might get a civil war, Dany captures and kills Varys, striking fear into the Northeners, and Jon has to play diplomat between Northeners and Dany and succeeds. However, this act pushes Dany further into this "Mad Queen" persona, ruling by fear, and driving a rift between Jon and her.
Of course, doing it this way would then make us think Dany really will burn the city down when the time comes. But this time, the bells ring and she doesn't and defers to Jon wishes and they rule together, and HBO saves 20 million dollars from their CGI budget and uses it on another episode to actually do proper character arcs and writing.
Bronn
I only point him out in that, when you look at his only appearance this season, really looks stupid now that Jaime is dead. Whatever, he's a side character and it's not a big deal, but it just shows that the writers were more interested in drumming up "drama" for the sake of the show, instead of doing what the characters would do normally.
I'm not going to even cover Tyrion (supposedly the smartest Lannister screwing up constantly for the past 3 seasons) and Eamon (contrived scene with Jaime). All the show had to do was a simple lay-up.... give the payoffs for the characters that have been building up over 8 seasons. Don't get fancy, don't try to go for shock, and you'll have one of the best series of all time. Sometimes keeping it simple and giving us what we want works best. We know a whole bunch of people will die, that's fine, but tie up the arcs nice and neat.
They did this with Sandor, and well, that's it. They totally screwed up everyone else. The last episode doesn't even matter anymore. Hell, the whole series doesn't matter anymore. All that build up, all the years of history, is for naught.
I found it funny, when you looked down at all of Kings Landing burning, honestly, I found it a fitting picture of what just happened to the show.
Lol they got blindsided when they weren’t expecting it and were flying in a linear path. Apparently dragons are very intelligent creatures, so do you not think Drogon learned how to adapt to being shot at? For example like I don’t know maybe flying super low against the sea, always maneuvering, being very aggressive.
And also it wasn’t in one episode she turned. I think Daenerys started to change when she found out about Jon's true identity. Think about it man, she’s been basically getting shat on ever since she went north to help out.
All this time he was coming to save us from horrors of episode 4, 5 and most likely 6. #TheHeroWeNeeded.