Game of Thrones
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Anyone a fan of GOT on this board?
Since the Series Finale aired last night I figured I’d ask around if anyone watched it and had been keeping up with the last season.
I have a hard time thinking anything will ever top this show for me.
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@BeddieKU23 I haven’t watched the final season yet, but you could really tell when they got ahead of the books. The good guys started winning and the plot became predictable. I still enjoy the heck out of the series, but the later seasons become more “Hollywood happy” than the books are. Hopefully Martin finished up the series before he runs out of time. He started the series in the 90s for goodness sake!
One of my favorite tv shows also.
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I’ll be interested in your thoughts on the season once you watch it. It’s received a mix bag of reviews from a lot of people. My only issue was they shortened the seasons in 7 & 8 and it felt like they really could have gone 10 with each and wrapped it up better. I’m not complaining though, I had no issues with how things went and how they ended it. It seems like I might be in the minority there though
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SPOILER ALERT
It was a great show. I was hopeful that Season 8 would be better, and remained positive through the entirety of it. But, overall I’m very disappointed in the ending. It was a fine wrap up but it needed another full season of development I think. Sounds like we might be on the same page.
On the bright side, I believe they are turning this into a full-on Universe and creating spin-offs already.
Of course, their biggest problem was their own success. The ballooning costs of production absolutely killed them from a creative standpoint. These past two seasons It wasn’t just "write whatever you want.’ It was “write whatever you want that fits within this budget.” That to me is what really hurt them the most. It seems obvious that this caused them to avoid certain storylines for an episode just so you didn’t have to pay two or three of the actors a million dollars a piece so you could fund the CGI for the battle scene instead.
Another issue that they also ran into was the books not being finished and them having to go “off-script.” This lead to a framing issue for me. Jon and Dany were framed for 7 seasons as heroes and WAY more important than Bran. And then Bran is the one who ends up on the Throne. I need more of Bran’s story. I need to know more of his “powers”. I need to know what all he set in motion to make everything happen. I need to know why he set himself up to be king. And I’m afraid we may never get that closure.
Ultimately, the show was fantastic when all of the pieces were working together well. The writing, the editing, the shooting, the acting, etc. But logistics killed them in the end.
I’ll probably rewatch it all again soon. We’ve watched the first 7 seasons now twice. But I’d like to take it all in consecutively and binge basically all of it in a two week span to really see how I feel about the 8th season.
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Disappointed with the last 2 episodes. Thought it vacillated between predictable and illogical. I think you’re right that missing character development in season 8 hurt.
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This last season was definitely rushed. 6 episodes wasn’t enough after seeing how they wrapped up storylines. Not even extending the run times of the shows by some 20 minutes per did it make up for lost time. This season needed 10 episodes. That’s my only criticism about this whole thing. The ending wasn’t what I expected. I expected it to end chaotically or with some other open ended major cliffhanger that we’d ponder over.
I agree about Bran. I’m disappointed how they wrapped up his story. I’m disappointed how Cersei’s story ended as well. They set it up for her to have a glorious death and the execution felt empty.
Seasons 1-7 were epic. This last season was up and down. I won’t let the last season diminish how amazing this show was overall. It captivated my attention from the very beginning.
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Is it really that bad? Or are people just grieving the loss of their fav show?
Avengers Infinity War/ Endgame killed off a lot of characters and ended their franchises, but I don’t here near the backlash.
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dylans said:
Is it really that bad? Or are people just grieving the loss of their fav show?
Avengers Infinity War/ Endgame killed off a lot of characters and ended their franchises, but I don’t here near the backlash.
I don’t think its people grieving. I don’t think its as bad as some are painting it to be. I do think it falls short of overwhelming expectations overall. They had nearly two years to get this right and I’m not sure they did. It’s possible the success made it impossible to provide an ending that satisfied mostly everyone
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@BeddieKU23 They didn’t have the books to follow and it showed. The HBO writers pale in comparison to George R R Martin. Too bad, but they started changing things early on.
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Having decisions hanging on the death of massundai (sp?) seemed a critical error. Her character was flat.
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dylans said:
@BeddieKU23 They didn’t have the books to follow and it showed. The HBO writers pale in comparison to George R R Martin. Too bad, but they started changing things early on.
Correct they didn’t. I think its unfair to expect they would be able to. Most of us would probably agree that Martin has a brilliant mind that made all of this possible.
Martin did give them notes but at that point they owned how the story would end. If Martin had finished the books maybe we would have gotten a completely different last season.
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@dylans Season 8 was definitely not up to par. Which sucks because obviously that’s the last taste in everyone’s mouths.
I think Endgame and Infinitiy War didn’t see much criticism because they took the time (21 friggen movies) to get to that point. And they were all released at specific times in order to fill in gaps. The had the Universe laid out beforehand and followed the plan exactly (minus changing the Hulk’s character).
I also think Endgame is harder to criticize. It’s an action film. Game of Thrones was largely politics and VERY influenced by character development. Towards the end, they focused too much on battle scenes and not enough on content. I don’t even really remember seeing much of the war that was going on the first several seasons and it was STILL a great show. So it is definitely safe to say they sort of lost their way at the end.
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Spoiler alert - in the books Caitlyn Stark gets brought back to life. The mountain dies in the fight with the viper. Jon Snow is left gurgling in his own blood (but he’ll likely be brought back). Cersi is taken down a bit harder, but the end of the sparrows was correct (and welcomed). I’m not sure why they picked such a homely girl to be Daenerys, she’s supposed to be drop dead gorgeous with violet eyes.
It’s just different. Both are good, but imagination is better than what you can put on screen.
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@dylans I’ve heard a lot of crazy things about the first versions of the books… Like GRRM is sort of a major perv and creep haha. But a hell of a writer.
I was very curious about the Emilia Clarke casting as well. But she did become the “fan favorite” for most women. She was an idol. Which is also why I think many people were pissed. They tried making it sound sexist and a bunch of PC bullshit that just wasn’t true. Her going mad was painstakingly foreshadowed the entire series.
I do think I’ll read the books this summer. But GRRM needs to get it goiing. He’s 70, and doesn’t exactly look like the beacon of health lol. I’d bet that the books unfortunately go unfinished and we are left only with the Series ending.
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I read all the books but that was after the first five seasons of the tv show were completed. I have always separated my thoughts on the books from the show. I don’t feel you can judge either together. Two completely different beasts.
The Walking Dead received similar criticism for its direction of the show, having source material to use but picking and choosing where to deviate.
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@Kcmatt7 yeah, George needed to get some. Well worth the read though. Also no way I can understand a chick wanting the Kingslayer after reading the first book. Unredeemable.
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My wife is into it big time, so I watch with her. I personally think the show has gotten worse every season since 5 when they didnt have the books to go off of. There was too much of nothing in the final season IMO. I really dont get into show because they get repetitive after a few seasons to me. But I’ll say it’s a solid series for sure.
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@kjayhawks agree. Last few seasons were a lot of eyecandy and not much substance. Weird parallels to the OAD era?
I will say that the battle with the White Walkers was absolutely gorgeous.
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approxinfinity said:
@kjayhawks agree. Last few seasons were a lot of eyecandy and not much substance. Weird parallels to the OAD era?
I will say that the battle with the White Walkers was absolutely gorgeous.
My heart was on edge the entire episode.
The episode though was highly cinematic and goes along with the “eyecandy” comment.
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I loved the White Walker battle episode. I’m shocked how many people thought it should go on for like 3 episodes and were super unsatisfied with the ending of that particular storyline.
I’m more upset that Arya basically didn’t have another storyline afterwards and that was the climax of the character without many of us realizing it.
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Good points. My expectation after that episode was that Arya would finish killing people on her list (Cersei mainly). That had been one of her continuing arc’s in the show and it just ended basically after that major plot arc in E3. The whole sequence in E5 of her surviving and getting on the horse made it seem like her list might have gained a new target (Dany) but that never happened either… It was an odd ending to her story.
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The moral of the story is that life goes on and ends in disappointment right?
