Game of Thrones

[Lotherio]

I don't know if spoilers are needed or not after writing the 10 words/characters/whatever to hide a spoiler but doing it anyway.

***=Bran the Greenseer***

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I concur on Bran being powerful. The not joining with the weirwood roots network like in the books, he doesn't have limits now for all his potential power. I think visually the series would have had a hard time having him rooted up and still chatting with everyone connected to the massive weirwood network under Westeros, but this is one thing I wish they would have kept. I get hate for bringing in Arthurian reference, but this is Merlin's fate as well in later works, imprisoned in a forest/tree. Bran is Merlin, still has a part to play especially as concerns prophecy (he knows the song of ice and fire related to the prince that is promised), but may be written out in the last episode wrap up with too much to conclude in what little time remains.

[GangOfDolls]

***=Talk To Your Kids About Bran***

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Bran has some amount of ability to edits events in the past. His intervention in Hodor's life in the past is what enabled much of what is currently going on in the story, for good or bad. There's a number of things that happened in the past that could be changed as an intervention for what's going to happen.

Most of this could be directed at Dany but really it could be aimed at anyone as a proxy to dealing with Dany or more specifically, her remaining dragon. Without her dragon, Dany is a crackpot despot with relatively small group of loyal goons. You can bet Sansa has been working in the background all this time about spoiling Dany's claim to the throne not that Varys is dead (RIP). Dany committed mass genocide based on a claim to a throne that she doesn't have but is relying on that to not get around. Anyone who has any sense whatsoever can see that she's willing to do to them what she did to King's Landing based on the faintest wiff of skepticism of her entitlement to the Iron Throne. Take the dragon out of play, and she's just entitled white chick soon to be parted from her head.

This approach is super heavy handed, though but it's also the kind of heavy handed deus ex machina that this show is into at this point.

[SG]

***=Talk To Your Kids About Bran***

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While watching the episode I couldn't help but think Dany reminded me of a preachy vegan who suddenly stops being vegan and is suddenly all the fuck about BBQ and meat everything on social media. I thought it was a strange choice to have it done after the surrender bells, I think the episode would have been stronger if she went ape and then the bells happened, but she didn't care anymore, she's had it with Westerosi bullshit.

Cleganebowl was awesome. Cersei noping out made my day.

It was really neat to see some Stark soldiers finally doing something on screen besides dying like mooks, they really seem to have spent banked xp just to commit those war crimes.

I also loved the scorpion crews just having their smoke breaks while Dany tears through the fleet and city.

Once it's done, I'll go back to continuing to think they lost the battle of winterfel and had to retreat to king's landing for the final battle. Cersei fucks them over, and Dany burns the city down before the white walkers push everyone off of Westeros, and they have to go live in Essos or the Summer Isles.

[GangOfDolls]

@SG

***=Bells, Entitlement, and Barbecues***

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So, I actually watched the 'Inside the Episode' thing they do on On Demand because I was still wanting to understand what the fuck I've been watching for 6-7 years or so if it's all ending in shark jumps.

Apparently the bells weren't the thing that set Dany off. Partly because she never actually agreed to the bells being a thing. Tyrion and Jon keep reinforcing that if the bells rang, everyone needed to stand down from murder mode but I don't think you ever actually see her agree to that condition, that I recall. She kinda was saying the opposite which makes me think that all of this was more or less premeditated, to some degree. She just needed a push.

The thing that set Dany off was The Red Keep, according to Benihoff. It was symbolic of what had been stolen from her and her family and how all of this was supposed to be hers but instead, usurped. And about to be again. If you look at the shot, she's hearing the bells and sort of struggling to comply but keeps looking at the Keep and then gets ticked off by it just being there and goes for it.

So basically it was just good old fashioned entitlement?

[Coin]

@GangOfDolls said in Game of Thrones:

@SG

***=Bells, Entitlement, and Barbecues***

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So basically it was just good old fashioned entitlement?

***NSFW content***

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So basically the thing that drives pretty much every character with power on that show, rofl.

[Lisse24]

@GangOfDolls
And this is my problem with this season. If you have to tell me in after-episode interviews what happened, then you did a crappy job writing.

[Testament]

@Lisse24 said in Game of Thrones:

@GangOfDolls
And this is my problem with this season. If you have to tell me in after-episode interviews what happened, then you did a crappy job writing.

Also, character development means absolutely nothing.

[Three-Eyed Crow]

@Lisse24
It was the 'character development via previously-on' that made me just facepalm.

I've just resigned myself to not liking the story they're telling much at all so...all surprises in the finale are pleasant I guess.

[Testament]

Look. I'll tell you what I want for the last episode.

I just want to forget about everything that happened in the last episode and have it be nothing but Tormund and Ghost playing in the North.

That's the ending I want.

[Killer Klown]

***=Think a thought about a thunk***

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Bronn shows up in Kings Landing after everyone else moves off
Looks around, no one is there
Grabs a reasonably sound chair, climbs the highest pile of rubble and sets it down
Sits on it
'Dis mine now.'

End scene, end series.

[surreality]

Having given it much thought, I know what my ideal ending would be.

***It will never, ever happen, and yet.***

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A post-credits scene in a tavern in which Podrick is explaining to Sam and possibly Gendry whatever it was he did in the brothel over ale.

[Thenomain]

This was posted by @Tat on the Ares Discord, and I think it's a strong, good, nuanced outsider non-spoiler breakdown of this season of Game of Thrones.

https://twitter.com/dsilvermint/status/1125856091261136896?s=21

Or: D&D plots, GRRM pants.

[Warma Sheen]

@Thenomain I agree with most of that breakdown. But I also think writers sometimes fall in love with their own story and their own characters too much. I think that happened here and the transition from scripting the written material and taking control of the characters themselves hasn't been as fruitful as they hoped.

@Lisse24 talked about the after-episode interviews and I totally agree, but what I get from those is how passionate the creators/writers are about what they want for these characters they've been stewarding for years. However, what they want for the character isn't the same as what makes sense for the characters based on where they've been heading for the previous 7 years. And that's what I feel like I'm watching. What the creators want, rather than what the characters would do.

[Lotherio]

In good news at least, we can now focus on D&D's next project, the first SW trilogy following Episode 9. Will it be SW:The Redmpetion or SW:These Characters Developments Don't Add Up? Should we take bets now, the trilogy doesn't make theaters and turns into a series on Disney Plus? Will it be hard pressed on heels of Favreau's the Mandalorian series?

[Arkandel]

@Lotherio Let's not be too judgy guys. I can see how producers might be burned out after working on the same project for eight years. They probably rushed some things to wrap up this massive beast with so many characters and plotlines, but to their defense they also always expected Martin to have written the books by now, too.

We don't know what the SW project will look like. I wouldn't be cynical about it.

[Lotherio]

@Arkandel Touche, or well played/point well made. I'll watch it, I'll probably like it I admit. I also enjoyed the stand alones so far despite others not enjoying them so much. I'm sad we won't get more Han Solo in a completed trilogy like format.

[Rinel]

@Arkandel said in Game of Thrones:

@Lotherio Let's not be too judgy guys. I can see how producers might be burned out after working on the same project for eight years.

Like hell. They're bored and they want to move on. I don't judge them for that. What I judge them for is not giving the series over to people who still give a shit.

[Lotherio]

@Rinel said in Game of Thrones:

@Arkandel said in Game of Thrones:

@Lotherio Let's not be too judgy guys. I can see how producers might be burned out after working on the same project for eight years.

Like hell. They're bored and they want to move on. I don't judge them for that. What I judge them for is not giving the series over to people who still give a shit.

This is a weird dichotomy of sorts for me. HBO was willing to pay to extend the series out, its a cash cow (there is a trend to wait until the season ends, pay for HBO for one month to binge watch, then cancel subscriptions just for GoT). Its like they wanted to finish their story their way, to have the final say on their vision (sort of like Cervantes writing Don Quixote II to kill off the character cause others started making derivative works). Its a dichotomy in that it diverges in ways from GRRM's books but they made it so they have a clear finish of their telling of the story.

[Roz]

@Arkandel said in Game of Thrones:

@Lotherio Let's not be too judgy guys.

??? That is like the point of this thread.

[Steven Universe]

@Thenomain said in Game of Thrones:

This was posted by @Tat on the Ares Discord, and I think it's a strong, good, nuanced outsider non-spoiler breakdown of this season of Game of Thrones.

https://twitter.com/dsilvermint/status/1125856091261136896?s=21

Or: D&D plots, GRRM pants.

While the points are all good, I feel like that's an abuse of Twitter. I blame Trump for making it cool to post giant stories on Twitter.