Poll: Winter Is Coming - HBO's A Game of Thrones [READ WARNING]

Who will rule Westeros?


  • Total voters
    471
  • Poll closed .
Soldato
Joined
26 Feb 2007
Posts
14,109
Location
Leafy Cheshire
Season 8 is underrated and overhated. I'm thoroughly entertained despite the lack of depth. The acting has been sublime. I can't wait for the finale and will watch with rapt excitement and enjoy every minute of the experience.

I don't think anybody is doubting the acting OR production which has as always been superb. I LOVED the production for The Long Night, it was gorgeous.

The issue is throwing away years of character arcs, and rushing around trying to tie things up with zero consideration for why and how. Especially knowing now that it could have been done properly.
 
Soldato
Joined
23 May 2011
Posts
10,200
HBO and GRRM wanted more episodes and more seasons. HBO wanted to pay for more seasons. D+D just wanted to gtfo so they could do Star Wars.
I'd honestly love to see their Star Wars films dropped. Sounds petty and it honestly is, but it's no less than they deserve in my opinion. Should never be trusted with a big franchise again.
 
Soldato
Joined
16 Mar 2004
Posts
13,480
Location
UK
Might actually stay up tonight as I'll most likely be up anyway (dissertation is killing me :p), definitely don't have to worry about spoilers waking up in the morning.
 
Man of Honour
Joined
17 Aug 2007
Posts
29,049
I get the distinct feeling that we wont see Bronn in the finale, I think that scene where he turns up and makes a deal with Jamie and Tyrion was his farewell scene.
 
Soldato
Joined
16 Mar 2004
Posts
13,480
Location
UK
I get the distinct feeling that we wont see Bronn in the finale, I think that scene where he turns up and makes a deal with Jamie and Tyrion was his farewell scene.

Yeah I feel like that will be the case, they've already pushed all the other side characters out the way. Jamie is dead and I'm sure everyone heard about the Mad Queen now, he's hardly going to turn up at KL asking for a castle at this point.
 
Soldato
Joined
24 Aug 2013
Posts
4,549
Location
Lincolnshire
Might actually stay up tonight as I'll most likely be up anyway (dissertation is killing me :p), definitely don't have to worry about spoilers waking up in the morning.

I’m thinking the same :p.

I’ve got work tomorrow morning anyway and I don’t usually sleep much on the first day back.

However I don’t know how much I’ll enjoy it watching it half way through the night while I’m half asleep. Not sure if I’d just rather watch it tomorrow night when I get home.
 
Associate
Joined
22 Sep 2009
Posts
1,329
I'm dropping down to the dark ages tomorrow morning!!

No youtube, facebook or reddit!

Maybe I'll just switch my phone off completely to be sure..
 
Soldato
Joined
23 May 2011
Posts
10,200
Didn't multiple actors also want to move on? To be fair.

But yeah, **** D&D.
They could still have wrapped things up nicely if they committed to two full, focused seasons instead of 13 episodes over 3 years. The problem stems from trying to conclude two huge storylines that have been growing from episode 1 in the space of 4 episodes while trying to convince us she's been mad all along.

Season 7 - Focuses on Daenerys' fight for the throne. Starts to show her slow decline into madness, at odds with Jon over where their priorities should lie (Throne or the NK) with Daenerys of the opinion that she'd rather the seven kingdoms fall than not take back the throne right now. They sack KL and take the throne from Cercei. Jon wants to give her a fair trial, Dany wants to burn her alive, her council agree with Jon sewing distrust between the new queen and her closest advisers and friends. Varys starts to have doubts about her during this season and he's informed by his birds that Jon is Rhaegars son, presumably overhearing Sam talking about it at some point. His plot to get Jon on the throne starts here, giving him a full season to scheme instead of 10 minutes of screen time between two episodes. Tyrion pleads for his brothers life (he'd still have been in KL when they took over in this timeline) but they're all having none of it. Tyrion repays the favour and frees Jaime from his cell and helps him escape. Jaime could mercy kill Cersei in the black cells to fulfil the prophecy. It's not a full redemption but he realises he'll never change as long as she's around and he doesn't want her killed by dragonfire. Tyrion is subsequently tried and killed for treason. The North continues their preparations for their fight against the dead and see Daenerys as just another queen who only cares for a chair in the south. The North (Sansa) joins Varys in his plot to get Jon on the throne.

Season 8 - Focuses on the living vs the dead. Daenerys is unwilling to commit her armies north to fight the dead, she doesn't want to risk everything after she's gotten what she's fought so hard for. Besides the dead are stuck behind The Wall...except the mark the NK has left on Bran allows him and his army to pass the wall through Castle Black's gates. Everyone falls back to KL as the army of the dead marches south bringing the fight to Daenerys who's more than a little crazy at this point. Tensions are high between the Northerners and Daenerys' people as they prepare for the battle, threatening the Northerners if she finds out they plan on betraying her. Varys' plan unravels and he's killed by Dany, his last words to Jon are that if the time comes he must do his duty for the sake of the Realm. When the battle begins it's evident they're greatly outnumbered by the undead and Daenerys is so desperate to keep her throne she has her dragons lay waste to KL, killing innocents, the dead as well as her own army in the process. Jon kills her to forge Lightbringer and faces off against the NK. If you still really want Arya to kill the NK you can have her stab him in the back with the dagger when it looks like all hope is lost for Jon.

Lots of gaps to fill in (Jon and Daenerys' relationship, satisfying character deaths and a compelling reason for Bran being the 3ER for example) and it's nowhere near perfect but I feel it makes more sense for the characters and the overall story. Being a bit predictable doesn't necessarily have to be a bad thing as long as it makes sense and remains compelling.

Season 8 doesn't even have to be 10 episodes either, 6 episodes focused solely on the fact Winter is Coming should be enough.
 

mrk

mrk

Man of Honour
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
100,310
Location
South Coast
Arya to kill Daenerys. The red priest prophecy told of her offing blue, green and brown eyes. She's already ticked two of those off that, leaving just Denny.

Also, Arya is unkillable :cool:
 
Last edited:
Soldato
Joined
14 Apr 2014
Posts
2,586
Location
East Sussex
My guesses;

Arya will fail in attempt to kill Dragon Queen and die

Jon will loose it and kill her - then finds out she was pregnant with his child

Jon or Gendry becomes king - Onion Knight bceomes hand

Tyrion survives, moves to Casterley Rick to take the family seat

No ideas what might be done with Bron, Sansa, Briene, or Bran

Quite looking forward to the final episode, just to see how many threads get wrapped up satisfactorily!
 
Soldato
Joined
19 May 2005
Posts
18,055
Location
Lancashire
That last episode was so satisfying to see Cersei's smug smile wiped off her face and turned to shock/fear after all the bad she has done throughout the series.

Its all the more horrifying to think that whole cities were sacked in the past, with no mercy show to women or children. Obviously without the dragon, but arguably being chopped up by soldiers as you cower in your own home is even worse than a quick death by explosive fire.

Its panning out similar to what I was expecting, with a showdown between Jon and Dany. I agree that Arya will probably attempt and fail to kill her, as she has already killed the Ice king, it would be too obvious for her to then kill the dragon queen as well a few eps later.

I'm quite shocked that turning into a crow was Brans story conclusion... So many eps featured his struggle to get to the end, with many people dying to protect him, for what exactly?
 
Soldato
Joined
16 Mar 2004
Posts
13,480
Location
UK
Think general consensus is that Daenerys is a goner, just a question of who (pure personal speculation, no leaks, etc). There is the whole "brown eyes, blue eyes, green eyes" prophecy still for Arya and we thought that Cersei might the one to die by her hand but alas, the bricks got her.

Not sure if the whole Lord of Light thing is still relevant, Jon was brought back from the dead for a purpose just like Beric, who did then die after his purpose was served. We don't quite know his purpose, maybe Daenerys will kill him in a showdown and then Arya finishes her off. Boom, Gendry is the king since he was strangely absent from episode 5 so clearly keeping him safe for something.

Although I'm also pretty sure Greyworm and Jon will have a big fight too and Unsullied commander probably die in some profound moment realising he became the very monster he promised to fight against. You know, the kind of cheesy nonsense scene that you now expect from the show.

Not sure where Sansa, Bran and Brienne (if we'll even see more of her?) will fit into this, maybe Bran will actually do something useful and his character wasn't a waste of time. Maybe Sansa did learn a lot from Littlefinger and deliberately revealed Jon's heritage to force a showdown so once everyone is dead and ashes settle she can sit on the throne. That would actually be very Game of Thrones, scheming in the shadows and letting others do the dirty work.

Now that my expectations for this season are rock bottom, I'm actually pretty excited to find out the end. I'll just use my imagination to plug all the gaps in the writing :D
 
Soldato
Joined
26 Jan 2006
Posts
12,328
Location
Belfast
I can't believe how much of a mess this all about because of the shows creators. HbO didn't have the rights to stop them either. I would have them blacklisted for what they have done.
 
Soldato
Joined
16 Mar 2004
Posts
13,480
Location
UK
It's Hollywood and there's no justice, they'll probably get a huge payout from Star Wars next and continue doing average work for high reward.
 
Soldato
Joined
25 Nov 2005
Posts
12,451
i5st1kq1h7z21.png
 
Man of Honour
Joined
17 Aug 2007
Posts
29,049
I personally think that Arya has already killed the green eyed person, didnt Littlefinger have green eyes in the book? So could be that shes already done the green eyes.
 
Back
Top Bottom