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

[chroniclard]

What was so bad about it, myself and wife were like "well that wasnt too bad, dunno what everyone was moaning about".

 

[iamtheoneneo]

At least it's over now. This episode pretty much confirmed that D&D just didnt give any ***** at the end, they just wanna go do star wars.
That flashy ep 5 feels even more out of place now.


Maybe this was GR Martin's plan all along - I bet his book sales are going to be through the roof.

This season though has given us some true fantasy visuals- the dragon making way for Jon in this episode being one of the best of the entire show.

 

[banbom44]

so all the stuff that they had been building up about jon's lineage amounted to absolutely nothing also it might be a good idea to take peoples weapons off them when they visit the Queen.

 

[banbom44]

At least it's over now. This episode pretty much confirmed that D&D just didnt give any ***** at the end, they just wanna go do star wars.
That flashy ep 5 feels even more out of place now.


Maybe this was GR Martin's plan all along - I bet his book sales are going to be through the roof.

This season though has given us some true fantasy visuals- the dragon making way for Jon in this episode being one of the best of the entire show.

Yeah he's going to be Quids in people will want to forget about the TV series and read the books.

 

[easyrider]

The dialogue in the last episode was laughable...In fact it felt more like a comedy tbh...

I wish I was in the place of the people who thought it was OK

Life under your eyes on a daily basis must be Bliss

Utter Rubbish form start to finish...

 

[kindai]

This season though has given us some true fantasy visuals- the dragon making way for Jon in this episode being one of the best of the entire show.

This increases the pain, because they are *clearly* capable of so much better.

 

[Raymond Lin]

Except they didn’t? I’m annoyed with the last season or two but there were a few bits of foreshadowing of her turning.

They’ve hammered the point of her believing that the throne was unjustly stolen from her so much that she’s obsessive in her quest to get it. She’s even outright said that she will “take what’s mine with fire and blood” if needs be.

Let’s look at some of the things she’s done on her route there...

1. Watching her brother get gold poured on him
2. Burned the tarleys at the steak for not bending the knee
3. Crucifying the population of the city that shunned her (forget the name)
4. Locked women and children up in the tomb and left them to starve
5. Witnessed her best adviser and friend get beheaded
6. Let Tyrion shaft her plans on multiple occasions
7. Listen to Cersei’s smug speech on the walls of kings landing

It feels more rushed because they shoved it down your throat in the space of 2 or 3 episodes but she’s been morally declining for a long time.

I know all that, but she was the “good guy” that freed the slaves, she was the “good guy” that freed herself from the the Dothraki lords, she was the “good guy” that came over and saved everyone on on the whole land from the Night King. She was set up to be the good against the bad, for over 7 years and then the show just flipped it around and in the space of 2 scenes she was killed. She had less screen time for me to hate her to really care, I am still dumb founded how quickly that turned, not by shock, but by the shock of how badly it was written.

 

[nicktay2605]

I agree, if they really needed to find some way to make sure Dany wasn't on the throne at the end, but that she'd be fighting for the living against the NK, then they should have done the Battle of Winterfell as the finale of last season, then had Dany lose her marbles more progressively this season, and then had her killed off. The fact that she's gone from killing mostly evil people for 7 seasons to burning innocent women and children and doing a Hitler-esque speech is what made the culmination of her character arc feel so jarring.

 

[Nitefly]

So the person who becomes King is the one they gave no character development on for years and “why did you think I turn up?”

If he can see the future...and he knew he would be King...did he tell Jon about his birth just so he tells Dany? He set all this in motion so that he can be king? “Why did you think I turn up?” Malarkey.

It’s like the most boring character becomes King, it’s not like he isn’t deserved but it feels lazy as he has had no character development for so long.

It makes sense for him to be king if you just consider the lore and the story. With his dialogue and acting.... yes it was jarring. I loved almost everything about this show but the underuse / underdevelopment of Bran in the show is IMHO the one unarguable criticism. Everything else, eh, not so much.

I do wonder whether lots of the Bran scenes and dialogue just ended up on the editing room floor to favour more popular characters / better actors.

 

[Somnambulist]

I know all that, but she was the “good guy” that freed the slaves, she was the “good guy” that freed herself from the the Dothraki lords, she was the “good guy” that came over and saved everyone on on the whole land from the Night King. She was set up to be the good against the bad, for over 7 years and then the show just flipped it around and in the space of 2 scenes she was killed. She had less screen time for me to hate her to really care, I am still dumb founded how quickly that turned, not by shock, but by the shock of how badly it was written.

Aye

The most blatant proof that the show had not built in enough narrative to get Daenerys to the place she needed to be to burn King’s Landing came in the “previously on” segment before the episode. As Daenerys fumed over Missandei’s death, the show played audio warnings from past seasons of the show on the madness of Tagaryens in general and, more recently, Dany in particular. They needed this moment in order to explain and justify to the audience what was about to happen because they didn’t trust the audience to believe the story on its own. That’s a problem.

It continued within the episode. When Tyrion and Daenerys discuss the attack on the city, Daenerys agrees to stop the attack if the bells ring, signaling that King’s Landing has surrendered. The fact that she agrees to stop the fight here means that she hasn’t been slowly corrupted into thinking that murdering innocent people is necessary. Rather, she makes a split-second decision at the moment the bells ring to become a mass murderer.

Worse, the audience doesn’t get to see Dany’s face while she burns the city, and Emilia Clarke does not have the opportunity to sell the moment. Instead, they had to wait for the post-show commentary, in which the showrunners explained that Daenerys felt she had a hollow victory as she stared at the Keep. But somehow that led to her killing thousands of people? That explanation is not sufficient — and we shouldn’t even need an explanation in the first place. We should be able to divine that answer through dialogue and facial expressions in the actual show.

 

[Nitefly]

I know all that, but she was the “good guy” that freed the slaves, she was the “good guy” that freed herself from the the Dothraki lords, she was the “good guy” that came over and saved everyone on on the whole land from the Night King. She was set up to be the good against the bad, for over 7 years and then the show just flipped it around and in the space of 2 scenes she was killed. She had less screen time for me to hate her to really care, I am still dumb founded how quickly that turned, not by shock, but by the shock of how badly it was written.

Ha you think? She’s threatened fire and brimstone on everyone since the second series. She was also noticeably colder to her loyal allies since series 7 and had been intensely stewing all through the first 4 eps of series 8.

She went full on tyrant and paid the piper. It was a case of ending her then.... or more destruction.

 

[jimjamuk]

They should have played that episode out so we didnt know what was going to happen up to the 75% mark then big suprise (could have been anything) then a quick wrap up and it would have been a pretty good ending.

This one killed off Dany about 15-20 mins in and then the rest reminded me of the end of Lord of the rings - lots of boring lets make up some sign off for each character and use up half a bleeding hour to get absolutely nowhere. Once the dragon and flown off and we had one of those month jump forwards in time where the lords are all sat around I basically said theres no more story left to the other half and thats was it - a quick round up of each one. Utter rubbish

 

[JAYZ303]

I thought I would be more emotional in the last episode after watching the show for 7 years but in reality, I'm just glad it's over after the shambles of the last few seasons.

 

[ricid]

They should have played that episode out so we didnt know what was going to happen up to the 75% mark then big suprise (could have been anything) then a quick wrap up and it would have been a pretty good ending.

This one killed off Dany about 15-20 mins in and then the rest reminded me of the end of Lord of the rings - lots of boring lets make up some sign off for each character and use up half a bleeding hour to get absolutely nowhere. Once the dragon and flown off and we had one of those month jump forwards in time where the lords are all sat around I basically said theres no more story left to the other half and thats was it - a quick round up of each one. Utter rubbish

Was reading something the other day about how George RR Martin is a big tolkien fan (obvs) & how he particularly loves that bit at the end of LotR, so was kinda expecting a lot of wrapping up. At least it was only half an episode.

 

[drunkenmaster]

Aye

That's a good quote from whoever wrote it. The stupid thing is, they are saying it's because she felt it was a holo victory? The army gave up, Cersei didn't, Cersei hadn't surrendered anything, she didn't signal the bells, the soldiers in the street did. The red keep was still Cersei, her close kings guard, they weren't beaten yet. Hollow victory so she murders innocents but doesn't just go over and kill Cersei for a real victory.

Up till and including her victory speech she DIDN'T KNOW CERSEI WAS DEAD. She in fact died not knowing if Cersei was dead... it's absurd. Cersei could have escaped and taken soldiers elsewhere and still be her enemy. Tyrion went and found them alone because apparently everyone had to be 'alone' in this episode to sell her being killed without protection around her. In reality with a war and battle done the palace would have been searched top to bottom, including the crypt, making sure Cersei was dead, etc. Instead nothing, hollow victory so she killed innocent... but never cared to check if her actual enemy was dead? She also attacked the fleet that killed one of her dragons and didn't attack euron's ship first either despite him being literally the biggest direct enemy she faced having killed one of her children. His ship is huge and sticks out in every shot, she could see it for miles but it wasn't the first one she attacked, nor the red keep even before the bells ran out.

Considering as she flew around the city none of the scorpions fired on her and actually they were pretty far away from the red keep itself, if she wanted a real victory her two first targets would have been Euron then burn down the red keep with Cersei inside it.

THe writing and general plan of what goes on is dire, but their insane justifications/explanations are painful as hell. Their justifications are almost as stupid as the actual writing of the show.

 

[Raymond Lin]

Ha you think? She’s threatened fire and brimstone on everyone since the second series. She was also noticeably colder to her loyal allies since series 7 and had been intensely stewing all through the first 4 eps of series 8.

She went full on tyrant and paid the piper. It was a case of ending her then.... or more destruction.

If I see it that way then it would’ve been a better show had she won in the end, then the bad guy would win. Which is almost never and would be unexpected as most people expected her to die and she did. I didn’t expect her to live after the Bells, and the show gave me the expected. I think people liked the show because it also subverting the expected but it has lost a big part of that this year.

Plus, Bran has had no character development for a few years now...and then he “won”? It felt undeserved.

Ultimately the ending was unrewarding for me, as a viewer.

 

[v0n]

The longer you think about it the less sense it all makes on any level...

"Hey Jon, you killed my mother, i'm so angry, so angry, I'm going to passive-aggressively burn this here random furniture. Roaaar." What?!
"Hey Jon, you killed our queen, we normally just finish off hostages on the spot, on the street, but we are going to put you under arrest, so our other prisoner and his friends can decide your fate and then we are going to forget about you." What?!
"Hey Jon, you kill Khalisi, we pillage, we kill, we angry, Dorthraki memory short, two weeks, we pass you on the street, we remember nothing, bye". What?!
"Hey Jon, you killed that crazy usurper that wanted to burn the whole world, you are also our leader, the only right heir to the throne. We had a chat and we want to strip you from your honours and titles and send you to Siberia for the rest of your life." What?!
"Hey Jon, this is your family, remember that chat we had about your lineage to the throne? Well, thanks for being our King of The North, Sansa is now the Queen, Bran is The King, goodluck behind the wall honey, wear a hoodie and stay warm" What?!
"Hey Jon, this is Lord of The Light, I resurrected you for purpose, you may recall. The purpose was so you can continue to know nothing and be completely useless. Lol." What?!

Who writes these things?
We had so many crazy fan fiction scenarios in comparison, you know - Bran time travelling and sending Mad King into madness with whispers, Bran time travelling and warging into someone turned by Night King and becoming trapped in a loop of trying to kill his future self as white walker general so he can't travel back and give Night King knowledge of the future, etc, etc - and all those scenarios would work our better than what we got from these... I don't even know how to describe them - it's like primary school level of story telling there...

 

[Vexr]

After this final season, I'm thinking Breaking Bad deserves to overtake Game Of Thrones as the highest ranked TV series of all time on IMDB.



Might be time for those of us who haven't previously rated/reviewed shows on IMDB to do so, because seeing Breaking Bad at number 2, which delivered every step of the way, be ranked lower than GoT, which became dross not entirely dissimilar to junk food TV shows like what Arrow now is, is a gross injustice.

 

[~>Dg<~]

seriously you cant rank breaking bad as number 2 it aint in top 5. its not even on the level of production or anything game of thrones and i wouldnt even put that top of what ive watched. the wire is better than breaking bad for eg. imdb is a joke tbh.

 

[Somnambulist]

That's a good quote from whoever wrote it. The stupid thing is, they are saying it's because she felt it was a holo victory? The army gave up, Cersei didn't, Cersei hadn't surrendered anything, she didn't signal the bells, the soldiers in the street did. The red keep was still Cersei, her close kings guard, they weren't beaten yet. Hollow victory so she murders innocents but doesn't just go over and kill Cersei for a real victory.

Up till and including her victory speech she DIDN'T KNOW CERSEI WAS DEAD. She in fact died not knowing if Cersei was dead... it's absurd. Cersei could have escaped and taken soldiers elsewhere and still be her enemy. Tyrion went and found them alone because apparently everyone had to be 'alone' in this episode to sell her being killed without protection around her. In reality with a war and battle done the palace would have been searched top to bottom, including the crypt, making sure Cersei was dead, etc. Instead nothing, hollow victory so she killed innocent... but never cared to check if her actual enemy was dead? She also attacked the fleet that killed one of her dragons and didn't attack euron's ship first either despite him being literally the biggest direct enemy she faced having killed one of her children. His ship is huge and sticks out in every shot, she could see it for miles but it wasn't the first one she attacked, nor the red keep even before the bells ran out.

Considering as she flew around the city none of the scorpions fired on her and actually they were pretty far away from the red keep itself, if she wanted a real victory her two first targets would have been Euron then burn down the red keep with Cersei inside it.

THe writing and general plan of what goes on is dire, but their insane justifications/explanations are painful as hell. Their justifications are almost as stupid as the actual writing of the show.

That they have all these justifications/explanations is telling - if it all made narrative sense and was well written it'd explain itself and wouldn't need defending.

I thought S7 was a bit rushed but assumed that was in order to get all the pieces in place for S8 to have it all come together nicely, but it turns out it was just an omen of things to come. It might have been vaguely tolerable, but the flip of characters-drive-plot to plot-drives-characters, was so jarring to me these 6 episodes have just left me feeling nothing in particular other than some appreciation of the achievement of the production team for the visuals, cinematography etc as it's clearly raised the bar for what's possible on a 'TV' show.