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

Who will rule Westeros?


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Associate
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Nymeria was the only other surviving dire wolf. Arya bumped into her (want to say in season 7) on the way to Winterfell, and it looked like she was leading her own pack.

I completely missed the "that's not you" when she runs in to Nymeria until I rewatched it, and didn't really get it until the "that's not me" Gendry line. Neither of them were pets. Nice touch.
 
Soldato
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Outstanding questions:

Knight King - no real explanation
Lord of Light - no real explanation

Bran again - what the hell was he doing when he warged for an hour during the battle with the NK at Winterfell?

That's actually been a question I was hoping I'd find an answer to in later episodes, I see zero significance for him to just flake out for the duration of battle like he did. There was the briefest of scenes where we saw some crows flying over the battle but that's about it.

As for Night King he just appears to have been a very simple (and 8 season long) plot device to represent evil that wants to consume everything living, no larger meaning. Lord of Light stuff was just there to stop him and whole prophecy then died with Melisandre? Doesn't explain why Jon keeps up on living after the revival since he appears to have served his purpose but ho hey, that's season 8.
 
Soldato
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Themselves or someone else*

You could argue Bobby B's reign was pretty good for the realm on the whole and yet Varys still conspired to get someone else on the throne. You're assuming Bran's just going to be a great King and people perception of what's good for the realm differ.

Varys showed his mind could be changed. I have no reason to think he wouldn't have endorsed Bran at first (the best ruler would be someone who doesn't want it, after all), and acted accordingly if Bran inexplicably goes all Joffrey on it.

More importantly, I believe Varys would have totally been onboard with the whole "elect the ruler" plan.
 
Soldato
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Varys showed his mind could be changed. I have no reason to think he wouldn't have endorsed Bran at first (the best ruler would be someone who doesn't want it, after all), and acted accordingly if Bran inexplicably goes all Joffrey on it.

More importantly, I believe Varys would have totally been onboard with the whole "elect the ruler" plan.
I'm not talking about Varys though, I'm talking about people like him. People who's vision of what's good for the realm doesn't line up with how Bran rules the kingdoms.
 
Caporegime
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Well the great thing is though how that ended up leaves it open for a revival... actually it could almost be a leap board to significantly move some stories on.

"Previously on GoT (highlights of season 8 junk)"

Opening scene, drogon drops dead dany into some magic crucible from old valyria and sets it on fire. One now really ****** off dany emerges alive, I dunno, use your imagination.
Switch to naath with the unsullied rocking up.
Switch to arya on her boat sailing off the edge of the world, that was actually flat.
Switch to kings landing, now well under way in repairs. The iron bank rocks up.
Switch to the north, with lots of stuff going on rebuilding the wall.
Switch to north of the wall, with jon becoming a degenerate drunk. He trips over onto a shard of dragonglass which turns him into a new night king.


The great thing about a fantasy like GoT is an ending doesnt mean ****.
You'd imagine jon and tormund going off to find where the night king had been living but no one in the show seems to care about what he had been up to for how many thousands of years?
Surely there would be artifacts or something cool where the dood had been spending all that time that someone might be interested in checking out
 
Soldato
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I also wondered if in editing and various progression if they have left out large explanatory segments, or flashbacks to show the significance of warging etc, and bran motives, and the ‘you were right where you needed to be’ that was oft repeated.
 
Caporegime
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Only two possible explanations there really that can work - either he wanted it all along and was playing the game or had seen the other possibilities and they all ended worse and that outcome was the only one with a chance of a better ending.


I haven't really rewatched the middle seasons and have a meh memory of all of it but, have they actually at any time shown that Bran has better foresight than others rather than just being able to see the past. As in, just because you can see the past doesn't make you better able to make decisions. Okay if you see two people making a secret deal to betray someone you can make a decision without trusting them at all and ready for the betrayal, but just based on knowing history do you know that spending money on sewers rather than rebuilding the port say is the better option? Has he done anything that suggests that being able to see into the past would make him a good leader capable of making good decisions?

I mean, he knew who Jon's real parents were and told people, but what did that do? At worst it was part of the reason Dany went mad, if no one knew, if no one told Jon, if Sansa didn't pass that information around, if Dany didn't feel betrayed by everyone would she have done what she did? More than that, Jon didn't kill her in the end to be king himself, he killed her because she went crazy and was happy killing innocent people, he could have done that in his position having never known she was his aunt. The information was effectively useless and never needed to be known.

So if she would have gone nuts either way, he would have killed her because it was the right thing, if telling Jon and that information getting out sent her nuts, then he made a terrible terrible decision.

Also the whole Night king will come for him thing. The NK came for him, the other people didn't kill him because the NK apparently wanted to speak to or kill him personally (why, never explained) meaning he had Theon and others protect him when there was no need to protect him. Those who turned up in the courtyard were never going to kill him in the first place. Theon and his men died needlessly.

Though that is why they HAD to have the NK and Bran talk, needing information from Bran is the only viable reason that the what, hundreds of undead who could kill Bran in an instant didn't. If the NK needed him to find him a specific artefact, some secret tomb or something so he turns up, they kill his protectors but not him, NK turns up to interrogate him, Arya saves him before he finishes him off.
 
Man of Honour
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I haven't really rewatched the middle seasons and have a meh memory of all of it but, have they actually at any time shown that Bran has better foresight than others rather than just being able to see the past. As in, just because you can see the past doesn't make you better able to make decisions. Okay if you see two people making a secret deal to betray someone you can make a decision without trusting them at all and ready for the betrayal, but just based on knowing history do you know that spending money on sewers rather than rebuilding the port say is the better option? Has he done anything that suggests that being able to see into the past would make him a good leader capable of making good decisions?

I mean, he knew who Jon's real parents were and told people, but what did that do? At worst it was part of the reason Dany went mad, if no one knew, if no one told Jon, if Sansa didn't pass that information around, if Dany didn't feel betrayed by everyone would she have done what she did? More than that, Jon didn't kill her in the end to be king himself, he killed her because she went crazy and was happy killing innocent people, he could have done that in his position having never known she was his aunt. The information was effectively useless and never needed to be known.

So if she would have gone nuts either way, he would have killed her because it was the right thing, if telling Jon and that information getting out sent her nuts, then he made a terrible terrible decision.

Also the whole Night king will come for him thing. The NK came for him, the other people didn't kill him because the NK apparently wanted to speak to or kill him personally (why, never explained) meaning he had Theon and others protect him when there was no need to protect him. Those who turned up in the courtyard were never going to kill him in the first place. Theon and his men died needlessly.

Though that is why they HAD to have the NK and Bran talk, needing information from Bran is the only viable reason that the what, hundreds of undead who could kill Bran in an instant didn't. If the NK needed him to find him a specific artefact, some secret tomb or something so he turns up, they kill his protectors but not him, NK turns up to interrogate him, Arya saves him before he finishes him off.

It is never really covered very well Greenseers as in the Three Eyed Raven Bran encounters and later Bran becomes I believe supposedly have prophetic sight but it is all very vague at other times it is hinted his ability to see the future is kind of similar level of Varys.

That is one of the things I find so disappointing about season 8 they never really cover a lot of what you are talking about (or it just doesn't make sense like Theon needlessly dying).
 
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- I thought there was going to be more given to the fact Jon was re-born with the power of the lord of light, could have seen this through with him dying after the stabbing as he had now "served" his purpose. Sending him off to the nights watched just seemed a bit pointless, although could setup another story arch if they decide to do a series with him and Tormunds adventures.

- It seems that all of Ayras training didn't really come to much in the end, and her sailing off as an explorer was a bit left field but suppose she has been on quite a journey leading up to the final couple of series. Again, another opportunity for a separate story arch of her adventures etc

- Although overall don't have too much problem with the way the series finished (had to do it some how in the end, with story as rich as GOT was going to be difficult for the writers to satisfy everyone). I think it just needed a couple more episodes to give a bit more depth into Brans abilities and his part in the timeline as was largely absent. They sort of covered the choice of him being king by him being the keeper of the stories of the past as he can re-visit them but is that really the quality of the king? Also more time to be given to show Daenerys turning into the mad queen, although the evidence was there, it did seem there was a fairly large jump when she destroyed kings landing)

- Was nice to see the Starks persevering as they were one of the hardest hit through the series and in the end they end up ruling the 7 kingdoms, having their own independent state of the north, potentially expanding their reach with Ayra heading off on sea etc..

- Given the timescale that was given by HBO to finish it off, on reflection there were some pretty good scenes in the final series and some spectacular set pieces, remember this is a TV show in the end, they just delivered about 4 films worth of content in terms of runtime. Just let down a bit by how much needed to be crammed in to try and get some sort of ending. With a series as popular as GOT very difficult to get a fully satisfactory part, so many far reaching stories to try and tie up. Remember that for most of the series leading up people were complaining that there wasn't enough action, we weren't seeing the Dragons in full flow often enough, story not moving quick enough.
 
Man of Honour
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- Given the timescale that was given by HBO to finish it off, on reflection there were some pretty good scenes in the final series and some spectacular set pieces, remember this is a TV show in the end, they just delivered about 4 films worth of content in terms of runtime. Just let down a bit by how much needed to be crammed in to try and get some sort of ending. With a series as popular as GOT very difficult to get a fully satisfactory part, so many far reaching stories to try and tie up. Remember that for most of the series leading up people were complaining that there wasn't enough action, we weren't seeing the Dragons in full flow often enough, story not moving quick enough.

Yeah true enough the production level is as good as any movie and better than most and with a far larger scale in terms of characters and settings than most movies and they basically produced the equivalent of 4 blockbuster movies in like half the time it normally takes to make one albeit having an advantage in terms of years of work before hand to build from.

Still doesn't change that it is quite disappointing in terms of the story lines that didn't really come to much, etc.
 
Caporegime
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- Was nice to see the Starks persevering as they were one of the hardest hit through the series and in the end they end up ruling the 7 kingdoms, having their own independent state of the north, potentially expanding their reach with Ayra heading off on sea etc..

- Given the timescale that was given by HBO to finish it off, on reflection there were some pretty good scenes in the final series and some spectacular set pieces, remember this is a TV show in the end, they just delivered about 4 films worth of content in terms of runtime. Just let down a bit by how much needed to be crammed in to try and get some sort of ending. With a series as popular as GOT very difficult to get a fully satisfactory part, so many far reaching stories to try and tie up. Remember that for most of the series leading up people were complaining that there wasn't enough action, we weren't seeing the Dragons in full flow often enough, story not moving quick enough.

On the first point, Bran is in charge of a completely broken city, the north just broke away with no consequences, as they aren't now contributing to or profiting from Kings Landing or the 6 kingdoms, they have no reason to keep their army there. Basically Bran has no army, no power, no money, the city is trashed there are almost no people there but he has a council of mostly failed idiots who he basically left alone immediately to 'run' his kingdom while he apparently went off to track down Drogan who is likely on a different continent (which may or may not matter).

Every other kingdom will break away, basically the ending was a joke because the actual situation that was left wasn't sustainable or worthwhile, which makes that ending pointless.

On the second part, HBO said D&D could have literally as long as they wanted. They wanted a full series run, they just got almost 20mil actual viewers for the final episode, it had huge numbers, it was profitable and they were happy to go years longer.

D&D insisted, against HBO's wishes, against GRRMs wishes that instead of going to at least 10 full series, they wanted to finish it off with two more series and 13 episodes. Basically they had offers on the table, huge offers because frankly up to season 6/7, it was great. One of those was doing KOTOR for disney with stupid stupid money on the table.

They trashed the series, finished it early and condensed the story because they had other even more profitable work to go after. HBO said they wanted 10+ series and GRRM said he always saw this being 12-14 seasons.

Honestly the series was at times too slow, some of the conversations and plot points pretty much weren't going anywhere and it could do with speeding up.. a little, not cram 5-6 seasons of content into 2 shortened seasons which also throws so much of the previous ideas to serve a complete new end game scenario and throw out most of the actually good political scheming stuff that was mostly well written and made sense that came before.

Also just to mention, films don't take that long to shoot most often. THe biggest time waste is, building sets, planning, getting a crew together takes a while and hiring directors, actors, organising shooting schedules, working around filming on site, etc. A film might take 3-5 years to finish, but the shooting is only actually 3-6 months probably after 3 years, then post production then it gets released.

A tv series is a hugely different beast. Firstly you need to do all that, but mostly once. Most series like this are shot in a few locations that are generally bought/rented on the long term, the actors are long term, casting, preperation, sets, locations, etc, it's all somewhat of a one off thing at the start. Then it's way way easier.

If none of the actors have other work on you could pretty much make a 2nd and 3rd film with only a few months extra shooting per film. This is actually why the Hobbit, Lotr and lots of other trilogies end up being shot together because once everything is actually setup which takes an age, filming is relatively easy. Basically it doesn't take massively longer to film way more content than you get in a film at similar quality, the biggest pain in film making is planning and logistics, not the actual filming.

Also iirc, they film in several locations, have several filming crews and film a lot of stuff concurrently.
 
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Soldato
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I thought this season could have been a bit longer and better done, with the money they spent they seam to have rushed a lot, it just felt like they could not be bothered anymore.


Some disappointments - the war with the white walkers end in 2 eps after building up for a few seasons.




Kill disappointments


Cersei - I was hoping cersei was killed in a gratifying way, considering how much of a b____ she been for 8 season, I did not want to see her get killed with a rock, I would have been nice if she got killed the same way ned did with Jamie watching.

Sansa - One of the biggest appointment's, I've been waiting for 8 seasons for someone to kill sansa but it never happened, I cant stand her she seams be a manipulator like cersei (they could be the same person) just wanting a crown, she even manipulated a few things in the end, even getting rid of Jon so she could become the queen.

Grey worm - Oh and I was hoping jon would kill grey worm, at the end when he said jon killed the queen so he cant be freed, I was hoping someone said and you killed 1000s innocent people.
 
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Sansa - One of the biggest appointment's, I've been waiting for 8 seasons for someone to kill sansa but it never happened, I cant stand her she seams be a manipulator like cersei (they could be the same person) just wanting a crown, she even manipulated a few things in the end, even getting rid of Jon so she could become the queen.

She is quite hot now she is Queen O Teh North though.
 
Soldato
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Personally, I think it's a little funny and perhaps shows how hard it is to do a good ending, when people keep posting 'It should have ended like this...' and give a really bad idea, that would have been terrible in my opinion.
 
Caporegime
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Personally, I think it's a little funny and perhaps shows how hard it is to do a good ending, when people keep posting 'It should have ended like this...' and give a really bad idea, that would have been terrible in my opinion.
The point that only the slow seem to fail to grasp is that it wasn't even a bad ending... it was a terrible ending. Awfully rushed and awfully written.

This should now be completely obvious to anyone with even a modicum of critical thinking ability.
 
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It is a real shame that there was not a scene with the iron banker coming to congratulate Danny on her victory to be then dusted bt Drogon, would have been good to see that smug xxxxxxx get his just reward
 
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Personally, I think it's a little funny and perhaps shows how hard it is to do a good ending, when people keep posting 'It should have ended like this...' and give a really bad idea, that would have been terrible in my opinion.

With the budget and profile GoT had by the end, they could & should have had the best writers in the world working on it. The fact random forum idiots like myself are coming up with even worse alternate endings doesn't validate the absolute failure of a finale we just endured.
 
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