Game of Thrones General (Non-Book Related) Discussion Thread - Part 1

[Madam-Shogun]

I think after last week’s nuclear meltdown a sweet ending was badly warranted and God was I relieved because the way the first 30 minutes were going I was sure it would end in a dark bloodbath.

I would have actually preferred that, over the nothingness we got. It just didn't seem very GoT-ish to me.

 

[CaptainWagner]

How that Dragon Pit council didn't object to Bran being king is beyond me. So Sansa was granted independence because of nepotism, but Yara, who was granted independence from Daenarys, didn't bother to bring that up then and there? What about Dorne? You'd think the rest of the kingdoms see the North become independent and would be, "hey we want that too..." And half the people voting have no clue on Bran's powers and have no reason to believe he has powers anyway. None of these cats were even at the Battle of Winterfell to experience Bran's stories first hand, and even if they did, Bran did next to nothing to prove he's worthy of being king aside being a rolling wiki. The War of Five Kings started because the kingdoms couldn't decide who the rightful ruler was, but somehow this time everyone's just cool with a totally rigged democracy in the North's favor? Lmao give me a break.

They definitely needed at least a full episode dedicated to the counsel setting up the new status quo. But really, I don't see the lack of objection as an issue for anyone but Yara. Look at who leads the other kingdoms: Edmure Tully, Robin Arryn, Bronn, Gendry, some random newbie in Dorne and maybe Tyrion? Only Yara would have the confidence or initiative to try and secede. It would have been nice to get pushback from her, but it wouldn't make sense for the other lords to try and break off.

 

[Lencho01]

More Tumblrs of gifs and stuff...

Spoiler

 

[Broseph44]

Watching some of the scenes this season, I almost expected the screen to then go black and we hear the music from curb your enthusiasm as the credits roll.

 

[KRYPTON INC.]

It feels more thematically conclusive to have no one on the throne. To have the council become the collective governing body and the seven kingdoms become loosely independent, taking steps towards a democratic republic rather than remain in the feudal and monarchical system. They kind of have that with the council voting on the new king, but there's an implication with the ending that the wheel Dany wanted to break is going to continue, if it could ever be broken at all. Dany becomes the kind of tyrant she swore to destroy. Bran comes off as an absentee ruler. There's no indication that the cycle won't repeat itself in a few generations. You're left wondering how much has really changed.

(Zoidberg. sing songy voice) "Industrial revolution and the rise of the Proletariat..."

 

[Broseph44]

Oh wow speaking of Curb Your Enthusiasm

 

[Deck Rickard]

I loved the scene of her getting knighted. And yeah I guess she was included in the battle. From what I could see(which wasn't much) she just got smashed up against the wall and screamed into the air. Oh well. Her ending was the smallest issue I had lol

Yeah, the knighting scene might have been the best scene in the entire season. If only they just ended the show there, lol.

 

[Legendver2]

And they would have had that if D&D hadn't suddenly reduced their available time left due to trying to get it finished asap.

Blame Star Wars for that lol.

 

[Deck Rickard]

Here's the thing. When they announced the show would be ending, they had what? 14 episodes or something like that?

That's plenty of time to tell this entire story without rushing it, especially since they were allowed to make 90-minute episodes. We've seen a character go from a hero to a villain in 2 hour movie and it works, so why they couldn't figure out a way to smoothly transition Dany to what they ultimately wanted her to be, I have no idea. Well, yeah I do... lazy, poor writing.

 

[Legendver2]

Here's the thing. When they announced the show would be ending, they had what? 14 episodes or something like that?

That's plenty of time to tell this entire story without rushing it, especially since they were allowed to make 90-minute episodes. We've seen a character go from a hero to a villain in 2 hour movie and it works, so why they couldn't figure out a way to smoothly transition Dany to what they ultimately wanted her to be, I have no idea. Well, yeah I do... lazy, poor writing.

They spent most of the budget on establishing shots and too much time just lingering on a characters face. That convo between Tyrion and Jon in the cell went on for 10 minutes too long. And before even that, they spent an absurd amount of time just showing Tyrion's sideway face. Like wtf? What's the point of that? There was a ton of those throughout the season, just prolonged shots of a character's face not saying anything. That killed at least an hour they could've used for more story detail throughout the season.

 

[KillerMcQueen]

They spent most of the budget on establishing shots and too much time just lingering on a characters face. That convo between Tyrion and Jon in the cell went on for 10 minutes too long. And before even that, they spent an absurd amount of time just showing Tyrion's sideway face. Like wtf? What's the point of that? There was a ton of those throughout the season, just prolonged shots of a character's face not saying anything. That killed at least an hour they could've used for more story detail throughout the season.

I think they thought they could fool us into thinking we'd be getting more content by just telling the editors to do less work and artificially padding out the episodes with stuff they should've cut.

 

[HammerDown]

I gotta agree. There where some beautiful done shots.
The one with Daenerys and Drogon's wings is the stuff of legend.

 

[HammerDown]

 

[Brother Jack]

The cinematography, the production design, the acting. Everything about this season has been great except for the writing.

 

[Hurm...]

They spent most of the budget on establishing shots and too much time just lingering on a characters face. That convo between Tyrion and Jon in the cell went on for 10 minutes too long. And before even that, they spent an absurd amount of time just showing Tyrion's sideway face. Like wtf? What's the point of that? There was a ton of those throughout the season, just prolonged shots of a character's face not saying anything. That killed at least an hour they could've used for more story detail throughout the season.

Exactly how I felt about this whole season. Time was not used efficiently at all to tie up all the loose ends. They focussed instead on...

Tyrion arranging chairs.

 

[BatLobster]

It feels more thematically conclusive to have no one on the throne. To have the council become the collective governing body and the seven kingdoms become loosely independent, taking steps towards a democratic republic rather than remain in the feudal and monarchical system. They kind of have that with the council voting on the new king, but there's an implication with the ending that the wheel Dany wanted to break is going to continue, if it could ever be broken at all. Dany becomes the kind of tyrant she swore to destroy. Bran comes off as an absentee ruler. There's no indication that the cycle won't repeat itself in a few generations. You're left wondering how much has really changed.

I actually kind of liked the incremental step, rather than some big leap towards democracy. It felt a bit more grounded and real-world like. We make baby steps towards progress, but there's never a guarantee things can't go bad again. Something about that felt in line with the type of reality-laced fantasy that GRRM does.

Considering the brutal history of Westeros, a shift away from bloodlines seems like a step in the right direction at least. Though I suppose the ending is ambiguous enough (and Bran an ambiguous enough ruler) that your interpretation of it may depend on how optimistic or pessimistic you are.

 

[squeekness]

Damn i feel alone. None of my friends liked the ending or this season and have apparently turned on the show entirely. One saying “i will never recommend this show to anyone.” These were all people who werent even book fans they just watched and loved the show over the past several years and this killed it for them. Another good good friend is completely irate about it and he was the one who got me into the show. As someone who liked the ending and was okay with this season its depressing that theres no one to share that enthusiasm with.

I didn't hate it. The ending was fairly consistent with the other episodes this season which all felt rushed to me, but it could have been way worse. I still think overall this was still one of the better shows around overall.

 

[squeekness]

They spent most of the budget on establishing shots and too much time just lingering on a characters face. That convo between Tyrion and Jon in the cell went on for 10 minutes too long. And before even that, they spent an absurd amount of time just showing Tyrion's sideway face. Like wtf? What's the point of that? There was a ton of those throughout the season, just prolonged shots of a character's face not saying anything. That killed at least an hour they could've used for more story detail throughout the season.

Tyrion's sideway face. I was half expecting a beetle to totter by and him deciding if he should smash it like his demented cousin used to do.

 

[KRYPTON INC.]

I actually kind of liked the incremental step, rather than some big leap towards democracy. It felt a bit more grounded and real-world like. We make baby steps towards progress, but there's never a guarantee things can't go bad again. Something about that felt in line with the type of reality-laced fantasy that GRRM does.

Considering the brutal history of Westeros, a shift away from bloodlines seems like a step in the right direction at least. Though I suppose the ending is ambiguous enough (and Bran an ambiguous enough ruler) that your interpretation of it may depend on how optimistic or pessimistic you are.

What is the proper political term for what they appeared to have changed to at the end? It's not a true inherited monarchy any more, but it's not a Republic either, far from it. Is it a constitutional monarchy or some antecedent of such?

Anyone help a brother out with this?

 

[Teelie]

Having just finished watching the episode, it is as about as good as we can expect from this season. As a series finale it could have been better but definitely not as bad as I feared. No Dexter or Sopranos or How I Met Your Mother catastrophe.

Something I hadn't considered until Bran casually alluded to it was warging into Drogon. That could have been interesting and prevented a lot of deaths at Kings Landing.

The seven kingdoms becoming six was unexpected. Sansa pulling out like that I didn't know was possible without another war.

Daenerys' death was expected though I wasn't sure how. I do feel for Drogon. Poor dragon has lost two siblings and his mother in a short amount of time. Clearly he was devestated by it. I am glad he lived but that now means there is a full grown dragon out there with no restraints.

John doing it and then getting "exiled" to the Wall was fitting, especially nice to see him reunited with Ghost going off into the North.

Arya is off to do her own thing. Tyrion is cursed to be Bran's Hand. Almost everyone still living got a "good" ending in this episode. Well, good for GoT at any rate.

I do wish it had been more drawn out instead of compressed to fit into a shorter season that too quickly jumped through the arcs to get there though.

 

[Roose Bolton]

What is the proper political term for what they appeared to have changed to at the end? It's not a true inherited monarchy any more, but it's not a Republic either, far from it. Is it a constitutional monarchy or some antecedent of such?

Anyone help a brother out with this?

An elective monarchy that’s also kind of an oligarchy.

 

[FTCBIRDMAN]

Chris Stuckman has a really great review up on YouTube. Not just for this episode or season. Really for the entire show because he only started watching it a few weeks ago and hinged the whole thing. It's worth checking out

 

[BrownEyedGirl]

Would have been kind of cool if the show ended on Bran and his eyes turning blue, or if at least SOMETHING unexpected happened that showed there was more to this ending.

I'm still just shocked that the whole NK/WW saga was wrapped up and swept under the rug after episode 3...and that this 6-episode season basically had 3 main villains dispatched in the span of 3-4 episodes.

When Greyworm was having his tantrum about Jon, I was like, you would be dead if it wasn't for Jon, because he is the one that was trying to warn everyone about the White Walkers. They would have never known about dragon glass, Valeryian Steel or fire can be used, and they would have sitting ducks if the North couldn't stop them and they kept on coming.

Also, I was wondering, why is Jon being exiled while Bran is the one given a pass. Everyone knows he can see into the future and present just as much as he can see into the past, so he would have known about Dany going nuts and killing everyone, or he could have warned her that Euron was planning on ambushing her. He is obviously able to watch anything going on at anytime, he seen his fathered betrayed by Littlefinger, and Littlefinger talking to Varys about chaos is a ladder. He knew Jaime was on his way to Winterfell. He knew about Arya's list of names. So why not give Dany the heads up she is about to lose everything if she doesn't slow down. He pretty much let her go mad, and then he sat by and did nothing to warn anyone that she would be burning down the city.

 

[Lencho01]

Emilia Clarke on Game of Thrones finale's shock twist: 'I stand by Daenerys'

Daenerys Tells All!:Emilia Clarke on the final episode of “Game of Thrones,” meeting Beyoncé, and the sad fate of Daenerys Targaryen.

 

[Motown Marvel]

I love how Dany is a monster for slaughtering thousands of innocent people to sit on the throne, but it’s totally cool that Bran knew Dany was going to slaughter thousands of innocent people and just sat back quietly to let it happen so he can sit on the throne.