The GoT title might get stretched a little time-wise as the final season might not hit screens until 2019.
Yes there are fewer episodes, but there is talk that the final 6 episodes of that season might be 90 mins long each or more, therefore more like mini movies. Hence the delay. I haven't heard anything new in regard to that info. So RA have a bit of time yet.

Perhaps this strange and unnecessary Valyrian Steel set is to put in action a kind of stop-gap set that they can do another version of if we are left twiddling our thumbs for Season 8.

Personally I don't like sets that are after the event and purely rehashed. As much as I loved Xena, I have only kept my season sets and moved on the Quotable, Animated and all those scraping-the-bottom-of-the-barrel sets. Those sort of sets hold little interest for me now.
Like LOTR, I collected the main sets and the the Trilogy set, but update sets annoyed me, and I didn't bother with all the rehashed masterworks and the like.

I'd much prefer a "leave them wanting more" approach than "milk every penny and bore the pants off them" style.

The only way I would want more sets after the show ended would be if Rittenhouse were able to fill in the autograph gaps with the actors who didn't sign yet. But how would they know that's possible? If an actor was open to signing cards I would think he/she would've done so by now. I'm not interested in additional sets just to give us more autographs of Peter Dinklage, Kit Harrington, Maisie Williams, etc. I think there's already quite enough of those in circulation and any more (even in different designs and different color inks) will only hurt the value and desirability of all the others that came before them.

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:

That looks like a mounted cut. See how the lines disappear under the box border at the bottom and the top. Out of the box, but not over the card surface.

Could also be a mock up of the card. Can't assume anything with these images.

There is one thing we can tell with a good degree of certainty though: that is one ugly-*** card.

quote:

Originally posted by Hedgehog Witch:
The GoT title might get stretched a little time-wise as the final season might not hit screens until 2019.

Rittenhouse will likely milk the franchise with sets like "Quotable" and "Women of" like they've done with Trek and Bond to fill the gaps.

As for the show itself, Nicolai Coster-Waldau, who plays Jaime Lannister, has said in a few recent interviews that the final season starts filming in October, which is about the same time season seven started filming last year, so it will likely air next summer as opposed to being held off to 2019. The whole 2019 thing was an HBO executive basically saying that they weren't going to rush it and it would be done when it was done and the media took that out of context and reported it as the show taking an extra year to do the final season.

If the episodes are going to be longer then that may well push the airing date to 2019.
I understand the CGI work involved now takes a significant amount of time post production.
I sure hope it is 2018 though!

I'm not too sure how much I liked what they did with Season 7 Part 1 and the set up for Part 2, or Season 8 if you will.

They only have 6 episodes left and even if they are expanded, you have to figure that the bulk of it will be CGI battles. We have live dragons and one dead dragon that will battle. We have the Night King's dead army and Jon's, or whatever we are now supposed to call him, army that will battle. We have the Hound and the Mountain going at it. We have Cersi and her army, who is ready to kill whoever wins those other battles. Dany, I don't know, she might want to burn everybody up. I still have no idea what Bran is doing, but I wish someone would get rid of him.

And also the Greyjoys have to resolve their family dispute the hard way and Melissandre is going to pay for being such a firebug. I'm shocked that she made it this far.

It just seems like the end run is going to be a cage match every week until we get the last men and women standing. The reason I liked GoT was that it seemed to have real characters among all the fantasy and magical nonsense. We cared about those characters and wanted the good ones to survive and the bad ones to get what they deserved.

I still think that is going to happen the right way for most of them, but the personal touches and private conversations are going to be lost in all this quick blood letting and cast reduction. They have only 6 episodes to kill off a good portion of the remaining characters and its not going to be enough to do it all justice among the general carnage.

We really should have had a full Season 7 and a full Season 8. Anyway, I would be very surprised if it is not fully wrapped up next year. Having committed to only 6 episodes, the producers can't possibly drag it into 2019.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Raven,

It was confirmed by HBO a couple of days ago that filming for S8 will be from October 2017-August 2018, therefore making a 2019 release more likely.

I wish people would stop moaning on about only 7 episodes for S7 and only 6 for S8. It's quality over quantity, besides which, nearly all episodes were longer than normal for S7, so you haven't really been short-changed at all. In terms of time it was probably nearer 9 episodes for S7.

All S8 have been rumoured to be at least the length of the S7 finale which was 79mins, and longer. So 6 TV movies. That will take time to put together that's a LOT of scenes to film.

As for the story direction. From the very first episode and from the very first page of the very first book this story has ultimately been about the white walker threat, and about 'other worldly' influences. If we just had characters aimlessly wandering around for season after season it would get boring. The series is coming to an end, it is following GRRM's plan for the story(which I'm now doubting he'll ever finish in book form) and the end game for the TV series was always his intention...certainly the essence of it, if not with all the same characters, because some of his writing tailed off into less interesting places. Such as in the books Sansa doesn't marry Ramsay Bolton, it's an Arya Stark fake that the Lannisters sent to Winterfell. To feel better invested in Theon's rescue of that "wife", it was much stronger to replace the fake Arya with Sansa for TV.

I'm just looking forward to where the end will be and which twist they'll take and which characters will survive.

There are rumours that the Wheel of Time series of books by Robert Jordan will be made for TV. If so, and if it is done right then that might fill a GoT void. That story had 14 books, plus one prequel...and might benefit from being chopped down for time. And of course there are possibilities of spin-off series from the GoT world.

quote:

Originally posted by Hedgehog Witch:
It was confirmed by HBO a couple of days ago that filming for S8 will be from October 2017-August 2018, therefore making a 2019 release more likely.

I wish people would stop moaning on about only 7 episodes for S7 and only 6 for S8. It's quality over quantity, besides which, nearly all episodes were longer than normal for S7, so you haven't really been short-changed at all. In terms of time it was probably nearer 9 episodes for S7.

I agree with you, it should always be quality over quantity. The difference we have is that you think this is quality and I don't. I think they are rushing everything in to meet the deadline when they should have either started the wrap up process sooner, like in Season 6, or just left Season 7 and 8 at the normal 12 or 13 episodes.

Never mind that we are going to have to kill off multiple known characters in every one of those 6 remaining episodes, we are also going to have to resolve issues and relationships that have been running throughout the series at the same time, while having massive battles.

Just look how fast Dany and Jon were thrown together. That is a major relationship, between two major characters, that is at the heart of the Iron Throne succession and it is a wham, bam, thank you ma'am affair. Compare that to some of the courtships and circular dances that have been going on between lesser regular characters for 7 years.

I think, I hope, I will be happy with the eventual ending. But I also think that I am going to be unhappy about some of the short shift given to some other characters that I liked. I also think we are going to be left hanging with some of them, if they don't get killed. On the back end, there is going to be no time to tie up all the loose ends of what's going to happen to these people.

Finally, I am tired of hearing about the books and what direction the story was taking. I also don't think Martin will ever finish his novels. Why should he? The story will already have been filmed and ended. If he writes the same thing, how do we know he is not just coping someone else's ideas? If he writes something completely different, it doesn't match and we may not like it. More over, he's got all his money and fame. He can ride his writer's block into golden retirement.

What we are dealing with is not the novels, but the TV show. I will continue to feel that they should have had another full season or taken some of the unnecessary fluff out in other seasons, if they knew they could not go longer. If after cutting it down, they still have to go into 2019, that is very poor planning. Sure the fans will wait, they will have to, but they will have a right to complain about it.

You seem to be talking like GoT HAS to finish and will be cancelled if it isn't? This is HBO's biggest hit show ever, so that's the first I ever heard about it HAVING to finish and only getting so many eps left and a timeframe to finish in. It's actually running to plan.

I can't remember exactly where, but on one of the past DVD sets(possibly S6) on Behind The Scenes, D & D(GoT producer big wigs) mention that the plan was always for the amount of episodes that we are getting and certainly in terms of hours that they set out to tell the whole story. In fact we are probably getting more hours than originally thought, as they were only talking in terms of normal hour-long eps not like the length of S7 ep7. It's no big surprise to most fans that the final two seasons were going to be 13 eps, rather than one longer S7, which had been an option. But to do that there would have been an even bigger delay to get it all finished.

There is no reason for them to rush anything...after all the same network is releasing S2 of Westworld well over a year after S1, in 2018. When normally the next season would follow within 12 months, this year. HBO are in no rush, therefore the supposedly rushed timeline isn't anything to do with HBO pressure on the show. I'm sure they'd love 20 more eps of GoT as they could sell it anywhere worldwide without any effort, but we ain't getting 'em.
Ed Sheeran however, was totally unforgivable!

As to quality...eye of the beholder. The point is it still beats most of the rubbish that's churned out on TV. If you asked 100 GoT fans how they want certain story lines to be or which things to be different, you'd probably get 100 different answers and also on ratings of quality. Point is I'd still rather watch 6 'supposedly' lower quality GoT eps than any of Supergirl or The Flash, which is weak wishy washy sickly sweet trash, spread over 22 eps a season!?! I've watched two seasons of both of those and sickened myself, while hoping it might get better. lol Never again!!

We're going to have to agree to disagree on this.
As Tyrion says: "...a mind needs books as a sword needs a whetstone if it is to keep its edge. That's why I read so much Jon Snow ...Raven.

However, this does mean Rittenhouse have a bit longer to rob the cash of trading card collectors while GoT is still at a peak and not yet finished. And like a chump I'm sure I'll keep on buying at least some GoT cards in the next couple of years.
It would be nice for some more relics to make their way into card releases. There's so many dead characters, surely they can get a little left-overs?

Maybe we are just not connecting on this. I'm not saying GoT HAS to finish, the producers are saying it. They are saying only 6 more episodes, I'm not. It's their plan, I'm saying they need more time.

Oh well, as for the cards, since they split it up already, no doubt there are at least 2 more season sets. Then there will have to be a complete series recap. I would not mind it if RA went back to only one set per year, but I'm afraid their shortage of titles will lead to semi-annual sets from here out.

Many of the signers have only appeared in two styles, the blue version in particular has been underused for most. So there is that, but most of the more active characters have been well mined unless we go back to some Season 1 and Season 2 actors. There should be more relic cards and I mean from genuine costumes and props.

I do hope to keep growing my GoT card collection without getting stressed about it.

Yeah, if they do two sets a year, I'm going to be very choosy. I don't like the high end sets like this Valyrian Steel set, anyway. It would require very deep pockets to try to fully collect any part of it. I'll certainly keep interested in bits and bobs from the 'Season' sets, though.
I hope they don't go for many more gold signatures. I know a lot of people have said it, but signatures always looked blurred and 'puffy' with the type of pen they use for those.

Season 7 ran at 440 minutes, 7.33 hours.
Season 6 ran at 445 minutes, 7.41 hours.

So while the number of episodes reduced, the actual difference is very small, 5 minutes overall, and is probably comparable to other differences between seasons.

I am hoping for even longer individual episodes for season 8

The average episode length for Season 6 was about 7 or 8 minutes shorter than the average episode length for Season 7. The Season 6 finale was 13 minutes shorter than the Season 7 finale.

All 10 episodes of Season 6 ran 563 minutes.

All 7 episodes of Season 7 ran 442.

The producers have reduced the season by 3 episodes and it is not a 5 minute difference. Moreover, the final Season 8 has the normal 10 episodes reduced to 6 episodes, so even by extending the average episode length they are going to be very short.

It's all academic and I understand that the episodes have been expanded. We don't know how long the last 6 will be. However no matter how liberally you do the math right now, the running times are not going to be the same. You should have had 20 episodes in the last two seasons and they are giving you only 13 episodes. They may be longer, but not 7 episodes worth of longer.

If they do feature length episodes the rest of the way out they will make up some ground, but that is TBD. I would have liked it better to have had the same number of 20 episodes, at the same average length, if there was going to be a Season 8 anyway. Its fine if you disagree.

I expect Rittenhouse already have thousands of cards already signed and ready to go.

As for season 7, cutting down of time is very obvious, whilst it doesnt ruin the show it is very annoying.
There are so many conversations missing that it is getting silly.
Wont go into details to save spoilers but the most obvious is Missandei and Grey Worm at the dragonpit.

My bad, my source for the S6 runtime was:
https://winteriscoming.net/201...e-season-6-episodes/
Which excludes the 69 minute finale (Wikipedia).
So my take is a season of 514 minutes which is behind S7 even with the extension. About one episodes worth.

I'm happy to be further corrected on the runtime of S6 if you'd post your source?

Well I think we can all let this go, but since you ask, the really funny part is that we used the same source. I'm really lazy, so I went to the first search that came up and it is that "winteriscoming" website.

I can see where you went wrong. You added in the final Episode 10 at 69 minutes, which was missing from the list. But also missing from the list is Episode 1, clocking in at 50 minutes. The first and shortest episode is mentioned in the paragraph above the list, which is for the middle 8 episodes.

So your calculation of 514 is correct for 2 - 10 and adding in the first 50 it comes to a total of 564 minutes. I had 563 because I thought the last one was 68 minutes for some reason, but close enough.

Its the website fault for not simply completing their runtime list. Let's just blame them.

Did anybody notice, that the checklist (except autographs) is up ?
http://www.scifihobby.com/prod...cklist.cfm?SetID=339

I was told, that the print run is between 300 and 400 cases.

Doing a little maths:
- The Artifex cards ( 25 copies x 5 different = 125 ) will be very hard to pull
(every third or fourth case).

- 5 Character sketches & only one artist doing them (Debois). Does it mean that there are only 5 in total ?

Based on what I saw, see and might have been told I am estimating the production is going to be a little more, somewhere between 425-500 cases which still isn't much considering how few cards come in a case.

So RA is slowly downloading the card images to the checklist on their website as the release date is drawing near. So far the images are only of the 100 base set Metal Character Cards and the 100 Gold Metal Parallel Character Cards.

Call me crazy, but they added pictures of all the cards and the exact same numbered gold parallel card, and I see no difference what so ever. There is no color difference in the borders, the writing on the front or anything else that I can make out. The photos of the 100 regular metal cards look to be the same exact photos on the gold parallel cards.

Take a look at the checklist up now. If anyone can spot a difference in the versions, please point it out to me because I am not finding it.

I'm guessing they are using the source files for the images, and there would be no difference between the two on the source since the gold is the base metal stock, not the image.

I doubt they'd go and scan a complete set of gold cards just for the checklist.

Ed