Daenerys locks away her whiny opposition in the dungeon for breaking the Good Samaritan Law and the camera pans back as the jolly bunch criticizes choices of wardrobe.

Queue outtakes.....queue Green Day.

For everyone who couldn't figure out why GoT's Season 7 was cut in half to fill out the last two years as 7 and 6 episodes, instead of having two proper 10 episode seasons as was done for the previous 6 years . . .

Executive producers David Benioff and D. B. Weiss will write and produce a series of Star Wars films for Disney and it was set as far back as February 2018. So they got a bigger, better gig and wanted out faster. The extra length on the episodes was just cover.

Now everyone is saying that there was too little character development. Well that's what happens when you try to put 20 episodes into 13 because you'd rather cash in and move on to Jedis.

You're riding a dragon. You're inside the city. Why don't you head straight to the Red Keep and take out Cersei's tower, instead of zigzagging through the city sowing destruction, like you're in a TSA airport line?

Dany will be horrified with what she's done, and will get to go home across the sea taking the remaining Dothraki and Unsullied with her.

Too many ravens in the air for us to have heard the last from Bron. Maybe he's on the way to King's Landing with Sansa and Brienne, and we'll see some more Brienne tears. (But did we actually see Jaime die? The writers seem to have said so.) Probably Bron's climax will be to confront Jon and facilitate his warging into Ghost and living happily thereafter in the frozen north.

I want to see the haircut on Arya's "horse" blown back so we can see the stub of the unicorn horn. Arya's retreat was the biggest disappointment I had with Episode 5.

I will speculate more after I look to see which actors are missing from the opening credits of Episode 6. (Though they seem to give credits for people who only show up in "previously on .." at the beginning. And Ned Stark had an autograph from the Rittenhouse Season 4 set.)

I've got it! The Stark that will ascend to the Iron Throne is ... Tony! He has the ferric background, he's already defeated pseudo-Tyrion, and Sansa's going to be busy as Jean Grey.

Well that was anticlimactic. . .


SPOILERS!


Some great scenes -- great Tyrion speeches.

There were a couple of things I didn't understand -- i.e. how did the unsullied/Gray Worm know what happened to Dany? Drogon took her away and apparently didn't come back. . . That is pretty key to the plot and didn't make any sense to me.

Bummed to see Bran as king. I get it from a story perspective, but I think there was an entire season Bran didn't appear, and he had such little screen time.

I also don't understand how they could force Jon to the far North -- after all the 'True North' isn't a part of Westeros anymore, so if he goes back to Winterfell then Bran has no say over him.

I still don't understand how there are such massive armies of Unsullied and Dothraki (I thought all the Dothraki were wiped out in the battle with the night king). Not a single northern fighter appeared in those scenes. . .

Arya apparently was a red herring. After spending so much time on her last week it was unfortunate that she could have stayed in Winterfell and had the same impact over the last two episodes. I really thought her 'many faces' training was going to be a factor in season 8. They spent a lot of time on that story line, and it kind of fizzled out after avenging the red wedding.

On the plus side they left it open to make many spin offs. . .

Time zones, some people haven't seen it yet.

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:
Time zones, some people haven't seen it yet.

This is a spoiler thread, and my post has word spoilers in all caps in the 2nd line before any spoilers.

Although not your typical Hollywood formula Jon taking out Daenerys the way he did really made the most sense. Any hard tension build up in the story would have put her on the defensive.

In fact, the tension already between them should have been given some more episode time to ease down. Possibly putting the audience at odds with Jon while he quietly maneuvered closer to her.

Interesting ideas left open. Show ends with Jon, the man back from the dead riding off to the previous land of the dead.

Still a dragon out there taking its mother off to unknown places.

No real surprises with Sansa and Arya.

I didn't have too many problems with most of the resolve. Still felt it all suffered from too few episodes. They could have milked it for two more and it is a bit of a mystery as to why they didn't.

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

quote:

Originally posted by webjon:
how did the unsullied/Gray Worm know what happened to Dany? Drogon took her away and apparently didn't come back. . . That is pretty key to the plot and didn't make any sense to me.

Big time gap between the stabbing and the counsel. Pretty sure everyone knew something was up the way the dragon was carrying on and such. Also sure he was seen flying away with her body. Plus you couldn't hide the melted throne. Not to mention Jon is pretty much one that is going to admit to his deeds.

Bran makes sense as being the character running things behind the scenes. He was just as instrumental at killing the Night King as Arya was. Plus he is the curve ball that most of us wouldn't guess.

I was mostly fine with the final episode.
Yeah I figured Jon probably told everyone he killed Dany in that honest, honourable habit he has.

Bran has made me laugh for the past couple of seasons. It would seem he always knew this would happen. I still don't think he wanted it but was resigned to the fact he would be king. As the three-eyed raven he's going to have a LONG reign. He doesn't need a master of whispers either; just warg into whichever situation you need to be in.

More episodes would have fleshed everything out a bit, and may have made one or two plots a little more clever, but this is what we're given and considering the huge sprawling monster of a story, the ending was fine.

I like that the Starks have basically taken over Westeros.
I think Arya's choice was a little sad; like she's never going to settle anywhere and will always be on the move, but it does fit her character.

Yes, the finale probably could have been a whole lot better, but it could have been a whole lot worse too. I prefer to be the glass half full type, so I'll like the bits I like and not waste time on chuntering about the bits I didn't like.

quote:

Originally posted by webjon:

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:
Time zones, some people haven't seen it yet.

This is a spoiler thread, and my post has word spoilers in all caps in the 2nd line before any spoilers.

Yep, but I asked that people respect time zones in the very first post, so spoilers weren't the problem, it was too fast to comment Actually I think most places saw it all at once at different times, but the streaming crashed for some.

Doesn't matter now, it's all over every media.

So this ending, practically in it's entirety in detail, was leaked on the internet weeks ago. I was hoping it was a ruse to get us to expect the worse and anything else would look good.

Nope, the worst is what we got.

I'm not going to go on about Bran the Broken, which is an inspiring title for your leader. Truth is I hated that character and wander off on him and his scenes more than any other character. So the details of his "powers" and time travel and jumping into animals I can't recall and most of it I probably didn't see. What I got from Tyrion's speech is that he sees the past and can lead us to the future. I assume that means if his awake. Do you really think that the warrior houses of the Seven, I mean Six, Kingdoms would elect him? How long before someone pushes him off a cliff?

Dany had a terrible arc. In a matter of 2 episodes she went from a just, if violent, ruler to a world conqueror. Now even the greatest tyrants and lunatics of history ruled their countries for a little while before embarking on world domination. She barely touched the Iron Throne. She was going to have to work on her support. Her only totally loyal subject was Drogon. No, there was no work done on this change. Read Emilia Clarke's comments now, she was devastated at her character's fate.

Jon was no King Slayer or even a Queen Slayer. His great moment of glory was killing a defenseless a woman. Sure she was planning world domination, sure she probably would have killed him and the Starks, if you want to embrace her madness. In that moment she trusted him and he stab her without so much as a fight. Yes, this is your hero.

Oh but he's not a hero because he gets banished to the Watch that no longer has any purpose. If Jon did what Tyrion, Arya, Sansa and everyone else except maybe Grey Worm wanted him to do, why should he leave? Heck, why didn't they make him King? Oh yeah that mad blood, right? But it's OK because he was really sad about it and in the end at least he got his dog back and a big friend, so it's all good.

Tyrion gets to be Hand again, because he did such a great job the last time. And now his respected by all, when the only person you truly respected him enough to give him his position before was Dany. Tyrion has every reason to hate these people, but he doesn't.

Sansa is Queen of the North. She isn't bending the knee to her brother. She didn't seem to care for the idea of Bran the Broken leading her, so he gave her her own throne. Funny thing is that it doesn't appear as though any other Stark is going to live there. And she never went back with Tyrion, so drop that.

Brienne is a Knight, Arya wants to wander somewhere. Will she or won't she continue to change faces? When it came to the last two episodes that was forgotten about, despite all of the theories and prophesies. Guess we should watch that sequel. Ha!

Grey Worm, he's leading an army somewhere for something. Jon could have stayed put.

Miss anybody? Drogon's flying around with dead Dany, who knows where. If he couldn't burn Jon up, why not bite his head off? Don't say Jon's family, he just killed Drogon's mother and the best he could do was destroy the furniture.

All the other minor character left alive get land and a seat on the Council. Boy did they deserve that. And we have a book. Wow, who could have seen that coming!

This was a great series with some terrific visual images, characters and several episodes that I will continue to re-watch. But as for the finale and really the whole wrap up, once the Night King was killed, it all fell apart.

Terrible, absolutely terrible.

Anyone hear that whistling noise? Oh it was just 8 seasons of complexities going over Raven's head..despite having some of those complexities explained countless times by various people, and obviously not understood.
You're not one of those daft people that signed that whining petition, are you?

Oh well, it's over, and life apparently goes on.

quote:

Originally posted by Hedgehog Witch:
Anyone hear that whistling noise? Oh it was just 8 seasons of complexities going over Raven's head..despite having some of those complexities explained countless times by various people, and obviously not understood.
You're not one of those daft people that signed that whining petition, are you?

Oh well, it's over, and life apparently goes on.

Don't worry I take no offense, it's just me and a few million other people. No I didn't sign the petition because it won't happen, but as a show of disappointment I think the number will jump now.

But for the record, I am smart enough to understand all of the complexities, and also smart enough to know when something was done badly, which some people just can't seem to want to admit.

Just as an aside, if Bran could see the future, is it possible that he is really the big villain, who has wanted to be King all along and allowed Dany to kill everyone just so he would get nominated in the end? Why else wouldn't he have given Jon the heads up from the start?

Have you ever noticed all these prophets and time travelers give you lots of riddles, but never just tell you the information you need. Yeah maybe Bran the Broken had an agenda. That makes as much sense as all those complexities.

I have admitted to bits not done as well as others. There's a whole ton of potential that wasn't used/wasted/misdirected. But I just don't see the point of going on and on and on about it. This world and, in particular, the internet is just full of negativity about everything. And just because so many millions have an opinion it doesn't make it any more valid than a group of 3 people with a different opinion. As a proud black sheep I usually stick two fingers up to the great unwashed masses of popular opinion. I like to make my own mind up.
Yes, season 8 was disappointing compared to what it could and might have been...but it's there, done, finished. I think the whole GoT team have probably got the message.

Since when do any prophecies and riddles ever make complete sense and can not be twisted to each person's own interpretation? Most often something will happen in a slightly different way than expected and someone will twist the prophecy to fit the incident nicely...in real history too.

It could be argued that Bran knew all along he would be king, and perhaps he didn't want it, which was why he pushed to have Jon's identity made public in the hope the future could be changed and Jon would take the throne. It didn't, so he still had to go along with it. I think he sees the past and present but the future isn't completely certain, more like a handful of possible paths. There again, Bran could also be a puppet-master psycho or a slave to fate.
I don't particularly like the name "Bran the Broken", speaking as a disabled 'broken' person myself, but in a pseudo-medieval world that is the kind of name he'd be given, and proudly.
During S7 there were some interesting quantum physics discussions about Bran and Hodor's linear time loops in relation to the Night King. None of it turned out to be true in terms of what people thought would happen and that's a shame, because it was basically Bran IS the Night King...but that's just added to about a hundred other ideas, and yes, most a bit more interesting than what we got.

The other question that comes to mind with all this hysteria about how 'terrible' this season has been is, how well have other popular shows ended?
Thinking off the top of my head: Xena was a trainwreck. X files was lame(the original and the reboot), Buffy was OK but could have been better, but most of the last season was below average. Angel wasn't too bad. Some Star Trek has been good, some endings 'meh'. The ending on Lost was stupid. I can't think of one show where the ending pleased everyone and didn't have some sort of inconsistency or strange content choices.
I'm pretty certain the last season of Vikings is going to be below par too, as it really should have ended a season ago. And I think Arrow will probably be the same disappointment.

The thing that bothered me a lot about this last episode was that Brienne ought to have used sand and a blotter to dry the ink before closing the book.

quote:

Originally posted by Hedgehog Witch:
The thing that bothered me a lot about this last episode was that Brienne ought to have used sand and a blotter to dry the ink before closing the book.

I noticed that, too. While it certainly did not change my opinion on the episode as a whole, it did kind of strike me as odd.

I actually liked S8. Ultimately it showed everyone as flawed which is what we are like in real life. Very few of us are evil (Joffrey, Ramsay) most of us just try to make the right decisions and get it wrong as often as we get it right.
Dany's speech to the army was important in that it was re-affirming that she still believed in the righteousness of the mission and that only she could save the people from themselves. The end justified the means even if the means was mass murder. She had to go and only someone she would let get close to her with her guard down (literally) would be able to kill her.
Some unresolved issues and some outcomes (deaths) I would have preferred to see play out differently but overall I was pleased with the end of the journey.

quote:

Originally posted by gmmk1964:
She had to go and only someone she would let get close to her with her guard down (literally) would be able to kill her.

I agree, but my problem was that Jon and Daenerys were at odds by the end of the battle. By Daenery's dictionary Jon was guilty of treason as much as Tyrion.

A show that has shoved intricate details in our face for 8 years really needed to add a couple of extra episodes to properly build up Jon's path to her execution.

quote:

Originally posted by Hedgehog Witch:

I don't particularly like the name "Bran the Broken"

Not very "Kingly" is it?

In name I guess you could tie it to a certain humility that had been missing from the throne but in that last episode Bran kinda came over as more pompous than anything.

I don't know if it is just his acting but he wasn't very believable when he said he didn't want it.

I agree with most of what Raven said. I too yelled at Brienne to blot the ink but she didn't listen.

There's about two half-episodes worth of the Bran story that seem to have been cut. Together the pieces aren't enough to make the ending satisfying. Maybe some of the other logical flaws would have been fixed by stuff on the cutting room floor, and weren't just red herrings.

With all the time spent on Arya sailing off to the west, I could hear Merry and Pippin crying.

quote:

Originally posted by Hedgehog Witch:
During S7 there were some interesting quantum physics discussions about Bran and Hodor's linear time loops in relation to the Night King. None of it turned out to be true in terms of what people thought would happen and that's a shame, because it was basically Bran IS the Night King...but that's just added to about a hundred other ideas, and yes, most a bit more interesting than what we got.

Quantum physics aside , if you look at the finale and work you're way back through the prior episodes knowing that Bran takes the prize, I think it's possible to still make a fairly reasoned argument that Bran is really the Night King.

It was just a couple episodes back when he actually came out and said I'm not Bran Stark, I'm the Three-Eyed Raven, or something like that. Then there was all those knowing looks and odd behavior when the Night King came for him only to be ambushed by little Arya. Maybe a lot of people liked the idea that she could kill him, but seriously would she stand a chance?

Bran is the one who gets Jon's secret going right, just by passing it on to the people who will spread it the most. He says he can't be King, but he goes front and center and when Tyrion stupidly nominates him, did he look unhappy? He even made a quip about not coming all that way for nothing. Does that sound like a humble man? Or a surprised man?

The series is over and we are left with a sappy ending. No I'm not complaining, I'm just saying everyone is in their place. But what if they put evil incarnate on the throne, while they were all played for fools. We're never going to know because the sequels I've heard of will not pick up these characters al all.

I think there is a decent chance of it though and wouldn't that be a kick in the head for the fans. Evil would win and we don't even have the episodes to prove or deny it.