Game of Thrones (Spoilers)

[Chindie]

That was better than much of the rest of the series but still not great.

Spoiler

Dany slaughtering innocents I do not buy. Unless I'm forgetting something, she's been portrayed throughout the series as vengeful - she brutally responds to her enemies and those that have wronged her, but she always tries to act for the greater good. I know that they've tried to suggest she's gone mad, which isn't in and of itself bad, but for the audience to really buy that that needs to be seeded for a very long time. Instead we get some hamfisted nods in the earlier episodes of this series and then she goes from 0 to about Mach 2 in this episode in the crazy stakes.

Jaime's arc gets thrown in the bin. Again, there's nothing wrong with that, the idea that a character's arc gets ultimately resolved by them being unable to overcome a founding flaw despite their journey, that's fine. But again that takes time. You need to sprinkle nods throughout, the hint that perhaps they've not overcome their Achilles heel. Instead Jaime's arc here has been a near perfect redemption arc that the show at the end just says 'actually nah, he hasn't overcome his heart'. And then have him go out in a completely awful way. Also that fight with Euron was shite.

Speaking of Euron, it seems the ballistas got nerfed between episodes. Able to fill the sky with arrows they this episode just get destroyed. Perhaps they only work with a sneak bonus...

There's literally nothing to be said about Cersei. She has done nothing this series. She's stupidly evil, then a castle fell on her. Ok. Cool. 

Varys gets the most fast forwarded death of a major character in the show. And nobody even seems bothered that perhaps the character that as the show has developed is revealed to have the most purely 'straight' motivation gets burnt to death in a completely flat scene.

The Hound gets his fan moment which is... Ok. Laid on a little thick, the swords striking and intercutting with Arya was perhaps a little much. Also him suddenly having his hair and beard fine was laughable. He's a good guy now, he found the wonders of conditioner! But fine.

It's an ok episode. Spectacle through the roof again but it's undermined by the writing being on fast forward meaning even where you get understandable resolutions to arcs or developments it rings hollow or doesn't have the weight necessary to sell it.

The show is going out with a bit of a wet fart.

[Brumerican]

Went from Kings Landing to Kingstanding in a matter of moments.

[Straggler]

Ok, I lied, I have to comment.  Just the things that bothered me the most.

Cersei has been reduced this season to 'woman who looks out of window'.  She has been a bad ass baddy all the way through, cunning and resourceful.  She like pretty much all of the main players in this season has been reduced to a feckless fool with no plan.  In fact everyone is dumber now.  Tyrion hasn't made a smart choice for ages, Varys, the arch manipulator of men and shadowy figure is sat there sort of shrugging it off that he lost this time.  The Iron fleet has gone from mobile and elusive dragon killer to stationary target.  They know a dragon is coming and the tactic is to park up, anchors down, sails tied up and try to look as much like Pearl Harbour as possible.  These fricking boats teleport around the world like a tardis powered, Deus Ex Machina fleet of doom most of the time, just last episode they managed to catch a dragon by surprise and a couple of days later they are ALL in the harbor bobbing around like rubber ducks in a bath, which is a deliberate plan!

Scorpions kill dragons until they don't, it turns out that the tactic of flying around and burning the boats and the scorpions works just fine so long as you remember to dodge the bolts.

The Golden Company were stood outside the city walls in yet another GOT failure to understand why people built fortifications around cities.  Maybe if they had stood inside the walls someone would have noticed the fricking massive dragon fly down and blow out the gates from the inside, because up to the point the gates exploded not a single alarm was raised or warning called.  There is a bit of a rumble then boom! fire everywhere.  Not a single person on the wall, or manning the scorpions of which there are dozens of the bloody things about manages to cry out until they are burning.  Apparently they are so transfixed looking at the army in front of them no one noticed the bloody great dragon fly in.  I suppose it is possible it went to the same assassin school that Arya did, but I must have missed the episode when Drogon got his stealth training from the faceless ones.

The slow motion horse at the end, I thought I was watching a 1980s pop video for three minutes there and if Simply the Best had started playing I would not have been surprised.

[Designer1]

The only death that I thought 'Yeah that's GOT' was Qyburn's. That's how I imagined Martin would have written it. 

[hogso]

4 hours ago, ThunderPower_14 said:

While I like the idea of the mad queen, they've only left themselves an episode left to explore it which isn't enough to do it in an interesting way.

Upon reflection of a single viewing of the last episode, and I think this one warrants a rewatch more than the others this series, this is the thing which irks me the most. 

Spoiler

Dany and her dragon as the ultimate big bad, with a few dothraki and unsullied as her unwavering minions, the smouldering remains of Kings Landing their lair? With Jon as the force for good, rallying our remaining heroes to take her down? I will enjoy that greatly. 

But not in a single feature length episode. That alone for me needs a 4 hour long episodes. 

What's alao disappointing is the air of uncertainty with the story. There isn't any anymore. It's surely going to end the only way any sane person will think it will after that episode (with the person to actually do the deed the only sticking point). 

A shame. 

[Dr_Pangloss]

Most of the great HBO shows have disappointing endings, I'm not at all a fan of GoT but certainly seems to be an enormous outcry over how it is ending. The Wire had a fairly average final season, The Sopranos had an extremely unsatisfying ending (I didn't mind it but loads of fans hated it), Deadwood well, got cancelled.

[Brumerican]

12 minutes ago, Dr_Pangloss said:

 The Sopranos had an extremely unsatisfying ending (I didn't mind it but loads of fans hated it)

I loved it and it was foreshadowed heavily too.

[StefanAVFC]

Spoiler

My biggest gripe is how they handled dragons.

 

They're either a nuke and invincible or pathetically weak depending on what the story needs them to be.

 

[Brumerican]

9 minutes ago, StefanAVFC said:

  Reveal hidden contents

My biggest gripe is how they handled dragons.

 

They're either a nuke and invincible or pathetically weak depending on what the story needs them to be.

 

She made some Belichik-esque adjustments after last week.

[villa89]

7 hours ago, Chindie said:

That was better than much of the rest of the series but still not great.

  Reveal hidden contents

Dany slaughtering innocents I do not buy. Unless I'm forgetting something, she's been portrayed throughout the series as vengeful - she brutally responds to her enemies and those that have wronged her, but she always tries to act for the greater good. I know that they've tried to suggest she's gone mad, which isn't in and of itself bad, but for the audience to really buy that that needs to be seeded for a very long time. Instead we get some hamfisted nods in the earlier episodes of this series and then she goes from 0 to about Mach 2 in this episode in the crazy stakes.

Jaime's arc gets thrown in the bin. Again, there's nothing wrong with that, the idea that a character's arc gets ultimately resolved by them being unable to overcome a founding flaw despite their journey, that's fine. But again that takes time. You need to sprinkle nods throughout, the hint that perhaps they've not overcome their Achilles heel. Instead Jaime's arc here has been a near perfect redemption arc that the show at the end just says 'actually nah, he hasn't overcome his heart'. And then have him go out in a completely awful way. Also that fight with Euron was shite.

Speaking of Euron, it seems the ballistas got nerfed between episodes. Able to fill the sky with arrows they this episode just get destroyed. Perhaps they only work with a sneak bonus...

There's literally nothing to be said about Cersei. She has done nothing this series. She's stupidly evil, then a castle fell on her. Ok. Cool. 

Varys gets the most fast forwarded death of a major character in the show. And nobody even seems bothered that perhaps the character that as the show has developed is revealed to have the most purely 'straight' motivation gets burnt to death in a completely flat scene.

The Hound gets his fan moment which is... Ok. Laid on a little thick, the swords striking and intercutting with Arya was perhaps a little much. Also him suddenly having his hair and beard fine was laughable. He's a good guy now, he found the wonders of conditioner! But fine.

 but it's undermined by the writing being on fast forward 

The show is going out with a bit of a wet fart.

I thought it was a good episode and  better than I expected. As for the whole show being on fast forward that's inevitable. They cant do 10 episode seasons or have 10 series. The actors and probably everyone else just wants to wrap it up and move on. I never expected this season to be up there as one of the best but they've done okay in my book. Some good bits and some bad bits. Hopefully the last episode has some decent twists. 

 

[villa4europe]

in a show that's full of shit writing that took the sticky biscuit

while its still got steam coming off it 

Spoiler

• the speed at which varys got found out
• The way the ships were spread out across the bay in no formation what so ever all spaced apart all over the shop which leads on to - 
• Euron not being able to see because of the sun, the other ships or the people on the wall all looking from the same angle?
• Euron the crackshot from last week and this general badass who loves the heroism of killing the dragon not being the one to operate the scorpion
• the scorpions being nerfed, not only were they shit they can also apparently only fire one at a time and take 5 minutes to reload
• Drogon being super powerful all of a sudden, with fire that has such force it blows down castle walls
• the golden company setting up shop in front of castle walls
• the northern army numbers, especially the dothraki and unsullied
• the unsullied becoming blood thirsty
• dany becoming blood thirsty
• the hound having the serious talk with arya at the bottom of the red keep rather than during their treck down from winterfell
•  davos completely disappearing for 2 massive battles on the trot
• the whole euron vs jaime fight
• jaime getting 2 mortal stab wounds but being ok to walk around with cersei
• the mountains super human strength not working on the man he hates the most
• the woman arya pushed past meeting up with her again
• ayra surviving all of that
• the random bits of wildfire exploding

 

probably a fair bit more too

Edited May 13, 2019 by villa4europe

[Zatman]

Spoiler

Varys got a completely pointless betrayal and death

Cersei all the build up and that was it. Her sons and father got better endings

Cleaganebowl was crap as expected

Also what was the point of Arya in this episode, she could have all her scenes cut to make way for something interesting. dreadful episode 

[Davkaus]

I told myself not to think too hard, and to assume all characters are idiots. I really enjoyed it. 

[mikeyp102]

On 09/05/2019 at 19:54, Stevo985 said:

Is it me or at the start of the show was Arya pronounced "Ah-Ree-Yah", but now it's pronounced "Ai-Yah"

I heard something about this. Apparently at the start it was Sansa, the mom, old nun and the like who called her “Ar ee a” as it was more feminine and they wanted her to be a lady (as Sansa was portrayed). As she became more of a warrior and less lady like, it got more pronounced “Ar ya” and more masculine. Whether it’s true or not I don’t know. 

[mikeyp102]

So disappointed with this series. 

As others have said, how easy was the fleet taken down as opposed to last week. Deadeye last week and missed from even closer this week. 

Cleganebowl.. yawn.

Dany not having sympathy, completely out of character and the “mad element” not built up enough.

Pretty much what everyone has said up above.

And let’s not even get on to Greyworms “intense” stare. 

[Zatman]

5 minutes ago, mikeyp102 said:

And let’s not even get on to Greyworms “intense” stare. 

He is going for the Roy Keane look

[Brumerican]

25 minutes ago, Davkaus said:

I told myself not to think too hard, and to assume all characters are idiots. I really enjoyed it. 

That's how Jon Snow described battle planning week at Sandhurst.

[villa89]

8 minutes ago, mikeyp102 said:

And let’s not even get on to Greyworms “intense” stare. 

He's still bitter about dropping his ice cream. 

[Brumerican]

1 hour ago, villa4europe said:

in a show that's full of shit writing that took the sticky biscuit

while its still got steam coming off it 

  Reveal hidden contents

• the speed at which varys got found out
• The way the ships were spread out across the bay in no formation what so ever all spaced apart all over the shop which leads on to - 
• Euron not being able to see because of the sun, the other ships or the people on the wall all looking from the same angle?
• Euron the crackshot from last week and this general badass who loves the heroism of killing the dragon not being the one to operate the scorpion
• the scorpions being nerfed, not only were they shit they can also apparently only fire one at a time and take 5 minutes to reload
• Drogon being super powerful all of a sudden, with fire that has such force it blows down castle walls
• the golden company setting up shop in front of castle walls
• the northern army numbers, especially the dothraki and unsullied
• the unsullied becoming blood thirsty
• dany becoming blood thirsty
• the hound having the serious talk with arya at the bottom of the red keep rather than during their treck down from winterfell
•  davos completely disappearing for 2 massive battles on the trot
• the whole euron vs jaime fight
• jaime getting 2 mortal stab wounds but being ok to walk around with cersei
• the mountains super human strength not working on the man he hates the most
• the woman arya pushed past meeting up with her again
• ayra surviving all of that
• the random bits of wildfire exploding

 

probably a fair bit more too

I agree on everything but it just makes me want to watch it again.

[Davkaus]

12 minutes ago, mikeyp102 said:

 

Dany not having sympathy, completely out of character and the “mad element” not built up enough.

I don't think it was out of character at all. She's been a ruthless, bloodthirsty conqueror for seasons now. The only difference is, up until now, we were on her side.

Even when she came to Westeros, her first instinct was to burn KL to the ground. She's a maniac like her father, whose worst instincts were kept in check by her advisors. As soon as she lost faith in her advisors, she went back to her old ways.

If people bow to her will and love her, she spares them, otherwise she slaughters them. It was rushed, the whole series is, there's no doubt about that, but I don't think this was out of character for her at all.