Game of Thrones Season 8

runbikeswim

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on the bright side of not following through on the "little brother" theory, and other theories/plot lines, IF Martin finishes the books, hahahaha! then, I'll have something to look forward to reading.
 

ThatllDoCy

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Clegane bowl was the only decent ending for any of the deaths last night. They others felt really rushed and half assed. I also found it odd that as soon as she started burning everyone, we didn't see Dany the rest of the episode. That was intentional and will play in to next episode.

I still think Cersei's convo with Ned in season 1 is the most telling of the entire series. "When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die, there is no middle ground". I take part of that as there are no good guys or bad guys, just winners and losers. I think in Dany, many saw a way that everyone could win, that things could be different. In the end, at best, she's the lesser of two evils.

I liked Cleganebowl, too. When he didn't die with the knife through his head, that was pretty amazing.

I like to think that the story is not as nihilistic as your second paragraph, but it could be.
 
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Trice

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I took that completely differently - maybe incorrectly - as a conversation that Arya's work wasn't done because Cersei wasn't the threat anymore - Dany is now.

Having re-watched that scene, I'm not picking up that the Hound is pointing Arya toward Dany. Not that Arya couldn't intuitively figure that out for herself - as she surely did once she saw the unnecessary devastation outside the Red Keep.

I thought that felt more like a "you don't have to be like me" type of moment. Which seems a little last-minute given all the time they've spent together and the fact that Arya has already talked about the potential of dying in service of her goal of killing Cersei.
 

ThatllDoCy

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Having re-watched that scene, I'm not picking up that the Hound is pointing Arya toward Dany. Not that Arya couldn't intuitively figure that out for herself - as she surely did once she saw the unnecessary devastation outside the Red Keep.

I thought that felt more like a "you don't have to be like me" type of moment. Which seems a little last-minute given all the time they've spent together and the fact that Arya has already talked about the potential of dying in service of her goal of killing Cersei.

I could see Arya poisoning Dany, and riding to Gendry at Storm's End. Choosing life over death.
 
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brianhos

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Did it seem odd to anyone else that previously the ballistas were such formidable, well operated weapons and now tonight they can hardly get a shot off? I know initially there was the element of surprise but with the sheer numbers of them they should still have been somewhat effective.

Yeah, hitting a dragon with that on the first shot was pretty unbelievable. And then missing hundreds of shots was equally as bad. Just lazy.
 

Pitt_Clone

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Yes, Daenerys recently lost two of her dragons in Rhaegal and Viserion, two of her closest friends in Jorah and Missandei, and Jon’s affections. All of that adds fuel to her rage, but it’s not clear what sparks it.
People seem to be talking a lot about the things in the above quote, but to me no one is talking about the biggest thing that could have caused her to break.

For just about the entire series in her mind she has been the unquestioned heir to the throne. She has been completely driven by that. Finding out Jon is the true heir and that it could be taken away from her in an instant has to be weighing on her too. Jon can pledge loyalty all he wants, but if enough other people know and want him as ruler, there's not much she can do to stop it short of killing a lot of people. I don't know why this is never brought up in anything I'm reading about this season.
 

cycloneG

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People seem to be talking a lot about the things in the above quote, but to me no one is talking about the biggest thing that could have caused her to break.

For just about the entire series in her mind she has been the unquestioned heir to the throne. She has been completely driven by that. Finding out Jon is the true heir and that it could be taken away from her in an instant has to be weighing on her too. Jon can pledge loyalty all he wants, but if enough other people know and want him as ruler, there's not much she can do to stop it short of killing a lot of people. I don't know why this is never brought up in anything I'm reading about this season.

People just want to be angry. They can't accept the fact that a character on a show they watch might have flaws.
 

bawbie

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Having re-watched that scene, I'm not picking up that the Hound is pointing Arya toward Dany. Not that Arya couldn't intuitively figure that out for herself - as she surely did once she saw the unnecessary devastation outside the Red Keep.

I thought that felt more like a "you don't have to be like me" type of moment. Which seems a little last-minute given all the time they've spent together and the fact that Arya has already talked about the potential of dying in service of her goal of killing Cersei.

I didn't mean that he pointed her at Dany exactly, just that she may not have taken it as sentimentally as you interpreted it.

Also - why are people sure that Cersei and Jamie are dead? The didn't show their dead bodies - so it's probably not good to assume they're dead yet.
 

moores2

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I think Dany's scene with John is under rated in this episode. Dany realizes that the people of Westeros will never love her like they love John. "Fear it is then". She had to burn King's Landing to earn the "fear" factor that she needs to actually rule the 7 kingdoms.
 

bawbie

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People just want to be angry. They can't accept the fact that a character on a show they watch might have flaws.

In my mind - going back to the first time I read the books 20 years ago, that was one of the things I found compelling about this series - there weren't 'good' and 'bad' people - there were people with flaws and their own motivations, which are almost never pure. I always thought that was the overarching moral lesson of the books, insomuch as there is one. And those people could band together (some of them) to fight off real evil (Night King)- but they still revert to their true selfish selves immediately after.

Even those who are good to a fault (Ned and Jon); they break vows, lie and then let their 'honor' blind them.
 

Trice

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I didn't mean that he pointed her at Dany exactly, just that she may not have taken it as sentimentally as you interpreted it.

Also - why are people sure that Cersei and Jamie are dead? The didn't show their dead bodies - so it's probably not good to assume they're dead yet.

I wondered this myself last night and watched the "inside the show" clip at the end hoping Benioff or Weiss would explicitly say they were dead, and they did not.

But, in watching that scene a couple of times there's just nothing there to suggest anything other than being crushed. And if you look at the show this season, with how much ground they've had to cover in a short period of time, there isn't a ton of room for surprise twists and things have pretty much always been what they seem even if it isn't on-camera. So I'm inclined to go with Occam's razor here and say that the simplest solution is probably correct.

(But let's say they do somehow survive. They stumble out of the rubble into a destroyed city where they will be immediately killed in horrific fashion. There's no way they make it out of King's Landing. So narratively speaking, is there any reason to keep them around any longer? I would argue no.)

(Edit: I forgot momentarily that Jaime was basically mortally wounded by this point anyway. Hard to imagine him surviving long regardless.)
 
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cycloneG

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In my mind - going back to the first time I read the books 20 years ago, that was one of the things I found compelling about this series - there weren't 'good' and 'bad' people - there were people with flaws and their own motivations, which are almost never pure. I always thought that was the overarching moral lesson of the books, insomuch as there is one. And those people could band together (some of them) to fight off real evil (Night King)- but they still revert to their true selfish selves immediately after.

Even those who are good to a fault (Ned and Jon); they break vows, lie and then let their 'honor' blind them.

Completely agree. Every character in this series is flawed. People trying to find a perfect ruler are going to be disappointed.
 

CycloneWanderer

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I won't bet on this, but I am praying on it!



Lol at authors who have taken notoriously long release breaks between books having "finished" manuscripts for years yet no release date. The only thing that means to me is that it is not up to the quality the author(s) feels comfortable actually publishing.

You think the GRRM would enjoy releasing the book version of this season? Authors of these series only really get one shot to get it right to end these large stories and they feel tremendous pressure to do so. I am sure GRRM has a "completed" manuscript of this but if it follows the show I am not sure we see it released in his lifetime unless he just gives up.
 

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