Game of Thrones Season 8

Dandy

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One last thought on this, like it or not, people don't find this type of ending in any way satisfying. This was basically the end of Battlestar Galactica too, and people hated that.
They gave me a Lord of the Rings feel this season for two things: claiming to beat the longest battle ever and then the final scene is someone writing the story we just watched.
 

randomfan44

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One last thought on this, like it or not, people don't find this type of ending in any way satisfying. This was basically the end of Battlestar Galactica too, and people hated that.
Honestly, that's why I like it so much. It wasn't some absurd, forced comic book ending. There is no scenario where John Snow killing the Queen and then being appointed King makes any sense at all. "You peaceful, always does the right thing King who just murdered his aunt, the Queen, whom he was sleeping with" is ridiculous.

John killed the Queen because it was the right thing to do and he always does the right thing even when it screws him personally. This was no exception. Getting around that would be pandering to the fans. They honored the spirit of Dany by breaking the wheel of family run leaders and setting up another system of the various houses appointing a leader. Kinda goofy but whatever; I enjoyed them laughing at Sam's idea to have the masses have a say. Look at the morons the masses are appointing to leadership positions in this country.

Bran... well they did push that kid around the snow in a wheelchair for 8 years while he stared and people creepily for nothing. Sansa was true to her story line and took over as ruler of the North. Arya hit the road to be weird and mysterious. John went back to the people he was the most at home with.

Honestly, the only thing I didn't really like was the Unsullen just taking off. Seems like the bosses would want to keep those guys around; things aren't exactly peaceful after you BBQ the masses and the big scary dragon is now gone to parts unknown. Smells like a ripe time for a rebellion if you ask me.
 

jdoggivjc

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They offered the Unsullied the reach to settle in because they said nobody was there anymore.

1. People will say anything to pacify an army that is occupying a city.

2. If nobody was actually left in the Reach, how do you go from “nobody there” to asking Bronn “when can we expect you to start feeding the Kingdoms?” at the end of the episode?

Bottom line is people (commoners) are still there, leadership isn’t, and the council of Lords was prepared to screw over Bronn to pacify Grey Worm and the Unsullied, gambling that they wouldn’t go for it and hoping for an alternate resolution.
 
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randomfan44

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Yeah except, as stated, Jon actually was the heir and Jaime was just a killer. As long as Drogon is alive, Jon has to end up as king. (Which is why I was certain all the dragons would die.) I picked Jon to return to the wall at the end of the season. But Bran is a horrible choice. I really wanted Gendry to end up as king.
Having a ding dong grunt as King just because his dad was a ***** would be more satisfying an ending? I'll pass on that.

I like that the show constantly weaved between "oh my god, I can't believe they had the nerve to do that" and "welp, they really had choice but to do that". Sure, we would have all loved 50 more episodes but it really feels like complaining about it feeling "rushed" is more a self serving "I want more" rant than an actual gripe about the content. No matter how well written the show is, there is no way you can cram all of the details and plot lines that were weaved through 4,200+ pages of the 5 books. It's simply impossible. Having a series like this based off such well known books is both a blessing and a curse. It creates an immediate audience but it also has a built-in group of whiners and complainers if it doesn't live up to the book.
 

coolerifyoudid

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What are the strongest supernatural forces in the show now that we've seen it all play out?

3 eyed raven/warg abilities if he actually uses his powers
Controlling 3 dragons and being impervious to flames
Turning the dead into your slave army
Red witch demon shadow baby assassin
Dying 19 times and not dying
Faceless men
Giants

Things that turned out to not be that powerful:
3 eyed raven that doesn't use his powers much
Red witch lighting dothraki weapons on fire
That witch's prophecies

Powerful:
Whatever Clyburn did to the Mountain
Wight Viserion's dragon-ice breath
Melisandre's re-animation powers

Not so much:
The White Walkers themselves
 

CloneIce

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Great responses. I want to think about this some more. Because I saw her reaction at the end of E4 and her face in E5 right before she burns the city as the show portraying her as insane and I'm having a hard time squaring that with what we saw last night, which is its own form of insanity, but different I guess.

But that could absolutely be a me problem and not a show problem.

I much prefer this to the “blame it on madness” reasoning I heard before. That’s lazy storytelling 99% of the time. I like this much more nuanced take from the finale.
 

Cyclonepride

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Great responses. I want to think about this some more. Because I saw her reaction at the end of E4 and her face in E5 right before she burns the city as the show portraying her as insane and I'm having a hard time squaring that with what we saw last night, which is its own form of insanity, but different I guess.

But that could absolutely be a me problem and not a show problem.

There are definitely different levels of insanity, and different variants on how it manifests itself. One could be pretty normal, but prone to completely snap in stressful situations. Or perfectly charming until the mask slips and the evil shows through. Or completely delusional, but with moments of clarity. All sorts of options.
 

scottwv

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I liked the ending. I think one more episode before the destruction of Kings Landing episode for more of slow burn on Daenery's becoming the evil queen; Jon's actions; and other character development would have helped.
 

HFCS

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There are definitely different levels of insanity, and different variants on how it manifests itself. One could be pretty normal, but prone to completely snap in stressful situations. Or perfectly charming until the mask slips and the evil shows through. Or completely delusional, but with moments of clarity. All sorts of options.

I feel like she's been on that edge the whole way, seeing where she starts out makes us sympathetic to her though. I think some people saw in her what they wanted to see (a more pure of heart ambition) and for those people the ending is very bad. Yet because she was a flawed hero it's not nice and neat to deal with what Jon did.

The venn diagram of pure hearted, selfless and brave characters of this story has 2-4 people.
 

Mr Janny

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I feel like she's been on that edge the whole way, seeing where she starts out makes us sympathetic to her though. I think some people saw in her what they wanted to see (a more pure of heart ambition) and for those people the ending is very bad. Yet because she was a flawed hero it's not nice and neat to deal with what Jon did.

The venn diagram of pure hearted, selfless and brave characters of this story has 2-4 people.
Well put. I've said it before. Rooting for Dany is a result of perspective. To a lot of people, she was a liberator. To others, nothing more than a conquering tyrant. People from Westeros didn't see her in the way she hoped, and she only knew one way to gain their respect.
 

ISUChippewa

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1. People will say anything to pacify an army that is occupying a city.

2. If nobody was actually left in the Reach, how do you go from “nobody there” to asking Bronn “when can we expect you to start feeding the Kingdoms?” at the end of the episode?

Bottom line is people (commoners) are still there, leadership isn’t, and the council of Lords was prepared to screw over Bronn to pacify Grey Worm and the Unsullied, gambling that they wouldn’t go for it and hoping for an alternate resolution.


Yeah. What I took from that exchange is that since the Tyrells and the Tarlys are more or less extinct or severely weakened as families there is an existing power vacuum as opposed to the Reach now being a desolate wasteland.

That's also why I think the chatter of rebellious regions is a bit overblown, hypothetical as it is. The Iron Islands just underwent their own small-scale civil war between Theon/Yara and Euron and might not be in a great position to rebel.
 
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ThatllDoCy

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Well put. I've said it before. Rooting for Dany is a result of perspective. To a lot of people, she was a liberator. To others, nothing more than a conquering tyrant. People from Westeros didn't see her in the way she hoped, and she only knew one way to gain their respect.

She did marry a guy in Mereen for peace. So marriage pacts are well within her toolbox.
 

CycloneVet

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Agree with some of your other critiques but this is consistent with the series and novels.

If killing Dany leave John as king then Jaime would have been a more obvious king than Robert. Instead Jaime had to take the King's guard oath, it's very consistent with John going back to a life of the watch given that he and Jaime did nearly identical things.

Jaimie was already Kings guard when he killed the mad king
 
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Tre4ISU

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I have a thought and a question. Firs the thought. This should be a lesson to all show runners that you should never begin adapting a series to TV until it's done.

That thought lead to this question. How much of the interest in GOT was driven by the fact we had no idea how it was going to end and would it have affected the popularity of the show if the books were done? It wouldn't have mattered to me as I only watched the show because everyone kept talking about it. I never read the books so I didn't care. I have to think there are more of me than there are of people that read the books but I would also think the book readers got into right away and got the ball rolling.
 

jdoggivjc

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I feel like she's been on that edge the whole way, seeing where she starts out makes us sympathetic to her though. I think some people saw in her what they wanted to see (a more pure of heart ambition) and for those people the ending is very bad. Yet because she was a flawed hero it's not nice and neat to deal with what Jon did.

The venn diagram of pure hearted, selfless and brave characters of this story has 2-4 people.

Another thing is the people she had been taking out throughout the series also made her a sympathetic hero, as Tyrion had outlined.

She took out Viserys (ok, it was Drogo that did that, but she could have intervened and Drogo would have listened to her. She had gained his respect by that point - which was the whole reason why Viserys got killed in the first place).

She took out at minimum Pyat Pree and Xaro Xhoan Daxos at Qarth

She took out the slavers of Astapor, Yunkai, and Meereen, in some cases with dragonfire, in other cases with crucifixion.

She took out the Khals alive at Vaes Dothrak

She took out the gold train funding Cersei and the Tarleys because they wouldn't bend the knee

She aided in taking out the wight army (although the final defeat wasn't due to her).

Up until she burned down King's Landing, she was sympathetic because she was taking out who the audience considered evil, or at least disloyal in the case of the Tarleys (even though Sam's dad was undoubtedly a ****). But what the show hid very well is Dany had ulterior motives for every single move, even if there was altruism in them:

In taking out Viserys, she removed her biggest potential rival (known at that time) and a person that abused her regularly.

In taking out Pyat Pree and Xaro Xhoan Daxos, she secured her, her dragons, and her party's escape from Qarth.

In taking out the Slavers, she secured for herself one of the world's elitist infantry untis as well as gained a loyal following in the people of Slavers' Bay

In taking out the Khals, she demonstrated she was the power of the land and secured for herself a cavalry (as unconventional as it was)

In taking out the gold train she weakened Cersei's financial position as well as her army

In taking out the wight army, she secured, if not loyalty, at least cooperation of the North and its armies.

In every single move that she made there was something in it for her - something that made her more powerful.