Main Menu

Game of Thrones: the last series [SPOILERS]

Started by sheridan, 15 April, 2019, 11:09:22 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

Krakajac

I missed the 'modify post' window of opportunity.  ;)

I'm wondering whether a certain [spoiler]Bravosi swordsman[/spoiler] might show up in the last three episodes.  He wasn't seen to die on screen - nor was there any specific description of his death in the book.

Jim_Campbell

Quote from: Krakajac on 30 April, 2019, 08:18:35 AM
He wasn't seen to die on screen

Yeah. It was very noticeable — [spoiler]he was one of only two named characters to 'die' in Season One who didn't die onscreen, the other being Septa Mordane, whose head we later get to see on a spike next to Ned's, so it's probably safe to say 'she dead'.[/spoiler]
Stupidly Busy Letterer: Samples. | Blog
Less-Awesome-Artist: Scribbles.

JamesC

I thought it was incrdible and in fact it was so tense and exciting that I was relieved when the ad breaks allowed me to take a breather and make a cuppa!
It was really interesting to see Dany so out of her depth. Maybe she won't be quite so keen to rul the north after all.
A good showing for the Lord of Light too - I wonder if Arya and Davos are going to get all religious?
I wish All Bran would so something other than sit about acting mysterious though.

Jim_Campbell

Fandom baffles me. I can sort of take the "It was all too dark" complaint, although I didn't think that was a problem at all — [spoiler]I liked the faceless, all-encompassing darkness of the early stages of this episode dissolving into utter chaos. I thought it provided sharp focus for the indoor stuff with only one or two characters later on.[/spoiler]

However, two repeated complaints are: [spoiler]"I can't believe Arya killed the Night King — she's a complete Mary Sue" when we've spent seven fucking seasons where her entire plot arc has been learning how to kill people.[/spoiler] And [spoiler]"Meh, they've wrapped up the Night King plot too soon, now it's just going to be about who ends up on the Iron Throne" which is literally the fucking title of the series.[/spoiler]
Stupidly Busy Letterer: Samples. | Blog
Less-Awesome-Artist: Scribbles.

sheridan

Quote from: Krakajac on 30 April, 2019, 08:18:35 AM
He wasn't seen to die on screen - nor was there any specific description of his death in the book.


I'm also hoping for a reappearance from said personage.

JamesC

I think someone would complain [spoiler]about however the Night King was killed and about whoever killed him.[/spoiler] All I can say is, it worked for me.

Link Prime

Season 8 / Episode 3 episode had some cool moments for sure (from what I could actually discern on a 55" HD TV anyway), but it was a bit of a shark jump for me.

My reading of 'Game of Thrones' has always been in the description- a frivolous game played by narcissistic mortals, but ultimately irrelevant to the millennia old threat beyond the wall, now making it's play (backed up by the onset of a severe ice-age).
That has been the underlying narrative, as the viewer was made aware in the first few minutes of the first scene almost 10 years ago.

That threat was summarily negated in this episode, over the course of mere hours, with relatively little cost to mankind (or the main cast) and with a completely unsatisfying one-punch kill.

Whats next for A Song of Curry and Rice?
Our heroes take on Cersei and Pop-Up Pirate (who joined the cast 20 minutes ago) then have a final kerfuffle among themselves over who gets to sit on the melted swords?
Underwhelming.

Jim_Campbell

Quote from: Link Prime on 30 April, 2019, 09:55:01 AM
That threat was summarily negated in this episode, over the course of mere hours, with relatively little cost to mankind (or the main cast) and with a completely unsatisfying one-punch kill.

[spoiler]GRRM has always been very clear that he is more interested in human-scale evil than Sauron-level Dark Lordery. The threat of the Night King, IMO, existed primarily to demonstrate the shallowness, lack of foresight and narrowness of focus of the human characters. Having set it up, you can't then not resolve this plotline but how invested in seeing the Night King brought down were we really? It's not like the series has expended several seasons making us hate him, the way we hated Ramsey.

The real villain of the piece is Cersei, now without restraint surrounded as she is only by hired muscle, a half-zombie bodyguard and a creepy yes-man. Meanwhile, the 'good guys' have made themselves perilously vulnerable by paying the price for doing the right thing.[/spoiler]

If this isn't all the major themes of the series going back to the first season writ large, then I don't know what is.

PS: Pirate Rufus Hound is fucking annoying, though. Possibly the worst character in the whole series, for my money.

PPS: Appeal to a friendly mod... is there any chance of adding "SPOILERS" to the thread title so we can make posts to it a little less Mueller-Reporty...?
Stupidly Busy Letterer: Samples. | Blog
Less-Awesome-Artist: Scribbles.

Link Prime

Quote from: Jim_Campbell on 30 April, 2019, 10:18:15 AM
how invested in seeing the Night King brought down were we really? It's not like the series has expended several seasons making us hate him, the way we hated Ramsey.

I wasn't particularity invested in the Night King as a character, and one could argue that there wasn't enough substance to actually consider him a main character.
More so the idea that the Army of the Dead was a force of nature itself - it's objective to wipe humanity from the face of the planet.

It carries a bit more weight than a finale featuring a sword fight with crazy-eyed Rufus Hound (nice comparison).


Jim_Campbell

Quote from: Link Prime on 30 April, 2019, 10:38:32 AM
It carries a bit more weight than a finale featuring a sword fight with crazy-eyed Rufus Hound (nice comparison).

There's a lot unresolved Lannister/Lannister and Lannister/Stark business to wrap up, I have a feeling that [spoiler]the Clegane brothers' reunion is going to put every one-on-one fight up until now to shame in the brutality stakes, and I remain convinced that Danaerys is going to turn out to be as mad as her dad and, possibly, that Tyrion is going to have to learn the same lesson as his brother about breaking oaths made to monarchs.[/spoiler]

PS: Thanks to whoever on the mod team fixed the thread title!
Stupidly Busy Letterer: Samples. | Blog
Less-Awesome-Artist: Scribbles.

Bolt-01


Funt Solo

Quote from: Jim_Campbell on 30 April, 2019, 08:53:34 AM
[spoiler]"I can't believe Arya killed the Night King — she's a complete Mary Sue"[/spoiler]

When I hear the term "Mary Sue", I just assume that the author of the comment doesn't like female characters that do things.

As you say, her building abilities have been foreshadowed pretty much since we first met her.
++ A-Z ++  coma ++

Funt Solo

++SPOILERS IN THE OPEN++

I'm wondering about where Bran went during the battle.  Was that just something that ended up on the cutting room floor, or was there some relevance to his warging?  Did he know he wasn't going to die?
++ A-Z ++  coma ++

wedgeski

Quote from: Funt Solo on 30 April, 2019, 03:55:57 PM
++SPOILERS IN THE OPEN++

I'm wondering about where Bran went during the battle.  Was that just something that ended up on the cutting room floor, or was there some relevance to his warging?  Did he know he wasn't going to die?
That's the biggest outstanding mystery to me as well. We assumed he was off somewhere to mess with the Night King. The POV raven flock sequence was very cool, but if there were any clues in the geography, it was all too blurry on Sky for me to make out.

Jim_Campbell

Quote from: Funt Solo on 30 April, 2019, 03:55:57 PM
++SPOILERS IN THE OPEN++

I'm wondering about where Bran went during the battle.

[spoiler]He went up that tree like a rat up a drainpipe as soon as he thought no one was looking. The big reveal of this season is that he was never paralysed, he was just really fucking lazy.[/spoiler]
Stupidly Busy Letterer: Samples. | Blog
Less-Awesome-Artist: Scribbles.