Game of Thrones: the last series [SPOILERS]

[Jim_Campbell]

Nice that the character with a historic penchant for red-headed wildlings got to ride off into the not-quite-sunset with one. :-)

[sheridan]

Nice that the character with a historic penchant for red-headed wildlings got to ride off into the not-quite-sunset with one. :-)

:-D  Shame the red-headed wildling in question didn't end up with somebody a little taller though!

[Tiplodocus]

S7 Bran: "I can't be the lord of anything anymore'

S8 Bran: 'Is offered the crown' "WhY DiD YOu thInk I CAMe All THiS WaY?

Biggest heel turn for me, everything else was acceptable but Bran for king? A bad conclusion to my least favorite story arc.

Ah, so Bran was playing the Long Game. Clever chap.

[Hawkmumbler]

S7 Bran: "I can't be the lord of anything anymore'

S8 Bran: 'Is offered the crown' "WhY DiD YOu thInk I CAMe All THiS WaY?

Biggest heel turn for me, everything else was acceptable but Bran for king? A bad conclusion to my least favorite story arc.

Ah, so Bran was playing the Long Game. Clever chap.

Did think of that, but it entirely undermines the simultaneously nebulous yet painfully vague Three Eyed Raven aspect. Also if you can't be a lord you presumably can't be something that requires being a lord by default. Nah. It's was just naff.

[Richard]

Do we really need scenes full of basil where every injured party explains exactly what they are feeling and why they are behaving in a certain way?

I wasn't thinking in terms of showing everyone's feelings about what happened, but rather showing Grey Worm and his colleagues reacting in a believable manner.

We are supposed to accept that the winners of a war will ask the people they have conquered for permission to execute their queen's assassin, including the assassin's adopted family. Then when the result is a lenient sentence, "go and live up north with people you might well have voluntarily gone to live with anyway," Grey Worm just goes along with that even though in the same episode we saw him killing prisoners who hadn't committed any crime at all except being on the losing side. It's completely out of character for him, for the rest of the Unsullied and for the Dothraki. And I don't think they would have cared about the Northerners, because as we saw in season 7 the Westerosi soldiers can't stand up to them, dragon or no dragon.

A moment's thought would have led the writers to a more believable resolution to that problem.

[Jim_Campbell]

I’ve already had to endure an “it’s not fair, the fans deserved better” conversation with someone at work. 🙄

Most baffling reaction today was one of my FB friends going on at some length about 'betrayal' and citing fairy tales as if they were some kind of legal precedent. Seriously? You were expecting a fairy tale ending?! What fuckin' show have you been watching for the last eight years?

[Theblazeuk]

A little breathing room and Darth Targaryen wouldn't have felt such a rush. Maybe one other atrocity with a slightly less-clearly-evil motivation thrown in there (like burning the Red Keep filled with innocents as continuously signposted by the show, rather than just burning *everything*) to show a slippery slope, rather than a cliffside.

But overall I enjoyed it, thought it was the best episode of the season, and just happy it's over. Daft as somethings are based off previous episodes (as mentioned), and as broken as some scenes and events were, ultimately the end resolution is OK with me.

Funnily enough the day before I watched it, I listened to a podcast where someone said:
Bran's a grifter. My boy just got tired of being pushed around, he's had a shitty life so he came up with a story that'll get all these idiots to do what he wants. "Oh yeah I'm the three-eyed raven. Everyone protect me, that's what's needed". Then Lo and Behold, what happens!

[broodblik]

Do we really need scenes full of basil where every injured party explains exactly what they are feeling and why they are behaving in a certain way?

I wasn't thinking in terms of showing everyone's feelings about what happened, but rather showing Grey Worm and his colleagues reacting in a believable manner.

We are supposed to accept that the winners of a war will ask the people they have conquered for permission to execute their queen's assassin, including the assassin's adopted family. Then when the result is a lenient sentence, "go and live up north with people you might well have voluntarily gone to live with anyway," Grey Worm just goes along with that even though in the same episode we saw him killing prisoners who hadn't committed any crime at all except being on the losing side. It's completely out of character for him, for the rest of the Unsullied and for the Dothraki. And I don't think they would have cared about the Northerners, because as we saw in season 7 the Westerosi soldiers can't stand up to them, dragon or no dragon.

A moment's thought would have led the writers to a more believable resolution to that problem.

This I agree on, I think a good resolution would have been that Bran took control of the Dragon (but the council whom selected him must not be aware of this) and then  use the Dragon too nullify or pacifiy with fear the Unsullied and Dothraki.

[sheridan]

I’ve already had to endure an “it’s not fair, the fans deserved better” conversation with someone at work. 🙄

Most baffling reaction today was one of my FB friends going on at some length about 'betrayal' and citing fairy tales as if they were some kind of legal precedent. Seriously? You were expecting a fairy tale ending?! What ' show have you been watching for the last eight years?

#notBeenPayingAttention

[Steven Denton]

Do we really need scenes full of basil where every injured party explains exactly what they are feeling and why they are behaving in a certain way?

I wasn't thinking in terms of showing everyone's feelings about what happened, but rather showing Grey Worm and his colleagues reacting in a believable manner.

We are supposed to accept that the winners of a war will ask the people they have conquered for permission to execute their queen's assassin, including the assassin's adopted family. Then when the result is a lenient sentence, "go and live up north with people you might well have voluntarily gone to live with anyway," Grey Worm just goes along with that even though in the same episode we saw him killing prisoners who hadn't committed any crime at all except being on the losing side. It's completely out of character for him, for the rest of the Unsullied and for the Dothraki. And I don't think they would have cared about the Northerners, because as we saw in season 7 the Westerosi soldiers can't stand up to them, dragon or no dragon.

A moment's thought would have led the writers to a more believable resolution to that problem.

I am still unsure as to how there are any Dothraki left after they were all killed in episode 3 but that is by the by,

Grey Worm was raised a slave, conditioned into obedience and order following as well as the suppression of pain and emotional attachment. He doesn't execute John or Tiryan because there is no one to order him to do so. He's very receptive to the idea of a new leader when the idea is proposed and he grudgingly follows orders once a leader has been chosen because that's what he has been programmed from birth to do. I think it's entirely consistent with his character.

[Funt Solo]

I am still unsure as to how there are any Dothraki left after they were all killed in episode 3

I know what you mean.  There's quite a bit this season where the viewer has to fill in the gaps.  So, as we saw Jorah Mormont returning from the fateful Dothraki charge into the zombie army, we have to imagine that either a bunch of Dothraki had been held in reserve (although: why?) or that approximately half of them rode back with Jorah but we never saw them.  Or that some of them weren't in the north at all.

Sometimes you would see Zany Dany with just a couple of Dothraki, and it would paint a picture of there just being two of them left in the whole of Westeros.  Then, when they needed them, suddenly it was HORDE!

[Mikey]

Anyway, I enjoyed it. I have niggles, but to get a beast like this into port with only a few knocks is pretty impressive.

Nice way to put it. It was a good ending and the first part provided some iconic scenes and it was refreshing they didn't end on that one or a final boss battle, giving just a bit of how things will be from now on. Much as I wonder what the point in Bran was really, it all makes sense so that's fine by me.

I'd bet each way on the Speculation Horse, so Sansa did indeed become queen of an independent North, but I thought she would maybe be one of seven.

It's been great TV over the years and I'm looking forward to rewatching it on occasion. I'm kinda proud Norn Iron has been a key part of it, with local comic droid done good Will Simpson storyboarding and designing it like a good 'un - it made our landscapes look as epic as I feel they are and it's testament to the show I only got a little distracted by locations I'm very familiar with, both from work and leisure. We have fantastic geology, what can I say?

The Sopranos is still my benchmark however and it didn't quite hit that high. Not especially sold on the idea of spin offs but we'll see what they come up with.

Valar marghulis.

[Leigh S]

I guess thats a way of reading it, but I'm not sure that isnt a bad look for a show that has already drawn criticism of it's handling of ethnicity.  Grey Worm has had an arc, but to have him stripped of any agency in how this plays out is to side line any growth and empowerment he has shown and leave it to the white people make the decisions for him... it doesnt play well for me, however you frame it.  Having Grey Worm as the final breaker of the wheel would be a fitting end and mean the big decisions werent all in the hands of the caucasian cast.  Also I assume they went this way partly to justify Jon Snow not ascending to the throne, but how much better would it have been if he had outright refused it and said he was going beyond the wall where he would never be found - So in the final episode he would have finally grasped three nettles - killing Dany, saving the Realm from a final bloody conflict (in conjunction with Grey Worm,nnow Commander of the Forces, so the only two men in a position to do this) AND removing himself from the wheel.

also watching it again with my wife tonight and they should have given Bran a cat to stroke - full on moustache twirling EVIL VILLAIN mode.  "I have been playing this game to win from the VERY BEGINNING MWAH HAH HAH HA!"

Do we really need scenes full of basil where every injured party explains exactly what they are feeling and why they are behaving in a certain way?

I wasn't thinking in terms of showing everyone's feelings about what happened, but rather showing Grey Worm and his colleagues reacting in a believable manner.

We are supposed to accept that the winners of a war will ask the people they have conquered for permission to execute their queen's assassin, including the assassin's adopted family. Then when the result is a lenient sentence, "go and live up north with people you might well have voluntarily gone to live with anyway," Grey Worm just goes along with that even though in the same episode we saw him killing prisoners who hadn't committed any crime at all except being on the losing side. It's completely out of character for him, for the rest of the Unsullied and for the Dothraki. And I don't think they would have cared about the Northerners, because as we saw in season 7 the Westerosi soldiers can't stand up to them, dragon or no dragon.

A moment's thought would have led the writers to a more believable resolution to that problem.

I am still unsure as to how there are any Dothraki left after they were all killed in episode 3 but that is by the by,

Grey Worm was raised a slave, conditioned into obedience and order following as well as the suppression of pain and emotional attachment. He doesn't execute John or Tiryan because there is no one to order him to do so. He's very receptive to the idea of a new leader when the idea is proposed and he grudgingly follows orders once a leader has been chosen because that's what he has been programmed from birth to do. I think it's entirely consistent with his character.

[JOE SOAP]

and some Marvel sequel expanding hinting style ending. Who couldn't be happy with that?

Can't wait for all those spin offs now. The Adventures of Arya et al.

Maybe it's a symptom of modern viewing but I've never interpreted the many stories that conclude with characters splitting-up/moving-on from their past and homeland to mean 'MCU style spin-off'. It's a legitimate resolution for a young assassin who's simply outgrown where she's from.

Besides, that spin-off isn't apparently planned.

The three successor shows are all prequels. In the finale, Arya goes on to explore what's west of Westeros. Have you considered exploring sequels? Specifically, Arya Stark as she travels west of Westeros?

Nope, nope, nope. No. Part of it is, I do want this show — this Game of Thrones, Dan and David's show — to be its own thing. I don't want to take characters from this world that they did beautifully and put them off into another world with someone else creating it. I want to let it be the artistic piece they've got. That's one of reasons why I'm not trying to do the same show over. George has massive, massive world; there are so many ways in. That's why we're trying to do things that feel distinct — and to not try and re-do the same show. That's probably one of the reasons why, right now, a sequel or picking up any of the other characters doesn't make sense for us.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/game-thrones-sequel-is-not-an-option-hbo-series-finale-1212749?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=THR%20Breaking%20News_now_2019-05-21%2015:01:45_lgoldberg&utm_term=hollywoodreporter_breakingnews

[Richard]

Some very good points have been made on this thread.

As far as sequels are concerned, I love Arya Stark but I don't need to see a sequel about what she does next, I think her story ended in the right place. Best to leave whatever happened next to the viewers' imagination. I'm far more interested in a prequel.