Game of Thrones (season 8)

[Heisenberg's Blue Sky]

That's fair comment as 'in reality' more,if not all....would have perished.However,having them survive does allow for character involvement in the climax most weren't initially expecting.Ep 3 was almost a red herring in terms of the show closure.

Pretty much my thoughts exactly. People wanting main players to die and expect us to follow Gendry, Sam, Greyworm and Greyworm's bird to Kings Landing and watch that as a finale while the rest ie dead on the battlefield. If people wants twists, turns, poltical machinations and backstabbing then we need the big players there for us to give a shit. Plenty to wrap up and we need Sansa, Tryion, Varys even Jamie et all for that to all play out. Although I agree that Sam should have died but if you believe reddit then he's the Maester supposedly writing the 'story' of GoT so he had to make it. We still need main players to scheme and eventually build a new world. Cant do that with just Jon and Dani.
Ah well just my thinking. Thought it was fuckin ace!

 

[markbmcfc]

Masterpiece. The 'scene' at the end. The whole thing, the music, the drama, the suspense, the pacing, the writing. Absolutely nailed it.

People will always have opinions on how 'they' would have written it or what they would have wanted to happen, but just enjoy it for the cinematic masterpiece that it is.

Spoiler

Seen a lot of criticism saying Jon should've battled the NK. He literally tried and the NK just woke up the dead around him. It was clear from that point any kind of combat was impossible, including dragon fire. You can't write that in and then expect him to die in a sword fight. It had to be a surprise attack, it was just who, and it fits Arya's arc perfectly.

Seen other criticism that the NK was killed too easily. Nobody could get near him. Had to happen that way where he was distracted with Bran. There's also the fact that the war on the dead isn't actually the main story and the whole point is the battle for the iron throne, which they now have 3 episodes to tie up. Plenty of time for main characters to die if that's your thing. They couldn't drag the war with the dead any longer.

 

[7evens]

Spoiler

@7evens Crypt foreshadowing...

Didn't add up to much in the end, did it? I expected Rickon to resurface and chase Sansa or something, but the closest we got was the one wight who looked a bit like Maester Luwin dragging some Redshirt Northerner into the darkness.

But hey, we still got that great moment between Sansa and Tyrion, in which Sophie Turner and Peter Dinklage communicated so many feelings without uttering a word, and the crypt functioned nicely as a way of avoiding the "battle fatigue" the producers were worried about. I mean, it wasn't a patch on Cersei psychologically deteriorating while and drunkenly abusing Sansa in 'Blackwater' (which remains the best battle episode in the show's history), but I think we've been given a couple of important breadcrumbs in these scenes.

Tyrion has just shared a moment of tenderness and true vulnerability with Sansa there that he never has with Daenerys (except maybe when she named him Hand). With Dany challenging and questioning him so much lately, an arm round the shoulder from Sansa might just be what Tyrion needs to convince Dany even further that democracy is the way forward, as opposed to another Targaryen dynasty. She's not taken kindly to that idea in the past...

 

[TonyM]

Only bad thing imo was the bloody ads. Especially given the lighting challenge. And the timing of the ads sometimes was almost comical.

Sky should have run it all uninterrupted with special mention before and after that it was thanks to their sponsors. They could have even milked the build up for days before saying that thanks to Volvo and Sky and whoever you could see it all as intended by the creators.

My take away was to never buy a shaggin Volvo. Carous Interruptous.

 

[Gareth Barry Conlon]

People complaining about lighting lol. The whole point of it was to feel like you was there scared dark having some horde attack you, it was the long night not the long day. Your own fault for buying shit black Friday tvs

To be fair - I watched on sky and my brand new Samsung tv and it was a bit annoying. I don't mind scenes in the dark, but fighting in the dark doesn't work after a couple of minutes - you start to lose interest.

I thought the final scenes would have had more to them, but it is what it is and sets up the series (having thinned out the armies of the forces in the north).

 

[che_don_john]

That's fair comment as 'in reality' more,if not all....would have perished.However,having them survive does allow for character involvement in the climax most weren't initially expecting.Ep 3 was almost a red herring in terms of the show closure.

That's a good point and I agree with you, except that I think there's a better way of going about it than what we saw in Ep3. If you want characters to survive, that's fine, but then put them into situations that they can realistically survive. GoT always stood in the genre it because situations and outcomes were reasonable rather than miraculous, but now it seems to fall into the latter.

I read elsewhere something which I think neatly summarises where I think it's been going wrong since it overtook the books: things used to be forecast, and now they are foretold. Example:

Spoiler

The Red Wedding was a complete shock, but when you re-watch previous episodes you can then spot the clues that forecast it (e.g. Tywin's letter to Walder)

Whereas Ayra killing the Night King was pretty much told to us - "Green eyes, brown eyes, BLUE EYES" nod nod wink wink and then she runs off (I do wonder why people were suprised by the NK death - even the music telegraphed it was about to happen!)

It feels that now the writers are treating the audience as if we're stupid and need to be told what will happen, rather than dropping clues or surprising us in intelligent ways, ad are using dramatic 'epic' music to convey feelings and tension, rather than writing and dialogue. There's not necessarily anything with that - works for Star Wars and Marvel - but for me that was never GoT's way, until recently.

 

[Gareth Barry Conlon]

Didn't add up to much in the end, did it? I expected Rickon to resurface and chase Sansa or something, but the closest we got was the one wight who looked a bit like Maester Luwin dragging some Redshirt Northerner into the darkness.

But hey, we still got that great moment between Sansa and Tyrion, in which Sophie Turner and Peter Dinklage communicated so many feelings without uttering a word, and the crypt functioned nicely as a way of avoiding the "battle fatigue" the producers were worried about. I mean, it wasn't a patch on Cersei psychologically deteriorating while and drunkenly abusing Sansa in 'Blackwater' (which remains the best battle episode in the show's history), but I think we've been given a couple of important breadcrumbs in these scenes.

Tyrion has just shared a moment of tenderness and true vulnerability with Sansa there that he never has with Daenerys (except maybe when she named him Hand). With Dany challenging and questioning him so much lately, an arm round the shoulder from Sansa might just be what Tyrion needs to convince Dany even further that democracy is the way forward, as opposed to another Targaryen dynasty. She's not taken kindly to that idea in the past...

I haven't ruled out an incestuous union of JS and DT. Incest being a running theme in the same way that 24 couldn't do an episode without torturing someone.

 

[Lee1983]

People complaining about lighting lol. The whole point of it was to feel like you was there scared dark having some horde attack you, it was the long night not the long day. Your own fault for buying shit black Friday tvs

FFS haha. My cousin got a Blaunkqtech or something from Tesco on black friday 2 years ago, 55 inches, it lasted 3 months before he got a Sony. I think it was even 1080i.

 

[che_don_john]

Like it. I always felt that Samwell was essentially a representation GRRM (a bookworm, a nerd, the fat kid, etc.)

 

[Halloween Jack]

Pretty much my thoughts exactly. People wanting main players to die and expect us to follow Gendry, Sam, Greyworm and Greyworm's bird to Kings Landing and watch that as a finale while the rest ie dead on the battlefield. If people wants twists, turns, poltical machinations and backstabbing then we need the big players there for us to give a shit. Plenty to wrap up and we need Sansa, Tryion, Varys even Jamie et all for that to all play out. Although I agree that Sam should have died but if you believe reddit then he's the Maester supposedly writing the 'story' of GoT so he had to make it. We still need main players to scheme and eventually build a new world. Cant do that with just Jon and Dani.
Ah well just my thinking. Thought it was fuckin ace!

Maybe the bit about Sam could have been under a spoiler tag.

 

[7evens]

What decision?

The decision to completely resolve the conflict with the Army of the Dead earlier than we all expected, and to have the final three episodes be all about who gets the throne. I think a lot of people, myself included, expected Winterfell to fall last night, for the Northerners to retreat southwards, and for the final battle with the Night King to be in King's Landing. I expected the impact of the Army of the Dead to be much heavier this season, which means that last night felt slightly anti-climactic, but a lot depends on how these next few episodes pan out.

What the show has essentially done with 'The Long Night' is boldly move Westeros into another age where magic is mostly gone from the world, returning to the state it was in during the first season. Sure, we still have Bran hanging around, and two dragons. But the White Walkers are now myths once more, and though the Lord of Light might still be operating in the background, the last three people who had the ability to communicate his messages (Melisandre, Thoros, Beric) are all dead. We've gone back to the semi-primitive society we saw in the first season, and I appreciate the symmetry if nothing else.

 

[Barcon]

Is it the 2.3GB torrent? That's the one that I watched and it's not amazing quality. Watch it in a dark room and it'll be watchable though. I'm currently downloading the 1080p 5GB file, which might be better.

ETA: Just downloaded it and there's not a massive difference. I think both are probably better than the streams most people were watching. HBO apparently have one of the worse bandwidths and everyone was watching at the same time.

It is the 2.3gb mate. I have a plasma tv and will watch it at night in a dark basement, so it should be decent. 22 hrs later and I'm 83% done. Woohoo.

 

[adrianr]

Re: Lighting, I imagine the episode will be well worth a watch on a decent OLED or Plasma when the BluRay comes out. I didn't have any troubles on my plasma with the copy I was watching, just had to turn all the lights off. I agree with an earlier comment that the point was for it to feel disorientating, and I felt like there were enough points throughout the episode to re-ground the viewer.

Spoiler

I think once the snow/fog came in that was maybe a little heavy, although the shots of the dragons when it first started coming in were spectacular.

Missus and I both absolutely loved it. Was long but rather that than it feeling rushed. Gave you time to become immersed in it.

 

[urban genie]

Like it. I always felt that Samwell was essentially a representation GRRM (a bookworm, a nerd, the fat kid, etc.)

A rag though so hope he gets filleted by the end ;-)

 

[Scottyboi]

A rag though so hope he gets filleted by the end ;-)

Was in the year above me at school a good lad John West but I fucking hate Sam his whole character is shit.

 

[urban genie]

Was in the year above me at school a good lad John West but I fucking hate Sam his whole character is shit.

Sam is the necessary opposite personality to all the self serving cunts in westeros tbf.
And yeah in real life John comes across as decent bloke when interviewed

 

[Scottyboi]

Sam is the necessary opposite personality to all the self serving cunts in westeros tbf.
And yeah in real life John comes across as decent bloke when interviewed

He is just a fat bumbling idiot never liked the character, but I understand his importance to the story haha.

 

[SebastianBlue]

Didn't add up to much in the end, did it? I expected Rickon to resurface and chase Sansa or something, but the closest we got was the one wight who looked a bit like Maester Luwin dragging some Redshirt Northerner into the darkness.

But hey, we still got that great moment between Sansa and Tyrion, in which Sophie Turner and Peter Dinklage communicated so many feelings without uttering a word, and the crypt functioned nicely as a way of avoiding the "battle fatigue" the producers were worried about. I mean, it wasn't a patch on Cersei psychologically deteriorating while and drunkenly abusing Sansa in 'Blackwater' (which remains the best battle episode in the show's history), but I think we've been given a couple of important breadcrumbs in these scenes.

Tyrion has just shared a moment of tenderness and true vulnerability with Sansa there that he never has with Daenerys (except maybe when she named him Hand). With Dany challenging and questioning him so much lately, an arm round the shoulder from Sansa might just be what Tyrion needs to convince Dany even further that democracy is the way forward, as opposed to another Targaryen dynasty. She's not taken kindly to that idea in the past...

It was much like Alexi Sanchez’s passing: so obviously telegraphed and then, even given plenty of time, poorly executed.

Also like Sanchez, the show was once much better than what it is currently able to offer.

Even further, if Sanchez had strode out in front of the Winterfell walls without armour or weapons, with a prominent musical flourish to announce his arrival (perhaps a recording of his United announcement sonata with Ed Sheeran singing a campfire ditty), he would have likely miraculously survived the battle despite having been in three separate positions where reason and the show’s (now almost entirely abandoned) “rules” and focus on logical outcomes from all previous choices and events would have seen him perish.

But he’d be around for another middling cameo, such is his way, so who can complain, really.

 

[argyle]

Loved it.

Didn't breath for a full hour.

 

[HellYeah]

Loved the whole thing, great episode. Really felt the tension in the build up and the panic during the battle scenes

As for the dark aspect, read about that before but not sure what the issue was. It was dark but certainly didn't detract from what was going on and added to the confusion of battle (although to be fair I've not experienced a battle of any kind)