Game of Thrones (SPOILERS)

[Joey]

Well, the Mad Queen has arrived.

Pretty much me last night ...

It just kept going! Lol Doesn't Drogon run out of Fuel or anything?

[bertarapsfan]

Well, the Mad Queen has arrived.

Pretty much me last night ...

It just kept going! Lol Doesn't Drogon run out of Fuel or anything?

Lol ya that was fucked up... Pretty much takes dany sitting on the iron throne at the end of the series off the table for me.

[slaw]

I haven't read the books in ages but her family was deposed in a rebellion for a reason and there is a lot of set up in the books for her turning out to be a ruthless tyrant, though, I always thought the White Walkers and the Night King (literally the embodiment of the cost of war and strife in Westeros) would wreak such destruction that it might sway the houses to make peace, for awhile. I suppose it also bookends the series nicely - the North and others banding together to displace a mad tyrant as they did before - only to have the cycle repeat itself again as another army of the undead rises from the ashes and on it goes.... perhaps the shred of hope being the dragons become loyal to the Starks stopping history from repeating itself?

[Joey]

I haven't read the books in ages but her family was deposed in a rebellion for a reason and there is a lot of set up in the books for her turning out to be a ruthless tyrant, though, I always thought the White Walkers and the Night King (literally the embodiment of the cost of war and strife in Westeros) would wreak such destruction that it might sway the houses to make peace, for awhile. I suppose it also bookends the series nicely - the North and others banding together to displace a mad tyrant as they did before - only to have the cycle repeat itself again as another army of the undead rises from the ashes and on it goes.... perhaps the shred of hope being the dragons become loyal to the Starks stopping history from repeating itself?

She was 100% set up to be the ultimate villain, and I think most will have expected it ... even then though, it was tough to watch for 40 straight minutes. Lol The books will have a much easier time conveying her internal dialogue and struggles with betrayal, loneliness, paranoia, vengeance, genetics, etc. but I think Emilia Clarke did her best with the writing she was given, and did a fine enough job.

Very much enjoyed Cleganebowl. The Hound laughing throughout the fight as Mountain just wouldn't fucking die, was pretty awesome. Frankenstein killing his master was also pretty awesome. Fuck you Qyburn you creepy fuck.

Disappointed in how Cersei died, but found it interesting that they really tried to humanize her in those last few moments... thought she'd get a more "dignified" death, whatever that means. But with already having Varys stand there and take it like a champ, I guess you can only do that so many times. But really, who was worse in the end, Cersei or Dany? I think it's now clear.

Will be interesting to see how it wraps up in 80 minutes, with Dany and Grey Worm going Heel.

[Apollo]

To make such a turn on film needs more than a couple episodes of "nobody loves me". This whole season feels rushed. It feels like I'm watching GOT sporadically, missing episodes where character development is occurring to explain the significant changes to key characters in the show.

But anyway, we had another battle where they placed a large force on the wrong side of the wall and opted not to use projectiles against a sieging enemy army who was within range. It would seem the Southerners use the same faulty tactics book as the north. Not that it ended up mattering because Drogon has an endless supply of fire to match his ability to fly from one end of a continent to the other in a few hours.

[Joey]

This has been coming for a while (some great editing in this video):

[Joey]

To make such a turn on film needs more than a couple episodes of "nobody loves me".

She's wanted to burn Kings Landing to the ground for most of the show, and she's talked of "Destroying the Wheel" for just as long.
I'm totally on board with criticizing the poor writing for the last 10ish+ episodes, but I don't really understand how people are saying this particular "twist" (I can't even call it that, since I've just assumed this was the final destination) was not long in the making. Her visions showed her a destroyed, burned, Kings Landing in the 2nd season ... she's a Targaryen ... with giant effing Dragons ... we've seen the below picture since the 1st Season. What did people think the Giant-Earth-Destroying-Dragons were going to be used for? Granted, they were drastically under used against the Army of the dead, but hey ... Like ... it's been well known for a long time that Targaryens have a tendency of doing exactly this.

[Apollo]

Joey, season two aired seven years ago. Foreshadowing helps the viewer develop expectations but foreshadowing does not develop the characters. The problem people are having is the writers had to take us from point A to point Z over eight years. Moving into season eight we were at point B and over two episodes they brought us to point Z. That's how it seems to feel to me and a lot of people. If you liked it then I'm happy for you but some foreshadowing in season two mixed with Dany being dumped from her sexual relationship with her nephew wasn't enough for a lot of us.

It's not the result that's the problem, its how we were transported there. I think season eight would have been a lot better had it been ten or twelve episodes. It would have allowed for them to deliver the established high quality standard of the past.

[Apollo]

Oh and they should have hired a military consultant to go over the battle plans. Some of those scenes were a little ridiculous to watch. At $15M/episode they could have worked it into the budget. This might seem nitpicking but Vikings gets it right frequently.

[RandomGuy]

I have a serious issue with how rushed and poorly executed story wise it all was. It used to be the strength of the series, now it just feels as another Marvel movie... It doesn't make any real sense that Danny would go bollocks over her friend beheaded as much as she did I feel for Emilia the actress as she had to go crazy in a span of 20 minutes. Very poor character development. For me, the series ended with Season 7 finale. Now it's just an expensive blockbuster.

[Joey]

Joey, season two aired seven years ago. Foreshadowing helps the viewer develop expectations but foreshadowing does not develop the characters. The problem people are having is the writers had to take us from point A to point Z over eight years. Moving into season eight we were at point B and over two episodes they brought us to point Z. That's how it seems to feel to me and a lot of people. If you liked it then I'm happy for you but some foreshadowing in season two mixed with Dany being dumped from her sexual relationship with her nephew wasn't enough for a lot of us.

It's not the result that's the problem, its how we were transported there. I think season eight would have been a lot better had it been ten or twelve episodes. It would have allowed for them to deliver the established high quality standard of the past.

I disagree with the bolded. I was the first to say that we could have used a bit more internal dialogue, and totally agree that a few more episodes would have been great (still don't understand that decision by HBO), but again - she's literally talked about "Burning cities to the ground" every season of the show. For me that was always way more than foreshadowing.

She's wanted to do exactly this for a very long time, and only having "trusted" advisors helped temper those instincts by Dany - and then in a matter of no time she:
- loses her oldest Friend in Jorah who was always the first to dissuade her firey instincts.
- loses 2 of her children in front of her eyes.
- is betrayed by her hand
- and her close Advisor
- and her Lover.
- her best friend and most trusted of all advisors had her head cut off in front of her.
- she finds out she's not the rightful heir to the throne and her whole entire life and everything she has ever done has been for a lie ...

Yes, those all happened in fairly quick succession, but Maester Aemon once said "a Targaryen alone in the world is terrible thing" ... The writing was all over the wall on this for me, and seeing those dominoes fall, I saw it coming a mile away.

Didn't love it by any means, but I thought it was fine. There are certainly better examples of the lazy writing displayed this season than this lone twist in my books. Certainly could have been handled better, and more time would been great for that, but ya .. it was fine I guess.

[Apollo]

Your points on the story hinting it are good points but the thing I think you're missing here, and I think they missed, is that each season is at least a year apart and its been on almost a decade. So all these little and more significant things on their own over the course of that time is not enough for the regular viewer aka their cash cows. They needed to show us the deterioration of her mind in a more detailed manner or explain it better, linking some of these points you make together. To us regular viewers we're not thinking about what some old fart said six or seven years ago, it's almost like it didn't even happen now it was so long ago. Season 8 feels like GOT - Express - lots of mindless entertaining action but not much of the story or setup. The golden years of the show where they won all these fans were focused on character development and they dropped the ball in this most important category in season 8. They brought the bread but forgot the butter.

[Joey]

Your points on the story hinting it are good points but the thing I think you're missing here, and I think they missed, is that each season is at least a year apart and its been on almost a decade. So all these little and more significant things on their own over the course of that time is not enough for the regular viewer aka their cash cows. They needed to show us the deterioration of her mind in a more detailed manner or explain it better, linking some of these points you make together. To us regular viewers we're not thinking about what some old fart said six or seven years ago, it's almost like it didn't even happen now it was so long ago. Season 8 feels like GOT - Express - lots of mindless entertaining action but not much of the story or setup. The golden years of the show where they won all these fans were focused on character development and they dropped the ball in this most important category in season 8. They brought the bread but forgot the butter.

Haha Touche. Good points as well.

[Joey]

Foreshadowing helps the viewer develop expectations but foreshadowing does not develop the characters.

Just want to also say that I think this is well stated, and I do agree.

[Apollo]

Thanks, one episode left and we can put this puppy to bed. To bad there's no spin off on the horizon but perhaps it's for the best.

I still have Vikings, Knightfall and hopefully a Vikings spinoff.