Game of Thrones

[BrenGun 2261]

Huh? first episode was already on TV? I thought that would be tonight?

[Furik 832]

#CerseiForTheThrone

[CAT5 9075]

Spoiler Warning:

Spoiler

 

 

 

I enjoyed the episode! I see where both of you are coming from @Zeus and @Bear tho.

 

There's definitely a lot of cheese and predictability atm, but I gave up on the show ever being as good the first two seasons (those were my favorite). I did't mind the lack of action in the first EP, because I was actually looking forward to certain character reunions and interactions, but those were a bit underwhelming as I felt the script overall was pretty wanting. The effort was appreciated, though.

 

I do share @Zeus's concern about reconciling all of the individual character arcs in a meaningful and satisfying way tho. For the amount of people that have died, the cast is still pretty huge. And depending on how this last season plays out, it seriously has the ability to taint the legacy of the series or even improve it imo. After all of the characters' individual journeys and struggles - I think it would be cheap of D&D to simply write all of that off because "OMG ICE ZOMBIES WE ALL GONNA DIE". So my only real hope for the series at this point is that they can play into the grandeur of this final battle without completely belittling or devaluing all of the individual characters that have made the show so compelling up til this point. That's already happened to some extent...and I can understand why some of that was even necessary, but I really do hope they'll be able to find some sort of balance in the end.

[Bear 1817]

Great, dramatic episode with some proper moments based close to solely on chemistry. Also, Tormund owns it! Should obviously end up on the iron throne and just kill whoever doesn't like it. Why? Because he's fucking worth it. Fantastic character!

 

Spoiler

There's a lot of talk about the crypts and the scene with the little girl basically made it clear that shit's gonna go down down in the crypts. Will she play a big role, or what was that?

[Marchen 116]

7 hours ago, Bear said:

Great, dramatic episode with some proper moments based close to solely on chemistry. Also, Tormund owns it! Should obviously end up on the iron throne and just kill whoever doesn't like it. Why? Because he's fucking worth it. Fantastic character!

 

Spoiler

 

  Hide contents

There's a lot of talk about the crypts and the scene with the little girl basically made it clear that shit's gonna go down down in the crypts. Will she play a big role, or what was that?

 

Spoiler

Considering that the White Walkers make dead people serve them and the crypt is full of dead people, makes sense to me that shit's gonna go down and then up

 

[platy 3018]

I only watched the previous season and now this one, because of reasons. I'm pretty sure shit's gonna go down in the crypts, the biggest clue (if not a dead giveaway) being that they show it in one of the trailers.

 

[CAT5 9075]

 

Spoiler

They did a hell of a job painting a rather hopeless and hellish scenario. I expected way more main characters to die given the circumstances (tho i admit i'm also relieved, but still). I also expected this battle to span multiple episodes somehow. I wonder what D&D have planned, because after something like that, is Cersei really a threat???? I can't imagine them doing anything more intense or downright frightening than what happened this episode.

 

P.S. - Theon went out like a G. He was def. one of the most fucked up characters with the most fucked up character arcs, but I was glad to see him redeem himself and atone for his sins, so to speak. Alfie Allen played the hell out of that role.

 

[Bear 1817]

Answering Cats spoiler:

No, Cersei can't get any more frightening than that motherfucking chaos, however, she's got an army. The north does not have an army atm. That's kinda frightening. Maybe they'll get help from across the seas or something? Because right now they're pretty fucking fucked. Also, Cersei has fucking Frankenstein and his monster on his side. That's pretty scary.

 

General thoughts on the episode:

Aside from that, what an episode. That was, despite WAY too many cuts in the battle scenes, truly terrific. The scenes where the Dothraki's swords got lit gave me the chills. The scene where they got extinguished just broke me. That's just how you do things. Brilliant!

 

A bit surprised and disappointed by how so few big names died, but really happy about how the episode ended. Why? Simply because it was one hell of a surprise. I did not see that coming until the Red Woman told Arya about the eyes colours.

 

End of the rant, the soundtrack was amazing. The long piece towards the end of the episode was magnificent. Some epic and emotional.

 

And in hindsight, starting the season the way they did makes even more sense now. Clever AF!

[doombox 4421]

This episode, while it had it's problems, still probably my favorite episode of GoT. 

 

Spoiler

I also expected more deaths, but again, at this point if they kill off everyone in this battle... who's left to fight the last one? 

 

The show tends to wear two faces between the horror plot and the political one.. so I expect both wars will have those atmospheres as well. The Night King attacked head on, but the battle with Cercei is probably going to end up more of a game of chess and finding the right move, not the biggest army. I'm hoping it comes back to those wildfire pots underground. 

 

[Gaz 1097]

my initial thought on the episode was - OMG WOW THAT WAS FUCKING INTENSE

 

but now after considering everything that happened out there, it just seems to be mediocre at best : / 

oh well, i didn't have much hopes for D&D actually making a decent resolution in the first place. tho it made my craving for the upcoming(hopefully lol) books increase thousandfold. 

[Furik 832]

Cersei ready to take that throne next episode. 👸 

[Bear 1817]

Not that people have settled and shit. Just a small, sexy detail:

 

Everyone's hating on Bran. I don't get it. The dude gave Arya the knife/dagger that killed the Night King. How motherfucking sexy is that? Fucking Bran, man. Clever little shit. Misunderstood and underrated.

[doombox 4421]

On 4/30/2019 at 6:46 AM, Gaz said:

, i didn't have much hopes for D&D actually making a decent resolution in the first place. tho it made my craving for the upcoming(hopefully lol) books increase thousandfold. 

 

I gotta agree about D&D. They're running to the end as fast as they can and I feel like they don't really care about what plot holes they leave behind. The books are going to be 100 times better, if GRRM ever finishes them....

Edited May 2, 2019 by doombox

[Zeus 7997]

There are two types of people in this world: people who complained that S08E03 was too dark, and those who have properly calibrated TVs and could see what was happening. I would be in the second group because I didn't notice a single issue the entire time and both my girlfriend and I said that the episode was very cinematic. Then again, we were in the perfect setting for it, so I guess we were also lucky ^^;;

I think Arya killing the Night King is the only thing that makes any real sense. If anyone or anything else had killed the Night King, people would be complaining that the episode "jumped the shark". No one's complaining about that, just the lighting and the lack of deaths. Now let me explain why it doesn't make sense for anyone else to kill the Night King.

1. Arya is trained in stealth and they went thru the trouble of showing you just how Arya can sneak past a bunch of wights with her assassin training. The Night King will never be alone, so you will never get a proper 1 on 1. If anyone was gonna sneak up on the NK and deliver the final blow, it was her.
2. Jon tried, but whenever he would get close the Night King would raise his army and instantly turn the tables. Jon and the Night King fought on dragon back, but they were never going to fight a 1 on 1. It doesn't make sense for him to expose himself like that
3. Dany tried and saw that dragon fire wasn't enough. Only valyrian steel could harm him because of the magical enchantments on the metal itself. Dragon glass killed the wights and the white walkers but there's no reason to assume that it would work on the Night King as well. They were just hoping it would.
4. Bran warging into the Night King and taking control in any way is a theory that I read all the time which shows that the show didn't explain warging very well. Warging is taking over the consciousness of a living creature by force. Think about what Bran did to Hodor. If Bran injects his consciousness into the Night King, the Night King would consume him whole. The Night King touched him in a vision and put a GPS tracker on him, so we know that he has powerful psychic and greenseer abilities. Bran is new to the game. NK has least 8000 years of experience. He would lose that fight and he knows it.
5. Theon tried and failed.
6. Jon tried to hit the White Walker generals with dragon fire halfway through the fight and in response the Night King summoned a fucking storm, just in case the millions of undead soldiers weren't problematic enough for you.
7. Jaime at his prime could have tried but Jaime is a cripple now.
8. Sandor is a little bitch.
9. Literally everyone else was needed to fight off the undead or to set up plot.

Lack of deaths gets to me a little bit because some characters survived situations they shouldn't. I was expecting Brienne to go and for Jaime to have to kill her which would fundamentally break him as a character and change his relationship with Cersei, but I guess that was a bit too much to expect for D&D. I like Sam but he shouldn't have survived the front lines. He got carried. However, a hell of a lot of soldiers died fighting that battle and that's what makes the next battle the true final boss. They have no army and Cersei bought mercenaries. The show was always going to be about the throne, but know that them fighting Cersei means that this is a Westeros version of the French Revolution. Politics is where the show started and where it will end.

[Bear 1817]

Did you watch it on HBO, or did you download it? HBO Nordic is known for their poor quality which resulted in a lot of complaint here in Norway, but I downloaded it and had no problems whatsoever.  Used to own an HBO Nordic account, but quit it because the quality was so bad. 1080 downloads are just miles better.

 

And that's the general thought over here. People who streamed it legally on HBO Nordic could barely see shit, while those who downloaded the episode didn't have any issues.

Edited May 2, 2019 by Bear

[Zeus 7997]

@Bear I streamed it from HBO GO, and I only noticed one artifact in the beginning during the credits. I had no problem seeing anything the entire episode.

[Bear 1817]

Ah, OK. It's probably just HBO Nordic then.

 

 

Another episode and I am very pleased as usual. Not gonna write much, but there was a couple of interesting scenes:

 

The scene with Tyrion and Cersei was excellent, and I'm very much interested in seeing how Euron reacting to Tyrion knowing Cersei is with child, even though there's no possibilities that he'd know about them.

 

Dracarys! Is this what makes Daenerys go fucking crazy, like the Mad King? Missandei basically told her to just burn 'em all, just like the Mad King. Awesome! Really dislike Daenerys. Such a bitch.

[doombox 4421]

Spoiler

Ghost is the goodest boy and at least deserved a good scratch before he was sent off to the wilderness. *sigh*

 

[CAT5 9075]

I have to say, despite all of the issues, I've been very impressed with these last two episodes, and this entire season thus far. Hard to believe there's really only two episodes left.

 

Spoiler

I thought that things would become lackluster and predictable after the battle against the dead, but d&d have definitely surprised me. I'm also enjoying all of the nods to previous seasons.

 

 

 

[CAT5 9075]

Spoiler

So it looks like the leaks were real. I kinda hate that I read them, but there's no going back. Still, even knowing what was gonna happen, this was a tragic episode...and watching it left me feeling pretty heavy.

 

I think this was inevitable, though. Sure, you could look at Dany's Targaryen bloodline, and say "well, you know how crazy those damn Targaryens are!" or you could excuse Dany's actions like D&D did in the inside the episode and say "well, all of her closest friends and advisers died so she's just been kind of left to her own devices"...and while i think the latter is part of it, I don't think it really gets at the root of the matter.

 

Absolute power corrupts absolutely. And honestly, Dany was fucked all the way from time she was being raised on stories of her "heritage" while in exile in Essos.  When you think that ruling is your "birthright", well...you've already erred. Imagine being Dany, being told all your life that "You're the true heir to the Iron throne" - and then believing it to the point that it becomes your life purpose, and then struggling for YEARS to bring it into fruition...Dany TRULY believed she was the Queen and in her head the throne was already hers....so Imagine how much of a reality check it had to be for her to arrive at Westeros only find out that the people don't trust her and that winning over Westeros wasn't as simple as "breaking chains"

 

But even more than that....imagine how much of a MINDFUCK meeting Jon Snow had to be fore her, and then finding out the truth of his heritage. Not only did the guy have a better claim to the throne, but Jon has a natural charisma and meekness to him that inspires love and loyalty - so much so that she even fell in love with him!!! So on some level, she KNEW deep down that Jon would be a better ruler than her, but her ego was so invested in the idea of her being Queen, that she could not accept any alternatives. So it's no wonder she just completely malfunctioned. Losing Missandei was the icing on the cake, but I knew she was too far gone the moment she pleaded with Jon to hide the truth simply to support her own rule.

 

It's a tragedy, but I think Dany's arc highlights one of the central problems with the way Westeros is run - the whole Idea of Royalty is simply inane. And as the series has shown us many times over - high-borns and low-borns spill blood just the same. So the separation of classes is already unnecessarily divisive. And furthermore, thinking that you're fit to rule simply because you were born into "the right" family is pretty much a system that encourages delusions of grandeur by default.

 

Ruling righteously is a huge responsibility...and Ancient wisdom tell us "he that is greatest among you shall be your servant." But when you think that ruling over people means "doing whatever the hell you want" - then, well...we've seen how well that worked for King Robert, Joffrey, etc...So the system in Westeros is inherently flawed because it elevates The King (or Queen) to god-like status, and that's far too much power any individual to wield - no matter how well your intentions. Sitting on the iron throne would be like like your average joe winning a trillion dollars - that's far too much money for anyone, and no matter how 'good" of a person you might think yourself, having that amount of money would expose all of your flaws and vices in a heartbeat. Dany was a fool to think that a power that grand was her "right" instead of a "privilege". And she was even more foolish for not trusting the council of those who were willing to put her uppity-ass in check. Jon was wise not to want anything to do with the throne. It's trouble by default.

 

I think the Wildlings, in spite of their brutish ways, had a much more functional way of life than those south of the Wall.

 

also, on a side note,....The iron bank is gonna be PISSED!!!

 

 

 

[Jigsaw9 6783]

Not sure how to feel about this new episode yet, but it went pretty well with the black metal I'm currently listening to.

[Bear 1817]

Another episode that I liked, but...but...but...

 

It wasn't perfect. The way Dany went from getting fucked over in the last episode to killing everyone and everything without a single problem made no sense. Yeha, she was unprepared when she lost her previous dragon and knew way more now. But it still made no sense how they fucking struggled to actually miss the dragon in the last episode. So many arrows hitting without any problems. This time the Iron Fleet looked like it was their first time being on the ocean, and they looked unprepared as fuck. Made no sense. And the scorpions suddenly took 10 minutes more to load and weren't nearly as easy to aim as in...the last episode.

 

What happened to Cersei's army? Shit made no sense. She should've had a MASSIVE army, but there were barely anyone there. So weird.
 

Also some of the fights were close to giving me massive seizures. Like the fight between the Hound and Ser Gregor or just the fight between Jaime and the other danish actor. Have a shot from far out where you see what happens and see them start their move, be it a hit, a strike with a sword or whatever - then a sudden cut to a  zoomed in shot of a blade/sword hitting something, or a person getting a fist in his face. Then repeat this through the entire fight. What the actual fuck? It's not the first time, but they fights are so fucking simple. They're straight-forward, pretty poorly choreographed and incredibly easy to both execute and shoot. And still they fuck it up. It's weird, because once upon a time GoT actually had INCREDIBLE fights that were amazingly put together by choreographers, well-shot and beautifully executed by cast and stuns doubles. Like. C'mon! I could with no doubt in my mind whatsoever make these fights look better with the third graders I work with and the equipment we've got at the school where I work. And we barely have any equipment. Says it all.

 
However, seeing zombiefied Ser Gregor like this was awesome. Awesome make-up!

 

Loved seeing Dany go bonkers, tho. Predictable as fuck, but it's been a work in progress since the first season. I see people around the net complain about it, and there was no signs or anything, they say. Like, what the fuck? Did you guys just skip every single episode with her in it or something? She's gradually gone from innocent and pure to mad, and if you rewatch every season you'll see how she's gradually changed. The way she talks, the way she acts and ever the way she looks and moves. One of the least surprising things in the series so far, but it was really pleasing.

 

Edited May 13, 2019 by Bear

[CAT5 9075]

7 hours ago, Bear said:

 

  Hide contents

Loved seeing Dany go bonkers, tho. Predictable as fuck, but it's been a work in progress since the first season. I see people around the net complain about it, and there was no signs or anything, they say. Like, what the fuck? Did you guys just skip every single episode with her in it or something? She's gradually gone from innocent and pure to mad, and if you rewatch every season you'll see how she's gradually changed. The way she talks, the way she acts and ever the way she looks and moves. One of the least surprising things in the series so far, but it was really pleasing.

 

 

Spoiler

I agree 100%!!! I think this guy also had a nice little summary of Dany's arc:

 

 

It was definitely predictable, but there was something morbidly satisfying about it all. It's hard to explain, but watching her descent into madness was both terrifying and fulfilling in a way. I think because it just exemplified a hard truth about human nature - we're all fallible. And it's usually the people who think they're flawless, or that think they're "good" that turn out to be the most dangerous, because they've turned a blind eye to their own propensity for madness, chaos, and ultimately evil. It's an area of ourselves that most are loathe to look (many go to great lengths to avoid looking at it), but turning a blind eye doesn't make it go away. And in Dany's case, her propensity for evil (mostly) went unchecked, meanwhile her head was continually being overblown with how "great" she was.

 

All it usually takes is a matter of circumstances to expose our flaws and weaknesses...and it's us

 

[BrenGun 2261]

For me, it already has end....

The last episode was just stupid as...

 

Don't mind that I cannot see the last episode next week... 

Maybe I will even wait another month or year until I watch the last episode.

 

The last season is really worse...

[CAT5 9075]

Just watched the finale, and....yeahhh...