HBO's adaptation of Game of Thrones - Thread 2. There are a lot of nerds.

initially proposed by Ian McElhinney tbf!

Was it? I didn't see that part!

this was the best episode of this show in a long time imo. i think the Dany turn was rushed, but wasn't some unbelievable, out of the blue move. felt very GRRM.

Actor Ian McElhinney, who played Barristan Selmy on Game of Thrones until the character was killed off in 2015, claimed (falsely, it appears) at a convention called Epic Con back in April that Martin has already completed the final two books, and he agreed to wait and publish them after the show finished:

“George has already written Books 6 and 7, and as far as he’s concerned there only are seven books. But he struck an agreement with David and Dan, the showrunners on the series, that he would not publish the final two books until the series has completed. So if all goes well, in another month or two we might get Books 6 and 7, and I’m intrigued to know how Barristan, for instance, ends up going through those final two books. George, I talked to him during Season 1 and he did say to me that Barristan had a very interesting journey. But unfortunately I didn’t get to play all of that, so we’ll have to wait and see.”

actually, now that I think about it, maybe he picked it up from Twitter himself. But he certainly gave it more traction

Just saw the episode last night. Hoo boy, did these idiots top themselves! The first time Tyrion mentioned the bells, I turned to my wife and said, “Dany is going to ignore the bells.” Then Tyrion proceeded to say it to everyone like 15 more times because the showrunners think everyone who watches this show are mouthbreathing dim-bulbs, which we all are.

Managing to make Cleganebowl be a letdown takes skill: wait until the penultimate episode and have literally no other stakes, not even that the Mountain was protecting Cersei. And why did the Hound not kill Cersei as she tiptoed by after basically telling Arya, “I got this.” Oh I know, so we can be let down by the Cersei and Jamie buried alive love scene no one wanted. Also why did the Hound wait 2 week’s until they arrived at a burning Kings Landing to convince Arya to go home?

Euron was the thinnest character of all time next to Missandei but he needed ten minutes of screen time.

Dany’s performance against the Sons of the Harpies, the Night King (twice), and Euron the first time really set up that she had the ability to pull off the destruction of KL with a single dragon. Surprised she didn’t walk the dragon through the streets of KL up to the Red Keep and yell Dracarys! Lol at the explanation that she saw the Red Keep and made it personal by not destroying the Red Keep.

The execution on this show makes Lost look like the Sopranos.

She really wanted to make it personal. So instead of going after Cersei, the woman who had heard her so much, she decided to just fly around and kill people she didn't know for a few hours. Really personal, can't get more personal than that.

Like if Rambo made it personal in First Blood by calling in a bunch of drone strikes on Portland.

lol

they explained the bells so much I was trying to work out what dastardly scheme Tyrion had dreamed up to *actually* do when the bells rang

GRRM’s foreshadowing in the last book is all about Dany realising that “dragons plant no trees”, that her destiny is to be a conqueror and that is where it leaves off - that’s a train of thought that you could see proceeding to a brutal sack of Kings Landing.

Have to say, very much not here for the “sensible men characters were keeping Dany from herself!” I mean, Jon is an idiot, Tyrion gives terrible advice and Jorah was motivated by his blue balls as much as anything a lot of the time!

I'm glad I only started watching this show a few months ago so it feels more like a trashy fantasy drama that was very into caring about who these people are and their machinations are and has become a differently-trashy fantasy drama that's more focused on what ridiculous things those characters can do (while ignoring some of the previous characterization and machinations)

Just because they showed some character traits that might suggest tyranny, ie wanting to be a ruler, wanting power etc, doesn't mean that this isn't a sudden shift. There's a pretty big disconnect from the shows first few seasons in which it attempted, however badly, for the characters to have agency and develop slowly within the context of a plot that expanded in some sort of unison with their decisions and actions, and this six episode projectile plot puke.

I don't know why they didn't go for a 10-episode season, give it all a bit more room, make some more money etc. But the quotes etc from the writers are so ridiculous that it seems they were just burnt out, narratively.

I think they screwed up by not keeping all the character threads in play, or underdeveloping the ones that would better explain the current status quo.

Jon seems really glitchy and underdeveloped now, but if you're binging the show, he was pretty functional about twelve hours ago.

(which is yeeears because of the show release cycle)

as one of the previous links says, she's always been motivated by 'the throne is mine' and 'i am saviour of the people' which come into direct conflict when she believes the only way to get and keep the throne for good is to have everyone fear her rather than rely on fickle 'love'

I want some scene with her being all "Dogs drool, dragons rule!" and Jon exclaiming "Wolves! They're wolves!!"

wasn’t there some fan theory about dragon-sized wolves? could be a good match-up

idk i think she'll give some cool/calm speech about how it was all for their own good, and how from here on out she'll protect westeros etc etc

I read an article that pointed out how worried the show runners seem to be about having their plot twists "figured out" by the internet, so they seem to be deliberately not doing character development with Dany so that people can still be all WTF when she mad-queens out

Does feel a little like the bells's just gone for playtime and all they have time left to write is "then they killed the baddie, then they killed the other baddie, then the good queen turned into a baddie and killed everyone THE END"

xpost Heh, that's pretty dumb. It's a show with magic and dragons and people coming back from the dead as zombies and ... not zombies. If they can't find ways to surprise people, boy does that betray a lack of creativity.

today my 4 yo has been saying 'I'm going to make a dragon breathe fire on you' which is making me concerned he could hear GoT from his bed last night.

otoh it's exactly within his character arc as a tyrant

Game of Cribs

Anyway, the showrunners are off to kill all the Jedi again uh wait

https://io9.gizmodo.com/the-first-star-wars-films-after-rise-of-skywalker-will-1834749699

(Old news on the one hand but they're next up, is the point.)

That definitely supports the "they rushed this to suit Lucasfilm's timeline / their desire to make truckloads of money" theory

I want to live in a world where the executives at Disney, ink still wet on their contract with these two dipshits, watch episode 5 in horror, looking at each other while mouthing, “what have we done.”

These guys are perfect for Star Wars. Can’t wait for Jar Jar Bink’s heel turn.

xp really hope they give them the opportunity to do something other than lightsabers and order of knights intrigue, because these dudes are really burned out on that shit

HBO is printing money with this shit people apparently hate - just like Star Wars - so I don't think anyone at either Disney or HBO is wringing their hands over how bad these idiots are.

xp

I mean large chunks of this thread are "this is awful! Also why isn't there more of it"

"please sir may I have another" etc

well they've already fired Josh Trank, Colin Trevorrow and Lord & Miller off Star Wars movies in the past couple of years so it's not like they have any compunctions about ditching directors

but they probably still think they're good, yeah

this is ilx, everything is awful here. The show is okay now, perfectly good spectacle and scope and all that. the issue is that it once was actually great (S1-S4) and compared to what it once was it just feels a bit empty and rushed. One of the better qualities of the earlier seasons was the narrative intelligence (all from Martin).

i would say 1-4, 5-7, and 8 alone are three separate levels, give or take. tho maybe 7 could be lumped in with 8 as the shit years.

Series 6 was really fucking boring.

8 is better than 7

That too.

maybe in the sense of 'things happening'

These guys are perfect for Star Wars. Can’t wait for Jar Jar Bink’s heel turn.

― Mazzy Tsar (PBKR), Tuesday, May 14, 2019 8:36 AM (fifteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

already happened

let's go ahead and lump in 7 with 8 as the shit years

i for one am very happy this is on its last episode and will not be watching season one of any of the spin offs. let's see what survives.

I think it's 1-4, based on the first three books. 5-6, sorta but not quite based on and wrapping up GRRMs work, and 7-8 doing Benioff and Wise's ideas and turning into complete shit as a result.

i'm not sure how IMDB ratings play out over time, but the last two episodes are rated waaaaaaaay below the rest of the series.

I don't think Star Wars is reconsidering hiring these two, but I think this season is really hurting HBO. Who is excited for the prequels now? And their other idea, 'Confederate', was shot down right out of the gate.

i watched a dialogue scene between Cersei and Ned from S1. the conversation is taken largely from the novel, and the differences are really uh stark in terms of quality vs the dialogue in recent seasons. Lena Headey remains great but she had so much good material to work with in those early years, and it's been so long since Sean Bean was around it's easy to forget what a good central character he (briefly) made.

the spin offs

i am actually kind of excited about these, cautiously optimistic at least. there's a really rich universe to work with, and with D&D off doing star wars shit hopefully whoever is in charge will be enthusiastic about running a show that trillions of people watch

There were plenty of episodes in that middle stretch that did little to advance the plot OR any real character development and were just about moving the pieces around the board to where they eventually needed to be. Dany sentences a few peasants to death, Arya does some shadowboxing with another novice who may or may not be trying to kill her, etc.

Well considering Jane Goldman is in charge of the only spinoff with a pilot, I'm not optimistic myself

i am actually kind of excited about these

I’m sure that if the remaining books ever come out someone will redo the series “the right way”

perhaps on showtime lol