Television Just watched GoT season 8 for the first time.

[TronSpecial]

Dumb and dumber literally said they wanted to appeal more to moms and football players so they toned the show down. That's all you need to know about those ass clowns.

 

[YellowBanenoo]

I think 1-6 are terrific overall. Season 5 gets a lot of flack, but I thought virtually every storyline outside of the Dorn stuff was awesome that year. Dany having to deal with SOH- great. Jonathan f'n Pryce and the Faith Militant vs. Cersei- even better. Snow aligning with Stannis and Davos- some of the best stuff of the season. Snow succeeding where Stannis' hardliner mentality failed and winning over the Wildlings to the bigger cause, terrific. That scene where he frees Tormund is probably among my top 10 favorite scenes of that season. Hardhome- one of the GOAT GOT episodes. My man Friendstone working his way back to Dany, very good, culminating with the Fighting Pits/Massacre at Mereen, another memorable, very effectively executed sequence.

Even the very offputting Ramsay/Sansa/Reek stuff was effective in the sense that Iwan, McElhatton, Sophie, and the always reliable Alife turned in compelling performances. I hated the direction they went with Stannis' character and his actions toward the end of that season was easily the most disturbing scene of the series for me. Poor Shireen.

I really enjoyed Arya's arc that season too because they did a good job, in the earlygoing, of presenting the House of Black and White as a weird, mystical place shrouded in mystery. Tom Wclaschla did a great job as Jaqen and Maise was consistently strong in the role. It was fresh in a way that it would not be in season 6 when the storyline began to drag and then go over-the-top with The TermiWaifer relentlessly pursuing Arya through the streets.

6 was an even better season. Battle of the Bastards and, even more so, the final episode of the season are high, high upper-tier episodes for the series. So when you are still pulling off that caliber at that point, it's impressive. Even a lot of the earlier episodes that season were good, particularly once Jon was back and when you started to get somewhere with Dany winning over the Dothraki. Everything in King's Landing was quality. Particularly enjoyed Jaime and Cersei conspiring with Kevan and Olenna to take out the High Sparrow before he made Margery do the walk of shame, only for that plan to be thwarted.

To me, it's really 7 and 8 where you start to see the dropoff in quality. I think people tend to point to a gradual decline after season 4. For me, I don't really feel it. I would wager to say that if you watched the show all through in binge-type fashion, the dropoff from 4 to 5/6 would seem negligible, while the drop from 6 to 7 and 8 would seem like a steep fall off a cliff.

And I'm saying that as someone who genuinely liked aspects of season 7 (particularly the phenomenally well-rendered squash match on episode 4) and who disliked season 8 to an extent that was less venomous than most people tuning in. It's just that season 7 really starts to meander before getting outright silly with Snow Patrol bro-ing out beyond the Wall going to get a zombie to bring to Cersei. Season 8 just messed up so many characters. Even if you like individual episodes to an extent or parts of individual episodes, it's just impossible to ignore the character assassinations:

If you look at Tyrion as a character, you can legitimately make the argument that once he kills Shae, he becomes a useless figure. The guy who was the smartest man in the room and one of the most effective at the game becomes not just less effective but outright actively shitty at his job. Season 5 he still has it- he might be a broken man because of how things went down in KL but he manages to negotiate well against the slavers, convinces Dany to spare Jorah, sells his adviser skills, etc. But from season 6 on it's bad, bungling decision after bad, bungling decision.

And here's the kicker. They set it up that every mistake he makes, Dany has to bail him out. He fucks up by cutting a deal with the Wise Masters and the SOH, despite Grey Worm's and Missandei's protestations. They just use that as a smokescreen, consolidate their resources and besiege Mereeen. Dany saves his ass with the dragons and the Dothraki. He sends the Unsullied to attack the Lannister forces at Casterly Rock, only to be outwitted by his brother of all people and get a major part of the army stranded so that Olenna and her crew are vulnerable to attack. Dany has to clean up the loss of her major allies in the Tyrells and the Dornish/Iron Born by cleaning house with Drogon and the Dothraki, dealing a major blow to the Lannister army and convincing both Jaime and Bronn (quite rightly) that the Lannisters will lose if a battle for King's Landing were to go down.

So Tyrion screws up, Dany has to fix it. And then the show has the gall to make it like Tyrion's missteps weren't that he was screwing up strategically and costing his Queen each time out, BUT instead that his major misstep was carting his wagon to that Dragon in the first place. Oh man she's an evil dictator- we saw it coming and we didn't stop her! Get out of here.

So that's bad. But he's not even given the worst of it. Jaime and Dany were completely ruined. It was not merely a case of fans being pissed because they got outcomes that defied what they had hoped for them. No, it was about a lack of adherence to longstanding character traits. Jaime was showing growth for years. He became an empathetic character and finally walked away from a destructive relationship in order to fight against the Army of the Dead. As soon as that shit is over, he is ready to go back to his sister cause...I don't know, toxic love I guess. Insanity. Here's a guy who fights to save humanity when his sister would not lift a finger to help. A guy who knows that she told him to screw off when he opted to leave her. A guy who knows she outright hired Bronn to kill him. And he's gotta go back there because he wants to die with her? What in the hell?

And Dany- just as bad, arguably worse. She commits the greatest-scale atrocity in the show. She commits genocide. She KILLS innocent civilians, including women and children which she was always very particular about protecting and helping and then she's leading fascist rallies and ready to torch anyone in the kingdoms who does not accept the New World Order. And why? Because Jon found their liaisons creepy once he learned of their kinship? Because she knew he was a Targ and felt threatened? Because she's batshit crazy like Targs sometimes go? A combination of all. It didn't add up. Look, there could have been a way that Dany's actions were devastatingly bad without making her fly up and down the streets and torch every poor fleeing soul that wasn't part of her army. You could have had her and Drogon accidentally set off the wildifire and it causes pockets of explosions that harm countless people, for instance. But to have her do what she did once the Lannister surrendered the city? Ludicrous.

Factor in other elements of the season like the way the Long Night battle went down, the fact that Bran ascended to the throne despite not doing anything to help anyone, the fact that Jon was a virtual nonentity for long swaths of the season despite the fact that he's the rightful king, and you have a lot of things that went wrong.

This could've all been avoided if they just added one more season.

Was it worth it ya cocksuckers ?

 

[Brother Numsi]

I think the complains are mostly about how the writers set up for the ending and the choices made by each charactor. Arya killing Night king for example. I'm sure the Fat dude who wrote the book will probably take that path but set it up nicely so it makes sense.

Oh I get that and folks have a right to voice their opinions about what they liked and didn't like. So when I say I don't mind how the show ended it doesn't mean I liked everything about the last seasons but I just except it for what it is

I agree with pretty much everyone that Jon should have at least fought with the Night King one on one and then you could have Arya come in and save the day if need be. They built that up since Season 5 at Hardhomme and then the two don't even get to face off. Wanted to see how powerful the Night King really was in combat and Jon was no slouch as a swordsman.

Everything just felt rushed the last two seasons. You could tell they were trying to wrap things up as quick as possible instead of taking their time. I mean Storm of Swords is arguable the best book so far and they split that book up in two seasons (3 and 4). I can forgive them for trying to combine two books into Season 5 because if you read A Feast For Crows you would know Jon, Arya, and Dany were not in that book and their was no way they would keep those characters out for a whole season like they did with Bran

 

[ufcfan4]

This could've all been avoided if they just added one more season.

Was it worth it ya cocksuckers ?

I really do think they were too caught up in the notion that GoT was their baby and only they could see it through to the finish. They gassed themselves out running all aspects of the series and then, in the championship rounds, when it's really gut check time, they tried to coast and bank on the stellar performance in the earlygoing getting them the victory on the cards.

Everybody seemed to want more episodes. Nope- has to be six. If they were tired of it and wanted to move on with their lives, they could have taken a less involved, less hands on role with the series. There are plenty of showrunners who aren't also writing all the scripts. They could have brought other people in to help. But it's one of those things where they seemingly didn't want anyone to compromise their vision.

You can't take away from them the greatness that was the series for a large portion of its run. But you can absolutely be irked by the fact that they could not fulfill that potential and stick the landing.

 

[Phisher]

Best series I have ever watched, hands down. Season 8 finale hurt a little bit but expectations were so high that it never would have been good.

A lot of people say it dropped off after season 4 but that’s nonsense. While it dropped its grittiness it gained in utter sheer violence, particularly from the dragon. Battle scenes were exceptional.

Haters can suck a dick.

If you're only watching for violence, then yeah, it was a solid show all the way through.

I don't know how anybody who actually liked the characters who made it from the early seasons to the late seasons could take it seriously.


Tyrion was super intelligent before he became Dany's hand. After that, he was literally wrong about everything and just went around moping.

 

[Phisher]

This could've all been avoided if they just added one more season.

Was it worth it ya cocksuckers ?

HBO was willing to fund up to ten full seasons.

I don't know what their contract arrangement was to run the show, but GOT is not D&D's IP.

They should have been replaced when they decided to rush the ending to work on other projects.

 

[fungi]

Best series I have ever watched, hands down...

Haters can suck a dick.

I can, butt...

 

[fungi]

I loved the books. Read them three times. Loved the first season, it’s what drew me to the books. Overall, I do think it was the best series ever. Season 7 had some really great moments, as did 8, but I felt that 8 kind of fell off after the long night.

Best moments of the series:
Joffrey dying.
Mountain v Red Viper
Euron Greyjoy
Battle of hardhome
Battle of bastards
Long Night
And siege of kings landing up until genocide

They portrayed Euron as some cuck, who truly wanted and enjoyed Jaime's sloppy seconds. Actually, Robert's third, Lancel's fourth, Ospreys' fifth and sixth, or something in that order.


In the books he was a pirate captain who fucked his own bro's wife and felt proud of it.

One of best moments of the series?



Dumbdickhead & Dumberdickhead are the 2 dumbest dickheads in tv/film history.

 

[Harmonica]

Season 8 never happened...

Spoiler

Muh Queen

Nothing after season 4 happened.

 

[ralphc1]

I don't think Season 8 was as bad as some folks are making it out to be but they rushed the hell out of it towards the end with the last two seasons.

That was biggest issue for me. The last season should have been the longest season of the series even if it had a lot of filler episodes. Seems like they just wanted to end the show as quickly as possible and I can totally understand the anger behind that. If people are mad because of how the show ended, I don't really care. Can't please everyone

The show runners wanted to move on to other things. I'm sure they were tired of waiting for GRRM to finish the books. He supposedly told them how it would end. They probably realized after season 7 the audience wouldn't be happy with it and delayed the final season to try to get a better ending. They had to go with what GRRM gave them and, like ripping off a bandage quickly, got it over with.

 

[blaseblah]

The show runners wanted to move on to other things. I'm sure they were tired of waiting for GRRM to finish the books. He supposedly told them how it would end. They probably realized after season 7 the audience wouldn't be happy with it and delayed the final season to try to get a better ending. They had to go with what GRRM gave them and, like ripping off a bandage quickly, got it over with.

They made it worse by not actually developing any of the storylines. If/when GRRM finishes the books he's going to have a lot of plot leading up to pivotal character moments.

 

[ufcfan4]

The show runners wanted to move on to other things. I'm sure they were tired of waiting for GRRM to finish the books. He supposedly told them how it would end. They probably realized after season 7 the audience wouldn't be happy with it and delayed the final season to try to get a better ending. They had to go with what GRRM gave them and, like ripping off a bandage quickly, got it over with.

the thing is even if GRRM gave them the endgame, perhaps, for example, indicating that in the end Bran ends up on the Iron Throne, I highly doubt he said Bran does nothing of merit or nothing to warrant getting power but ends up on the Iron Throne. It was up to them to sort out the finer details.

That’s just one example for me. If you know you are going to end with Bran as king, you’d damn sure do things earlier in the season to make people have any affinity for him or any reason to want him in that capacity. They didn’t.

Who knows- maybe they didn’t want that plot resolution but went with it since GRRM conveyed it to them years ago. Id imagine it would have been better to come up with their own thing than to half-assedly shoehorn things in to get to that conclusion.

Tyrion’s speech to get Bran on the throne is one of the most ridiculous moments of the season in my opinion.

 

[BB in Crazy!!!!]

the thing is even if GRRM gave them the endgame, perhaps, for example, indicating that in the end Bran ends up on the Iron Throne, I highly doubt he said Bran does nothing of merit or nothing to warrant getting power but ends up on the Iron Throne. It was up to them to sort out the finer details.

That’s just one example for me. If you know you are going to end with Bran as king, you’d damn sure do things earlier in the season to make people have any affinity for him or any reason to want him in that capacity. They didn’t.

Who knows- maybe they didn’t want that plot resolution but went with it since GRRM conveyed it to them years ago. Id imagine it would have been better to come up with their own thing than to half-assedly shoehorn things in to get to that conclusion.

Tyrion’s speech to get Bran on the throne is one of the most ridiculous moments of the season in my opinion.

I thought the fact that any of them thought Tyrion’s speech was a good idea mind blowing. And even better, Sansa saying the North will be independent and Bran being like cool, was perfectly fine with Dorne and the Iron born. Wtf. Should have just broken up the Kingdoms back into the 7 independent Kingdoms and just had Bran as a mediator for when the rulers meet.

 

[ufcfan4]

I thought the fact that any of them thought Tyrion’s speech was a good idea mind blowing. And even better, Sansa saying the North will be independent and Bran being like cool, was perfectly fine with Dorne and the Iron born. Wtf. Should have just broken up the Kingdoms back into the 7 independent Kingdoms and just had Bran as a mediator for when the rulers meet.

haha well said.

Tyrion's track record of decisions at that point was so spotty that everybody immediately should have been like, "yeah, Greyworm, take him away." The "Who has had a better story than Bran the Broken?" rang so hollow because Weiss and Benioff hadn't given him a good story since season 6.

The whole element of the major lords meeting with Greyworm and Tyrion to determine Jon's fate just makes virtually no sense and is probably awful on the re-watch.

Once Drogon flew Dany's corpse off, they should have just had a Mystic River scene with Jon in the Sean Penn role and Tyrion in the Kevin Bacon role.

Where's Daenerys, Jon? Where's our Queen?

Our queen (looks in the distance despondently)...last time I saw her, she was flying off to Old Valyria.

 

[Alphaboy]

Y'all might enjoy this. Watch it...

 

[HereticBD]

Benioff and Weiss are two of the biggest fucking hacks in the Hollywood. The fact that they got so much credit for GRRM's source material is amazing.

Say what you will about their creativity, but it's not like adapting those books to the screen so perfectly is some small feat. You have to give them some level of credit. Adaptations can go just as wrong as original works. Those boys knocked it out of the park for four seasons, and I think season 6 was pretty well done as well, so I don't think they were incapable of making a decent season on their own. Personally, I think they just got burnt out on the franchise, got lazy and rushed to get it over with.

 

[TheNinja]

I don't think Season 8 was as bad as some folks are making it out to be but they rushed the hell out of it towards the end with the last two seasons.

That was biggest issue for me. The last season should have been the longest season of the series even if it had a lot of filler episodes. Seems like they just wanted to end the show as quickly as possible and I can totally understand the anger behind that. If people are mad because of how the show ended, I don't really care. Can't please everyone

This was my biggest problem too. The show had a very specific and deliberate pace. Then the last 2 seasons it was like they ran out of energy and were just like "screw it.....let's just wrap this thing up, take our money, and head home". The pacing completely changed.

I have no problem with how it ended but to basically have 1 major battle and wipe out the entire Night King's army in 1 episode......after YEARS of buildup.....was a bit of a letdown to say the least.

 

[Goon Dog]

With all the review and info available regarding Season 8, why in the world would you watch it? I wish I could unsee it.

 

[BIKES!]

Who has a better story than Bran the broken?????

Spoiler

Every fucking character you stupid imp

 

[blaseblah]

the thing is even if GRRM gave them the endgame, perhaps, for example, indicating that in the end Bran ends up on the Iron Throne, I highly doubt he said Bran does nothing of merit or nothing to warrant getting power but ends up on the Iron Throne. It was up to them to sort out the finer details.

That’s just one example for me. If you know you are going to end with Bran as king, you’d damn sure do things earlier in the season to make people have any affinity for him or any reason to want him in that capacity. They didn’t.

Who knows- maybe they didn’t want that plot resolution but went with it since GRRM conveyed it to them years ago. Id imagine it would have been better to come up with their own thing than to half-assedly shoehorn things in to get to that conclusion.

Tyrion’s speech to get Bran on the throne is one of the most ridiculous moments of the season in my opinion.

Exactly. No one except the Starks even knew about Bran's power. All the various kingdoms agree out of nowhere to put this random Stark kid on the throne and swear loyalty to him, even though his own sister refuses to. The writers make the lazy mistake of assuming that all the characters know what the audience knows. Their actual knowledge and their personal inclinations are thrown out out the window.

Even if they had known he was the three eyed raven, they still have no reason to want him as King given he has shown zero charisma or leadership qualities and has no personal relationship with anyone at the gathering except his siblings and Tyrion.

What also annoyed me about that meeting is that Jon is still alive. Grey Worm had been happily slaughtering surrendered solders up to that moment. It is unbelievable he would not immediately execute Jon on the spot for what he did.