"Non book readers" - Season 8 Episode 4 "The Last of the S" - Spoilers post 2 fo

Weakest episode of the season for me. Brienne blubbering over Jaime was silly, she is a stronger character than that. Jon giving away Ghost was also stupid.

I thought Emilia Clarke was excellent though, that might be her best episode and she was the highlight of the episode by a distance. It makes me wish we had more time with Dany as desperate and succumbing to that Targaryen temper.

Wasn't expecting much action in this one after last week, more recovering from the battle and the politics of setting things up for Kings Landing, which they did aswell. So Rhaegal dropping out of the sky really took me off guard.

Dany at the end looking like she's going to go all Mad Queen and burn Kings Landing to the ground. If she can avoid Drogon getting killed too that is.

You can see how rushed this all was. Things happening in months are taking minutes to depict as opposed to earlier seasons.

There was easily enough material to run this out over a full length Season 7 and 8 and take the time to depict more of the schemery, politics and development a bit better.
Jamie changing his allegiance yet again is just plain dull. Euron's fleet scoring three direct hits on a Rhaegar is equally absurd. Not sure Sansa the character we've known would have sworn to John's secret and blabbed immediately. That's something that should have played out over a few episodes... she didn't even agonise over it.
Varys changing sides so rapidly is equally uncharacteristic for such a patient patriot.

All the above said, overall bar accidentally reading a spoiler about Missandei I still enjoyed it.

Agree with the concerns above. Success can really screw with a series. It’s a Lord of the Rings with naughty bits now.

Regarding Dinklage’s decidedly strange posh English accent, like Sean Connery in so many roles (Red October comes to mind) his performance carries the day.

Quality is dipping every episode. Don't know why they couldn't have just went with 10 one hour episodes to help with the pacing a bit.

Varys had a very Trekkie outfit tonight.

I don't know what people want anymore. 80 minutes of action, bring back the intrigue. 75 minutes of intrigue, this sucks and I want...I don't know what people want. I thought The Walking Dead got a little silly, I stopped watching. The show didn't miss me as a viewer and my life is better instead of spending my time posting about something that I don't like.

J. Marston wrote: »

Jon giving away Ghost was also stupid.

It's almost like he is giving up his Northern heritage and leaving it behind?:cool: About to become the man he is born to be?:eek: Also it costs a lot to render the direwolves and make them look realistic. Blame that on technology. People prefer dragons over wolves.

sdanseo wrote: »

You can see how rushed this all was. Things happening in months are taking minutes to depict as opposed to earlier seasons.

There was easily enough material to run this out over a full length Season 7 and 8 and take the time to depict more of the schemery, politics and development a bit better.
Jamie changing his allegiance yet again is just plain dull. Euron's fleet scoring three direct hits on a Rhaegar is equally absurd. Not sure Sansa the character we've known would have sworn to John's secret and blabbed immediately. That's something that should have played out over a few episodes... she didn't even agonise over it.
Varys changing sides so rapidly is equally uncharacteristic for such a patient patriot.

All the above said, overall bar accidentally reading a spoiler about Missandei I still enjoyed it.

Travel time has always been strange in the show. Without getting a date and time stamp you have to assume time has passed. Now we would all have liked to have more filler (okay, maybe not everyone as the complaints about filler episodes is enough already) but there just isn't enough story or money for that. Remember that Catelyn Stark went from Winterfell to King's Landing in between episodes in season 1. That is supposed to take time, especially if you aren't going by the King's road apparently. Everyone was okay with time travel then, but it is a problem now because there is nothing to fit in between these scenes and there is no books for readers to fill in the details of what happened on the trip.

On the money, it costs a lot of money for them to contract the actors to a season and the longer it goes the more they need to be paid. So while we may see the budgets go up some of that is to the actors being paid more. Also, you could have had more seasons if you cut some effects or extras, but then you would have a case where Vaes Dothrak looks like the entrance to a farm more than a city.

Nice episode though, I enjoyed it and it sets up the last 2 very nicely. They have planted the seeds of either Tyrion or Jaime killing Cersei and of Cleganebowl. Expect neither of those things to happen and people to complain either way.

I enjoyed it.

It's hard to predict who ends up on the throne now that Cersei appears to have the upper hand, Jon and Dany could go either way and Gendry being legitimized will surely have some repercussions.

Varys was the highlight of the episode for me. His scheming will definitely throw a cat amongst the pigeons.

The only thing I'll nit pick at here is how the hell did Missandei get captured while the rest of them were washing ashore? That was remarkably convenient.

Personally thought that was much better than last week's dross, for the only reason being that Cersei finally makes another appearance. She won't but would love if she was still on the throne at the end, she's the only character left who interests me, although Dany had a strong episode too. That dragon got got, so did Missandei, ruthless haha.

razorblunt wrote: »

Who the fcuk preferes dragons over direwolves?

Direwolves all day for me, give Ghost a rub and a biscuit FFS!

Someone from the show (it could ve writters or someone else, I can't remember) said before that it is a lot harder and more expensive to do direwolves than dragons. So I guess it's budgeting.

I thought it was good episode although Jamie Brienne romance for me doesn't really work. Anyway except Sam and Gilly I can't think of a love story that had a happy ending in the show. It's a good indication where this will go.

Sansa playing her game isn't a surprise, books especially make it very clear she is learning from Little Finger. Her telling Hound she wouldn't become who she is if she escaped with him is an indication in what direction her character developed.

I don't overly rate Emilia Clarke's acting but I think she was very good in this episode. She played well someone on the verge of a breakdown.

Edit: just a question, what happened to the Knights of the Vale? Were they all (any) part of northern forces?

meeeeh wrote: »

Someone from the show (it could ve writters or someone else, I can't remember) said before that it is a lot harder and more expensive to do direwolves than dragons. So I guess it's budgeting.

I thought it was good episode although Jamie Brienne romance for me doesn't really work. Anyway except Sam and Gilly I can't think of a love story that had a happy ending in the show. It's a good indication where this will go.

Sansa playing her game isn't a surprise, books especially make it very clear she is learning from Little Finger. Her telling Hound she wouldn't become who she is if she escaped with him is an indication in what direction her character developed.

I don't overly rate Emilia Clarke's acting but I think she was very good in this episode. She played well someone on the verge of a breakdown.

Edit: just a question, what happened to the Knights of the Vale? Were they all (any) part of northern forces?

They were on the left hand flank with Brienne, no sign of their commander until this episode and I'm pretty sure he took all his pieces off the board, notably the new Khal didn't, so I assume there a few left across the water to call upon.

OneOfThem Stumbled wrote: »

They were part of the northern forces, but they were all dismounted. They basically all died, but they can be resurrected if it is later convenient to the plot.

I'm enjoying the fact that Danerys has lost her 8000 unsullied several times over at this stage. We literally saw all of them die in the last episode. There was even a mention of Dothraki as part of Daenerys' current forces (how!?), even though the show-makers have said that they will not feature again on the show. Distance, time, logistics, and tactics are not the GOT writers' strong points.

Leftover across the water?
She's supposed to have ~40k and there's no way there was that many outside Winterfell.