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

threeball wrote: »

Was battle of the bastard actually that good. It was full of pretty stupid stuff,

Jon single handedly facing down a cavalry charge.

Sansa not bothering her hole to say hang back an hour or two here lads, serious reinforcements are on the way. No need to wipe out our entire army.

The arrival of the knights of the vale at exactly the right moment.

There were a few good moments but a few that made you shake your head at the stupidity too.

Wouldn't dispute that, but it was all framed so much better, and with much better supporting dialogue and pacing too.

Extending plot armour to Jon Snow, as obvious as it was (and a noted shift from the merciless narrative of S1-S4), was a somewhat acceptable stretch of narrative convenience.

Very different to say, Battle of Winterfell, where literally most of the main cast, including Jon, are repeatedly placed in their own amplified 'cavalry charges' yet survive - again and again - despite outrageously overwhelmingly odds at each turn.

BoB was, a few plot conveniences aside, a far superior battle in terms of how it's executed as well.

S6 isn't perfect by any stretch, but it's nowhere near as bad as the blatant 'round peg square hole' narrative of S8 and is much sharper.

uncleoswald wrote: »

It sounds like I generally agree with you about the decline in quality of the show, however I think the last episode was the least bad of the season so far (a low bar to be fair) and the fact it is getting such a kicking compared to equally poor or worse episodes, along with the 'hilarious' memes and obsessing over innocuous quotes and mistakes suggests that a bit of an online witch hunt has begun.

Also I can't imagine the showrunners simply "don't care" anymore, far more likely that the show just got too big, both narratively and logistically, and they lost control over it. It's like making five movies in the space of a year.

Again, I don't think it's fair to imply people are out to actively dislike it, or find fault just for the sake of it.

Every little slip, mistake, or implication simply compounds the simple fact that S8 is just plain poor and riddled with bad writing, lazy storytelling, illogical behavior, and the rest.

In isolation, the cup, the weird farewell to ghost, the bizarre bit with the Iron Fleet, Cersei showing illogical restraint outside KL, KL itself transforming from a rich, mountainous, mediteranean city into a barren desert plain, and the rest - any of those, on their own, wouldn't be a major deal...but bring them all together?

We don't say the same of people who had serious issues with massive decline in The Walking Dead or Dexter, two shows noted for infamous drops in quality.

People are, basically, making a mockery of the show, because the show has left itself wide open to it. It's extremely unfortunate, but just simply true.

I certainly wouldn't be on here complaining just for the sake of it. I wish it were better, I wish it weren't so lazy, and such a cheap end to a fantastic show.

I recently looked back on my posts in this forum about S7, and while I was disappointed with that season, I just had a vague sense of it all being a bit rushed and surface level, but still enjoyed it...and my posts say the same thing, but they aren't overly critical.

What's wrong with S8 is a new level of low for GOT to be honest.

I also don't buy that the show got away from them in the sense that the narrative became too bloated and impossible to tie together.

The main, over-riding issue with this season is the crap scripting and dialogue - the core narrative is inherently fine to most people.

Don't get me wrong - I hate that it's rushed and even the best writers couldn't have prevented that uncomfortable 150mph feeling - but the rush, and the abysmal writing, are seperate issues.

Something can be rushed but respectable; S8 is not that. It's both rushed and poorly written, and my real beef is with the latter.

I think it was purely down to CGI budgets and them chosing to alter things they thought would matter least to audiences in general. Winterfell, like KL, was on rugged, hilly terrain in previous seasons....in S8, it's also on a flat, generic plain.

Previous seasons had CGI a plenty, but no major pitched battles, so it wasn't a major concern to maintain some level of consistency.

But this season, with massive clashes, probably due to the ease of showing armies in battle, they reduced them to non-descript open fields. I suppose we have to accept that despite having a huge budget by TV standards, they still pale by film standards.