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"Non book readers" - Season 8 Episode 6 "The Iron Throne" - Spoilers post 2 forw

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  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 4,850 ✭✭✭Stop moaning ffs




  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 907 ✭✭✭Alpha_zero


    Drogon Eats Ghost.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 115 ✭✭Yermande


    Foxtrol wrote: »
    I agree with everything in this post, and sometimes use those sites in a similar way, but unfortunately your words don’t really align to how you used the site data in your earlier post. No matter what caveats you added, quoting specific percentage numbers to compare two shows from different eras, with very popularity and genres, isn’t using the sites for a ‘very general feel’.

    The two shows aren’t an apples to apples comparison and by using questionable quality data from those sites just muddy things further.

    That's how I use those sites when I'm 'previewing' stuff I might want to watch. Earlier in the thread I wasn't gauging for a 'general feel' of what to watch. I've already watched those shows in their entirety.

    There I was illustrating that there was a huge difference between how critics and fans perceived the apparent drop in quality of The Wire and Game of Thrones based on those sources. I quoted the exact percentages to illustrate the extent of the difference. At no point was I directly comparing each show to each other in terms of their inherent value or quality.

    I'm happy with the approach I took to illustrate a general point. You're not happy with it. No problem.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 16,826 ✭✭✭✭osarusan


    Bran, you must govern because you know us best, all our past, all our failures, all our history.

    Ok, but you must be my Hand, you must atone, you must redeem yourself.

    I will do that.


    /Cut/

    /New scene/


    ok, I'll look for the dragon, you carry on with kingdom-fixing stuff. Bye.

    Sure, see you later. Hey, did I ever tell the rest of you about when I visited a brothel with a donkey and honeycomb?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,286 ✭✭✭✭Foxtrol


    osarusan wrote: »
    Bran, you must govern because you know us best, all our past, all our failures, all our history.

    Ok, but you must be my Hand, you must atone, you must redeem yourself.

    I will do that.


    /Cut/

    /New scene/


    ok, I'll look for the dragon, you carry on with kingdom-fixing stuff. Bye.

    Sure, see you later. Hey, did I ever tell the rest of you about when I visited a brothel with a donkey and honeycomb?

    I think they did a decent job splitting the work if the two jobs at that point were warging to find a dragon and overseeing the funding of the water system etc. Think their skill sets fitted quite well to what they ended up doing.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 743 ✭✭✭RickBlaine



    It was the most boring possible way Dany could have died though. Like imagine if it was a standard 10 episode season and during that scene Dany stabbed and killed Jon instead because she is so paranoid he will betray her. Then we could have a few more episodes actually showing Dany as the mad queen and how Sansa, Tyrion and the rest could work together to get rid of her. Have her actually understanding the consequences of her actions as she looses the throne she has spent 10 years to get.

    Walter White often had to face the consequences of his actions as Heisenberg. That's what made his character so great to watch. But Dany's character didn't get that opportunity.

    There were 100s of fan theories, some great and some ridiculous. But it seems that the writers went for the most boring and mundane possible conclusion.

    This isn't about being disappointed that the show didn't meet my expectations about what would happen. But it is about the show not meeting my expectations in terms of quality and story telling innovation, and in some cases, basic screen writing competence.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,384 ✭✭✭Shemale


    God its just the worst season of any show EVER.

    Every episode got worse and worse, the whole season could have been 40 minutes long.

    Talked about it in work after episode 2 and predicted Denarys would turn into mad queen, wreck the gaf, Jon would kill her and Tyrion would be the King. So pissed off the Tyrion thing didnt happen and not sure why he didn't Bran said "well I am the king" after saying he wanted Tyrion to be king and then Tyron is the hand.

    WTF, the whole thing was donkey balls.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,678 ✭✭✭lawlolawl


    Shemale wrote: »
    God its just the worst season of any show EVER.

    Every episode got worse and worse, the whole season could have been 40 minutes long.

    Talked about it in work after episode 2 and predicted Denarys would turn into mad queen, wreck the gaf, Jon would kill her and Tyrion would be the King. So pissed off the Tyrion thing didnt happen and not sure why he didn't Bran said "well I am the king" after saying he wanted Tyrion to be king and then Tyron is the hand.

    WTF, the whole thing was donkey balls.


    Tyrion is pretty much the king anyway because Bran has no interest in human affairs and just spends his time appearing out of nowhere in his wheelchair in between sessions of warging into different beings with no real rhyme or reason.


    Seriously, he had his tedious adventure north of the wall and gained the amazing power to do *drumroll* **** all!


    Let's make him king. That makes sense!


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,384 ✭✭✭Shemale


    I still can't figure out the Sansa bit, "you're my brother and I love you" and makes herself Queen in the North. No **** you I am a Stark and I will rule all 7.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 14,347 ✭✭✭✭Grayditch


    Shemale wrote: »
    God its just the worst season of any show EVER.

    It was a thousand times better than the best season of Big Bang Theory.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,894 ✭✭✭Brock Turnpike


    Sansa voted leave #Nexit


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 115 ✭✭Yermande


    That's two dud HBO finales in 1 week. Veep was crap as well. Another excellent show that couldn't stick the landing.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,279 ✭✭✭NuMarvel


    I mean it's up to individual people to remember the show they are watching. We were told that dragons are intelligent.

    I do remember the show I'm watching. And I've never seen any example of a dragon having the level of intelligence that would make it believable when he decides that the small clump of metal that he's never seen before is the ultimate cause of his grief. Especially when the actual murder weapon is still embedded in his mother's chest, and covered in the scent of the only other person in the room.

    The closest we have is a man retelling what he's read other people say. And in fiction, that's not enough.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 22,477 ✭✭✭✭Knex*


    Grayditch wrote: »
    It was a thousand times better than the best season of Big Bang Theory.

    I'm not sure it's possible to actually watch an entire season of that tbh. Harrowing.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,286 ✭✭✭seligehgit


    To echo the sentiments of many I was underwhelmed by season 8.

    Re the episode itself I enjoyed it up to Danaery's death.Peter Dinklage stole the show.

    Raman Djawadi score yet again was wonderful and I loved the cinematography.I thought the CGI was very good.Yet as has been a common complaint the dialogue on occasion was very basic and lacking in gravity.Oft times more suited to a shtick.

    Was Kings Landings suffering from the ravages of climate change with the apparently ever changing weather patterns?

    Jon Snow now default moody lethargic demeanour was depressing as ever.

    What was with the collection of supposed noble people/most prominent rulers in the dragon pit?A bunch of fan favourites who could hardly be taken seriously.Samwell Tarley,Brienne of Tarth,Ser Davos of Seaworth( the most over rated character to last the course ) :rolleyes: even Prince Robyn of Arynn who's now all grown up.Surely others of greater gravitas could have been resurrected.It was all too similar to the finale of Star Wars A New Hope.

    Could any less suitable a motley crew have been selected to advise the new king?

    Bronn the master of coin,I don't care what training Samwell Tarley received in Oldtown..the grandmaester!:eek:Need I go on.Twas a gag a minute,hardly a fitting finale.More akin to the Ewoks celebration at the death of Return of the Jedi.

    Bran the Broken would have worked for me if I'd warmed to his character but he was less than human or involved post his fall and when he became the TER.The ultimate grandmaster of chess it appears.Yet his powers,motives and warging could have better been explained.There was next to no character development.

    So the finish post season 6 was too rushed,the motives and termination of the Night King story was very unsatisfactory and for me should have come at the culmination of the series.Much of the lore and tie ups re the prince that was promised were never truly developed.Many of the fan conspiracy theories would have lead to a superior conclusion.

    Happy enough with the Sansa,Arya and even Jon tie ups.The draw north of the wall for Jon was always present,I imagine he may yet break his vows and find a Ygritte mark 2.

    I would have loved if we'd seen another Night King appear in the distant forest.


  • Posts: 0 [Deleted User]


    Yermande wrote: »
    That's two dud HBO finales in 1 week. Veep was crap as well. Another excellent show that couldn't stick the landing.

    I liked it. Once I got to grips with the final season going completely nuts and
    making Jonah a candidate, Veep's potential Trump
    I enjoyed the last season and that finale.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 115 ✭✭Yermande


    I liked it. Once I got to grips with the final season going completely nuts and
    making Jonah a candidate, Veep's potential Trump
    I enjoyed the last season and that finale.

    I'm glad you enjoyed it. I personally found the overall quality dropped from season 6 onward but I can see why people got a kick out of the change of approach.

    A big problem for me was the number of characters that spoke the same barbed language. Don't get me wrong, I bloody love how raw and direct it is, but if you listed out a series of quotes right now I couldn't tell who said what. Allowing everyone to run riot actually lessened its impact. Kent actually became one of my favourite characters as a result of that because his profanity-free dialogue made him unique.

    Anyone that thinks Veep is a watered down version of The Thick of It (I've often heard it said) needs to watch it from start to finish. It takes a lot to shock me but sweet Jesus there's some seriously evil put-downs in it!

    Anyway, a fantastic series despite my own few reservations.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,785 ✭✭✭The Golden Miller


    GOT's was known for shock value. But why did everyone expect that to continue? In hindsight, they killed off what we thought were main characters, they weren't. They had to finish the show with the actual main characters.

    I've read the books and watched the show. Both decent. Back to reading Lord of the Rings again though


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 115 ✭✭Yermande


    GOT's was known for shock value. But why did everyone expect that to continue? In hindsight, they killed off what we thought were main characters, they weren't. They had to finish the show with the actual main characters.

    I've read the books and watched the show. Both decent. Back to reading Lord of the Rings again though

    How do you feel about Amazon's upcoming LotR adaptations?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,785 ✭✭✭The Golden Miller


    Yermande wrote: »
    How do you feel about Amazon's upcoming LotR adaptations?

    Hard to know. Cautiously optimistic. With Christopher Tolkien out of the way, the franchise will grow tenfold. Will probably be the biggest show of all time upon it's release


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,452 ✭✭✭Twenty Grand


    GOT's was known for shock value. But why did everyone expect that to continue? In hindsight, they killed off what we thought were main characters, they weren't. They had to finish the show with the actual main characters.

    I've read the books and watched the show. Both decent. Back to reading Lord of the Rings again though

    People died, but they died for character driven reasons, not story driven.

    Ned Stark died because Joffrey was a dick.
    Rob died because he was losing the war and listened to his dick instead of his advisors.
    The characters were fantastic and watching them interact with each other was what made the show appealing. Look at Arya and the Hound. Their best scenes had zero plot impact, but major character development impact.
    The best lines from all characters usually have nothing to do with the story, just observations on life and circumstance.

    Whenever they strayed into plot driven dialogue things got stale. Dany in Slavers Bay for instance. It was a box ticking exercise of events until she could leave. The last 2 seasons are all plot driven and suffer from it.

    IMO Sansa and Theon are the best characters of the show purely because they have quite small plot roles , Sansa is a hostage for most of it, Theon has a part at the beginning, but his plot involvement falls away after he takes Winterfell.
    But they have fully fleshed out character arcs. Every decision they make is true to who they are at the particular point in their development.
    Every other characters breaks away from this because their decisions are needed to drive a plot and often conflict with the characters own desires and drives.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,785 ✭✭✭The Golden Miller


    People died, but they died for character driven reasons, not story driven.

    Ned Stark died because Joffrey was a dick.
    Rob died because he was losing the war and listened to his dick instead of his advisors.
    The characters were fantastic and watching them interact with each other was what made the show appealing. Look at Arya and the Hound. Their best scenes had zero plot impact, but major character development impact.
    The best lines from all characters usually have nothing to do with the story, just observations on life and circumstance.

    Whenever they strayed into plot driven dialogue things got stale. Dany in Slavers Bay for instance. It was a box ticking exercise of events until she could leave. The last 2 seasons are all plot driven and suffer from it.

    IMO Sansa and Theon are the best characters of the show purely because they have quite small plot roles , Sansa is a hostage for most of it, Theon has a part at the beginning, but his plot involvement falls away after he takes Winterfell.
    But they have fully fleshed out character arcs. Every decision they make is true to who they are at the particular point in their development.
    Every other characters breaks away from this because their decisions are needed to drive a plot and often conflict with the characters own desires and drives.

    I agree to an extent, but you need a story ultimately. +1 on Theon though. Best character and best acted character on the show imo


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,452 ✭✭✭Twenty Grand


    I agree to an extent, but you need a story ultimately. +1 on Theon though. Best character and best acted character on the show imo

    True, you need a balance.
    IMO the balance was totally wrong.
    They needed an extra season at least to carry the story to a satisfying close. Shame we didn't get it.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,785 ✭✭✭The Golden Miller


    True, you need a balance.
    IMO the balance was totally wrong.
    They needed an extra season at least to carry the story to a satisfying close. Shame we didn't get it.

    Even worse, considering HBO made the funds available to let them do 10 episode seasons.

    If the story we got was ultimately GRRM's envisioned story, or close enough, in hindsight it was a weak enough story


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 115 ✭✭Yermande


    Hard to know. Cautiously optimistic. With Christopher Tolkien out of the way, the franchise will grow tenfold. Will probably be the biggest show of all time upon it's release

    Yeah I'm pretty much the same. I enjoyed the Jackson trilogy but I don't think it's too soon for a revisit.


  • Posts: 0 [Deleted User]


    Yermande wrote: »
    I'm glad you enjoyed it. I personally found the overall quality dropped from season 6 onward but I can see why people got a kick out of the change of approach.

    A big problem for me was the number of characters that spoke the same barbed language. Don't get me wrong, I bloody love how raw and direct it is, but if you listed out a series of quotes right now I couldn't tell who said what. Allowing everyone to run riot actually lessened its impact. Kent actually became one of my favourite characters as a result of that because his profanity-free dialogue made him unique.

    Anyone that thinks Veep is a watered down version of The Thick of It (I've often heard it said) needs to watch it from start to finish. It takes a lot to shock me but sweet Jesus there's some seriously evil put-downs in it!

    Anyway, a fantastic series despite my own few reservations.

    I replied to this in the Veep thread before we get a slap on the wrist for going way off topic :pac:

    https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=110245344#post110245344


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,391 ✭✭✭munster87


    Best part of the season for me was the night king piano piece by Ramin Djawadi


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,198 ✭✭✭PressRun


    NuMarvel wrote: »
    I do remember the show I'm watching. And I've never seen any example of a dragon having the level of intelligence that would make it believable when he decides that the small clump of metal that he's never seen before is the ultimate cause of his grief. Especially when the actual murder weapon is still embedded in his mother's chest, and covered in the scent of the only other person in the room.

    The closest we have is a man retelling what he's read other people say. And in fiction, that's not enough.

    The dragons actions would require it to understand metaphorical thinking, which is just ridiculous even if they are supposed to be intelligent animals.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 34,410 ✭✭✭✭gmisk


    I only got around to watching the last episode last night.
    I have watched from the start but wouldn't say I was an obsessive fan.
    The first 3 episodes of this series were decent I thought, I enjoyed them but the last 3 have been they felt rushed and like they had to cover too much ground, Danys descent into madness felt extremely sloppy and rushed.
    The ending felt entirely predictable.
    Like some other people have said I didn't think the actually endings for the characters were horrendous but the journey to get there felt so quick, with excellent characters being given fairly poor deaths.

    I don't know if anyone has mentioned it but bizarrely the ending mirrored IMO the ending of The Hunger Games!

    SPOILERS for that below.
    Katniss is Jon
    Alma is Dany
    Leaders of the rebels katniss and Alma coin lead rising against evil regime.
    Alma coin sacrifices innocent people in battle.
    Katniss then kills Alma coin for what she has done. Katniss then lives the rest of her life in exile.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,069 ✭✭✭Adiaga 2


    Where the characters actually ended up is fundementally grand, so my first reaction to the episode was mildly positive, purely because I expected them to make an utter hames of it narratively - pull something utterly absurd out of the bag just for the sake of being shocking.

    I can make peace with where the pieces lie on the board as we exit Westeros, but the episode only becomes indescribably more disappointing upon rewatching and on retrospective thinking.

    Jon's fate is grand in itself and a fine send off, but the whole Greyworm angle was a bit farcical.

    Jon murders the Queen while Greyworm has his hands full butchering prisoners, but the latter for some reason decides to then imprison Jon Snow for murdering his friend, leader and Queen and later accepts him being sent to the Night's Watch as justice....OK.

    The episode had some slightly better dialogue in spots compared to preceeding episodes, though "I know a killer when I see one", in the context of everything, is so absurdly bad it almost feels like a cheap inside joke.

    Poor Kit Harrington can only do so much given the writers have not had anything remotely intelligent for him to say this entire season.

    Emilia Clarke did a very decent job of portraying a disturbingly child-like manic Queen in that final scene to her credit, and the backdrop of Greyworm executing Lannister prisoners as Jon strides in to confront her was a fantastic mood-setter.

    The death itself was completely hollow though and carried almost no real emotional weight, though I didn't have too much of an issue with the symbolic melting of the Iron Throne or the questions raised over the level of sentient thinking attributable to dragons.

    There is so much wrong with the episode and wider season I just can just accept that without too much critical thinking.

    The whole climax of Daenery's journey is just absurdly flat, rushed and poorly handled however.

    Hark back to pivotal moments like Ned Stark's beheading, Robb's murder, Joffrey's death, the Mountain crushing the Viper's skull, Tyrion shooting Tywin, Jon facing down Ramsey.

    You would imagine that Jon Snow murdering Daenerys Targaryen would inevitably feature in that list, but it doesn't, and it doesn't even come close either. It's just something that happens in a clumsy, unconvincing manner because it needs to and doesn't connect on any level.

    Also, Jon also could've somewhat credibly claimed Daenerys melted the Iron Throne and simply flew off on Drogon, but that wouldn't have allowed the 'new world' to develop as the Unsullied and Dothraki would've remained in place awaiting her return, so they had to learn she was dead.

    Tyrion discovering the bodies of Jaime and Cersei was so sloppy as to defy belief. In 'The Bells', we see the Red Keep completely collapses on top of them; the finale shows the crypts are not only still entirely intact, but arches, walls and ceilings that we literally saw crumble to dust under the crushing weight of the collapsing keep are magically restored.

    That one really angers me; the writers wanted to have their cake and eat it too. They wanted Jaime and Cersei to die in high, dramatic and emotional fashion, but also wanted to provide Tyrion with an element of closure by easily discovering their bodies....while clearly not giving the remotest **** whatsoever about blatant inconsistency.

    The means by which Bran came to sit on the throne was almost offensively lazy, utterly daft and completely unearned.

    Don't really have an issue with Bran in principle, but that scene almost like bad comedy. Bran becomes King...just because.

    The future of Westeros placed in the hands of a crippled boy without as much as a token discussion, not even the faintest facade of plot intelligence, because the writers are in a rush and just want to wrap everything up while expending as little brain power as possible.

    Hard to believe this is actually the same show I started watching in 2011.

    Yeah, we'll devote 10 minutes to a completely unnecessary scene where Tyrion, for some absurd reason, needs to actually explain to Jon why Daenery's has to go.

    It's grand, we'll make up the time by just rushing through the bit where they chose a ruler to ultimately sit on the Iron Throne...you know, the bit these past 8 seasons have been building towards.

    Apart from a load of other bits we carefully built up over the same time and then sort of pushed aside because we got tired of spinning so many plates and decided to fling most of them out the window rather than make any effort to set them down.

    In the end, absolutely nothing is earned this season - and certainly not in this episode - and pretty much nothing carries any weight as a consequence.

    This show used to be about the complex 'game' that everyone, in all walks of life, had to play, no matter what their ultimate objective. This season has been an insult to that premise and what GoT used to be, but this episode is particularly exposed as being utterly braindead when Benioff and Weiss have no major spectacle to mask their scripting.

    This episode fails to really connect on any level emotionally and just feels like a box-ticking exercise; an hour the writers devoted to lazily tying up the remaining threads with as little effort as possible once they'd achieved all their big battle set-pieces.

    Looking back on the season, 'A Knight of Seven Kingdoms' was a genuinely strong episode and head-and-shoulders above the rest in terms of character interaction and dialogue, tellingly not written by Benioff and Weiss. The only episode I got a true 'Game of Thrones' vibe when watching.

    First episode was OK, and without revisiting my thoughts on E3-5, there's no denying that there was tremendous and seriously impressive spectacle on offer at least.

    And to think that Benioff and Weiss openly talked about how they hoped the finale would be compared with that of Breaking Bad and go down as one of the best finales in television history. It almost defies belief that they would say such a thing.

    As an ending on paper the finale - and the fate determined for most of the characters - is perfectly fine and there's a nice level of closure to it that can often be missing from shows. I like that aspect of it.

    It's just executed extremely badly and my impression as we leave Westeros behind us is that I feel like I'm still waiting for the "real" Game of Thrones.

    Goes down in my books anyway with the likes of Dexter and Lost for letdowns. It's not a direct comparison before anyone takes issue with parallels being drawn with either.

    Great post. Sums up my feelings on GoT better than I ever could.


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