Game of Thrones VIII

[Timbo]

I thought it was great.

They've been teasing mad queen since season 1, it was going to happen.

If you couldn't see it coming, that's just silly.

Sure it's a bit rushed but it's still great tv.

My problem is it’s happened in two weeks.

Season two had six episodes where Robb talked about trying to take a bridge. This season has Dany go from benevolent queen to genocidal maniac in an episode and a half.

 

[greenBV4]

Also, all she’s wanted to do for eight years is rule these people and suddenly she murders them all????

And probably destroyed the Iron Throne that she'd wanted for so long

 

[Danish]

I thought it was great.

They've been teasing mad queen since season 1, it was going to happen.

If you couldn't see it coming, that's just silly.

Sure it's a bit rushed but it's still great tv.

It wasn’t that she went mad queen. It’s that she did it AFTER she had won the throne. It made absolutely zero sense.

Her motivation for going mad has always been her obsession with being queen. The logical way for it to have happened this episode is for her armies to actually meet resistance, see her chance to be queen slipping away, and then go mad. Instead we have her execute a perfectly planned ambush attack, targeting only the military perfectly, destroying cersei’s army and taking the city with basically zero civillian casualties..... then she just decides to go nuts? f**king stupid.

Cleganebowl was also a joke. The hound was completely outmatched and died. I guess we are suppose to believe the mountain is also dead from the fall.... although why we are supposed to assume that fall would kill him I’m not really sure since he can apparently survive being stabbed in the head just fine.

Awful, awful episode

 

[Timbo]

The below comment on reddit has helped me rationalise it a bit, but the problem to me is it's all still happened way too fast.

 

[Twizzle]

it just seemed to me that they ran out of ideas on how to wrap it up but they thought, f**k it, lets just get this over with

 

[bileduct]

Also, all she’s wanted to do for eight years is rule these people and suddenly she murders them all????

I am furious with what has happened to this show.

Now you know how I feel about about what happened to Star Trek Discovery.

 

[butchmcdick]

I really liked it

I thought it was awesome

 

[Game_Breaker]

I can only assume that Dany going mad queen was what GRRM always intended. The problem was the execution, as others have said

She goes from 0-100 in 1 episode basically, the show didn't earn the right for Dany to go mad queen because they didn't lay the ground work


and yeah, I still don't know why she destroyed the city after she won the battle?
Dumb&Dumber should've handed the writing to someone else if they got bored.

 

[nick87]

- Firstly, just super stoked that they actually **** did it and kind of stuck true to history of how sackings of big cities work. I thought about this a few days ago not even really believing it was possible but just thinking how cool a modern, high budget depiction of a proper sacking. So on that front... **** cool. And just that blood thirst, and the rape and indiscriminate killing... that's EXACTLY how that **** would have gone.

- Clegane Bowl... Super cool, loved it, a little hated that it kind of had no stakes, like if one won and the other didn't it wouldnt have mattered to the story but then i came to terms with the fact years ago, if it happened it was going to be them both going down. So it was good...

- Mad Queen, totally on board, think they told the story poorly in a sense that, the bells were ringing and she had no reason to snap... just something simple, she could smile, raise her hand in victory and then like a commoner scaling the wall and firing a scorpion at Drogon and nicking his wing/tail or something... just something to reinforce the fact these people will never love her... then carnage.

- Failure to pay off the valonqar prophecy on any scale was pretty much unforgivable. Did anyone feel satisfied by the Jamie - Cersei ending? I didnt.

- Euron was a waste of space here, that battle with Jamie was ordinary. His fleet got absolutely **** decimated, 100's of ships, laid to waste, not a single scorpion touched Drogon or threaten to, but just one ep ago 1-2-3, Rhegal gone... come on now.

- Golden Company... at this point why even introduce them? Could have never mentioned them and nothing changes. They just showed up, got blasted, died. Just nothing worth while there.

- Varys death was cool in how they did the "trial" but the leading up to it was... not great. Like Varys isnt so **** dumb as to be caught out like that. Id have much rather see him go down in a failed coup or something, not Tyrion snitching because the Unsullied caught him spying (the unsullied who couldnt sniff out the Harpy's btw because uncovering plots were beyond them!)

- I didnt get the Arya stuff at all. Like not one bit. I get they were trying to link her fate in contrast to Sandor's but it just didnt fit with me. I dont know if i needed to see her die, but certainly fatally wounding Cersei and having a fatally wounded Cersei and Jamie die in each others arms as Ayra emerged to understand the chaos would that might push her back towards a less blood thirsty path would have sufficed. This just didnt fit

- And finally next week is just whatever.. like they'll join together, someone will kill Dany and the realm will begin to rebuild, free of the Targ madness... what happens to those alive is mildly interesting but otherwise meh

 

[nick87]

It's probably been mentioned but are the books awesome and worth a read?

I wouldn't mind delving deeper into the GoT world.

The books leave the show for f**king dead, man.
Im re reading them right now. Even better 3rd time around

 

[Zachary Smith]

It wasn’t that she went mad queen. It’s that she did it AFTER she had won the throne. It made absolutely zero sense.

Her motivation for going mad has always been her obsession with being queen. The logical way for it to have happened this episode is for her armies to actually meet resistance, see her chance to be queen slipping away, and then go mad. Instead we have her execute a perfectly planned ambush attack, targeting only the military perfectly, destroying cersei’s army and taking the city with basically zero civillian casualties..... then she just decides to go nuts? f**king stupid.

Cleganebowl was also a joke. The hound was completely outmatched and died. I guess we are suppose to believe the mountain is also dead from the fall.... although why we are supposed to assume that fall would kill him I’m not really sure since he can apparently survive being stabbed in the head just fine.

Awful, awful episode

She went mad earlier than that, she made a deal with Kraznys Nakloz, the Unsullied in exchange for a Dragon and then goes, oh sorry forgot to tell you, the dragon will kill you. Psycho bitch, why would anyone make a deal with her after that?

 

[Apey]

I thought it was great.

They've been teasing mad queen since season 1, it was going to happen.

If you couldn't see it coming, that's just silly.

Sure it's a bit rushed but it's still great tv.

My problem is it’s happened in two weeks.

Season two had six episodes where Robb talked about trying to take a bridge. This season has Dany go from benevolent queen to genocidal maniac in an episode and a half.

I agree with both of these. I've been a proponent of Daenarys being the bad guy for several years now. Daenarys and Jon Snow have always been polar opposite (targaryens). Jon does what he does because he thinks its right. Daenarys does what she does because she thinks she's entitled to the throne. Completely different motivations. The idea that Daenarys is bad has been brewing for a long time (even in the show) and when she discovered that the throne isn't even hers by birthright it didn't deter her. Her motivations have always been selfish and Jon's motivations selfless. The only time he hasn't been selfless is when he got mixed up with Daenarys.

But... I agree, like everything else it was rushed. It had been brewing since last season at the latest so I don't think she went from 0 - 100, but rather say 30 - 100. The way they flicked the switch was kind of bizarre. They knew she was going to turn mad but they didn't have the patience or the know-how to get her there properly.

 

[Game_Breaker]

I saw the inside the episode clip with Dumb&Dumber

Apparently, she went mad when she saw the red keep because it was taken from her, and at that point it wasn't about the battle anymore it was personal, or some BS along those line

Still doesn't make sense to me

 

[Game_Breaker]

- Firstly, just super stoked that they actually **** did it and kind of stuck true to history of how sackings of big cities work. I thought about this a few days ago not even really believing it was possible but just thinking how cool a modern, high budget depiction of a proper sacking. So on that front... **** cool. And just that blood thirst, and the rape and indiscriminate killing... that's EXACTLY how that **** would have gone.

- Clegane Bowl... Super cool, loved it, a little hated that it kind of had no stakes, like if one won and the other didn't it wouldnt have mattered to the story but then i came to terms with the fact years ago, if it happened it was going to be them both going down. So it was good...

- Mad Queen, totally on board, think they told the story poorly in a sense that, the bells were ringing and she had no reason to snap... just something simple, she could smile, raise her hand in victory and then like a commoner scaling the wall and firing a scorpion at Drogon and nicking his wing/tail or something... just something to reinforce the fact these people will never love her... then carnage.

- Failure to pay off the valonqar prophecy on any scale was pretty much unforgivable. Did anyone feel satisfied by the Jamie - Cersei ending? I didnt.

- Euron was a waste of space here, that battle with Jamie was ordinary. His fleet got absolutely **** decimated, 100's of ships, laid to waste, not a single scorpion touched Drogon or threaten to, but just one ep ago 1-2-3, Rhegal gone... come on now.

- Golden Company... at this point why even introduce them? Could have never mentioned them and nothing changes. They just showed up, got blasted, died. Just nothing worth while there.

- Varys death was cool in how they did the "trial" but the leading up to it was... not great. Like Varys isnt so **** dumb as to be caught out like that. Id have much rather see him go down in a failed coup or something, not Tyrion snitching because the Unsullied caught him spying (the unsullied who couldnt sniff out the Harpy's btw because uncovering plots were beyond them!)

- I didnt get the Arya stuff at all. Like not one bit. I get they were trying to link her fate in contrast to Sandor's but it just didnt fit with me. I dont know if i needed to see her die, but certainly fatally wounding Cersei and having a fatally wounded Cersei and Jamie die in each others arms as Ayra emerged to understand the chaos would that might push her back towards a less blood thirsty path would have sufficed. This just didnt fit

- And finally next week is just whatever.. like they'll join together, someone will kill Dany and the realm will begin to rebuild, free of the Targ madness... what happens to those alive is mildly interesting but otherwise meh

Varys wasn't just spying, he was trying to poison her. She was just too depressed to eat

But yes, The production of the episode was amazing and I got no problem with the director. He was given a script to execute and they did a good job in that regard

The soldiers going crazy reminded me of the Ser Jorah quote from an earlier season
"There's a beast in every man, and it stirs when you put a sword in his hand" - that's basically what happened

The tension they built up early in the episode was great too

But as the negatives you mentioned outweigh the positives. If the writing and characters arcs are lacking then everything else doesn't matter

 

[beave]

Too f**king rushed for mine.

 

[elyod138]

Terrible end for a once great show. Quality started to nosedive a few seasons ago when they ran out of book material and had to write their own storylines rather than adapt them.

Bits and pieces were done well but on the whole the last few seasons have been messy and inconsistent storytelling.

Direction of episodes and action set pieces are still some of the best of all time in TV but the writing has been B grade quality for a while.

The major plot points were fine, everything in between was the problem.

 

[bad boy bubby]

I liked the first 20 mins or so.
Varys:
The little girl, Martha, worked in the kitchen and states that “she” wasn’t eating. Varys asked her what he said ”the bigger the risk the bigger the reward”. Was Varys trying to poison Dany through Martha?
What were the words Varys had heard in the flames? Was it “Dracarys”, or “It was me” ?

Dany:
Already on the way out to madness, there is one last chance for love instead of fear. That was her wanting to still be with Jon, he rejects her, the final piece of the madness puzzle is done, fear.
She openly called out Sansa twice, once to Tyrion and once to Jon. she even says something along the lines of “Now she knows what happens when people know the truth about you” in regards to burning Varys and the truth about Jon.
This is clearly marking Sansa as enemy No.1 after she’s dealt with Cersei.

Jon:
He’s going to be torn apart. He’s already lost faith in Dany after the burnings, and his family will be the next targets.

Tyrion:
Signed his death warrant by releasing Jaime.

I liked the Clegane fight, could’ve been a bit longer.
The rest was just a burning affair.

 

[Game_Breaker]

The forshadowing for this season was always there, Emilia Clarke knew

 

[nick87]

This ep is going to be panned and rightly so, but i really did love that they gave me a proper sacking... im a bit of a history guy, my passion ignited by Dan Carlin's Hardcore History, and he retells stories of many a sacking of a city... and it's always heartbreakingly brutal... and i was relistening to the pod about their Romans sacking Carthage last week and had a weird "wow, would be cool if Grey Worm and Dany just sacked that shit like history suggests they would"

That to me was really really awesome. Just awesome.

 

[bad boy bubby]

The forshadowing for this season was always there, Emilia Clarke knew

There’s a few more to add on