Television Game of Thrones (TV) • The watch has ended

Sylar

Full Member
Joined
May 15, 2007
Messages
40,511
That was defo a visual over logic episode
It has some cool visuals but the way they got there just made no sense or didn't follow

I remember being caught up by the visuals of the gang being surrounded by the army of the dead, or Dany coming to the rescue, or the dragon going down, or it's eye going blue.

But a lot of it just didn't make sense especially on a rewatch. Where the NK got chains is one thing, but given they don't go in water, how did they actually get the chains around it under water.


It's been discussed a lot here but the frustrating thing is a lot of the above could have still happened logically if they wanted
 

arnie_ni

Full Member
Joined
Apr 27, 2014
Messages
15,215
Was that the true ‘jump the shark’ moment? If not, it was jumping the shark and doing backflips over it.
Yea on rewatch its the first one for me that has me going "wtf" apart from the arya stabbing and running incident mentioned above but it was minor in scheme the of things.

Even then season finale was fine , showing Cersei the dead man and her playing her games etc, just that one episode.

I didnt think season 8 was as bad as others did first time round so itl be interesting what i make of it on rewatch.

I think so far, apart from that one episode ive enjoyed it even more than my original viewing. Probably because im binge watching it rather than waiting a year between seasons.
 

Sylar

Full Member
Joined
May 15, 2007
Messages
40,511
Season 1-5 is the peak of television.
S6 had some fantastic episodes though. Door and the last two esp were great. And I think Oathbreaker? the one where Bran sees the stuff at the Tower of Joy?
Actually thought overall it was better than 5 (although 5 has probably a top3 episode for me)
 

Fingeredmouse

Full Member
Joined
Aug 10, 2014
Messages
5,647
Location
Glasgow
S6 had some fantastic episodes though. Door and the last two esp were great. And I think Oathbreaker? the one where Bran sees the stuff at the Tower of Joy?
Actually thought overall it was better than 5 (although 5 has probably a top3 episode for me)
The fecking sandsnakes though...
 

2cents

Historiographer, and obtainer of rare antiquities
Scout
Joined
Mar 19, 2008
Messages
16,294
I think this is the Sand Snakes’ first scene. Bad enough and it was all downhill from there:

 

Vidic_In_Moscow

rectum-faced pygmy
Joined
Sep 19, 2010
Messages
19,578
Location
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Supports
i stink
S6 had some fantastic episodes though. Door and the last two esp were great. And I think Oathbreaker? the one where Bran sees the stuff at the Tower of Joy?
Actually thought overall it was better than 5 (although 5 has probably a top3 episode for me)
Yeah you're right. Tbh I'm talking bollocks as it's been so long since I've watched it I can't remember my exact timeline of feeling. I remember the sand snakes were the first signs of decay, and dialogue between characters took a huge nose dive at a precise point until the very end. Battle of the bastards was wicked though.
 

2cents

Historiographer, and obtainer of rare antiquities
Scout
Joined
Mar 19, 2008
Messages
16,294
Euron’s big introduction, a scene that gets dumber and dumber the further it goes (“hey, they stole our ships!” “no bother we’ll just build more”):

 

KirkDuyt

Full Member
Joined
Nov 25, 2015
Messages
24,650
Location
Dutchland
Supports
Feyenoord
Dealbreaker for me was the fact that Arya and that big dude soent about 5 seasons traveling 3 miles, than in season 7, everyone does 5 laps of Westeros in the span of some 20 minutes.

It's like me making a long and eloquent post on the caf and half way through getting bored and thinking feck it, Ill end with a hastily thought up analogy and a joke.

Someone pull my finger.

(lololol democracy, sit down Sam you tit).
 

Sylar

Full Member
Joined
May 15, 2007
Messages
40,511
The fecking sandsnakes though...
Yeah you're right. Tbh I'm talking bollocks as it's been so long since I've watched it I can't remember my exact timeline of feeling. I remember the sand snakes were the first signs of decay, and dialogue between characters took a huge nose dive at a precise point until the very end. Battle of the bastards was wicked though.

Sand snakes and dorne were a big big issue for me in s5. They got too much time and plot which is a shame as Viper was just badass. Everybody else was a disappointment.

They got severely cut back in s6 from what I can remember.

Everything euron was bad except him throwing that other old Fart greyjoy of the bridge
 

2cents

Historiographer, and obtainer of rare antiquities
Scout
Joined
Mar 19, 2008
Messages
16,294
Warning signs were there in season 4:

 

Samid

He's no Bilal Ilyas Jhandir
Joined
Dec 12, 2012
Messages
49,580
Location
Oslo, Norway
Dorne seemed so interesting after Oberyn and it looked like it had massive potential in the previews. Such a colossal letdown. Between the sand cnuts and the masked muppets I'm struggling to decide with storyline was the most tumescent and pointless.
 

arnie_ni

Full Member
Joined
Apr 27, 2014
Messages
15,215
As fuming as I was with how it all ended, I'd watch it all over again. It was just amazing in parts.
Yep rewatching it now, just finished the great war. Will so my full opinion write up after, there is definitely some major plot holes, but its the best tv show ive seen. Ridiculously good
 

Mr Pigeon

Illiterate Flying Rat
Scout
Joined
Mar 27, 2014
Messages
26,349
Location
bin
Was that the true ‘jump the shark’ moment? If not, it was jumping the shark and doing backflips over it.
Unfortunately for me it's Hardhome. If it was simply just an outlier episode compared to the rest of the show's tone, maybe with a couple more like Battle of the Bastards and The Winds of Winter then it would be fine. And up until those parts of Season 5 and 6 they really were just big Set Piece episodes that managed to have such an strong impact because they were so different to the tone and pace set up by the rest of the show. But, instead, D&D decided to make these sort of bombastic episodes the norm (probably because they were so popular, which was really only because of the tonal shift compared to the episodes surrounding them, but there's no way they would ever understand that because they're fecking tubes).

In the hands of a more competent duo then they would have probably realised the importance of maintaining the show's moderate and developing pace and how it compliments the bigger set piece moments, but instead we had two guys who saw the popularity of the big moments and just assumed flinging one at us every scene would be just as effective.
 

Amarsdd

Full Member
Joined
Jun 7, 2013
Messages
3,299
In the hands of a more competent duo then they would have probably realised the importance of maintaining the show's moderate and developing pace and how it compliments the bigger set piece moments, but instead we had two guys who saw the popularity of the big moments and just assumed flinging one at us every scene would be just as effective.
That's kinda unfair to D&D I think. The first four seasons are TV perfection, 5-6-7 are 9/10 with some great set piece episodes.
From their interviews, it seems they lost motivation to do the same show for too long and decided to finish in 8 seasons, and thus the pace picking up around the 6th season. I remember one of the showrunners saying it was their goal to be able to do the red wedding episode while they were pitching the show.
It would have been better if HBO had picked different showrunners but with similar sensibilities after maybe season 5-6 and extend the show to at least season 10.
 

Mr Pigeon

Illiterate Flying Rat
Scout
Joined
Mar 27, 2014
Messages
26,349
Location
bin
I'd say amazing for majority
Even s7 had a great episode for me
Hell, Season 8 had two good episodes - E2 and E3. I mean, sure E2 made you think we were getting ready to say goodbye to a bunch of people in E3 and it means on rewatch it's disappointing. And E3 ends in such a pathetic way that it's also disappointing on rewatch. But I don't think that takes away how much they showed the two best sides of the show.

Episode 2 is peak GoT character development. Like all the other Nutter directed/written episodes it takes its time, it shows relatable characters, and the dialogue for the most part is strong. Episode 3 shows off the spectacle portion of the show in the way that Sapochnik does better than anyone. His DoP is the best one GoT have had, and even with the poor dark levels he hits his shots perfectly. The music, the editing, all of it oozes perfect audiovisual storytelling. Personally I would probably jizz my pants in every ten seconds if Nutter wrote the show and Sapochnik directed it.
 

Mr Pigeon

Illiterate Flying Rat
Scout
Joined
Mar 27, 2014
Messages
26,349
Location
bin
That's kinda unfair to D&D I think. The first four seasons are TV perfection, 5-6-7 are 9/10 with some great set piece episodes.
From their interviews, it seems they lost motivation to do the same show for too long and decided to finish in 8 seasons, and thus the pace picking up around the 6th season. I remember one of the showrunners saying it was their goal to be able to do the red wedding episode while they were pitching the show.
It would have been better if HBO had picked different showrunners but with similar sensibilities after maybe season 5-6 and extend the show to at least season 10.
There's no denying that they deserve praise for taking something as big as ASoIaF and adapting it for TV - because holy shit that was a monumental task. And at their best they were able to do it but I also think that they missed the point of the story. The last few months have made me believe more and more that they never really understood GRRM's work. If you watch their interviews about it they also talk about how "shocking" it was to read. They never talk much about how it made them reflect on how the characters' actions led them to that fate, and that's why I feel they were the wrong choice. I think they understood "how" the Red Wedding was such a big moment, but not "why".
 

Amarsdd

Full Member
Joined
Jun 7, 2013
Messages
3,299
There's no denying that they deserve praise for taking something as big as ASoIaF and adapting it for TV - because holy shit that was a monumental task. And at their best they were able to do it but I also think that they missed the point of the story. The last few months have made me believe more and more that they never really understood GRRM's work. If you watch their interviews about it they also talk about how "shocking" it was to read. They never talk much about how it made them reflect on how the characters' actions led them to that fate, and that's why I feel they were the wrong choice. I think they understood "how" the Red Wedding was such a big moment, but not "why".
I think that is very difficult, even impossible, to convey that with the visual medium esp. in comparison to the ASOIF books which is all POV chapters.
 

Mr Pigeon

Illiterate Flying Rat
Scout
Joined
Mar 27, 2014
Messages
26,349
Location
bin
I think that is very difficult, even impossible, to convey that with the visual medium esp. in comparison to the ASOIF books which is all POV chapters.
But they did do it, by following the pacing of GRRM's work. The narrative was already there for them; set up an arc, build to the moment, show that actions have consequences, use (usually) Episode 10 to have characters wax lyrically about what the defeated characters did to lead them to this point. They did it for each of the final episodes of the first three seasons because that's how they're set up in the books.

Once they were on their own they didn't do any of this because they were entirely focused on "subverting expectations" rather than showing cause and effect.
 

Organic Potatoes

Full Member
Joined
Dec 2, 2013
Messages
17,167
Location
85R723R2+R6
Supports
Colorado Rapids
Unfortunately for me it's Hardhome. If it was simply just an outlier episode compared to the rest of the show's tone, maybe with a couple more like Battle of the Bastards and The Winds of Winter then it would be fine. And up until those parts of Season 5 and 6 they really were just big Set Piece episodes that managed to have such an strong impact because they were so different to the tone and pace set up by the rest of the show. But, instead, D&D decided to make these sort of bombastic episodes the norm (probably because they were so popular, which was really only because of the tonal shift compared to the episodes surrounding them, but there's no way they would ever understand that because they're fecking tubes).

In the hands of a more competent duo then they would have probably realised the importance of maintaining the show's moderate and developing pace and how it compliments the bigger set piece moments, but instead we had two guys who saw the popularity of the big moments and just assumed flinging one at us every scene would be just as effective.
I think once they got past the easily adaptable part of the story which would be book 3, it went downhill and only via the sheer inertia of talent in the directors/actors/music creators and $$$ at their disposal that S5 & 6 were tolerable to very good.
 

Mr Pigeon

Illiterate Flying Rat
Scout
Joined
Mar 27, 2014
Messages
26,349
Location
bin
I think once they got past the easily adaptable part of the story which would be book 3, it went downhill and only via the sheer inertia of talent in the directors/actors/music creators and $$$ at their disposal that S5 & 6 were tolerable to very good.
Yeah, pretty much imo. I'll say again that they are excellent as adapting work but I genuinely think they didn't really understand the books in their entirety. And that's not saying that the books are perfect because, feck me, they can get tedious at times.
 

Sylar

Full Member
Joined
May 15, 2007
Messages
40,511
Spoils of War? I can rewatch that battle endlessly.
Yes. Remember watching that the first time.
Even including the great reaction to hearing the name was Dickon.
The end part with the last second save was whatever but it didn't spoil the episode overall (although danys troops not looking for Jaime next episode was annoying)

Hell, Season 8 had two good episodes - E2 and E3. I mean, sure E2 made you think we were getting ready to say goodbye to a bunch of people in E3 and it means on rewatch it's disappointing. And E3 ends in such a pathetic way that it's also disappointing on rewatch. But I don't think that takes away how much they showed the two best sides of the show.
Yeah I think this is true. Ep2 imo had a great moment too where Brienne was knighted. It was a great moment before it was all gonna come crashing down.

Strangely enough I think the issue is that both episodes were back to back as standalone they were both good (some of ep3 illogical stuff out the way)
But ep3 excelled in different ways (and I never had the darkness issue others had so didn't realise it until I saw people mention it on the internet) ha
 

arnie_ni

Full Member
Joined
Apr 27, 2014
Messages
15,215
Hell, Season 8 had two good episodes - E2 and E3. I mean, sure E2 made you think we were getting ready to say goodbye to a bunch of people in E3 and it means on rewatch it's disappointing. And E3 ends in such a pathetic way that it's also disappointing on rewatch. But I don't think that takes away how much they showed the two best sides of the show.

Episode 2 is peak GoT character development. Like all the other Nutter directed/written episodes it takes its time, it shows relatable characters, and the dialogue for the most part is strong. Episode 3 shows off the spectacle portion of the show in the way that Sapochnik does better than anyone. His DoP is the best one GoT have had, and even with the poor dark levels he hits his shots perfectly. The music, the editing, all of it oozes perfect audiovisual storytelling. Personally I would probably jizz my pants in every ten seconds if Nutter wrote the show and Sapochnik directed it.
Yep just finished episode 3 and after episode 2 there definitely needed to be more deaths and a couple of main character ones.

I think jaime had to die. He and Cersei ended the way it should have ended in series 7 when he finally seen her for what she was. He should have died at the battle saving brienne who then goes on to finish his chapter in the book.

Need to finish it but is probably have killed of davos as well there and then as well.

2 more key characters deaths would just made the build up to the great war a bit more believable.
 

AaronRedDevil

Full Member
Joined
Jun 28, 2018
Messages
9,586
Was that the true ‘jump the shark’ moment? If not, it was jumping the shark and doing backflips over it.
Them getting steamrolled by white walkers at winter fell and somehow they were they alive. I literally thought Tourmund, Brianne and Jaime died that moment. Would have been unexpected and brilliant.
 

arnie_ni

Full Member
Joined
Apr 27, 2014
Messages
15,215
Them getting steamrolled by white walkers at winter fell and somehow they were they alive. I literally thought Tourmund, Brianne and Jaime died that moment. Would have been unexpected and brilliant.
I think brienne needed to live to complete Jaime's chapter in the book. But either of the other 2 or both could have happened
 

AaronRedDevil

Full Member
Joined
Jun 28, 2018
Messages
9,586
I think brienne needed to live to complete Jaime's chapter in the book. But either of the other 2 or both could have happened
Yeah I know, just in the moment I expected characters to just get wiped out, since it being GOT after all. Was hoping for Brianne to write something like “his legacy will live on” meaning she would be pregnant with Jaime, a last Lannister other then Tyrion.
 

arnie_ni

Full Member
Joined
Apr 27, 2014
Messages
15,215
Yeah I know, just in the moment I expected characters to just get wiped out, since it being GOT after all. Was hoping for Brianne to write something like “his legacy will live on” meaning she would be pregnant with Jaime, a last Lannister other then Tyrion.
Hmm thats a twist i could have got on board with if they didnt have Cersei being pregnant again.

Also dont think they should have had arya and gendry sleeping together. That was against her storyline and character.
 

Massive Spanner

Give Mason Mount a chance!
Joined
Jul 2, 2014
Messages
28,237
Location
Tool shed
Hmm thats a twist i could have got on board with if they didnt have Cersei being pregnant again.

Also dont think they should have had arya and gendry sleeping together. That was against her storyline and character.
Why? She was an 18/19 year old who'd never had sex and might die the next day. Seemed pretty normal to me. I just didn't like that they actually went and showed so much of her :lol:

Episode two was the only decent episode in S8, the rest was garbage.
 

VP89

Pogba's biggest fan
Joined
Dec 6, 2015
Messages
31,754
Hmm thats a twist i could have got on board with if they didnt have Cersei being pregnant again.

Also dont think they should have had arya and gendry sleeping together. That was against her storyline and character.
eh? Was she a member of the night's watch or something?
 

arnie_ni

Full Member
Joined
Apr 27, 2014
Messages
15,215
Jon standing in front of the dragon was weird as well. Not sure what that accomplished or what he intended
 

Sylar

Full Member
Joined
May 15, 2007
Messages
40,511
Jon standing in front of the dragon was weird as well. Not sure what that accomplished or what he intended
You mean when he screamed at even though he had no idea everything was just about to end?
 

Mr Pigeon

Illiterate Flying Rat
Scout
Joined
Mar 27, 2014
Messages
26,349
Location
bin
You mean when he screamed at even though he had no idea everything was just about to end?
He probably thought that the dragon was losing its strength since it couldn't breathe fire strong enough to destroy the wee wall he was hiding behind even though it had managed to destroy The Wall at the end of Season 7.
 

ivaldo

Mediocre Horse Whisperer, s'up wid chew?
Joined
Nov 15, 2012
Messages
28,699
I see we we on to retrospectively shitting on the earlier seasons now as well. :lol: