Game of Thrones - Season 8 - Game Over

A place to discuss the coming events in GoT. Join if you like.

It's been a long road y'all.

Gonna miss discussing Game of Thrones with everyone here over the years. I probably won't partake much this time, but nonetheless, I hope you all have a great time. <3

This show is pretty good.

...imagine if Rockstar made some massive medieval open world game? Could be fantasy or not fantasy I guess.

Edit: Oh, the funny part was that I couldn't find the remote for my cable box. Because I think I literally have not used it since the last GoT episode? Luckily, I powered the box on and it was already on HBO from last time.

That “his eyes are blue” scene was my favorite part of the new episode. Otherwise, I feel like the episode was basically a recap of stuff we all already knew. Did like that final scene though. Got me excited for episode 2.

Pretty good ep overall by recent GoT standards, aside from Daeny and Jon spending too much time frolicking.

Great episode, Theon is definitely going to die and not see his sister again within the next 2 episodes. Sansa continues to be annoying. I'd rather Arya stay herself rather pretending like she's a terminator like in the last two seasons. I'm indifferent to Sam but they did a great job with him this episode. Jon would be a better ruler than Dany.

It was fine, a little mechanical in places, but that's expected in order to get the season going. Thoughts on specifics ahead.

That Yara and Theon stuff was to wrap up that plot point so he can die, Yara's probably just going to show up to kill Euron, but that might be basically it for her this season.

No budget for elephants

The drama over Daenerys and Jon (especially with regards to Sansa) feels manufactured so there's some tension other than the looming white walkers, kind of like the Sansa vs Arya stuff last season. It's a lot of empty "remember your family, do you care about your family, do what's right by your family" sort of stuff that feels misplaced for where we are at in the story.

The only part where the Daenerys distrust sideplot started to make sense was with Sam, who was fantastic this episode. He acted the hell out of that scene with Daenerys, and Clarke was great in that scene too. It was the highlight of the episode for me.

I liked the return of the white walkers making weird symbols out of body parts. I always assumed that was how they did magic or raise the dead ever since it showed up in that first episode, and it fit with the more grounded folklore-esque take on magic the series used to have before we just had an evil spikey necromancer that dresses in black. I'm glad they're back to that kind of freaky imagery in any case. I could have watched a whole episode about Tormund, Beric and Ed exploring spooky castles.

We need a counter for how many times a character looks around and realizes Bran has been staring at them the whole time. It happened so often, and in different locations, and it never showed how he moves around, so it started to become funny.

The most interesting new thread is probably the Bronn subplot, it could lead to a lot of good character moments for everyone involved. It's unexpected that a side character is getting a new, seemingly significant subplot this late in the game, but I like it a lot. Bronn's been sort of the shows workhorse, he's the guy you put in a story thread so the main character has someone to talk to or do a fight scene for, so it's nice that he's getting set up for something more active and more personal than more sidekick work.

After 6 seasons of drama and postponing it's nice to see the show finally dive heads deep into the fantasy promise from the end of season 1. Not that it hasn't been part of the series all along, but in just a single episode we had dragon-riding, zombie rituals, guy with a flaming sword, supernatural weapons, Bran and Arya with their weird shit and ofc the return of Mountain Golem. Also, the parallels with the very first episode (although honestly I wish they had done a more direct callback to the very first sequence) gave a really nice feeling of "we know this is the finish line and we're gonna give it all we got".

Also, as a side note, might wanna add the old rule of "anything that's been aired is not considered spoilers in this thread" in the OP.

The best part of that Bran scene was how I think he must have literally sat there all night after talking to Sam? Like he's in the exact same place when Jaime arrives right?

Bronn is also one of the best characters in the show so I am super psyched to see the inevitable Bronn/Tyrion showdown. Bringing back the crossbow was a typical Cersei move.

Enjoyed it overall as I have most episodes of the show, but a couple of things rubbed me wrong:

There are now only 5 episodes left. Did we really need to spend 20 minutes of this one watching Euron Greyjoy being shitty and getting laid? Or repeated 3 minute shots of Dany's army....walking?

I know it was this way in the books, but the leader of the Golden Company is named Harry Strickland???? That's honestly the least GoT name ever and im an idiot and I cant get past that

I think of the 3 main ( living ) characters currently vying for power, Cercei would have my vote to keep the 7 kingdoms united. Jon is too much of an idealist and too soft to boot. Daenerys is just too damn cruel. Sure, Cercei is ruthless, but she'd have the decency to stab you in the back. Daenerys would demand you bend the knee.....or else.

By the way, my favorite part last night was the interaction between Cercei and Euron Greyjoy. Euron was going on and on about how great he was while Lena Headey nailed that look her character gets when you know she's thinking, " I'm going to kill you first chance I get."

Dialogue was on point, Kitt was on point (though that might be influenced by the fact that I inflicted Silent Hill: Revelations on myself this week), and this episode wasn't as much of a slow-burn as the first episodes tend to be, we got the ride and that last jump scare was good. Wondering if Sam is gonna pull a Starlord though.

Really? I got the exact opposite sense. It seemed to me like she was actually warming up to him. Cersei spent her whole life pretending to be this image of the King's dutiful wife, while having to hide and sneak around to engage in her true loves and desires. Euron says "screw it, I do and say what I want, when I want, and I don't need to play any games do to it." I think Euron is what Cersei would love to have been, if she was born with a penis.

@cornfed40: I dunno, the read I got at the end of that scene was Cersei being distraught about having to whore herself out again. She's gotten used to holding power through name and force and here's another guy she can't refuse if she wants to stay in power.

I had a similar impression. Overall I like the show even when it's hit or miss because it hits more than it misses - but was really hoping they would get the ball rolling and still we have all those dragon shots where the CG isn't at it's best, marching, slow exposition and setup or a situation we already know exists. The white walkers are coming, they sure are marching, won't get her this episode but they are coming.

I liked the episode, I legit laughed at the blue eyes scene and the dragons staring at Jon when he was with Dany.

I'm really kind of over the whole thing about who gets to rule Westeros. I support the rights of the people of Westeros to self-determination!

Dany IS extremely progressive by monarch standards. But SHE STILL WANTS TO BE A MONARCH of places that do not want her rule. Honestly it's one of my issues with the writing of her character. She's grown in the sense of becoming a strong woman who doesn't back down and doesn't take shit from anyone (which I believe is good) but at the same time her character's politics haven't changed. Yes, she's been told since she was a child that it's her family's right to rule Westeros. But she delayed that dream for YEARS to make her holdings in Essos better for the average person...but still has never examined her original motives?

It's so frustrating to me because it feels like a failure of the actual writing, rather than a failure of the character. "Kill the masters, except me, the birthright master of an entire continent."

@cornfed40: Now we at least know that GoT and King of the Hill are obviously connected to each other.

@brackstone - I too would also watch hours of their LARP D&D adventure module.

I've also decided as of last night based on a single throw away line that Sansa ends up on the Iron Throne.

This is the big problem with Daenerys, they depict her character as a merciful loving queen, that's how everyone speaks of her, but her actions can be quite cruel, brutal and frankly stupid. Game of Thrones is a show made popular largely because a character's actions have consequences, and the world responds to them in a believable way, but that's never really applied to Daenerys very well. I saw someone else talk mention how Sansa is mad about not having enough food for winter, which wouldn't be an issue if Daenerys hadn't torched an entire caravan of supplies.

It's one of the things I like about the scenes with Sam, it's finally actually bringing up how she did something needlessly cruel and how nobody seems to acknowledge that that isn't the kind of person you want in charge. They did it a little last season when she torched the Tarlys, but she just brushed off Tyrion and the show moved on like it never happened until now. And I desperately hope it remains a thread going forward.

I am blown away by tonight’s episode. Not since Breaking Bad have I been this excited for the next episode of a TV show. Just wow.

This entire episode is like one of those teen movies that takes place at a party after graduation where everyone hooks up and deals with the shit of the past few years.

@bladeofcreation: Maybe if instead of teens it’s a high school reunion?

I half imagined Paul Simon’s Still Crazy After All These Years playing through most of the scenes.

A lot of the humor worked quite well for me this ep. Especially with Tormund though I usually find it cheesy. A lot of people were disappointed with the way last episode's reunions went, but they were kind of further expanded upon in this one. Some nice emotional moments, but it was strange seeing Arya's nip. Don't think that was the right decision for the show.

This episode was pretty good, but some of the interactions seemed awkward. Pretty much the entire supporting cast just happening to walk into the same room of this giant castle within a minute of each other was a little weird. Felt like a sitcom, but the resulting scene was worth the awkwardness of the setup.

The Arya thing is quite awkward for a number of reasons, and it would have been super easy to avoid that awkwardness purely through camera work or even just editing. Feel bad for Gendry's actor, it would have been immensely more awkward for him, I'm sure.

Sam continues to be a wonderful character. Tormund is comic relief done right. My only real wish was that Jaime mentioned that Daenerys' dad was insane and about to kill hundreds of thousands of innocent people. Something that's easily corroborated by several of Daenerys' closest advisors. If that scene doesn't happen by the end of this season, I'll be extremely disappointed.

Not a huge fan of this episode, but I guess it's pretty much par for the course of where the series has been the last few seasons. The heel turn character progression of Arya and Sansa (which admittedly happened a while ago) is just really off-putting, and Jamies transformation is a bit too on the nose. Other than that the episode felt like treading water. I get that it's nice to say farewell to everyone that's gonna die and all, but when I realized halfway through the episode that we weren't getting the fight this week it just started feeling like they had to fill out the run-time.

There's going to be trouble in the Crypt...

I really liked that episode overall. It was a very good last night on earth episode. I do agree that it's odd that Jamie didn't decide to mention why the Mad King got his name but maybe it wasn't the right place or time for it.

Dany's reaction to the news also furthers my belief that she's going to be in a position to save Jon and she won't take it.

@philipduck:

Surprisingly, I haven't heard a lot of murmuring about this. Was my first thought too. Hide from a thing that makes zombies from dead bodies in a dark and dreary cavern system full of corpses. Its like hiding from Aquaman in an aquarium.

@cornfed40: That and just the incredible volume of lines like:

"The crypt is safe!"
"Go to the crypt, it's the safest place in Winterfell!"
"Trust me, you'll be safer in the crypt!"
"Stay in the crypt where you will be safe, we need you."
"Remember: the crypt is totally safe and not going to turn into a rampant zombie factory at a moments notice, likely brought on by a character dying down there and coming back to life and wreaking havoc on everyone!"

The way I see this ending in three phrases: (Keep in mind I am not watching this season now...I'll watch it on DVD later)
- Dany dies; either scarfied or of her own free will to save others
- Sansa ascends the Iron Throne, and as Tyrion is STILL her husband, he acts as Hand to the Queen. They actually do consummate that marriage!
- Jon Snow literally takes over as King of Winter by attempting to defeat the King of Winter...that role 'never dies' it is transferred leading to another few thousand years of detanat with humanity.

Oh, I could be so wrong; and I'm not married to these outcomes. But, I think the above outcome is appropriate...nobody you thought would win "the game" wins. Except, that Sansa does find her prince after all.

I enjoyed all the fatalistic dialogue of the recent episode and that's about it. It's mostly just gearing up for what's next. I'll be surprised if I find anything about the ending of this show satisfying but I've enjoyed watching it all things considered. The story and world building have always been sort of touch and go since the beginning but I've mostly loved it for the acting, wardrobe, and set design. I've just had to come to terms with how silly the writing has gotten over the course of the show's story line. I've seen worse dark fantasy stuff so I have to give this production props for making something that is mostly good as a piece of prestige television within the genre.

I think the writing has gotten kind of silly because there are two distinct camps of fans of this show, and so they're trying to cater to everybody they can. As the show has gotten more popular there is a whole group of people that come to the show for the spectacle and the action scenes. But for me, and several of my friends the political intrigue and character interactions that the first two seasons were excellent at were always the draw. For me, this last episode was one of my favorites from the entire series, but if this isn't really what you come to GoT for then I can understand why it was less appealing.

@thievingsince95: Yeah the politics were always the most interesting part for me too. Doesn't feel like there's been much of that since the big cast culling & the last episode just didn't do it for me.

I've long since resigned myself to the fact that all the interesting stuff is done and I came into this season expecting a fantastical (if predictable) conclusion. I'm shocked they've spent the first 1/3 of the season with pretty much just set-up and house-keeping, really thought they'd hit the ground running this time around.

EDIT: The whole crypt thing is almost laughably stupid, I find it very hard to believe that not one of the characters realises what a terrible idea that is. Extremely lazy writing imo.

@thievingsince95: I think a lot of it stems from the show staff just having a loose outline of what happens, because everything produced after they ran out of source material has felt like varying degrees of somehow both rushed and plodding, inexplicably, not to mention EXCEEDINGLY fan-fiction-y.

S1 is still the gold standard IMO. That season is borderline perfect, and everything moves at such a great pace, bouncing seamlessly between politics, action, sex and death in such a thoughtful manner. There was a legitimate feeling of "who do you trust" and your political mistakes would get you killed *cough Ned*. They have just never been able to capture that again since (to be fair, the books kind of fall off of a cliff around book 4 anyway, IMO, so even if they had the source material, the series would either be 20 seasons long to account for GRRMs obvious lack of a quality editor, or fall into the same trap of sprinting to certain moments and never allowing the right amount of time for a situation to grow).

Sorry for the rambling, my wife and I have been talking about our evolving feelings about the show and book over the last week or so over dinner, so it's been on my mind a lot.

Am I the only one who kinda just loves the whole show and think it makes sense season 7 was a lot of spectacle? I mean all these plot points are converging finally. It’s the end. Of course things are gonna pop off.

I do love the methodical chess game going on in the earlier seasons though don’t get me wrong

@frostyryan: Season 1 is my personal favorite, but I am in total agreement with you. Nothing has felt out of place. Winter is in full swing.

That was quite something.. Wowowowow

@frostyryan Also in agreement with you. It's better than 90% of the crap on TV or internet so.. F yea.

Another very good episode. I'm glad I never soured on this show and right now just wish I could just hibernate for a week. Only three more to go, but so many possible outcomes still left on the table.

What happened to ghost

The White Walkers feel kinda lame now. I don't read the books, but I've seen videos about them and it sounds like they're WAY more developed there. If their reasoning really is "we want to kill all humans, because... why not?" that feels too simplistic for the show, or at least how the show used to be. They'll probably just move on now, but I hope Bran drops some knowledge or background on them.

@deathstriker: Actually, from what I remember, the White Walkers are even MORE unexplained in the books. The show kind of just had to make a decision with them because even by GRRM standards the teasing out of them and their motivations was taking FOREVER. Supposedly they're going to be a larger focus on the next book, The Winds of Winter, if that book ever actually comes out in a form different than just a random chapter released somewhere.

That episode was a whole entire BANGER. I literally started clapping when

****SPOILERS****

Arya killed the Night King. The pacing felt fantastic too, with things starting, then stopping, then starting again, then snowballing all the way to the very end. The broad strokes happened generally how I expected them to go (someone killing the Night King at the very end, a few major characters dying, etc.) but the moment-to-moment was tense as hell from the first second to the last second. I'm also glad the Melisandre necklace thing finally paid off, and that she redeemed herself in some way.

Next episode looks like it'll be about the buildup to the war against Cersei, which means only two episodes of the actual war; I'm less and less sure about how they'll manage to fit all of that in about 3 hours, but given how much I've been enjoying the current season, I'm more than willing to give them the benefit of the doubt for now.

As a final note, it's weird that the save-the-world, triumph against evil comes before the battle for the throne, but I think it actually makes more thematic sense. At the end of the day, people are spiteful, greedy, and shortsighted; if the show ends with Cersei crushing the North because she took the path of greatest dickheadedness, I would give a standing ovation.

I’m reading that twitter was complaining (because it’s fucking twitter) that the episode was too dark to see. Anyone experience that?

I thought it was a fantastic look on my OLED. Lots of deep dark colors throughout with contrasting blasts of fire and ice lighting the scenes.

https://news.yahoo.com/game-thrones-fans-complain-battle-031958746.html

As a pure action episode, tonight was my least favorite. The story beats also didn’t hit me.

The presentation was through the fucking roof, though. The color palate, camera angles, use of lighting, CG, background detail...that was an amazing technical effort.

@sethmode: It was a couple years ago, but from what I remember the video I saw talked about White Walker looks, language, buildings, etc. Sounds like they look more like snow/very white elves rather than undead and they can talk. There are female ones too, so they can probably reproduce. Killing the Night King solving the entire problem feels too easy and like a bad Dracula b-movie.

The problem is HBO's compression for most people. Watching it over cable or internet can lead to pretty bad compression. Watched it on a friends really good tv, properly calibrated, and for context, we've watched AvP: Requiem on that tv and it was fine. This episode of GoT, though, was full of compression artifacts and colour banding. It was rough and we only have these issues with GoT, not anything else at all.

@deathstriker: I mean, I agree with you, this was another instance to me where it felt like they were like "OH SHIT WE HAVE TO FINISH THIS IN 3 MORE EPISODES" than something really well developed. I just am not entirely sure GRRM has much better in store, considering the guy when interviewed about the book HE WAS WRITING and the WW role in it he basically said "You'll learn more about them, but I don't know if they have a culture or anything. I haven't found out yet." which is just bananas. But that's also why this book series that was meant to be a trilogy, then 4 books, then 5, then 6, now 7 (but with talks by GRRM that it might actually go 8). In a lot of ways I respect the show for just being like "Look, we have to end this, it can't just go on forever" like GRRM seems to be doing with the books.

I enjoyed the episode a lot but I wish they hadn't been so heavy handed with the foreshadowing for the end scene. Spent most of the last 20mins waiting for it to happen and it killed a lot of potential tension for me. The rest was utterly enthralling for me though and Lyanna Mormont was a god damn legend as always.

Not directly connected to the episode but now that the army of the dead are... dealt with, I can't help but wonder how they're gonna justify Jon's being resurrected? The lord of light bringing him back to defeat the dead makes perfect sense but if that were the case surely Jon would be dead now (maybe he is but I doubt it), having fulfilled his grand purpose as a distraction/unifier.

However, the lord of light bringing him back to help decide which human sits on the throne of a country whose citizens barely acknowledge the existence of said lord of light makes no fucking sense to me. Why would he give a shit? I'm hoping they've got a good reason waiting that I'm just not seeing 'cause I'm finding it hard to reconcile this atm.

EDIT: Begun thinking maybe Jon sorts out the fucked up Westeros seasons somehow, making it more like the world we know and giving the lord of light a foothold in all seasons, every day of the year would work.

@nutter: Yea, it was pretty bad but any dark scenes usually are for this show (and cable TV in general.) Viewing it on an OLED in a dark room. As someone mentioned, it's mostly due to the poor compression as any detail in those scenes just got muddied up and lost. I'd be curious to watch this one again in higher quality. Or not because I've never re-watched any of this show.

I think the only part I'm a little hung up on is the fact that the White Walkers did not put more effort into javalin'ing another dragon. The Night King has his one lazy toss. Rest of his general dudes are just standing around with them. I would've thought the plan was to draw the dragons out, winter storm comes raging in, then they wouldn't be able to see it coming.

@brackstone: @seikenfreak: Okay, the compression was an issue for me. It wasn’t terrible throughout, but there were a couple of early scenes that were pretty rough. I could see what was going on, but the compression was noticeable and distracting.