TV HBO picks up George RR Martin series - Game of Thrones (4 Viewers)

[jayd265]

I think you guys are over thinking this. It's a fantasy show, not everything needs to line up with real world expectations. But that's me, continue onward at your leisure.

I agree. I enjoy it just to have a show to watch. Yes there are flaws. But not like they had time to story tell another 3-4 seasons. (Which I wish they could’ve)

But after the 2 years away. No way this season would live up to the hype. Just sit back and enjoy the finale.

 

[Sun Wukong]

I agree. I enjoy it just to have a show to watch. Yes there are flaws. But not like they had time to story tell another 3-4 seasons. (Which I wish they could’ve)

But after the 2 years away. No way this season would live up to the hype. Just sit back and enjoy the finale.

This isn't just a case of a show not living up to the hype. There are profound failures of narrative, characterization, pacing and story structure occurring. Things that simply didn't exist when the show was adapting the books.

It's easy to say "You built it up too much in your head" or "It isn't playing out like you wanted it to" to try an explain the negative reactions, but the truth is this season has been messy, slapdash, and often incomprehensible. Characters who were once brilliant are now morons. Plot threads that were built over seven seasons have been thrown out as quickly as possible in a race to get to the finish line. It's just been a mess. That isn't my expectations or what I built up in my head. That's objectively looking at what season 8 is doing and saying "This is all just off. Badly so." That Starbucks cup on set making it to air is, in some ways, indicative of how all this feels. Rushed, unpolished, and sloppy.

Dani's heel turn is a prime example of the issues facing the show this year. Sure, there was some minimal groundwork laid for the idea she could go bad. It didn't come out nowhere in terms of concept. But it may as well have come out of nowhere in terms of execution because the show has done almost nothing to earn what happened last week. She was a character who had, on occasion, displayed some authoritarian tendencies and seemed to have some issues with arrogance and wrath. But it was slow burn stuff. If you want to make a character break bad over that, you've got to a better job than just say "Oh, this secondary character pal of hers got murdered, she's crazy now and just killed countless innocent people in a horrific firestorm because of it." That's bad writing. Everyday of the week.

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

This isn't just a case of a show not living up to the hype. There are profound failures of narrative, characterization, pacing and story structure occurring. Things that simply didn't exist when the show was adapting the books.

It's easy to say "You built it up too much in your head" or "It isn't playing out like you wanted it to" to try an explain the negative reactions, but the truth is this season has been messy, slapdash, and often incomprehensible. Characters who were once brilliant are now morons. Plot threads that were built over seven seasons have been thrown out as quickly as possible in a race to get to the finish line. It's just been a mess. That isn't my expectations or what I built up in my head. That's objectively looking at what season 8 is doing and saying "This is all just off. Badly so." That Starbucks cup on set making it to air is, in some ways, indicative of how all this feels. Rushed, unpolished, and sloppy.

Dani's heel turn is a prime example of the issues facing the show this year. Sure, there was some minimal groundwork laid for the idea she could go bad. It didn't come out nowhere in terms of concept. But it may as well have come out of nowhere in terms of execution because the show has done almost nothing to earn what happened last week. She was a character who had, on occasion, displayed some authoritarian tendencies and seemed to have some issues with arrogance and wrath. But it was slow burn stuff. If you want to make a character break bad over that, you've got to a better job than just say "Oh, this secondary character pal of hers got murdered, she's crazy now and just killed countless innocent people in a horrific firestorm because of it." That's bad writing. Everyday of the week.

But like I said, we’ve known this for 2 seasons
We know it’s not Stravinsky anymore, it’s more like John Williams
So the question for the fans is are you just going to stay mad that John Williams is not Stravinsky or are you just going to consume it as ‘just’ a John Williams score?

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

Something one of the pods brought up that I think might have some validity- much of s7-8 hinge on the Dany/Jon love story
And I think we’re being told their love story (and tragic breakup) but we’re not seeing it
I felt/saw Jon & Ygritte- I felt/saw Dany & (post-Ramey) Drogo — or heck evennJorah or Euro Daario
But I don’t think Kit & Emilia have sold their relationship at all
When Jon denied Dany I understood what was happening- I knew the steps that led to it and how this impacted her heading into the battle
But I sure didn’t feel it

 

[Goatman Saint]

I look at it like this. Even the guy who plays Varys talked about the decline of quality in the dialogue and the characters once Martins books were passed. Dany and Jon have a relationship, but the time spent with Jon and Ygritte just wasn’t there. You could believe that couple. Jon and Dany I don’t feel that way about. Varys after being the spider was just standing there. Tyrian who drove a lot of the quality in the first few seasons became a waste of Peter Dinklage the last couple seasons. Cersei who was evil and vicious the first few seasons tot he point Lena Headey wouldn’t even have people ask her for autographs just sat and grimaced and looked out the window this last couple seasons.

Dany was wasted this last season also. Her story of decent into madness or was it simply responding to Cersei’s tricks and deciding to give no quarter or whatever it is is left to question. I can honestly say D and D will do a standards Star Wars movie. Bad character development, jumping from action scene to action scene without building any depth of character.

It could’ve been done way better.

 

[Pancakes]

I agree.

Why rush it?

I was out to dinner the other night and heard a bunch of 50 year old cougars talking about dragons and how they got were shocked when the last one got killed.

This show has sold character development that has made people of all different walks of life care about dragons and magic in a way that no one saw coming.

Take the time to have it end right.

The writers were asked about it and said they just felt 73 episodes seemed like the perfect number for this series. Where the fork does that number come from???

Why rush it???

 

[mattgdg]

The writers were asked about it and said they just felt 73 episodes seemed like the perfect number for this series. Where the fork does that number come from???

HR	Player/Team	Year
73	Barry Bonds, San Francisco (N.L.)	2001

They're on steroids - book it.

 

[Saintslfc13]

Did Kit and Emilia really have the screen time to sell their relationship though? I felt like they started that with the slow burn style of the first 5-6 seasons and then remembered they truncated the season so made it a point to show them getting down at the end of 7 and then this season they reminded us when Jon and Dany took the Dragons for a ride and had Sansa say some
lines about men doing dumb things for women and questioning if Jon bent the knee for love or because it was to protect the North. That’s all really on the writers and ultimately a lot of it comes back to their own decision to shorten the last two seasons.

Honestly, The best way I can describe it is that it feels like they got a new RPG (the Star Wars contract) and were in such a hurry to play it they decided they’d just cheat their way through the rest of the RPG they’d been playing for the last few months. Now that’s one thing in that scenario because the only ones playing the game is them and if they just want to cheat their way to the end it’s certainly their prerogative. The problem lies in that this isn’t a personal game but a 9 year investment from the fans and from what I’ve read and heard most fans who’ve seen the whole show feel like this season and the last aren’t up to standard, with this one being more of an egregious example of that.

 

[saint_drago]

She was a character who had, on occasion, displayed some authoritarian tendencies and seemed to have some issues with arrogance and wrath. But it was slow burn stuff. If you want to make a character break bad over that, you've got to a better job than just say "Oh, this secondary character pal of hers got murdered, she's crazy now and just killed countless innocent people in a horrific firestorm because of it." That's bad writing. Everyday of the week.

This is the way I see it. They didn't even play up the loss of her dragon child. It was all about her handmaid.

 

[Mr. Sparkle]

Dani's heel turn is a prime example of the issues facing the show this year. Sure, there was some minimal groundwork laid for the idea she could go bad. It didn't come out nowhere in terms of concept. But it may as well have come out of nowhere in terms of execution because the show has done almost nothing to earn what happened last week. She was a character who had, on occasion, displayed some authoritarian tendencies and seemed to have some issues with arrogance and wrath. But it was slow burn stuff. If you want to make a character break bad over that, you've got to a better job than just say "Oh, this secondary character pal of hers got murdered, she's crazy now and just killed countless innocent people in a horrific firestorm because of it." That's bad writing. Everyday of the week.

I thought it was telling that they used the "Previously on...." intro scenes to hit us over the head with every reference to the possibility of her breaking bad over 7+ seasons. They didn't have time to flesh out the heel turn so they used that instead.

 

[kansast]

I know the lack of episodes has been a problem. And yes, they could of done a "better" job of showing Dany's downward spiral. A few more episodes would of certainly made that easier. But given all those givens. After they killed her dragon and Misandi.. I knew without a doubt she was gonna burn the whole city down. Told everyone I knew who was watching the show, she's gonna burn that whole city into the ground. To me it was obvious. Agreed they could have used more time and episodes. I would have been more surprised if she didn't burn it all to the ground.

 

[BIG E]

 

[BIG E]

 

[BIG E]

 

[BIG E]