ADVERTISEMENT

Battle of the bastards

Yeah-not sure they will but it is primed and most of the actors are not exactly killing it elsewhere. You have the John Snow king of the North, Sansa in charge of Winterfell, Bran king with Tyron as advisor and Arya off exploring a new land with lord know what danger she will unleash. And a pissed off and betrayed mad dragon queen ready to be brought back to life. It would be easy to get the band back together...

One thing hurting its chances is Season 8 was so bad it really ****ed up the franchise. Good article below (cliffs notes bolded for TL:DR types):


"There have been many good shows ruined by a shoddy finale, but few (if any) compare to Game of Thrones. The ire that surrounded Thrones’ final season and its perceived drop in quality has been compared, endlessly, to shows such as Dexter, Lost and The Sopranos, although none of them hold a candle to the particular brand of chaos and contempt that Thrones managed to conjure. But now, exactly one year on from the HBO epic’s final ending, we must finally accept the truth. No show has ever pulled off a finale more disastrous than Game of Thrones, and no show has ever – ever – seen its cultural footprint erased quicker either. It’s hard to even imagine that when 2019 began, appetite for the return of Jon Snow (Kit Harington), Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) and Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage) was at an all-time high. Sure, the seventh season had seen a slight drop in quality and bizarre story choices (why, exactly do seven men storm into the land of ice zombies again? Please?) but this was going to be a supercharged season of Game of Thrones. Six blockbuster episodes, in and out. No problem.

There are many reasons why this eighth and final season was a distinct, total failure and we’re sure many, many books will be written on the finer, succinct points for time immemorial. But, to put it bluntly, this is what happens when writers don’t write well in an effort to land this dragon as quickly and pain-free as possible. Much of the blame for Thrones’ crash and burn has been put at the feet of creators and showrunners David Benioff and DB Weiss, and for once the internet has come to a sensible conclusion. Everything else about season eight – the performances, the design, the effects – were firing on all cylinders for their lap of glory. But the writing was DOA. Characters marvelled for their intelligence – Tyrion, Varys – became remarkably stupid. The Big Bad of the series – the Night King – was dispatched with alarming ease in a world-ending battle where precisely one major character died. Cersei Lannister decided to take time out of her busy schedule to sip wine on a balcony and never return. Daernerys Targayren turned into Hitler.

Thrones had, by its last series, passed the material of its source novels and then some (the final two instalments of George RR Martin’s A Song Of Ice And Fire series are still yet to be published) and all the intricacy and nimble characterisation that brought the show into the international spotlight in its brilliant earlier seasons seemed to have evaporated by dragon fire on its home-run. We could write 5,000 words on why this season was so bad – the rushed path to a clearly pre-determined ending, the suspension of the world’s realism in order to get people where they needed to be, the inability to write female characters without turning them into a tyrannical villain or a femme fatale – but we don’t want to upset you, or ourselves. It now doesn’t matter why Game of Thrones’ final run of episodes was so bad, because the damage has been done. It has happened and it can’t be reversed. The legacy of Game of Thrones has been ruined, irrevocably, forever. Look online, now, and you’ll find that the show’s cultural footprint has almost disappeared.

It’s estimated that almost 20 million viewers tuned into The Iron Throne when it aired in the US on 19 May 2019. That’s just above 16% of that country’s entire population. It was the most popular show of the decade, if not the most popular TV show to exist in modern times, and we won’t see anything to rival it again any time soon. But, just look around on the internet today, search for Game of Thrones. Whereas, at any other given time, you will find people still tweeting about The Big Bang Theory or Friends, commentary of Thrones has ground to a halt after its disastrous ending. It was such a sudden and complete grind to a halt, we think it’s given every single viewer emotional whiplash. No one is talking about Game of Thrones, because no one wants to talk about Game of Thrones. At any time in the past 12 months have you fancied a re-watch of the show? To once again experience the shocking death of Ned Stark, the battle of Blackwater Bay and Cersei’s destruction of the Sept of Baelor in all their glory? Have you talked yourself out of it because you know if you do that, you’ll have to once again watch season eight? And, really, who can blame you? You invested so much in that show. You watched every episode live, without fail, since it debuted (or when people started to rave about it to you – it’s like fantasy, but for normal people!) You followed all the cast on Instagram. You bought all the books. You tweeted so, so many memes of Daenerys shouting ‘Dracarys!’ Only for the show to re-pay you for your loyalty and your obsession by turning into a parody of itself. It wasn’t just sad, it was a bit insulting. This is what you wasted two years of your life waiting for?

At the start of this article, we mentioned Dexter, Lost, and The Sopranos. Each of these shows, to varying degrees, had unsatisfying finales, people say. Whether it was the complex myth-making of Lost or The Sopranos’ refusal to give any ending, at all. But Dexter and Lost were well past the peak of their cultural powers by the time they drew to a close and The Sopranos is, still, considered by many to be the finest achievement of any TV show, ever. Its ending wasn’t bad in the way that Thrones’ was, it only ended up enhancing the show’s mystique. Game of Thrones was ruined by its own ending, and its a wound from which the show will never recover. Of course, there’s still hope for fans, either in the (eventual) publication of the final two books, or the debut of the promising, Targaryen-centric prequel. Even if the franchise finds success in its future, every conversation will eventually wind back to ‘Game of Thrones? Yeah, great show, terrible ending.’ So, it’s finally time to admit it. Game of Thrones is dead, long live Game of Thrones. Or perhaps not."


“No one is talking about Game of Thrones, because no one wants to talk about Game of Thrones. At any time in the past 12 months have you fancied a re-watch of the show? To once again experience the shocking death of Ned Stark, the battle of Blackwater Bay and Cersei’s destruction of the Sept of Baelor in all their glory? Have you talked yourself out of it because you know if you do that, you’ll have to once again watch season eight?”

This this this.
 
“No one is talking about Game of Thrones, because no one wants to talk about Game of Thrones. At any time in the past 12 months have you fancied a re-watch of the show? To once again experience the shocking death of Ned Stark, the battle of Blackwater Bay and Cersei’s destruction of the Sept of Baelor in all their glory? Have you talked yourself out of it because you know if you do that, you’ll have to once again watch season eight?”

This this this.
The actors pretty much have stuck together but everyone else can’t be wrong. I wonder if there will ever be a true movement to redo season 8 before people age too much.
 
Yeah-not sure they will but it is primed and most of the actors are not exactly killing it elsewhere. You have the John Snow king of the North, Sansa in charge of Winterfell, Bran king with Tyron as advisor and Arya off exploring a new land with lord know what danger she will unleash. And a pissed off and betrayed mad dragon queen ready to be brought back to life. It would be easy to get the band back together...

One thing hurting its chances is Season 8 was so bad it really ****ed up the franchise. Good article below (cliffs notes bolded for TL:DR types):


"There have been many good shows ruined by a shoddy finale, but few (if any) compare to Game of Thrones. The ire that surrounded Thrones’ final season and its perceived drop in quality has been compared, endlessly, to shows such as Dexter, Lost and The Sopranos, although none of them hold a candle to the particular brand of chaos and contempt that Thrones managed to conjure. But now, exactly one year on from the HBO epic’s final ending, we must finally accept the truth. No show has ever pulled off a finale more disastrous than Game of Thrones, and no show has ever – ever – seen its cultural footprint erased quicker either. It’s hard to even imagine that when 2019 began, appetite for the return of Jon Snow (Kit Harington), Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) and Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage) was at an all-time high. Sure, the seventh season had seen a slight drop in quality and bizarre story choices (why, exactly do seven men storm into the land of ice zombies again? Please?) but this was going to be a supercharged season of Game of Thrones. Six blockbuster episodes, in and out. No problem.

There are many reasons why this eighth and final season was a distinct, total failure and we’re sure many, many books will be written on the finer, succinct points for time immemorial. But, to put it bluntly, this is what happens when writers don’t write well in an effort to land this dragon as quickly and pain-free as possible. Much of the blame for Thrones’ crash and burn has been put at the feet of creators and showrunners David Benioff and DB Weiss, and for once the internet has come to a sensible conclusion. Everything else about season eight – the performances, the design, the effects – were firing on all cylinders for their lap of glory. But the writing was DOA. Characters marvelled for their intelligence – Tyrion, Varys – became remarkably stupid. The Big Bad of the series – the Night King – was dispatched with alarming ease in a world-ending battle where precisely one major character died. Cersei Lannister decided to take time out of her busy schedule to sip wine on a balcony and never return. Daernerys Targayren turned into Hitler.

Thrones had, by its last series, passed the material of its source novels and then some (the final two instalments of George RR Martin’s A Song Of Ice And Fire series are still yet to be published) and all the intricacy and nimble characterisation that brought the show into the international spotlight in its brilliant earlier seasons seemed to have evaporated by dragon fire on its home-run. We could write 5,000 words on why this season was so bad – the rushed path to a clearly pre-determined ending, the suspension of the world’s realism in order to get people where they needed to be, the inability to write female characters without turning them into a tyrannical villain or a femme fatale – but we don’t want to upset you, or ourselves. It now doesn’t matter why Game of Thrones’ final run of episodes was so bad, because the damage has been done. It has happened and it can’t be reversed. The legacy of Game of Thrones has been ruined, irrevocably, forever. Look online, now, and you’ll find that the show’s cultural footprint has almost disappeared.

It’s estimated that almost 20 million viewers tuned into The Iron Throne when it aired in the US on 19 May 2019. That’s just above 16% of that country’s entire population. It was the most popular show of the decade, if not the most popular TV show to exist in modern times, and we won’t see anything to rival it again any time soon. But, just look around on the internet today, search for Game of Thrones. Whereas, at any other given time, you will find people still tweeting about The Big Bang Theory or Friends, commentary of Thrones has ground to a halt after its disastrous ending. It was such a sudden and complete grind to a halt, we think it’s given every single viewer emotional whiplash. No one is talking about Game of Thrones, because no one wants to talk about Game of Thrones. At any time in the past 12 months have you fancied a re-watch of the show? To once again experience the shocking death of Ned Stark, the battle of Blackwater Bay and Cersei’s destruction of the Sept of Baelor in all their glory? Have you talked yourself out of it because you know if you do that, you’ll have to once again watch season eight? And, really, who can blame you? You invested so much in that show. You watched every episode live, without fail, since it debuted (or when people started to rave about it to you – it’s like fantasy, but for normal people!) You followed all the cast on Instagram. You bought all the books. You tweeted so, so many memes of Daenerys shouting ‘Dracarys!’ Only for the show to re-pay you for your loyalty and your obsession by turning into a parody of itself. It wasn’t just sad, it was a bit insulting. This is what you wasted two years of your life waiting for?

At the start of this article, we mentioned Dexter, Lost, and The Sopranos. Each of these shows, to varying degrees, had unsatisfying finales, people say. Whether it was the complex myth-making of Lost or The Sopranos’ refusal to give any ending, at all. But Dexter and Lost were well past the peak of their cultural powers by the time they drew to a close and The Sopranos is, still, considered by many to be the finest achievement of any TV show, ever. Its ending wasn’t bad in the way that Thrones’ was, it only ended up enhancing the show’s mystique. Game of Thrones was ruined by its own ending, and its a wound from which the show will never recover. Of course, there’s still hope for fans, either in the (eventual) publication of the final two books, or the debut of the promising, Targaryen-centric prequel. Even if the franchise finds success in its future, every conversation will eventually wind back to ‘Game of Thrones? Yeah, great show, terrible ending.’ So, it’s finally time to admit it. Game of Thrones is dead, long live Game of Thrones. Or perhaps not."

It's painful for me to read this and your prior post as I am a huge fan of the series having read the 5 books. I will say that Martin left very little meat in the last 2 books or the meat he did leave wasn't that great. So did have faith in B & B after what they did with season 6. Maybe we can blame the star wars producer, Kathleen Kennedy, for destroying GoT since she whoo'd B&B to Star Wars.

And of course, there is an article suggesting that.

 
Two of the projects are essentially written. The Dance of the Dragon project (I forgot what they’re calling the tv series but it’s close to the novella named that without looking it up) has an extensive history written out in two novellas as well as his giant history book. That one about the last time there was a Targ civil war where both sides had armies of dragons should be amazing. Like Dragonlance come to life correctly rather than a shitty animated movie done halfass.

Another smaller project is called Dunk and Egg about a big commoner who becomes a knight and a little prince whose eighth in line but becomes king has three novellas but he was supposed to write six. And like everything else he started he got sidetracked and never finished. So it’s only half done.

The others only have a couple paragraphs spilled out in the history book.
Im getting names messed up probably, but doesn't Egg turn out to be the old blind targ at the wall?
 
No, that was his brother Maester Aemon. Egg was King Aegon V, grandfather of Dany in the show and great grandfather of her in the books.
Yep. Just nerded out and looked it up. They were brothers. In the scene before he dies he says "Egg, I dreamed that I was old".

Damn, that was great and the kind of dialogue that got me hooked. Now I'm all pissed off at the ending again lol.
 
Yep. Just nerded out and looked it up. They were brothers. In the scene before he dies he says "Egg, I dreamed that I was old".

Damn, that was great and the kind of dialogue that got me hooked. Now I'm all pissed off at the ending again lol.
Yes, Maester Aemon was born earlier, so he had a better claim to the throne even though he was a Citadel trained maester. But he didn’t want to rule so he took the black and went to the wall to ensure his little brother would rule.

The world that Martin built is really thorough, almost to Tolkien levels thorough. The events of the show are just a very small part of the history of the three known continents,
 
  • Like
Reactions: FSUTribe76
Yes, Maester Aemon was born earlier, so he had a better claim to the throne even though he was a Citadel trained maester. But he didn’t want to rule so he took the black and went to the wall to ensure his little brother would rule.

The world that Martin built is really thorough, almost to Tolkien levels thorough. The events of the show are just a very small part of the history of the three known continents,
Yes! Now do Jon Conington and Aegon.
 
@sober_teacher you screwed up your quote/response so I can’t quote you.

In regards to Bran: I thought it was weird and awkward in the series. But I think it would be great in the books.

That’s one of my biggest series complaints: Bran is awesome in the books, one of my favorite characters... but the series largely ignored him and his arc and then the ending fell flat.
That wasn't Bran. That was the 3 Eyed Raven.
 
  • Like
Reactions: lucas80
I own the first 7 seasons on a combination of DVD and BluRay and I used to rewatch episodes plus all of the extras. Then the final season happened and I haven’t watched a minute of it since.

I will give the new projects a chance, but the original series is dead to me.
I just rewatched the rest of season 7 and the first three episodes of season 8. I have actually enjoyed season 8 so far, and am contemplating watching the rest. I still hate the ending but watching it back Jon’s slow dumping of her once he learns of his lineage I can see her becoming more and more detached. And then when she learns of his lineage, Jorah and missendei died, and Varys betrays her, I can see jon’s final rebuff of her making her snap. They should have developed this more with a couple of more episodes, but I don’t hate the memory of it as much when I watched it the first time.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: sober_teacher
I started back up again where I left off last night...very much enjoyed watching closely to see how that little prick king get poisoned. Lion vs The Rose episode.
 
I just rewatched the rest of season 7 and the first three episodes of season 8. I have actually enjoyed season 8 so far, and am contemplating watching the rest. I still hate the ending but watching it back Jon’s slow dumping of her once he learns of his lineage I can see her becoming more and more detached. And then when she learns of his lineage, Jorah and missendei died, and Varys betrays her, I can see jon’s final rebuff of her making her snap. They should have developed this more with a couple of more episodes, but I don’t hate the memory of it as much when I watched it the first time.

I agree with you that they gave plenty of hints of an “evil turn” for Dany. Especially in the novels. So I don’t really have an issue with that as a part of the plot. But it was horribly acted by Emilia Clarke who was horribly miscast from the beginning. Emilia Clarke refused to wear the contacts, later refused to dye her hair and eyebrows, refused to do the lesbian scenes and when she got more pull refused to even do the contracted for nudity. The character in the book is described looking like this except described as tall for her age (remember she’s 13 in the novels).
gxv2cxjtrw251.jpg



c982e9c6319daadd29015a8420d8a28e.jpg


So naturally they cast....a short dark brown hair woman with poor acting ability.

image
 
  • Like
Reactions: Tenacious E
I agree with you that they gave plenty of hints of an “evil turn” for Dany. Especially in the novels. So I don’t really have an issue with that as a part of the plot. But it was horribly acted by Emilia Clarke who was horribly miscast from the beginning. Emilia Clarke refused to wear the contacts, later refused to dye her hair and eyebrows, refused to do the lesbian scenes and when she got more pull refused to even do the contracted for nudity. The character in the book is described looking like this except described as tall for her age (remember she’s 13 in the novels).
gxv2cxjtrw251.jpg



c982e9c6319daadd29015a8420d8a28e.jpg


So naturally they cast....a short dark brown hair woman with poor acting ability.

image

I guess I thought she was all right, if not good the first few seasons, but that she didn’t have the range the character required as the show went on.
 
I agree with you that they gave plenty of hints of an “evil turn” for Dany. Especially in the novels. So I don’t really have an issue with that as a part of the plot. But it was horribly acted by Emilia Clarke who was horribly miscast from the beginning. Emilia Clarke refused to wear the contacts, later refused to dye her hair and eyebrows, refused to do the lesbian scenes and when she got more pull refused to even do the contracted for nudity. The character in the book is described looking like this except described as tall for her age (remember she’s 13 in the novels).
gxv2cxjtrw251.jpg



c982e9c6319daadd29015a8420d8a28e.jpg


So naturally they cast....a short dark brown hair woman with poor acting ability.

image
Too bad we don't have a time machine - a young Robin Wright would have been a good fit.
c0101a86f7b8b6f4ae56b1afef08d20a920ffd4e.jpg
 
  • Like
Reactions: FSUTribe76
I guess I thought she was all right, if not good the first few seasons, but that she didn’t have the range the character required as the show went on.
Yeah I agree with this. I liked her a lot early on, but by seasons 7 and 8 not so much.
 
Too bad we don't have a time machine - a young Robin Wright would have been a good fit.
c0101a86f7b8b6f4ae56b1afef08d20a920ffd4e.jpg

Absolutely.

The original actress they cast for the role Tamzin something or other was much better suited. But she quite after a terrible day of shooting where she had to ride naked on an “overly excited horse” that got too much into the sex scenes.


These aren’t pics from the set but Tamzin in Tudors

Tudors-tamzin-merchant-21730995-449-626.jpg


MV5BMDlmZjhmZWYtMjJlYy00ZmU4LThjMjUtMGVmOWVmMGNmZjBmXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyODk2NDIyNDY@._V1_.jpg



c7c2fa1414c0ca6376129d5fbfa91a24.jpg
 
  • Like
Reactions: Tenacious E
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT