Game of Thrones

[trash panda]

Spoiler

To be fair, someone in Dany's position will likely experience numerous betrayals in her life. And, what constitutes betrayal is at least a little bit subjective. Dany seems to think it's her destiny to sit on the iron throne and that anyone who says or does anything to stand in her way is betraying her self-imposed authority on the matter. She could look at the events of her life in retrospect and draw any number of conclusions as to who betrayed her in a way that meets the criteria outlined in the betrayal prophecy. She has many options. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I think Dany's vision in the House of the Undying definitely foreshadows events that will come to pass. Dany actively pursued this prophecy and she's fleshing out all the details herself. In the vision, by the time she reaches the throne room, it's in shambles. When she is mere inches away from touching the throne, she becomes distracted by her dragons' cries. At that point, she leaves the throne room and is reunited with Drogo and their son.

I think this foreshadows the very likely outcome that Dany will finally reach the destination she's been pursuing all these years, only...she's going to find it in ruins, (probably her own doing). I also think, as the HOTU vision prophecized, she's going to be reunited with Drogo and her son (in death) before she ever lays a finger on the iron throne. That's my guess as to how her story ends, anyway.

I still think if prophecies are reliable for storyline purposes, it's because characters pursue them even though they really, really don't have to. I wish Dany would wake up and be like "Westeros isn't that great" and then go back to being a badass Queen in Essos.

 

[Gary Caelum]

The audience is really not happy with the writers' explanation for what happened in this episode.

"Danerys kind of forgot about the iron fleet." Lol people are not liking this dumbass explanation. This is probably the most downvotes any GoT video has ever had:

 

[trash panda]

I saw that explanation and was like...."that's not actually an explanation, that's just bad writing".

Spoiler

Drogon has already been wounded once by the Scorpion. Viserion was killed quite literally by the same means. So it should come as absolutely no surprise that Rhaegal was killed in this fashion. This one isn't even Dany's fault. It was just bad writing. Also, why was Ser Davos not with Dany's fleet? He is like the resident expert on seafaring and navy tactics. Makes no sense.

 

[Gary Caelum]

This is an excellent video on how GoT changed once it departed from the books:

 

[Gary Caelum]

Yeah I don't think we ever got a good explanation as to why they abandoned the 10-episode seasons. Seasons 7 and 8 haven't improved by being shorter, so what was the point?

 

[Gary Caelum]

That would be kinda silly but it sounds possible.

Do they get paid even if they're not in an episode though? Cersei wasn't in episode 2 at all.

 

[AvecAloes]

FUCK. THIS. SHIT.

 

[Gary Caelum]

Well this may be the worst end to a well-loved TV show of all time.

What on earth were they playing at?

 

[Theozilla]

In addition to the general badness of the most recent GoT episode, this is a very gpoy of yours truly

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1127782825292435458

 

[Gary Caelum]

I genuinely know someone who named their baby daughter Daenerys. Fucking LOL

 

[Lord Noctis]

I quite liked the episode. It was a hell of a lot better than last weeks episode. I especially enjoyed Daenarys' stuff. I know some people were upset about that, but honestly the show has been building to this for a long time.

Also following Arya through the chaos was genuinely really effective.

I'm honestly surprised at how negative the reactions to this thing have been. There were problems sure (I mean, Euron's in the episode, so there was no way it was going to be a 10.), but man, I just dont think I saw the same episode as everyone else. I'm looking forward to the finale though.

 

[Gary Caelum]

Based on the youtube likes on the "Inside the Episode" thing, about 40% liked, 60% disliked, so some people do agree with you.

I'll avoid going into my thoughts because it will just be a relentless storm of anger and negativity. So I'll just list the things I actually really liked about this episode:

1) The Arya/Hound story arc had a really great ending.

 

[trash panda]

Spoiler

Okay, so...even if Dany's character arc doesn't end with her being a totally cliché evil queen (although I don't see any other way it can go now)...who does she intend to rule after she killed all her subjects or lost them in war...?

Also, if Jon kills her, this is going to be the most stereotypical ending ever in the history of ever.

 

[Fangu]

I kinda liked it xD It felt proper GoT to me.

 

[Shademp]

Spoiler: S08E05

All hail the Mad Queen Daenerys.

She lost too many people close to her in too short of a time. If Dany still had all her dragons/children and if Jorah was still alive she might not have succumbed to rage.

The question now, for me at least, is how Daenerys will die in the next episode. Will she go willingly? What will happen to her dragon? I hope that she can die with some shred of dignity before she goes to join Khal Drogo.

Hopefully, in the end, there won't be an Iron Throne to sit on.

 

[Gary Caelum]

A genuinely cool twist would've been.....

Spoiler

if the white walkers real purpose was to protect the realms of men against potential catastrophes, and the entire reason they reawoke and headed south was because they knew what Daenerys was going to do.

The rationale for killing so many people in the north would be that they needed enough undead in their army to accomplish their task of stopping her. But they were never intending to just kill everyone.

 

[Gary Caelum]

I thought you said you liked this episode?

 

[Lex]

I unequivocally loved that episode lmao this is so funny because I've been reading angry posts all day and thought I was going to hate it.

Spoiler

I really hope Cersei and Jaimie survived just so I can watch them be executed but I suppose there's only one episode left. Tbh although the "mad queen Daenerys" arc is mildly disappointing, I do not care that she laid waste to King's Landing. She sure broke that wheel! She tried not to be "queen of the ashes" but Cersei forced her hand. Olenna told her right: be a dragon. This is what she should have done at the very start. If she had, she'd still have two dragons and Cersei wouldn't have had the chance to put so many civilians in harm's way. My favourite moment was when she kept burning shit after the bells rung because I could honestly have seen Cersei still somehow winning if Daenerys had played nice. Those fucking King's Landing guards have turned for every goddamn ruler so it was satisfying to see them decimated aswell. Anybody else in the mood for BBQ now? lmaooooooooooooooo

The only thing I'm disappointed in is where I perceive it to be going, which is Dany trying to kill Jon or succeeding in killing one of the remaining Starks and forcing their hand against her. All this "look at the tragedy she has wrought! she must be brought down!!!!!!111oneone" like nah that's boring. She did the right thing. Burn it all down.

 

[X-SOLDIER]

I think that you'll appreciate this writeup on how they could have done the same thing in a way that'd've annoyed fewer people / avoided some of the more contrived bits: https://theconcourse.deadspin.com/a-better-way-game-of-thrones-could-have-arrived-at-this-1834720538

Also, for the reasoning behind peoples' vastly differing receptions to these season's developments, this Twitter thread is absolutely fantastic:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1125856091261136896

X

 

[Gary Caelum]

That's pretty much the same explanation from that video I posted a page ago. He uses different terms to frame it but it's pretty much the same concept.

It's a good explanation, but it's not really a good excuse for the bad writing. Every long story pretty much deals with that same conundrum of how to tie everything back together at the end. It's a near-universal problem for these kinds of stories!

 

[X-SOLDIER]

It's the manga-to-anime-adaptation issue, so it's not so much "bad writing" as just two very different story creation styles. especially because (as the thread points out) – the books that it's being adapted from can meander along at any pace that they want, whereas eventually the anime/live-action-adaptations HAVE to continue towards a conclusion (especially live action, because they can't just cryogenically freeze the actors), which means that they have to shift the writing style to give a conclusion of some kind, which inevitably leads to some type of challenge for said writers that there are no perfect solutions to:

X

 

[Gary Caelum]

But there's nothing about the "plotting" (to use that guy's term) approach to finishing a story that means you have to include stuff like....
the scorpion ballistas being super deadly one week and then completely useless the next week. That was just bad writing because they care more about shock value entertainment than they do about logical consistency.

It should've been perfectly possible to reach that same end point without that rather glaring inconsistency.

 

[trash panda]

I’m pretty sure that

Spoiler

kings landing would have gone up in flames even had Dany not flipped her shit and torched it herself. Didn’t everyone notice green wildfire stashes igniting all over the city as Dany was lighting it up? I think Cersei has always been written as a vengeful character who refuses to accept that her death or defeat are the end. If this is true, and if she had already boobytrapped the city, it would be sadly ironic. Dany went ahead and demonstrated her willingness to slaughter innocents when it’s very likely that had she waited, Cersei could have taken the blame for the entire massacre.

 

[Gary Caelum]

That would be a good alternative ending DVD extra.

(as would the white walkers winning, if it didn't require changing so many episodes)

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

Well, it can't be said they didn't stick the Landing.