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Game of Thrones *NO BOOK DISCUSSION* |OT2| Season 7 - [Read the OP]

I mean, I personally couldn't care less about the logistics of Dany reaching them, but this just introduces the problem of how they survived four full days and nights of complete exposure to -20 weather without shelter.

The intention certainly did not seem to portray them as having been there for four days. They didn't even have a fire going.
Yeah I cant defend this. It just seems beyond stupid to not utilize Bran in the fight against Night King. Perfectly logical use of Bran would have avoided the stupid Gendry>Raven>Dany and also help push the overall narrative of 3ER vs NK forward.
 
I didn't. I said that it has dragons and magic, so why do ravens have to fly the same speed as our earth ravens

Over the whole series the show has probably 6-7 hours of ravens flying out ominously from various castles.

They all fly at what could be determined to be a standard raven speed.
 

water_wendi

Water is not wet!
Yeah I cant defend this. It just seems beyond stupid to not utilize Bran in the fight against Night King. Perfectly logical use of Bran would have avoided the stupid Gendry>Raven>Dany and also help push the overall narrative of 3ER vs NK forward.

Jon hasnt been back to Winterfell since Bran arrived. Though Jon knows he is now there i doubt he could even guess that Bran has become Professor X complete with wheelchair.

edit:
There should be a fan edit where in between each scene is:

7hTOf7s.gif
 
I suppose the bigger problem with the dragon showing up and carrying a wight out is that if it is that fast, why not simply have that be the plan in the first place?

Or, for that matter, why not have Dany fly north to the Wall and await them there? Apparently it's not a particularly taxing trip for her, so she could have at least been a sis and given Ser Friend Zone a ride.

Then your Time to Dany just becomes the time it takes to get a rider to the Wall plus a few minutes, and you basically have the Frozen Lake scene be an overnight affair, which seems to be the intention based on the way it was shot.
 
For all you fucking whiners:

I actually enjoyed the episode, but this breakdown makes it less enjoyable for me tbqh by raising more questions. You're telling me the Night King just watched them for 4 days and did nothing? The crew doesn't eat for 4 days and still has energy to fight?
 
Could not understand Arya, so much for her "game of lies".
EDIT: nvm, image's broken. Referenced how she was at Ned's execution and couldn't see that Sansa tried to stop him being killed. Her memory's fooked.
 

RDreamer

Member
I'm kind of wondering if the die-hards could ever be pleased with the final clashes of this story. Unless the "real" hook is more and more unexpected things happening.

Dany losing a dragon and having it turn sides is a huge and unexpected event. I wouldn't call it fan service or writing what people want to happen.

Arya and Sansa are in real danger and don't have plot armor to me. Jon and Dany do seem to have plot armor though, which should be obvious after Jon was brought back to life last season and the series being named after Ice and Fire which suggests that the largest plot point is about Jon/Dany vs white walkers.

This isn't about plot armor or expected vs unexpected. It's about good writing and building tension in a realistic way rather than using convoluted nonsense scenarios that maybe could technically happen all right in a row. I fell in love with this show because of the writing and because of the realism inherent in the first 3-4 seasons. They didn't use hollywood cliches to create tension and save people.

I could definitely be pleased if this stuff was better written. That's my issue is that the spectacle is nice but the writing around it just fucking ruins everything in every episode so far this season. If they fleshed things out or hell, just changed a few things here and there it wouldn't be so bad. Maybe I'd still be complaining about some things (because this is a discussion forum and discussion is what we do), but not to the extent of "Holy shit I want to stop watching what was once my favorite show in existence. What I thought was the absolute pinnacle of fantasy writing is now pulpy unbelievable nonsense."

I've posted some easy fixes to my complaints before:


I mean, you could fix both of these things by having them bring fucking wagons and a real team to do this correctly, then have Dany get antsy and say fuck it and go north to see things.

And I think you make things throughout the last few episodes make even more sense by having Sam and Jorah talk about the white walkers and such. Jorah then goes back, tells Dany about Sam and that the guy that saved him (and happens to be Jon's good friend) also saw and believes this stuff. Then it makes more sense that Jorah goes up north (I found this to be really weird), and it would soften Dany up to believing them and saying fuck it to go help. You still get the cool ass battle and you still get Dany saving them but without the dumb crap that takes you out of it and makes you question the reality this all is happening in.

That's what makes me so freaking angry this season. They keep ruining what should be good scenes with dumb stuff that really isn't that hard to fix. But they want even more unearned hollywood drama and tension, and that just sucks. That's not what this show was built on...


Bronn on the scorpion was also an easy fix. Euron teleporting was also a pretty easy fix. But it just doesn't seem like the writers care about this shit anymore.
 

Vashetti

Banned
Because in the prophecy of the Witch, Cersei was told "You will wed the king, be Queen until there comes another, younger and more beautiful, to cast you down and take all that you hold dear
the King will have 20(?) children and she will have three, gold shall be their crowns and gold their shrouds, they will all die young painful deaths - all of that was mentioned in the flash back in the show, but it crucially left out "And when your tears have drowned you, the valonqar shall wrap his hands about your pale white throat and choke the life from you." The valongar being Valerian for the little brother

Everything has come to pass, so next is the death of her at the hands of the little brother, the obvious choice being Tyrion, but its a little too litteral, she obviously fears and hates him as she sees him as the one fortold to kill her, but Jamie is her brother and born second so is also a little brother.
Jamie has gone to great length to show he loves his children, he's grown over the series immensely and there have been many hints he is growing increasingly concerned with the tactics of Cersei and their inevitable defeat

Cersei cannot be pregnant, that much seems obvious, its not prophesised and is the perfect ploy to keep Jamie in line, when he finds out? he's going to be pissed, he already knows she brought about their childrens deaths through her actions, it seems reasonable he'd snap and thrust a sword into her.
It could be that at this meeting he finds this out, that the dead are real and that Cersei is mad, willing to brun all others to maintain her power.
Everthing has been telegraphed from the early series, the same can be said of Jon's lineage, which again conveniently didn't have bits from the book in, like internal monologues of Eddard, it stands to reason the same could be at work here

Take it to the book thread.

Also that prophecy is bunk as Cersei has had four kids.
 
I guess we can assume Jon and the rest are basically super heroes then, since they can apparently survive in the freezing cold with no food for four days and still be in shape to fight.

At the very least they could have given us a scene of Tormund and Jon fucking to stay warm. For, uh, verisimilitude.
 
I didn't. I said that it has dragons and magic, so why do ravens have to fly the same speed as our earth ravens

Well if thats how you want to get around it, that's fine. I just think the entire set up was dumb and there were better ways to write it. Sometimes the easier explanation is just that the writing is glaringly at fault.
 

danm999

Member
Or, for that matter, why not have Dany fly north to the Wall and await them there? Apparently it's not a particularly taxing trip for her, so she could have at least been a sis and given Ser Friend Zone a ride.

Then your Time to Dany just becomes the time it takes to get a rider to the Wall plus a few minutes, and you basically have the Frozen Lake scene be an overnight affair, which seems to be the intention based on the way it was shot.

A good alternative; Dany goes to the Wall, wants to go North of the Wall but basically gets the speech about doing nothing Tyrian gave her anyway.

And then the drama can be based around Gendry getting back to the Wall.
 

Juup

Neo Member
That Benjen scene must be the most anti-climactic ending to any storyline in the show. I really expected him to have some story/lore significance since he is half-undead or something. But no, they just really needed to close that arc and they couldn't have done it in a duller way. What was the point of him coming back in the way he did anyway?

I was enjoying the episode for the most part though. The dialogue in the beginning of the episode between the characters in the expedition was very enjoyable. I was also positively surprised that they went with a drawn-out, silent stand-off instead of another heavy action scene. That does set this episode apart in a good way.

After the action does start though... Some things just happen too quickly, like the dragon death. It lacks the weight it could have had with better build-up and aftermath. Some other things are just silly, like two last-minute saves in a row or all the convenient expendable extra men (especially since earlier GoT seasons made an effort to avoid such writing).

So yeah, I have probably not said anything that has not been said before, but that sums up my thoughts. The episode could have been outstanding since the concept is great, but the writing is noticeably messier that the high standard we are used to.
 
Jon hasnt been back to Winterfell since Bran arrived. Though Jon knows he is now there i doubt he could even guess that Bran has become Professor X complete with wheelchair.
Are we talking Charles or the douchebag evil version of him? I guess Charles since Bran isn't mind raping random people.
 

Dommo

Member
Seriously, in a show with dragons, the Night King, women that can't be burned, giants, people being brought back from the dead, children that can control animals with their minds, the ability to wear someone else's face after they're dead, etc etc etc, the fact that ravens and dragons might fly a little faster than expectations is a bother? (also, they never showed how much time they were on the lake...it could have been 36 hours+)

This argument will never not be the most frustrating one. Just because a show is set in a fantasy world where suspension of disbelief is required does not mean the established rules/geography/dramatic storytelling doesn't matter. You establish your world, in this case, a world with dragons, women that can't be burned, giants etc; we as the audience buy into the premise, and from then on, it's up to the show to uphold the established rules of the show.

Yeah, in the world of Westeros, where it takes four weeks to ride from Winterfell to King's Landing; where the logistics of distance were often emphasized to give weight and scope to the world; where the environment is harsh and unforgiving, most especially north of the wall, such that staying out in freezing temperatures without a bonfire/shelter/food for 36+ hours would almost definitely result in death; I'd say this is some pretty egregious shit. It was contrived and artificial.
 

Aurongel

Member
Would it really have been that hard to show time passing while they were trapped on the island? Show two days passing with them trapped on the island becoming more weary and desperate, it'd also be a good time for them to have the conversations the episode opened with.
 
Jon hasnt been back to Winterfell since Bran arrived. Though Jon knows he is now there i doubt he could even guess that Bran has become Professor X complete with wheelchair.

edit:
There should be a fan edit where in between each scene is:

7hTOf7s.gif
Why does Jon need to know where Bran is? Bran knows everything. He could have called for Dany's help even before they set out beyond the wall. Bran could have indirectly fought NK.
 

Kusagari

Member
Honestly, I don't really care about the time stuff.

The biggest problem with this episode was easily Benjen. It was the kind of deus ex machina bullshit this series was supposed to avoid.
 
Would it really have been that hard to show time passing while they were trapped on the island? Show two days passing with them trapped on the island becoming more weary and desperate, it'd also be a good time for them to have the conversations the episode opened with.

Yeah, they didn't do a good job of this at all. It felt like mere hours. Nobody is tired, nobody has taken a shit, nobody seems hungry or sleepy. They didn't even look like they brought food.

We can at least imagine they huddled around the sword for a fire.

And then, in all that time, the undead finally attack to kill the 7, and that's when Dany comes in for the save.

It's very frustrating.
 
Shit. Wait, didn't Dany confirm the Unsullied took Casterly Rock? Presumably, in the current timeline, the battle has already taken place between Euron/Unsullied, right?

Or did they just destroy the ships and peace out?

Presumably the latter.

I think the Ironborn are perfectly well aware that the Unsullied would walk all over them in a proper infantry battle. Unless the Unsullied decide to fight them in rowboats there's not much they can do besides vandalism and maybe some drunken carousing.
 

Dommo

Member
The Benjen scene might be one of the goofiest things I've seen in all of GoT. I couldn't believe what I was seeing.
 

Jerry

Member
This gets brought up almost every week now.

HBO wants MORE MORE MORE. They wanted 10 seasons, each with 10 eps, if possible.

The show runners have said they only had enough story for another 10-13 episodes and that is why we have this 7 ep season and next season is only 6 episodes.

Also, I only knew which Dragon out of the 3 was hit because I had the captions on. They never actually mention by name which dragon is hit right?

OK. I never blamed any particular party before, but if thats true then the show runners are massively at fault.

There's more than enough source material to work with for a start. And even if there wasn't, the direction and writing (and acting) this season have been far below par.
 
From watching the preview for the finale, one major complaint people have seems addressed:

Jon and company don't meet Cersei in Kings Landing, they go to a neutral site.

EDIT: Actually, I'm wrong lol.
 
The Benjen scene might be one of the goofiest things I've seen in all of GoT. I couldn't believe what I was seeing.

It was kind of a goof. He was really confident that has meteor hammer Shaolin style kung fu would be able to defeat the Wights, but the camera started panning backward right when he needed some alternating close-ups to maintain his combo.

There's nothing that kills a Shaolin monk quite like a slow pan out.
 
OK. I never blamed any particular party before, but if thats true then the show runners are massively at fault.

There's more than enough source material to work with for a start. And even if there wasn't, the direction and writing (and acting) this season have been far below par.

Maybe they wanted to move on to the Confederate show? I mean, they are working off someone else's work here, and now that the source material has evaporated, they are just being exposed as being sucky and typical.
 

Ithil

Member
The "capture a wight" plan was not only the worst and most contemptible plan in the history of the universe, but they managed to go about it in the dumbest manner possible.

Quick frankly Jon deserved to die by the end for his stupidity.
 

Emwitus

Member
I didn't. I said that it has dragons and magic, so why do ravens have to fly the same speed as our earth ravens

No point in trying to reason with that crowd. I supposed what they wanted is a clock on Jon's gang's head while the raven was flying to tell them how long it was they were sitted on the ice before dany got there/walkers started to attack.
 
Nope, part of that is from the books. Shouldn't be here.
Well you're wrong about that. It was in the show.

The three prophecies were shown in a past flashback two season ago I believe. Have to rewatch it again. The witch even prophecied that Cersei's friend was already dead soon and it happened.
Correct. People are forgetting this.
Are people saying that those who theorised about the Ice Dragon were spoiling?
That's been talked about for years..
Shhh no logic allowed here.

People want to complain and assume any theories that turn out correct are people who have read spoilers previously, wtf. These theories have been around way longer than any leaks.
 

effzee

Member
My thoughts on the episode/season:

You know I really loved the episode. It had all the usual ep 9 spectacle, even if there were no shocking kills (which btw at this point wouldn't make any sense at all), great set up, and was tense as hell during the actual battle. Didn't top BoB or Hardhome but it was up there.

That said and as many have pointed out we could have reached the same end conclusion but with better motivations.

1. First of all the Winterfell stuff is utter garbage and better be more than just the straightforward Sansa and Arya fighting each other cause they need something to do.

2. Gendry running back to send a raven which then forces Danny to come makes no logistical sense but could have easily been done with either Bran seeing in a vision what is happening, maybe even before Jon and Company realize the mess they are in and he sends a raven/message to Danny.

OR Danny travels north with them, to begin with. There problem(s) solved! I mean this is basic stuff. What sense does it make that she is sitting in an empty castle with Tyrion only to be shown to fly off 5 minutes later

3. Why is the dragon pulled? What a monumental waste of an awesome visual with the Night King raising the dead dragon using his powers (like Hardhome) and we see the dragon break through the ice, fly up, and a close-up of his now blue eyes.

4. The problems in this episode, much like last week, could have all been written out or handled better. Last week's "plan" scene wasn't needed. All we needed was Jon simply saying "my brother Bran is alive and he sent this message - I am leaving with or without your support and going to East Watch". The plan to capture a WW never needed to be said, could have just been the end result of this battle.

It would have come across much better had Jon just left with Davos, Gendry, and Jorah - because the army is at East Watch and he has no choice but to go and fight. Capturing a WW could have been something Danny maybe only mentions to Jorah "if you can bring one back". But again this is going to the whole plan that doesn't make sense from any angle.

5. Instead of Arya and Sansa, I would have much more appreciated that time devoted to Theon and his crew have a plan to get Yara back. Maybe a rescue scene?

Sucks cause up until these last 2 episodes I didn't really have a problem with how the season was going. I understood and accepted the accelerated travel but these 2 episodes made the oddest choices story wise which is confusing as hell to me.

I see so many ppl saying its cause they don't have the source material. That's BS. Season 6 was superb and that wasn't based on any book. GRRM is still consulting with the story and providing outlines on how and where to go. They still have the same talent writing, directing, and running the show. The choices being made to advance the plot make no sense at times.
 

valkyre

Member
This episode was bad. Like really really bad.

My issues:


1) John's plan is fucking stupid and I am amazed that writers didnt think of some better reason to have a setpiece battle than this ridiculous dumb shit.

"oh I have a great idea, lets take a bunch of guys (10 are enough) and walk into the most perilous territory and move against an army that supposedly requires the unity of the entire westeros to take him down (but hey we 10 people are more than enough) and go into a covert operation of somehow going unnoticed take a prisoner alive and bring him back!!!"

Un-fucking -believable...

2) Yes this season doesnt handle fast traveling very well, but so far it was tolerable at least. In this episode? They went batshit crazy with it. Gendry is apparently Flash, sir Davos has access to email, and Danny is just Danny.

(love that she decided to fly there in what feels like no time, and then decide to take the boat ride home just to touch hands with John.... i mean... bleh...)

3) The whole Arya/Sansa scene is just bad and Littlefinger is approaching Frank Underwood levels of unconvincing bullshit. Specifically Arya seems that she hasnt learn how to detect lies afterall (or I hope that future episodes will show that she is somehow acting like she doesnt).

4) Someone needs to explain to me why the undead were looking at John and Co. for 2 days. Knight king has range weapon and we have seen undead using bows in previous episodes. So they just stood there 3 days watching each other... why?

Was it because the Knight king wanted a dragon upgrade? Ok, then why did the undead start marching when they realized that the ground can hold them without falling apart?

5) This episode felt like it was made from the most cliched Hollywood Michael Bay movie ever. Nobody dies. Everyone saved at the last minute... especially

6) Benzy appearing out of fucking nowhere again to save the last second John Snow...

Is this the future of Game of Thrones from now on? Everyone loves everyone so nobody dies until we cover very Hollywood cliche left out there?



Horrible episode, literally dont know what the writers were thinking. The entire premise of it is utterly stupid.
 

mackattk

Member
For all you fucking whiners:

Well that also assumes that Gendry/Raven/Dany all have GPS- like precision, knowing exactly where to go (Dany especially).

Meaning we can debate about this shit for weeks and not get anywhere. In the end it doesn't matter. Try not to think too hard about the show, just sit back and enjoy it. If they do time jumps and things don't add up or make sense, whatever. I won't let it detract me from enjoying the show.

Plot armor is getting to me a little bit though. I don't have the feeling that any person can die at any second now. It is very apparent that the show has been taken over by television producers and not trying to stick with the unwritten books. Will be interesting to read when, and if, GRRM ever completes them.
 
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