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Game of Thrones Season 8 (2019) (1 Viewer)

Jeff Cooper

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I like the fact that Jon said screw the Wall and left to go North with Tormund and the rest of the Wildlings.

While there was never any doubt that he would end up with the wildlings once they announced he would be rejooning the nights watch, I got the sense that Jon was prepared to stay at Castle Black, and was surprised to see it manned by the wildlings instead of the nights watch.

I.e. they came to collect him, rather than his just saying screw it and deserting.
 

RobertR

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After all the angst about what a horrible ending it would be, I feel satisfied. Anyone can say he would have done this or that differently, but that doesn't mean it would be better. The ending of GOT is light years better than the ending of the likes of Lost and Dexter.
 

Lou Sytsma

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Another rushed season of #GOT . Liked the characters arcs but FELT few of them. The final episode played out in the best story way possible - surprising but inevitable. Forget the prequels gimmee that Ayra Goes West series!!
 

Tommy R

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Count me as 100% satisfied. It REALLY ended perfectly and rewarded the audience with a surprisingly happy ending. After all the fucked up shit it put us through over the entire span of the series, I’m actually quite shocked it went this route. But I’m VERY glad.
The most powerful part of the finale for me was that Arya escaped with her soul relatively intact. She was on a dark path for so long that I found it really moving that she found the light on the other end of the tunnel.
Yes, I loved that, and Sandor did right setting her to the better path. The dynamic they had throughout the show was one of my favorite things about GoT.
 

TonyD

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That’s funny.
It’s only one bottle not bottles, I just looked at the HBO Go stream and it’s still there. Hasn’t been removed yet like the coffee cup was.
 

Sam Favate

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First of all, I was only kidding when I suggested the show end with Arya walking the earth! But it was nice to see it happen!

I liked the finale. I liked that the right people were (mostly) in charge.

What remains a problem is the way Daenerys changed and how she was made to be someone that had to be taken out. There was certainly a way to get there, given what they've planted over the years. But the fact remains that the show did not take the time necessary to plausibly get us there. I know there are a host of real-life issues, like actors' contracts being up and the showrunners wanting to be done, but the result is a conclusion that will not be satisfying to a lot of people. One of the biggest complaints I had about the seventh season (last season) is that it felt rushed, which was best seen in the sixth episode (Beyond the Wall) in which Jon and his companions are stranded on ice, surrounded by the zombies, they send Gendry to the Wall to send a raven to Dany and she flies to the rescue, all in what seems like the same day. From what we know of Westeros, that's impossible. But they needed to get from point A to point B and did so without taking the time needed. The same goes for the Dany-Jon relationship. Given more time, I might have believed they loved each other. But what I saw between them was nothing compared to what we saw between Jon and Ygritte or Dany and Drogo.

Martin said the show could have gone more seasons. At a minimum, they needed more episodes this season and last. While I don't doubt the characters ended up as Martin intended, I do think the show suffered for not taking the time to let us feel the development of the characters and their situations.
 

Jeff Flugel

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I liked the finale. I liked that the right people were (mostly) in charge.

What remains a problem is the way Daenerys changed and how she was made to be someone that had to be taken out. There was certainly a way to get there, given what they've planted over the years. But the fact remains that the show did not take the time necessary to plausibly get us there. I know there are a host of real-life issues, like actors' contracts being up and the showrunners wanting to be done, but the result is a conclusion that will not be satisfying to a lot of people. One of the biggest complaints I had about the seventh season (last season) is that it felt rushed, which was best seen in the sixth episode (Beyond the Wall) in which Jon and his companions are stranded on ice, surrounded by the zombies, they send Gendry to the Wall to send a raven to Dany and she flies to the rescue, all in what seems like the same day. From what we know of Westeros, that's impossible. But they needed to get from point A to point B and did so without taking the time needed. The same goes for the Dany-Jon relationship. Given more time, I might have believed they loved each other. But what I saw between them was nothing compared to what we saw between Jon and Ygritte or Dany and Drogo.

Martin said the show could have gone more seasons. At a minimum, they needed more episodes this season and last. While I don't doubt the characters ended up as Martin intended, I do think the show suffered for not taking the time to let us feel the development of the characters and their situations.

Agree with this. We needed a few more episodes last season, and this, to properly sell the final turns of the story, and to give them the fullest impact possible. Benioff and Weiss could have handled things better, perhaps, with more screen time to let things grow more organically.

That said, kudos to the actors and behind-the-scenes crew, who really brought their "A" game this season. Warts and all, it was still pretty astonishing television.
 

Simon Massey

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I have really enjoyed the last two seasons but can’t help feel a full season building to the battle at Winterfell and then a full season leading to the attack on Kings Landing would have made a huge difference.

Still I’ve loved the show and will gladly rewatch it.
 

Sam Posten

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I don’t have heartburn with the finale at all. Sure there are things I’d have done differently. The interpreted writing is nowhere near as good as straight GRRM. BUT the one thing the finale does seem to indicate: “Fing Medan Trant REALLY killed Sylvio Forel????”

I expect the books will be more clear on this.
 

Tommy R

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Anybody have to do a double take to notice that Robyn Aryn was there in that council scene? He’s really grown up! Feels like it was just a few years ago he was sucking his mama’s teet!
 

Carlo_M

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Anybody have to do a double take to notice that Robyn Aryn was there in that council scene? He’s really grown up! Feels like it was just a few years ago he was sucking his mama’s teet!
Can you say for certain that he still isn't? :rolling-smiley:
 

BobO'Link

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I think what bothers me more than anything else is they took extra time to produce the last season and still managed to deliver a rushed, underwritten, product that failed to satisfy on the same level as the first 5 seasons. With the time taken they should have done far better.

I mentioned this morning to a coworker that I was OK with the ending and would rewatch it on occasion (after all - those first 5 seasons are really, really, good). He responded that he's "done with it and won't ever watch it again," continuing to say "There's no point knowing the ending and how it was botched." And he's the guy who waited for the Dolby Atmos version releases in the Steel Book cases.
 

Carlo_M

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I think the problem with comparing this season with previous seasons is that the 7th book isn't written at all. GRRM states he hasn't even started writing it. Versus it seems he's largely been done with Book 6 but is in editing and revising stages.

As such, even through likely most of last season, even though the 6th book isn't out, it's mostly fleshed out and likely GRRM was able to give more than just general directions as to where the story is going. I haven't seen any evidence of this, but I wouldn't be surprised if he at least shared some of the unpublished material with Weiss and Benioff.

S8 likely took longer to produce because W&B likely had nothing to work off of other than a general outline from GRRM's head. So W&B and the writers had to basically fabricate everything versus having at least some written material to work from.
 

Wayne_j

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Season 8 is now available on iTunes. I haven't checked it yet, but the episode "The Long Night" may finally be more viewable now than it was on HBO since the iTunes version would probably be better bitrate.
 

Carlo_M

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Season 8 is now available on iTunes. I haven't checked it yet, but the episode "The Long Night" may finally be more viewable now than it was on HBO since the iTunes version would probably be better bitrate.
Maybe others' experience is different, but the macroblocking and compression effects which plagued the network broadcast were, for me, almost completely eliminated when I rewatched the episode the following day on HBO Go (on a 400mbps connection). The original broadcast was the culprit in my experience. Not that the iTunes version couldn't improve on the HBO Go version, but that one was already very good and will tide me over until the eventual 4K disc release.
 

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