YOVMO

Last season I remarked that the level of writing on this show was on par with 2 broke girls. I have to make a huge and sincere apology .... to 2 broke girls. The writing on game of thrones is much, much, much worse. At this point I have to say that this is really the poorest written show on television. The fact that they have such wonderful actors (and emilia Clarke), such a large budget, such magnificent set design, such tremendous genius in everything else that goes into the show it is truly a horrible shame that the script amounts to an enormous post taco bell turd only without the satisfying conclusion.

What the hell did I watch? I swear by the black cloaks of the kingsguard that it was insane. Leaving aside all the deus ex idiota that is Cersei sitting the Iron Throne and Euron sailing the entire iron fleet for a 5 minute meeting with her...and leaving aside that in a 7 episode season we need a 5 minute montage of shit and stew with Sam and Ed Sheeran singing a song, and leaving aside the fact that despite the battle of the bastards, hard home, the fist of the first men and, ya know, freaking dying and being reborn that Jon has had zero character development, leaving aside the strange metaphysical phenomenon whereby the size of the great hall in winterfell is inversely proportionate to the size of Dany's dragons...leaving all of that and the bajillion other absurd plot inconsistencies aside.....this was just very bad writing. I mean, we are talking Three's Company level of writing here. What a train wreck. I don't believe the showrunners are capable of shame as there is no way that people with the ability to feel that emotion could write this show, but they really ought to be ashamed of themselves.

@Seams I was surprised you didn't pick up on my "Where do Hoares go" topic. Figured it was right up your alley

The production values (with the exception of the great hall of winterfell) were terrific. But the writing was so gastly stupid that it really ruined the whole thing for me. That said, if you enjoyed it that's great. I have no beef with anyone for their opinion just like I am sure no one has with me about mine.

glad you concur.

fair enough. I don't think I would call it stress though. More like antipathy for writing which is indicative of an increasingly dumbed down world. At any rate, I have no problem if someone enjoys it in whichever way they enjoy it. It is massively popular and, judging by the people here, many like it. That's fine by me. They are entitled to enjoy or dislike the show in whichever manner best suits them as am I.

Right but everyone who makes a joke about a Lannister, a martell and a stark walking into a bar is seen as a poorly written character with no arc, depth or motivation --Everyone Who Saw That Episode, probably

I tell people who are interested in politics the same thing. We all pick what we think is important. For some people it is trump and Hilary. I think that is all just background noise to that is going on in Westeros. To each their own.

Glad you enjoyed it.

not a genius? I am amazed they don't drown in their morning coffee. I have never once complained about the departures from the book or sacrifices that had to be made because of GRRM not writing the script or just that the medium involves. My problems all take the show as an isolated universe. Here is my issue. They have such great material to work with and decide to do absolutely nothing with it. I get how Varys is way to complicated, even gray worm, to really get across...but seriously...how do you fuck up Tyrion? How is that even possible? Some choices made for show (one example I like to use is Bronn doing Jamie's training rather than Illan Payne, was a good decision. It created fun dialogue in that season, it made sense in the world they created...fine. Terrific. Making Robb's wife have no connection to the lannisters was a smart move because the show just was at maximum capacity. But things like leaving out Tysha even though season 2 set up the ground work, but having 5 miunutes of Tyrion talk about cousin lenny -- or having Tyrion tell jokes, have zero actual motivation, no depth..or having jon have zero transformation in character since coming back from the dead...hell, he is no different than when he was still living at winterfell....Arya too...all this shit has left her exactly the same as before. Having shit for logic. Having best of scenes where they just rehash lines that played well. Character arc for the hound? Fuck that...he is about kicking ass and eating chicken....and discussing why people need to die more violently.....people kelling kind in the north...lets throw that in there. Hey, drogo's speech to the khalasar in season one was good, lets have dany give it on dragon back. Oh, yeah, and lets throw in only one king and his name is stark...and the Lannister-frey alliance words send their regards....and then...hey, while we are just rehashing old lines people liked and taking all the depth out of characters....lets make the whole show follow a modern day social justice feminist plot line because people will just love that shit. smh just terrible. Sunday night fun is great. Production values (with the exception of the fact that 20 people can't comfortably sit in the great hall of winterfell) was great. I am not about to diss bad plot and bad writing covered up with swords and dragons. Shit, I love that stuff. I can watch it all day every day. The thing is, forget the books....even as a tv show season one was stunning....seasons 2-3 were great, 4 had a lot of good moments and 5 less but still good. They already had a show that was more than just one idiot trope after another with no cohesion or logic and just a bunch of bullshit that was more than just sunday fun. They had it. They had the dream. Source material you can only dream of. A built in loyal following. A tv show which laid the foundation for real depth, interesting characters and great story. They have an amazing production, for the most part a spectacular cast. They want for nothing and they basically took all of that and just totally wrecked it. It isn't like they started the tv show like this and this is just what it was. They started great and turned it into this.

the why watch it is a bad question that always comes up. Someone answered it well last week. Ill watch anything with a dragon in it. That said, some shows are meant to be brain deadening moron fodder. The reason this show got off the ground and became so popular was because it was a story that was more than just tits and dragons. The writing is terrible. That's ok usually. Terrible writing is part of the genre. BUt not with this story. Further, it has become more than just terrible. It is insulting. Of course I will watch it. And crack heads will smoke crack. Just saying not to watch it doesn't make any sense. I can't, for the life of me, understand why they have taken such a great story and placed it, unceremoniously, underneath a steaming pile of turd.

I am not following you.

I have seen porno with better story lines and internal logic and Scooby doo villains have better plot arcs and character development.

Wow. Just when I thought this show couldn't get worse it does. I mean, I rated every show this season a 1 with the exception of one episode which I have a 2 and one episode which I gave a 3. The season finale was so bad that it brought the average down lower than the 1. This was so terrible I am still trying to wrap my head around it. I mean, awful. I mean, I have seen better character development on episodes of Scooby Doo. There was not a single valuable word of dialogue all season. However, this episode was so amazingly bad it should win some kind of award for most terribly written tv show in the history of television. I will voice my particular complaints in the complain without repercussions as I feel it is a better forum. However, I will say that "rank amateur" doesn't come close to the sloppy level of discourse on this show. Earlier on in the season I had said that the show was the quality of bad chuck lorre tv like two and a half men or two broke girls. Frankly, two broke girls far exceeds game of thrones in script quality at this point.

Have always assumed this with Ossifer.

Like I said in another post. At this point they could spend more money on the visuals, get all generic actors, cut all dialogue and just blast rockin' 80's music. Like an hour of hair band rock with battle scenes, tits and dragons. Who is writing this show, Dunning and Kreuger?

Yes. This. The battle scene was pretty. So was the one from that kevin kostner movie. oooh all the arrows were on fire. At this point why bother having dialogue. Lets just play some totally killer 80's rock over the fight scene. Any attempt to validate this episode by saying that the fight scene is really great is, I think, not different at all to saying "this ugly, cruel, stupid, mean, awful guy seems really handsome now that I know he is rich" Just spending a bunch of money doesn't make it good. It just makes it expensive and, at times, visually compelling.

They really do seem very pleased with the job they have done.

You don't have to read anything you don't want of course, but reading through dissenting opinions is often a good way to understand own opinion better as well as to look at things from another angle. 1/10 does seem low because of the beautiful visual imagery and people who gave 1/10 are probably focusing just on the abhorrent and juvenile writing rather than taking it as a whole. It really does deserve a solid 3

This I can't fault. I am on record for thinking that the writing is really terrible, but the filming, the scenery, the sets, the costume...man, really, really awesome. The scene that you point out with Davos finding the charred remains of the stag carving at Shireen's pyre was really awesome.

Really want to take tomorrow off and just go through all these links

I didn't mean to complain about their ratings per se. I was more saying something about my own view of things in that it wasn't like some of the other episodes that I didn't like but could totally see how others did....but rather I am genuinely baffled how they got away with this one. I understand that there are different ways to watch and appreciate something and that tastes do run subjective....but at some point things just seem irreparably bad...so much so that I am shocked that the feeling wasn't universal...something more about me than about anyone who felt otherwise.

If you would have said this yesterday I would have agreed 100% but I have done some thinking. Yes, the reason the show caught on was for just the reasons you said...the books too. However, it is possible that terminal velocity was hit and they couldn't grow any more. The truth is, normal action movies in Hollywood make a lot, a lot, a freaking dumptruck full of money every single day. Stuff like the aria/waif scene and dany burning the dothraki (forgetting that the dothraki are fiercely loyal to their kahls and have traditions and are not just stupid savages etc) and all the other mindfuckingly dumb things they have done is exactly the kind of stuff that big budget blockbuster Hollywood movies use to drag in audiences to the tune of hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars. At some point this show went from a pretty good television adaption of asoiaf to "TITS! DRAGONS! CHICKEN! YAYYYYYY!!!!!" and while purists like me (and I am assuming you) are depressed about it here we are still watching while millions of others are there just cheering along for the tropes that avoiding used to be the whole point of.

That is a serious concern indeed. My question is simple though. What is D&D's job? Is there job to turn out the best quality product possible or is there job to win accolades and fans and ratings for the show. If I am being honest, if their job is the later they are doing a wonderful job. If I was an HBO producer who didn't give a shit about asoiaf and only cared about network ratings, reviews, awards and shit like that I would be creaming my pants with glee over these two writing the show. I hate what they are doing to this show, but in no way can I argue that they have been successful. However, being successful at the business of television is not the same as turning out quality product. I am not sure they see the difference because they seem to be very happy with the product they are turning out (for reasons stated above) and are more than happy to conflate the commercial success and the quality of the writing.

You are exactly correct with laziness and lack of creativity. However, I think it is more than that. I want to tread lightly here, but I think a huge part of the problem is simply hubris. The writers of this show have been bullet proof from the critics, worshipped by the fans, coddled by the network, heaved praise upon from every single angle season after season after season. How many times do you think d&d walk into a room and say something like "I've got a great line....something about needing a bad pussy" and the writers who are subordinate say "ooooh, erm, yeah, so...that's really fucking terrible" No, it doesn't happen. They walk in and say "oooh let's get Jamie to say "the things I do for love" and the hound to say he wishes he had some chicken" and a room full off people give them the praise equivalent of a hand job -- why...because they are working on game of thrones and that is a pretty dope job. Being insulated from serious criticism is a problem. Watch the post show d&d interviews. They are incredibly pleased with their product. They look excited when they talk about it. I have serious doubts that there are people close to them that will take them to task if the writing seems lazy, contrived, illogical or just plain bad.