Apparently even Directors admit travel time is a problem

[LokisRaider]

5 minutes ago, Cas Stark said:

 

He's admitting he knows it's all nonsensical, but hopes/thinks that the CGI wow factor will/would carry the audience over the massive plot craters.  And for the most part he's right.

The sad thing is, as has been true for some time, that a tiny bit more attention to detail, and the plot holes would disappear or become nitpicks....the fact that so many times people on this board can come up with better solutions or a line or two here and there that would address it shows that the writing of the show is the lowest priority.

I have friends that always ask me for my opinion on the episode and I don't tell them because they just consider what I say "bitching about it". But take this episode and number 5. When I ask them what was so great about it they have the same answers "the dragon burning things was so awesome best episode ever", then I'll ask "ok, what else was good about it?" and most of the time they do not have an answer. The 5 minutes of CGI dragon is enough for them to consider episodes the most amazing TV. When I start discussing the plot (and character actions) and how it is inconsistent with itself I get the "it's just a TV show" answer. All I'm asking is for them to stop treating it like the greatest TV show if all they can compliment it on is the CGI and can't even tell me characters names or their motivations in their plots (not the main plot of course but the smaller ones).

[3sm1r]

3 minutes ago, Tagganaro said:

That's assuming that GRRM, the guy who has taken over 6 years to write this next novel in his series, actually knows where his story is going anymore.  Seems to me if he did know that, we'd have a the 6th and 7th books completed by now.

Why do you think that? I must not be very easy to write a book

[Tagganaro]

2 minutes ago, 3sm1r said:

Why do you think that? I must not be very easy to write a book

Pretty much what I said.  It took him 4 years to write the first 3 books, 5 to write the 4th, 6 to write the 5th, and now it will probably be close to 8 to write the 6th...I'm sensing a pattern, not to mention him constantly deceiving himself and us fans with how quickly (or not) he will finish the books.  The only conclusion I can make is that he has a severe case of writer's block and the story has gotten out of hand and he doesn't know how to move it forward (I'm pretty sure he has discussed as much with the Mereneese Knot.)

[UnViserion]

Just now, HungLikeHodor said:

People keep saying this. Yes, the last two books are not published, but THE SOURCE is still alive. D&D can literally schedule a meeting with GRRM before they start writing to ask him ideas. I highly doubt GRRM would turn down a meeting to make sure his masterpiece is represented well onscreen.

It's true that there is a lot of source material left out there, but it doesn't have the finished arcs that most of the earlier seasons had. Ned's death, the Battle of the Blackwater, the Red Wedding, Tyrions trial-- these all had fully fleshed out plot to pick from to fill out the seasons in between. Imagine that you only had broad-strokes for all of these events and little to nothing in between to make the season work. 

Granted, they did have material to work with for season 5 and 6 and I think they handled it poorly, in particular up North with Stannis, Jon Snow and the Boltons. I think Stannis will be the one to defeat Ramsay and retake Winterfell, but D&D wanted to expedite Jon becoming King in the North so they scrapped it. Essentially, they could have stayed truer to the books the past couple of seasons but being as they originally wanted to end the series in 7 seasons they starting hacking off whole sections of the plot and the storytelling has suffered as a result. But the end game for these arcs and the beginning of the next are not as concrete or reliable as they were in the earlier seasons.

I get what you're saying though. "The source material dried up" was a bit vague and technically  incorrect word choice on my part. 

[WalkinDude]

3 hours ago, legba11 said:

The crazy thing here is, it could have been fixed easily.  Rather than the stupidity we saw (and removing Gendry from the fight, didn't people want to see him smash zombies with his hammer?).  Simply have Dany realize after her chat with Tyrion that she has let two men who are important to her put themselves in grave peril while she sat back and claimed her right as ruler.  She decides (in a dialogue with Tyrion or Missendei) instead to act like a ruler and go take the risk herself (similar to Stannis's decision to go beyond the Wall).  

She arrives just in time to save the day, which is cheesy trope, but one we accept all of the time.  

It makes her character stronger, removes stupidity and makes her bond with Jon (and Jorah) stronger.  Win, Win, Win.

So much this.  They could have even used Bran to warg a raven and talk to Danerys, though I agree your version is more compelling. Bran's absence from all of this just makes no sense to me.  At least have him talk to Benjen to show up and save Jon.  It's just weak storytelling that relies entirely on the beautiful cinematography.  

[3sm1r]

1 hour ago, WalkinDude said:

So much this.  They could have even used Bran to warg a raven and talk to Danerys, though I agree your version is more compelling. Bran's absence from all of this just makes no sense to me.  At least have him talk to Benjen to show up and save Jon.  It's just weak storytelling that relies entirely on the beautiful cinematography.  

Exactly! Sometimes it seems they don't know what to do with him. Well, this was the perfect time to make of him a crucial character for the episode and they miserably missed the opportunity...

[SerJeremiahLouistark]

Speaking of travel I'm not sure exactly where to put this.  When we saw tCotF turn homie into the Night King was the far north just not frozen yet?  Was it at the tree where 3eR was with Bran in that wierwood?  Or was it down south and the NK just travelled north?  Kind of a derail apologies in advance.  

[LokisRaider]

24 minutes ago, SerJeremiahLouistark said:

Speaking of travel I'm not sure exactly where to put this.  When we saw tCotF turn homie into the Night King was the far north just not frozen yet?  Was it at the tree where 3eR was with Bran in that wierwood?  Or was it down south and the NK just travelled north?  Kind of a derail apologies in advance.  

Well they do say that the White Walkers bring the winter. And I saw one of those "things you might have missed" articles that showed the arrowhead mountain was in the background during that flashback to the CotF scene where they make the NK. They were actually in the same place. So maybe winter only exists because of the WW's.

Here's the link if you want to see.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/gallery/7-details-you-might-have-missed-on-the-latest-game-of-thrones-episode/ss-AAqs6xL#image=3

[ramla]

And the director says, Kool (jon) and the Gang was on that rock for 1 day in the frame of the story... Makes it so much worse.

[ramla]

3 hours ago, Tagganaro said:

Pretty much what I said.  It took him 4 years to write the first 3 books, 5 to write the 4th, 6 to write the 5th, and now it will probably be close to 8 to write the 6th...I'm sensing a pattern, not to mention him constantly deceiving himself and us fans with how quickly (or not) he will finish the books.  The only conclusion I can make is that he has a severe case of writer's block and the story has gotten out of hand and he doesn't know how to move it forward (I'm pretty sure he has discussed as much with the Mereneese Knot.)

The first 3 were meant to be the 1 book if im not mistaken. The problem... or prize depending how you look at it, is that the story became more vast with each release. Feast Dance was supposed to be 1 book. 1 Huge Tome. Compared to the first 3. Basically the story is getting larger and more complex. Which makes it definitely more difficult. to write. GRRM is a gardener when it comes to his Characters and a architect with regards to the story or plot itself. So his story is growing larger. He brought an immense sense of life to his universe so i don't think its writers block. Just a difficult story to write.

[3sm1r]

2 minutes ago, ramla said:

The first 3 were meant to be the 1 book if im not mistaken. The problem... or prize depending how you look at it, is that the story became more vast with each release. Feast Dance was supposed to be 1 book. 1 Huge Tome. Compared to the first 3. Basically the story is getting larger and more complex. Which makes it definitely more difficult. to write. GRRM is a gardener when it comes to his Characters and a architect with regards to the story or plot itself. So his story is growing larger. He brought an immense sense of life to his universe so i don't think its writers block. Just a difficult story to write.

I agree. The fact that he has slowed down does not necessarily mean that he doesn't know how the story will end.