Rant & Rave Season 8 [Spoilers]: When you are cool like a cucumber, as evil as the mother of madness, but never as perfect as the pet!

[Count Balerion]

B Malachi Dunn on Twitter: "#forthetemest #GameofThrones #twoyearanniversary well, it’s been two years and now Mr. Hibbard has revealed several rather incriminating and disturbing things about the production of the show. Let’s do this. @ADragonDemands @ForArya @ZM_Radiant_Guy @IDEASOFICE_FIRE @ThisGrayArea" / Twitter

[Count Balerion]

FIRE CANNOT KILL A DRAGON, CHAPTER 26. MEGA SEASON 7 CHAPTER. PART 2

they took out some "great lines" for euron at kingsmoot [cf. stannis]. he was ruthless. "he was doing a comedy show for the iron islands." D&D said "this is too much."

pilou suggested "what if we made him a bit more like a rock star?" the costume designer loved this and gave him "guyliner". [so when we thought he lookedd like a rock star we were right!]

pilou also came up with the "2 good hands" line. D&D at first thought it was too much. [figures that they listen to actors when they're wrong, given how they sometimes ignored them when they were right]

ellaria was going to kiss theon. gemma whelan (yara) suggested she kiss yara instead. they improvised it. then a stunt double out of the blue had to kiss indira varn b/c yara as injured, and was terrified.

and now the GOOD STUFF. "there's no book you can read on naval battles." [really??]

the ships during the battle where euron wipes out dany's fleet in season 7 had REAL FIRE. not just that, but:

*"Then you got on it and there was fire. ... embers being fired on us." it was a "cluster****". "it was more intense on set than on screen." from the pyrotechnics you could feel the heat on your face. a stunt extra got their WIG on fire. three crew members fell through the floor where the weaker wood HAD NOT BEEN MARKED.* [!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!]

more later.

[Crixus]

I absolutely LOATHED Pilou and his depiction of Euron. His acting was patchy, he had a weird sort of creepy baby face, all his lines were ludicrous and embarassing (the 2 hands one especially so) and his entire stint in GoT only emphasised how low the show had fallen. Honestly, he easily wins the worst actor/character award for me , along with the loathsome, cringeworthy sandsnakes: their accents, their outfits, their hilarious posturing (e.g. the scene they kill Trystane) were all laughable. 

I guess my biggest conflict came while watching one repugnant character kill other repugnant characters. 

As many others have said, it's hilarious how D&D were so starstruck, they agreed with actors' often stupid/pointless suggestions. 

As for the 'real fire' bit - sad that despite the risks they took, the actual scene ended up being flat and dull. 

[SeanF]

5 hours ago, Crixus said:

I absolutely LOATHED Pilou and his depiction of Euron. His acting was patchy, he had a weird sort of creepy baby face, all his lines were ludicrous and embarassing (the 2 hands one especially so) and his entire stint in GoT only emphasised how low the show had fallen. Honestly, he easily wins the worst actor/character award for me , along with the loathsome, cringeworthy sandsnakes: their accents, their outfits, their hilarious posturing (e.g. the scene they kill Trystane) were all laughable. 

I guess my biggest conflict came while watching one repugnant character kill other repugnant characters. 

As many others have said, it's hilarious how D&D were so starstruck, they agreed with actors' often stupid/pointless suggestions. 

As for the 'real fire' bit - sad that despite the risks they took, the actual scene ended up being flat and dull. 

Here I think he was nicknamed  "Chubby" or "Urine."  If I have to go for the top twenty worst bits of the show, Urine's whole plotline would be part of it.

So, in no particular order, my top twenty are Urine's plot.  Dany in Qarth.  Porne.  "Play with her arse."  "I'm going to fuck the tits off this one."  Arya's fight with the waif.  The wight hunt.  The secret annulment and remarriage giving Jon an indisputable right to the Iron Throne, which everyone subsequently ignores.  Tyrion's "first they came for the slave traders, and I did nothing...." speech.  Dany's Nuremberg rally, after sacking Kings Landing.  Sansa and Arya coming to the point of murdering each other, until Sansa remembers that LF is untrustworthy. Dany "kinda forgetting" the Iron Fleet. The military tactics of the Long Night.  The vilification of Stannis.  Jaime trashing his backstory, by revealing he cared nothing for the inhabitants of Kings Landing, and returning to Cersei.  Jaime's rape of Cersei.  The repeated cock jokes and eunuch jokes.  Bran's becoming king because he has "the best story".  Arya becoming a sadist.  Ramsay and his "twenty good men."

That probably only scratches the surface.

[Count Balerion]

Yah, there's a nice little list.

i don't hate pilou personaally, but the character outstayed his welcome by several seasons. actually pilou is pretty enetertaining in the bluray commentary for season 8, ep. 4, where he joins the other actors in saying sarcastic things about the episode. though i think it was mainly the incredible disappearing qyburn.

[Le Cygne]

They specialized in the double play of offensive and stupid plots. Like the bottle babies.

Why would Selyse care so much about dead babies but not a live one?

With their bad track record with women, did they really want to make Selyse go mad because... babies? Did they really want to make Dany go mad because... a woman scorned?

They made Sansa go mad and choose to give the Boltons an heir because... no reason at all. They made go Cersei mad for Jaime, she was just a girl who wanted the comfort of... her rapist.

Why film this utter dreck?

It's not the source material, and it's not telling a story. It's not something anyone told them to do, HBO said "Whatever you want, boys."

They were given obscene amounts of money to put whatever they wanted on the screen, and this is what they chose to do.

[Count Balerion]

more FUN!

FIRE CANNOT KILL A DRAGON, CHAPTER 26. MEGA SEASON 7 CHAPTER. PART 3

euron actor tried to hold back in fighting. so "a guy" [unnamed. benioff?] says "why the **** are you faking it?" "i was almost breaking ribs on those guys" [literally?]

jessica henwick [nym]: "there was an accident where pilou almost freaking choked me w/ my own whip." they put her on a forklift and tied her to it and put pressure on her neck. "get it off!"

also cersei did a "kind of conflicted gloating".

[Lady_Qohor]

I really don't understand the Pilou thing. He was great in Borgen and I was really excited when he was cast as Euron because I thought we were going to see an amazing depiction. After all his Borgen love interest (Birgitte Hjort Sorensen) was great as the wildling leader in Hardhome and Sidse is amazing in whatever role she's in. What went wrong?

Did he suddenly stop listening to directors? Were the showrunners such huge Borgen fans they just let him do whatever he wanted?

[Count Balerion]

the weird thing being that reportedly he was at first put out that they weren't doing book-euron. so where'd the rock star thing come from? blessed if i know.

[Count Balerion]

FIRE CANNOT KILL A DRAGON, CHAPTER 26. MEGA SEASON 7 CHAPTER. PART 4

"Things that used to take 1 season took 1 episode" (NCW)

it's "urgency from within the story that drove the pace, rather than any external decision" [nonsense].

you can sit at home and do the "math" for how long it takes to get from point A to point B, "and whatever it was, yeah, that's what it was". [this is too deep for me]

oh, there were 73 fire burns [for the whole season?], a record. also an industry record for the number of stuntsmen kept on fire, 20 stuntsmen. [if i'm understanding my notes properly. i think i can get screenshot.]

"because of our attacking animals, we had the liberty to expand on that."

they put flame retardant on the stuntsmen and made sure they were all covered. but ppl on fire are "focussed on not dying." the wight in season 1 rana round waving his arms when on fire.

[Count Balerion]

[Count Balerion]

oh phooey. let me try again.

[Count Balerion]

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/775530013348200448/826199780555358219/unknown.png?width=647&height=300

[Crixus]

On 4/1/2021 at 3:47 PM, SeanF said:

Urine's plot.  Dany in Qarth.  Porne.  "Play with her arse."  "I'm going to fuck the tits off this one."  Arya's fight with the waif.  The wight hunt.  The secret annulment and remarriage giving Jon an indisputable right to the Iron Throne, which everyone subsequently ignores.  Tyrion's "first they came for the slave traders, and I did nothing...." speech.  Dany's Nuremberg rally, after sacking Kings Landing.  Sansa and Arya coming to the point of murdering each other, until Sansa remembers that LF is untrustworthy. Dany "kinda forgetting" the Iron Fleet. The military tactics of the Long Night.  The vilification of Stannis.  Jaime trashing his backstory, by revealing he cared nothing for the inhabitants of Kings Landing, and returning to Cersei.  Jaime's rape of Cersei.  The repeated cock jokes and eunuch jokes.  Bran's becoming king because he has "the best story".  Arya becoming a sadist.  Ramsay and his "twenty good men."

Great list. I'll add: Cersei's constant smug, fixed look that seemed to indicate she was in a permanent wine-induced stupor - a real shame as LH was pretty fucking good in the earlier seasons when she was allowed to play an actual, multi-dimensional character. Talisa - all of it. The crap depiction of Renly and Loras (one-dimensional from the start). Saint Tyrion. Compare Tyrion at his trial with Tyrion in S5 onwards.... it's shocking. The way they ruined Jaime. The entire battle with the Others, special mention for Jon screaming at undead Viserion.... err. I could go on but I'll spare everyone!

It's a shame as nearly all the actors were pretty good. 

[Le Cygne]

Benioff was so jealous of Jaime. But despite all they did, the audience still liked him.

They really don't think things through at all. The whole Lannisters Are Everything bit is what got him into the incest mess, so he wouldn't attack or kill them.

The audience just ignored the repeated character assassinations, because he wouldn't have done it. Then many said they made him throw his life away.

"The real Jaime Lannister isn't the good looking, charming rogue. The real Jaime is a monster, he's a beast, and [killing] is what he loves to do."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxJSAmS8Wvg

"You are right to be disturbed by it. I think it was a brutal scene... It felt to us when we were writing it like this is something the character was going to do at that moment. And it was a horrible thing to do."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfvVluNxujc

The "we felt like it was what the character would do" excuse is right up there with "we did what was best for the show" in their top 10 the dog ate my homework excuses for bad writing.

[Crixus]

1 hour ago, Le Cygne said:

The real Jaime Lannister isn't the good looking, charming rogue. The real Jaime is a monster, he's a beast, and [killing] is what he loves to do."

What a hilariously inaccurate interpretation of an amazing character. I think it's to NCW's credit that he still managed to do a great portrayal, even till the crap end with the cringeworthy line about how he didn't care about people. 

One of the best things about ASOIAF is that no one is a monster, except perhaps for Ramsay. Talk about missing one of the fundamental points of the entire series.

 

[SeanF]

1 hour ago, Crixus said:

What a hilariously inaccurate interpretation of an amazing character. I think it's to NCW's credit that he still managed to do a great portrayal, even till the crap end with the cringeworthy line about how he didn't care about people. 

One of the best things about ASOIAF is that no one is a monster, except perhaps for Ramsay. Talk about missing one of the fundamental points of the entire series.

 

The awesome Lannisters, in their eyes, were Tywin, Tyrion and Cersei.  Jaime was just a dumb lunk who swung a sword.

[The Dragon Demands]

yeah

[Lord Varys]

How do you know how bad GoT is?

I just binged 'Cobra Kai', and I honestly got annoyed about the GoT geek talk they had in there, especially the part where they referenced show-only stuff like the Battle of the Bastards.

Also - random thought: I realized I forgot how Kevan Lannister died in the show. Don't tell me, I'm glad things are really fading away now.

[Angel Eyes]

1 hour ago, Lord Varys said:

How do you know how bad GoT is?

I just binged 'Cobra Kai', and I honestly got annoyed about the GoT geek talk they had in there, especially the part where they referenced show-only stuff like the Battle of the Bastards.

Also - random thought: I realized I forgot how Kevan Lannister died in the show. Don't tell me, I'm glad things are really fading away now.

It seemed the show forgot pretty easily since Cersei suffered no repercussions from the Westerlands for having him blown up.