The episode's director explains why Jon and Ghost's farewell scene was so "cold"

[Panos Targaryen]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-7003187/amp/Game-Thrones-director-reveals-reason-Jon-Snows-unemotional-goodbye-Ghost.html

Wow. Just when I thought it couldn't get worse.

[Torienne]

7 minutes ago, Panos Targaryen said:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-7003187/amp/Game-Thrones-director-reveals-reason-Jon-Snows-unemotional-goodbye-Ghost.html

Wow. Just when I thought it couldn't get worse.

Disgusting.

[dannyk65]

8 minutes ago, Panos Targaryen said:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-7003187/amp/Game-Thrones-director-reveals-reason-Jon-Snows-unemotional-goodbye-Ghost.html

Wow. Just when I thought it couldn't get worse.

He didn't get halfway trough that 'answer' and realize declining to discuss it after all would be the better decision?

WOWZA!

[Nerevanin]

Mess. The reasons for stuff (not only) this season are really else. Jon doesn't pet his direwolf because there ain't time for that but we had enough time for Tormund complaining about Brienne not wanting him. Arya kill the NK because Jon was too obvious. I suppose that if Arya was too obvious as well, Varys would jump in, right? Last season the scene in which Bran reveals the truth about LF to Sansa was cut because... um... well... probably because otherwise the audience would have an idea wtf was going on Winterfell the whole S7.

[Red Dragon10]

I think unfortunately the people in charge of the show do not understand the audience or what people really value.  I saw a tweet somewhere that essentially said people would give up scenes of spectacle with the dragons in order to have one emotional, teary goodbye with Ghost.  Emotion over spectacle.  I can understand that it would be extremely expensive and time consuming to do all the work of making a hands on scene with Ghost and Jon work.  I'm not a filmmaker lol, but I wonder if it could have been done with some creative shots, kind of like how they made the hobbits seem small/everyone else seem large in LOTR.  

Personally I think it would have been better if they had left it unexplained.  I might have rationalized it as Jon's separation from Ghost being symbolic of him beginning to be distanced from the north and his roots and his family.  But no.  It's just about time and money.   

[ummester]

What a dumb reason. With all the other BS we have seen this season. The could have cut the Starbucks cup out and given Ghost a few seconds for a quick pat on the head.

17 minutes ago, Nerevanin said:

Arya kill the NK because Jon was too obvious. I suppose that if Arya was too obvious

Logically Jon should have faced and defeated the NK (if the NK had to be defeated) but I have a theory on why it was Arya. More than fan service it was to calm the PC masses. Think about it, the end of the entire show is going to have 2 batshit crazy women (Cersie and Dany) making Westeros a living hell. If Jon (a white dude) killed the main villain and the final bosses were two crazy women, people, from our insane whinge about everything times, would be screaming 'this show is so sexist - makes it look like only dudes can be heroes and all women are crazy evil bitches.' Solution, give Arya an out of place hero moment.

The crazy thing is, I think NK dying in Winds of Winter by Jon's hand and Cersie and Dany being final bosses in Dream of Spring is probably the way GRRM is drafting it. I don't think anyone can accuse GRRM of being a sexist writer - he treats his female characters respectfully. For this particular saga, it does seem to make sense that Jon would kill the NK, Cersie would be left in KL and Dany would go all fire and blood before the end. That is just their characters and how the story has played out. If D&D could write the reason and connective tissue between set pieces as well as GRRM, they could make it work - I am just starting to think they are so afraid of angry internet backlash they forced Arya into a role that was never meant for her.

[Red Dragon10]

The other thing I'm confused about, is even if it is "too difficult" to have Jon physically touch Ghost, why have him SO separate from Jon all season?  He is standing near people (such as Tormund) a number of times, but he can't stand near Jon instead?  Why not have him standing beside Jon at the funeral, if he is going to be standing right beside a different actor?  It just came across as really weird, and like Jon just didn't give a crap about him anymore.  He had time for Rhaegal and going off to have romantic moments with Daenerys in the snow, but no time to spend with his loyal wolf.  Lame.  Lame. Lame. 

[btfu806]

WTH. There were rumors about how the majority of the budget went to Dragons (which, fine I get) and D&D said if there was anything left over in budget, they would add in Ghost. With comments like that from Nutter, that really seems to be the case. It's idiotic.

[Raksha 2014]

3 hours ago, Panos Targaryen said:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-7003187/amp/Game-Thrones-director-reveals-reason-Jon-Snows-unemotional-goodbye-Ghost.html

Wow. Just when I thought it couldn't get worse.

I couldn't find any video of the director's explanation, only a caption mentioning some technical issue.  The bond between the young Starks and their wolves is very important in the books, and it's treated as an afterthought here.  Ghost looks neglected and forlorn; and they couldn't figure out a way for Jon to touch him as he says farewell?  Ghost saved his life and fought for him!  

[Red Dragon10]

2 minutes ago, Raksha 2014 said:

I couldn't find any video of the director's explanation, only a caption mentioning some technical issue.  The bond between the young Starks and their wolves is very important in the books, and it's treated as an afterthought here.  Ghost looks neglected and forlorn; and they couldn't figure out a way for Jon to touch him as he says farewell?  Ghost saved his life and fought for him!  

No video, but this article has the quotes:  https://news.avclub.com/game-of-thrones-director-blames-cgi-for-jon-s-lackluste-1834611192

Basically, it costs lots of money, blah blah blah, this way was more powerful blah blah blah.  Bottom line is the direwolves haven't been a priority on the show for ages.  I liked this article:  https://www.denofgeek.com/us/tv/game-of-thrones/280946/game-of-thrones-ghost-and-season-8-deserve-better

Describes how the treatment of the direwolves as being "less important" than all the other stuff they spend money on is indicative of a larger problem the show (and those running it) has had the last few seasons.  

[lakin1013]

As loyal fans who have regularly watched, we are getting utter disrespect from the millionaires who put the show together. No Ghost goodbye - too bad, no time.  But we can watch dragons fly around for no good purpose cuz - kewl.  Leave coffee cups in the screen - ha ha, funny.  You would think D&D would want to do their very best work here at the very end.  But, they are sloppy and casual in their comments and work.  

We, the viewers, have done nothing to deserve this.

[MinscS2]

I read it as that they needed to shorten the episode down to 78 minutes, and apparently Jon having a heartwarming (or gutwrenching) farewell-moment with Ghost was so far down on the list of priorities, that it was one of the first things to get removed.

Basically tells you everything you need to know about the writers at this point doesn't it?

[Raksha 2014]

39 minutes ago, Red Dragon10 said:

No video, but this article has the quotes:  https://news.avclub.com/game-of-thrones-director-blames-cgi-for-jon-s-lackluste-1834611192

Basically, it costs lots of money, blah blah blah, this way was more powerful blah blah blah.  Bottom line is the direwolves haven't been a priority on the show for ages.  I liked this article:  https://www.denofgeek.com/us/tv/game-of-thrones/280946/game-of-thrones-ghost-and-season-8-deserve-better

Describes how the treatment of the direwolves as being "less important" than all the other stuff they spend money on is indicative of a larger problem the show (and those running it) has had the last few seasons.  

 

Thanks for the links.  I especially liked the article from denofgeek.com; they did a nice analysis of how the show managed to mess up the Starks/direwolves relationships in the last two seasons.  

[MarieAntoinette]

This is one of my big gripes with this episode. I don't know how they can believe that people would not value the direwolves scenes, especially a Ghost farewell scene. People are creating a ton of memes of Jon not saying proper goodbye, I think even casual viewers would notice that this scene was very anticlimatic. Even if they would like to appeal to the masses, come on, of course the general public would have loved an emotional scene with the loyal direwolf, I have zero doubt about that. Instead they gave screentime  to high school drinking games.

In the first season they had a much lower budget and included scenes like Summer saving Bran. If the CGI was the problem then I would have been fine with them using actual wolf dogs. Even if they look less impressive, and Ghost would not have red eyes, the cast could have interacted better with them, and they could have shown their bond better.

[Lady Fevre Dream]

I also saw some comments out on the net claiming that one reason for the Jon and Ghost awkwardness was that the wolf that plays Ghost lives in a different country than where stuff was filmed.  WHAT??  Not sure if this is accurate, I saw comments, not the article it came from, and that linked above daily mail is a mess to read, LOL Still, I call BULLSHIT on any and all of these excuses.  Yeah right, that must be the only wolf available in the entire world.  That minute or two of time that they just couldn't spare for Ghost and for us?  This crap could be worked out if they WANTED to work it out.  They didn't want to work it out. 

[Torienne]

It is not only emotional reasons why people hate the non existing interaction between Jon and his loyal Ghost.

As direwolves are not only the heraldic animals for house Stark, but a symbol of the magic in the north as well, an at least friendly interaction between man and Wolfe would have been a metaphor that Jon belongs still to the Starks. As Jon´s dragon Rhaegal now also is gone, Jon is left isolated and, in a certain way, a lonely bastard once again. 

Which means: 9 years of character development, of passionately debated genetic lineage, and a beloved hero last but not least are hammered into the dustbins. Within the shortest of time. For absolutely pointless reasons.

What a senseless destruction.

[the red god]

humans riding on dragons: SHUT UP AND TAKE OUR MONEY!

have a guy pet a large dog for a few seconds: IMPOSSIBLE! IT CAN'T BE DONE!

dumb & dumber in a nutshell...

[David Selig]

These guys are just openly trolling at this point.

[Dragons 7th Eye]

When D&D are old and all that people remember them by is this series; I hope they have sense to realize what colossal fuck up they did starting from season 5 and really adding speed at season 7, while finally jumping to lightspeed and warp 9 at the same time from the start of season 8.

Many people finding success think they can reproduce it at will. GOT was a historical show, one that will be talked about for a long time. And they completely lost interest and let the ball drop. Then they both looked at the ball and each other and had a good laugh while going to get some coffee (from Starbucks) instead of picking it up. In fact D (the other one) gave it a good old kick to boot, for a great amusement of them both.

[Astrotherapist]

I've watched the scene several times now and I don't see it as quite the terrible and egregious act some make it out to be --folks are really knee-jerk overreacting to it. 

Kit Harrington isn't exactly the most dynamically-expressive actor out there and his emotions are subtle, but they are there, and I think that Jon also deserves the benefit of the doubt here.  He looks at Ghost very sadly.  Here's a gif of that:

https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/ZMMECH2Jnda2D2gKf3Mtng--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTY0MDtoPTMzMS40MzY1ODAyMzgyNjIx/https://s.yimg.com/uu/api/res/1.2/tZlzSDK0zKhkgu3lbvxHbw--~B/aD03Mzk7dz0xNDI3O3NtPTE7YXBwaWQ9eXRhY2h5b24-/https://media.zenfs.com/en/the_huffington_post_584/1c49eba656b21d01a5530568349c4914

That he acknowledged Ghost at all means he cares.   Additionally, and most importantly, the director didn't want a complicated, physical interaction between them because Ghost is CGI as explained here:

Here's Why Jon Snow Didn't Pet Ghost In His 'Game Of Thrones' Goodbye

Maybe they ran out of money, shooting the wad on dragons and big battles again. 

It also makes sense just from the vantage point of a canine owner.  If you give your dog any kind of encouragement they'll just follow you out the gate!  

Now let's look at the script.

TORMUND: We need room to wander.
I'll take them back through Castle Black as soon as the winter storms pass.
Back where we belong.
JON: It's where he belongs too.
A direwolf has no place in the south.
Will you take him with you? He'll be happier up there.
TORMUND: So would you.
JON: I wish I was going with you.
This is farewell, then.
TORMUND: You never know.
You've got the North in you.
The real North.

Jon is looking out for Ghost's happiness and welfare and that line makes his intention clear.  And it's true, a direwolf would be happier up there.  

If the showrunners didn't care about Ghost (or had no plans for him), they wouldn't have even bothered writing lines about him.  Jon would have said his farewells, there would be no Ghost in the scene at all, and it would just be assumed that Ghost was left at Winterfell with Sansa.  That's been the case in many other episodes where we haven't seen him.  

But this dialogue with Tormund portends that Jon will end up back in the North.  Jon had already expressed dislike for the South, for King's Landing, last season and has no interest in being king --anywhere.  After he loses Dany, after he discovers Sansa's betrayal, he won't live in King's Landing nor Winterfell which leaves Castle Black or the open wilderness beyond the Wall as the only choices left, and that's where his heart is anyway.  My money's on a bittersweet reunion with Ghost.