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Were you expecting something different?


Heartofice

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14 minutes ago, Areisius said:

Pretty much everybody saw the predictable ending after watching the previous ep. I don't think anybody who was paying attention was surprised with that garbage ending.

My feelings exactly.

If the question is whether I was expecting anything different after EP5, then the answer is most certainly no (although some of its awfulness did, if fact, shock me.) If the question is whether I was expecting something different out of this season, then I don't know if I would be able to say "yes" emphatically enough.

After the massive disappointment of S7, I was very apprehensive heading into the final stretch. When I was feeling charitable, I chalked up the sloppiness of S7 to "well, they're just moving the pieces around too quickly in order to prepare for the endgame." Unfortunately its problems were indeed a harbinger of what was to come.

I do not have expectations for stories; to decide on whether I liked something based on its proximity to what I "wanted" seems ridiculous to me. What I did expect was a coherent narrative of some sort that didn't assume its viewer had their nose buried in a phone until the next big set piece came along.

It's a real shame because everything else about this show was amazing; it was almost as if someone was handed the keys to a Ferrari and their first thought was, "let's head over the McDonald's drive-thru."

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19 minutes ago, Heartofice said:

I find that strange to be honest, I’m trying to go over in my head how anyone can find season 7 to be better, which is maybe the crux of my question.

I was so dreadfully disappointed with season 7, I thought it was the victim of cramming all the storylines into one, with some of the worst writing and episodes in the show.

Season 8 is also squeezed into a space too small for it but I found the writing and acting to at least be superior. 

Again I can’t be sure if it’s not that the show just broke me or not

I'm not trying to be a smart ass here.But may i ask which storyline(s) of season 7 you found worse?

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1 minute ago, Apoplexy said:

I'm not trying to be a smart ass here.But may i ask which storyline(s) of season 7 you found worse?

(I know you weren't asking me but I am going to chime in :P)

There were many, but for me the main offenders were the wight hunt and manufactured drama between Arya and Sansa. Not only were they both absurd from a narrative perspective, but they were somehow made more confusing because of clumsy editing simply in the service of generating viewer surprises.

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8 minutes ago, Chris is my name said:

(I know you weren't asking me but I am going to chime in :P)

There were many, but for me the main offenders were the wight hunt and manufactured drama between Arya and Sansa. Not only were they both absurd from a narrative perspective, but they were somehow made more confusing because of clumsy editing simply in the service of generating viewer surprises.

The question was open to everyone :)

The wight hunt was really stupid, I agree. But for me, it didn't affect the direction of the story. The goal was to gather as many armies as possible to fight the NK, which made some sense.

The same with the Sansa Arya thing. As unnecessary as it was, it didn't affect anything on a macro level.

As silly as some of the decisions for season 7 were, for me, things were progressing. Dany was in westeros, the threat beyond the wall was gathering strength, etc.

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10 minutes ago, Apoplexy said:

The wight hunt was really stupid, I agree. But for me, it didn't affect the direction of the story.

Well, aside from giving the NK his means to break down the Wall. . .although ultimately that didn't appear to be much of a problem :dunno:

 

10 minutes ago, Apoplexy said:

The same with the Sansa Arya thing. As unnecessary as it was, it didn't affect anything on a macro level.

I suppose I agree, but "not effecting anything on a macro level" could also be said as "irrelevant," which is more than a little frustrating when approaching the conclusion of a story. We now know (from the ending) that it was absolute filler and could be removed from these characters' story without any effect on their overall arc at all. This, to me, is a problem when we're at what's supposed to be the climax of the story.

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27 minutes ago, Chris is my name said:

Well, aside from giving the NK his means to break down the Wall. . .although ultimately that didn't appear to be much of a problem :dunno:

 

I suppose I agree, but "not effecting anything on a macro level" could also be said as "irrelevant," which is more than a little frustrating when approaching the conclusion of a story. We now know (from the ending) that it was absolute filler and could be removed from these characters' story without any effect on their overall arc at all. This, to me, is a problem when we're at what's supposed to be the climax of the story.

I can see that. 

For me personally, I can forgive a lot if the story comes to a satisfactory end. Which is why I was looking forward to season 8. But sadly, it disappointed, to put it mildly.

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Just now, Apoplexy said:

For me personally, I can forgive a lot if the story comes to a satisfactory end. Which is why I was looking forward to season 8. But sadly, it disappointed, to put it mildly.

Yes, it was the same for me. I was ready to let a lot of these things slide in favor of the overarching story but, alas, we never really got one.

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5 hours ago, Chris is my name said:

My feelings exactly.

If the question is whether I was expecting anything different after EP5, then the answer is most certainly no (although some of its awfulness did, if fact, shock me.) If the question is whether I was expecting something different out of this season, then I don't know if I would be able to say "yes" emphatically enough.

After the massive disappointment of S7, I was very apprehensive heading into the final stretch. When I was feeling charitable, I chalked up the sloppiness of S7 to "well, they're just moving the pieces around too quickly in order to prepare for the endgame." Unfortunately its problems were indeed a harbinger of what was to come.

I do not have expectations for stories; to decide on whether I liked something based on its proximity to what I "wanted" seems ridiculous to me. What I did expect was a coherent narrative of some sort that didn't assume its viewer had their nose buried in a phone until the next big set piece came along.

It's a real shame because everything else about this show was amazing; it was almost as if someone was handed the keys to a Ferrari and their first thought was, "let's head over the McDonald's drive-thru."

And to know that D&D asked for 1 extra year to "get it right" and they bring us this abomination. SMDH.

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I was hoping for an actual twist instead of the completely expected plot "twist" that Jon was going to kill Daenerys. Something radically different that no one really thought would happen. This season was pretty boring and predictable by the third episode and it ended in a completely predictable way.    

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remember gendry baratheon? bastard son of king robert? the guy who whose birthright sparked off literally every event that followed? the guy who inexplicably rowed a boat for several seasons? the guy who ned died for to protect the realm from joffrey's cruelty and cersei's hubris? the guy with the most legitimate claim to the throne, the others being stannis and a targaryan bloodline that has been completely irrelevant for around 2 decades? whose claim to the throne would have restored ned stark's honor and titles? the guy who is easily one of the purest and kindest characters who understands his fellow common man? nah let's give it to bran who rode around on a sled and knows stuff. also, let's just completely forget about him in the final episode, but hey at least he got it on with arya! right guys?! woohoo!

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19 hours ago, Tywin Tytosson said:

Episode 2 wasn't rushed.  :)

Now that I think about it, I didn't feel episode 2 was rushed either. I was quite happy with that episode. Even though it could have been done better, I was much happier with this season than most people.

19 hours ago, Tywin Tytosson said:

I did too.  Especially for poor Drogon.

Oh, I know. Broke my heart. I loved that he gently picked her up and carried her off. I felt it was very fitting. Remember how he put his wings around her to comfort her when she was crying over Jorah? I loved that.

9 hours ago, Kajjo said:

I expected the style and was quite glad they did not pull any white rabbits out of the hat in the final episode. The ending makes a lot of sense to me and the finale was done quite good and with dignity to all our beloved characters.

I feel the same. Everyone ended up where they were supposed to be.

Several people have expressed their disappointment with Jon's fate. Yeah, it sucks that Jon was banished to the wall, after all that he'd been through, but I think that's his character. He is one of those sad people who was just dealt a bad hand in life. But really, I think life with the Free Folk is the best life he could have. Bran couldn't have let him off with no punishment for killing Dany. Really, the Lords of Westeros should have put her on trial and she should have been executed for what she did, but knowing that wasn't going to happen, Jon did the only thing he could to ensure she would never kill thousands of innocents again and accepted the consequences.

I knew someone was going to kill Dany, I just wasn't sure who. I figured Jon, but it could have been Arya, or even Tyrion. 

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10 hours ago, Chris is my name said:

[snip]

What I did expect was a coherent narrative of some sort that didn't assume its viewer had their nose buried in a phone until the next big set piece came along.

It's a real shame because everything else about this show was amazing; it was almost as if someone was handed the keys to a Ferrari and their first thought was, "let's head over the McDonald's drive-thru."

The production values were excellent, with only occasional goofs. The actors gave of their best under trying circumstances. In a newspaper supplement, a writer described the filming of the battle in "The Long Night." John Bradley was doing his damndest in a swordfighting sequence. Something was not quite right; there'd been take after take; until the director realized what the "problem" was: Bradley appeared too competent!! The solution? Get him to dial it back, fumble around, look terrified & clumsy & ridiculous. They nerfed him to make his character more "realistic." Boooooo.

The ridiculously contrived tension between Arya & Sansa was the breaking point for me. From then on, the characters seemed like player tokens being moved around a game map with no rhyme or reason.

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13 hours ago, Apoplexy said:

I'm not trying to be a smart ass here.But may i ask which storyline(s) of season 7 you found worse?

Oh no offence taken.

For me 7 was the point where the writers simply lost control of what they were doing and the show was at its blandest, it’s most blockbustery.

So many elements of the season I hated.

- My largest gripe is the black and whiteness of its characters. You were shown who was good and bad in such clear terms the whole time. The Starks and Dany were good, Littlefinger and Cersei were evil. There was no complexity there at all. It was constantly signposted to me who I should be cheering or booing. The show always dealt in shades of grey and complex characters and a lot of times in 7 that went out the window for easy storytelling tropes. Most of my gripes tend to come from that dynamic.

season 8 also seemed to fix a lot of that which is why I probably prefer it.

- Aryas pie moments were cheap and easy and again were written in such a manipulative manner that asked me to cheer.

- Sansa and Aryas supposed tension made zero sense and still doesn’t 

- Littlefingers death again was silly because of the previous point. Again it was another shock moment I was meant to cheer but actually was disappointed.

- Ed freaking Sheeran 

- it was the season where logic and geography went out of the window. Time jumps and teleporting were out of control and it just felt like everything  was being rushed

- on that, the ice lake episode for me is my least favourite episode ever. The magnificent 7 gathering of ‘heroes’ combined with some of the most egregious drops in logic the show has ever contrived almost stopped me watching the show altogether.

- That episode also highlights another major flaw in the season. The dialogue. That episode is a good example. Instead of  witty conversation the show is known for we get each character performing their duty by getting across all plot points in two sentences with each other. Every word was contrived and it made everyone come across like plot regurgitating machines rather than people.

which is why I like Ep2 of S8 so much. It took its time, and let characters be themselves. It’s been a long time since that happened.

 

There are loads of other issues but I felt like S8 went some way to fixing them 

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I was expecting something different for Jaime's and Cersei's end.

As for Dany, Jon, Tyrion, Sansa, Arya, Edmure, Yara (and Sam and Davos to a big extent) what happened is exactly what I expected. I admit that I didn't see Bran as the king before it happened but after it happened, it made a lot of sense (not logic-wise or anything like that, more like Bran can't have children => the next king has to be elected => a kind of democracy that I always expected to happen).

S8 was imo better than S7 which was really awful. The thing is that it seems that only a minority of viewers cared about logic, plotholes, bad writing and stuff at that point. Now it seems that everyone is crying "BAD WRITING!" left and right because they are trying to justify their fave's mad-queen-ness and death.

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1 hour ago, Heartofice said:

 

For me 7 was the point where the writers simply lost control of what they were doing and the show was at its blandest, it’s most blockbustery.

snip

Let's not forget that "awesome" journey beyond the Wall to capture a wight and give it to Cersei as a present. That was really a kind of masterplan. The episode about this little adventure should have been titled "Plothole"

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26 minutes ago, Nerevanin said:

Let's not forget that "awesome" journey beyond the Wall to capture a wight and give it to Cersei as a present. That was really a kind of masterplan. The episode about this little adventure should have been titled "Plothole"

Yeah exactly. The whole thing was ridiculous. There was no logic and all events were set up as a way to get the story to another point. I hated it

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2 minutes ago, Heartofice said:

Yeah exactly. The whole thing was ridiculous. There was no logic and all events were set up as a way to get the story to another point. I hated it

it was basically done only for the reason that one of Dany's dragons is killed and the NK wigths him up. That's it.

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