Game of thrones thread go! [ S8 ]

Patch Notes for Episode 5 of GoT (WARNING: Spoilers!)



Credit where due - https://www.reddit.com/r/asoiaf/comments/bnmarc/spoilers_extended_reactions_game_of_thrones/enackl0/

Those Patch Notes are spot on, Exile009.

The video game article too jigged that the only good laugh we got last night was when Jaime walked into King's Landing not only unrecognized, but the morning after being freed by Tyrion. Heu guys, phew that was a long trip.

The discovery of portal transport has been noticed, for a while, and was annoying, now it all makes sense.

"

Charan wrote:

Oh, and I didn't watch LOST either. Or Dexter, past a few seasons. I'm like the fucking Neo of TV binge-watching, I dodge that many bullets. That or maybe unlike some people here, I just stop watching when something goes to shit and GoT did that ages ago. If you stuck around even after the fast-travel debacle, you have no excuses to be surprised at how bad it is now. Low hanging hate-fruit munched on by PoE junkies. Gosh, whodathunk.

Oof. To be fair, I dropped LOST and Dexter like hot potatoes, and True Blood after the thousandth time Bill said Shooookeh, it's a bit hazy... GoT, ah, I think you're enjoying your emperor's new clothes role in here a little bit too much. Neo? Oh my. Hahahaha! GoT's one long story, more like LOST than Dexter and True Blood, which were easier to ditch because of the separate Big Bads.

Dexter and TB were easy calls at the start of the seasons where the Big Bad/ Plot direction was revealed early on.

LOST, ha, you're too normal to get anything out of watching something like that.

Could read as me being a little stung, fully admit to having some stretches of video game junkiedom. But then, who doesn't in this neck of the woods, hm? That's a whole 'nother topic, at any rate.

It's diverting to talk about, and easy, but it's not important. Mistaking any of this for being important would be foolish. The product placement grab from last week was gross, and a stark (yes it was Sophie Turner's cup apparently) reminder that somewhere along the line what was a weird nerd enclave - fantasy - became big bucks. Of the Twitterverse kind, not that we didn't have LOTR, I know.

As something to think about and learn from for why it was good, and why it has been flawed, and now bad, there's learning to be taken from that, maybe more so than something that's excellent all the way through. Not really sure I can 100% keep a straight face saying that, because if it had been a good season, I'd be right into talking about it.

On balance, I'm glad it's been shit, for reasons larger than the show.


Hoiked from another site, think it's about right

ed: hm, need to be more caffeinated to properly italicize titles, oh well.

quoting them so they're on this page --

"

Exile009 wrote:

Patch Notes for Episode 5 of GoT (WARNING: Spoilers!)

Spoiler

1) Scorpions got nerfed. Significantly reduced accuracy. And the hero character Euron no longer gives a bonus to Scorpion accuracy.

2) Dragons got buffed. Speed and stealth have both been increased. They can now take the hide action while flying.

3) Dothraki have been added back to the game. Fans were upset about their removal, so they’re back now.

4) Battle Times have been shortened. Complaints that the Battle of Winterfell lasted too long have been heard, so now battles last no longer than 5 minutes.

5) Northerners and Unsullied both have reduced honor and morality meters. It is now possible for them to commit war crimes with little to no provocation.

6) Cersei’s speed has been reduced. She now moves sluggishly, if at all.

7) Euron’s plot armor has been removed.

8) The Mountain’s loyalty has been reduced for the introduction of the Cleganebowl game type.

9) Arya’s conviction has been reduced after complaints that she was too OP. Her plot armor has been significantly increased to compensate.

Credit where due - https://www.reddit.com/r/asoiaf/comments/bnmarc/spoilers_extended_reactions_game_of_thrones/enackl0/

"

鬼殺し wrote:

[...]I just stop watching when something goes to shit and GoT did that ages ago.[..]

I think it was palatable up to the end of season 6.

7 and 8 are terrible.

fuuuuuuck this season is so bad kill it with dragonfire

randos on reddit coming up with more coherent plotlines than d&d

The Hound vs the Mountain is the only thing i like about this season so far.

That and Cersei just passing by those two like: "just going to walk past you guys here do not want to get involved with someone else's family drama..."

I honestly feel a little sorry for D & D. They are catching all the blame for GRRM leaving them out to dry. He gave them some plot points, and probably told them he would finish at least another book and have it fleshed out for them to work with, and he hasn't done a damn thing since.

So here they are picking up the pieces of this convoluted mess. We forget they have to slap together these seasons, get them shot/put together/etc in like a year or 2 tops. Meanwhile the guy getting all the praise can't write a book in 8 seasons, because he probably has no idea how to finish it himself.

They could have probably did a better job. But maybe the original writer could have came up with them some more source material to work with; they aren't novel writers.

I know I've read a million places that oh GRRM will fix it when he writes his books. No he wont. He's never gonna finish those books. He damn sure wont write them now that the final season has caught immortal hell and he had a say in how this ended. He's gonna leave it open to interpretation and never finish those books. Hes 70, completely out of shape, and if he can't write a book in like the 8 years they did GoT, he won't finish the series ever.

As much as D&D screwed the pooch a bit this season, I seriously doubt they expected to make it this far with the guy never having another book written for them to pull from. God knows why these 2 seasons were rushed. I dont know the constraints they have, the contractual obligations, etc. But IMO, GRRM deserves some blame in this, too.

"

Destructodave wrote:

I honestly feel a little sorry for D & D. They are catching all the blame for GRRM leaving them out to dry. He gave them some plot points, and probably told them he would finish at least another book and have it fleshed out for them to work with, and he hasn't done a damn thing since.

So here they are picking up the pieces of this convoluted mess. We forget they have to slap together these seasons, get them shot/put together/etc in like a year or 2 tops. Meanwhile the guy getting all the praise can't write a book in 8 seasons, because he probably has no idea how to finish it himself.

They could have probably did a better job. But maybe the original writer could have came up with them some more source material to work with; they aren't novel writers.

I know I've read a million places that oh GRRM will fix it when he writes his books. No he wont. He's never gonna finish those books. He damn sure wont write them now that the final season has caught immortal hell and he had a say in how this ended. He's gonna leave it open to interpretation and never finish those books. Hes 70, completely out of shape, and if he can't write a book in like the 8 years they did GoT, he won't finish the series ever.

As much as D&D screwed the pooch a bit this season, I seriously doubt they expected to make it this far with the guy never having another book written for them to pull from. God knows why these 2 seasons were rushed. I dont know the constraints they have, the contractual obligations, etc. But IMO, GRRM deserves some blame in this, too.

Just to expand on this, nearly all if not all the blame lies with GRRM. Without source material, it was difficult for D&D ti maintain the development that the earlier seasons provided.

In addition to that GoT basically outgrew itself. Not only does a larger viewership complicate plot direction (ie not everyone agrees what should happen) but the actual characters themselves become a problem.

Did (or do we) expect professional actresses and actors stick with a role for 15 years or more? Its already been 11 years. The contracts and evolving careers makes this an impossible task.

What if Emilia Clarke or Kit Harrington didn't want to keep going? Sophie Turner just to name another has more interests and a growing career.

The result is that D&D were hung out to dry, having to wrap up massive plot lines, and dozens of character arcs in 14 hours. (Seasons 7 & 8)

Of course everyone is entitled their opinion, and for what's its worth I still enjoy watching GoT. And will certainly read the books whenever they are finished.

Tbh Im happy to see this might not end with sugar and rainbows. I never liked Dany ever. Jon is a moron. Arya's story has been great imo. If Sansa and Tyrion make it out alive, and Arya shoots an arrow into Dany to avenge Jon, I will be more than fine.

Can't wait for GoT: Brotherhood after GRRM finishes all the books. Doesn't even have to be half as expensive, I'd pass on the great special effects if the plot is good.

"

Destructodave wrote:

I honestly feel a little sorry for D & D. They are catching all the blame for GRRM leaving them out to dry. He gave them some plot points, and probably told them he would finish at least another book and have it fleshed out for them to work with, and he hasn't done a damn thing since.

So here they are picking up the pieces of this convoluted mess. We forget they have to slap together these seasons, get them shot/put together/etc in like a year or 2 tops. Meanwhile the guy getting all the praise can't write a book in 8 seasons, because he probably has no idea how to finish it himself.

They could have probably did a better job. But maybe the original writer could have came up with them some more source material to work with; they aren't novel writers.

I know I've read a million places that oh GRRM will fix it when he writes his books. No he wont. He's never gonna finish those books. He damn sure wont write them now that the final season has caught immortal hell and he had a say in how this ended. He's gonna leave it open to interpretation and never finish those books. Hes 70, completely out of shape, and if he can't write a book in like the 8 years they did GoT, he won't finish the series ever.

As much as D&D screwed the pooch a bit this season, I seriously doubt they expected to make it this far with the guy never having another book written for them to pull from. God knows why these 2 seasons were rushed. I dont know the constraints they have, the contractual obligations, etc. But IMO, GRRM deserves some blame in this, too.

"I honestly feel a little sorry for D & D." - I don't. They were meant to be completing the story - GRRM was never gonna have the conclusion out for them to pull on, and they knew that going in. At best it would've made season 6 and maybe (maybe...) a bit of 7 somewhat better, but not 8. 8 especially was always gonna be on them.

But most of all, forget the books. I'm certainly not expecting them to do right by the books. I'm expecting them to do right by their own damn show. To produce a script and story that aligns well with nothing more than just whatever they've shown us so far in the TV series, books be damned. To produce a TV show-worthy storyline. And they haven't done that, especially now.

Remember that the show Game of Thrones was already way simplified compared to the book series it's based on. For example, the books feature another Targaryen character, which the show completely excised. So they've already simplified things, and yet can't deliver.

Actually, even forget a lot of the past narrative of their own show - people are expecting them to at least produce something that makes sense. It says something that random people on Reddit - who almost all wouldn't be writers of any stripe, let alone novelists - are coming up with better storylines than the shows' writers. Yes, those writers aren't novelists, and certainly not of the kind needed to produce a world like Westeros, but they are still writers for TV and/or movies. They are expected to be able to plot sensibly. And now they're being outclassed by rank amateurs, not because the amateurs are great, but because their own product is so bad.

There are even versions of those plots that align with the end result the show showed, and hence with whatever GRRM might have told D&D all those years ago, but plotted to work a lot better. For example, I put forward a re-write of the Night Kings' death in episode 3 that still let Arya get the kill earlier in this thread (second last post on Page 11). I don't know if it was any good, but it was definitely a lot better than her coming flying out of nowhere (unless, for some reason, Bran really needs to still be alive now, which the show has so far not demonstrated, with only one episode left).

Point being that D&D don't have to meet some really lofty expectations of inspired writing worthy of a bestselling series of books. Hell, they might not even need to meet the expectations of writing worthy of a bestselling TV show, although that'd definitely be nice. In many cases, they merely need to meet the expectations of writing that doesn't have more holes than Swiss cheese.

Plus I and others suspect that they're doing it on purpose - abandoning plot sensibility in order to extract as much spectacle and drama as they can wring out of the show. For example, having Dany take her own sweet time burning the suburbs of Kings' Landing in the latest episode in order to show as much human suffering porn as possible, despite that her rage ought to have been directed at Cersei in the Red Keep and hence it'd make the most sense for her to make a beeline for the castle (you can even show her burning the city later if you really want to, but they chose the other way only cos it allowed Cersei time to do her schtick on the balcony instead of quickly running away). The bad plotting isn't merely cos they ran out of material - it's cos they're bad writers and, in other cases, cos they've deliberately chosen not to care.