SPOILER ALERT! So am I the only one excited about a new round of GoT?

[ARKOUDAKI]

Deadwood is making a comeback!

[AKULA]

Deadwood is making a comeback!

Oi! Start your own thread

 

[Coenus Scaldingus]

I wonder if the show will end up in the typical lists of shows where the ending was so despised it tainted the whole saga (like Lost, or Dexter). Things started to get dire with the whole Dorne situation, but I was kind of hoping the last series would be better, given they had GRRM's notes on how it would end (but not how to get there, so e.g. S7 was expected to be more nonsensical). If teleportation, invisibility and missiles with tracking devices had been introduced in the series as an existining type of magic, things would be fine(ish), but while the dragons and zombies fit in, Euron's ship ambush with perfectly aimed bolts does not.
"Everything can happen because fantasy" is a poor excuse for poor writing.

[AKULA]

If teleportation, invisibility and missiles with tracking devices had been introduced in the series as an existining type of magic, things would be fine(ish), but while the dragons and zombies fit in, Euron's ship ambush with perfectly aimed bolts does not.

Ok I’ll play devils advocate....

 

The writers wanted to show how Dany’s character changes - so in the space of an episode she has lost Jorah, Missandei and Rhaegal (ie two of her strongest emotional supports plus one of her “children”). The scene where Dany is testing Rhaegal’s flying ability before they leave, and the moments before the ambush all build up for the shock and loss.

Yes, you could argue there is no way a dragon rider should be ambushed by a seaborne fleet...any wargamer worth their salt would be flying circuits over the fleet with their binoculars out as if they were in a PBY looking for the Japanese fleet near Midway, but the point is that Dany isn’t a military leader, rather someone supremely overconfident in their own “destiny”.

Yes, she has already lost one dragon...to a magical being, who is now dead, and yes, she had another dragon wounded by a ballista, but that was over land - evidentially she hadn’t considered that someone would make loads more AND mount them on ships.  In the moments before the ambush the camera shows Dany paying more attention to Rhaegal than anything else.  Perhaps someone in the fleet should have seen Ironborn (maybe they did...it just wasn’t one of the characters on screen) but even then, they had no way of warning Daenerys.

As for the “homing missiles” we see 3 bolts strike home (one of which was a glancing blow) but there were 8/9 (?) ships all armed with ballistas, so perhaps these were the best shots and the others fell well short and out of camera shot....at the time the dragons weren’t taking evasive manoeuvres.... the next shot missed Dany, and then when she dived at the fleet everyone missed, probably not least because of the pressure of a bloody great dragon diving straight at them.

[Belligerentparrot]

I'm in the same boat as Akula (a magically teleporting one with guided crossbow bolts? Maybe  )

The series, although rushed, is giving me enough to rationalise some of the silliness. Another case in point: the Dothraki charge. Time your catapult barrage to break up the enemy infantry formations just before your best fighters' cavalry charge hits? Ground is frozen, so those boulders should roll a bit  And your best dudes all now have seemingly magical weapons? Might just work.

Not arguing against anyone who has given up on the series through silliness though - good writing wouldn't leave you having to rationalise so much.

Anyhoo, predictions! I expect the writers to stick to the middle of the road, so the Mountain is *about* to kill Arya, when the Hound and/or Gendry steps in to save her. No idea who wins Cleganebowl, suspect they both die.
Also, at least some of the Wildlings show up at the crucial moment to help turn the tide.
Also, Bronn to change sides again. 

[thebinmann]

Deadwood is making a comeback!

YE-HAR! A month to watch the seasons again..

[Hupp n at em]

The internet has gone crazy, declaring GoT ruined, lumping it in with Star Wars, Star Trek and Doctor Who as the latest in a line of destroyed franchises. I'm not really there yet, but I can see where they are coming from in some ways. It's definitely not as good as it used to be. I watched some old clips with Charles Dance earlier, and found myself thinking "I miss those days."

All I can say is based on the "logical, informed critiques" some (some complaints have merit, I have some of my own but they don't "ruin" the show)  of these folks have, I would NOT watch shows based on their writing. 

It’s becoming politicised? Dragons and zombies? Hilarious.

I did see something in one paper yesterday claiming that the series was discriminatory in some way because none of the characters ‘of colour’ lasted (following the demise of Missandei). But seeing as this was substantiated by claiming Oberyn Martell (played by a hispanic American actor), as a person of colour, and seeing as pretty much every significant character has died - or will do shortly - irrespective of ethnic origin, I took this with a pinch of salt.

Bonkers that people will seek to find some sort of political import or advantage in something as entertaining yet essentially silly as an escapist sword and sorcery yarn.

There was an interesting line in a GRRM interview about the Unsullied being all actors of color and he pointed out that in the books, they are like slaves in Greek/Roman times - from all over the place.  But the realities of filming Essos in Morocco is.... the extras are Moroccans.    Imagine thinking "Film Affirmative Action" demands more pasty Moroccan actors! 

George, despite any accusations of gratuitous sex scenes, has always been head and shoulders above the average fantasy writer in terms of writing dynamic, interesting female characters.  And any accusations of anti-POC are especially ludicrous in the face of recent developments - he is an executive producer on an upcoming HBO series based on an African-flavored fantasy/sci-fi book by a young African-American woman - https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/zmvzmx/george-rr-martin-is-adapting-an-african-sci-fi-novel-for-tv-vgtrn. I haven't had time to give it a read yet, but bought it for Kindle and am excited to give it a go.

[cdm]

I find myself increasingly dissatisfied with watching it, and even skipping scenes in episode 3 and 4. I doubt I'll ever go back and watch it again either.

It leaves me with that kind of feeling I had with the third Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies where I just couldn't be bothered facing the annoying/uninteresting parts enough to even care about seeing the end of the story. I feel the same way about Star Wars 9. Maybe I'm just not the target audience anymore, or my tastes are requiring more meat and logic in the storylines, and they're more interested in veganish story lines. Not sure.

It has some great parts in it, the bits they care about still has some interest like the Sansa arc, but it seems to me there are parts they aren't personally interested in and are just skip tracking over them to get back to what they like. The framework is there, though I'm not sure whether the failings I'm feeling are due to rush of the story line, or simply a lack of interest by writers, or my changing tastes in what I'm willing to overlook.

The shooting down of the dragon felt lazy, as does the increasingly wooden Danny, the towers and town entry battlements without parapets, the sinking of the navy with super powered ballistas, or the slave girl who couldn't grab Cersei by the arm and drag her over the open parapet edge.

[lethallee61]

Well..............Episode 5 was pretty damn intense. 

[Belligerentparrot]

Well..............Episode 5 was pretty damn intense. 

Have to say, I really enjoyed that! No idea how it is going to end.

[beefcake]

Yes, I enjoyed it too. Quite a few main character deaths that I hadn't expected this episode but the last. (unless the night king comes back and raises them all again... plot twist? )

[Hammers]

Yes, I enjoyed it too. Quite a few main character deaths that I hadn't expected this episode but the last. (unless the night king comes back and raises them all again... plot twist? )

I thought it ruddy good. Quite ’The Bunker’.... And a whole lot of other tropes. Am I the only one who thinks they are letting the directors roam quite wild lately? They have been allowed to use cuts, camera angles, slomo and other modes previously not used in the series. No skin of my nose...

 By the way: Arya will kill Danaerys, and possibly Cercei, she and Jamie are not dead.  Varys has by ravenmail made sure Westros knows Jon is the trueborn king.

[Plynkes]

So the latest Targaryen monarch proved to be just as mad in the head as the worst of her forebears.

I really get the feeling they don't want us to be on Daenerys' side any more. There is hardly a shot when she isn't grimacing like a mad woman or has a thousand-yard-stare.

I have some mild gripes, but on the whole I thought the episode a good one.

[Condottiere]

I thought it was predictable crap, especially since D&D foreshadowed the destruction of King's Landing several seasons ago...

The dragons are useful only when the plot demands it and those scorpions are useless when the plot demands it. 

Reading the comments in the USA Today article, 'Game of Thrones' recap: The series just burned itself to the ground, Clarke's horny fanboys will accept and defend any old crap from D&D.

[Belligerentparrot]

SPOILERS!!   SPOILERS!!   SPOILERS!!
Was trying to hold it in but feel an urgent need to write it all down!






Now THAT is what a big-ass dragon should do!

Other things I thought were great, in no particular order:
Euron's last words.
The Mountain vs Qyburn, always thought he'd like to do that.
Cleganebowl lived up to expectations.
Jaime and Cersei's last moment together (although Hammers has now made me wonder, hmmmm).
The Golden Company's demise.
Was looking forward to Greyworm going beserk and fucking all sorts of Lannisters up, but he didn't need to with Drogon in beast mode.
Arya with murder in her eyes.
Drogon's "Alien" homage just before Varys gets toasty.

Sure, it is still a bit fast moving, but there are worse things. If this plot was a GRRM book, Arya and the Hound would meet four different sets of minor characters on the way to Kings' Landing, taking them down several sub-plot dead-ends and three volumes to bloody well get there.