GOT-Tennis anyone? (Page 1 of 2)

I’ll say.

I gave up television cold turkey in 1997.  I highly recommend total abstinence. If you do that, you can spend all those wasted hours doing something worthwhile ... like, maybe ... I dunno ... writing and reading?

As I've not seen any of this season yet - waiting for my DVD set - I'll have to bow out of this discussion. I'm having a hard enough time dodging spoilers all over the internet as it is! 

Bobbie

Yeah, I hear you, Temple. But I've read all of the books, too. Game of Thrones really is a brilliant piece de resistance of hand-wringing, heart-rendering, hamstringing drama. And I'm not saying I'm surprised by the rather rash turn of events on the television adaptation; I'm just dissatisfied. By the execution of the narrative, I guess. Sitting here with delusions of grandeur that I could've written it better myself. For the scope of George RR Martin's story is beyond abstinence, I'm afraid. It's a microcosm of the world we reside in. Despite the inclusion of religious magic and dragons and zombie armies and seasons that last for years and whatnot...

It's IMPORTANT to understand this shit, is what I'm saying. As wannabe "Next Big" writers, that is.

For I'm not even speaking as a consumer of mindless entertainment, but rather as a thoughtful person provoked by thoughtfully-rendered entertainment. I believe that it's essential that we, as a community of storytellers, reckon the pop-culture relevance of this controversial pop-culture phenomenon and learn from it. Period.

John

Last night's episode was like a pot of porridge, gooey mush over-cooked and over-stirred, the characters plopping out of the mush onto the floor of death and destruction. And way too many unsullied raisins and prunes trying to poke their way to virility. But anywho, to resolve all the story lines would take another ten seasons. I don't think the creators realized they had a hit on their hands and went whoop-de-do when it caught on, never thinking they'd eventually have to resolve to the one owner of the iron throne (never knowing that it was actually a very cold iron toilet like the one in my home in Gig Harbor in winter).

I was really hoping for a complete plot turn around with the dragons torching everyone, everything (including Blondie) and taking the iron throne for themselves. They understood Dythracki, English and Swedish so why not? And then they could breed with Cerci to produce more zombie mutants like Geoffrey.

And, what the hell was Arya's white horse doing at the end? I was waiting for song, dance and pony show, a' la Mr. Ed with witty ironic invective. I think it just wandered into the scene from a previous episode and none of the script editors realized it. Next thing they'll bring Hodor back as a wind-walking ventriloquist with a talking Jon Snow puppet on his broken knees... the puppet would without a doubt be a better actor than the real Jon Snow character, talk about mush!

Sneaky Pete also fizzled out... so it goes. I'm in a wheelchair now so TV is 30% of my life.

But, GOT had many more highs than lows. Now HBO needs to follow up with a great drama written by one of the genius here at tNBW.

Well, now I know why I've never watched a single episode or had any real desire to from the tid-bits of commercials which pop up before I can hit fast forward. Alas, all the big hits seem to wander into the doldrums after a few great seasons of entertainment. And damn-it, The Voice is no exception with this seasons mediocre crowd for the most part with poor song choice adding to the disappointment. But ya'll carry on and don't worry about any spoilers, the revelation of which might be better than watching the descent into the abyss. Take care. Vern

I haven't watched the show and may never do so, but an arch villain dying by tripping down stairs sounds like something you would write. Have you forgotten your elevator full of restaurant patrons who escaped a mass killing from assault weapons only to plunge to their deaths in the elevator? And all that in a romance novel. I cheered the whole time.

We're all being humorous here about some serious shit --I happen to reside right across the PUGET SOUND from Max Boyce, for instance; so there must be something in the water up here, right, buddy?-- because irreverence is sometimes the only way to face a tragedy like the ruination of your favorite soap opera. Game of Thrones had always been such an ingenious and superior blend of tragicomic sex and swords and sorcery and politics and psychology, though. A baroque marriage of batshit brave heroism and batshit depraved villainy. Which is why, once the show carried on beyond the books, the seams started parting and the bloom fell off the thing and suddenly this season is a tragic travesty I can't quite cope with.

After years (literally YEARS) of painstakingly careful character development, they've all been given short shrift leading up to this apocalypse we all probably shoulda seen coming. Then again, I'm of the mind that MORE of our favorite characters should've died along the way on this epic highway to hell. So I dunno. This is why I, myself, am tragically only capable of writing beginnings and middles. The "ends" of stories don't interest me as much as the origin stories, I guess. For I'm one of the proud few who really liked how shows like The Sopranos and The Shield and The Wire "ended". As opposed to the way Breaking Bad ended, for instance. Although, I really liked how Breaking Bad ended, too. So go figure.

Which brings me to the big send-offs Kdot alluded to. The Starks were all murdered in spectacular fashion, Mance Rayder went out like a mensch, Ygritte like a boy-crazy dumbstruck lover, Drogo like a big dumb rapey badass, Ramsay Bolton like a rapey Napoleonic bastard, Oberyn Martell like a righteous moron, Olenna Tyrell like a boss, Hodor like a hero, Tywin Lannister on a toilet... The list goes on. So much of that death and destruction was EARNED, though. Up until this season, that is. To see the writers let the Night King be taken out like a clown by a little girl, Rhaegal the dragon taken out like an innocent bystander by a psycopathic clown, Brienne of Tarth taken out like a jilted rom-com mallrat by a redeemed asshole, and the once fierce but now feeble Cersei Lannister taken out like a lamb led to a slaughter by the very same, but suddenly irredeemable, asshole...

Well, fuckit. There's just too much to unpack. I think my grievance with Dany's heel turn is less severe. I saw it coming because they really did "show" it coming. For all this time, and if you think about it, the only thing that ever held the Khaleesi in check (and NOT go all burn-em-all bastshit crazy) were her trusted advisers. If it seemed like her descent into madness came too fast (kinda like Anakin Skywalker becoming Darth Vader came way too fast) it's because the writers messed up when they killed Rhaegal the way they did in the preceding episode. If they'd simply waited until THIS episode, the penultimate episode, to bring him down... Well, I would've wholeheartedly bought her genetically-compromised/God-complexed Targaryen pride overtaking her humanistic and pragmatic sensiblility.  She'd already lost Drogo and Beric and Viserion, Jorah, and Missandei and then the romantic love and affection of Jon Snow on top of it. She'd been betrayed by Sansa and Varys, let down by Tyrion and the people of Westeros, and so... If one of Cersei's scorpions had killed her second to last "child" (as the people of King's Landing cheered as he fell from the sky) well, forget the "bells." That probably would have sufficed as a last straw back-snapping justification to go on a kill-crazy genocidal rampage.

(In the context of the show, that is. I'm not condoning indiscriminate mass murder, by any means.)

Easy narrative fix, in my mind, anyhow, but... Then again, what do I know? I'm sitting here, worn out by the whole thing already. And yet, despite my angst,  I would still encourage the lot of y'all who have somehow managed to avoid this goddamned water-cooler soap opera for the past ten years to: GET IN ON IT!

For it's never too late to drink up, eat well, and be entertained. Nevermind the biting hangover... Game of Thrones, as it is and as a whole, is like a seven-course dinner-theater meal for the heart and mind. And well worth the bitter aftertaste.

Cheers
John

I actually think Arya might have actually died in this episode (in fact, I thought she must've died at least three times amidst that nuclear fallout) and that the white horse represented a kind of transition to the afterlife. One in which her little brother (Bran, the three-eyed wheelchair-bound weirdo) might guide her into the Lord of Light's arms and bring her back to life to save the world from fire-breathing dragons and the hell hath no fury feminine tyranny Danerys hath done wrought upon the world, and...

Jesus... Just shoot me, already. Make me stop!

Cheers

John

hahaha that's exactly what they did!
Also - where did the dothraki come from?? Weren't they all sacrificed to the white walkers (by galloping off into the darkness, because that's a great battle strategy).
Also - John, I had the exact same thought that they should have killed Rhaegal in this episode! At least then I could believe that Dany might snap. As it was, it made no sense. She's never shown any signs of being unhinged. Temperamental and maybe blood thirsty, yes, but not deranged. And her whole switch was triggered by bells???? Whaaaaaaaat? So stupid. Someone should have just given her a snickers bar. She was just really hangry.

Oh, so he's a Trump derivative. Now I know I'll never watch it, lol. Take care. Vern

Good point, Alza. Jon Snow knows nothing and neither does John Hamler. We're both twisting in the wind at this point, I think. Except the wind itself has been set on fire. For unreasonable reasons, too. Guess I'm just gonna hafta wait for the books to be satisfied. Except the guy (George RR Martin) is well into his Seventies already and I'm afraid the tragically obese and megalomaniacal mutherfucker might keel over and croak from all the pressure. Before he can wrap it all up, that is.

Nevertheless, like somebody already said.... It's been hella fun.

Cheers

John

If you’re willing to suspend your disbelief (a lot) and pretend the events of the last season unfolded over several years, it’s actually a good ending. Everyone ended where they were meant to be.