Fifth Avenue Forum

It’s perfectly fine, entertaining television. It’s just an absolutely garbage plot line.

Most complaints don't stem from what it is, but for what it could (in some cases should) have been.

Didn't think episode 4 of Season 8 was that bad either. But I started episode 5 and it seems now they are just rushing through to get to the conclusion. I guess I'll see over the final 2 episodes, but from what I read, that is where the real drop off occurs and it's just a rushed conclusion.

I had no issues with the conclusion of the white walker portion of the story. Seems the Kings Landing and the Iron Throne is going to be the issue.

Source of the post I had no issues with the conclusion of the white walker portion of the story.

If that's the case then you're already doing better than most of the internet. You likely won't have much of a problem with the finale.

So I'm half way through the last episode.

Episode 5 thoughts:
I actually didn't mind it too much, although there were some things that didn't make sense. Especially Arya so quickly abandoning her "kill Cersi" mission. And I never really like the Greyjoy dude story line and how he just happened to wash up on shore to fight Jamie to the death even though the two of them really had no history other than banging Cersi.

I didn't mind the Clegan brawl. I thought that was ok.

Having an entire alley burned to a crisp, but Arya walking away dirty was weird

Outside of that, I didn't think it was too bad. Sure, a lot of things were wrapped up pretty quickly, but I think you would have gotten to the same outcome if it was drawn out.

Episode 6 (first half):
The Danny death was anticlimactic and really wasn't eventful. The dragon just melting the throne and flying off with Danny was weird too.

I never got into the fan fiction and quite honestly didn't want to read through this thread because a lot of it is shmegiun not being happy with anything in life as usual. But just wondered what some people thought could have made it better overall. Really interested.

My only real gripe with it was pacing and time. The series had been built on a slow-paced plot littered with a few areas of intense action. That was all thrown in the toilet with season 7 & 8. I have zero issues with the story itself. The storytelling, on the other hand, suffered greatly due to the creators wanting to jump to Star Wars asap. HBO was like "no, wait, you have all the budget you need. Let's do this right." And Benioff & Weiss said "but, Star Wars though..." Ironically enough, their rush to Star Wars, which greatly hurt the conclusion to GOT, ended up losing them the Star Wars gig.

The last two seasons were like a different show IMO.

All semblance of pacing was gone, dialogue went from great to average at best to awful. Decisions that were made made no sense, story arc's came and went. I dunno the show was sooooo good seasons 1-4, had a weak season 5 (death to the Dorne storyline, but had Hardhome etc), season 6 was great... then 7 and 8 fell off a cliff.

It's like once the writers decided they wanted to finish quickly..... they basically said F it and the last two seasons show that IMO.

It's also a testament to how good GOT was, because as bad as the last two seasons were, it was still better than a majority of TV shows produced.

The biggest issue was definitely trying to squeeze 3 or 4 seasons of story into 13 episodes.

There were some really poor decisions in general, particularly with Jaime. They ruined his entire character arc to make him just suddenly rush back to be with Ceraei and die by standing in the one spot the rocks fell.

Seeing as they knew Bran was going to be King all along, there was no excuse for leaving him out of an entire season and making him as boring as humanly possible leading up to it.

So many little things like Arya just going ok, I won't go after Cersei now despite that being her singular focus. How do you not show the reaction to Jon killing Dany? And so on.

Also when they are deciding what to do for King, Everyone is fine that the North is going to be free, but Asha is ok with the Iron Islands not being free... Right. And obviously Tyrion's "who has a better story" is laughable because of how Bran was handled all along.

I didn't necessarily hate most of what happened, but it was so rushed and thin that it really hurt it.

Source of the post Also when they are deciding what to do for King, Everyone is fine that the North is going to be free, but Asha is ok with the Iron Islands not being free... Right. And obviously Tyrion's "who has a better story" is laughable because of how Bran was handled all along.

That's EXACTLY what we said when watching. I expected everybody else to stand up and be like "hol up. We can just be free? I choose that."

The Brady bunch laugh at the idea of democracy made me feel like I was on set watching it be filmed. Edmure was F'd over by Robb twice, so everyone assumes he's the moron. His last slapdown by Sansa made him into a stooge, instead of a years long POW who lost his entire family except her.

In retrospect, it really is amazing how bad the final season hurt the entire franchise... it seemingly disappeared from pop culture over night.

I didn't hate the ending at the time, but I am very disappointed that they cut so many corners. I really wish HBO would have had the balls to step in and say f you, you're doing this right or we're getting somebody that will.

And once again, **** GRRM for not being able to get even one more book out before the show ended.

GRRM shoulders much of the blame but the way those final two seasons were handled by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss should have destroyed their careers. There's no reason whatsoever to trust them to handle a series again after the way the punted GOT.

GRRM shoulders much of the blame but the way those final two seasons were handled by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss should have destroyed their careers. There's no reason whatsoever to trust them to handle a series again after the way the punted GOT.

It kind of feels like it has. Their Confederate show on HBO went up in flames (for a variety of reasons), they blame their Netflix deal for leaving Star Wars but that still feels like a mutual decision especially with the director issues Lucasfilm has experienced, and while they' are making a ton of money for doing it, their first project for Netflix was a Leslie Jones stand-up special that I didn't even know existed despite being released in January. These dudes ran the biggest show in history for 6 years (before they ruined it) and were signed to write a **** Star Wars trilogy and a year post-GOT they directed a comedy special and might have a Lovecraft movie in the works.

In terms of things that sucked, the fact that Jon's true heritage was used only to create a rift between Jon and Dany is pretty weak. It ultimately wasn't all that important in the grand scheme of things. For such a big "secret" (at least among readers this was all but accepted as the truth long before the show confirmed it), it was basically a popcorn fart in terms of importance on the show.

In terms of things that sucked, the fact that Jon's true heritage was used only to create a rift between Jon and Dany is pretty weak. It ultimately wasn't all that important in the grand scheme of things. For such a big "secret" (at least among readers this was all but accepted as the truth long before the show confirmed it), it was basically a popcorn fart in terms of importance on the show.

Yeah this one still sticks in my craw. Utterly meaningless despite all the anticipation.

GRRM shoulders much of the blame but the way those final two seasons were handled by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss should have destroyed their careers. There's no reason whatsoever to trust them to handle a series again after the way the punted GOT.

It kind of feels like it has. Their Confederate show on HBO went up in flames (for a variety of reasons), they blame their Netflix deal for leaving Star Wars but that still feels like a mutual decision especially with the director issues Lucasfilm has experienced, and while they' are making a ton of money for doing it, their first project for Netflix was a Leslie Jones stand-up special that I didn't even know existed despite being released in January. These dudes ran the biggest show in history for 6 years (before they ruined it) and were signed to write a **** Star Wars trilogy and a year post-GOT they directed a comedy special and might have a Lovecraft movie in the works.

Ooof... You weren't kidding.

Benioff and Weiss's first project on Netflix were as directors of the stand-up comedy special Leslie Jones: Time Machine.

Man...this is exceptionally well done. Love the points on the Hound and Sansa/LF especially. F'in D&D man.

And legit lol at the Fallout 3 style dialogue box for Bran

This article makes it seem like a miracle any of the series was good.
https://ew.com/tv/game-of-thrones-origi ... n-excerpt/

I just got done with episode 3 of season 8, the big battle with the dead. I honestly don't think it has been too bad (season 7 or 8). It's not as good as it was in earlier seasons, but I haven't thought it has been horrible as many described.

Maybe because I'm binge watching it and didn't wait 7 years to get to that point. But it hasn't been THAT bad. In fact the espisode leading up to the battle I though was good, just the tension and ominous feeling that something really bad was coming. And even the battle itself was decent.

I'm also a lot easier to please than others though too. I'm pretty simple when it comes to "artistic" things.

Calvary charge
Siege weapons in front of the lines
Infantry in front of the defensive barrier
Archers not already manning the walls
Heck not using the damn castle in the first place.
Complete darkness really bad
Air superiority not used
.
Brilliant tactical minds reduced to Reagan applesauce because it looks cool

This article makes it seem like a miracle any of the series was good.
https://ew.com/tv/game-of-thrones-origi ... n-excerpt/

The whole thing seems very Star Wars to me. Much like Lucas, D&D had a disaster of something that could be great and needed their friends to help them figure out how to make it work. They made something incredible and then before long they got too much control and the whole thing fell apart. I would love to see this disaster of a pilot just to have an MST3K experience of how awful it was, plus the original cast.

I have often seen this picture of Illyrio from the original pilot but had no idea that GRRM was involved with the wedding as well.
Also remember seeing Brandon Stark and the Mad King from the original teaser trailer.
That article was a good, sad, reminder of a show I once loved. Might be enough to check out the book at some point.

This is great news:

A series adaptation of “Tales of Dunk and Egg,” a prequel to the events of “Game of Thrones,” is in early development at HBO, Variety has learned exclusively from sources.

The one-hour show would be based on the series of fantasy novellas by George R. R. Martin, which follow the adventures of Ser Duncan the Tall (Dunk) and a young Aegon V Targaryen (Egg) 90 years prior to the events of “A Song of Ice and Fire.”

Martin has published three novellas in the “Tales of Dunk and Egg” series to date: “The Hedge Knight” in 1998, “The Sworn Sword” in 2003, and “The Mystery Knight” in 2010. The three novellas were then collected and published together as “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” in 2015.

No writer or talent is currently attached to the project, but sources say it is a high priority for HBO as the premium cabler looks to build on the success of “Game of Thrones.”

Those stories are excellent, and not told in the POV style of the main books.

https://variety.com/2021/tv/news/game-o ... 234889520/

Dunk and Egg always seemed like a more logical spinoff approach than seeing what random garage a writer's room could concoct.