I will say that though my overall appreciation of the show has steadily declined over the seasons, my appreciation of Clarke's acting has had the opposite course. She has honestly grown so much as an actress over the years it's insane.
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I don't think the fans could have been prevented from massively and autistically REEEEing at her even if she had to bow out for serious health issues, and she must have been at least vaguely aware of that. Not everyone is prepared or inclined to receive the vitriol.

Certainly not the main factor, but one of many cogs in her decision.

 

Maybe, yes, but I'm very unsure if I wouldn't simply give up and went full into a depression mode anyway. This is why I'm impressed by people who don't do that.

 

Eh. Who's to say that those criticisms weren't a driving force for her to better herself? Growth through adversity and all that because you know what? If there was ever any time to criticise her acting it was definitely then. She obviously thought she could handle the pressure as if she weren't going through such a debilitating ordeal, otherwise this would have come out earlier. And in the end it looks like she was right. All power to her.

I'd say that it was definitely the shrewd decision. She knew that show was going to catapult her and it did. Look at her now. She's been in both a Star Wars film and a Terminator film, not many actors get the opportunity to be part of either of those iconic franchises. Even if they turned out mediocre. Now, it's more important that she picks the right roles but she may not even want to stay relevant and in the spotlight. She might just want to be able to be a working actress. Which she'd be set for life if that was as far as her ambition went.

 

Yes.

 

Have you met the internet?

Case in point.

 

Daaaaaayum bitches. This is music! Feat. Ramin Djawadi, Tom Morello, Scott Ian, Nuno Bettencourt, Brad Paisley and surprise surprise, Dan Weiss.

 

Is Scott Ian a vampire? If his beard wasn't white, he'd look no different than he did in the 80s.

 

He uses lotion.

 

Pff
Hilarious but I stand by the interpretation bran has been warging and playing everyone. His POV in the books for this would be insane.

 

The actor playing Bran confirmed that his kingship is from GRRM, not from D&D. Which probably confirms that most of the endings are from him, but I stand by my opinion that Sansa isn't going to be the Queen, just the Lady of Winterfell.

 

Honestly, I'm 98% certain that the books will follow the same outline of events. Really, there's not much wrong with what happened, only the how. The problem is all that the show rushed through it, trying to get everything done in ~7 hours, and so none of the season 8 plot threads got enough time to properly develop. They could have easily taken the same sequence of events and made it great if they'd taken the time to lay a proper groundwork for it.

 

Fake Aegon not existing in the show is a huge dropped plot thread. Makes Dany going psycho much more understandable, though I still think the next two books will need TONS of buildup to make that believable. Dany just isn't crazy enough in the books against innocents. I could see her burning every Lord and Lady at King's Landing, for instance, but not random civilians after a surrender. I think a fake Aegon having captured hearts/minds of the people, a complete rejection of her by the masses in some symbolic way (like someone starts a riot at her and her dragons swoop in to save her and burn people by accident) would go a long ways towards making that work.

 

Came across the Bran as Fisher King theory and quite liked it. The garbage execution of the show aside, I'm warming up to its potential when (if/lol) the books catch up.

 

HBO either has balls of fucking steel or a great sense of humor

https://www.tvguide.com/news/hbo-game-of-thrones-emmys-submissions/

 

SO! Ignoring the shit of season 8 for a moment.

Given a few assumptions, how would you muster the Seven Kingdoms against Night's King and his army?

- Assume: Daenerys and Jon or just Daenerys or just person X have somehow united the entire Seven Kingdoms.
- Assume: Book rules, not TV show - Dragonglass doesn't magically slay wights with a touch OR it might, but it has to get through whatever armor they had on when they died --- "Necromancy animates these wights, yet they are still only dead flesh. Steel and fire will serve for them. The ones you call the Others are something more.” - Melisandre :: The Others are vanquished by valyrian steel or dragonglass. Dragonfire is but an annoyance. I think the wights dying when you slay their rising Other/White Walker is TV Show canon, but I feel like that will be in the books too...
- Assume the wights are as individually horrifying as they are in A Game of Thrones with a certain animalistic intelligence - see, the reanimated Othor knowing where Jeor Mormont slept and finding its way there - not just typical fictional zombies.

Where would you make your stand? What would your tactics be? How would you headhunt the Others? How would you employ Drogon, Rhaegal and Viserion?

 

Well, GRRM said that a dragon in flight is basically invincible, so dragonfire the wights until the Others have no army and then zerg rush them with all the Valyrian steel and dragonglass I could get my hands on.