Holy crap.

That is all I can muster at the moment.

 

Spoiler

The Bad:

Fuck. Using the dragon to bring down the wall was the one thing I was hoping they wouldn't do. For Jon and Dany to deliver to the NK the one thing the dead need to invade is just.... ugh. The only way this works now from a narrative standpoint is if we find out that the NK has powers of premonition, that he knew in advance that he was going to get himself a Shiny Charizard, and that he is simply a tool of some greater omnipotent will / fate.

Boat sex was underwhelming and quite a bit ickier than it needed to be with Bran narrating the familial connection in the background.

Meeting of Cersei and Dany was underwhelming.

Theon's moment of redemption was underwhelming save for that bloody smile as he gets kneed in the nonexistent jewels.

Baelish crying and begging for his life was weird. I mean... I know he's a coward but I really wanted him to do something a little more in character with his chessmaster persona. Like... all emotion drops away and he sends a little smirk to Sansa. A sort of "Well played, Lady, Stark," right before he gets dead. Or something.

The Good:

Baelish's unceremonious dispatch. All his scheming ended with a lightning quick slice of a knife. Poetic in a way.

The exchanges between various Lannisters were excellent. Dinkles getting a chance to show dem acting chops is always a good thing, and he absolutely did not disappoint.

 

So...

Spoiler

Rhegar had two kids named Aegon?

Loved what they did with Cersei. Felt right.

 

Spoiler

If memory serves, at the moment Lyanna was giving birth, the Targaryens had already lost the war. Hence the other children were thought to be dead. So he wouldn't theoretically have had two at the same time.

Also, in the books, Aegon supposedly never died, if the Young Griff plotline is true. So this could just be the show's writers trying to bridge the gap in the plots, and in the books, Jon would have another name. No way to know.

 

Spoiler

Aegon Targaryen.

Aegon. Fucking. Targaryen.

Those. Fucking. Assholes!!!

I thought I was angry before when they had Rhaegar annul his marriage to marry Lyanna (since Seven forbid he didn't do that for a long list of reasons, from Targaryen polygamy could have done the trick if he really wanted to legally marry Lyanna to the annulment completely ignoring and screwing over his wife Elia Martell and children, Rhaenys and AEGON TARGARYEN).

But they did this? I know that leak revealed they wanted his name to be Aegon months ago, but I didn't really believe they would be so stupid. I thought they would have changed it to literally any other Targaryen name, from Jaehaerys to Aemon. If I weren't so pissed off, I'd actually be impressed D&D had the balls to so completely ignore Elia Martell and her children Rhaenys and AEGON TARGARYEN they would literally make that Jon Snow's "real" name. Granted I still want to team up with Oberyn Martell's ghost and kill the pair for this, but still. It certainly explains why they got rid of Faegon though: would be too confusing for Rhaegar to have two sons named Aegon Targaryen. For that matter, has the show even once said Rhaegar's son with Elia was Aegon? Because if they really never bothered to say his name, it makes me wonder if that was due to actively ignoring Elia or just to leave the space open for Jon to get the name.

Also, doesn't everyone just love how Rhaegar and Lyanna had that marriage ceremony. That's so sweet, isn't it? A grown, married man in his 20s, seducing a FIFTEEN YEAR OLD GIRL, and then annuling his marriage to Elia Martell and making his children Rhaenys and AEGON TARGARYEN bastards, and then starting a war (sorry Bran, but Aerys still kind of killed a lord paramount and his heir without cause and demanded Robert's and Eddard's heads, and that's all because Rhaegar "ran away with" Lyanna), all so he could teleport that High Septon all the way to Dorne and have that marriage without anyone noticing? Just the most romantic thing in human history, isn't it?

And before anyone asks, yes, I am very, very angry right now. And yes, I am aware of the irony of the guy whose username is Rhaegar I to be angry at what Show-Rhaegar did. But like D&D, I once thought Rhaegar was way better than he really was. I learned better. They haven't. And if anything, they somehow made him even worse than the Book version.

If you'll excuse me, I have to watch some LOTR clips. I need to remember good fantasy epic adaptations still exist.

 

Yea that whole Aegon thing is stupid beyond measure. In fact it's just as stupid now as the first time I read it in a fanfic.

I would love to hear what GRRM has to say on the subject. Because wasn't the whole kidnapping based on a prophecy that spoke of a three headed dragon? And the kid was supposed to be female, to mirror the conquest, at that?

Edit: Also since it was the focus of the episode. Why did they decide to make peace with Carsei. instead of killing her with the dragons again?

 

I think I get why GRRM has basically ignored the shows existence for the last 2-3 years. The show has become FanFiction with a production budget, and GRRM loathes FanFiction. Sure, he's to blame for not getting Winds our sooner, but it's still gotta be pretty galling to see the direction D&D have taken some of the story lines.

 

That assumes that GRRM wasn't planning this all along. This is the main plotline, remember, and part of the deal that HBO had with GRRM from the outset was that he revealed the main plotline to the showrunners. So it's nowhere outside the realm of possibility that as far as this goes, anyway, this is exactly what GRRM had planned.

 

Maybe the way the Wall comes down and the White Walkers. But Theon/Yara(Asha), Dorne, Brienne and Jaime etc are all in such vastly different situations in the books that I can't imagine they're stories are going to be anything similar in the show. Maybe the show will accurately portray the fate of characters, but the roads taken will look nothing like GRRM intends.

 

I'll post about the episode after work, but for the moment I just wanted to say that I don't get @Rhaegar I's outrage. The show is an adaptation. An adaptation never can and imo never should be a 1:1 translation of book to screen. The point of a different medium should be to show me something new. LotR movies are a much more faithful adaptation also because when you strip away the folksy singsongs, the story is a straightforward quest and the LotR books aren't long by fantasy standards, where the ASOIAF books are huge. And even LotR films took liberties, like adding a whole new aspect to Aragorn's character that was never present in the books (his doubts about retaking the throne of Gondor) that made him imo a much stronger character than he was in the books, where his deal was he's Superman and obviously he'll be king, no doubt about it.

In the same vein, I always find it hard to empathize with people's misgivings about the HP movies (we all remember the meme: DID YA PUT YA NAME IN DA GOBLET OF FIYAH vs "said calmly").

TLDR; presumably the books will come at some point and give y'all the Young Griff and Dorne and Dragonbinder plot resolution you desire. The show is an adaptation.

 

I think we can be mad at it being a shitty adaptation though. Not that I think it's overall shit, but this season hasn't been great, and the whole Rheager thing was beyond poorly handled. I'm not as mad as our resident Rhaegar is, but I do agree that show-Rhaegar's actions are really really dumb, and only make sense if they decided to de-age him from mid-twenties to mid-teens and retcon his children out of existence (but we know at least one of those isn't true).

The finale was a decent episode, but didn't manage to redeem the season for me. Best I can say is that the season has renewed my hopes that GRRM manages to power through writing the books before he dies.

EDIT: The thing that really bothered me was that nothing was surprising. Jon was unreasonably honorable, Cersei was predictably treacherous, Rhaegar was apparently an ass with no imagination who decided to give the same name to both his sons, and the undead dragon brought down the Wall.

At the end of things, the only thing that I didn't expect to happen was for Littlefinger to have no composure at all before he died. I'm with @KHAAAAAAAN!! on that, thought he'd smile with grudging pride or something along those lines.

 

We have to remember that this is the moment where Littlefinger's plotting and scheming is all falling apart to forces he could never combat. Never once in the show has Littlefinger been in a position where he cannot escape, lie, or manipulate his way out of. He is going to die, and when every other tactic is proven a failure, what else does he have except to grovel? This is 100% in character for him: he will use any means necessary to see his story go on and to climb to the top, and to be so completely defeated by supernatural means and by his own miscalculations is a nightmare come true.

 

All these people freaking out about Rhaegar naming his kid Aegon when he was long dead by that point. I also find it particularly amusing that we're having the conversation about 20-something Rhaegar boning 15 year old Lyanna just a week after the Tonks thread.

The dragon melting the wall felt abrupt and tacked on, so I'm thinking the Horn of Winter is the cause in the books.

 

In a series where thirteen year old kings are getting married and leading armies and most people are married by the time they're 15/16 I find it very amusing at the rage caused by Lyanna and Rhaegar's age difference.

You can say, "But... But everyone's older in the show." Well, that has to go for Lyanna too.

 

I can't decide whether to pretend to call you out for kink-shaming, or pretend to call you out for being anti-family.

Let's assume I did whichever one you find more amusing, and admit you'd be less grumpy if you just accepted your daily recommended intake of bran.



It's a brilliant move, letting the show get ahead of the books. George can just look at what works for the fans and what doesn't, then adjust accordingly so the books are "better than the show" and go down in history.

Don't hate the thrones, baby, hate the game. Hehehe...

Spoiler: Buffoonery

I never followed wrestling, but I still think they should have sneaked Jericho into one of the crowd shots of the army of the dead at the Wall.

 

If GRRM really did delay the book so he could alter it after seeing fan reactions, then we really will see him kick the bucket before it's ever finished. The man is glacial on a good day.

 

Now hold on, that's entirely different. The HP movies are an abomination. Not because they're bad (which they are) but because they have done irreparable damage to the fandom.

 

I do agree with ScottPress that the shows are just an adaptation of the books and few small departures from the original plot is to be expected. But at the same time, I will admit that the adaptation, especially this season, has taken for an underwhelming turn. Right now, it feels that the show runners are trying to tie up all the loose ends in a manner which seems very haphazard but predictable. The key methodology of uncertainty and toying with viewer's imagination or expectation seems to be lacking. But tbh, we should have seen it coming. The box of tricks was going to give out sooner or later, considering the amount of breathing space they had (to encapsulate asoiaf grandness in a series of few seasons, not that I am complaining that we should have had more, because it would be even more counterproductive). At the end viewer was going to pick up the key threads and work it out themselves.

I'd even credit the shows for elevating this series to an unbelievable high and creating tremendous (if a bit unrealistic) expectations within us. It's just a bit disappointing that the steam is being lost right at the end. Or at least it seems so to me.

Spoiler

As of now, in this season, the only saving grace for me were the Dragons. The Night Kind and his army, apart from the Dragon hunt scene, failed to evoke the dread which the producers tried for. I was pretty excited about Jon/Dany thing but the execution at the end was more like a run of the mill show rather than what I expected of GoT. Same with Arya and Sansa. It's just that too many plot devices are seemingly introduced in a small period of time which feels jarring and makes it choppy. But again it might be my extremely high expectations or perhaps the producers used this season to set up for a grandstand finish of epic level. Guess we will know it in a while or when the next leak arrives.

Indeed. When I started watching the shows I was apprehensive about the fact that the shows will most probably never reach the same level as books. But it was unfair to the shows. I have learnt to disassociate, to a certain extent, both the shows and the books. The shows in their own right have been brilliant, which I believe very few would argue against. But this season has been a bit flat compared to the previous season's own lofty standards. Or at least, such is my opinion.

So much this.

 

I really liked the episode. It wasn't as good as the last season's finale, but good nonetheless.

For one, I liked all of the meetings and reunions even if they could be explored more. And finally the most talented actors, like Peter Dinklage and Lena Headey, had something to play. While in my opinion the general writing went down and dialogues aren't as good as they once were, the emotional setup of the scenes lets them all shine.

As a person familiar with leaks the only thing that surprised me was how they handled Littlefinger's execution. I was expecting it to happen in private and have Arya wear his face in the next season. The change in interactions between him and Sansa would be amusing enough and it could be used to surprise Cersei later in the season when he would propose "betraying" Stark to have a chance at killing her. Wasted opportunity if you ask me.

The scene how he went down was quite satisfying and Aidan Gillen finally could play something different than usual. The build up could be better though. Maybe my opinion would be different if not for the leaks and I wasn't aware how his game would end, but for most part this Littlefinger was already just a shadow of his former self. I would say it was to show him as a fish out of water in the North like Ned was in King's Landing, but he and other schemers stopped being good at it after the show passed the books.

While the method of bringing down the Wall could be better and I was under impression that CGI could use more work, it was still an epic moment years in the making.

Before someone decides to leak the next season, some predictions and expectations.

There is going to be at least two big battles for Jon and Dany. The first with the White Walkers then with Cersei's forces. If the dragons survive, I expect that the Golden Company will turn out to be very good at fighting them probably with Qyburn's help.

By the way, that man is her MVP. You need a bodyguard? Will an unkillable murder machine be sufficient? Want to deal with all you enemies? How about we burn them all? Dragons? Just give me five minutes.

The tourney at Harrenhal. As I was saying a year ago, it would be nice to have a tourney with the budged they have now and it would allow them to present how Rhaegar and Lyanna become an item.

Jon and Arya's reunion. After seven years of waiting they better not mess this up since unlike Jon and Sansa's, they actually interacted in the first season and had quite heartfelt scene.

Jaime killing a dragon to be the Dragonslayer. Then killing his sister because as obvious it would be, it just fits.

Jon having a swordfight with the Night King. And it would be nice to have the actor who played him in Hardhome back. With all the make-up you would expect it, but there is a difference between that Night King and the one we have now. Just compare their stare downs with Jon.

I expect Euron to betray Cersei and have all sellswords to be in his personal service despite her paying for it and forcing her to marry him earlier.

As it is the last season and weddings are one of the symbols of the show, I expect at least one, maybe two. The White Wedding between Jon and Dany, the last happy moment for Stark family and their allies before they go to war with the White Walkers, and in a contrast the Black Wedding between Cersei and Euron where she's all alone.

 

People seem to have a problem with the way things have gotten a little predictable, but when you've spent seven years with these characters, know exactly where they are, why they're there, what they want, and how they could best get it, should there be any surprises? Just seems to be a natural result of consistent characterization: Tyrion is going to begrudgingly care for his family, Cersei is going to be powerhungry and ruthless and deceptive to the last, Jaime is going to rediscover his lost sense of honor for the hundredth time, Jon is going to Do The Right Thing even if it hurts him, etc. Put all these characters together and there's only so many results that don't end in a party wipe.