Either Dany kills him for treason, or Bronn kills him because he's no longer in a position to deliver on his promises. Probably with a crossbow while on the privy, because if it was any more subtle we might forget the callback.

 

Finally watched it. Best I got is that it was really pretty, too bad the writing was shit lmao.

This honestly feels like a very competent crew being forced to do things that don't make sense. Acting was great, visuals were great, effects were great, fights were great. Pretty much everything except for the story being told was great.

Which is fucking hilarious tbh.

 

I know the scene with Arya and the horse was supposed to symbolise "death rides a pale horse" kind of a reference, but I feel it was pretty badly executed. Not to mention all her plot armor this episode, holy shit.

 

Well done, D&D. You're going to make me break my own "just enjoy things for what they are" policy. You cunts.

-- Imagine how much of a glorious bastard they could have made Jaime Lannister if they hadn't wasted six fucking seasons on a redemption arc, only to have him pull a fuck-and-flee on poor Brienne, go get shanked by the worst character in the show, and crawl his way back to the worst living human in Westeros and die in a cave-in.

-- What was the point of killing another dragon like it was a fruit fly, when the other one just turns out to be the fucking terminator?

-- And leading from that, what was the entire point of Euron's existence? If they wanted comic relief, they could have just remembered how well-done a character Tyrion was before taking away his two personality traits that set him apart from everyone else - his intellect and wit. What a titanic waste the last two seasons have been for the best character (and actor, IMO) on the show.

Fuck me, there is a lot to complain about, but just go read Freefolk's first few pages. At least their complaining is funny.

The good:

-- The final scene between Arya and The Hound was kind of touching for me - Arya calling him Sandor was quite the moment. I enjoyed that both the Stark ladies got to see his human side at the end.

-- Sapochnik really blew the doors off the fighting again. Holy hell, can that guy do a battle episode.

-- Is it too early to call Ramin Djawadi the second coming of John Williams? This is the first program in a long, LONG time to make me listen to soundtrack music on purpose.


I mean, I even liked Lost all the way through... what a shitshow Game of Thrones has become. Glad I decided to start the books before it all fell off the rails.

 

I have to agree on Djawadi. He scored Westworld as well, and that won me over to him almost completely.

 

Even last season, I rewatched each new episode several times the first few days after the air date. I have no itch to rewatch S8. There are a handful of scenes I really liked, but they're worsened by the fact that the things they set up have abysmal payoffs. Then Ep 3 was terrible on plot, visuals, and editing, ep 4 was at best meh with a stronge tinge of blergh, and ep 5 was all I should want from a GoT battle, but the stakes in it, the plot behind it, and developments during it were all rotten to the core.

And let's not kid ourselves, dialogue fell off a cliff once D&D ran out of books. A good battle is made better by some proper epic dialogue. There was no Tyrion's Blackwater speech, or Thorne's pump up at the Wall, or Jon's honesty at Hardhome. Seriously, all dialogue in S8 has been some basic shit you could find in a decent fanfic.

 

I would have preferred it if Rhaegal had lived in E04 and then been killed by Euron AFTER the bells had started ringing. After loads of betrayals, watching her child die in front of her after being promised peace would have given her enough impetus to actually start burning innocents, as compared to the ham fisted foreshadowing in the previous episodes.

People call it a long foregone conclusion and point towards her various previous burnings to justify her sudden turn from anger to genocidal. In the past she has only killed evildoers like slave masters, rapist and weak Khals and a witch who murdered her unborn child. Going from there to innocents seems like a crazy jump, especially considering how she was willing to sacrifice everything to save humanity in E03.

Sapochnik should be praised but his constant use of jumpcuts when a character the camera is following is on the verge of imminent death has become very tiring. I wish he would not do that.
--- Post automerged ---
This episode now has the unique distinction of being the worst rated episode in Game of Thrones history.

 

Qyburn was easily the MVP of this series. Without him Cersei was nothing and more importantly his loyalty was absolute.

I'm conflicted about Jaime's ending. On the one hand, I'm pretty sure that's not how it's going to happen in the books, but on the other it works for his show version. People complained that it took that long for him to get away from Cersei, but unlike his book version, he never really did. He went North to fight for the living, not because he decided they need to be separated and never had a burning of her letter moment.

Euron was wasted, but at least the actor had fun with this role and a rockstar pirate wasn't the worst in my opinion.

I would expect a little more for a master spy Varys, a plan for a quick escape for sure, but maybe it was his last attempt to make a point to people who could make a difference.

Jon was useless.

EDIT:

While I could argue about Jaime ending with Cersei, his line about never really carrying about the innocents, assuming he was honest to Tyrion, just made his best scene in the show, and one of the best overall, meaningless.

 

I will not deny it.

 

I suppose I shouldn't complain about D&D not being very subtle these days when I didn't pick up a quite obvious fact that Varys was trying to poison Dany. When the scene played out I just assumed he was worrying about her state of mind and the fact she wasn't eating anything, but hadn't made his move yet.

 

Weird. It's not flawless, but it's definitely my favourite episode of season 8 so far. Although I was so damn tired of Tyrion pretending that anything less than a bloodless conquest was genocide that having Dany actually come in and kill everyone was kind of cathartic.

 

Jaime and Cersei, dead in a cave in. Dany undoes seven seasons of character development for no other reason than her bff dying. I can't fucking even.

I'm actually glad we're almost done. My blood pressure ceiling can't take much more of this weekly abuse.

 

I don't think anyone is suggesting that Danaerys' character was particularly complex or original. But it was at least consistent.

She and Jon were basically the traditional fantasy heroes (the song of ice and fire) in a non-traditional fantasy world.

 

List of people who stopped the Cleganebowl in the past:

Bobby B

Tommen

Arguably the High Sparrow

Qyburn

Oberyn

All dead. The hype is more dangerous than dragonfire.

 

What can I say that hasn't been said. This feels like a Snyder DC live action film. This reminds me of batman vs. Superman.

Who cares why the fuck people are doing what they're doing if you can make it look cool and get a little slow-mo and get that ash-covered urban disaster look.

Plot and external conflict is in service to internal character conflict and resolution. The dragon looked amazing, the city and non jump-cut cinematography and wide shots were stellar. But after eight seasons we all care about a satisfying conclusion to the characters more than that. Disappointed.

 

that's a good point