Bran is like the definition of a modern teenage boy now. He dresses goth and sits around moping in his chair because "no one understands him", yet he'll cryptically chime in about how he "knows things no one else knows" (without explaining them, of course). And when they talk to him, he's like "I'm not Bran anymore!". Then he slinks away to go watch re-runs of "Married with Targaryens", like a kid with headphones and an iPad.

(05-06-2019, 03:07 PM)Bengalzona Wrote: I wonder why the Iron Bank isn't on the Iron Islands?

Very ironic, that.


I do give creators credit for just totally writing off this weeks episode as fluff. I mean, anything would have been anti-climactic after last week, eh. So, why try?

I'm not so sure.  Much of last week's episode was like watching this . . .

The way this will end is with Cersei, Jamie, Dany and Tyrion all dying together by the hand of Varys(sp?) using his "Little Birds" or poison and as they die he starts yelling "Hail To The King" looking at Jon.

Then Arya slices Varys throat as Brienne runs Jon through from behind and Sansa sits on the Iron Throne as Bran rolls away with the camera backing out showing a smile on his face and everyone kneeling to the new Queen...

Roll Credits.

(05-06-2019, 02:02 PM)Nebuchadnezzar Wrote: The only thing I noticed about pretty much this whole season is the only people to use any sort of tactics, even a little, are the bad guys.

Dragon gets killed
Fly in head on
Gets shot at
Looks heartbroken
Flies away

I mean really?

How about as Zona said, fly in high and check things out?
How about after the dragon is killed you fly around behind them and light them up?
How about waiting for your ground forces to arrive?
How about flying in at night and lighting up those balistas on the wall?

That blond lady is a terrible queen, she won't last long on the throne.

Yeah, I wondered some of that same stuff.  Mainly the flying in at night part.  The dragon is jet black.  Just fly in a night and burn everyone.  Nobody will ever get a decent shot at him.

A few big harpoons seem like a fairly minor obstacle for an agile, mobile form of air superiority.  

(05-09-2019, 12:40 AM)samhain Wrote: Yeah, I wondered some of that same stuff.  Mainly the flying in at night part.  The dragon is jet black.  Just fly in a night and burn everyone.  Nobody will ever get a decent shot at him.

A few big harpoons seem like a fairly minor obstacle for an agile, mobile form of air superiority.  

that would require intelligence.. Danny does not have that in great amounts

Big fan. Read all of the books and the supplemental books.

My take is this:

The show and the books are separate entities and the show runners can do whatever they want. It's entertaining TV. That said, it's also lazy writing for anyone who cares. The idea that a scorpion could be fired on a boat around a mountain at that angle and distance and have 3 direct precision hits is silly. It's illogical. The fact that this is a fantasy show doesn't mean it doesn't have its own set of rules.

Military strategy has been extremely flawed too.

The reason for all of this is that the writers are admittedly going for shock value and defying expectations, at the cost of 7 seasons of development. It's very frustrating.

(05-09-2019, 10:27 AM)BmorePat87 Wrote: Big fan. Read all of the books and the supplemental books.

My take is this:

The show and the books are separate entities and the show runners can do whatever they want. It's entertaining TV. That said, it's also lazy writing for anyone who cares. The idea that a scorpion could be fired on a boat around a mountain at that angle and distance and have 3 direct precision hits is silly. It's illogical. The fact that this is a fantasy show doesn't mean it doesn't have its own set of rules.

Military strategy has been extremely flawed too.

The reason for all of this is that the writers are admittedly going for shock value and defying expectations, at the cost of 7 seasons of development. It's very frustrating.

My biggest worry entering this season was that they were going to cram too much in too little of time. Where as past seasons it literally took the whole season for the final episode to play out, which allowed for better story telling and character development.

This season overall, I am fine with the general storytelling, but compared to the previous seasons, its more of an outlined form of storytelling which is a letdown so far. And because they have limited episodes, they are cramming too much in which results in lazy writing like the terrible battle tactics (Dothraki charging an enemy at night head first?, no barriers between troops outside Winterfell and the dead???, scorpion shock scene).

They should have never pigeon holed themselves to limited episodes, and instead do more episodes to allow for a 'more realistic' approach to the final events unfolding.

(05-09-2019, 10:27 AM)BmorePat87 Wrote: Big fan. Read all of the books and the supplemental books.

My take is this:

The show and the books are separate entities and the show runners can do whatever they want. It's entertaining TV. That said, it's also lazy writing for anyone who cares. The idea that a scorpion could be fired on a boat around a mountain at that angle and distance and have 3 direct precision hits is silly. It's illogical. The fact that this is a fantasy show doesn't mean it doesn't have its own set of rules.

Military strategy has been extremely flawed too.

The reason for all of this is that the writers are admittedly going for shock value and defying expectations, at the cost of 7 seasons of development. It's very frustrating.

I'll start by saying that I agree that the writing has been pretty sub-par. But instead of joining the r/freefolk and r/gameofthrones mobs out for D&D's heads, I'm more pissed at GRRM for dragging his feet taking on all sorts of side projects to be picked up for more shows instead finishing his main work.

 The drop off was very apparent once they ran out of books to go by. I really feel like D&D thought that they would at least have TWoW to go off of, if not more. They aren't book writers. They're TV producers/writers/directors. Imagine if Peter Jackson had to finish Return of the King himself after basing The Two Towers off of Tolkien's work. 

D&D obviously know where GoT needs to get to. But they don't have the how it gets there that GRRM was supposed to provide, and the quality has certainly suffered.

(05-09-2019, 12:28 PM)Millhouse Wrote: My biggest worry entering this season was that they were going to cram too much in too little of time. Where as past seasons it literally took the whole season for the final episode to play out, which allowed for better story telling and character development.

This season overall, I am fine with the general storytelling, but compared to the previous seasons, its more of an outlined form of storytelling which is a letdown so far. And because they have limited episodes, they are cramming too much in which results in lazy writing like the terrible battle tactics (Dothraki charging an enemy at night head first?, no barriers between troops outside Winterfell and the dead???, scorpion shock scene).

They should have never pigeon holed themselves to limited episodes, and instead do more episodes to allow for a 'more realistic' approach to the final events unfolding.

there a reason for it.. Martin had given them a very high level outline past his finished works (which are almost certain to change) as martin changes a book many times before releasing.

While it seems they pigen holed themselves they ran out of material so just imagine how bad the writing would be if they tried to stretch scenes out moreso than they are doing.

they will hit some major points and wrap it all up..

(and while there is only 6 episodes  its still close to over 8 hours worth of screen time.)


as a fan of the books the show has been fun to watch overall but I have been disappointed in many things since season 2

with all the continent they cut they could have added a couple more seasons given martin more time before they passed his work. I don't know if it was budget reasons or they didn't think it would work well on screen

(05-09-2019, 05:43 PM)XenoMorph Wrote: with all the continent they cut they could have added a couple more seasons given martin more time before they passed his work.  I don't know if it was budget reasons or they didn't think it would work well on screen

There was a lot of fat trimming. A TV/film adaptation has to preserve the essentials and let the more superfluous stuff go by the wayside.

I think another big factor is simply that it's tough to hold the actors hostage for that long. Sure they are well paid, but many of them are ready to be able to pursue other avenues at this point.

(05-09-2019, 02:48 PM)CKwi88 Wrote: I'll start by saying that I agree that the writing has been pretty sub-par. But instead of joining the r/freefolk and r/gameofthrones mobs out for D&D's heads, I'm more pissed at GRRM for dragging his feet taking on all sorts of side projects to be picked up for more shows instead finishing his main work.

 The drop off was very apparent once they ran out of books to go by. I really feel like D&D thought that they would at least have TWoW to go off of, if not more. They aren't book writers. They're TV producers/writers/directors. Imagine if Peter Jackson had to finish Return of the King himself after basing The Two Towers off of Tolkien's work. 

D&D obviously know where GoT needs to get to. But they don't have the how it gets there that GRRM was supposed to provide, and the quality has certainly suffered.

Benioff actually is a novelist... lol, but yea they're far more known for their screen writing and I think that's 100% fair. GRRM should have finished it instead of Fire & Blood. 

(05-09-2019, 10:51 PM)BmorePat87 Wrote: Benioff actually is a novelist... lol, but yea they're far more known for their screen writing and I think that's 100% fair. GRRM should have finished it instead of Fire & Blood. 

Its been 8 damn years George  8

A Dance with Dragons  2011  Novel  [i]A Song of Ice and Fire
[/i]
The Wit and Wisdom of Tyrion Lannister  2013  Quote collection  from [i]A Song of Ice and Fire
[/i]
The Princess and the Queen  Novella  [i]A Song of Ice and Fire, prequels[140][141] [/i]
[i]The Rogue Prince  2014 [/i]
[i][i]The World of Ice & Fire  Reference book  The history of Westeros, with Elio M. García Jr. and Linda Antonsson
[/i][/i]
The Ice Dragon Young adult illustrated novel Reworked version of the original novel published in 1980, illustrated by Luis Royo[142]

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms  2015  Collection  compilation of the first three [i]Tales of Dunk and Egg[143]
[/i]
The Sons of the Dragon  2017  Novella  [i]A Song of Ice and Fire, prequel[144][145]
[/i]
Fire & Blood  2018  Reference book & novella collection  The history of House Targaryen




Then you got all the shows games and other things he does.

(05-06-2019, 01:36 PM)Bengalzona Wrote: I'll bet they all die: Dany, Cersei, Jaime, etc. The only one left is Jon. And then he says, "Let's just get rid of this whole 'king' thing and go with a democracy, eh."

Think all the favs die, Dany, Tyrian,  Jon, and Arya along with Cersei. 

(05-06-2019, 01:36 PM)Bengalzona Wrote: I'll bet they all die: Dany, Cersei, Jaime, etc. The only one left is Jon. And then he says, "Let's just get rid of this whole 'king' thing and go with a democracy, eh."

Think all the favs die, Dany, Tyrian,  Jon, and Arya along with Cersei. 

Any other book readers here?

One thing I have a tough time with is what a sorry translation the Euron character on TV is compared to the one in the book.

Euron in the book is a stomach-churning, twisted, demonic sadist and drug addict. Euron on the show is just a lame party boy with a pirate ship. Euron is one of the most terrifying characters in ASOIAF. He's just an annoying clown on GOT.

So... Dany has to die now, eh?

BTW - Where were all of those crackshot scorpion shooters this week? Too bad they gave them all a weekend pass on the same weekend. Rotten luck that, eh.

(05-13-2019, 04:35 AM)Bengalzona Wrote: So... Dany has to die now, eh?

BTW - Where were all of those crackshot scorpion shooters this week? Too bad they gave them all a weekend pass on the same weekend. Rotten luck that, eh.

So many issues of the writing could be alleviated, if not downright resolved, with just a simple line of dialogue thrown in.

Bran is all-powerful yet seemingly useless? Have some line where he says that the three eyed Raven doesn't interfere (directly even) in the affairs of men, and send him to chill in a tree north of the wall.

Scorpions that seemed to have heat seeking arrows last episode can't hit jack this episode? Have Qyburn mention something along the lines of "well we used that Gambit, but failed to get both dragons while Dany didn't know and was surprised by the scorpions, now we're boned."

They're hardly brilliant solutions but hell, it's like how getting a 60 on an assignment is worlds better than getting a 0, even if the 60 sucks.

That said, I think the only two things that truly bothered me about the episode was the Euron-Jaime fight and going back to the well too many times with the "did one of those 6 buildings fall on Arya this time?" It was quite a ride.

This has been teased for a while, but they jumped from 3 to 10 pretty fast. She has a history of pretty brutal tactics, but all aimed against those who either wronged her (killed her child, tried to kidnap her, wouldn't bend the knee when captured) or have wronged innocent people (the masters, the Khals).

Indiscriminately murdering women and children for the **** of it with an episode and a half left?

This is why we needed the 10 episode seasons that HBO offered them.

(05-10-2019, 11:25 PM)samhain Wrote: Any other book readers here?

One thing I have a tough time with is what a sorry translation the Euron character on TV is compared to the one in the book.

Euron in the book is a stomach-churning, twisted, demonic sadist and drug addict.  Euron on the show is just a lame party boy with a pirate ship.  Euron is one of the most terrifying characters in ASOIAF.  He's just an annoying clown on GOT.

Warlock in training Euron with Valyrian steel armor and a dragon horn > **** boi Euron 

(05-10-2019, 11:25 PM)samhain Wrote: Any other book readers here?

One thing I have a tough time with is what a sorry translation the Euron character on TV is compared to the one in the book.

Euron in the book is a stomach-churning, twisted, demonic sadist and drug addict.  Euron on the show is just a lame party boy with a pirate ship.  Euron is one of the most terrifying characters in ASOIAF.  He's just an annoying clown on GOT.

and in the books he has a magical horn.... Thought to control dragons.. (he was off to try and wed danny I believe  or sent his brother to bring her back)     He has no interest in Ceresi.