Game of Thrones Season 8 (NO BOOKSPOILERS) thread

[Brock Sampson 289]

24 minutes ago, Goofyboy said:

The clip from next week has Dany saying the dead are already here. Was that a slam on Jon being brought back from the dead?

She could be referring to the dead Starks down in the crypts. Do they somehow get brought back to life by the Night King and start attacking the women and children down there?  Arya said she looks forward to seeing this one of death’s faces but would she want to see her dead parents reanimated and trying to kill her?

[Guest Lobo]

5 minutes ago, tokamak said:

Her whole existence for several years now has been regaining the Iron Throne. She believed (with good reason) that she was the rightful heir and made a shitload of awful sacrifices to get to this point. I don't think that the incest thing is really as big a deal in the show's universe as it is out here in the real world. The Targaryens ruled Westeros for centuries while marrying their siblings and no one seemed to mind much. Remember at one point it was suggested that Sansa should marry Robin Arryn, who is her first cousin. I've never felt like aunt-nephew incest was really going to be a big deal in the show.

They have to know the ice dragon exists because it burned through the wall, right? I don't really remember but I think there were Night's Watch dudes close enough to witness that, and even if there weren't surely they can put two and two together.

Yeah, I forget that Targaryens were especially heavy into incest which is saying a lot more than I realized about them considering how kosher it is in most of their world.

There were some Night Watch guys there but I assumed they all died.  But I think Tormund was there with some other secondary characters and they're still alive.  In all these strategery meetings of the first two episodes, I would have thought somebody would have brought it up.  The crypt, the weaponry, the command structure, the flanking manuevers, the Bran situation, the who will protect who, etc.  It's all very well and good.  But you'd think in the midst of all that minutiae...that somebody would say something about their dragon?  

[Mr. Drummond 2,199]

That episode was great, and probably the best non-action episode since Oberyn told Tyrion that he would be his champion vs the mountain in the dungeons of Kings landing in season 4.

[AUS-97HORN 11,809]

14 minutes ago, tokamak said:

They heavily implied last season that Melisandre would be back. She told Varys (how did we not get at least one scene with him in this episode btw?) that they would both die in Westeros. I kinda forgot about her TBH.

I guess he wasnt in any scenes at all.... if you completed skip the scene where Tryrion is called an idiot for convincing her to trust Cersei (with Varys, Jorah, Tyrion & Dani in the room),  or the scene right afterward where Jorah, Varys & Tyrion are walking in the hallway and tyrion turns to them both and says he suspects one of them will be wearing "this" (hand of kind symbol) shortly.

[MNLonghornFUKM 8,817]

That episode was great, and probably the best non-action episode since Oberyn told Tyrion that he would be his champion vs the mountain in the dungeons of Kings landing in season 4.

Nerd alert

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Fozzz said:

I think one thing this show is missing now is a good villain.  The books and the earlier seasons of the show were quite good at creating characters you couldn't help but despise, but now they are all dead or made peripheral for the time being.  Can't really hate the night king and his minions as he doesn't really have a character - he might as well be a force of nature or a terminator.  

This is a good take.

Dany might be on the precipice of becoming ruthlessly villainous.

 

Let’s hope so...

[MNLonghornFUKM 8,817]

Bugs me how Jamie can just waltz into winterfell and not work. Just chum up to the higher ups and drink wine and sit by fires.

Meanwhile the lifelongs are down in the pits making weapons.

[Smax 3,800]

[BurntOrange&White 39,934]

I hope there is a whole episode dedicated to the night king prior to his creation and from his creation forward.

[tokamak 6,431]

9 minutes ago, bschoolprof said:

This episode was better than the opener, but Derka has a point - we've spent 120 minutes on setup in a finale season with only 4 episodes left.  Much of this either needed to skipped, condensed, or pushed into the prior (shortened) season.  It was D&D that bizarrely decided to condense the final two seasons down to a total of 13 episodes, when they really should have been 10 each.  With 20 episodes, all this setup is fine for building tension and completing story arcs.  But with precious few episodes left, we're devoting a ton of screen time to, honestly, some pretty cheesy and cliched writing.  Hate the fat man all you went, but there's no way he writes most of these scenes (dragon riding to the cave, we all meet by the fire and reminisce, etc.).  

Frankly, I think D&D are doing the best they can, which is limited without the fat man.  They were given the rough outline, but they really don't know how to fill in the blanks.  

Someone upthread said that the rumor is that one of the main actors basically demanded that they wrap this thing up. Who knows if that's true but I'm betting HBO would have kept it going forever if they could have.

Anyway, some of y'all are damn hard to please (not you specifically, @bschoolprof). They have to show a massive, series-culminating battle this season. Pretty much any work of fiction that has to do that is going to have 1) some lead up to the battle, 2) the battle, 3) the aftermath of the battle. That's what they're doing. These first two episodes were to remind us where all the characters are at in their arcs, ramp up the emotional stakes, lay out the plan somewhat, and likely say goodbye to quite a few of them. I think it's possible they could have compressed the two episodes into one, but I think the way they did it was fine. I disagree with people that keep saying that nothing has happened. First off, shit has happened (moreso in the first episode than this one). Golden Company arrives. Cersei gives it up to Euron. Yara freed and returns to Iron Islands. Jon finds out the truth. White Walkers fuck up Last Hearth. But more importantly, they've been foreshadowing all sorts of shit that they're going to call back to later. Sansa says the North needs to be free. Jorah gets a Valyrian sword. Arya makes a special weapon. And so on.

One thing that kind randomly occurred to me, Jon being Aegon Targaryen makes him the heir to the Iron Throne but actually weakens his claim to the North, right? I dunno how the rules work exactly, but it's possible that Sansa jumps him in line once the truth is revealed I think.

[smuggs 9,353]

6 minutes ago, Lobo said:

Finally-yeah, what the fuck with nobody at Winterfell talking about the third dragon?  Or does nobody know it exists?  They've seen horses and bears and who knows what else that have been revived by the Night King...shouldn't they be worried about at least the possibility of revived dragon?  

Tormund was at the table, Beric was there too. They watched the dragon torch the wall. The two of them didn't say jack shit when the room settled on Theon of all people to be the last line of defense against the death of all humanity. Makes sense - he's proven himself a real warrior.

I'd wager that Greyworm could whip the Night King's ass in hand-to-hand combat given a weapon of V-steel to level the playing field.

 

[oSuJeff97 3,435]

4 hours ago, Goredho said:

Seeing Arya’s tits was awkward boner for me.  Like walking in on a bud’s 22yo daughter masturbating when you’ve known her since she was a baby.

Well this was very specific.

Pics of the 22yo daughter?

[TXSG8R 3,362]

56 minutes ago, Fozzz said:

I think one thing this show is missing now is a good villain.  The books and the earlier seasons of the show were quite good at creating characters you couldn't help but despise, but now they are all dead or made peripheral for the time being.  Can't really hate the night king and his minions as he doesn't really have a character - he might as well be a force of nature or a terminator.  

Hopefully the night king's relationship with Bran/three-eyed-raven gets spelled out a little more if/when they come together.  I'm guessing the night king wants to kill Bran for more than just the memory of the world stuff.  The children made the night king, maybe by killing Bran, he can kill that magic that made him in the first place.  

[EvilCaseMcCoy 691]

13 minutes ago, MNLonghornFUKM said:

Bugs me how Jamie can just waltz into winterfell and not work. Just chum up to the higher ups and drink wine and sit by fires.

Meanwhile the lifelongs are down in the pits making weapons.

Pretty sure he already lent a hand to the Starks. 

[tokamak 6,431]

12 minutes ago, MNLonghornFUKM said:

Bugs me how Jamie can just waltz into winterfell and not work. Just chum up to the higher ups and drink wine and sit by fires.

Meanwhile the lifelongs are down in the pits making weapons.

Haha, when Davos walked in to be near the fire he said something like "I don't want to spend the last night of my life freezing outside". My first thought was what about the thousands of commonfolk just outside doing exactly that you cunt???

[NotActuallyALonghorn 4,976]

1 minute ago, EvilCaseMcCoy said:

Pretty sure he already lent a hand to the Starks. 

You say that like he's ever getting it back.

[Guest Lobo]

Ser Jamie is a great leader.  He is building a fighting force of extraordinary magnitude.  Let's all give Jamie a great, big...

[TexasMan 10,919]

 

[Mitch Cumsteen 18,550]

10 minutes ago, MNLonghornFUKM said:

Bugs me how Jamie can just waltz into winterfell and not work. Just chum up to the higher ups and drink wine and sit by fires.

Meanwhile the lifelongs are down in the pits making weapons.

Pretty sure the only thing he can do productively with one hand is masturbate. 

With regard to the discussion about the first two episodes lacking pace and action... the entire series has been about the different characters being dispersed around and their journeys to get back to where it essentially all started -- Winterfell. I don't mind that they gave so much time to get some closure there as they are all reunited, especially for those characters whose stories are so intertwined. Jamie and Bran. Jamie and Brienne. Arya and the Hound. Arya and Gendry. Sam and Jorah. Sansa and Theon. Etc. It would have been a disservice to a decade's worth of character development  to just have them all show up and start fighting zombies.

Plus Arya side boob. 

 

[tbone_ 14,130]

The comment above about the night kings blue eyed dragon was important imo. Do they know or do they not know he has this thing?

 

If not how do they think the dead got through the wall?

 

[tbone_ 14,130]

Nm34

 

[Fozzz 152]

They know he has it.  

[BurntOrange&White 39,934]

The bringing fire and ice together quote has me wondering so much.

[tbone_ 14,130]

Well they don’t seem to be preparing much for it.

[heso 2,813]

11 hours ago, Radical Larry said:

 

For reference, the helms deep battle was 40 minutes long and cut from 20+ hours of footage. And because they used as little cgi as possible for it, it took 120 days of filming just for the battle. 

[Kel Varnsen 8,539]

I haven’t done my 2nd watch yet but I remember Jon mentioned something about the ice dragon/NK going after Bran and they’d cover him or something similar. Maybe he and Dany rides Dragons for Close air support.

[MissingInAction 25,109]

I think the biggest reveal coming up is what the Night King's true motivation is. The "He just wants to see the world freeze" angle seems a bit too simple and anti climactic for everything leading up to this moment. 

Edited April 22, 2019 by MissingInAction

[NotActuallyALonghorn 4,976]

I'm interested to see how they approach using dragons in the battle. If the zombie dragon burns everyone they can resurrect them, right? With both sides having dragons and likely not wanting to risk their riders dieing, they may be relegated to a more defensive role for parts of the battle. 

[BurntOrange&White 39,934]

Night king has a major tie in to the current families I think.

[taybo20 2,877]

o/u main character deaths at 4...I think

[MissingInAction 25,109]

Knighting Brienne was a death sentence, and it's a great way to complete her character arc IMO.

[Goredho 17,409]

4 hours ago, MNLonghornFUKM said:

4 hours ago, Goredho said:

Seeing Arya’s tits was awkward boner for me.  Like walking in on a bud’s 22yo daughter masturbating when you’ve known her since she was a baby.

Go on...

And then we both climaxed simultaneously.  Fin.

[taybo20 2,877]

Does Bronn show up mid battle and save Jamie from getting killed?

[TXSG8R 3,362]

Just now, taybo20 said:

o/u main character deaths at 4...I think

The hound has to live so he can fight the mountain at some point.  Jon or Dany has to live until the end.  Outside of that, I think Arya would be the only person I could say for certain is safe after the Winterfell fight. She and Cersei have to come together near/at the end IMO.  

[Jive Turkey 12,617]

For everyone bitching about all of the precious time they’ve supposedly wasted, there’s still 318 minutes left for these last 4 episode.  I feel confident they can tell the rest of the story in 5 hours and 18 minutes.

[Jerry Callo 8,704]

I sure hope Bronn is bringing the dragon-sized crossbow.  A bolt fit with dragon glass is just what they need.

[Jive Turkey 12,617]

6 minutes ago, TXSG8R said:

The hound has to live so he can fight the mountain at some point.  Jon or Dany has to live until the end.  Outside of that, I think Arya would be the only person I could say for certain is safe after the Winterfell fight. She and Cersei have to come together near/at the end IMO.  

Yeah, Arya has to make it to King’s Landing. She has some unfinished business. It wasn’t coincidence that the Hound brought up Arya’s list last night.  There hasn’t been talk of the list in ages, it seems like.  Then boom.  Oh yeah, Arya still has that list of people she needs to kill, with a certain queen at the top.

Edited April 22, 2019 by Jive Turkey

[tokamak 6,431]

3 minutes ago, taybo20 said:

o/u main character deaths at 4...I think

Maybe we should play a game. S08E03 death pool, status at the end of the episode. Each correct guess +1, incorrect guess -1, status uncertain 0.

Alive: Jon, Dany, Sansa, Bran, Tyrion, Sam, Hound, Grey Worm, Varys, Gilly, Podrick

Dead: Arya, Brienne, Jaime, Davos, Jorah, Gendry, Tormund, Theon, Beric, Missandei, Dolorous Edd, Drogon, Rhaegon

Think that covers everyone. Anyone else want to give it a go?

[Barry_McCokiner 160]

2 hours ago, Constant said:

Out of the 430 total run time minutes in this season, they spent 5 rewarding the only knight that has been a true knight. It was good to see.

That's five minutes they could've used to kill 90 Northern citizens.

[TXSG8R 3,362]

6 minutes ago, tokamak said:

Maybe we should play a game. S08E03 death pool, status at the end of the episode. Each correct guess +1, incorrect guess -1, status uncertain 0.

Alive: Jon, Dany, Sansa, Bran, Tyrion, Sam, Hound, Grey Worm, Varys, Gilly, Podrick

Dead: Arya, Brienne, Jaime, Davos, Jorah, Gendry, Tormund, Theon, Beric, Missandei, Dolorous Edd, Drogon, Rhaegon

Think that covers everyone. Anyone else want to give it a go?

Alive: Jon, Dany, Sansa, Arya, Hound, Brienne, Varys, Tyrion, Gilly, Gendry, Missandei, Rhaegon, Jamie, Bran, Gendry, 

Dead: Tormund (saving Brienne), Edd, Beric, Grey Worm, Theon, Sam, Davos, Drogon, Viserion, Pod

[C-Man 27,231]

12 minutes ago, tokamak said:

Maybe we should play a game. S08E03 death pool, status at the end of the episode. Each correct guess +1, incorrect guess -1, status uncertain 0.

Alive: Jon, Dany, Sansa, Bran, Tyrion, Sam, Hound, Grey Worm, Varys, Gilly, Podrick

Dead: Arya, Brienne, Jaime, Davos, Jorah, Gendry, Tormund, Theon, Beric, Missandei, Dolorous Edd, Drogon, Rhaegon

Think that covers everyone. Anyone else want to give it a go?

Pretty good list. But I don't think there's any way Arya dies in the battle at Winterfell.

[victory88 5,669]

This episode was very meh.  I've watched GoT since the original premiere date and rewatched it multiple times.  The writing was so cheesy and cliche in the last episode.  The fucking dweeb takes 10 years to write a book but holy hell can you tell a difference between him and the HBO writers.  

1.  The whole Arya scene was stupid.  There was no need to put on a sex scene right before the dead arrive.  It doesn't exactly fit her character and I'm not liking how they've developed her to her extreme mannerisms (it's so cartoonish).  It's too far extreme.  She's always been extremely street smart and has used that to her advantage.  It's how she developed over the seasons.  This just seemed out of character.  

2.  Jaime has always been an asshole while doing right by the people he loved.  They went way overboard with him now being the good guy and how he's not the same guy he used to be.  The whole scene was fucking cheesy with him and Brienne.  

3.  Sansa and Dany.  I get the conflict.  But the fucking dead are coming to rip Sansa and her fucking people to shreds in a few hours and their only chance to survive is because of Dany.  Yet she's picking fights with Dany as if she has any leverage at all.  She should be getting on her knees to tickle Dany's asshole with her tongue if that's what she asks.  They don't stand a chance without her yet she's now choosing to fight a battle that clearly won't matter if Dany decides to bounce with her dragons.  

There were a lot more scenes that I just cringed watching.  I get it.  They are trying to close all the storylines of the smaller characters before shit goes down.  It was just a bit too cheesy for me.  I see some people saying this was a the best non action episode.  I disagree... I'd personally give it a 7 out of 10.  It was okay and I think they could have done a much better job with the writing and without all the "kumbaya".  The show thrives on conflict and tension.  With only 6 episodes, they should have made the first episode 20 minutes longer and closed this smaller plots in the first episode.  This episode should have been about preparing for the fight against the night king.  We waited 7 fucking seasons for them to show up.  I wanted more scenes of them game planning on how to defend Winterfell and more scenes showing the mental tension and stress of facing the reality of death.  I don't care to see Arya fucking or Brienne getting knighted.  That shit could have taken place in season 5-6.  

This show has set the bar so high which is why we all love it.  I think this last episode fell short of the bar they've set.  With that said, I'm pumped for next week and it's going to be a fucking bloodbath.

[Barry_McCokiner 160]

20 minutes ago, TXSG8R said:

The hound has to live so he can fight the mountain at some point.  Jon or Dany has to live until the end.  Outside of that, I think Arya would be the only person I could say for certain is safe after the Winterfell fight. She and Cersei have to come together near/at the end IMO.  

Willing to bet both Jon and Dany are alive after 3.

[TXSG8R 3,362]

2 minutes ago, Barry_McCokiner said:

Willing to bet both Jon and Dany are alive after 3.

I agree, I dont know that both make it to the end though.  They already planted the seed for Dany to start flipping out that Jon is going to try to angle in on her throne.  I just dont know that it will be face to face betrayal or something cheesy (Jon having to decide between saving Sansa or Dany).  

[jofus 2,266]

it seemed like they made sure we know Arya can throw things proficiently, and now she has a spear.  My bet is she will throw the spear at the ice dragon and kill it.

[tokamak 6,431]

6 minutes ago, C-Man said:

Pretty good list. But I don't think there's any way Arya dies in the battle at Winterfell.

Originally I had Arya making it, but then I looked at my dead list and realized it's a bunch of people that we don't TRULY care about. In the old days (not sure anymore), this show would have punched us in the gut. I think either Sansa or Arya gets got. Picked Arya because seems like she'll be a lot closer to any fighting, and they need to resolve the Sansa vs. Dany stuff.

[Barry_McCokiner 160]

2 minutes ago, jofus said:

it seemed like they made sure we know Arya can throw things proficiently, and now she has a spear.  My bet is she will throw the spear at the ice dragon and kill it.

Thinking somehow Bran kills ice dragon. 

[Fozzz 152]

For an episode supposedly building to the epic battle of battles, the episode didn't really develop much tension heading into next week.  

[Goredho 17,409]

 

5 minutes ago, tokamak said:

Maybe we should play a game. S08E03 death pool, status at the end of the episode. Each correct guess +1, incorrect guess -1, status uncertain 0.

Alive: Jon, Dany, Sansa, Bran, Tyrion, Sam, Hound, Grey Worm, Varys, Gilly, Podrick

Dead: Arya, Brienne, Jaime, Davos, Jorah, Gendry, Tormund, Theon, Beric, Missandei, Dolorous Edd, Drogon, Rhaegon

Think that covers everyone. Anyone else want to give it a go?

Not going to play by those rules, but...

One of Dany or Jon sacrifices themselves to kill the night king, defeating the army of the dead and providing a gut punch for that episode.

Theon dies protecting Bran, redeeming his honor in death.

One of Tyrion or Jaime dies vs the dead.  Probably Jaime in a redemptive death.

Hound dies keeping Arya alive.

Davos, Tormund and greyworm die vs the dead.  Reasonably likeable characters that are expendable.

The finale will be about resolving the Lannister family conflict.  Whichever brother lives vs the dead, probably Tyrion, outwits Cersei to bring about her downfall.  Whatever Stark’s are left get the kill, probably Arya who gets to cross the biggest name off her list.

Dany or Jon sits on the iron throne.  The north is granted its independence.  They all live happily ever after.

[C-Man 27,231]

1 hour ago, tokamak said:

Same here. In fact, zero mention of any dragons - good or bad - in the whole episode. Kinda seems like that should be part of the plan.

Didn't one of the show-runners comment one time about how expensive it was anytime they showed the dragons? Could be that simple.