TV: Game of Thrones | Season 8 (Final) | Part XI -TV talk ONLY -NO Books, Spoilers, NO LEAKS

[Emperoreddy]

Also about the picture quality. HBO claims there were no issues on their streaming ends, but there definitely was tech issues that went beyond the artistic choices.

I had a ton of artifacts and banding in many shots. Having the brightness up helped, but that shouldn’t be happening at all and is almost definitely a product of HBO poorly encoding the episode, or the stream not being able to send all the data to various platforms for the dark bits.

LED screens are also not really great at handling blacks either. It’s one of the big selling points of OLEDs how they can give true blacks, but apparently even on those screens the banding was an issue.

 

[max21]

It would have made things way too obvious and a lot more silly then how it actually ended.

I don’t see how that would be silly though compared to what actually happened? She trained for a whole season with the faceless man. I don’t see how her flying out of the sky around a million wights and white walkers makes more sense.

 

[McDNicks17]

The backstory and motivation for the Night King was established by the Children of the Forest. He was created to kill the human race for the protection of the Children. But they made the mistake of not accounting for the Night King wanting to kill the Children as well. So the three eyed raven is the Children's chief ally, hence why the Night King wanted to kill Bran, but his programmed objective of decimating humanity was still there. It may not be a satisfying motivator but the backstory was set in season 5.

I get that, but I just felt like they first introduced him as an intelligent, basically all-knowing, magical, sentient being and then later on they essentially scrapped all that and just framed him as an elemental force with only his programmed objective in mind.

Because he was introduced as such a powerful and magical being, I think people(or at least I did) expected something powerful and magical would be needed to beat him. If he was introduced as a Terminator-esque harbinger of death without all that, I think his death would have made more sense. The simplicity of dying the same way he was created would have been a good fit.

 

[JrFischer54]

And what’s up with the people of essos? I feel like they get a free pass this entire series. Weateros is doing everything. Was the night king going to stop at kings landing?

 

[Morbo]

whoever trained the good guys army should get fed to the dragons.

 

[Blender]

And increasingly torn on whether becoming king to just end all the war and bring peace is the proper thing to do, or if just retiring is.

It’s going to be a different take on the hero’s homecoming. How everything is different and due to their growth (or lack of growth in this case) changes how they dealt with the smaller problems from the beginning of the story. Like how Frodo was unable to readjust to the simple life in the Shire anymore, or Sam was brave enough to marry the girl he liked.

This will play out over a longer stretch though, and some people will definitely not like it. I do think it is fitting IF (big if) it is done right.

I think people like Sam, Davos, etc. end up pushing Jon into power in the same way he has been pushed into every position of authority. He doesn't really like leading and killing, but he gets respect the minute he walks into the room and people naturally follow him. Even Daenerys was looking up to him as a leader when they came together last season. He'll likely be convinced that it's his duty to try and set things right, to "go fail again" as Davos cleverly put it when Jon thought he had failed only to emerge from death to a united Night's Watch and Free Folk who were united because of and behind him.

 

[TheAngryHank]

There is some symbolism around the ending that works.

For one, in the making of content, the show writers talk about how the NK had to be unmade in the way that he was made.

So perhaps he was more vulnerable beneath the weirwood.

In the books, there is heavy foreshadowing that Theon will be sacrificed before a heart tree for his kings blood or some such. Right before the NK is killed, he spills Theon’s blood before the heart tree.

The fire didn’t work, but the Valyrian steel penetrating in the chest, where the obsidian heart was placed by the COTF makes sense.

Being killed with the dagger that started the whole war makes sense, the one that was used in the attempted murder of Bran. Both to come full circle to defend Bran and because in the books it keeps talking about the sword lightbringer being empowered by the blood of a sacrificed loved one. In this case, this dagger has metaphorically been washed in the blood of the whole 7 kingdoms due to its role in starting the war.

In the show, we get a lot of talk about the red god of fire and life vs the white walkers. Arya on the other hand has been distrustful of the red priests after getting screwed over by Beric and Thoros and spent significant time training with the faceless men who literally worship death or see themselves as death’s nameless faceless random agent on earth. It’s kind of interesting for the northern, icy incarnation of death to be killed not by a believer in the god of fire and life but by an alternate image of death. And she’s had that connection to the Bravos culture and mythology since season one with her fighting instructor.

I do think the writers just chose her to make it unexpected, but they also did take care to tie in her backstory and symbolism, as well as give us lots of foreshadowing throughout the first 3 episodes. E.g her showing Jon her dagger, using her hand switch trick on Brienne, sneaking around the library, the conversation with Melisandre.

I do think there’s no getting around the fact that Bran and Jon’s plot lines are cheapened by the way these 3 episodes have been written. This is really the climax of their arcs, and it’s fine if they’re not the final hero but they should have had more exposition about the closing of their themes.

Solid post , you expressed many of my thoughts much better than i could have.

 

[Emperoreddy]

I get that, but I just felt like they first introduced him as an intelligent, basically all-knowing, magical, sentient being and then later on they essentially scrapped all that and just framed him as an elemental force with only his programmed objective in mind.

Because he was introduced as such a powerful and magical being, I think people(or at least I did) expected something powerful and magical would be needed to beat him. If he was introduced as a Terminator-esque harbinger of death without all that, I think his death would have made more sense. The simplicity of dying the same way he was created would have been a good fit.

He was never introduced or portrayed as anything less then a walking incarnation of death. None of them were.

 

[Blender]

And what’s up with the people of essos? I feel like they get a free pass this entire series. Weateros is doing everything. Was the night king going to stop at kings landing?

Essos is far further south than the North in Westeros is. Braavos, which is essentially the furthest northern city, is across the Narrow Sea from The Vale.

 

[TheAngryHank]

Well the last one got to our general page limit.

That was as busy as a Toronto v Boston gdt ever

 

[Emperoreddy]

The dagger was also once covered in the blood of a loved one for Arya. Cat caught the blade with her hands and it sliced them up really good. It didn’t kill Cat, but she did eventually die

 

[Peasy]

I get that, but I just felt like they first introduced him as an intelligent, basically all-knowing, magical, sentient being and then later on they essentially scrapped all that and just framed him as an elemental force with only his programmed objective in mind.

Because he was introduced as such a powerful and magical being, I think people(or at least I did) expected something powerful and magical would be needed to beat him. If he was introduced as a Terminator-esque harbinger of death without all that, I think his death would have made more sense. The simplicity of dying the same way he was created would have been a good fit.

In what way did they show this? Him being able to see Bran when he is having his visions? Is there anything else?

 

[JrFischer54]

Ok well I don’t know how to respond to this, I don’t see how it’s even debatable the NK wasn’t the biggest threat. The show is about the Iron throne sure but even watching all the stuff up through the seasons until last night we were all waiting for the NK to eventually come in and frick some things up.

He is the major threat being that he wants to kill everyone and end the world. But that doesn’t mean he is the biggest villain in the show or the main point of the show. That is and always has been the houses

 

[Emperoreddy]

Also I do expect Jon and Bran to have their closing exposition in the final episodes. I don’t think Bran is just going to have nothing to do or say going forward. Well he could and that would suck, but I don’t believe it will be the case.

 

[darko]

And what’s up with the people of essos? I feel like they get a free pass this entire series. Weateros is doing everything. Was the night king going to stop at kings landing?

Don't see how they cross.

 

[TheAngryHank]

Even so, I think that they could've been used more smartly. For example, they could've waited on the flanks and, after the battle started, used their speed to get around the dead and attack them from the other side. They could've also been saved until the dead were thinned out a little and been used to mop them up. Anything probably would've been smarter than running them straight into the dead's own charge. Cavalry is most effective when it has space to run and can engage enemies one on one. A knight on a horse can kill dozens if he takes them on one or even two at a time, but not if he's mobbed all at once. Horses are easy to trip or cripple at close range. Running cavalry into a tightly-packed, charging horde is essentially wasting them, IMO.

Its unlikely they had practice fighting a mob of zombies.A human army we watched the Dothraki cut down like rain.

 

[Blender]

Also I do expect Jon and Bran to have their closing exposition in the final episodes. I don’t think Bran is just going to have nothing to do or say going forward. Well he could and that would suck, but I don’t believe it will be the case.

Agreed. I fully expect a Brantube exposition dump.

 

[Emperoreddy]

I think people like Sam, Davos, etc. end up pushing Jon into power in the same way he has been pushed into every position of authority. He doesn't really like leading and killing, but he gets respect the minute he walks into the room and people naturally follow him. Even Daenerys was looking up to him as a leader when they came together last season. He'll likely be convinced that it's his duty to try and set things right, to "go fail again" as Davos cleverly put it when Jon thought he had failed only to emerge from death to a united Night's Watch and Free Folk who were united because of and behind him.

Which will lead him into direct conflict with Dany.

 

[Emperoreddy]

Agreed. I fully expect a Brantube exposition dump.

Honestly it would have been jarring to have one in those final moments.

 

[Blender]

Its unlikely they had practice fighting a mob of zombies.A human army we watched the Dothraki cut down like rain.

That was a terrible tactic even against formed infantry. The reason they cut through Jaime so easily on the Gold Road was because they were spread thin, unprepared, and the dragon fire burned through their lines.

I hated that Dothraki charge and still do, it was the worst part of the episode for not making sense. I know why they did it, to build the suspense and fear when the Dothraki horde gets wiped out, but it was a terrible plan when they have seasoned battle commanders in their ranks.

 

[McDNicks17]

He was never introduced or portrayed as anything less then a walking incarnation of death. None of them were.

Well, unless it was just a coincidence, he planned a trap for when the band of heroes went to get a wight that he wouldn't have known about without green sight.

That obviously requires intelligence and magic. He wasn't just simply a harbinger of death killing every man in his path.

 

[McDNicks17]

In what way did they show this? Him being able to see Bran when he is having his visions? Is there anything else?

The trap that got him Viserion.

 

[JrFischer54]

Essos is far further south than the North in Westeros is. Braavos, which is essentially the furthest northern city, is across the Narrow Sea from The Vale.

I get that but are they even concerned or know what’s up with the white walkers? Did nk want to take them over too?

 

[Blender]

I get that but are they even concerned or know what’s up with the white walkers? Did nk want to take them over too?

Do they even take the threat seriously? The south of Westeros doesn't.

 

[darko]

Just finished it. Soooo, it's that really the end of the night king and walkers?

Yes.