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Post by viserys on May 13, 2019 10:54:39 GMT
It was operatic at times in terms of the heightened drama (Aida in particular comes to mind) Aida was exactly what I thought of, too, {Spoiler - click to view}
when Cersei and Jaime were together in the crypt. It was by far the best moment. People can feel icky all they like about the twincest thing, I feel it was always the one big love story of the show and it was a fabulous way for them to go out.
{Spoiler - click to view}
Second-favourite moment was Arya's redemption. When she first announced she was there to kill Cersei, I thought, well yea, that had been the grand plan all along but after killing the Night King it would feel way off for her to repeat something like that. This was wonderful, too.
I agree with the notion that the fandom has had many months to develop their own theories, convince themselves how things would end and are now disgruntled. |
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Post by Deleted on May 13, 2019 11:13:30 GMT
I’ve spent far too much time reading recaps, responses and fan forums. As an Unsullied show watcher (to use the fan parlance) it’s fascinating for me to explore their response. It has been clear for about two seasons that the show was more interested in making event TV than the Valonqar prophesy, and book fans are pissed. I really enjoyed this episode, although I still think several seasons of character development got strafed by dragon fire. Possibly stupid question was Cersei ever pregnant? |
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Post by Deleted on May 13, 2019 11:16:05 GMT
viserys I thought Maisie was remarkable in that scene with the Hound. Those enormous anime eyes were doing all the work.
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Post by viserys on May 13, 2019 11:19:15 GMT
viserys I thought Maisie was remarkable in that scene with the Hound. Those enormous anime eyes were doing all the work. Absolutely! {Spoiler - click to view}
was Cersei ever pregnant? - I think yes, her very last thoughts were about not wanting her child to die. If it had been a lie, she wouldn't have been so concerned. |
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Post by welsh_tenor on May 13, 2019 11:20:34 GMT
The more I think about the end....
{Spoiler - click to view}
The way they killed her off made her vulnerable and she died a victim, it’s the complete opposite of her character throughout the series so actually it’s not a bad way for her to have gone! |
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Post by MrsCondomine on May 13, 2019 12:24:52 GMT
There's that joke about "rocks fall, everybody dies" as a crap way to get rid of characters you have no idea what to do with anymore, or to bring a quick close to a storyline you are sick of.
This was not the show in which that needed to happen. The source material and characterisation was so RICH, and then this? Really?
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Post by Steve on May 13, 2019 12:26:16 GMT
viserys I thought Maisie was remarkable in that scene with the Hound. Those enormous anime eyes were doing all the work. I thought that was great too. The Hound and Arya were superb.
And the general direction of the principal storyline remained consistent with what we had been led to expect this season, so I was happy with that.
But overall, I was extremely disappointed with the Daenerys storyline.
{Spoiler - click to view} We knew she was a budding despot. We knew she would take extreme measures to achieve her goals. But at her core, she exhibited extreme ruthlessness not only to attain the iron throne for herself, but also to lift up those on the bottom of society. That she should fail is her story, but what an awful plot hole that having destroyed all the dragon killing weapons, and with the red keep and Cersei in easy proximity for a strike by Drogon, that she instead decides to pointlessly kill every innocent human being between herself and Cersei. Better storytelling would have done either: (1) Have Cersei make it IMPOSSIBLE to reach her without killing thousands of innocents, like human shields crowded INSIDE, and STRAPPED alround the Red Keep, for example; OR (2) Set up scenes of Daenerys degenerating mental health more clearly, if indeed she was supposed to be "mad" when she decided to pointlessly kill all those innocents. Simply put, the story trajectory made sense, but the details of the execution utterly botched.  |
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Post by viserys on May 13, 2019 13:31:21 GMT
But overall, I was extremely disappointed with the Daenerys storyline.
{Spoiler - click to view}
I agree to some extent. I also thought she was heading straight for Cersei and the Red Keep. But I think it goes back to her conversation with Jon, where she said that she can only rule by love or fear. So when she realized that people don't love her, she decided to rule by fear and what's better suited to installing fear in the people of Westeros by razing King's Landing to the ground and show them all the enormous power of her flying flamethrower? |
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Post by Steve on May 13, 2019 13:34:55 GMT
But overall, I was extremely disappointed with the Daenerys storyline.
{Spoiler - click to view}
I agree to some extent. I also thought she was heading straight for Cersei and the Red Keep. But I think it goes back to her conversation with Jon, where she said that she can only rule by love or fear. So when she realized that people don't love her, she decided to rule by fear and what's better suited to installing fear in the people of Westeros by razing King's Landing to the ground and show them all the enormous power of her flying flamethrower? {Spoiler - click to view} Yes, I see that that conversation was setting up her actions, but of course the people were already terrified by her destruction of the Fleet and Soldiers, and once dead, they ceased to be afriad of anybody. |
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Post by orchidman on May 13, 2019 15:12:08 GMT
The rabid fanbase making lots of noise online have had too long to work out exactly what they wanted to happen. They were always going to be disappointed. And they are making a lot of noise trying to tell others how wrong it all is. No, no, no, it's mainly because the quality of the writing has gone off a cliff. None of the characters I wanted to 'win the Game of Thrones' were still alive going into this series so I am watching for entertainment. And my expectations weren't high after the last series but it's got way way worse. Let's see how dumb the show is this week: Varys, one of the cleverest characters on the show, manages to get himself executed by openly, including outside in broad daylight, conspiring against his Queen with her chief adviser and her lover, and when they don't agree to join in the conspiracy, he just waits around to get killed. Tyrion, one of the cleverest characters on the show, once again takes a huge, stupid risk by releasing Jaime and putting his faith in Cersei acting out of character by giving up, sending his brother to his death and risking his own life if Daenerys finds out. Last week the scorpion weapons hit a dragon three shots out of the first three from a few ships and the remaining dragon for absolutely no reason didn't counterattack, making it look like the scorpions were a serious threat to dragons. This week one dragon took out all the scorpions in the city and an entire fleet without getting hit once. It became clear one dragon was enough to sack King's Landing so Daenerys could have taken the city very easily when she had three of them but at that time they just decided...not to. Even though that's exactly how her ancestors conquered the continent. And they could have directly targeted Cersei in the Red Keep and spared many lives which they briefly were very concerned about. If Arya was planning to kill Cersei using her magical assassin powers, why not just tell Jon and give that a go before destroying the whole city? Instead, while not actually doing anything or utilising those powers, she puts her life in extreme danger, but fortunately for her Starks can't die any more. Euron decides to attack Jaime for absolutely no reason so as to give Jaime a dramatic final fight scene and gets himself killed. That's just basic stuff without even getting into how badly they have handled most of the characters (this week Daenerys, Jaime in particular) and butchered the overarching plots. And this week's episode was actually marginally less stupid than last week's. Yes, some people will be disappointed if the things they wanted to happen don't happen, but anybody who can remember how good the series used to be and can see how much they have gone off-piste is going to be unhappy with the nonsense of the past three weeks. I struggle to see how anybody can actually care now when all logic and continuity has gone out of the window. The entertainment value has actually gone up again because the show is so bad. It's incredible that HBO with its reputation for quality and plans to turn this into an ongoing franchise have let two idiots torch their biggest ever show. 70 episodes of building a rich world with great characters and storylines reduced to the level of the stupidest of Hollywood blockbusters with total contempt for the audience. At least there's some amazing content in the reactions: https://www.reddit.com/r/freefolk/comments/bjjjjj/actual_footage_of_the_writers_after_episode_3/ |
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Post by theglenbucklaird on May 13, 2019 17:20:06 GMT
called their daughters Khaleesi or Danaerys I was thinking that (there are some Theons around too, I think!). Weirdly, there are evidently some fans out there who think what she's done is cool. I know quite a few Jon's also |
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Post by crowblack on May 13, 2019 19:30:16 GMT
temporarily left handed today - minor injury - but briefly i agree with den of geek's review, defending it against the current fan unhappiness. thought it was a strong episode - after the white walker global warming type threat, this was like blitz/dresden/recent middle east wars of 'liberation'... cersei as saddam, gaddafi
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Post by sophizoey on May 13, 2019 19:31:18 GMT
{Spoiler - click to view} I refuse to believe that's how Cersei and Jaime's storyline ends. They have to just be hiding under that rubble for a better killing, like Arya was. I've always wanted to believe Cersei will be the last to die in the series. She's also my favourite character in the series and I would quite like her to have a proper ending. |
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Post by kathryn on May 13, 2019 20:47:58 GMT
Dragonfire is hot enough to burn stone and has a far wider spread of fire than those scorpion arrows - they never made sense as a dragon-killing weapon once the element of surprise was lost because a single sweep of fire would burn all the arrows up before they could reach a dragon. And a fleet of ships being unnoticed by a couple of dragons in flight really was a feat.
As ever, the tactics just don’t make sense, and the writers have to make the characters stupid in order to justify them.
Danaerys is stupid in this episode. So is Euron, and Varys, and a whole bunch of other people. Now obviously stupidity isn’t necessarily unrealistic, but it doesn’t make for particularly satisfying storytelling.
Dany isn’t actually crazy and really shouldn’t be stupid by this point.
They’re so keen to wrap all the plot points up in a big bow that they’ve lost sight of the characterisation that made the show compelling to start with. I don’t care about any of these characters any more because they’ve become mere plot-monkeys.
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Post by Deleted on May 13, 2019 21:35:05 GMT
my prediction. Jon will kill Danny and give the iron throne to Sansa.
I'm glad this is the final season. After the writing on this one I don't think I'd bother coming back for another.
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Post by kathryn on May 13, 2019 21:47:28 GMT
My prediction: Jon will kill Dany and give the throne to Tyrion.
Sansa doesn’t care about the South and so would make a bad Queen.
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Post by NeilVHughes on May 13, 2019 22:02:45 GMT
Well we are down to the last game
Jon v Dany
This series seems rushed and a cop out as they ended up in a cul de sac of their own making as they could not wait for the book cycle to be completed or as it seems to have taken so long even RR Martin is unable to come up with a coherent ending.
Both Sansa and especially Arya due to the artistic exit look as if they may have made their last stands unless Dany wants the North (Sansa) to bend the knee making Jon choose where his loyalty really resides.
No matter what, it has been fun.
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Post by Deleted on May 13, 2019 22:38:26 GMT
Well this wasn’t so much Smashie and Nicey as Smashy and Crunchy. I watched most of it from behind my hands (and at one point from behind my knees, because I needed my hands to put my fingers in my ears...) Bleugh.
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Post by hal9000 on May 14, 2019 15:19:41 GMT
I liked Tyrion's actions in the past episode. It's a weirdly positive step for the sake of his soul.
After he witnessed Dany's reaction to being a Targaryean alone and realising she won't listen to anyone, he knows he probably doesn't have long and he squeezed Varys arm indicating he's with him. Jaime did one last good thing for his brother by giving him a chance to be with his lover and to repay him for setting him free so long ago. Tyrion probably knows that the chance Jaime and Cersei will get into that dingy is slim to none, and that helping Jaime means helping the woman who hates him, but for Tyrion it's an act of love that he realises that he is lucky to have had, unlike Dany.
As for Jaime, he atoned to Bran, he fought for the living, he knighted Brienne and he tried to make a go of loving her back, but he has always been a surprisingly noble person who doesn't lie to himself and when he knew Cersei was going to die, he didn't want her to be alone. It's a fitting end for all those of "those yellow haired sh*ts", to quote Robert Baratheon.
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Post by theglenbucklaird on May 14, 2019 16:56:36 GMT
Well this wasn’t so much Smashie and Nicey as Smashy and Crunchy. I watched most of it from behind my hands (and at one point from behind my knees, because I needed my hands to put my fingers in my ears...) Bleugh. Eh? |
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Post by Deleted on May 14, 2019 17:36:53 GMT
Well this wasn’t so much Smashie and Nicey as Smashy and Crunchy. I watched most of it from behind my hands (and at one point from behind my knees, because I needed my hands to put my fingers in my ears...) Bleugh. Eh? So much sickening violence. It’s always been gritty, but this seemed excessive - especially the Clegane fight. |
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Post by theglenbucklaird on May 14, 2019 17:41:54 GMT
So much sickening violence. It’s always been gritty, but this seemed excessive - especially the Clegane fight. Yep I agree, this episode was brutal. Clegane fight was one of the only things I liked about the episode. That needed to have excessive force. Why did they rush this series? Like they had the last 50p for the metre and needed to wrap up quick |
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Post by theglenbucklaird on May 14, 2019 18:02:59 GMT
So much sickening violence. It’s always been gritty, but this seemed excessive - especially the Clegane fight. Yep I agree, this episode was brutal. Clegane fight was one of the only things I liked about the episode. That needed to have excessive force. Why did they rush this series? Like they had the last 50p for the metre and needed to wrap up quick Sorry two things I loved about the episode, the music remains outstanding. |
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Post by Deleted on May 14, 2019 18:18:47 GMT
Yep I agree, this episode was brutal. Clegane fight was one of the only things I liked about the episode. That needed to have excessive force. Why did they rush this series? Like they had the last 50p for the metre and needed to wrap up quick Sorry two things I loved about the episode, the music remains outstanding. Yes it’s funny, I rarely notice the music on TV shows but I was very taken with the Night King theme a couple of weeks ago - now on my iPod. There was some nice stuff in this episode too. |
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Post by sparky5000 on May 14, 2019 22:22:21 GMT
The music was epic and moving and as a spectacle it was a fantastic (but brutal 😭 ) bit of television, but I was just so angry how they dealt with Daenerys in this episode it has just marred the whole episode for me. Her change into the mad queen was just too rushed and because of that just didn’t ring true at all. This should have been something that was explored properly over the past few seasons. Ugh
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