Well, GAME OF THRONES is now done . . . .

[Alex]

Seems to be a bit like vegetarians with the whole need to tell everyone thing.

[Svengoolie 3]

As to GOT and it's end...

Well, one can always hope the series got people to real the damn books already and maybe start reading more in general. Yeah, yeah, I know, not gonna happen.

As to it's ending I youtubed the end and was touched. Good dragon, I actually felt for it.

Now that HBO has a timeslot open I hope they make a good SF show on par with westworld.

[WingedSerpent]

Finally saw the series finale on Friday, and now that I've had some time to mull it over, I want to give some more of my thoughts on the show.  I'll say up front, seeing the episode didn't really change a  lot of my opinions, but it did help me understand why I think a lot of people are dissatisfied with it.  

Will go into spoilers

Danny's face-turn-heel and subsequent death will be a sticking point for a lot of people.  On one hand it feels underhanded to do something like that to a well liked character and one we've been following since the beginning.  On the other hand, that's the point the show was making.  Its easy to overlook warning signs when we like a person.

I also realized I've seen this in fiction  once before.  When Green Lantern Hal Jordan snapped and became Parallax.  Its almost the exact same situation.  Both he and Danny suffered tragic loses that broke them.  Both felt betrayed by those closet to them. Both ended up killing innocents and former allies.  Even the fan reaction was similar will some people saying they would have been ok with the story arch if it had been given more time to develop and others forming official requests to have the storline re-written.

But its the few short scenes afterward that I think brought down some of my enjoyment for the finale.  Westeros really didn't change that much.  Individual characters did-but was that enough?  

Think about it.  The iron throne and the red keep were destroyed, but not their function.  A couple of powerful lords and ladies just kind of decide to give Bran the role of king.  When the idea of a more democratic approach is offered up its met with jeers and shows that many of those in charge do not value the people under them.  Bran may be a wise and kind king, but the struggle for the  thrones isn't so much over as it is delayed for a bit.  

Nothing is stopping other powerful families from rising up and starting the war for leader again.

As for the more individual fates.  I can't say where I'd have them end up, so I'll say I was fine where a lot of them did.  Not all, but most.

Ugg,,, I'm writing a lot more on this then I intended too....

I'll try to be breif in some final thoughts.

John Snow being exiled to the Night's Watch again is probably a good fate for the character, but the fact that is still exists close to the form it did shows that the society didn't change as much as I think it should have.  It was still a place for the outcasts.

I stand by what I said about the Night King's defeat being too simple.  Season 7 should have been the all out war against the white walkers, a war that left most of westeros in ruins.  Season 8 could have been the clean up, and epilogue


And these last few seasons just had a lot of ups and downs which is better than just being constantly bland.   And it has a lot of people talking about it, which is what you hope for when you create a peace of art.  

I still want to binge the series again at some point in the future.  Just to see if the ending was better set up then I thought and to see what I've missed.





Now I need to catch up on American Horror Story and start watching WestWorld

[Jack]

My family and I are huge fans of the show, we don't get HBO but we bought the first 7 seasons on Blu ray and pre-ordered season 8 on 4K lol.  We've watched the first 7 seasons about 4 times and the 8th season twice now.

My thoughts (with spoilers)

What originally drew me to the show was the complex characters, each scheming to outwit their rivals, the numerous subplots...it truly was a "game of thrones".  By season 8 that was all gone, replaced with a simple action movie formula.  Who wins and loses is no longer decided via intelligence and cunning, but by gazillion dollar CGI sequences. 

It was also woefully predictable - we knew the show wasn't going to end with "the zombies killed everybody, roll credits" nor was it going to end with "the heroes we've spent the entire season with are all killed by Cersei, who's barely even in the show anymore."  Daenerys turning evil could hardly have been more predictable - first off she said she would "lay waste to armies and burn cities to the ground" numerous times throughout the show's run.  Secondly, Varys, Sansa and Arya all warned us not to trust her, and finally, she just flat-out told Tyrion and Grey Worm she was going to commit mass murder before the battle even began.  I imagine it surprised some people because the actress always recited her lines in such a monotone that it left the impression she didn't really mean anything she said.

The only two things that surprised me were Arya flying out of the ether to kill the Night King, and Jon stabbing Daenerys.  In both cases I was expecting an actual scene - something worthy of the climax to a series-long story arc.  So for that just to be left out entirely was surprising simply because of its cheapness.

And then Bran the potted plant being made king.  There's such a thing in fiction writing as "earning it" - when a character works hard for something, the audience shares in their sense of accomplishment when they finally achieve it.  Obviously no one felt anything of the sort with Bran.  That was just the kind of thing that leaves you wondering if you should grimace, laugh, or just turn it off.  Then we had the lovely little Wonderful World of Disney ending where everyone lived happily ever after. 

Egads.

[Alex]

Not everyone got to live happily ever after though. You know the place Grey Worm said he was going to sail off to (Naath), where Missandei came from? It has this thing called Butterfly Fever which kills anyone not native to the region.

The so-called butterfly fever is a disease native to the isle of Naath. It is believed to be transmitted by the local butterflies, particularly a large black-and-white variety with wings as big as a man's hand, according to Archmaester Ebrose. Even though the Naathi themselves are immune to this sickness, all outsiders who remain too long on Naath fall prey to it.

Symptoms

Fever is the first sign of the disease, followed by painful spasms that make the victims seem to be dancing wildly and uncontrollably. In the last stage, those afflicted sweat blood, and their flesh sloughs from their bones.

So I guess the Unsullied all died pretty horrific deaths. Hope that helps a bit.