Oh man, really? Bummer.
Ironically, I think what did me in were my tempered expectations. I didn't expect it to be as good as the books, or the seasons 1-4, I expected it to be as good as seasons 5-7: some missed opportunities and plots that go nowhere, but overall getting you to the things you wanna see. Good battles, at least. Good convos between characters, some of the time.
I don't really think in terms of "arcs" and "payoff" in terms of Game of Thrones because I read the books and there are plenty of arcs that crash and burn, and asking for something to pay off is asking for trouble
I also had no expectations in terms of my fave characters getting good endings, and even though I hoped the show would resolve a few magical mysteries, at least that hope was killed in one fell swoop in episode 3. Thanks Arya, you gave my hopes the gift of death.
What I didn't expect to see was this:
1) Obliviousness. They level up and level down characters as it suits them. Bran is all-seeing and they don't even bother trying to show us someone trying to get something out of him and failing, instead they just hope the audience will forget that the source of all information is in the room and that he was targeted because he is the source of all information. They do nothing with their powerful assassin. They find a line a few years back where Melisandre says Arya will end blue eyes and pretend it was a clever bit of foreshadowing when actually that's not even how the line goes (blue eyes is in the middle). They mention the Iron Fleet, a few minutes later Dany just forgets about it. Who knows what will happen in the next few episodes that will negate something that happened in the last episode, that's just how we roll right now.
2) The death of the world. Fans of the Game of Thrones-part of the story will often say how their favorite part of the story is intrigues and all the players. Where are the players? Not only are the peasants gone (they only appear as Cersei's meat shield, but if their opinion mattered one bit, they would have revolted when she blew up the Sept), so are all the minor lords! All scenes are main cast + faceless soldiers. They literally put a joke in, wondering who the current lord of Storm's End is. They literally tell us Dorne has a new prince now (who???) and he will back Dany (what???). Not only are there seemingly only two or three places in the entire universe, they couldn't even be bothered to film King's Landing at the iconic location of King's Landing. It doesn't even look like the real thing.
3) Surprise, we got you!!! over and over. Honestly, I've come around on Dany's character journey, even though I hoped for all other endings for her, but you just know they only made the palpable threat of her turning mad two episodes before the end because she has a fanbase and they want to keep them watching even if they actually set up her villain-ness. And in the end if she pulls herself off the ledge, it's another SURPRISE, WE SUBVERTED YOUR EXPECTATIONS moment. Emilia almost killed herself working her ass off for this show, and her character gets to be a plot device. Nice.
I don't need to be surprised by characters' decisions or their abilities. I need to be surprised by seeing how these abilities and decisions interact in the space of the show.
3) The supposedly most epic battle of all time is worse than every other battle ever portrayed on GoT. Not just because you can't see, but because it doesn't make sense. We see Dothraki lights go out, next episode conveniently exactly half of them remained. In the previous battles we could see Jon struggling not to get suffocated by bodies, this battle, he gets into 873502 life or death situations with living enemies, magic cut, and suddenly he's still standing. And he's not the only one. No consequences, no logic.
What I expected, but still disappointed me:
1) Sexism. I hate how everyone is saying they tried really hard to suck up to feminists by making Jon useless and Arya gets the kill, because things are happening here that make me scratch my head. George is to blame for this one, by putting all the Nissa Nissa stuff in these books, so now everyone has a hard on for male lovers sacrificing loved ones, but seriously, now we have two Mad Queens and everyone is looking at Jaime and Jon to placate or kill them or otherwise throw them off their game? Missandei gets literally fridged to make Dany angry? At least Sansa going catty at the sight of another strong female character who has power and demands is in character, and funny., even though it's not very feminist. Missandei being the story's meat isn't.
2) They didn't use all the things that were laid out for them. Loads of things that George wrote and the fans theorized aren't cinematic at all, but some of them are. They needed a late game terrifying human villain and I was sure (and the actor was sure, hyping his role as "Ramsay Bolton on steroids") Euron was gonna be the one. Nope, Cersei is just super smart now and somehow still on the throne. He's a silly pirate and, I guess, an excellent marksman. When they introduced the idea that you have to kill the Night King to make the rest of The Others go away, I thought for sure they were setting up a final duel via the
Old Way. When they established NK was interested in getting a kill himself, I thought for sure that would happen. Nope, surprise Arya. Hell, have Jon or anyone else from the North duel him and lose and then have Arya collect the kill, highlighting the supremacy of the new way of fighting to the Old Way. Nope.
Could go on and on. Man, I'm so down. At least the acting and the music are on point.
Topic: Game of Thrones (TV, fantasy) Thread (Read 647160 times)
