Game of Thrones - Inc Spoilers to last aired UK TV episode.

[Billy Whiz]

re Seinfeld: funniest thing on TV after Friends IMO.

[thebillfella]

The Sopranos was a cracking end too.

Not sure if that is ironic or genuine Bitterly disappointing ending IMO.

[Zimmerman]

WHAT?!

I thought it was ace.

Bit of ambiguity about what it meant.
wasn’t some corny happy ending
nor did you see a tragic ending for the hero.

Talking about endings and relating back to GoT is a bit different though. Seinfeld, Sopranos and BB. We’re talking literally about THE end. The issue with GoT so far is that the last series has disappointed in terms of story plausibility.

It’s not like we’re disappointed that Davos becomes King or Bran turns out to Hodor dreaming or whatever they do. It’s just the quality of writing of the series has waivered/dropped.

[Zimmerman]

re Seinfeld: funniest thing on TV after Friends IMO.

I normally like a lot of the films/TV you like... but Friends? What’s happened to you

[Billy Whiz]

Yeah, it's a bit cheesy. But the characters are well drawn and the script is smart and funny - it's verbal slapstick.

[MorrisonDullforce]

*PS That woman from Line of Duty popped up, just for good measure

Yeah she was also in Chernobyl last week. I don't recall ever seeing her before and she crops up in three major shows in the space of a fortnight.

If she changed her agent, it seems to have worked.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-48311544

[forestfan]

Well, the hate might still be flowing from some quarters but I think that was a pretty good finale. All the major surviving characters got a resolution. An unexpected name on the (no longer existent) Iron Throne... and a peaceful Nexit, complete with Queen in the North, I was waiting for that nod to the season 1 and 6 finales...

Oh yeah, and HBO surely have to commission an Arya spin-off, “West of Westeros”... then again, it would probably be as rubbish as the recent Floki storyline in Vikings Tyrion came back to the fore as well, long overdue, that new Small Council could be a comedy spin-off as well!

Eight years of epic TV (though I’ve only been on board for two and a half...), will be hard to find anything to match it going forward. Although I expect they will milk the absolute crap out of the Westeros universe, maybe on the big screen as well as the small one.

[Maldini]

I never thought I’d see an ending worse than Dexter.

This ending was leaked on social media about three weeks ago. I think everybody laughed it off as a fake. Surely, it couldn’t possibly be that ridiculous.

So many things left unanswered or unexplained. Such a disappointment.

[bluenosey]

Left me feeling a bit hollow, slightly anti-climatic.

It was an ok ending, nothing great.

Overall, a fantastic series. At least we can look forward to the books now

[Tall Paul]

I was pleasantly surprised by the finale after reading much of the criticism today. Nowhere near as bad as people are making out and possibly the best episode of this final season imo.

[Mav3rick]

I quite liked the wrap up, I know it's fashionable to be outraged by the way that S8 has gone but I enjoyed the first half of the season immensely and after S8E5 they had to dispatch Danerys and Drogon in some way, either by her voluntarily abdicating or what actually happened.

It was quite a tough death to take for me, and harked back to the genuine feeling of "oh no" from deaths in earlier seasons like the red wedding, Shireen Baratheon and Oberyn Martell. Given that many of us have spent 7 years mostly rooting for her as she overcame first her brother, then the Dothraki, Quarth, slavers bay, Mereen and finally the night king, to be expected to turn on her in an episode and a half is a hard sell. They could have done with more time to build the conflict in the viewer, but perhaps it was deliberate, and we all ended up feeling a bit of the emotion that Jon Snow felt when he had to choose. I thought Emilia Clarke did a pretty good job of showing the on/off love/rage that was supposed to conflict Danerys, the scene when she was trying to sweet talk Sansa (and then let her hand go when she didn't hear what she wanted) and a similar scene in episode 5 with Jon was pretty well acted I thought.

The only thing I really missed was a more satisfying end for Cersei. Most of the evil characters in GOT got some serious comeuppance, and I do feel that Cersei after all the evil things she did, could have been ended with a bit more irony, especially as she was such a fan of the ironic kill herself - think Ellaria Sand, Septa Unella and the way she gave Bronn the crossbow used by Tyrion to kill Tywin as the weapon to murder her brothers with.

Sansa taking power in the north felt like it had been coming, it was almost just a nod to replace one strong female lead with another. I didn't really have any problem with Sansa becoming queen and the queen of the north chant was a nice link back to Jon and Robb. A kind of final victory over Cersei for Sansa, even if she didn't get to release the hounds herself this time.

[murf]

The first half was pretty damn good.

After that it suddenly morphed into some of the worst TV I have ever seen. The scene where they decided the king was excruciating and I didn't think I would see anything that bad on TV for many a year and then they went and beat it with the scene where Bran and the others discussed rebuilding brothels. Awful.

Was it the plan all along that Jon went to live as a wildling? Will Arya Columbus discover America? Will Nicola Sansageon live happily ever after? Will the 6 kingdoms realise they are ruled by someone from outside? Will Bran realise he isn't actually Bran? Will anyone care?

[forestfan]

Wasn’t Jon just taking the wildlings back home, then presumably heading back to Castle Black to reform the Night’s Watch and set about fixing the big hole in the wall? (Not that either will probably be that much of a necessity for a few thousand years, other than to keep a few criminals off the streets...) We’ll find out in season 9 anyway... oh, hang on...

[Maldini]

Murf, we agree on something else. We’re going to have to knock this on the head.

Amongst many other things, we’ll never know whose green eyes Arya will close forever.

And who can forget when Ned told his children...

“When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies but the pack survives”

The writers obviously because they decided a great ending would be for all the surviving Starks to go off on their own.

[Mav3rick]

The first half was pretty damn good.
After that it suddenly morphed into some of the worst TV I have ever seen.

Pretty harsh in a world where Britain's Got Talent is a thing

I agree on the scene around the table at the end, at least as far as the dialog not being very funny or interesting, but I think they were just trying to show you where some of the B characters had ended up. It wasn't the content of the dialog that was important, as there was nothing they could really start or wrap up in the last 5 minutes, it was just nods to quickly tie up the ending for people like Brianne, Sam, Bronn & Pod (oh look, he's a knight/maester/lord of high garden now, etc).

Was it the plan all along that Jon went to live as a wildling? Will Arya Columbus discover America? Will Nicola Sansageon live happily ever after? Will the 6 kingdoms realise they are ruled by someone from outside? Will Bran realise he isn't actually Bran? Will anyone care?

You can't be expecting questions like that answered in the series? They're obviously available for you and us and everyone in the world to ponder (and complain about should we wish), but the characters "world" doesn't end when the screen fades to black.

[murf]

That would assume I watch Britain's Got Talent.....

[Zimmerman]

like others... I’m disppointed.... just with the general lameness of it.


Out for interest... why did no one think it important to mention Johns heritage when deciding a) on the king b) on his punishment?

Sansa giving it the big one pissed me off.
Grey Worm growing a set pissed me off.

He’s your king, do as your told. Off you pop.
Suppose it’s just a continuation of the characters abandonments we’ve seen plenty of in this series.

Mav - I might be on my own, but I’d cooled on Danaerys about 3 seasons ago. Who grandiose introductions were more boring than an episode of Last of the summer wine. She was obviously going to have to be taken out last night; it was just a case of who did it.

I’d have liked Tyrion to do it with his Kings Hand badge. That’d be more befitting if GoT.

and Bran the little shit. Yes thanks for fighting the dead and for saving me. Oh and thanks for killing Danaerys. But I’m King now, I’ll let you go and live a celibate life up at castle black. Thanks for your efforts. Here’s a picture of spitfire.

The end scene was kind of alright - despite the corny and cheesiness of it - it was basically just showing that the wheel keeps turning. The king is dead, long live the king.

[Lister]

Very disappointing, as soon as it jumped forward a few months I was thinking please don't end it this way throw us a curve ball but they didn't. 2 episodes of s8 basically showing battle's that could have been done in half an episode each so giving more time to the story. Other than that it's been a great programme to watch.

[Arch Stanton]

The end wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, certainly not as bad as the majority of episodes that proceeded it or at least the first half wasn't.

Why did the Dothraki and the Unsullied just slink away on the word of someone neither cared about?

Dothraki/Unsullied: "we want Tyrion and Jon Snow executed"

Bannermen/lamely appointed King: "we don't"

Dothraki/Unsullied: "How about imprisoning Tyrion for life then?"

Bannermen/lamely appointed King: "No, how about he goes free and resumes his position as The Hand"

Dothraki/Unsullied: "Oh OK then, see ya"

Speaking of Tyrion did he suffer a brain injury? He went from being one of the shrewdest characters to one of the most dense, he literally couldn't get anything right and yes I know it was a show that featured dragons.

The second half reminded me of a cut scene from an early 2000's video game as if the ending was written by the makers of Final fantasy 7.

[murf]

More relevant was where did all the Dothraki and Unsullied come from?

Most were wiped out by the undead (the clever dimming of the torches for the Dothraki) and there was a laughably small army behind Danerys when they went to Knots Landing for Tyrion to negotiate with Qyburn - then all of a sudden there are hordes of them again.

[Arch Stanton]

More relevant was where did all the Dothraki and Unsullied come from?

Most were wiped out by the undead (the clever dimming of the torches for the Dothraki) and there was a laughably small army behind Danerys when they went to Knots Landing for Tyrion to negotiate with Qyburn - then all of a sudden there are hordes of them again.

Good point, it is like the makers thought the extinguishing of the swords was such a cool visual that they must have it in the battle scene (even though it made no sense from a tactical point of view to send them out there) but then thought what about if we need a hoard again, no worries, people will just say it is a show about magic.



Pif, paf, poof

Problem solved

[foxinthebox2001]

Don't think anyone in Bran's new mini parliament addressed this when debating the new budget, so how effective is a wall of ice that's got a hole in it the width of the M1?
Do they really need a wall, or anyone at Castle Black now that the dead army are gone, and they are all very pally with the wildlings?
If they did have the coin to rebuild the wall I would see that as a sign of certain mistrust if I was Tormund.
In Jon's predicament, being sent up there for life, I would see this as quite important, even if it is a bluff.

[Billy Whiz]

3/10

Ditto to much of what has been said. Even the continuity was rubbish: my Sky+ must have jammed and missed a scene, because the narrative suddenly jumped from Tyrion's imprisonment and Jon's arrest to all the other characters sitting in a field as if they were about to have a picnic. (Or maybe they'd just had one, because you could see a plastic water bottle by Sam's feet.) Then there was Brienne writing in conspicuously wet ink then immediately closing the book (twice), which no one who's ever used a pen and ink would have done.

Daenerys's last scene set her up as a Shakespearean tragic hero who'd over-reached herself and destroyed the thing she loved, or at least that she'd spent most of her adult life wanting. Jon Snow then destroyed the thing that he loved, which was rather neat I thought. The story arc was then completed, symbolically, by Drogon destroying the Iron Throne.

Not sure about the scene where Drogon flies off with Dany. Was it touching and appropriate, or Disneyesque?

[eastcentral1]

Speaking of Tyrion did he suffer a brain injury? He went from being one of the shrewdest characters to one of the most dense, he literally couldn't get anything right and yes I know it was a show that featured dragons.

Actually, his plan to free Jaime, leading to the surrender of King's Landing, totally worked. He offered his queen the iron throne with minimal bloodshed. That's partly why it was so tragic when she ignored his plan.

I agree with those who say that the first half of the finale was excellent (Dany's speech on the steps, Tyrion chucking his brooch, Jon and Tyrion's talk), whereas the second half was a bit of a cop out. The second half, wrapping up everything somewhat implausibly, is just another symptom of the series not giving itself enough time or space.

[Arch Stanton]

Speaking of Tyrion did he suffer a brain injury? He went from being one of the shrewdest characters to one of the most dense, he literally couldn't get anything right and yes I know it was a show that featured dragons.

Actually, his plan to free Jaime, leading to the surrender of King's Landing, totally worked. He offered his queen the iron throne with minimal bloodshed. That's partly why it was so tragic when she ignored his plan.

I agree with those who say that the first half of the finale was excellent (Dany's speech on the steps, Tyrion chucking his brooch, Jon and Tyrion's talk), whereas the second half was a bit of a cop out. The second half, wrapping up everything somewhat implausibly, is just another symptom of the series not giving itself enough time or space.

True but his plan was doomed to failure, just wish he had not ignored Varys and helped with his plan to poison her instead, that would have guaranteed less bloodshed. He saw Varys get burned alive and must have known she had went full Colonel Kurtz but still persisted with quietly suggesting she let them surrender when the bells rang.

*fingers crossed*

Just didn't strike me as a fingers crossed type of person previous to this season.

[Zimmerman]

Don't think anyone in Bran's new mini parliament addressed this when debating the new budget, so how effective is a wall of ice that's got a hole in it the width of the M1?
Do they really need a wall, or anyone at Castle Black now that the dead army are gone, and they are all very pally with the wildlings?
If they did have the coin to rebuild the wall I would see that as a sign of certain mistrust if I was Tormund.
In Jon's predicament, being sent up there for life, I would see this as quite important, even if it is a bluff.

I wonder if that was seen as a perk for Jon rather than a punishment. They know he wouldn’t have liked Kings landing, they don’t need to fear the wildings, the wights and dead are gone (so no need for a wall or knights watch... although someone mentioned that they would always need somewhere to send wayward children).

[Arch Stanton]

I wonder if that was seen as a perk for Jon rather than a punishment. They know he wouldn’t have liked Kings landing, they don’t need to fear the wildings, the wights and dead are gone (so no need for a wall or knights watch... although someone mentioned that they would always need somewhere to send wayward children).

interesting point, I think Bran was all about rehabilitation rather than punishment. It would certainly fit in with him making Tyrion The Hand so that he could make up for all the wrongs he had perpetrated. Maybe he envisaged Jon being a mentor to wayward souls.

[Beerfuelledman]

Then there was Brienne writing in conspicuously wet ink then immediately closing the book (twice), which no one who's ever used a pen and ink would have done.

Bit of a metaphor for season 8.

[Mav3rick]

I wonder if that was seen as a perk for Jon rather than a punishment. They know he wouldn’t have liked Kings landing, they don’t need to fear the wildings, the wights and dead are gone (so no need for a wall or knights watch... although someone mentioned that they would always need somewhere to send wayward children).

interesting point, I think Bran was all about rehabilitation rather than punishment. It would certainly fit in with him making Tyrion The Hand so that he could make up for all the wrongs he had perpetrated. Maybe he envisaged Jon being a mentor to wayward souls.

Tormund had already said a episode or two before that Jon would be happy in the North, so I think it's a given that for Jon being in the true north was what he really wanted. He never wanted to be king at any point, certainly and he only ever took up the position from duty rather than being power hungry. Apart from taking no wife (and there are plenty of thankful wildling girls around to make that a non-issue) being at the wall is a good deal for Jon.

[Mav3rick]

Out for interest... why did no one think it important to mention Johns heritage when deciding a) on the king b) on his punishment?

Maybe they were trying to keep his identity secret, or just prevent any future strife with people rallying behind his claim. In a way it mirrors Aemon Targaryen, who was the old maester at castle black, and stayed out of the politics when his brother took the iron throne.

Mav - I might be on my own, but I’d cooled on Danaerys about 3 seasons ago. Who grandiose introductions were more boring than an episode of Last of the summer wine. She was obviously going to have to be taken out last night; it was just a case of who did it.

I’d have liked Tyrion to do it with his Kings Hand badge. That’d be more befitting if GoT.

Agree she had to be taken down, her and Drogon, after the burning of Kings Landing. It was all just a bit forced for me, I can well imagine that she slowly became a tyrant through unwavering belief that she was doing good, but up until this season, she always had done good (well, she killed, but generally people that deserved it). I think the story line just needed time to breathe, show her becoming her father over a season or two, I think the overall arc was a good one, and the way it ended was believable, it was just rushed.

and Bran the little shit. Yes thanks for fighting the dead and for saving me. Oh and thanks for killing Danaerys. But I’m King now, I’ll let you go and live a celibate life up at castle black.

Yeah Bran was a weird choice to me. He spent most conversations telling people he wasn't Brandon Stark, that he lives in the past, etc. Doesn't seem like he would have accepted being king really. Personally I thought Sansa should have had the whole 7 kingdoms given who remained at the end, Tyrion could have been her hand, which would have been a complete victory over Cersei for her.