[TV Spoilers] Game of Thrones (S8) [Warning: Open Spoilers]

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TaoHorror

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« Reply #180 on: September 25, 2018, 01:47:21 pm »
Mark my words, we will miss this show when it's over. It's far from perfect but good cinematic epic fantasy is incredibly hard to pull off and I doubt we'll see something on this level again for a long time.

Exactly - why we need PON to fill the void.
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« Reply #181 on: September 25, 2018, 03:25:51 pm »
I don't know, season 7 kind of jumped the shark for me.  I realize that is personal bias, but there being all kinds of travel-time issues in previous seasons to suddenly everyone just suddenly arrives where ever they "need" to be near instantly really took me out of the show.  I understand the need for it to serve the narrative, but it was just extremely jarring to me.

I do really like that things are actually happening though, it bothers me when the narrative just seems to spin in place.
I am a warrior of ages, Anasurimbor. . . ages. I have dipped my nimil in a thousand hearts. I have ridden both against and for the No-God in the great wars that authored this wilderness. I have scaled the ramparts of great Golgotterath, watched the hearts of High Kings break for fury. -Cet'ingira

themerchant

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« Reply #182 on: September 26, 2018, 07:53:16 am »
Well, the whole Night King thing is mostly a joke, but one taken from the roots of a real sentiment.  That pretty much all the characters have gotten to the level of being somewhat annoying (on the show).  Honestly, the Night King is refreshing in his steadfastness and lack of nonsense and bullshit.  You know the Night King isn't going to make some outlandish and dumb choice, he is just going to kill you, because he is going to kill every one.

Sure, the "default" is to view the Starks as a force of "good" but that ends up a little problematic, as Anna Smith Spark explains it.  It's interesting, in the face of a lack of appealing options, seems I am not alone in defaulting to nihilism.

Just read this. Anyone read her novel The court of broken knives?

H

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« Reply #183 on: September 26, 2018, 11:56:03 am »
Just read this. Anyone read her novel The court of broken knives?

I know MSJ did and really liked it.  I personally couldn't find my way into the prose.
I am a warrior of ages, Anasurimbor. . . ages. I have dipped my nimil in a thousand hearts. I have ridden both against and for the No-God in the great wars that authored this wilderness. I have scaled the ramparts of great Golgotterath, watched the hearts of High Kings break for fury. -Cet'ingira

TaoHorror

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« Reply #184 on: September 26, 2018, 01:13:00 pm »
I don't know, season 7 kind of jumped the shark for me.  I realize that is personal bias, but there being all kinds of travel-time issues in previous seasons to suddenly everyone just suddenly arrives where ever they "need" to be near instantly really took me out of the show.  I understand the need for it to serve the narrative, but it was just extremely jarring to me.

I do really like that things are actually happening though, it bothers me when the narrative just seems to spin in place.

Well, you're right, but they're ending the show and no longer have the luxury of no-end-in-sight approach and that means people have to scurry along so they can end it. I don't think this would have happened if the show wasn't ending soon.
It's me, Dave, open up, I've got the stuff

H

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« Reply #185 on: September 26, 2018, 01:50:31 pm »
Well, you're right, but they're ending the show and no longer have the luxury of no-end-in-sight approach and that means people have to scurry along so they can end it. I don't think this would have happened if the show wasn't ending soon.

Right, I mean, I understand the practicalities of filming, but it undermines the continuity and is detrimental to the narrative.  It isn't as if the problem is intractable.  It just points to poor set-up and poor planning.  Show is still somewhat interesting and watchable, but it suffers these things.
I am a warrior of ages, Anasurimbor. . . ages. I have dipped my nimil in a thousand hearts. I have ridden both against and for the No-God in the great wars that authored this wilderness. I have scaled the ramparts of great Golgotterath, watched the hearts of High Kings break for fury. -Cet'ingira

Wilshire

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« Reply #186 on: October 05, 2018, 05:57:05 pm »
Just read this. Anyone read her novel The court of broken knives?

I know MSJ did and really liked it.  I personally couldn't find my way into the prose.

Answers question from September:
I found the prose really strange but very enjoyable, however the story itself was fairly average IMO. For that reason I'd say the book(s) aren't worth reading if you don't like the prose. Worth checking out - read the first handful of pages and you'll know if you like it or not.
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TheCulminatingApe

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« Reply #187 on: October 05, 2018, 06:15:48 pm »
Just read this. Anyone read her novel The court of broken knives?

I know MSJ did and really liked it.  I personally couldn't find my way into the prose.

Answers question from September:
I found the prose really strange but very enjoyable, however the story itself was fairly average IMO. For that reason I'd say the book(s) aren't worth reading if you don't like the prose. Worth checking out - read the first handful of pages and you'll know if you like it or not.

That's pretty much what I thought as well.
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Seswatha, that's who.

H

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« Reply #188 on: April 22, 2019, 09:07:55 pm »
So, taken from somewhere else, someone said this that has me thinking about where the show is actually going:

Quote
The Night's King is the personification of death.  Humans cannot live forever, ergo The Night's King Cannot Be Killed.

The Last Hero was a diplomat, not a warrior.  He negotiated a truce.

The terms of the pact are up for renewal and the Night's King will withdraw when satisfactory terms on a new compromise are met.  [finite mortal life being, metaphorically, the compromise between immortality and death].

Violence is destructive.  People who fight amongst people [over the throne] are doomed [and the iron throne, metaphor for self destruction as it is, why do you think its made of swords that literally cut and draw blood from the people who sit on it? along with it]

People who reject individual ambition and prioritize the team sport of survival [i.e. Jon kneeling for the greater good] will be spared and carry humanity on.  Those who prefer to win the Game Of Thrones (i.e. Cersei) will be utterly annihilated.

I think this is the the most cogent analysis I've seen of this.

I'd guess that the implication here would then be, perhaps, that Bran sacrifices himself to "negotiate" with the Night King, Jon is spared somehow in giving up any further ambition.  Dany nearly is killed, until she realizes that ambition to tyranny is akin to death, and then the Night King and company go south, and kill Cersei and smash King Landing along with the Iron Throne, the "root" of the evil at hand.  The Night King is satiated again, tyranny averted, they all go back to Locke's "state of nature" minus perverse "human ambition" to get in the way.

I like it, because it's the kind of simplistic philosophy this show is likely aiming for...

Furthermore, I think Bran's cryptic statement, seemingly foreshadowing one(or both of their deaths) might foreshadow instead  that the paradigm, the sot of dialetic of Life:Death, Tyranny:Liberty does not end.  One does not kill Death itself, it brokers an "easy peace" of sorts.

There is no "after" there is only something like the Hegelian "concrete, abstract, absolute" (that is thesis, antithesis, synthesis) of Being/Nonbeing->Becoming.

Perhaps this is exactly the point of the White Walkers, in a sense, a check on human "arrogance" and "excess."  You know, just like Death itself is, no matter how powerful (or moral, or just, of kind, or whatever) you are, you still die eventually.  "Thanatos" (that is, the "death drive itself, embodied) rears it's head.  Except here, it's personified, as if a character.
« Last Edit: April 22, 2019, 10:07:18 pm by H »
I am a warrior of ages, Anasurimbor. . . ages. I have dipped my nimil in a thousand hearts. I have ridden both against and for the No-God in the great wars that authored this wilderness. I have scaled the ramparts of great Golgotterath, watched the hearts of High Kings break for fury. -Cet'ingira

Redeagl

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« Reply #189 on: April 22, 2019, 09:26:44 pm »
Watching these last 2 episodes was sad. They are actually trying this time and I enjoyed those 2 episodes but it's beyond redemption at this point. The damage have already been done and isn't fixable. And on top of that all, I can't blame the showrunners for anything, they didn't know GRRM will retire after A Dance With Dragons, when they signed on this.
“The thoughts of all men arise from the darkness. If you are the movement of your soul, and the cause of that movement precedes you, then how could you ever call your thoughts your own? How could you be anything other than a slave to the darkness that comes before?”

- Chronicler of the Chroniclers

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« Reply #190 on: April 22, 2019, 09:35:37 pm »
Watching these last 2 episodes was sad. They are actually trying this time and I enjoyed those 2 episodes but it's beyond redemption at this point. The damage have already been done and isn't fixable. And on top of that all, I can't blame the showrunners for anything, they didn't know GRRM will retire after A Dance With Dragons, when they signed on this.

Well, it kind of is their fault, because they could have done a better job than writing this crap.  But they'd rather churn out the "expected" ending rather than try to do something novel.  So, now we just get cliche episode after cliche episode, with scenes lifted from Disney movies and dialogue not far off from it.  Oh and lots of "jokes" about balls...
I am a warrior of ages, Anasurimbor. . . ages. I have dipped my nimil in a thousand hearts. I have ridden both against and for the No-God in the great wars that authored this wilderness. I have scaled the ramparts of great Golgotterath, watched the hearts of High Kings break for fury. -Cet'ingira

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« Reply #191 on: April 23, 2019, 12:26:03 pm »
My wife found this on Facebook last night.  A context free spoiler guide for episode 2:
I am a warrior of ages, Anasurimbor. . . ages. I have dipped my nimil in a thousand hearts. I have ridden both against and for the No-God in the great wars that authored this wilderness. I have scaled the ramparts of great Golgotterath, watched the hearts of High Kings break for fury. -Cet'ingira

themerchant

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« Reply #192 on: April 29, 2019, 02:57:08 am »
Davos with that Gotian moment watching Arya ( Sarcellus has to go full-skin spy to beat Cnaiur at the circumfix.)

See him in the background like WTF.

Redeagl

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« Reply #193 on: April 29, 2019, 09:23:47 am »
Lol, what the fuck? That ending was so troll. Fucking waste of 80 hours.
“The thoughts of all men arise from the darkness. If you are the movement of your soul, and the cause of that movement precedes you, then how could you ever call your thoughts your own? How could you be anything other than a slave to the darkness that comes before?”

- Chronicler of the Chroniclers

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« Reply #194 on: April 29, 2019, 01:00:58 pm »
Lol, what the fuck? That ending was so troll. Fucking waste of 80 hours.

Indeed it was.  Very much a polished turd.

Or bad pizza.  Whichever analogy you like, in the end, it was absolutely not worth what went to to making it, that is for certain.

The whole "battle" made no sense at all, nor did anything the Night King did.  I honestly feel dumber for having watched it.  "Culture Industry" at it's "finest."
I am a warrior of ages, Anasurimbor. . . ages. I have dipped my nimil in a thousand hearts. I have ridden both against and for the No-God in the great wars that authored this wilderness. I have scaled the ramparts of great Golgotterath, watched the hearts of High Kings break for fury. -Cet'ingira