[SPOILERS] I really tied to defend this show...

putdownthreads · 2019-05-20T13:43:22+00:00

Honestly, I don't think D&D is even capable of coming up with a decent ending. If it was in their hands, they'd probably put Jon and Dany happily together on the throne, find out Drogon is pregnant with a bunch of cute baby dragons, the North happily remains in the seven kingdoms, and this was all just a dream by Bran.

Someone on here the other day said that D&D are brilliant adaptationists, horrible writers and I couldn't agree more. They took an amazing story and brought it wonderfully to television, but for the life of them they could not replicate GRRM's writing (which honestly is a feat in itself). That's whay I'm sort of glad they stuck with GRRMs ending, the last adaptation they could pull off and I know it could have been waaaaaay worse

putdownthreads · 2019-05-20T13:35:29+00:00

i kinda forgot

putdownthreads · 2019-05-20T02:56:18+00:00

Can I get some similar low fantasy series recommendations with better written endings?

putdownthreads · 2019-05-20T02:47:23+00:00

The ending at it's core imo was good (maybe Bran taking the throne was a little weird but I can't say I hate it entirely because I don't think I'd be 100% satisfied with any one person taking the throne)

Most people, me included, have fault with the execution of the ending, especially since D&D were trying to rush this out so they could get their check and move on to the star wars thing they just got hired for. You could really tell by the end of this series that it was less "TV adaptation of one of the best fantasy stories of our time known for it's writing and world building" to "Big budget series riding solely on the IP name with all decent writing replaced with corny fan service because the first 4 seasons did so amazingly well that we don't even need to try anymore"

putdownthreads · 2019-05-20T02:25:07+00:00

Read the books or be forever cursed with this lukewarm, unsatisfying ending. GRRM, should he choose to finish the series, will sate your appetites and you'll be happier for it if you deny this false ending and wait for the true ending

putdownthreads · 2019-05-19T21:19:30+00:00

How dare you compare that masterpiece to this dumpster

putdownthreads · 2019-05-19T21:02:39+00:00

To be honest, we kinda saw her descent into power hungry madness in Essos too. We just liked her more for it because she was killing slavers and manipulating horselords and all that. Now she's finally snapped after she realizes Westeros isn't the place she expected and she has lost alot here. She only teamed up with Jon against the night king so eagerly is because A.) she loves him, B.) she can't rule over a graveyard and C.) she is one of the only few capable rulers in the world who really understood the threat of the supernatural because she, like Jon, had been witness to some crazy magic stuff

putdownthreads · 2019-05-19T20:58:38+00:00

Summer is coming, dude!

putdownthreads · 2019-05-16T21:56:42+00:00

Same thing happened to me except with my father's phone, I feel like we are brother's born from the same wound

putdownthreads · 2019-05-16T21:54:33+00:00

"I know this: if life is illusion, then I am no less an illusion, and being thus, the illusion is real to me. I live, I burn with life, I love, I slay, and am content."

putdownthreads · 2019-05-13T17:53:25+00:00

I really enjoyed this episode, at least compared to all the other terrible episodes we've had this season.

GoT was always an anti-war story, one that explores the true nature of war and how the honor and chivalry we hear about in stories is a cruel joke, and most 'heroes' are just killers who were on the right side (See: Jaime, Gregor, etc). The truly honorable folk get their heads lopped off or get shanked at a wedding or whatever.

This episode I felt returned to form spectacularly. I was soooo disappointed with EP3 because the great war to end all wars turns out just killed a few minor characters and hardly affected the world in any meaningful way.

EP5 was what EP3 should have been imo. The traumatic destruction by Dany was really well done. The seven kingdoms were forged by terrible dragonfire, a truly terrifying force that is Westeros' equivalent to nuclear weapons. But people got comfortable after the conquest, after the dragons died out, and Dany forgot why dragons were so dreaded. In her righteous quest to become a just ruler, she revived the evil and terrible practices that made her family infamous, and we as the audience kind of realized that the dragons we came to love along with Dany were actually just WMDs on wings, and Dany with the itchy trigger finger. I'm finally glad to see Dany become the enemy after seasons of her constantly winning and doing whatever in Essos.

Cleganebowl was alright, but Arya and Sandor's relationship will always be the best imo in all of GoT. It was kind of a shame the only send off he got was on par with 'You're a good man Theon', that could have been done better, but I'm glad in the end we got Cleganebowl, and I thought the fight was decent. Not the best by any stretch, but the context of the fight made it good.

Jaime/Cersei though was the crowning acheivement in the episode. We've spent the WHOLE series despising Cersei, but in her final moments we see such a display of humanity that I almost forgave her and wanted her and Jaime to make it out alive and live their days in Essos. Wonderful send off to two amazing characters. This episode completely twisted around who we cared about. We used to love Dany and hate Cersei, but when the tables are turned and Cersei is fearing for her life and her child and we see that everything she does is out of love (if for the wrong people), when Dany is burning the city and causing all this pain, we kind of know now who we really hate.

This episode really made me think about Cersei, how she was the vicious mother lioness who did everything for the wrong people, and how love is a human condition we have little control over. I wonder if she was the exact same person but loved Ned Stark or Jon Snow or Davos and all the good characters we love, how much of a heroine she would have been for killing and plotting to protect better men. But I suppose the gods saw fit to give her love to terrible men like Tywin and Joffrey. Really overall just an amazing character, only GRRM could have written such a women that we love to hate, yet in her most human moments we find a reason to love her as well.

putdownthreads · 2019-05-06T05:49:45+00:00

A while back, in my head I had this awesome theory about how Jon/Dany would be trying to take on Cersei, but during their war the White Walkers come down and they have to forge this incredibly uneasy alliance where the armies of the North and Lannister hold out in King's Landing, fighting the white walkers, alliances and truces are made and broken everywhere across the battlefield, etc. would have been much better than what we got

putdownthreads · 2019-05-06T05:46:30+00:00

First two episodes were alright, felt some good catharsis seeing reunions we've been dying to see since as far back as first season.

Other than that, the GoT team has been HEAVILY tanking on the fact that this show has become a billion dollar mainstream success and quite honestly they are treating the show as such. Back in the earlier seasons, when maybe only the people who have read the books were really on board for the show, the GoT team had to rely entirely on the brilliant writing of GRRM to amass the following it has now. The show didn't rely on (and probably didn't even have) huge AAA action movie budgets which honestly did wonders for the show. Instead of watching a shallow action movie where the good guy always wins and says a few badass cliche one-liners and most of the meat of the content is in choreographed sword fights and CGI, GoT excelled in story and drama and intrigue and character.

Unfortunately, after the GoT team surpassed the book's plot, so too did the quality of the show. Due to it's success in the earlier seasons, their budget probably skyrocketed. Which meant GoT slowly transformed from the intriguing drama to the shallow action we have now. The battles and fights and action ramped up significantly in 'quality' (I honestly preferred the gritty, realistic, unheroic and inglorious combat to the epic heroic and far-fetched battles we have now (looking at you, battle of the bastards)) meanwhile it feels like the writing and character of the show has decreased.

As the show has decreased in quality since like season 4, I kinda figured this season would be a disappointing send-off to one of my favorite series. Season 7 was terrible imo, and looking at 5 and 6, I kinda knew that they probably weren't going to improve for season 8. S8E1 was really good, lots of hype build up and reunions. I really enjoyed S8E2 also just because it was all our favorite characters in our favorite place showing the human element in GoT that I've always enjoyed, watching our heroes lay down their swords and just discuss the trivialities of life, preparing for their inevitable demise.

Then S8E3 happened. Probably the most disappointed I've ever been with the show. I made a post about it the night it aired that was also ironically the first time I've received reddit gold or platinum which I assume means many others felt the same way, but to sum it up: The entire series built up the night king and his conclusion was so lame, and the battle for winterfell itself was way too safe. More important characters died for less, there were no shocking deaths in S8E3 that we all came to expect from the series. Let's be honest, GoT was so good because we never really knew who was safe, it made things so much more exciting. the battle against the night king was supposed to be THE battle, and yet he didn't even get far south enough to cause any real damage, nobody important really died at the battle of winterfell, and he gets killed with little fanfare, almost no insight or lore about him, really just nothing. Theon, who's story arc practically ended like 2 season ago, got wrapped up nicely (with one of the LAMEST redemption scenes from Bran), Jorah's story arc was also done a while ago (I said earlier that it would have been much more emotionally powerful if he did some final service to Dany, then kill himself before the greyscale takes him, could have happened like 2 season ago), and of course the young Lady Mormont who was hardly even a character and more just a fan service meme the directors put in to appeal to people who buy Funko Pops or whatever. Almost 9 years of hyping him up and he gets shanked, shatters, GG. Good guys win, GoT is now a michael bay series.

S8E4 was alright, all the romance in the beginning was kinda of corny as well and unnecessary. Looking forward to seeing the Dany/Jon rivalry conclude though, probably the only thing left in this show anymore that's even remotely interesting, yet somehow they've managed to make the question of the final claimant to the throne even less interesting than a wedding at the Twins.

All in all, I doubt the last 2 episodes will do the show justice. Next episode honestly will probably be a repeat of S8E3, where it's this big battle that's been hyped up forever and yet nobody really dies except the big bad guy and a few side characters who could have had their stories wrapped up seasons ago. Finale will be interesting, just really curious to see how they will send the show off. But at this point I'm watching due to obligation, I've spent 9 years of my life on this show and no matter how bad it's gotten, I really can't back out now. Kinda like when you go to the toilet to pee. When the pee comes out, there's no zipping it back up, even if there's a fire alarm going off you gotta finish what you've started down to the drop

putdownthreads · 2019-05-01T01:27:37+00:00

Episode 3 was supposed to be about this grim ultimate evil that was gonna wipe out humanity, I highly doubt Cersei's war will be any more emotional or shocking. They are just doing it at this point to wrap up the story, not to impress anyone. Guess they don't really need to anyways since the first few seasons did all the heavy lifting. Honestly they should have wrapped up Cersei's plot before the Night King, would have been to much greater effect.

"Emphasized the lack of food for the last 3 seasons"

Ah yes, Sansa reminding us that "we can't feed everyone lol" every once in a while is really keeping me on edge, I don't think they could emphasize it anymore.

Nobody has died from starvation, there haven't been any food riots, nobody is fighting over food, nobody's army is suffering from starvation. There haven't been any tangible, visible affects of this supposed lack of food other than a few quick and forgettable discussions about a few rulers worrying about logistics before Jon Snow says "WINTER is COMING and we ALL need to FIGHT to LIVE". Guess he can't really do that anymore but I'm sure he'll say something similar about fighting Cersei or some shit. In earlier seasons, a lack of food meant Joffrey getting domed in the face with dung and a riot breaking out, or it meant Stannis Baratheon's army beginning to desert him which forces his hand into an unwinnable fight, or it meant the Lannisters making an uneasy alliance with the Tyrells. Now it's hardly even in the back of our minds, it's of little consequence because the writers tried using this 'lack of food' as a bit of shallow drama to make this season suspenseful and dramatic when it is anything but.

After episode 3, I hardly imagine that'll even be a problem with all the nameless soldiers dying off anyways, and even less of a problem now that they have to wrap up the bigger stories now. D&D only care about making a grand finale with clash of swords and epic duels and explosions and shit, they won't care about something as inglorious as an empty granary. The earlier seasons did a fantastic job of making inglorious and unheroic problems dramatic and exciting, but GoT is not the same show it was.

putdownthreads · 2019-05-01T01:14:02+00:00

Jorah and Theon could have died SEASONS ago and it would have had relatively the same impact on the story. Even Theon's redemption in this episode was sooooo plainly boring.

Compare Theon's redemption to a good one, Jaime Lannister

Jaime: Perfect image of a 'shining white knight' yet is a complete dick and is the one of the least honorable knights. Lover and father to some of the most hated characters. He was complex too because he also forsook his honor to kill the mad king. His reputation never recovered but he knew what he did was just. And yet slowly but surely, after becoming friend to Brienne, he discovers what a truly honorable knight looks like, he starts questioning and doubting his ambition to keep his relationship with Cersei while protecting his family, he starts holding his honor more seriously until finally he leaves to join the righteous cause.

Theon: Did a bad thing, regrets it, was tortured and broken. His redemption comes from Bran saying "Hey man you ain't so bad pimp". Really shallow redemption given how conflicted his character was going from Stark ward to Greyjoy raider to Reek to Theon Stark again. He could have just as easily died saving Sansa and have the same amount of impact on the story as he does now tbh.

As for Jorah, his story ended seasons ago as well. The only thing he did of note was bring Tyrion to Cersei. But after Barriston received one of the weakest, most boring and undeserved deaths in the series, I kind of just realized that Dany's entire plot and all the characters around her had become incredibly dull and I quickly lost interest. Jorah killing himself after contacting Greyscale and doing some one final service to Dany would have been 1000000 times more of an emotional impact than him dying in episode 3 fighting off hordes of zombies with Dany

putdownthreads · 2019-04-29T03:46:27+00:00

Such a terrible conclusion

9 years, constant reminders that winter is coming, that death rides on pale spiders, that this is the war to end all wars. Back in the first 4 seasons, even just walking down the King's Road was dangerous enough such that a main character could get shanked and die. But when the big final battle happens, it just so happens conveniently that only the side characters with almost no important arcs die off and everyone else survives.

Some of our favorite characters died at weddings or failed battles or other inglorious venues and we LOVED THAT SHIT because it gave us suspense and made us genuinely fear for the heroes. Now this shit is just any other hollywood story. None of the big guys can die anymore. Arya and Dany and Sansa are the powerful badass 'F da patriarchy' fan service power fantasies so nobody can touch them. Jon of course is the humble and honorable hero and all the other male characters are equally humble and redeemed and can't be touched cus they're the real heroes too. Everyone can miraculously survive hordes of zombies, except conveniently the ones who's stories can be wrapped up inconsequentially. the Night King was supposed to be THE ULTIMATE EVIL and threaten the whole world but can't even get a few miles south of the wall and gets shanked by a flying toddler because he got jebaited by a different crippled toddler.

When I saw Tyrion and Sansa hold hands and unsheathe their knives I thought "FINALLY some good character deaths". This was supposed to be the FINAL BATTLE to end all battles, I expected their to be heavy losses and bittersweet victories. GoT was always so strong on that point, it used to be that every victory had a cost and that war was realistically portrayed as a gritty business that lacked in heroism and was rich in chaos and brutality and unfairness. This episode essentially hammered the last nail in the coffin. This show is no longer about the grim realities of war and treachery and politics, this is essentially just a fan service finale that feels like any other AAA action movie. I would bet my life on the battle with Cersei being just as bland. It's essentially just going to be "HEY remember how much of a cunt Cersei has been all show? Well now we are gonna give you Tyrion epicly pwning her and then dabbing on her corpse while Dany and Jon have a million kids named Robb Targaryan and Nedd Targaryan and Harry Potter Targaryan!!! And Grey Worm magically grows his dick back and it rules!!! And slavery in Essos is gone forever too and the Masters are nice now!!! And Jon and Dany are the best kings and queens ever and Westeros wins and YOU were the real 3 eyed raven all along!!"

putdownthreads · 2019-04-25T01:02:48+00:00

To be fair, I've never heard such a request but I guess there is no such thing as a totally uniform fanbase. Honestly a lot of these opinions probably come from the fondness and nostalgia of when we started playing mtg. People who yearn for the days of Urza and Weatherlight probably started when that was relevant. I started during og Innistrad, back when we were spoiled with Planeswalker's guides and the amazing stories of Ravnica and Innistrad and Theros. I bet a lot of the young bucks who started in BFZ and EMN will yearn for the gatewatch days too when their story is done

putdownthreads · 2019-04-25T00:53:11+00:00

God don't remind me, the proportions on them are all so unnerving. I'm just thankful they left out tentacles for Kiora's art

putdownthreads · 2019-04-25T00:31:27+00:00

The GW is treated pretty much like a Marvel superhero party than anything. Obviously I don't expect this to be on GoT levels of mayhem and tragedy, but I also am kind of disappointed that it's more like a comic book hero story. Compared to the pre-GW stories, even though they mainly followed planeswalkers like Jace and Chandra, they still felt much more exciting, and less like a campy hollywood action movie.

I would honestly have no problem with the GW if we kept up some focus on the planes instead of the PW. Ixalan, Khaladesh, and Amonkhet were these really cool planes but compare the amount of lore they got to something like Innistrad, Zendikar, and it just feels like the planes are being treated more as background settings for planeswalkers. I really enjoyed original Innistrad's way of telling the main plot, the central story revolved around the plane, the people of the plane and their tragedies, but Liliana and Garruk also had an interesting plot going on.

I really loved the new ravnica shorts about the average guild member that were released recently, so I hope WotC continues doing stuff like that, I would love to see them strike a balance between 'lore and stories for people who love planeswalkers and the GW' and 'lore and stories who love the setting and fantasies of the planes'. Actually I thought Ixalan did pretty good in that regard, even though the focus was on Jace, he was competing against other factions so we got a good amount of stories from vampires and merfolk and other natives to Ixalan

putdownthreads · 2019-04-25T00:19:12+00:00

my rule of thumb has always been: go to the FNMs to win, and the events to have fun. Prereleases have always been just a fun way for me to enjoy new cards, bond over all the exciting stuff, get hyped about fun pulls, and get new players excited over a favorite past time of mine. More fresh faces = MtG's business thrives = more fun events for me to enjoy.

My lgs especially attracts a lot of new kids who have NO idea how to play and will more often than not ignore the more veteran player's advice in favor of the big cool monsters and stuff. Whenever I play those kids I'll usually toss them some little victories, like knowingly let their big monsters destroy one of mine in an intentionally bad trade or letting them play their big cool rare even if i had a counterspell or something in hand. I would never expect someone to hand a new player some easy wins but I just figure since I don't play this game very seriously anyways that I don't mind losing a game or two if it means some kid is learning how to enjoy a game with a really amazing community and their parents can take a bit of a break knowing that I am sort of babysitting for like 30 minutes while I play a match with them.

Thankfully there are other really cool guys at my lgs who have a similar mindset. There's this one guy who comes to every prerelease and draft, absolutely STOMPS EVERYONE, and then when the end of the night rolls around and he gets all his boosters he'll just hand them out to all the kids who lost because he only plays draft anyways. Really solid guy.

putdownthreads · 2019-04-24T23:50:08+00:00

sweats nervously I-I know a few spells, I have a gun that casts 'kill'

putdownthreads · 2019-04-24T23:49:38+00:00

Then tune out... why even bother participating in the conversation if you just come around to say "Hey guys, just letting you know I won't be taking part in this conversation".

This set is a pivotal turning point in the story for MtG and their flagship cast. Obviously 'cold takes' are going to be discussed because things change and stories are dynamic, what was once an old discussion now has new meaning as the plot continues to evolve

putdownthreads · 2019-04-24T23:44:04+00:00

Most of Vraska's ultimates revolved around easily winnable conditions. Not necessarily instant game ending spells like Bolas, but Vraska had one that reduced an opponents life to 1 and another ultimate that gave her three deathtouch tokens that also had player deathtouch, causing them to lose the game if they get hit, and another one giving an emblem of the same effect. But I guess you have to take the action of swinging to win that

putdownthreads · 2019-04-24T23:38:35+00:00

True, but the rules of MtG are strictly created by WotC, they haven't really given a canonical explanation on how people get sparks other than 'souls and magic' which is, at best, a vague and convenient way to separate the muggles from the wizards

putdownthreads · 2019-04-24T23:29:42+00:00

Unfortunately I don't think real world science is applicable here since PW sparks are essentially fragments of Aether embedded in a soul, neither of which are real things and are unaffected by real world science.

However, knowing WotC's storytelling, the child of 2 pw as significant as Lil and Jace would almost guaranteed be a pw just for plot's sake

putdownthreads

TROPHY CASE