Game of Thrones

[Avaitor]

I think my guy at the flea market might have a copy of the first season for cheap. I'm not sure if it's the DVD or Blu, though, but if it is the Blu, I'll try to save so I can buy and watch it with my mom.

Maybe I'll even try to get my copies of the first 2 books back from my friend and read the first again at the same time, and post notes on here.

[Dr. Insomniac]

116 minute finale. GoT version of the Super Bowl starts in 80 minutes. There will be no survivors.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I was wondering how they were going to wrap up all of the unfinished plot-threads in just a single episode. Shit just got real. Yet, the only thing that I really care about that much is what will happen to Tyrion, and to a lesser degree, Jon Snow. I'm just going to go in assuming that they're both fucked from the get-go.

[Dr. Insomniac]

So GRRM was misinformed, and the episode is 66 minutes rather than feature-length. Still enough for a packed finale.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

This is my disappointed face:

[Dr. Insomniac]

This show just made me cry.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I'm not going to lie....I'm going to miss Tywin. Sure, he was a villain (you could argue otherwise, but he's still mostly portrayed as an antagonist), but he was a damn well-written character, and Charles Dance was arguably the best actor on the show, IMO. At the same time, I have to kind of admit that I love the humiliation of such a so-called "dignified" man being killed in the most undignified way: while taking a shit. That was seriously low, even if Tyrion had been wronged by him to such a degree.

In all seriousness, though, I'm mostly pleased with how the season ended. I'm most excited to see where Arya's story will head in season 5, but since that's a year off, it looks like I'll be finding out via the booms until then.

[Dr. Insomniac]

And too bad that Brienne forgot to show Arya the pastry Hot Pie made to show she was telling the truth.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

You know, I was hoping that scene would pay off, but it didn't. To be fair to Brienne, it's easy to forget about such a thing when put on the spot like that.

[GregX]

Loved it! LOVED IT! LOVED IT!

Tywin's death was a bittersweet moment. He had it coming, but I'm going to miss Charles Dance as Tywin. And for personal reasons, it was also a very cathartic moment for me.

More to say later, but I loved it!

[GregX]

Full thoughts here: http://gregxb.blogspot.com/2014/06/valar-morghulis.html

And last night I was informed that Marvel submitted the "actor" who plays Grant Ward on AoS for an Emmy. So, I was scrolling through the list and look who was directly below him, alphabetical order. I couldn't resist.

[Avaitor]

Ultimately, I don't think that this season was as strong as the past 2, but you really do have to give it credit for shaking things up from the series so far. The big holy shit moments that are usually saved for the penultimate episode were spaced apart for the second and last, sticking to the book's chronology. Meanwhile, there have been more and more changes to the storylines in the books, for Bran and Arya in particular, and for the most part, they work. There are a couple of things that haven't worked, but it's another solid year.

And yes, the finale was excellent. I can't decide if I'd rather see Peter Dinklage or Charles Dance win the Emmy this year.

[Skeeter Valentine]

They majorly fucked up Tyrion's escape. He's supposed to curse his brother for betraying him and swear revenge on him. Also, the whole reason Tyrion killer Tywin was because he was enraged about his father's role in killing his first love and lying about it. It didn't have diddly dick to do with Shae, whom Tyrion was glad to have killed as she was a lying whore.

And for personal reasons, it was also a very cathartic moment for me.

[Dr. Insomniac]

While Season 4 was very good, it did seem to affirm the old joke South Park made about when things will actually happen or not. Like Stannis' arc, where it took him last season and this one to quit moping about losing in Blackwater and do something that could make gains for a potential reign. Arcs like the Sansa/Littlefinger one have good enough pacing, but then there are ones like Jaime's redemption plot that give the character little development for what takes place throughout ten episodes.

[Avaitor]

In hindsight, I do wonder if it would have been better for the show to have a 16 or so-episode third season cut in 2 parts, rather than cut the third book in two full seasons, which they did here. With less episodes, there would have been more time to trim the fat and hopefully cut out some of the elements that didn't work, like the Jaime and Cersei scene, to put extra focus on development.