Game of Thrones

[Dr. Insomniac]

Yeah, Bronn's characterization lately has been awful. No reason at all for him to still be working for Jaime. I'm also annoyed by characters introduced late in the show having such erratic writing too, like Randyll Tarly. In his debut, they established him for two things, absolute loyalty to the House his family served, and his hatred for Sam if he dared besmirch their family's reputation. And now, he's betrayed the House his family served for poorly explained reasons, while doing nothing to Sam for taking the family sword and running off for the Citadel, with the leaks stating he'll die before even lifting a finger to even intimidate his son. What a waste.

I guess seeing Drogon light the Lannisters on fire was cool to watch, but not as cool as D&D intended because I can't root for Dany when she's been hypocritical, an idiot planner, and played by an Emilia Clarke who's getting even more wooden by the episode. Perhaps I should commend them for not having Euron's ships teleport in the middle of the air and spear Drogon?

[Dr. Insomniac]

Wait, so Tormund's angry that Jorah's a Mormont, yet he had no problem serving alongside Lyanna last season? I guess we have an episode and a half until we get this long awaited aunt/nephew sex scene that the writers have painstakingly crafted to have as much chemistry as Anakin and Padme.

[Dr. Insomniac]

So I read the season 8 leaks, and... yeah. GRRM's editor needs to nab whatever manuscripts he's written for Winds and Dream and organize a Game of Thrones Brotherhood show years from now.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, can we all just assume that every Game of Thrones character has the Instant Transmission ability from Dragonball? Because, literally in the span of one afternoon, Jon and company hiked dozens of miles from the Wall (on foot as opposed to horseback), then sent Gendry back dozens of miles to the Wall, then had him send a Raven to Dragonstone, then had Danaerys fly with her Dragons all of the way back to the Wall and beyond to where they were, AND had her arrive just in the nick of time for some Deus Ex Machina bull-shit, then had her fly back, and then had Jon arrive on horseback while there was STILL fucking daylight in the sky....in the middle of Winter....and it wasn't even twilight.

And you know what....people are going to fucking ignore it. I watch YouTube reviewers and read published articles by professional TV critics about how great this season has been and how shit is finally going down, and not fucking one of them addresses the massive holes in logic or how this show has basically become the contrived and dramatically-convenient fantasy tripe that it used to be the antithesis to (you know, the whole thing that made it so fresh and interesting in the first place). It fucking bothers me that I'm somehow among the minority that actually seems to notice how pants-shittingly stupid the writing has become. And yes, from a film-making standpoint the directing is well done, the score for the show is amazing as it always has been, and the best actors still left do an amazing job like Rory McCann and Iain Glen (the bro moments between them, Tormund, and The Brotherhood were legitimately the best parts of this episode since it involved good actors actually getting to ignore the garbage plot and interact with each other in memorable ways).

And no, I'm not holding it against the show for being off-book, and I'm utterly sick of people using that excuse to defend it from any criticism from any book readers. If I hated the show for being too different from the books, I'd hate everything after season one because it starts taking a lot of liberties after that point. But I still stand by my opinion that everything up through season four, barring some flaws, is genuinely excellent television. However, when D&D ran out of source material to adapt completely, they basically turned the story into their own personal fan-fic, but it's hard for me to even enjoy it as that with writing this insultingly terrible.

The thing is, it doesn't bother me that characters we like actually win sometime for a change. That happens in the books, too....on multiple sides, which is kind of the point. It breaks down the pure good and evil archetypes of most fantasy, or even fiction in general, and rather than making it between pure good guys versus pure bad guys, the battle between good and evil happens internally within each character, and what you are left with is just people clashing with other people, rather than a one-dimensional army of monsters, and that's what makes the story interesting. And when big events happen, they don't just happen because it's convenient, and they certainly don't bail characters out of tight spots in the nick of time. When characters triumph, they have to earn those moments by either planning ahead of time or thinking quickly on their feet to find a way to survive. Their may be a little bit of luck involved, but it most certainly doesn't come in the form of three Dragons teleporting across half a continent to save them before they suffer any major losses. And if people are going to defend this by saying that both Thoros and one of the Dragons die in the battle with the White Walkers, I ask you if you honestly really give a shit about either of those characters other than their role in the story. Now Dany has one less Dragon to fight with (though, one was plenty to roast an entire army like it was nothing), and Thoros had been absent from the plot for many seasons to the point where I'd have to ask if you honestly felt any emotional weight whatsoever to this death for losing the character himself, as opposed to the party losing their White Mage and running out of Phoenix Downs?

[Dr. Insomniac]

I was more annoyed at the Arya and Sansa scenes, where Arya's pissed off at Sansa even though she knows that she was forced to write that letter under threat of death. Like she was going to endanger the Northern Lords' already shaky alliance just because Sansa wore a pretty dress when Ned got executed? A few episodes ago, she was ready to praise Sansa because she thought her sister killed Joffrey, and now she's taunting and threatening her for little reason? What the hell?

[Dr. Insomniac]

Preston had a very good point in this week's video: What's the point of catching a Wight? Daenerys was already willing to help in Jon's crusade, and he's gotten enough word from Sansa to know that Cersei wouldn't give a shit if White Walkers existed. Who was Jon hoping to convince?

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Preston had a very good point in this week's video: What's the point of catching a Wight? Daenerys was already willing to help in Jon's crusade, and he's gotten enough word from Sansa to know that Cersei wouldn't give a shit if White Walkers existed. Who was Jon hoping to convince?

Preston made an interesting point in an earlier video of how Jon's stupid decisions in the show would make a lot more sense if his encounter with death and being resurrected had a big emotional impact on him that left him drained and depressed and unable to go back to living his life like he used to, and thus it caused him to subconsciously make borderline suicidal decisions.

Unfortunately, D&D didn't actually write him that way. They didn't even change the character in any significant way, and most people seem to either completely ignore or regret that he came back from the dead, so he's not even Game of Thrones Jesus since nobody gives any more of a shit about him for essentially defying the laws of nature as has been known for the entirety of existence on Planetos. So I really have to wonder what was even the point of killing him in the show? Everything that happened since his resurrection could just as easily have happened if he didn't die in the first place. Unless the whole point of his death and resurrection was meant to make him more stupid and also gain the ability to convince other people that his nonsensical logic was actually a good idea? Because, you know, he definitely has that down, for whatever reason.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Well, time to watch cutscenes from Wrath of the Lich King and pretend that's season 8.

[Rynnec]

Adding discount Elric and Stormbringer is one way to get me to watch the show.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Was it intentional to make that Rhaegar/Lyanna flashback so schmaltzy in its romance, or did D&D forget that this scene means Rhaegar dumped Elia and disinherited their children rendering their deaths even more meaningless than they already were, while Lyanna now comes off as a homewrecker who unwittingly caused a war? Hammering home the fact that Jon and Dany are aunt and nephew while they were having sex was weird enough, but trying to paint Rhaegar and Lyanna as too loving and pure to live in Westeros when they caused all that bloodshed? Really?

So Lyanna doesn't tell her family in secret that she's not Rhaegar's prisoner, leading to her father and brother getting burned to death by Aerys. And not only that, but Rhaegar essentially doomed his family to near extinction, causing his mother to die in agonizing childbirth at Dragonstone, his child brother to live a horrible life only to have his scalp smelted by gold, and for the Lannisters to get their hands on the throne. By answering the mystery, Jon's birth parents are now horrible, stupid people who let countless lives and even their own family members die all because they let their hearts get in the way of common sense.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

While Jon's parents haven't been revealed in the books yet, it's almost certain to be R + L over there as well. The funny thing, though, is that taking a fantasy trope like that and showing its awful repercussions in a more realistic setting would be much in line with GRRM's writing style. However, for whatever reason the show wants to portray it as this magical and heartwarming thing that's meant to be seen as true love.

[Dr. Insomniac]

But even if they wanted to deconstruct that aspect of fantasy, it still sounds nonsensical, like Robert's Rebellion wouldn't have happened, or at least wouldn't have been as deadly, had Lyanna simply just told her family that she wasn't Rhaegar's prisoner so her brother and father wouldn't have gotten themselves killed by Aerys.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Eh, while it's a fair criticism in some regards, you're relying a bit too heavily on the show and some potential misinformation (or currently lacking information, for that matter) in the books to make that assertion.

There's a lot more reasons to why the rebellion happened than the one that the show gives. The Mad King had already pissed off several great houses long before the whole Lyanna incident, and the rebellion DID NOT immediately start after she eloped with Rhaegar. It was the unpredictable actions of the Mad King that started the war. Ned's father and elder brother went to King's Landing to confront Aerys about it in a civilized manner, as pissed off as they were. And more importantly they went with high ranking members of supporting great houses. Aerys essentially pulled a Joffrey and had them both executed in horrific ways, while either imprisoning or also executing anyone that came with them, which nobody could have predicted would happen.

We also have yet to learn of several key details of why Lyanna was so secretive since the books haven't even gotten to that reveal yet.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

And....https://youtu.be/zqj_GvdP1TE

Yep, as you would expect, Preston had a lot to say about this finale in particular. People really need to watch his breakdown of how fucking stupid the Littlefinger scene was. I have seen countless people on the Internet praising it and it just boggles my mind how anyone can't see how it makes not the slightest bit of fucking sense on any level.

What's even funnier is back a few weeks ago when Preston correctly predicted this exact scene happening verbatim on his podcast with RTR. It was especially funny when he mentioned something along the lines of how Sansa would probably follow it up with the wolf speech from the trailer, only to pause and then be hit with a sudden realization in which he blurted out: "Oh shit! They're totally going to do that! Oh no! I was just joking and they're actually going to do that! It's going to be so bad!" Seriously had me laughing my ass off, and it's even funnier now that his prediction came true.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Does anyone believe in the "Bran is the Night King" theory? Because even though it's stupid, makes little sense, and every post I've seen that knows of the theory is against it, I think D&D might actually make this happen.