Game of Thrones - mostly

[SuburbanFarmer]

My favorite ending - Dani and Jon ride into battle together and die gloriously. Tyrion takes it all.

[GloryofGreece]

Cersi dies by Jamie's hand
Danni and Jorah are done
Jon snow reins with Tyrion as hand
Hound kills or rekills his brother
All the dragons are gone
Magic is done

[StCapps]

It thinks it's a 70-hour movie, instead of a television show.

To me that's a feature not a bug. I can't stand regular standalone TV episodes anymore, like procedurals. These 8-13 episode seasons of one story are engrossing. Movies aren't as good at telling stories anymore, only spectacle, which is why great directors, writers and actors are doing premium TV these days.

All the best television shows, know that they are television shows, especially the 8-13 episodes seasons of one story. All of Game of Thrones best episodes are episodes that know they are television episodes, all their worst episode are when they jump from character to character, location to location, way too much, and little plot and character development occurs. When GoT drills down and focuses on smaller group of characters, in one or a few locations, and big events happen, those episodes are the best episodes in the series.

There is a reason movies aren't 70 hours long, because that would be terrible, and no one would watch it. If a television show that knows it's a television show does a real good 70-hour story arc, it ends up being better than a television show which tries to be a TV novel at the expense of episodes that cover significant portions of the season. Protip to Game of Thrones last season.

[Kath]

I'll simply say Khaleesi was always horrible as a character and the actress herself and the shorting of the last season was bullshit .

Why the hate? I think her journey has been pretty awesome.

My favorite ending - Dani and Jon ride into battle together and die gloriously. Tyrion takes it all.

I'm not feeling that.

Cersi dies by Jamie's hand
Danni and Jorah are done
Jon snow reins with Tyrion as hand
Hound kills or rekills his brother
All the dragons are gone
Magic is done

We shall see. I definitely think Jamie is going to kill Cercei. He'll make it quick; I prefer her to go down slowwwwwwwwwwwly and painfully.

[StCapps]

I'll simply say Khaleesi was always horrible as a character and the actress herself and the shorting of the last season was bullshit .

Why the hate? I think her journey has been pretty awesome.

Too much stalling until she came to Westeros, they kept her in the farm league too long, it's not her fault, it's Essos's fault, all the real shit of consequence is in Westeros. Look what happened when Arya took that detour to Essos, boring as fuck and just a stall until she got to do cool shit further down the road.

Lack of consequences insulated the character too much to make her storyline that interesting, it's really George R. R. Martin's fault. I don't blame the actress at all, she's doing a decent job with what she's been given, ain't her fault the writers kept her in the farm leagues for six seasons.

[Kath]

Too much stalling until she came to Westeros, they kept her in the farm league too long, it's not her fault, it's Essos's fault, all the real shit of consequence is in Westeros. Look what happened when Arya took that detour to Essos, boring as fuck and just a stall until she got to do cool shit further down the road.

Lack of consequences insulated the character too much to make her storyline that interesting, it's really George R. R. Martin's fault. I don't blame the actress at all, she's doing a decent job with what she's been given, ain't her fault the writers kept her in the farm leagues for six seasons.

Nah - she had zero things in Ep 1. Was she supposed to go to Westoros with three baby dragons and no army? That would have been dumb. I think it's been pretty perfectly timed. She let all the non-players kill each other off while she was building her team, including three dragons the size of 747s.

You can't get money, ships, an army & three airplane sized dragons in a few episodes. You'd be bitching non stop about how ridiculously fast she built her strength.

Talk about a snooze-fest journey; Arya didn't need to spend all that time in Bravos to become an assassin.

[StCapps]

Nah - she had zero things in Ep 1. Was she supposed to go to Westoros with three baby dragons and no army? That would have been dumb. I think it's been pretty perfectly timed. She let all the non-players kill each other off while she was building her team, including three dragons the size of 747s.

You can't get money, ships, an army & three airplane sized dragons in a few episodes. You'd be bitching non stop about how ridiculously fast she built her strength.

Talk about a snooze-fest journey; Arya didn't need to spend all that time in Bravos to become an assassin.

I get why they needed to keep her in the minor leagues, but that also puts the cap on how interesting her part of the story can be, until she finally starts doing shit in the majors. Her end of the story has been way more interesting since finally making the jump, and that's not a coincidence.

[doc_loliday]

Aya's only good scenes were with the hound. The many faced god arc was boring.

My wife wanted to watch it all again before the new season. The second time around I just fast forwarded pretty much everything with Daenarys (unless fighting dragons), Sansa, Aya (unless with the hound), Cersei, and Ygritte (unless in a fight scene). That old Pope dude got fastforwarded too. The only dialogue worth watching again is Tyrion's.

[Kath]

All the best television shows, know that they are television shows, especially the 8-13 episodes seasons of one story. All of Game of Thrones best episodes are episodes that know they are television episodes, all their worst episode are when they jump from character to character, location to location, way too much, and little plot and character development occurs.

As I was running through Season 5 last night, I realized how wrong you are about this. An entire episode devoted to Arya in Bravos, scrubbing floors & washing dead bodies, would not be good television. It would be unwatchable television. There are too many characters to give them each one episode in a season and call their story for that season done.

Not every episode is a gem, and this is the nature of story telling; sometimes you have to get through some less interesting stuff to get to the point, but it definitely adds to character development. Bopping around between some characters to catch up with them, to see what they have going on, is a solid way to tell a story when there are this many characters involved.

.....

Hardhome last night. Nerd enjoyed it! Now that's some good tv.

Aya's only good scenes were with the hound. The many faced god arc was boring.

My wife wanted to watch it all again before the new season. The second time around I just fast forwarded pretty much everything with Daenarys (unless fighting dragons), Sansa, Aya (unless with the hound), Cersei, and Ygritte (unless in a fight scene). That old Pope dude got fastforwarded too. The only dialogue worth watching again is Tyrion's.

You skip by Cersei? Dang.

Agree that the Arya/Hound time together was solid stuff. The developed mutual respect despite hating each other was well thought out, directed & acted.

[Kath]

I get why they needed to keep her in the minor leagues, but that also puts the cap on how interesting her part of the story can be, until she finally starts doing shit in the majors. Her end of the story has been way more interesting since finally making the jump, and that's not a coincidence.

Sure. Your point is that the climax of a story is more interesting than the non climax part of a story? The characters that have had 9 full seasons to date have all had less interesting parts of their journeys.