So much stupid shit in this episode. My favourite is everything involved in the ambush on Dany et al. No scouts? Not able to see a fleet from the air? Not looking out for that fleet which you were literally discussing a couple of scenes back? The same fleet who had fucked you up before? How were there three perfect strikes to kill the one dragon, yet they completely miss the second one which is flying right at them? Why is the dragon so easy to kill anyway? How are those weapons destroying the ships like cannons? Why did they capture Dany's translator and not anyone else? Why didn't they just massacre the lot of them?

Especially this scene and the final scene demonstrate that the writers have put zero thought into this last season.

Yeah I've let this episode stew inside my head for a day and I have reached the point of being more excited for the next The Walking Dead season than for the last two GoT's.

Been reading the posts here and I can't help but to agree with most of them. Unless the last two episodes are epic as epic can be what we'll have is a pretty disappointing final season. From the beginning everything feels rushed like the writers just want to get the whole thing over.

To be fair, this started to happen on the previou seasons. If anyone remembers Dany had an allegiance with both Dorne and Highgarden and it took pretty much one scene each to get them out of the picture. In this season, it happen again with the dothraki army, the Nigt King and Rhaegal.

IMO, the Dorne/Highgarden/Dothraki thing and the death of Rhaegal was just a way to undermine Dany's power in a way to make Cersei more of a threat.

Again, really hoping the last two episodes are better.

So why won't Cersei pierce Dany at the gates where she so foolishly appeared and even took her last dragon with her. I mean what the fuck, this whole season they've talked about how NOT to trust Cersei but she just positions herself on the range of a legion of bolt throwers.

Stupid shit, silly shit, stupid shit...

Game of Thrones has had massive time/space problems for the past two seasons and it continues here. One second they are in Winterfell and the next confronting Cersei. Last episode Jon Snow was riding his dragon, then next second he was on top of the wall and then just shortly thereafter back on the dragon. It just feels so rushed. I would have prefered either a shorter storyline that they could have more time with or that they take better care of how they present a faster tempo.

And then there's the small stuff like Jon Snow's speech at the lighting of the dead soldiers. Why on earth would he do the speech with all the living people behind him so that no one could hear him? And why would Tyrion almost whisper to Cercei when she is so far away and on top of that high up on the castle wall?

The show looks amazing (with the possible exception of the battle against the dead which was to dark) but they story is executed so sloppy and has been for seasons 6, 7 and 8. It's a shame because I really liked the show before that.

The fast travel issue doesn't really bother me. After all what good would it do if there was endless scenes of armies roaming from one place to another.

On the other hand, dumb writting deicisions like Dany not spotting a massive fleet coming while she's flying is another thing. If the writers wanted to get rid of yet another dragon they should have done it in a more believable way. Like Dany actually seeing Euron's fleet coming and in the during the battle Rhaegal gets hit.

The last episode was pretty stupid and I'm excited for this shit to wrap up. Society's obsession with it is torture. You can't go anywhere without seeing GOT plastered everywhere.

Yeah the fleet vs Dragon scene was beyond stupid. Very painful to watch. The confrontation at the gate was idiotic too.

I disagree about the fast travel though, it's been a problem since the last few seasons, culminating in the garbage that was Beyond the Wall in S7, and now it's possibly even worse because it can be measured by Cersei's pregnancy and, well... You expect me to believe that between Jaime leaving King's Landing at the end of S7 and now, less than 4 months have passed? Fucking please lol

Oh to make it even worse than that Morri, Dany and crew *still* have the cuts and wounds from the Battle of Winterfell when they're at King's Landing!

The best thing by far in this season is the memes. I don't remember so many good memes coming out so fast with the previous seasons, and I guess the exceptionally bad quality of the show contributes to that.

I think most people are past the grieving stage and have accepted a state of complete absurdism. I know I have, those Varys dry heaving memes are amazing.

Seriously. I live for those Imgur recaps now. They're more entertaining than the show

idk, personally I've found this season to be a lot more satisfying and rewarding than seasons 5 and 7, which i would call the nadirs of the show. Yes, the issues with fast travel and doing the direwolves dirty are all still present, etc. It does still feel rushed, shortening the seasons down from 10 episodes is definitely a tragedy that will haunt the show forever.

But I don't know, I'm really enjoying where the characters are at and some of the twists and turns. Theon and Jorah are among my favorite characters and their deaths felt very appropriate. Arya taking out the Night King was a great surprise, and geographically it just makes more sense to end the threat in the North and consider the last few episodes the denouement that winds down all the characters we've been following this whole time. Although the writers say they have known that Arya will end the WWs for about 3 years now, which is about the time when the show diverged from the books, so hopefully it will go differently in the books (something I'm hoping about a lot of details, just to maintain the surprise factor). Rhaegal's death was really shocking, the first death that genuinely shocked me in the style of the early seasons in a long ass time.

I have definitely been very critical of the past few seasons of the show, but idk, I just can't bring myself to analyze it and nitpick it to death again. I've given up on the cynicism and just want to enjoy the final season and the show can finally go away. Only read the books once, gonna read them again soon and I'm sure I'll be reminded of all the intense detail and finely articulate development that the show has been missing

I didn't realize just how little sense the Battle of Winterfell made until I watched this video. Good god. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GI7zy1P ... kZK6kWyktU

Well, a show that is paced in a way that suspends disbelief will always be better than a show that doesn't. A pace that makes more sense would make the past 2,5 seasons a lot better because it would be closer to what the earlier seasons were (where we didn't get all that much of the time and space travel stuff).

Oh boy, I reckon this episode will have quite the reaction!

Not sure how I feel, I somewhat like Dany being a ruthless conqueror. In the books, when she conquers Astapor, she actually has her army kill any non-slave above the age of 12, which is quite the massacre, so there is some precedent to her being like this.
However, in the context of the TV series, this comes somewhat out of nowhere. It almost looked like the bells is what triggered her, in a "Rambo Vietnam flashback PTSD" or something.

I was hoping it wouldn't be this one-sided, but a dragon is quite overpowered anyway.

So after making the Iron Fleet out to be this huge threat last episode, they get nuked in 30 seconds flat? The soldiers in King's Landing basically wilt from a mean look? Arya with MEGA plot armor? Euron, Jaime AND Cersei apparently all went out with a whimper. Fucking hell.

So I guess Jaime's entire character arc was a PSA warning us about the signs of early onset alzheimer's.

This was bad, very bad.

Death by bricks. Well, at the very least it was surprising. Bad, but surprising.

Maggy got the prophecy all wrong. It wasn't the Valonqar that would do Cersei in. What she actually meant to say was the Valyrian word for limestone.

For the first time in a while I'm speechless with this show.

Not quite the way I wanted though.

The Arya Stark focus has been so annoying as well. They missed the opportunity to give us a suspenseful shellshock moment with Davos escaping King's Landing. The guy came from Flea Bottom for fucks sake!

Finally caught up on all episodes. Started from the very beginning with my girlfriend a few months ago.

My favorite thing about this season is how many times I've been surprised. My least favorite thing is every-fucking-thing else! They started telegraphing big Ds breakdown from almost the first scene. Some of my favorite characters reacting to her has been VERY disappointing. Basically this season has been a fucking heartbreaker.

I didn't mind the Arya focus. It reminded us that Arya, underneath all her assassin bravado, is still human and not some unshakable force of death. But I would have liked the Davos scenario just as much. Her and Sandor were the best part of the episode characterwise.

We did get a taste of old GoT by finding out Varys was (probably) trying to poison Dany, but as with most of this season it came and went too fast..

This was the first episode of this season, and one of the very few the last three seasons, where I had that awesome feeling watching it like the early GOT- episodes could give me.

This wasn't what I expected it to be. They telegraphed that the battle would be one-sided but I figured they did it because it wasn't going to be so it was a nice surprise. I love the feeling when it went all silent and then the church bells started ringing and I thought Danys turn made sense and made the character more interesting (rather than just the sort of liberator of slaves person she has portrayed).

I was also so happy with the fighting scenes. I usually zone out during long fighting scenes but GOT has been doing them great (except the Night King battle which was good but not great). Perhaps I like it more since I've been watching the horrible fight scenes from 3 Marvel movies recently (which is all action and no thought whatsoever).

So for all the critique I've had of the show the past couple of seasons this was an episode I enjoyed a lot. Both how it was executed and the way the story developed. I'm glad it isn't the ending we (or at least I) came to expect (that is Dany/Snow vs Cercei).

I think we might have our cake and eat it too, with this one. I like the contrast between Arya the Assassin being the perfect tool to get the job done re: The Night King, but then two episodes later she's fucking useless against a flying death machine turning King's Landing into Dresden. But, I mean, the episode ended with her hauling ass out of King's Landing on the white horse from Twin Peaks, so maybe the next episode will start with Davos in Flea Bottom, trying to help who he can, and looking for Jon so they can figure out what to do about Dany (and Grey Worm).

I liked this one more than the previous two by a lot. The dragon was the invincible force of destruction it always should have been, though of course contrasting that with episode 4 is hilariously inconsistent. But whatever, they did right by dragons this time. Cleganebowl went well in theory, but something about it was off for me and it came across as cheesy. I think it was the lighting/green screening against that backdrop that just didn't look very good, and The Mountain was gross, sure, but kinda silly looking to be honest. I did like Qyburn getting obliterated by him, though.

Let's see how this shitshow finishes things.

Anyone else feel like maybe they needed more than one season to wrap all this up? I feel like they've crammed so much plot progression into each episode that it feels "off" compared to the overall arc.

The biggest example would be Dany. I mean her whole demeanor basically switched on a dime when she learned about Jon's true history. There was no.subtlety. It was as if the writing staff pulled down on a big goofy red switch labeled "BAD GUY".

Also the way Jaime's story concluded was definitely a letdown. He's been one of the most dynamic, interesting characters. Full of evil and more wholesome motivations both. I expected more from his storyline.

Everyone feels that way, man. Honestly it's pretty heartbreaking to me. Seasons 1 - 6 were phenomenal and so well paced (I know a lot of people point to season 6 as the beginning of the decline, and sure, but it still had some of the best episodes like "The Door," "Battle of the Bastards," and "The Winds of Winter." It still felt like the showrunners really cared and were dedicated to the story) but now ever since season 7 it just feels like they've been rushing and scrambling to wrap everything up in such a haphazard, half-baked way. Why? I honestly don't understand it for the life of me.

Aside from a few glaringly stupid moments (Drogon suddenly being invincible to the scorpions; Euron) "The Bells" worked fine for me as a stand-alone episode. But as the penultimate episode of the entire series it's a fucking mess. Dany turning Mad Targaryen should have taken place at the outset of a whole season. That's really the "twist" they pull at the very fucking end? Ugh. It seriously seems like we need another whole season to wrap everything up, but instead we have one single episode, and even a season couldn't repair the damage that's already happened to the story/characters. It wouldn't even surprise me if we get nothing from Bran/Sansa in the North next Sunday. What the absolute hell.

Bring on Book 6, George. We all need it now more than ever before.

All in all I enjoyed the episode. It had a lot of negatives but that whole mayhem part totally made up for that. Again, like episode 3, spectacle over substance, though the story here was better handled mostly. And well, I like this kind of spectacle, if nothing else. It was also nice to see some gory moments with hands getting chopped off and things like that, it's been a long time.

What I disliked:
Everything related to Jaime going back to Cersei.
Fucking Euron coming out again of nowhere, at the right time, just because we're told he's a "bad guy." I didn't even understand where Jaime was stabbed and how serious it was supposed to be. They could have spent the time wasted on that fight in Cleganebowl but whatever.
Varys dying like that and so fast. Or rather, getting caught so easily. Fucking Varys never works like that in the open. That's his thing, not running right at Jon telling him "you're a Targaryen and I'm betraying Daenerys for you." Of course they had to get Melisandre's prophecy done somehow, and he sent letters everywhere, but whatever. He's not the first character to get butchered anyway, but I still liked him a lot, since his first appearance. He's probably at the top of my "He deserved a better death" list now.
And of course, how easy they made it seem with just one dragon. On the one hand they finally showed a dragon's full potential, especially at destroying whole cities and not just armies who soon get ran over by dothrakis. On the other hand, they already showed us how easily dragons can be killed. What the fuck? I still find it miserable that they didn't give another dragon kill to the Undead army instead of Euron. One from the Night King, and then a second one "simply" by wights, just to show that they really are dangerous even against fucking dragons.
Qyburn. I also liked this character a lot and, again, it's not like him to just stay there with "his queen" until they're both dead. He's smarter than hat. He should have fled at some point.

Otherwise I enjoyed watching that carnage. I half-expected her to go full Mad Targaryen before the episode, but holy shit not to this scale. I expected her to go on a frenzy on her way to kill Cersei (the Red Keep) and then either "waking up" or getting somehow killed by Jon.
I liked the fact that it didn't go for a "Cersei is now the villain" path. This is way better. We didn't get rid of the Undead army so "easily" to just go on with usual wars and politics. Now the dragon is a big fucking threat, so how they're going to deal with Daenerys should be interesting.
The destruction of King's Landing was an incredible thing to witness. Not only we had to see something similar to the Sack of King's Landing, but also how things would have gone if the Mad King burned them all, and with a fucking dragon! And, as with episode 3, that chaos was awesome. You just can't escape from a dragon destroying your city. Everywhere you go there's something falling over your head or fire trying to catch you. And it went on and on and on. I felt quite uncomfortable (in a good way) with how she kept on burning the city street by street.
And Cleganebowl. As nice as it was to finally see it really happen, I was a bit disappointed. I expected a more epic fight, without cuts to other characters. The setting was epic, a burning tower, a dragon flying in the background, it kind of reminded me of old Mortal Kombat stages, but the fight lacked some more epicness, some epic moves and whatnot. Basically more "spectacle," because that's all it is anyway.

Now I'm quite curious about the last episode. I don't expect it to be good though, this "twist" needs a whole season to resolve, as someone already mentioned, but we'll see how it goes. I'm expecting Tyrion to die. They made him make too many dumb decisions and he had so many warnings, it seems inevitable now.

Mostly satisfied with the end, other than it feel extremely rushed (as usual). The fallout in Kings Landing deserved its own episode, as does the denouement settling the characters down for the future.

Regardless, I LOVED how Jon’s story ended. Perfectly appropriate yet ironic, closing the book on both the Nights Watch and the Targaryens. One of the few elements from the “original seasons” that left me really content and I think it’s good enough to be how Jon ends up in the books.

Jon pets Ghost again, even though it was previously explained as being "too hard." Fuck off, D&D.

The bit with the dragon in the throne-room was contrived, and had shitty implications. Either dragons are smarter than we were led to believe*, which raises several questions, or it just happened because.


*In season 8 alone, this results in the Iron Fleet ambush making even less sense, and makes you wonder why Viserion didn't simply obliterate Winterfell and its defenders. He clearly showed that he could by blasting through the walls!

The one thing I didn't expect the last episode to be was boring. I'm thinking "Man, all these loose ends to tie up, it's going to be packed with content!". Uhhhhh, nope. It was so boring. Jon Snow did the thing we all knew he was gonna do within 15 minutes, and then the rest of the episode just sort of existed. It was so bland. I spent most of the episode just waiting for it to end. I was glad to see a little nod to Bronn and Ser Davos being cheeky and adorable, but even that part felt like some really forced levity where it maybe didn't fit quite yet. I thought Jon getting sentenced back to Castle Black was incredibly goofy. Cyclical in a comedic, "Not this a-fucking-gain" way, rather than something that comes satisfyingly full circle. I'm glad that everyone's favorite ginger was there to greet him but my god it was just so BLAND. Everything that happened after Jon/Dany was incredibly tedious to me.

The journey was amazing but this last season was a catastrophic failure in my book.

Edit: In an effort not to be a complete turd here are the parts I enjoyed: Jon doing the thing. Brienne filling out the rest of Jaime's story. Arya sailing off for more adventures. Davos and Bronn torturing each other for all time.

(The silly humor of the small council meeting honestly felt way out of place to me, even if I enjoy them bantering. Shit, I guess I'm still a complete turd!)

The one thing that felt satisfying to me was Sansa getting crowned Queen of the North. One of the few major character arcs that wasn't screwed up in this last season. Arya's ending was pretty cool as well I guess. The "off to more adventures" type ending fits her.

That multiple weeks long skip after Daenerys's death was the laziest shit. How the hell did Jon or whoever else manage to stop Greyworm from ordering the Unsullied and the Dothraki to murder them all after that? The dude was literally slitting the throats of prisoners 15 min earlier.

Yeah, so much dumb writing even in this episode. I actually thought the Jon-murders-Dany scene was kind of lame, too - he fucking knifed her right as she was showing the most humanity and decency she's had since she went bad. That convo should have gone with these beats: 1) Jon walks in and we can guess and it's tense and awkward, 2) she shows some emotion and we get some heartstrings tugged at and we think maybe he's not gonna do it (as if they have chemistry, lol), 3) she makes some fucking evil comment or flash of even more deranged madness or whatever that forces his hand. But nah, just some generic "we gotta free everyone" "I love you so much" "samesies" *gutknifed*

But anyway...I honestly don't know or even really give a fuck if they intended there to indicate that Bran was playing the long con and let everything happen exactly as it did just so...he could be king? Even though he claimed he didn't want to? What the fuck? Bran is like barely a character at this point. He's a guy who stares ominously off into the distance and says a monotone creepy sentence sometimes. And why is he King Bran the Broken? That's fucked. Why does Sansa know how his dick works? Why did Theon's sister laugh her ass off at the concept of voting for a king even though that's exactly what her kingdom does? Why did Bran tease that he's gonna warg into Drogon and then we don't see that?

But most of all...why didn't Tyrion reveal Jon's true parentage at that meeting, everyone picks Jon, setting him free because the Unsullied aren't so goddamn dumb that they'd fight a war against everyone in Westeros over that, then Jon declines and gives it to Bran since Bran would probably be his heir anyway, then Bran tells the Unsullied to fuck right off out of Westeros. Bran gets a vision of a new Night King forming in the North, Jon takes the black as is his duty instead of out of punishment (though he thinks of it as punishment for what he did), and we see Bran warg into Drogon to either bring him back to the wall or plunge him into the sea so that he can't go cause more problems. Gimme $20 for my efforts, thanks GRRM.

I thought the final decision to kill her was when he asked her what happens to the people who have different ideas about what's good and she said "they don't get to decide." That was the moment. Did you miss that?

No, it was evident, actually, the way Daenarys said almost the same words Tyrion said a couple of minutes earlier made the entire thing almost comical.

The way they took away Jon's spine this season is really disgusting. "We don't butcher prisoners! Oh, I guess we do... Carry on then." Literally took away his defining character trait.

I didn't miss that at all, it was his complete non-reaction to the line, and how the conversation kept dragging on after that before he stabbed her later, that baffled me.

It's pretty funny how big the change.org petition has gotten. http://chng.it/FXQ5rvYYtN

Nothing's going to happen with it but it's funny to see that disappointment is just about everywhere with this show. It's not like a Star Wars or a Terminator where you know there will be the very vocal fans eviscerating the story and you're expecting shit on fire.

When it comes to the show's ending, I wasn't totally pissed about it, nowhere near as pissed as I was with the Night King battle. I like that they tried to just wrap things up and pretty much said to the audience that they're exhausted with this story and it's time to cap this bottle. The writers lost their zeal for it over the past decade and just want to move on. They've given up, it's pissed off a lot of people, but I was just fine with seeing it end and calling it a night with this show.

The books are another thing, I've got A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms on the way so it'll be nice to read some more stories in the lore.

Which are the books that are covered in the TV series? And which are not?