GAME OF THRONES - PART 7 - *NO BOOK TALK - READ THE RULES*

Emilia Clarke is a painfully bad actress

Freeza wrote:Emilia Clarke is a painfully bad actress

She. Can. Only. Speak. In. One. Tone.

I don't know why Blackwater is so well regarded... watched it 3 times now and I have no idea what's going on and where any of the characters are at different times.

Don't think there were any establishing shots in the entire episode. So confusing.

Blackwater was awesome but one of the weaker big battles in game of thrones for me.

Bastards>>>>>>>>>>>
Hardhome
Watchers on the wall
Blackwater

Think I agree with Freeza. I remembered Blackwater as a great episode but my flatmate recently started watching the show and we watched Blackwater together. Both agreed that it was actually quite generic. Not bad but far from great.

Blackwater was the best battle episode though, by far the best character moments (Cersei considering suicide, Trion's speech, the f*** the king moment). Bastards was the best battle from a military standpoint.

BarrileteCosmico wrote:Blackwater was the best battle episode though, by far the best character moments (Cersei considering suicide, Trion's speech, the f*** the king moment). Bastards was the best battle from a military standpoint.

Well I'll have to see how the other battles hold up watching them again.
Didn't really like Tyrions speech. That was actually one of the points that I remembered a lot better than it actually was. *bleep* the king was still great though.
It's true the episode has its good moments but I think the battle itself isn't anything special.

The blackwater episode was great not because of the battle but because of all the implications and characters.

For Hardhome and Battle of the Bastards it was battles like I don't really remember watching before.

Blackwater's battle scenes were absolutely atrocious compared to later battles imo. I had no idea what was going on

There also was no finish to it. Which seemed weird. They probably spent the entire budget on wildfire and didn't have the money that could make the battle make sense.

Episode 10 of that season is much better imo.


Cersei's moment with Sansa was amazing though. Great character.

Time to resub for HBO

Kinda makes sense that the budget and battles would improve as popularity and budget increase?

But as an episode Blackwater is better than Bastards. In Bastards you have non sensical decisions and cheap twists like Jon ruining the entire battle plan, Youngest Stark not sig sagging or making any effort to avoid the arrows, Sansa hiding her army, etc. The battle was much better, but the writing regressed.

Youngest stark not running zig zag is bad writing now? Would you expect a kid that age to be smart enough to do that? He most likely hasn't seen Apocalypto.
There's just as many stupid actions in Blackwater as other episodes. Stan is being stubborn and killing the rest of his army. Deus ex Machinas galore to end the battle. Cersei keep saying they need Ilyn to help them die, then leaves. Sansa staying in King's Landing.

Yeah so much better.

Fact is the battle was impossible to have any sort of spatial awareness in. That's not a good thing.

I don't consider any of that bad writing. Everything included, one of the best episodes for me.

Characters being human and making bad decision isn't bad writing. If they are indeed well written characters, then we can't expect them to be perfect. Nothing there was particularly out of character for any of them.

Don't consider either of the episodes written particularly well () but the zigzagging part isn't bad writing really.

Bad writing isn't characters being stupid, but characters acting out of character.

Bad writing would be Ned Stark being Jon Snow's father. It goes against everything about his character.

Good writing is Ned Stark being naive/stupid because they fit the character.

Freeza wrote:Bad writing isn't characters being stupid, but characters acting out of character.

Bad writing would be Ned Stark being Jon Snow's father. It goes against everything about his character.

Good writing is Ned Stark being naive/stupid because they fit the character.

Precisely, Sansa not telling Jon about her army is out of character because of her loyalty to Jon (only surviving kin that she knows of) and she wouldn't hesitate to save more northerner lives. It would only have made sense if she was making a play for queen in the north, but then she stepped aside and let Jon take the crown. It was completely illogical and out of character, thus it was bad writing.

Not sig sagging was as well, at the time it was rightly criticized by nearly everyone, but not as big a deal.

I don't agree with those two points though. I thought they fit. How was that stupid kid supposed to know anything?

Might change my opinion once I get there.

Bad writing was Wun Wun fighting off Boltons with his bare hands when it was already established in Hardhome that he can can wreck zombies with a log if he wanted to. Bad writing is also a hail of arrows hitting everyone but Jon.

I wished the earlier seasons had the budget the show has now. They actually had the iconic chain part on Blackwater but had to cut it because it did not fit the budget. If you think thats disappointing TWO major battles were cut from season 1. Whispering Wood skipped over to Jaime being caught and they avoided the decoy battle by knocking out Tyrion. The showrunners wanted both battles to be shown on screen.

I always read Jon not getting hit with arrows as divine intervention or a metaphor/subjective camera.

It's the same reason he survived when he first faced that OP wight in that rescue mission.

He has the biggest plot armour in the book/series.

To be fair (just thought about it as we talked about Blackwater) Stannis had some pretty impressive plot armor in that episode as well.
I think in the books Tyrion might actually edge Jons though

RealGunner wrote:It's the same reason he survived when he first faced that OP wight in that rescue mission.

He has the biggest plot armour in the book/series.

well he couldn't die (for real) until his real parents were revealed, now he is fair game

Actually can't predict his end game.

I do think GRRM has something bad planned for him. Either turning him into the next night king or being killed by Arya. But he is going to survive till the last 3-4 chapters at least.

Can't wait for the reveal of the time traveling fetus tbh

Lady Olenna just showed up. She's my main man

RealGunner wrote:Actually can't predict his end game.

I do think GRRM has something bad planned for him. Either turning him into the next night king or being killed by Arya. But he is going to survive till the last 3-4 chapters at least.

At this point (and probably all points ) its hard to predict most of the end games for any of the main characters. At this point everyone seems 100% fair game except imo Dany surviving whatever westerosi war to face off against the others.