Here are my scatter-shooting thoughts.
1. Funny to see some of the biggest defenders come to the dark side this week.
2. Dany's turn was under-developed. This has been there from the beginning, but I think the show producers were too interested into making her a popular and completely likeable character that they put-off putting in the work to show this character turn that should have been done. Like so much the last three season, the ground work for this episode was just not laid out properly, which leaves it feeling very shallow and fake to a lot of viewers.
What is happening now is that the characters are being forced to certain plot points rather than developing to those moments naturally. This is further complicated by the producers keeping characters around or adding to their things to do list b/c of fan popularity.
3. Jon is the central character in this series and he is one of the least developed.
4. The Battle of Winterfell and the Battle at Kingslanding were done out of order. There is little doubt in my mind that originally Dany's turn to the bad side was supposed to proceed the battle with the Night King. Producers flipped the order b/c they did not want to have three episodes without Dany in it (either killed or run off or whatever).
5. Euron and Jaime fight was ridiculous. Ridiculous that Euron was even there and ridiculous that they would fight in the middle of all of that. Why? They were both on the same side for the moment. Just so forced. We've seen people put aside their differences repeatedly to try to survive, hard to believe that they wouldn't both go after Cersei and try to save her and then hash out their differences when things were safer.
Jaime's arch suffers the same as Dany's did. He got too popular. They started making him too likeable. They should've kept showing that he was still an ******* if in the end he was going to come back to Cersei. But the fans wanted Jaime + Brienne and the writers/producers are slaves to fandom rather than the story. Always ruins **** in the end in tv.
6. Perfect example of what I am talking about with the catering to fandom is the Clegane bowl. I have little doubt that the entire scene was nothing but fan service. Yeah, it is cool and all, but it just really kind of *******izes the story. Why did the Hound decide right then that he had to end his brother? How did the Hound even hang with the guy? The Mountain throws Qyburn into a wall and it kills him, but you're telling me that the Hound, who was bested by a woman not too long ago, can go toe to toe with that guy for that long? And why did he feel the need to end him? It kind of seemed like the Hound had found some inner peace and acceptance of his place in the world. He could've stayed at Winterfell and served Sansa, but instead he travels hundreds of miles to invade a fortress -burning- to the ground on a suicide mission to kill his brother? Why? Why now? I feel like that character could have had a more meaningful ending, but b/c everyone on twitter want 'CLEGANE BOWL, GET HYPED!" or whatever, this is what we get instead.
What you are seeing is the pigeon-holing of characters into fitting how the plot is supposed to resolve. It completely *******izes their character arcs and their motivations and it is awkward as hell to watch happen.
A lot of what happened last night would not have been as shocking at the end of season four, but the seasons since then have been increasingly more and more like a Marvel movie with buddy plots and funny capers and romantic hook-ups and good guys triumphing over evil no matter the odds and saving each other at the very last minute that now the Red Wedding feels like another show all-together.
1. Funny to see some of the biggest defenders come to the dark side this week.
2. Dany's turn was under-developed. This has been there from the beginning, but I think the show producers were too interested into making her a popular and completely likeable character that they put-off putting in the work to show this character turn that should have been done. Like so much the last three season, the ground work for this episode was just not laid out properly, which leaves it feeling very shallow and fake to a lot of viewers.
What is happening now is that the characters are being forced to certain plot points rather than developing to those moments naturally. This is further complicated by the producers keeping characters around or adding to their things to do list b/c of fan popularity.
3. Jon is the central character in this series and he is one of the least developed.
4. The Battle of Winterfell and the Battle at Kingslanding were done out of order. There is little doubt in my mind that originally Dany's turn to the bad side was supposed to proceed the battle with the Night King. Producers flipped the order b/c they did not want to have three episodes without Dany in it (either killed or run off or whatever).
5. Euron and Jaime fight was ridiculous. Ridiculous that Euron was even there and ridiculous that they would fight in the middle of all of that. Why? They were both on the same side for the moment. Just so forced. We've seen people put aside their differences repeatedly to try to survive, hard to believe that they wouldn't both go after Cersei and try to save her and then hash out their differences when things were safer.
Jaime's arch suffers the same as Dany's did. He got too popular. They started making him too likeable. They should've kept showing that he was still an ******* if in the end he was going to come back to Cersei. But the fans wanted Jaime + Brienne and the writers/producers are slaves to fandom rather than the story. Always ruins **** in the end in tv.
6. Perfect example of what I am talking about with the catering to fandom is the Clegane bowl. I have little doubt that the entire scene was nothing but fan service. Yeah, it is cool and all, but it just really kind of *******izes the story. Why did the Hound decide right then that he had to end his brother? How did the Hound even hang with the guy? The Mountain throws Qyburn into a wall and it kills him, but you're telling me that the Hound, who was bested by a woman not too long ago, can go toe to toe with that guy for that long? And why did he feel the need to end him? It kind of seemed like the Hound had found some inner peace and acceptance of his place in the world. He could've stayed at Winterfell and served Sansa, but instead he travels hundreds of miles to invade a fortress -burning- to the ground on a suicide mission to kill his brother? Why? Why now? I feel like that character could have had a more meaningful ending, but b/c everyone on twitter want 'CLEGANE BOWL, GET HYPED!" or whatever, this is what we get instead.
What you are seeing is the pigeon-holing of characters into fitting how the plot is supposed to resolve. It completely *******izes their character arcs and their motivations and it is awkward as hell to watch happen.
A lot of what happened last night would not have been as shocking at the end of season four, but the seasons since then have been increasingly more and more like a Marvel movie with buddy plots and funny capers and romantic hook-ups and good guys triumphing over evil no matter the odds and saving each other at the very last minute that now the Red Wedding feels like another show all-together.
