Season 8: Speculation and Spoilers Discussion

[WindyNights]

22 hours ago, nikma said:

Well he is bigger character in that book than Sansa, but you can use Brienne as an example as well. Or Davos. Or Theon. 

She wasn't in the book. That's like me saying Arys Oakheart is a bigger character  than Jon in AFFC, lol

[Eyes High]

4 hours ago, Wouter said:

BSB says she has no information about a Tyrion trial and doesn't know what will or won't happen with him. She does maintain that action was filmed at Seville, at least greenscreens were used and stunt people were there.

Friki, though, has stated that HBO went for massive misdirection in Seville by flying in actors that didn't film (Joe Dempsie, for example, Jon's body double was also singled out) and by having extras train for an action scene that never was filmed (according to Friki). He also stated that it was an intimate, natural scene without CGI (no green screen, no props) and without any action.

BSB has admitted her information clashes with Friki's (who is backed-up by Javi) and that time will tell who has the correct information. They can't both be (100%) right though!

Friki and Javi have the advantage of their reputation and they actually come face-to-face with fans, they are not anonymous. This gives them credence, allthough it doesn't mean it's certain they got the right info (Friki's statement of Bran citing "I always chose my family" may be a bit suspect in this regard, as it is a book-only line).

BSB is an anonymous member of the Freefolk Reddit group which means she has far less credence, but OTOH her (limited) leaks sound more in line with logical expectations. Then again, when Lads told us about the wight hunt before S7 it was hard to believe, too, so maybe Tyrion does betray the good guys.

I have no doubt that BSB's source knows exactly what or what wasn't filmed in Seville, if it is who I think it is. They could have lied about it to BSB, of course, but there is no way that they don't know what happened.

Friki and BSB described very different Dragonpit scenes: one is a simple dialogue-heavy, effects-free scene from the epilogue (months after the end of the action according to Friki), the other is a VFX-heavy sequence from the KL finale and not from the epilogue. They can't both be right, so we'll have to see who is proven correct. Both seem extremely confident that their information is right, though.

I also think that BSB has heard a lot more inside information than they're prepared to confirm on /Freefolk. BSB has sworn up and down that they don't have confirmation on any character's fate, including presumably Jaime, Cersei and Tyrion's, but has also said that they 99% think that House Lannister will survive. I doubt very much that that confidence stems from a mere guess. 

Edited December 16, 2018 by Eyes High

[nikma]

50 minutes ago, WindyNights said:

She wasn't in the book. 

Well, that's the point. 

[nikma]

The point is that GRRM made Stark children so irrelevant that they can even skip the whole book.

[anamika]

15 hours ago, Eyes High said:

BSB has sworn up and down that they don't have confirmation on any character's fate, including presumably Jaime, Cersei and Tyrion's, but has also said that they 99% think that House Lannister will survive.

Yeah, I can't see Tyrion dying. He may be involved in going against the Starks/Targs. But he is most probably getting out at the end. Like in WOT,

Spoiler

Rand Al'Thor, the hero of WOT who everyone things is dead but who escapes in a different body. Tyrion's escape may not be so magical, but I can see him using his wits to get away a third time.

Though, I wonder how Tyrion is betraying anyone with Arya around this time. Unlike the other characters, Arya has never interacted with Tyrion and does not have 'good guy' impressions of him. He's a Lannister, like the others and she's going to be distrustful. And using her FM skills, she correctly deduced that Sansa was gunning for Jon's position. So would she not be able to see right through Tyrion if he is planning on betraying the Starks?

If Arya thinks that Tyrion is being shady and Jon/Dany/Sansa vouch for him, I can see potential for conflict between these characters.

[Eyes High]

1 hour ago, anamika said:

Yeah, I can't see Tyrion dying. He may be involved in going against the Starks/Targs. But he is most probably getting out at the end. Like in WOT,

  Reveal hidden contents

Rand Al'Thor, the hero of WOT who everyone things is dead but who escapes in a different body. Tyrion's escape may not be so magical, but I can see him using his wits to get away a third time.

Though, I wonder how Tyrion is betraying anyone with Arya around this time. Unlike the other characters, Arya has never interacted with Tyrion and does not have 'good guy' impressions of him. He's a Lannister, like the others and she's going to be distrustful. And using her FM skills, she correctly deduced that Sansa was gunning for Jon's position. So would she not be able to see right through Tyrion if he is planning on betraying the Starks?

If Arya thinks that Tyrion is being shady and Jon/Dany/Sansa vouch for him, I can see potential for conflict between these characters.

I don't know how anyone is supposed to betray the Starks with a human lie detector and an omniscient supercomputer in their corner. Even Littlefinger couldn't get away with it, and he's much smarter than Tyrion.

Some news from /Ks427236 at /Freefolk about S8 promo on HBO Go:

Quote

All the #forthethrone clips from a month ago have their own section: "Game of Thrones' Most Shocking Moments. See how far the powerhouses of Westeros are willing to go for the throne"

Also "Welcome to Westeros: A Game of Thrones Primer." Has some of the recent House videos, and some old behind the scenes clips of developing the Dothraki language and stuff about costumes

The #forthethrone clips on the GOT Youtube channel are as follows (in the order in which they were posted):

1. Dany eats the horse heart

2. Joffrey dies

3. Jon's resurrection

4. The Red Wedding

5. BOTB

6. The NK and Viserion attack the Wall

7. Ned's execution

8. Arya kills the Freys

9. Hardhome

10. Tyrion kills Tywin

11. Hodor dies

Edited December 17, 2018 by Eyes High

[SeanC]

4 hours ago, nikma said:

The point is that GRRM made Stark children so irrelevant that they can even skip the whole book.

AFFC/ADWD were written to fill in the five-year gap where the kids weren’t meant to have had much going on (they were really the characters for whom it would have worked best).  That doesn’t reflect their overall importance; with TWOW (assuming we ever see it, heh) they’ll be back in the thick of things.

[GrailKing]

1 hour ago, anamika said:

Though, I wonder how Tyrion is betraying anyone with Arya around this time. Unlike the other characters, Arya has never interacted with Tyrion and does not have 'good guy' impressions of him. He's a Lannister, like the others and she's going to be distrustful. And using her FM skills, she correctly deduced that Sansa was gunning for Jon's position. So would she not be able to see right through Tyrion if he is planning on betraying the Starks?

If Arya thinks that Tyrion is being shady and Jon/Dany/Sansa vouch for him, I can see potential for conflict between these characters.

This will be interesting, since Jon and Sansa have a decent view of him.

And Maisie said Arya noticed holes in Sansa , but her deduction about her were wrong.

I think she's still honing her skills.

[lorfor]

The only reason people believe BSB as a legitimate source is because they give a happy ending to Jon and Daenerys. If they did not the freefolk sub would dismiss them as irrelevant. But it is utterly ridiculous to think that an American (you can tell by the writing and spelling of certain words) with a tumblr or AO3-esque username would in any way have a direct source of information about what is or is not being filmed in the dead of night in Belfast or Seville, Spain. Someone is just randomly PMing a person with a username like that information about what is being filmed on the third biggest Game of Thrones centered subreddit? Please. You notice this person didn't get info for the previous 7 seasons. But now all of a sudden they have a source, and not only do they have a source but they have source who trusts someone calling themselves "BoatSexBaby".

Sure. I don't even know if Friki is correct, but I would trust him a hell of a lot more. Because he has a track record and has legit sources on the ground. Someone called "BoatSexBaby" most certainly does not.

[Nightingale]

26 minutes ago, lorfor said:

The only reason people believe BSB as a legitimate source is because they give a happy ending to Jon and Daenerys. 

I agree with that but Friki's spoiler isn't exactly anti Jon-Daenerys apart from their absence in the scene so it's not like you have two completely opposite sides. He even said he thinks they'll live.

I ship them myself and I tend to trust Friki more. Probably because his source clearly saw the scene being filmed and knows exactly what kind of costumes everyone is wearing. That's how he confirmed the new actor plays a dornish character. Of course it still begs the question: if the source was there, why can't he give more info about the context of the scene? Could it be that he doesn't understand english very well or is not enough of a fan to remember everything?

I think BoatsexBaby does have some legit info, especially regarding the overall production, directors and cinematographers. Not so much about scripts, specific scenes or plot points.

[Eyes High]

1 hour ago, lorfor said:

The only reason people believe BSB as a legitimate source is because they give a happy ending to Jon and Daenerys. If they did not the freefolk sub would dismiss them as irrelevant. But it is utterly ridiculous to think that an American (you can tell by the writing and spelling of certain words) with a tumblr or AO3-esque username would in any way have a direct source of information about what is or is not being filmed in the dead of night in Belfast or Seville, Spain. Someone is just randomly PMing a person with a username like that information about what is being filmed on the third biggest Game of Thrones centered subreddit? Please. You notice this person didn't get info for the previous 7 seasons. But now all of a sudden they have a source, and not only do they have a source but they have source who trusts someone calling themselves "BoatSexBaby".

Sure. I don't even know if Friki is correct, but I would trust him a hell of a lot more. Because he has a track record and has legit sources on the ground. Someone called "BoatSexBaby" most certainly does not.

You probably missed it, but in May, BSB posted photos taken from inside the same car Peter and Sophie's stand-ins were using to leave the set and had detailed information about their flights to and from Seville and their movements in Seville. These photos were posted nowhere else. BSB definitely knows one of the stand-ins who were in Seville--maybe not Peter's or Sophie's, but Gwen's, Kit's, or Jacob's--or someone who works with them. BSB also posted--and then deleted--a post the Thursday the cast were in Seville to the effect that Peter and Sophie had been on set, which later turned out to be the case. There's no way that BSB could have known that for a fact without info from their source. This isn't to state that BSB must be right and Friki must be wrong, and it's quite possible that their source lied to them about what was filmed in Seville, but the contention that they have no source makes no sense, since they obviously do.

As for the username and anonymity meaning BSB must be full of shit compared to Friki? Don't be so sure. AwayfortheLads was a random poster with a weird username who showed up on Reddit and proceeded to provide detailed, accurate leaks spoiling all major plot points for Season 7 months ahead of the season airing. (Friki on the other despite presumably having "sources on the ground" in Spain had nothing until just before S7 aired.) Docmantistobogan, who worked on the show, also hung around Reddit and dropped the occasional accurate tidbit (although he's long gone) for Season 6. And then of course there was Truede, who dropped accurate leaks for Season 6 shortly before the episodes in question aired. 

...Let's just say anonymous randos dropping legitimate spoilers on /Freefolk has been known to happen.

33 minutes ago, Nightingale said:

I agree with that but Friki's spoiler isn't exactly anti Jon-Daenerys apart from their absence in the scene so it's not like you have two completely opposite sides. He even said he thinks they'll live.

Friki does think they'll live, but Friki thinks a lot of things that are just his guesses, and Jon and Dany's absence from the Tyrion trial in his spoilers even though everyone and their brother is in attendance sure implies that it doesn't look good for them. Friki has already said that he has given up all the info he has, so he has no knowledge one way or another of Jon and Dany's fate.

While we're talking about BSB and the endgame, BSB dug up this old quote from a TV Guide interview with D&D from 2011 that suggests that they knew the broad strokes of the endgame as early as 2011:

Quote

 

Series executive producers D.B. Weiss attempted to further calm their nerves, telling TVGuide.com, "We've talked through what the final episode, the final season will be." Executive producer David Benioff adds: "We can't wait to write that episode. Of the many different fears we have about the show, long-term momentum is not one of them. We're very confident."

Martin has been serving as an available advisor for producers, and they say the partnership, however loose, has given them inside knowledge about what lies ahead for Jon Snow, Daenerys and the other denizens of Westeros. "George has proven through the discussions we've had that he's always known in the rough, broad strokes where this is going to end up," Weiss says."And we think it's going to end up in a way that is uniquely satisfying."

"It's not some 'it was all a dream' story," Benioff clarifies. "It's not an M. Night Shyamalan movie where there's a massive twist at the end. It all actually makes sense. You can kind of feel in the roughest sense where it's moving towards. It's going to a fantastic place."

 

The last bit about there not being a massive M. Night Shyamalan-type twist at the end is interesting in light of the King Bran discussion.

Edited December 17, 2018 by Eyes High

[GrailKing]

53 minutes ago, Eyes High said:

"It's not some 'it was all a dream' story," Benioff clarifies. "It's not an M. Night Shyamalan movie where there's a massive twist at the end. It all actually makes sense. You can kind of feel in the roughest sense where it's moving towards. It's going to a fantastic place."

 

 

53 minutes ago, Eyes High said:

The last bit about there not being a massive M. Night Shyamalan-type twist at the end is interesting in light of the King Bran discussion.

I truly have read only two fantasy novels; LOTR and ASOIAF, so I have no idea what's meant with these two quotes. Can you give a small explanation please.?

[Minneapple]

18 minutes ago, GrailKing said:

I truly have read only two fantasy novels; LOTR and ASOIAF, so I have no idea what's meant with these two quotes. Can you give a small explanation please.?

Shyamalan is a director known for his "twists," like in The Sixth Sense, where (if you haven't seen the movie and don't want to know, just know the whole movie is basically spoiled in the spoiler tags).

Spoiler

Bruce Willis' character was dead the whole time

Edited December 17, 2018 by Minneapple

[GrailKing]

25 minutes ago, Minneapple said:

Shyamalan is a director known for his "twists," like in The Sixth Sense, where (if you haven't seen the movie and don't want to know, just know the whole movie is basically spoiled in the spoiler tags).

  Reveal hidden contents

Yeah I saw that movie.

BW xxxxxxx the whole time

 

Yeah, I saw that movie and picked out Willis

was dead very early

.

Thanks.

Edited December 17, 2018 by GrailKing

[Wouter]

21 hours ago, Eyes High said:

Friki and BSB described very different Dragonpit scenes: one is a simple dialogue-heavy, effects-free scene from the epilogue (months after the end of the action according to Friki), the other is a VFX-heavy sequence from the KL finale and not from the epilogue. They can't both be right, so we'll have to see who is proven correct. Both seem extremely confident that their information is right, though.

Just so. Many on Freefolk seem to pretend both are right, but their presentation of the Seville scene(s) is very different. At least one of them does not have the correct information, as far as Seville is concerned.

What is Friki's track record in getting accurate spoilers, other than his shortly-before-airing S7 info? He came into conflict with HBO before, but I didn't follow the spoiler scene at that time. What did he spoil?

5 hours ago, anamika said:

Though, I wonder how Tyrion is betraying anyone with Arya around this time. Unlike the other characters, Arya has never interacted with Tyrion and does not have 'good guy' impressions of him. He's a Lannister, like the others and she's going to be distrustful.

Arya was distrustful of LF (rightly so), but she still let herself be played by him until the moment he overplayed his hand by attempting to sell the idea to Sansa that Arya wanted to be lady of Winterfell. If Tyrion is planning a betrayal, he may well get away with it for a while, just like LF.

I do have a problem with Tyrion's motives for betrayal though, considering Jaime is switching sides and the NK is on to them. Betrayal would be self-destructive.

[nikma]

5 hours ago, SeanC said:

AFFC/ADWD were written to fill in the five-year gap where the kids weren’t meant to have had much going on (they were really the characters for whom it would have worked best).  That doesn’t reflect their overall importance; with TWOW (assuming we ever see it, heh) they’ll be back in the thick of things.

I don't think that Starks are not important any more, I think that the structure of the books became so bad that even minor character are bigger than them in the last 2 books. That was my  response to comment that D&D did a bad job if the Starks are going to be rulers of Westeros. If they did a bad job, GRRM did even worse. 

Edited December 17, 2018 by nikma

[Eyes High]

2 hours ago, Wouter said:

What is Friki's track record in getting accurate spoilers, other than his shortly-before-airing S7 info? He came into conflict with HBO before, but I didn't follow the spoiler scene at that time. What did he spoil?

Friki got into hot water with HBO for publishing extremely accurate episode summaries in Season 6 on Youtube days before the episodes themselves aired. He started doing this for Season 6 and got shut down and threatened with legal action after putting up an accurate summary for 6x02 or 6x03 (I can't recall which) just before the episode aired. His channel eventually went back up, but he was careful to only post spoilers that had appeared elsewhere first. 

In Season 7, he went back to posting his own leaks and did the same thing as in Season 6 (posting accurate episode summaries days before the episodes aired), but as I understand it, HBO didn't seem to care. I'm guessing this is because AwayfortheLads had already spoiled the episodes pretty thoroughly and the information was already out there.

Bottom line: Friki has never had any spoilers this far ahead of the season before. It doesn't mean that he's wrong, and as others have said, Javi from Los Siete Reinos has said that another source told him the same thing as Friki's source about the Dragonpit scene, but the fact remains. Friki in the past has only provided his spoilers just before or during the airing of the season in question, not more than six months in advance. Still, Friki has insisted that he's right, so he must have some reason to be that confident. We'll have to see.

...The reality is that no matter which way you slice it, we really don't know much about what happens in 8x06 at all. It's one big, frustrating blank. There's this 8x06 Dragonpit scene filmed in Seville (whatever it is), the 8x06 scene Hibberd saw filmed in March, possibly the Randalstown Forest scene filmed on March 29th, possibly Cleganebowl (since Hafthor's stunt double is credited on IMDB for 8x05 and 8x06), possibly a scene where a character's corpse is discovered in the ruins of the throne room (and to be clear, that's just a rumour), and that's it. It will be very interesting to see what actually ends up in the episode.

BSB has said that their source told them that "Episode 6 has the Dance of the Dragons between Dany/Drogon and NK/Viserion. It’s one of the biggest highlights of the season. Jon/Rhaegal may or may not be part of this sequence too." We'll see whether or not that proves to be the case. It seems like most of the KL exterior stuff filmed in June and July was from 8x05, not 8x06, so that leaves a big gap in 8x06 for exterior scenes. Even the Dragonpit exterior scene portion with cast only took five days to film. That's not going to take up that much time in the finale. Whether or not BSB's info is correct, it seems at least possible that a big chunk of the finale is going to be very heavy VFX stuff.

Edited December 17, 2018 by Eyes High

[screamin]

7 hours ago, Eyes High said:

I don't know how anyone is supposed to betray the Starks with a human lie detector and an omniscient supercomputer in their corner. Even Littlefinger couldn't get away with it, and he's much smarter than Tyrion.

I don't think we can take it for granted that Bran is really omniscient, much less that it makes the Starks invincible. Yes, his vision is unlimited, but he can only see in one direction at a time, and only see things in real time, during which he spends hours with his eyes rolled back into his head following up leads that may turn out to be false. Not to mention that his recent la-dee-da cold indifference to mere human attachments could mean that he may prioritize other concerns over his family affections.

I could totally see it happening that Bran either stays too focused on what the NK is doing and misses a human danger to his family closer by, OR that he spots Tyrion working to, say, get Jon to sacrifice himself to kill the NK, and coldly lets Tyrion get away with it because it WOULD be an adequate solution to the problem the NK poses - only announcing Tyrion's guilt after Jon is dead, just to keep the ledgers clear.

[Minneapple]

53 minutes ago, screamin said:

 Not to mention that his recent la-dee-da cold indifference to mere human attachments could mean that he may prioritize other concerns over his family affections.

Yeah, like meeting Sansa and being all "Hey, sis, remember the night you were raped? YOU LOOKED GREAT." Rather than, you know, telling her about actual important information that she might need for living and other stuff.

[WindyNights]

4 hours ago, nikma said:

I don't think that Starks are not important any more, I think that the structure of the books became so bad that even minor character are bigger than them in the last 2 books. That was my  response to comment that D&D did a bad job if the Starks are going to be rulers of Westeros. If they did a bad job, GRRM did even worse. 

Not really mainly because you have to look at how many chapters GRRM has given Arya, Sansa and Bran. 

 

Now compare their screentimes on the show. For instance, Bran only get 99 minutes of screentime on the show. He has less than Ned Stark whereas in the books, he has twice the number of chapters that Ned Stark has. 

And we're in season 7 so we're a season or two past where the books are.

[nikma]

24 minutes ago, WindyNights said:

Now compare their screentimes on the show.

And? Sansa is number 4, Arya number 6. Bran is the only exception.

[anamika]

The younger cast members seem to think we are going to get two different endings - one for the books and one for the show. Both Sophie Turner and Isaac have said that the show has diverged too much from the books to get to the same ending as GRRM. It does clash with GRRM saying during the Emmys that most of the show's ending is what he came up with in the nineties. I wonder if Sophie and Isaac got this information from D&D or whether this is just their feelings on the ending.

In other news, it seems that David Benioff has needle in his house. That's rather mean!

https://ew.com/tv/2018/12/06/maisie-williams-game-of-thrones-needle/

Quote

The exchange started when Williams was asked if she’s ever stolen anything from the set, and she replied, “Very little, but I wanted Needle, could you give it to me?”

Needle is, of course, Arya’s iconic petite sword that was gifted to her in the show’s pilot by her brother Jon Snow (Kit Harington).

Showrunner David Benioff revealed to the crowd that he actually has Needle at his house to which Williams replied, “I want Needle!

I thought GOT paraphernalia would go to a GOT museum to be put on display or be auctioned off for charity etc. But apparently the producers have taken all the valuables to decorate their house. They should have gifted it to the actors instead, IMO.  

[Eyes High]

1 hour ago, anamika said:

The younger cast members seem to think we are going to get two different endings - one for the books and one for the show. Both Sophie Turner and Isaac have said that the show has diverged too much from the books to get to the same ending as GRRM. It does clash with GRRM saying during the Emmys that most of the show's ending is what he came up with in the nineties. I wonder if Sophie and Isaac got this information from D&D or whether this is just their feelings on the ending.

In other news, it seems that David Benioff has needle in his house. That's rather mean!

https://ew.com/tv/2018/12/06/maisie-williams-game-of-thrones-needle/

I thought GOT paraphernalia would go to a GOT museum to be put on display or be auctioned off for charity etc. But apparently the producers have taken all the valuables to decorate their house. They should have gifted it to the actors instead, IMO.  

I suspect the degree to which the show ending adheres to the probably-never-to-be-published book ending is going to be the thing the fandom argues about long, long after the finale airs. I doubt D&D and GRRM are going to provide any clarification.

D&D keeping all the good props, including Needle, seems hilariously petty, but they spent 10 years of their lives on this shit, 24/7 365, so if anyone’s entitled, it’s them.

[bubble sparkly]

Regarding BSB, I believe they also said months ago that their source told them the filming code name was Fate / Faith of Angels. I’m also pretty sure that this was confirmed a month or two later by either Seville pictures or a cast member mentioning it. Again, this doesn’t prove BSB is correct about the DP info but it does suggest she truly has an extra / body double as a source.

[WindyNights]

4 hours ago, nikma said:

And? Sansa is number 4, Arya number 6. Bran is the only exception.

Arya is #3 in the books.  

And GRRM has said that he has enough story on Arya to make a book out of it.

18 hours ago, nikma said:

The point is that GRRM made Stark children so irrelevant that they can even skip the whole book.

GRRM made Tyrion, Jon and Daenerys so irrelevant that they can even skip the whole book.

actually, Arya is the only character from the Main 6 that's in both books with POV chapters 

Edited December 18, 2018 by WindyNights

[nikma]

5 hours ago, WindyNights said:

Arya is #3 in the books.  

 

That's not that different from the show, because Jaime, Cersei and even Sansa are bigger character than in the books. And almost all of her chapters are in the first 3 books. In the last 18 years we've got 6 chapters from Arya.

 

5 hours ago, WindyNights said:

And GRRM has said that he has enough story on Arya to make a book out of it.

The point is what he did, not what he wants to do.

 

5 hours ago, WindyNights said:

GRRM made Tyrion, Jon and Daenerys so irrelevant that they can even skip the whole book.

 

That's another argument why structure of the story became so bad, but they at least got 10 or more chapters in that one book. Sansa and Bran had 3. And Arya had 3 plus 2 chapters.

 

 

5 hours ago, WindyNights said:

 

[YaddaYadda]

9 hours ago, WindyNights said:

GRRM made Tyrion, Jon and Daenerys so irrelevant that they can even skip the whole book.

I would agree if no one thought of them or spoke of them, but Tyrion is a constant in Cersei's chapters and Jaime thinks of him frequently. Dany becomes part of the ironborn story through Euron and Jon is present in Sam's chapters before he leaves the Wall and is later brought up in the small council meeting as being a problem. Cersei's feverish plotting in AFFC against Margaery devolves into the plot to have Osney Kettleblack go to the Wall and assassinate Jon. 

They may not have a POV, but they loom fairly large in the POVs. 

[Happy Harpy]

Since we're all (more or less) asking when for fuck's sake and the love of everything holly we're going to get some promo, new footage, anything even a melting ice block that we'd lick like Cersei did the water on the floor of her cell, come on, you know every last one of us still posting here would, EveryFckngChicken at FF posted the S7 campaign timeline:

https://old.reddit.com/r/freefolk/comments/a7fsan/friendly_reminder_that_were_still_in_marketing/

I feel like an aware puppet, if that's a thing? I'm going to demand a right proper reward (lots of Arya, thank you). I had to LOL at the "craving new content" though, since with the two-years gap this time, the fandom has been critically craving new content for six months.

So maybe a "long walk" kind of promo in a month or so?

[nikma]

Based on that we should expect premier date in 2 days. 

Edited December 18, 2018 by nikma

[Eyes High]

1 hour ago, Happy Harpy said:

Since we're all (more or less) asking when for fuck's sake and the love of everything holly we're going to get some promo, new footage, anything even a melting ice block that we'd lick like Cersei did the water on the floor of her cell, come on, you know every last one of us still posting here would, EveryFckngChicken at FF posted the S7 campaign timeline:

https://old.reddit.com/r/freefolk/comments/a7fsan/friendly_reminder_that_were_still_in_marketing/

I feel like an aware puppet, if that's a thing? I'm going to demand a right proper reward (lots of Arya, thank you). I had to LOL at the "craving new content" though, since with the two-years gap this time, the fandom has been critically craving new content for six months.

So maybe a "long walk" kind of promo in a month or so?

We can expect the following rollout for the remainder of S8 promo, since they did it in this order for the past two seasons. /EveryFckngChicken at /Freefolk used S6 and S7 timelines to come up with a predicted release timeline based on an expected premiere date of April 28th for the following, which I will optimistically move up by one week to the 21st given the True Detective double episode airing in January:

1. Premiere date announcement (December 14th-January 3rd) 

2. Second teaser (January 3rd-January 18th)

3. First promotional pictures (January 24th-February 7th)

4. Press junket (February 19th-February 25th)

5. Official poster (February 20th-February 24th)

6. First BTS video (February 24th-March 11th)

7. Flow of promo pictures starts (February 24th-March 21st)

8. First trailer (February 27th-March 5th)

9. Second trailer (March 27th-April 8th)

...So as you can see, we're still quite a ways off the trailer. A premiere date announcement may come either on Christmas Day or on New Year's Day.

Edited December 19, 2018 by Eyes High

[nikma]

And we still have more than a month until first pictures. Lol

 

The Long Night is far from over. At the end of January campaign will really start. 

[Eyes High]

6 minutes ago, nikma said:

And we still have more than a month until first pictures. Lol

 

The Long Night is far from over. At the end of January campaign will really start. 

I'm not really all that excited about the promo pictures, since the few glimpses we've seen of the S8 costumes (Arya's, Jon's and Dany's) look virtually identical to certain S7 costumes, with the differences being so subtle that it's easy to mistake the S8 costume for the S7 one. I'm guessing it will be the same for the other character costumes. And of course the hair is mostly the same, except that NCW had a full beard while filming S8.

I agree that things won't really kick into high gear until February or so.

Once we know the premiere date, we'll know the finale date, and that's the real countdown date, isn't it? A countdown until we know the ending of GOT. Assuming a premiere date of April 21st, 2019, the finale will air May 26th, 2019. So in 159 days, or a little over five months, we'll know the ending to GOT and (in broad strokes) to ASOIAF.

[nikma]

I can't wait tbh. It's time for this show to end. One more season would be too much.

But I hope we will see something interesting in those pictures. I really hope.

[Eyes High]

13 hours ago, nikma said:

I can't wait tbh. It's time for this show to end. One more season would be too much.

But I hope we will see something interesting in those pictures. I really hope.

If HBO hadn't talked D&D into splitting the final season, GOT would have ended already. (Not that I'm bitter or anything...) I wonder what would have been trimmed from Season 7 it had been crammed into five episodes instead of seven. If Jon/Dany seemed rushed in the Season 7 that aired, I can only imagine what it would have seemed like if Season 7 and Season 8 had been combined into one season as seems to have been originally planned.

Even if the promotional pictures won't give anything away, I am eager for any new material.

[nikma]

I think S6 would be different then. I don't think they really thought they could put all those battles from S7 and S8 in one season.

Or they just wanted to call it S7 part 1 and part 2 as many shows did.

[Edith]

Sophie’s wig looks different and Kit definitely has a fuller face. 

The new expanded Winterfell crypts set?

[Eyes High]

17 minutes ago, Edith said:

Sophie’s wig looks different and Kit definitely has a fuller face. 

The new expanded Winterfell crypts set?

I think so, yes. It’s probably a safe assumption that it’s from filming a scene in 8x01 or 8x02.

She may be wearing a Season 7 costume, but Sophie looks great! Her wig/hairstyle looks much better than last year. Kit on the other hand looks a bit rough.

Edited December 19, 2018 by Eyes High

[SeanC]

1 hour ago, Edith said:

Sophie’s wig looks different and Kit definitely has a fuller face. 

The new expanded Winterfell crypts set?

Definitely Season 8 filming.  No way was HBO sitting on this little promotional video for well over two years.

[Minneapple]

Sophie's wig and makeup look fantastic in that video.

Kit is looking at Sophie and Maisie exactly as an older brother would look at two younger sisters yammering away about whatever. So cute.

[onyxrose81]

Sophie's wig is so much better.  The color of it for S7 was so brassy.  

[GrailKing]

It looks like Sophie's real hair.

[Eyes High]

There is bad news and good news from a /Freefolk poster who accurately predicted the release of the S1-7 teaser last month hours before it happened:

The bad news: The premiere is going to be April 28th and not earlier.

The good news: The S8 trailer will be aired the week of January 10-15. (Probably just a second teaser with no new footage, though.)

HBO has announced their newest bit of S8 promotion: having a celebrity live tweet each episode of GOT for a rewatch marathon. Jimmy Kimmel, Kristin Chenoweth, Aaron Rodgers and T-Pain are up for Season 1 (December 20th-December 23rd). I'm going to go out on a limb and assume they're going to do this for all seven seasons.

Edited December 20, 2018 by Eyes High

[GrailKing]

http://watchersonthewall.com/intimate-game-of-thrones-season-8-longest-battle-cinema-history-upcoming-trailer-teased-ew-hibberd/

[GrailKing]

[Happy Harpy]

Rewatching the sorcerer-in-a-box scene reminded me how interesting Arya/Varys interaction could be. They seem to share a certain idea of revenge. She killed Littlefinger. She also heard Varys as he plotted with Illyrio back in S1 -and they did mention Illyrio in S5. She's a FM so she uses magic. Neither is fond of red priests, although for Arya it's a question of person and for Varys a question of principle. Varys champions the people and Aya is the Westerosi noble who lived the consequences of the war among the smallfolk. And the sass...so much sass between those two. Yes, I'm reaaaally curious about how it would go and I hope to find out in four months.

[anamika]

Work is keep me busy, but looks like I am not missing much. No trailers, no promos, no spoilers. Worst GOT promo season ever, especially for their final season. I understand that they don't need the promotion, but still. It's the final season dammit! What happened to those 'Relive the journey' stuff for the characters they were doing. We got Tyrion, Arya, Cersei, Dany and Jon. That's it?

I was listening to this Hibberd chat. Interviewer is very annoying with his stupid laugh, but he seems like a book/show fan who has read till Fire and Blood.

https://ew.com/tv/2018/12/20/game-of-thrones-podcast-returns-season-8-preview/

Hibberd makes a valid point about how D&D have to please all the actors with their respective character arcs because the actors are so invested in their characters and this is tough to do with so many characters. GRRM really does not have this problem since his characters are on paper.

It's interesting that D&D thought that Kit must have completely hated what they did with Jon Snow and that's why he did not call them after reading the scripts.

All the 6 episode scripts were send to the actors. Sophie finished first and called them first.

They talk about Gendry ending up on the Iron throne - which they call as one of the big theories out there in the fandom. Possibly what Joe was talking about as a theory which would be anti-climatic if it comes true. Hibberd says that we know that Gendry has a key role to play in the final season.

Show is not skimping on character moments and intimate moments - lots of these scenes as well and not just battles. Ending is earned and not surprising for surprise sake. Audience can look back and go - 'yeah, I can see how they were building to that' - So an unexpected ending definitely, but looks like there will be build up for it in earlier seasons.

Hibberd is curious about how much into the season they are going to show in the trailers - he thinks mostly episode one and some battle footage.

Hibberd says we don't know if D&D are doing GRRM's ending. D&D know GRRM's ending but they have also gone very much off script in a lot of ways. So we don't know how much of this final season is going to be what GRRM is planning to do in his books.

Hibberd jokes about secret Targaryen Tyrion finding some dragon eggs at the end of the series.

They talk about how Cersei is still a major player in the game . Interviewer points out that she's smart waiting for the AOTD to wipe out the good guys. To which Hibberd replies with being uncertain about the extent of Winter in Westeros and whether Euron could sail across the sea - could be about the Lannister army/GC going North. 

Finally they discuss Podcaster's theories on the ending - who ends up on the Iron Throne?

"Jon is too noble, Dany has too much of fate/Destiny that links her to the throne, Cersei is bad - so these three are ruled out. There is potential to the Gendry idea but is unlikely. So the only character that makes sense narratively with regards to who will sit on the Iron Throne at the end is Sansa - it would be both inevitable and surprising. We have seen so much of Sansa over the last couple of seasons as someone who is adept at managing the political side of things and handling power so much better than Ned or anyone else ever among the Starks.  Arya is only good at vengeance - all she thinks about all day is killing people.  Sansa meanwhile is so much stronger and better and so it's her on the IT at the end "  -   Hibberd listens to this speech and then says he is just going to lock in this prediction and keep his poker face on, lol!

Edited December 22, 2018 by anamika

[GraceK]

49 minutes ago, anamika said:

Jon is too noble, Dany has too much of fate/Destiny that links her to the throne, Cersei is bad - so these three are ruled out. There is potential to the Gendry idea but is unlikely. So the only character that makes sense narratively with regards to who will sit on the Iron Throne at the end is Sansa - it would be both inevitable and surprising. We have seen so much of Sansa over the last couple of seasons as someone who is adept at managing the political side of things and handling power so much better than Ned or anyone else ever among the Starks.  Arya is only good at vengeance - all she thinks about all day is killing people.  Sansa meanwhile is so much stronger and better and so it's her on the IT at the end " 

 

😂

Edited December 22, 2018 by GraceK

[Happy Harpy]

4 hours ago, anamika said:

They talk about Gendry ending up on the Iron throne - which they call as one of the big theories out there in the fandom. Possibly what Joe was talking about as a theory which would be anti-climatic if it comes true. Hibberd says that we know that Gendry has a key role to play in the final season.

Show is not skimping on character moments and intimate moments - lots of these scenes as well and not just battles. Ending is earned and not surprising for surprise sake. Audience can look back and go - 'yeah, I can see how they were building to that' - So an unexpected ending definitely, but looks like there will be build up for it in earlier seasons.

 

So much for Gendry back as fanservice. Key role. My baby is going to slay with his anti-WW weapon, at the very least. Hype.

The characters who were showed learning to rule for several seasons are Jon, Dany, Tyrion, Bran and I'd add Davos as a very wild card since he's been Hand to two kings. If the identity of the person ending on the IT has been built since the beginning and it is earned, it has to be one of them.

As always with no info as a basis for deduction and not being in the actors' head, D&D wondering about Kit's reaction could be interpreted in any way. Jon dies? Actors love big dramatic deaths, but Kit could be too attached to Jon and want him to live. You'd think it can't be Jon on the IT, but Kit can find it too straightforward and not interesting enough to play (DiSnEy ending!). Jon becomes a villain? Would explain their apprehension yet it was never in the cards anywhere for Jon so it would be WTF for the sake of it, whereas the ending is supposed to be unexpected yet to make sense. Maybe it's Jon saying fuck it and leaving with Daenerys; it wouldn't be out of the blue (Jon in 6x03-6x04) and although I personally think it would be well-deserved, others believe it would be ditching his responsibilities. Which could relate to Emilia's words about the last impression made by Daenerys. Some interpret it as a hint at MaD QwEeN, but freeing/protecting/leading people in need has been the main/a huge part of her character, and she could worry that Dany leaving Westeros after it was scourged and in need of rebuilding could be seen negatively. So really, it could mean anything.

Edited December 22, 2018 by Happy Harpy

[bubble sparkly]

It seems a bit weird to me that Jon and Dany ruling together doesn't appear to be speculated about too much by the major media / podcasts etc.  Even all this betting stuff about who ends up on the throne only seems to have one-person options.  Given how s7 ended, I would have thought there would have been a lot more media spec about J/D ruling jointly (as there has been in fandom).

[GrailKing]

1 hour ago, Happy Harpy said:

The characters who were showed learning to rule for several seasons are Jon, Dany, Tyrion, Bran and I'd add Davos as a very wild card since he's been Hand to two kings.

Bran ruled for what a few months, Jon was learning to lead and rule, hasn't done any ruling in 7 except for two weeks .

You have Cersei, Danny, Sansa ( and the parallels of those three ) Tyrion, Jon and Davos. Remove Bran he's on a different plain at the moment and may never get back.

Based on season 7 alone ( not counting her book arc ) Sansa ( not sure if she want it ) is in that mix, she's the only one planning for refugees, getting Winterfell prepared for a war footing, actively  planning for food, clothing, also laying out Jon's plans for training the commoners with the aid of Brienne and Royce. I'm sure Arya's may be in the mix also, though if she doesn't want to be a lady, she be a non conventional leader.

I've said before I wouldn't be surprised if it's  Robyn (cough) Arryan , a unexpected surprise. LOL