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Season 8: Speculation and Spoilers Discussion


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Advisory: This topic is for S8 Spoilers & Spec. If your post predominantly concerns book comparisons or a character's past season actions it will be removed. 

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(edited)

One comparison I've seen people make lately is between Harry Potter and GOT: Alan Rickman was told about Snape's backstory before it was published, but Emilia pretty clearly seems to have found out about "Mad Dany" only when she got the season 8 scripts and wandered around London for hours. She played Dany as written for seven seasons, as a heroine with ambition and a belief in her birthright but with a conscience that ruthless and adored male leaders like Tywin never demonstrated (he got to sack KL and explicitly send the Mountain to rape the Riverlands while only being called lawful neutral by the showrunners). There was no planning ahead for the endgame: Dany was required to do a 180 with no buildup except ridiculous things like not crying when her abusive brother was killed as a result of threatening her and her unborn child. Again and again we were shown her listening to her advisors and choosing options to delay bloodshed, something we never ever saw from the Lannister regime at any point in the series.

Like the show turning future King Bran into useless meme robo-Bran and only building up to his kingship though one seen and one unseen conversation with Tyrion, it's bullshit. It's like getting the Red Wedding in 2x05 after one scene of Tywin's letter-writing and one of Robb flirting with Talisa while a Frey glares at him.

Edited by ElizaD
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I do wonder if GRRM intends to use Jon's heritage very much at all. He may be going for some kind of "destiny because family = bullshit", that basically finding out he's a Targ is not going to change who Jon is or alter the trajectory of his life, any more than finding out she's not actually the heir is going to change Dany's. But of course it will be fleshed out a lot more if that's what GRRM is going for.

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8 minutes ago, Miss Dee said:

I do wonder if GRRM intends to use Jon's heritage very much at all. He may be going for some kind of "destiny because family = bullshit", that basically finding out he's a Targ is not going to change who Jon is or alter the trajectory of his life, any more than finding out she's not actually the heir is going to change Dany's. But of course it will be fleshed out a lot more if that's what GRRM is going for.

Well maybe then if his ressurection amounts to something, I can get behind the parentage SL being just a bait. I don’t see a way of confirming this anyway or that people outside of the north would follow Jon for being a secret targ when they don’t like  or want the known targ. But so far Jon got the biggest wtf moments in both book and show, for what? Martin could have kept him with the wildings to begin with or keep him dead and we could still get the same storylines for everyone else.

1 hour ago, Eyes High said:

And of course Pod’s prowess with the ladies started out as a nod to Daniel Portman being a bit of a Casanova in real life.

Dang!  I must not be reading the same articles as you but yeah, I can see that.  He's appealing in a different way to me.  Not gonna go there though...not in public anyway.

I'm still in.  I'm sure I'll find some other series to console myself with, rewatch the original Upstairs Downstairs, something.  I can still appreciate the acting, the production including locations, set design, costuming, all the technical stuff especially CGI dragons, casting, everybody down to the drivers and catering.  It was a massive massive undertaking even if we did get shorted on writing and season length, there's still so much to appreciate and love. 

Maybe we'll still get a surprise or two tonight.  Maybe more like Bullwinkle saying "watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat!" and then it will make no sense and we'll all be able to bitch and moan about that for a few days.

Someone will maybe have to help me with this, I've been trying to find the article or post here about it - wasn't there some talk of an older Brit actress being cast to show up in the finale?  I want to say this was spoken of a couple of years ago, so it wasn't in context of the wonderful all hail Dame Diana Rigg as Oleanna.  Maybe I am confusing another show with this but I'm sure it was GoT.  Oh well.  

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6 minutes ago, lucindabelle said:

Clicked on it, the video is four hours long?

Yup, great to have on in the background because these guys know the show, know the books, and are funny as hell as they talk about how ridiculous this whole thing is.

They are very specific about the things making them laugh, and at just HOW BAD the plotting, scripts, logic, and inattention have been.

So, I'm loving it.

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(edited)
39 minutes ago, Miss Dee said:

I do wonder if GRRM intends to use Jon's heritage very much at all. He may be going for some kind of "destiny because family = bullshit", that basically finding out he's a Targ is not going to change who Jon is or alter the trajectory of his life, any more than finding out she's not actually the heir is going to change Dany's. But of course it will be fleshed out a lot more if that's what GRRM is going for.

From what I can tell, Jon being the legitimate heir to the throne not amounting to anything or changing anything in the end other than destroying Jon and Dany's relationship is a very GRRM thing to do.

Jon metaphorically erasing his Westeros existence by disappearing into the far North also does away with a lot of the issues with having a resurrected Jon involved in Westeros as king or the Stark patriarch or what have you. The show glossed over this stuff (I expect because D&D knew Jon's endgame from pretty early on and therefore none of it ultimately mattered), but I doubt GRRM will. We don't know how Book Jon will be as a Beric-type zombie. How long will he live? Can he even father children? Will his memory start to fade as Beric's did? Packing off Jon Frodo-style eliminates these issues.

D&D teasing Jon and Dany having a kid in S7 seems like a particularly cruel red herring, but I think it was always intended as such, rather than as a dropped plot thread. Jorah urges Jon to give Longclaw to his children, but there won't be any.

On the other hand, Tyrion being in love with Dany (according to the outlines and hints like Cersei commenting on Dany being Tyrion's sort of woman) in S7 makes no sense given what happened in Season 8. Tyrion being in love with Dany only works as an explanation for why he was so stubbornly invested in her success until the end, but S8 presented other reasons for Tyrion believing in Dany. S8 also introduced the idea that Tyrion is legit terrified of Dany, which seems like a bit of a retcon.

I certainly didn't see anything in the text or subtext in S8 to indicate that Tyrion was in love with her. Nor did I see the slightest whiff of jealousy towards Jon and Dany's relationship; Tyrion even supported Davos' call for a marriage between them and tried to get Varys on board with it in 8x04. So I don't know what all that was supposed to be about. It's almost as if D&D changed their minds between S7 and S8.

While all the Stark kids end the series technically alive, it's pretty grim. Bran Stark has been consumed by the 3ER; as Meera said, Bran died in the cave. Arya commits Frodo-style metaphorical suicide by sailing west of Westeros from which no one has ever returned. Jon commits Frodo-style metaphorical suicide by abandoning Westeros and disappearing into the far North. Sansa is alone at Winterfell, permanently separated from her siblings. The pack may have survived but it is permanently dissolved.

Edited by Eyes High
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Quote

Overall, W&B did a spectacular job of covering an unfinished science fiction fantasy series.   YMMV.

I have to agree overall, this show has worked for me. I think W&B managed to adapt the books quite well - keeping important stuff and changing certain things to keep the plot moving forward. Were there missteps? Certainly because Dorne on the show was an absolute mess and the Iron Islands didn't fair much better. I didn't care for Dorne or the Iron Islands in the books but the show? Sigh.

I have to give them credit too for actually finishing the damn thing which seems beyond GRRM at this point. I may not like the ending, but GRRM seems absolutely unable to figure out how or when to get characters where they need to be.

I would agree too that if they found out about Dany's heel turn way back during Season 5 - they had plenty of time to start writing character development for it. The whole 'well she barely reacted to her brother getting killed,' is laughable as some kind of proof that Dany had mass murder and madness in her.

I wish they had bothered to take the time to develop mad queen Dany, Bran's 'powers,' and so forth. Ah well and so it goes.

The only other thing I've sen Kit Harrington in was that mock tennis movie on HBO and he is hilarious in it.

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The Night King, Jon's parentage, Dany being fireproof and birthing dragons, Bran becoming the 3ER, all the skills Arya learned, and direwolves all seem like a great story that becomes pointless.  It was never more than a Game of Thrones between the Lannisters and Tyrion prevailed if he's the one who ends up ruling.  

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1 hour ago, CherryMalotte said:

Someone will maybe have to help me with this, I've been trying to find the article or post here about it - wasn't there some talk of an older Brit actress being cast to show up in the finale?  I want to say this was spoken of a couple of years ago, so it wasn't in context of the wonderful all hail Dame Diana Rigg as Oleanna.  Maybe I am confusing another show with this but I'm sure it was GoT.  Oh well.  

Angela Lansbury

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1 hour ago, Umbelina said:

Yup, great to have on in the background because these guys know the show, know the books, and are funny as hell as they talk about how ridiculous this whole thing is.

What I find heartening is that so many of these you tube commentaries are just laughing at the episode turns. Just laughing at it. That says so much. 

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(edited)
2 hours ago, ElizaD said:

One comparison I've seen people make lately is between Harry Potter and GOT: Alan Rickman was told about Snape's backstory before it was published, but Emilia pretty clearly seems to have found out about "Mad Dany" only when she got the season 8 scripts and wandered around London for hours. She played Dany as written for seven seasons, as a heroine with ambition and a belief in her birthright but with a conscience that ruthless and adored male leaders like Tywin never demonstrated.

There was no planning ahead for the endgame: Dany was required to do a 180 with no buildup except ridiculous things like not crying when her abusive brother was killed as a result of threatening her and her unborn child.

All true. And this is why I believe:

1 hour ago, Eyes High said:

 It's almost as if D&D changed their minds between S7 and S8.

Makes no sense otherwise. Why wouldn’t they have directed Emilia to show some sense of nuance to her character if it was all preplanned for seasons? She didn’t know, which leads me to believe they weren’t intending for it to go this way and if they were and deliberately didn’t tell her, they’re more shit at this than I realized. 

Edited by Soup333
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I am curious what Jon and Dany's final scene will be like.  I never thought the actors had any chemistry with each other.  I never bought their supposed love for each other.

Kit Harrington can be quite funny and doesn't take himself too seriously. I love that How To Train Your Dragon skit he did with Toothless. Adorable.

Richard Madden has been a real revelation to me.  He has been terrific in several projects since Robb was killed off.  I assume everyone here has seen The Bodyguard by now.

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21 minutes ago, Soup333 said:

Makes no sense otherwise. Why wouldn’t they have directed Emilia to show some sense of nuance to her character if it was all preplanned for seasons? She didn’t know, which leads me to believe they weren’t intending for it to go this way and if they were and deliberately didn’t tell her, they’re more shit at this than I realized. 

I think it's because they decided to reverse the order that things were going to happen in. I think King's Landing was going to fall first, then the Long Night was going to happen. So even if Dany was going to make that heel turn and torch King's Landing, she would have had the Long Night to fight in and have something of a redemption.

When Dany is in that vision back in whatever season, she gets to the Iron Throne, then she goes beyond the Wall.

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48 minutes ago, Soup333 said:

Makes no sense otherwise. Why wouldn’t they have directed Emilia to show some sense of nuance to her character if it was all preplanned for seasons? She didn’t know, which leads me to believe they weren’t intending for it to go this way and if they were and deliberately didn’t tell her, they’re more shit at this than I realized. 

Totally agree.  It's beyond jarring to compare Daenerys's characterization in 7x06 and 7x07--deciding to forego her assault on King's Landing and pledging her forces to fight the war against the undead--with her smirking, cocksure, almost arrogant characterization as she arrives in Winterfell in 8x01, the very next episode, without the benefit of a two-year gap.  The audience would be forgiven for literally getting whiplash.

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2 hours ago, CherryMalotte said:

Someone will maybe have to help me with this, I've been trying to find the article or post here about it - wasn't there some talk of an older Brit actress being cast to show up in the finale?  I want to say this was spoken of a couple of years ago, so it wasn't in context of the wonderful all hail Dame Diana Rigg as Oleanna.  Maybe I am confusing another show with this but I'm sure it was GoT.  Oh well.  

It was Vanessa Redgrave

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(edited)
4 hours ago, magdalene said:

I am curious what Jon and Dany's final scene will be like.  I never thought the actors had any chemistry with each other.  I never bought their supposed love for each other.

Kit Harrington can be quite funny and doesn't take himself too seriously. I love that How To Train Your Dragon skit he did with Toothless. Adorable.

Richard Madden has been a real revelation to me.  He has been terrific in several projects since Robb was killed off.  I assume everyone here has seen The Bodyguard by now.

Is the show really selling a love story between Dany and Jon or a hookup that took a nauseating turn? I don't read/watch after shows content so my views are solely based on what is presented on the show.  

If they intended was to portray love, they have failed spectacularly. This whole, "he'll kill the woman he loves, woe is him' spoiler narrative doesn't resonate with me for this very reason. 

I have seen Richard in the Bodygaurd. He was outstanding. Just phenomenon 

Edited by Deputy Deputy CoS
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1 hour ago, magdalene said:

I am curious what Jon and Dany's final scene will be like.  I never thought the actors had any chemistry with each other.  I never bought their supposed love for each other.

Kit Harrington can be quite funny and doesn't take himself too seriously. I love that How To Train Your Dragon skit he did with Toothless. Adorable.

Richard Madden has been a real revelation to me.  He has been terrific in several projects since Robb was killed off.  I assume everyone here has seen The Bodyguard by now.

All of this. Ditto. 

I have read the spoilers/leaks and there doesn't seem to be much happening. I hope we get a few surprises still in this last episode.

I can't wait to hear juicy behind-the-scenes gossip. Hope someone writes a book or something.

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1 minute ago, MadameKillerB said:

I can't wait to hear juicy behind-the-scenes gossip. Hope someone writes a book or something.

The actors all seem to get along exceptionally well, even those who have left the show. This may be a Friends-like scenario where they won't say anything negative about each other in public.

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(edited)
12 minutes ago, yowsah1 said:

Subscriptions are how HBO makes money.

Not always.

Game of Thrones was sold to 170 countries. In Germany it was aired on Amazon. In the UK it is aired on Sky Atlantic and other streaming sites. 

Go ahead, cancel that subscription. HBO already made their billions and they have moved on. 

Edited by MrsR
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6 minutes ago, MrsR said:

Not always.

Game of Thrones was sold to 170 countries. In Germany it was aired on Amazon. In the UK it is aired on Sky Atlantic and other streaming sites. 

Go ahead, cancel that subscription. HBO already made their billions and they have moved on. 

Great! Then let’s screw them over on the prequels.

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7 minutes ago, MrsR said:

Not always.

Game of Thrones was sold to 170 countries. In Germany it was aired on Amazon. In the UK it is aired on Sky Atlantic and other streaming sites. 

Go ahead, cancel that subscription. HBO already made their billions and they have moved on. 

The point is to keep making that money though. Nobody at HBO is saying fuck those subscribers. That’s incredibly illogical from a business standpoint. 

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27 minutes ago, yowsah1 said:

I am rapidly becoming convinced that GRRM never intended to make Jon Aegon Targaryeon at all.

Nah. He only let D&D adapt his books when they showed him they had picked up on this mystery/future reveal. It is the central question at the heart of the story and its theme. Jon, Jon and Dany, Rhaegar and Lyanna - they are the song of ice and fire. I will never believe that it wasn't supposed to matter.

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2 minutes ago, MrsR said:

Not always.

Game of Thrones was sold to 170 countries. In Germany it was aired on Amazon. In the UK it is aired on Sky Atlantic and other streaming sites. 

Go ahead cancel that subscription. HBO already made their billions and they have moved on. 

Last I heard, negotiations for airing rights for Season 8 had barely started.  I'm not saying the 170 countries won't buy the show, but I can see the asking price being negotiated down.  Also, HBO doesn't make as much money off of international sales as it does subscriptions because the middlemen in international sales have to take their cut, middlemen who have their own bottom lines to protect and who will adjust their offers based on how much they perceive that the value of GAME OF THRONES has deteriorated.

Look, I'm just saying there are other things to keep your eye on to ascertain whether or not the fan fury at GoT is real or just an internet-fueled delusion.  One of them is subscription cancellations.  The other is if the international licensing sales turn out to be less than expected.  Another is the quarterly financial reports - did they get adjusted down, or do they stay the same?  (The ultimate sign that a production decimated a company's bottom line is if they have to take a write-down).

It's patently obvious that GoT made HBO a lot of money.  But it also cost them a lot of money (GAME OF THRONES is the most expensive TV series ever made).  They expected to make that back through subscriptions, international sales, DVD sales, licensing, etc.  They have other series they are developing that they were planning on using profits from GoT to finance.  So keeping an eye on what happens to subscriptions, keeping in eye on how the international sales go, keeping an eye an quarterly financials and all those other things is a good way to gauge whether the anger over GoT is just a few internet loudmouths or a genuine expression of massive fan anger.

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Honestly all this raging at HBO is silly. HBO will be fine. They're owned by fucking AT&T. They're a media giant. Game of Thrones is not their only property. I'm sure if their revenue drops from eleventy billion to eight billion they'll somehow muddle through.

56 minutes ago, bijoux said:

Veep ended last Sunday, so I wouldn't bet on it.

I also wouldn't bet on it because it's ridiculous to even consider.

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37 minutes ago, MadameKillerB said:

All of this. Ditto. 

I have read the spoilers/leaks and there doesn't seem to be much happening. I hope we get a few surprises still in this last episode.

I can't wait to hear juicy behind-the-scenes gossip. Hope someone writes a book or something.

A couple of weeks back the journalist behind FilmcritHulk mentioned on twitter that he was desperate to talk about all the behind the scenes drama on GOT (and then hurriedly deleted the tweets a bit later). So now i'm very curious about what has been going on...

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7 minutes ago, yowsah1 said:

Last I heard, negotiations for airing rights for Season 8 had barely started.  I'm not saying the 170 countries won't buy the show, but I can see the asking price being negotiated down. 

I can't imagine where you heard that. This show is broadcast/simulcast live throughout world at the same time it is aired here. It's aired at 2 AM in the UK for instance. 3 AM in Germany.

The US ain't the center of the Universe. You have vastly underestimated this shows worldwide popularity and how good HBO is at selling it.

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5 hours ago, Chiny11 said:

Hi all, 

Any new leaks?

After Dany is stabbed to death, are we to expect a  "I did not see that coming" twist? 

I think the third big twist was probably Jon killing Dany. We are talking about a reaction D and D had years ago, after all. It is a.) subjective and b.) based on their knowledge of the story back then.

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16 minutes ago, yowsah1 said:

Last I heard, negotiations for airing rights for Season 8 had barely started.  I'm not saying the 170 countries won't buy the show, but I can see the asking price being negotiated down.  Also, HBO doesn't make as much money off of international sales as it does subscriptions because the middlemen in international sales have to take their cut, middlemen who have their own bottom lines to protect and who will adjust their offers based on how much they perceive that the value of GAME OF THRONES has deteriorated.

I'm from the entirely different hemisphere than the US, and the show is airing simultaneously with the US schedule on the most popular streaming service in my country. There are massive ad campaigns about the show all over our local segment of the Internet, mobile network operators and on tv,

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(edited)
4 hours ago, ElizaD said:

One comparison I've seen people make lately is between Harry Potter and GOT: Alan Rickman was told about Snape's backstory before it was published, but Emilia pretty clearly seems to have found out about "Mad Dany" only when she got the season 8 scripts and wandered around London for hours.  

To be fair, I don't think it's quite the same. Alan Rickman was told a detail about Snape's backstory. Something that influences the character as we see him. Emilia Clarke would have been told a detail of Dany's future. Dany's characterisation from Season 1 is not really influenced by what she does later, even though the journey needs to be told well, of course.

Edited by BadAssRobinArryn
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4 minutes ago, JennyMominFL said:

I think I may be the only person who loves this season of GoT. It wont be my favorite season, but, It will be somewhere in the middle. Episodes 2 and 3 will be in my top 10 of all time.

Oh, you are hardly the only one.  There are plenty of people who still love the show. 

I think for people like me who loved a particular character the most - in my case Jaime - and you didn't get what you hoped for and envisioned - that's when the love can go away.

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18 minutes ago, MrsR said:

I can't imagine where you heard that. This show is broadcast/simulcast live throughout world at the same time it is aired here. It's aired at 2 AM in the UK for instance. 3 AM in Germany.

The US ain't the center of the Universe. You have vastly underestimated this shows worldwide popularity and how good HBO is at selling it.

Yup, exactly. In my country it's 4 AM lo. Of course there are re-runs the day after but you can bet I'm not the only one watching it live..Tonight we have a viewing party. Obviously I had to take the day off from work tomorrow. It's the final GoT night for us and frankly I feel sad. I'm gonna miss this bloody show and everything surrounding it. Even the craziness!! Unfortunately I think it will be the last appointment-tv show that people all around the globe enjoy it simultaneously.

/sobs

Edited by Bianca Castafiore
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12 minutes ago, JennyMominFL said:

I think I may be the only person who loves this season of GoT. It wont be my favorite season, but, It will be somewhere in the middle. Episodes 2 and 3 will be in my top 10 of all time.

Nope you're not. *raises hand. Loved ep2 and ep5 (yeah I now, really unpopular here)

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2 minutes ago, BadAssRobinArryn said:

To be fair, I don't think it's quite the same. Alan Rickman was told a detail about Snape's backstory. Something that influences the character as we see him. Emilia Clarke would have been told a detail of Dany's future. Dany's characterisation is not really influenced by what she does later, even though the journey needs to be told well, of course.

Rowling told Rickman what ‘always’ meant which is a pretty big detail that allowed him to put nuance into Snape.

Surely something similar would have been possible with EC.

I think keeping actors uninformed of the trajectory of their character arcs robs the audience.

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(edited)
4 minutes ago, magdalene said:

Oh, you are hardly the only one.  There are plenty of people who still love the show. 

I think for people like me who loved a particular character the most - in my case Jaime - and you didn't get what you hoped for and envisioned - that's when the love can go away.

I wanted Jaime’s redemption too, his and Theon’s. I got it with Theon. But, I think jaime’s story is very real. Many people try to change, They make progress, they grow. Then, sadly many backslide and go back to who they were. It makes me said, but its real, and it doesnt make me angry

Edited by JennyMominFL
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1 hour ago, Minneapple said:

Uh, isn't Vanessa Redgrave like 90 years old? I mean that would be one hell of a flash-forward...

That Redgrave gene...she can do more in one look than most actresses can from a lifetime of work.  I remember at the time I saw her as an older Sansa, so not a look back but years later.  This I could have seen...but not Angela, lovely as she is.  
 

Quote

I can't wait to hear juicy behind-the-scenes gossip. Hope someone writes a book or something.

I dunno - I dig a bit of gossip but considering that people enjoy being employed and having a paycheck I think very little will be said, unless it's just confirming the party line of a bittersweet ending overall season.

13 minutes ago, Bianca Castafiore said:

I think I may be the only person who loves this season of GoT.

 I really enjoyed The Long Night and A Night Of The Seven Kingdoms, even more so after rewatching them a second and third time.  We'll be watching tonight, and probably rewatching right after.  I'm kinda relieved it's done though.  

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35 minutes ago, Minneapple said:

Honestly all this raging at HBO is silly. HBO will be fine. They're owned by fucking AT&T. They're a media giant. Game of Thrones is not their only property. I'm sure if their revenue drops from eleventy billion to eight billion they'll somehow muddle through.

This, they will muddle through the way every publicly held corporation muddles through when it doesn't deliver a promised return on investment - a bunch of people will get fired (hopefully just the CEOs who greenlit the money-losing thing that happened) and the company will start cutting back on expenses, by, say, cutting the budgets of or shelving certain guaranteed-to-be-wildly-expensive prequels.

Also, I need to take a walk of shame* on the foreign marketing thing - I misinterpreted the Deadline article about D&D shopping a global overall deal.  Shows you what happens when you only read the headline and just skim the article!

* - Although it will probably be harder on you then me, because you really don't want to see me naked!  ;)

I found a CNBC article article discussing this topic, I will take it to the Media thread if any are interested in reading it.

10 minutes ago, chrisvee said:

Rowling told Rickman what ‘always’ meant which is a pretty big detail that allowed him to put nuance into Snape.

Surely something similar would have been possible with EC.

I think keeping actors uninformed of the trajectory of their character arcs robs the audience.

It also robs the actors of crucial tools they need to do their jobs correctly.

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Advisory: This topic is for S8 Spoilers & Spec. If your post predominantly concerns book comparisons or a character's past season actions it will be removed. 

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