Game of Thrones Thread

[LordofTendons]

Remember when movies or TV shows sucked, and people were able to voice their criticisms without being called every name in the book by the media and Hollywood?

When we hate things like Star Wars or Captain Marvel, we're all called bigots.

When we hate how Game of Thrones ended, we're lectured by the likes of HBO, the media, and Sophie Turner about how we're all "disrespectful" meany faces because people worked SO HARD on the show.

Want to talk disrespect? How about the fans of the series, who spent their time watching and financially supporting the series via HBO subscriptions? THIS is the sloppy ending we're given, and we're not supposed to criticize? You know, if the cast and crew weren't able to spot a Starbucks cup and two water bottles that made it into frame, then maybe they should have worked a little bit harder, damn it.

The corporations are demanding our allegiance. I don't know how else I can view it at this point. I don't care if that sounds a little too "tin foil" to some, either. These big-ass corporations are demanding that we "consume the product, don't ask questions, and consume the next product" (to paraphrase RedLetterMedia). It's borderline scary, if you ask me.

Yeah, I know. "It's just TV, get over it."

But it's not TV, remember? "It's not TV, it's HBO." HBO told us that they're something better, something of a higher quality. So for years, on top of a regular cable bill, we paid extra for it. Not so much now with HBO Go, and I know some people watch via illegal downloads but there it is. The problem is that so many times they have only delivered half a product. Rome: Canceled after two or three seasons, the same with Deadwood. True Blood: Became an abortion halfway through when Alan Ball bailed on the show. GOT become another abortion after season 4 (not as bad as True Blood, but Dorne was the beginning of the end). So they have a history of tanking series in mid-stream, or killing them early.

They had all the power to take control of this situation, even though they had contracts with those two decadent buffoons, because HBO is an 800lb gorilla here, but they didn't, so it's completely their fault. Now that they've produced yet another turd, they're saying it's just TV, get over it. But with the next cycle, they're going to build up a bunch of hype again and start talking about how it's not TV, it's HBO, this is luxury programming. Plus, even though it's obvious that they can't handle the few programs they produce now, AT&T wants them to start producing content for every night of the week.

Nothing on HBO is special because they allow the showrunners to abandon and/or shit all over it at the first opportunity, and it's going to happen again, so I'm not subscribing any more. That's all anybody can do until whoever is making these decisions at HBO can figure out how to run a show consistently from beginning to end and not have a showrunner flake out. The same goes for Marvel, Star Wars, and anything else that you don't like and the company can't take the criticism.

 

[Ginger Piglet]

Yeah, I know. "It's just TV, get over it."

But it's not TV, remember? "It's not TV, it's HBO." HBO told us that they're something better, something of a higher quality. So for years, on top of a regular cable bill, we paid extra for it. Not so much now with HBO Go, and I know some people watch via illegal downloads but there it is. The problem is that so many times they have only delivered half a product. Rome: Canceled after two or three seasons, the same with Deadwood. True Blood: Became an abortion halfway through when Alan Ball bailed on the show. GOT become another abortion after season 4 (not as bad as True Blood, but Dorne was the beginning of the end). So they have a history of tanking series in mid-stream, or killing them early.

They had all the power to take control of this situation, even though they had contracts with those two decadent buffoons, because HBO is an 800lb gorilla here, but they didn't, so it's completely their fault. Now that they've produced yet another turd, they're saying it's just TV, get over it. But with the next cycle, they're going to build up a bunch of hype again and start talking about how it's not TV, it's HBO, this is luxury programming. Plus, even though it's obvious that they can't handle the few programs they produce now, AT&T wants them to start producing content for every night of the week.

Nothing on HBO is special because they allow the showrunners to abandon and/or shit all over it at the first opportunity, and it's going to happen again, so I'm not subscribing any more. That's all anybody can do until whoever is making these decisions at HBO can figure out how to run a show consistently from beginning to end and not have a showrunner flake out. The same goes for Marvel, Star Wars, and anything else that you don't like and the company can't take the criticism.

It's like Breaking Bad never happened. You have to know the ending before you begin. AMC did with that, and with Mad Men, and the Beeb did with The Last Kingdom and Sharpe (to the point at which Bernard Cornwell torched all his other projects to churn out more books with Sharpe and Uhtred).

 

[verissimus]

Man, where was this much commitment over Star Wars getting Johnsoned?

Frustrated 'Game of Thrones' fans slam show with airplane banner across Seattle sky

"Game of Thrones" fans in Washington state figured out a new way to vent their frustration about the hit HBO show's last season.

www.foxnews.com

@LordofTendons I can't really say I'm at the same level of frustration, but I do get the sentiment because this shows disastrous ending feels like a watershed moment where we may not see the entertainment industry try to produce anything like this show (at least in terms of production, casting, and for a time decent story-telling and pacing) any time soon, but will instead keep rehashing the same old worn out franchises and/or deconstruct or transmogrify them in the standard SJW fashion.

 

[OttoWest]

That's actually not bad. I can believe the whole award bait thing as well, even though Peter Dinklage, Emilia Clark, and Kit Harington don't come over as egotistical enough to screech about how they were "denied" gongs.

Fun fact: Actors often receive bonuses for every major award (in this case SAG and Emmy) nomination and win they achieve. They also have it guaranteed in their contracts that the network or studio will campaign for them regardless of how shit their performance might be or if it’s category fraud (Dinklage is arguably a lead, not supporting, but they know he’ll win in the latter category)

 

[verissimus]

Looks like Lord Tywin isn't thrilled either about this season

Charles Dance Gives His Opinion on the Game of Thrones Finale | Good Morning Britain

Subscribe now for more! http://bit.ly/1NbomQa Charles Dance chats about shooting Godzilla: King of the Monsters under the sweltering heat of Atlanta, Georgia...

www.youtube.com

 

[Secret Asshole]

Remember when movies or TV shows sucked, and people were able to voice their criticisms without being called every name in the book by the media and Hollywood?

When we hate things like Star Wars or Captain Marvel, we're all called bigots.

When we hate how Game of Thrones ended, we're lectured by the likes of HBO, the media, and Sophie Turner about how we're all "disrespectful" meany faces because people worked SO HARD on the show.

Want to talk disrespect? How about the fans of the series, who spent their time watching and financially supporting the series via HBO subscriptions? THIS is the sloppy ending we're given, and we're not supposed to criticize? You know, if the cast and crew weren't able to spot a Starbucks cup and two water bottles that made it into frame, then maybe they should have worked a little bit harder, damn it.

The corporations are demanding our allegiance. I don't know how else I can view it at this point. I don't care if that sounds a little too "tin foil" to some, either. These big-ass corporations are demanding that we "consume the product, don't ask questions, and consume the next product" (to paraphrase RedLetterMedia). It's borderline scary, if you ask me.

Of course they're demanding that. Any criticism will cut into their profit margin. The thing that changed? Video Games. Not joking. Its an 88 billion dollar juggernaut. You've got so much media vying for our dollar, and there's only so many dollars to go around. Especially since corporations love cutting wages and fucking their employees over, so people's entertainment budgets are growing tighter. Competition is getting hotter.

So they'll throw anything at their audience into shaming them into submission. That's why you see corporations pandering to the 'woke' brigade. Nothing like an army of narcissistic, egotistical fucking mongoloids who will defend your corporate garbage to death. See Ghostbusters. You're defending millionaires and a multibillion dollar corporate you dumb, fucking faggots. Who gives a fuck what someone called Leslie Jones, she's worth at least 2-3 million. More than most people will earn in their entire fucking life. Cry into your money fuckface, I don't give a shit.

We've got enough multi-billion dollar corporations fucking us into the dirt. Entertainment is the last one we can hold their feet to the fire because we fucking pay for it and unlike other corporations, they cannot suck the money from us. We have to give it to them. We pay you, niggers. We allow for your degenerate lifestyle. Go fuck yourself. Entitled? You're billionaires and millionaires who play pretend for a living. Eat a fucking bullet. Same for every journalistic piece of shit out there. 'Oh, you can't tell an artist how to make their art, its artistic freedom'. Listen up, corporate whores. If we're paying you, you better fucking satisfy us. If you want to be rich off your shit, you have to please your audience. When you are poor as fuck, you can do whatever you want. But the SECOND you want that big payday, you are no longer making art for yourself. You're making it for other people. You don't have to give them a happy ending or do everything they want, but you have to make them feel like they didn't fucking waste their time and money on you. And that's exactly what these two dumb motherfuckers did. We wasted our time and our money. Goddamn right we're fucking entitled to something better.

I hope their entire career is dead after this. They're rich, but I don't care. I'll never touch another fucking thing they're attached to. I will pirate it if its 'good'. The only good thing about X-Men Origins: Wolverine is that it butchered the character of Deadpool so much, it lead Ryan Reynolds on a decade long PERSONAL STRUGGLE to make it better. So, indirectly, D&D gave us Deadpool thanks to how fucking terrible their writing is.

Corporations realized that dullards in entertainment journalism would become the best bootlicking toadies in the world if it meant they could continue shitting on the same nerds their corporate masters were stealing all their ideas from. That's all this "entitled" nonsense amounts to. It's just a signal phrase to trigger positive press.

These dumb nigger journalists all worship socialism, but when its time to deepthroat corporate cock, they do it until they vomit all over themselves. There's a reason people fucking loathe press in any form. They're fucking hypocrites and pieces of shit who will lie, make up shit, do clickbait, to make money.

Yeah, I know. "It's just TV, get over it."

But it's not TV, remember? "It's not TV, it's HBO." HBO told us that they're something better, something of a higher quality. So for years, on top of a regular cable bill, we paid extra for it. Not so much now with HBO Go, and I know some people watch via illegal downloads but there it is. The problem is that so many times they have only delivered half a product. Rome: Canceled after two or three seasons, the same with Deadwood. True Blood: Became an abortion halfway through when Alan Ball bailed on the show. GOT become another abortion after season 4 (not as bad as True Blood, but Dorne was the beginning of the end). So they have a history of tanking series in mid-stream, or killing them early.

They had all the power to take control of this situation, even though they had contracts with those two decadent buffoons, because HBO is an 800lb gorilla here, but they didn't, so it's completely their fault. Now that they've produced yet another turd, they're saying it's just TV, get over it. But with the next cycle, they're going to build up a bunch of hype again and start talking about how it's not TV, it's HBO, this is luxury programming. Plus, even though it's obvious that they can't handle the few programs they produce now, AT&T wants them to start producing content for every night of the week.

Nothing on HBO is special because they allow the showrunners to abandon and/or shit all over it at the first opportunity, and it's going to happen again, so I'm not subscribing any more. That's all anybody can do until whoever is making these decisions at HBO can figure out how to run a show consistently from beginning to end and not have a showrunner flake out. The same goes for Marvel, Star Wars, and anything else that you don't like and the company can't take the criticism.

Of course they did. HBO better watch its ass, because it has massive competition now. It has gotten a rep for fucking up good shows now. Also GoT was their money-maker. Not so much anymore. I don't know what those dumb fucks were doing, but they cratered that brand into the ground and now everyone is basically relying on GRRM to hurry the fuck up and finish, so they're not stuck with this abortion of an ending. I will start reading the books, but only when they're done and I know the ending isn't total garbage. If he ever finishes, of course. I mean, its not like he didn't publish or write anything. He did everything but write A Song of Ice and Fire. Maybe this will put fire under his fat ass to finish this so that this won't be the ending people remember. I sure as fuck would get on it.

Yeah, the AT&T CEO wants them to compete with Netflix with original programming. Honestly, the best original programming right now is on Amazon. I've heard nothing but good things from each of their series. Problem is, I don't trust HBO at all to deliver me quality. They've fucked up too many times. Poor fucking Rome and Deadwood. 'Sorry, you're too expensive' *funds multi-billion dollar fantasy epic* Like, really? Fucking seriously? Also Westwood went to utter fucking shit in Season 2. Utter fucking garbage writing. At least you can watch Season 1 and basically have a complete story. Just assume everyone fucking dies and there you go. Can't do that with GoT. And at least they're finishing Deadwood with a movie. I was SO fucking pissed they stopped it at Season 3 with a cliffhanger that never got resolved.

Also the Wire cratered in its last season as well. So this has been a thing with HBO for a long, long time. Its just never been as fucking god-awful as this or as visible. Everbody watched GoT. And everybody saw it die and exposed HBO for what it is. Garbage. If you think about it, @LordofTendons is 100% right. There are so many good HBO shows that either got shafted, became fucking terrible or ended horrifically. It really is a consistent thing with them. Its just never been this evident before.

 

[Silent Observer]

Of course they're demanding that. Any criticism will cut into their profit margin. The thing that changed? Video Games. Not joking. Its an 88 billion dollar juggernaut. You've got so much media vying for our dollar, and there's only so many dollars to go around. Especially since corporations love cutting wages and fucking their employees over, so people's entertainment budgets are growing tighter. Competition is getting hotter.

So they'll throw anything at their audience into shaming them into submission. That's why you see corporations pandering to the 'woke' brigade. Nothing like an army of narcissistic, egotistical fucking mongoloids who will defend your corporate garbage to death. See Ghostbusters. You're defending millionaires and a multibillion dollar corporate you dumb, fucking faggots. Who gives a fuck what someone called Leslie Jones, she's worth at least 2-3 million. More than most people will earn in their entire fucking life. Cry into your money fuckface, I don't give a shit.

We've got enough multi-billion dollar corporations fucking us into the dirt. Entertainment is the last one we can hold their feet to the fire because we fucking pay for it and unlike other corporations, they cannot suck the money from us. We have to give it to them. We pay you, niggers. We allow for your degenerate lifestyle. Go fuck yourself. Entitled? You're billionaires and millionaires who play pretend for a living. Eat a fucking bullet. Same for every journalistic piece of shit out there. 'Oh, you can't tell an artist how to make their art, its artistic freedom'. Listen up, corporate whores. If we're paying you, you better fucking satisfy us. If you want to be rich off your shit, you have to please your audience. When you are poor as fuck, you can do whatever you want. But the SECOND you want that big payday, you are no longer making art for yourself. You're making it for other people. You don't have to give them a happy ending or do everything they want, but you have to make them feel like they didn't fucking waste their time and money on you. And that's exactly what these two dumb motherfuckers did. We wasted our time and our money. Goddamn right we're fucking entitled to something better.

I hope their entire career is dead after this. They're rich, but I don't care. I'll never touch another fucking thing they're attached to. I will pirate it if its 'good'. The only good thing about X-Men Origins: Wolverine is that it butchered the character of Deadpool so much, it lead Ryan Reynolds on a decade long PERSONAL STRUGGLE to make it better. So, indirectly, D&D gave us Deadpool thanks to how fucking terrible their writing is.



These dumb nigger journalists all worship socialism, but when its time to deepthroat corporate cock, they do it until they vomit all over themselves. There's a reason people fucking loathe press in any form. They're fucking hypocrites and pieces of shit who will lie, make up shit, do clickbait, to make money.



Of course they did. HBO better watch its ass, because it has massive competition now. It has gotten a rep for fucking up good shows now. Also GoT was their money-maker. Not so much anymore. I don't know what those dumb fucks were doing, but they cratered that brand into the ground and now everyone is basically relying on GRRM to hurry the fuck up and finish, so they're not stuck with this abortion of an ending. I will start reading the books, but only when they're done and I know the ending isn't total garbage. If he ever finishes, of course. I mean, its not like he didn't publish or write anything. He did everything but write A Song of Ice and Fire. Maybe this will put fire under his fat ass to finish this so that this won't be the ending people remember. I sure as fuck would get on it.

Yeah, the AT&T CEO wants them to compete with Netflix with original programming. Honestly, the best original programming right now is on Amazon. I've heard nothing but good things from each of their series. Problem is, I don't trust HBO at all to deliver me quality. They've fucked up too many times. Poor fucking Rome and Deadwood. 'Sorry, you're too expensive' *funds multi-billion dollar fantasy epic* Like, really? Fucking seriously? Also Westwood went to utter fucking shit in Season 2. Utter fucking garbage writing. At least you can watch Season 1 and basically have a complete story. Just assume everyone fucking dies and there you go. Can't do that with GoT. And at least they're finishing Deadwood with a movie. I was SO fucking pissed they stopped it at Season 3 with a cliffhanger that never got resolved.

Also the Wire cratered in its last season as well. So this has been a thing with HBO for a long, long time. Its just never been as fucking god-awful as this or as visible. Everbody watched GoT. And everybody saw it die and exposed HBO for what it is. Garbage. If you think about it, @LordofTendons is 100% right. There are so many good HBO shows that either got shafted, became fucking terrible or ended horrifically. It really is a consistent thing with them. Its just never been this evident before.

Jeez man, you keep delivering such awesome posts about this clusterfuck show. Much appreciation!

The more I think about it, the more I believe the conspiracy theory that Disney paid D&D enough money for several lifetimes to sink HBO's flagship franchise and thus devalue HBO's streaming service so that people may shift towards Disney's when it launches. It's the only way to explain such systematic destruction of every character arc and plot line. If that's not the case, D&D need to be sent to the same Hollywood Hell that Josh Trank got sent to after Fan4stic, because GOT S8 was about as bad as that film in terms of honoring it's characters.

Also, another nitpick about the finale. Drogon flew off with Daenerys' body, so did Jon seriously turn himself into Dany's army and tell them he killed her (instead of lying and saying she flew off somewhere), and did Dany's army seriously not execute him on the spot? Also, Jon took the black as punishment? Why would Grey Worm view that as acceptable, as he probably barely knows what the Night's Watch is, and why does the Night's Watch exist, considering the White Walker threat is gone and the Wildlings seem to be at peace with the North? This finale truly is the worst, and can only be explained by absolute idiocy or corporate sabotage.

 

[Cosmos]

I hate how this video is a pretty accurate summation of the last few episodes:

They turned this show into a god-damn anime.

Holy shit, they really did turn Dany into a yandere.

And speaking of anime, this video is still one of my favorite things ever:

 

[Mola Ram]

Of course they're demanding that. Any criticism will cut into their profit margin. The thing that changed? Video Games. Not joking. Its an 88 billion dollar juggernaut. You've got so much media vying for our dollar, and there's only so many dollars to go around. Especially since corporations love cutting wages and fucking their employees over, so people's entertainment budgets are growing tighter. Competition is getting hotter.

So they'll throw anything at their audience into shaming them into submission. That's why you see corporations pandering to the 'woke' brigade. Nothing like an army of narcissistic, egotistical fucking mongoloids who will defend your corporate garbage to death. See Ghostbusters. You're defending millionaires and a multibillion dollar corporate you dumb, fucking faggots. Who gives a fuck what someone called Leslie Jones, she's worth at least 2-3 million. More than most people will earn in their entire fucking life. Cry into your money fuckface, I don't give a shit.

We've got enough multi-billion dollar corporations fucking us into the dirt. Entertainment is the last one we can hold their feet to the fire because we fucking pay for it and unlike other corporations, they cannot suck the money from us. We have to give it to them. We pay you, niggers. We allow for your degenerate lifestyle. Go fuck yourself. Entitled? You're billionaires and millionaires who play pretend for a living. Eat a fucking bullet. Same for every journalistic piece of shit out there. 'Oh, you can't tell an artist how to make their art, its artistic freedom'. Listen up, corporate whores. If we're paying you, you better fucking satisfy us. If you want to be rich off your shit, you have to please your audience. When you are poor as fuck, you can do whatever you want. But the SECOND you want that big payday, you are no longer making art for yourself. You're making it for other people. You don't have to give them a happy ending or do everything they want, but you have to make them feel like they didn't fucking waste their time and money on you. And that's exactly what these two dumb motherfuckers did. We wasted our time and our money. Goddamn right we're fucking entitled to something better.

I hope their entire career is dead after this. They're rich, but I don't care. I'll never touch another fucking thing they're attached to. I will pirate it if its 'good'. The only good thing about X-Men Origins: Wolverine is that it butchered the character of Deadpool so much, it lead Ryan Reynolds on a decade long PERSONAL STRUGGLE to make it better. So, indirectly, D&D gave us Deadpool thanks to how fucking terrible their writing is.



These dumb nigger journalists all worship socialism, but when its time to deepthroat corporate cock, they do it until they vomit all over themselves. There's a reason people fucking loathe press in any form. They're fucking hypocrites and pieces of shit who will lie, make up shit, do clickbait, to make money.



Of course they did. HBO better watch its ass, because it has massive competition now. It has gotten a rep for fucking up good shows now. Also GoT was their money-maker. Not so much anymore. I don't know what those dumb fucks were doing, but they cratered that brand into the ground and now everyone is basically relying on GRRM to hurry the fuck up and finish, so they're not stuck with this abortion of an ending. I will start reading the books, but only when they're done and I know the ending isn't total garbage. If he ever finishes, of course. I mean, its not like he didn't publish or write anything. He did everything but write A Song of Ice and Fire. Maybe this will put fire under his fat ass to finish this so that this won't be the ending people remember. I sure as fuck would get on it.

Yeah, the AT&T CEO wants them to compete with Netflix with original programming. Honestly, the best original programming right now is on Amazon. I've heard nothing but good things from each of their series. Problem is, I don't trust HBO at all to deliver me quality. They've fucked up too many times. Poor fucking Rome and Deadwood. 'Sorry, you're too expensive' *funds multi-billion dollar fantasy epic* Like, really? Fucking seriously? Also Westwood went to utter fucking shit in Season 2. Utter fucking garbage writing. At least you can watch Season 1 and basically have a complete story. Just assume everyone fucking dies and there you go. Can't do that with GoT. And at least they're finishing Deadwood with a movie. I was SO fucking pissed they stopped it at Season 3 with a cliffhanger that never got resolved.

Also the Wire cratered in its last season as well. So this has been a thing with HBO for a long, long time. Its just never been as fucking god-awful as this or as visible. Everbody watched GoT. And everybody saw it die and exposed HBO for what it is. Garbage. If you think about it, @LordofTendons is 100% right. There are so many good HBO shows that either got shafted, became fucking terrible or ended horrifically. It really is a consistent thing with them. Its just never been this evident before.

I can only pray that one day my tongue will be touched by the Pentecostal fire that @SecretAsshole channels so effortlessly.

 

[Ginger Piglet]

Of course they're demanding that. Any criticism will cut into their profit margin. The thing that changed? Video Games. Not joking. Its an 88 billion dollar juggernaut. You've got so much media vying for our dollar, and there's only so many dollars to go around. Especially since corporations love cutting wages and fucking their employees over, so people's entertainment budgets are growing tighter. Competition is getting hotter.

So they'll throw anything at their audience into shaming them into submission. That's why you see corporations pandering to the 'woke' brigade. Nothing like an army of narcissistic, egotistical fucking mongoloids who will defend your corporate garbage to death. See Ghostbusters. You're defending millionaires and a multibillion dollar corporate you dumb, fucking faggots. Who gives a fuck what someone called Leslie Jones, she's worth at least 2-3 million. More than most people will earn in their entire fucking life. Cry into your money fuckface, I don't give a shit.

We've got enough multi-billion dollar corporations fucking us into the dirt. Entertainment is the last one we can hold their feet to the fire because we fucking pay for it and unlike other corporations, they cannot suck the money from us. We have to give it to them. We pay you, niggers. We allow for your degenerate lifestyle. Go fuck yourself. Entitled? You're billionaires and millionaires who play pretend for a living. Eat a fucking bullet. Same for every journalistic piece of shit out there. 'Oh, you can't tell an artist how to make their art, its artistic freedom'. Listen up, corporate whores. If we're paying you, you better fucking satisfy us. If you want to be rich off your shit, you have to please your audience. When you are poor as fuck, you can do whatever you want. But the SECOND you want that big payday, you are no longer making art for yourself. You're making it for other people. You don't have to give them a happy ending or do everything they want, but you have to make them feel like they didn't fucking waste their time and money on you. And that's exactly what these two dumb motherfuckers did. We wasted our time and our money. Goddamn right we're fucking entitled to something better.

I hope their entire career is dead after this. They're rich, but I don't care. I'll never touch another fucking thing they're attached to. I will pirate it if its 'good'. The only good thing about X-Men Origins: Wolverine is that it butchered the character of Deadpool so much, it lead Ryan Reynolds on a decade long PERSONAL STRUGGLE to make it better. So, indirectly, D&D gave us Deadpool thanks to how fucking terrible their writing is.



These dumb nigger journalists all worship socialism, but when its time to deepthroat corporate cock, they do it until they vomit all over themselves. There's a reason people fucking loathe press in any form. They're fucking hypocrites and pieces of shit who will lie, make up shit, do clickbait, to make money.



Of course they did. HBO better watch its ass, because it has massive competition now. It has gotten a rep for fucking up good shows now. Also GoT was their money-maker. Not so much anymore. I don't know what those dumb fucks were doing, but they cratered that brand into the ground and now everyone is basically relying on GRRM to hurry the fuck up and finish, so they're not stuck with this abortion of an ending. I will start reading the books, but only when they're done and I know the ending isn't total garbage. If he ever finishes, of course. I mean, its not like he didn't publish or write anything. He did everything but write A Song of Ice and Fire. Maybe this will put fire under his fat ass to finish this so that this won't be the ending people remember. I sure as fuck would get on it.

Yeah, the AT&T CEO wants them to compete with Netflix with original programming. Honestly, the best original programming right now is on Amazon. I've heard nothing but good things from each of their series. Problem is, I don't trust HBO at all to deliver me quality. They've fucked up too many times. Poor fucking Rome and Deadwood. 'Sorry, you're too expensive' *funds multi-billion dollar fantasy epic* Like, really? Fucking seriously? Also Westwood went to utter fucking shit in Season 2. Utter fucking garbage writing. At least you can watch Season 1 and basically have a complete story. Just assume everyone fucking dies and there you go. Can't do that with GoT. And at least they're finishing Deadwood with a movie. I was SO fucking pissed they stopped it at Season 3 with a cliffhanger that never got resolved.

Also the Wire cratered in its last season as well. So this has been a thing with HBO for a long, long time. Its just never been as fucking god-awful as this or as visible. Everbody watched GoT. And everybody saw it die and exposed HBO for what it is. Garbage. If you think about it, @LordofTendons is 100% right. There are so many good HBO shows that either got shafted, became fucking terrible or ended horrifically. It really is a consistent thing with them. Its just never been this evident before.

This absolutely.

The other thing is this. You can have the best acting, the best VFX, the best cinematography, and the best costumiers, and the best set designers and stage managers money can buy, but if the writing is sub-par, all you're doing is polishing a turd.

Personally, I think the reason behind all these hugely flashy set pieces and action sequences and battle sequences and Drogon melting the throne and an infinite zombie horde human pyramiding themselves over the walls of Winterfell was more often than not to prevent you from engaging your brain and thinking, "hang on, what the fuck, this makes no sense" until it's too late to change the channel.

EDIT: For me, the ultimate holy grail of television is the single- or double-handed episode. If you can do an episode of anything with just one or two characters in it, preferably in one single continuous scene, and make it thunkful and engaging, you win. Breaking Bad managed it with "4 Days Out." Classic black comedy One Foot In The Grave did it once per season ("Timeless Time", "The Beast in the Cage," "Rearranging the Dust," "Jury Service" - particularly impressive that one because it was just Victor on his own rattling around at home yet it was funny as fuck.)

If they'd dedicated an entire episode to Jon and Dany thrashing out how they were going to square him being secretly a Targaryen who was higher in line to the throne than she was, being related to each, and their continued romantic imbroglio, and how she could be certain he wasn't going to betray her, and he could be certain she wasn't going to stab him in his sleep before he could betray her, and how they would spin it to the lords of the North to prevent them from fucking off home, and how she could spin it to the Dothraki and Unsullied to keep their loyalty, and how they needed to keep a united front to face the Night King and his million zombies, that would have been more impressive than almost anything else. I think both Kit and Emilia could have acted well enough to deliver it also. But alas, it was not to be.

 

[Mola Ram]

For me, the ultimate holy grail of television is the single- or double-handed episode. If you can do an episode of anything with just one or two characters in it, preferably in one single continuous scene, and make it thunkful and engaging, you win

Aka a "bottle episode."

Bottle episode - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

It's a grand idea -- GoT was at its absolute best when you just had two or three characters talking (Arya and Tywin, Tyrion and Tywin, Joffrey and Tywin, Olenna and Tywin, Jaime and Tywin, Cersei and Tywin, a bowl of iced cherries and Tywin) -- but I guarantee you there are too many suits who would have pitched an absolute fit at the idea. "We're putting ten million an episode into this stupid shit! We need to see that money onscreen!"

 

[Ginger Piglet]

Aka a "bottle episode."

Bottle episode - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

It's a grand idea -- GoT was at its absolute best when you just had two or three characters talking (Arya and Tywin, Tyrion and Tywin, Joffrey and Tywin, Olenna and Tywin, Jaime and Tywin, Cersei and Tywin, a bowl of iced cherries and Tywin) -- but I guarantee you there are too many suits who would have pitched an absolute fit at the idea. "We're putting ten million an episode into this stupid shit! We need to see that money onscreen!"

Then they could have saved it to employ someone to remove all coffee cups and water bottles before each take, surely.

 

[not william stenchever]

Lore question: There was a bunch of other Brans than this one, shouldn't he be the 21st of his name or something?

This is the first Bran to rule the six kingdoms instead of the North, right? The Scottish king who also became King of England became James VI and I because the number of James that had held each throne before was different. I know D&D didn't think of this but history has given them a convenient out.

 

[Feline Supremacist]

At least we have the Ramin Djawadi soundtrack.

 

[Your Weird Fetish]

At least we have the Ramin Djawadi soundtrack.

Warrior of Light still plays in my head when I read Stannis scenes in the books.

 

[verissimus]

Also the Wire cratered in its last season as well. So this has been a thing with HBO for a long, long time. Its just never been as fucking god-awful as this or as visible. Everbody watched GoT. And everybody saw it die and exposed HBO for what it is. Garbage. If you think about it, @LordofTendons is 100% right. There are so many good HBO shows that either got shafted, became fucking terrible or ended horrifically. It really is a consistent thing with them. Its just never been this evident before.

This and along with the fact that I felt by the beginning of season 5 that the remaining character arcs were going to be bad because there were only so many few seasons left to develop them is what psyched me to believe the show was going to fail, but these pos-es did it on purpose just because they couldn't be bothered working on it anymore. Now if you ask me, that's sounds pretty freaking entitled.

@Secret Asshole also Westwood?

 

[Spatula]

Rumor has it that Kit is a struggling drug addict.
His sudden shift in mindset and attack on fans make sense now.

 

[Ginger Piglet]

This and along with the fact that I felt by the beginning of season 5 that the remaining character arcs were going to be bad because there were only so many few seasons left to develop them is what psyched me to believe the show was going to fail, but these pos-es did it on purpose just because they couldn't be bothered working on it anymore. Now if you ask me, that's sounds pretty freaking entitled.

@Secret Asshole also Westwood?

You are right that that is when the rot set in. Sand snakes, anyone? "You want the good girl, but you need the baaaad poooseh." Deary me.

Rumor has it that Kit is a struggling drug addict.
His sudden shift in mindset and attack on fans make sense now.

Either that or the threat of lawsuits the size of the Oort Cloud over his dropping that the ending was "disappointing" then trying to spin it as "I'm disappointed I won't get to be Jon Snurrr any more."

I can't see why he'd turn to drugs. He's been paid fucktons for his turn as Jon Snurrr, his wife is a tasty redhead that he plated on screen and got together with off set during the filming of said plating, he lives in a castle...

 

[OttoWest]

I can't see why he'd turn to drugs. He's been paid fucktons for his turn as Jon Snurrr, his wife is a tasty redhead that he plated on screen and got together with off set during the filming of said plating, he lives in a castle...

I get it. Cause now he’s got to find a job.

Being a lead on a long-running series is the sweetest gig an actor can swing. You’ve done it— you don’t have to audition anymore, the perks are crazy, and it’s more than likely your pay escalates with each new season.

But now that it’s over, you actually have to hustle again. Of course the actor benefits from being a celebrity now, and you’ve got a lot more people ready to be in the “Kit Harington business” or whatever. But his movie career hasn’t exactly taken off, his work on the show was never acclaimed. His next project could crash, which devalues his worth. It’s always iffy. You don’t have that steady gig to fall back on. A ten year project ends (and ends shittily) Some people can’t handle that. Jon Hamm went to rehab right when Mad Men was ending. Same thing.

 

[Stab You in the Back]

What hussle? The guy is a multi-millionaire who will be pulling in GoT residuals for decades. The guy can do whatever he wants. Heck, he might as well join George Bush and Jim Carey in that creepy painting cult they belong to.