HBO's Game of Thrones season 6 discussion thread- airing 4/24/16 (No book spoilers)

[beginner99]

The ending is meh, could have been worse given the whole season 8 but it was clear there couldn't be a good ending anymore. Making Dany a mad woman and killing her off in like 3 episodes was so, so bad. You build her up over 7 seasons an then this. lame ending with her an Jon ruling would have been soo much better (and more logical) than this pseudo-happy ending and killing off the most hyped character in an unemotional, illogical mess.

Things that bothered me not just in this episode:

- Bran was essential just bait for the night king and then get named king. Didn't have an magic powers or something that helped in any way. In general the whole magic /fantasy arch was basically dropped with the exception of Melisandre in episode 3.

- We end up were it started. Westeros "is left to itself" again with the unsullied leaving. We have a king that doesn't care about ruling (Robert) and still a rich elite leading. The conflicts have already begun again as we hear in the last meeting. Only difference is that the White walkers are gone and >1 Mio are dead.

- Again with the magic stuff. Beric gets resurrected several times and his cause was to save Arya. For Jon? Nothing. If his cause was to kill Dany, he should have died there. But it seemed his cause didn't actually happen yet? Or they just forgot about this? (obviously the forgot...)

- And why do they send Jon of to the nights watch? As soon as the unsullied left, that was pointless.

- Jon being a Targaryen was essential unimportant in the end. it was just an aspect to drive Dany mad and then not get himself killed by drogon. Another waste and missed opportunities.

With this restricted time, they should have went a completely different route. give a second epsiode to fight the white walkers and then just have Dany and Jon (with 1 or 2 dragons) do what Dany did at first but then stop when the bells ring. That would have given the white walkers arch the time and weight it deserved to resolve it and save time on Dany getting mad, Euron and other useless stuff. It would have closed ended the characters more logically. Hell, they could have killed of Dany or jon in the battle at kings landing and have only one of them rule. But making her mad queen was just a bad idea with the amount of time they had.

 

[Paratus]

https://imgur.com/YhicK82

 

[Sonikku]

https://imgur.com/Co7xfJZ

 

[Dr. Zaus]

No Hound no want.

He’s come back from worse.

 

[Skel]

You mean all the "good" people who were left, right? The point being, they killed off 3/4's of the "good guys" in the course of the series, and made another mostly good character into a villain before killing her off at the end. And John, noblest of them all, is at least temporarily banished to the frozen wastes. The point being, I don't mind the happy ending for most of the remaining good characters. We've kind of earned it at this point. You can't look at a show that was so determined to demoralize and piss off its audience right up until the end and accuse it of caving to the cliched happy ending.

Given that the internet is in a uproar of people crapping all over GoT principally because John or Dany or both didn't get be the monarch, hearing criticism that this was too happy of an ending suggests to me that there was no way to end this which would be satisfying to a majority of viewers.

To each their own, but for me GoT was always best when it challenged typical storytelling. Giving everyone 'good' (that survived... not sure why we're concerned with dead characters, but OK) a happy ending is the typical hollywood storytelling at it's worst. It's a pity that they went off the rails in the past season in making it fall in line with everything else out there. If you look at all the best series, most of them don't have 'clean endings'. I honestly would have preferred that to the 'everyone gets a trophy' ending.

You know what? As has been pointed out in this thread, they have had thousands of years and made very little in terms of advancement. In fact, things such as forging valyerian steel have been lost. Only the most skilled of smiths can even reforge it. I think it is just best to accept this is a kingdom of idiots.

They've never shown they've had gunpowder, or other minerals/whatever. The discovery of gunpowder is what drove people out of castles and destroyed the Kingdoms. I'm not sure how far people would get without the proper ingredients... also how much training would you be able to do if Valyerian steel is in such short supply? It'd be too precious to waste with trial and error.. of course the fact that Valyerian Steel is made with Dragon fire, I think it's difficult to force our physics and normality to a fantasy world. If you really want to split hairs, how do the dragons fly? Hollow bones?

 

[Starbuck1975]

I wonder how many people here got the Trogdor reference... or rather, even knows what/who Trogdor is...

Thatch roof cottages!!!

 

[Exterous]

Did you read the rest of my post? I explained precisely why Bran's being essentially a non-entity is why he was the perfect choice. He's supposed to be no king at all. He's supposed to be a figurehead while the council rules.

Why yes I did - thanks for asking. Just because you think you explained why it makes perfect sense - that doesn't mean that its a universal truth. None of the reasoning in the show was useful to this ending "He has a great story." Really? Because no one else has a better story? Perhaps someone who was actually in Season 5 might have a better story because, you know, they actually had a story written about them. "He doesn't want it" There are other characters that would say the same. etc

I gave a scenario where it might make sense but the writers did a bad job of crafting a sensible narrative behind his choice.

 

[zinfamous]

- Again with the magic stuff. Beric gets resurrected several times and his cause was to save Arya. For Jon? Nothing. If his cause was to kill Dany, he should have died there. But it seemed his cause didn't actually happen yet? Or they just forgot about this? (obviously the forgot...)
.

Well if his cause was to save Arya, it's because Arya's cause was to kill the Night King. So that works. ...but if Arya could sneak by all the walkers like that with no concern whatsoever, it's funny that the piddly wights gave her so much trouble in that scene. Though I guess they are more like a mad horde thing, unlike the walkers.

 

[WelshBloke]

None of the reasoning in the show was useful to this ending "He has a great story." Really? Because no one else has a better story? Perhaps someone who was actually in Season 5 might have a better story because, you know, they actually had a story written about them.

I assumed that the "He has a great story" thing was meaning that he literally carries the story of all Westeros history in his head not just a story of his deeds. The story he has is the knowledge of Westeros past and that that makes him unique in a choice of King.

 

[z1ggy]

I thought he had a vision of the silhouette of what was kind of assumed to be a dragon and subsequently turned out to be Drogon, flying over KL?

Plus his comment to Thion (spelling?) before he went and got shanked by NK made it seem like he knew he would not make it out alive.

@Homerboy

According to that article linked above, Bran does have "future vision"

For what it's worth, Hempstead-Wright believes Bran "Three-Eyed Raven" Stark will be a good ruler because of the Three-Eyed Raven's knowing-everything-past-and-future thing.

So if Bran could continuously see the future... how long has he known the "ending" of the story. And furthermore...isn't it ironic that all the death and destruction end with him as King? Makes you wonder...

 

[Homerboy]

Well the Valyrian steel forging required dragons, and they had died off for quite a long time. They didn't necessarily forget, they physically couldn't.

And between magic, dragons, frozen undead armies, and what have you, this kind of ends up like a Dark Ages era. Technology and science stops making strides when you kill them all off as heretics or whatever. The warfare seemed to be the only thing where progress was made, which... is quite realistic. The way science and technology go, they make large strides in fits, some major discovery that feeds other discoveries, but sometimes there isn't that singular leap for generations.
Also don't forget about burning down and having to rebuild entire towns/kingdoms -- this likely means libraries go up in flame.

Recall that it seemed like some segments of the GOT world seemed to have made more advancements than others.

And lastly, recall there seem to be actual god(s) in this series - that or the magic is a little unpredictable? The God of Light may very well have held them back at various times.


While it wouldn't be the case here, it could be something like the Dune series, where specific technologies were outlawed after AI nearly wiped out humanity. Now I'm definitely curious whether GRRM ever put some backstory to this concept, whether as part of the main book series or in some side work.

They had a citidal literally filled with "learned men" doing non-stop experiments and general "learning"
Each grand house had a Maester on staff to deal with medicine, technology and the like.
And they didn't need dragons to forge Valyrian steel. If you recall Tywin had Ned's sword re-frorged into 2 new swords (one for Jaime and one for Joffrey)

 

[OccamsToothbrush]

There's one and only one good aspect to that lame-ass ending and to the disappointment of the final season in general. Now I don't give a shit whether GRRM ever finishes the books. My interest in the series is deader than the Nights King.

 

[zinfamous]

There's one and only one good aspect to that lame-ass ending and to the disappointment of the final season in general. Now I don't give a shit whether GRRM ever finishes the books. My interest in the series is deader than the Nights King.

now that's a lurker!

 

[Homerboy]

There's one and only one good aspect to that lame-ass ending and to the disappointment of the final season in general. Now I don't give a shit whether GRRM ever finishes the books. My interest in the series is deader than the Nights King.

100% agree. If this is how the books truly end - Bran on the throne. Jon in the North-of-North. Sansa queen of the North etc... I guess I don't care what the (true) means to the end is.

 

[dainthomas]

now that's a lurker!

I think we found the real Night King.

 

[purbeast0]

Glad I wasn't the only one who was wondering WTF this stupid shit was about.

 

[Newbian]

And they didn't need dragons to forge Valyrian steel. If you recall Tywin had Ned's sword re-frorged into 2 new swords (one for Jaime and one for Joffrey)

They knew how to reforge with previously made steel but not how to make more as that was lost in time when the land of Valyrian was destroyed where the Targaryen were the only living house that survived and where dragons were from.

 

[PlanetJosh]

Wonder how the relatively small population shown moving into the north forest in the very last scene will get their meat. Most of it will probably come from killing animals in the wild like deer and such.

If the number of families increase a lot then I guess they'll depend mostly on raising cows and pigs. I bet a few cows & pigs were in the fur clad caravan but off screen somewhere in the back. Would've loved to see some little piglets alongside the group. Or they'll just take or acquire cows and pigs from anyone already living up there.

 

[blankslate]

Spoiler: John Hughes end credits

https://twitter.com/x/status/1130581319593783296

The part about Ghost almost made season 8 okay with me.


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[blankslate]

or rather, even knows what/who Trogdor is...

CONSUMMATE V's


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[Homerboy]

Wonder how the relatively small population shown moving into the north forest in the very last scene will get their meat. Most of it will probably come from killing animals in the wild like deer and such.

If the number of families increase a lot then I guess they'll depend mostly on raising cows and pigs. I bet a few cows & pigs were in the fur clad caravan but off screen somewhere in the back. Would've loved to see some little piglets alongside the group. Or they'll just take or acquire cows and pigs from anyone already living up there.

You realize 10s of thousands lived north of the wall previously, right?

 

[blankslate]

You realize 10s of thousands lived north of the wall previously, right?

some of them may have been killed by the White Walkers before you know Arya just ninjaed them all into oblivion....


_________

 

[Artorias]

Wonder how the relatively small population shown moving into the north forest in the very last scene will get their meat. Most of it will probably come from killing animals in the wild like deer and such.

If the number of families increase a lot then I guess they'll depend mostly on raising cows and pigs. I bet a few cows & pigs were in the fur clad caravan but off screen somewhere in the back. Would've loved to see some little piglets alongside the group. Or they'll just take or acquire cows and pigs from anyone already living up there.

I always did wonder how they got all the fur coats as well. That's a lot of skinning to be done. Maybe they fished at Hardhome? I didn't see them have boats though, you would think they wouldn't have been North for long if they created them.

 

[purbeast0]

Aaron Rogers thought the end sucked too lol.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1130931040200077314

 

[Paratus]