Spoilers ahead. Although whether they’re just TV show spoilers, or actual book spoilers as well, I guess remains to be seen. To be honest I don’t have much to say and I don’t have much time to say it in, so conveniently enough I’ll just say this was a good season.
Yes, there was plenty of fan service going on. I guess in the absence of actual material written by the author, they’ve gone their own way with the story and just gotten Martin to sign off on it. Which, for the most part, I guess he’s done. From what I’ve been reading, seasons VII and VIII are based on outlines of the final two unwritten books in A Song of Ice and Fire.
Loving Tormund Giant’s Bane more and more, and the wights of all shapes and sizes are getting exciting.
There was some excellent tension as we waited to see how much of a dumb crazy cunt Cersei was going to be, and we were ultimately not let down.
There was uncertainty as Littlefinger plotted around Arya and Sansa, and finally – finally! – we were rewarded with Arya cutting his goddamn throat with the full knowledge and consent of the entire Northern leadership. That was amazing. I applauded.
Actually the best part of that whole scene was my three-year-old nephew wandering into the room right as Littlefinger died, and asking “what’s happening?”
“Nothing,” Bella foolishly replied (in her defence, she was being harried by Walder’s little brother at the time), “he’s sleeping.”
“No, that’s blood,” Wally responded, pointing.
Good lad.
The assorted reunions were fun to see, and Bronn is of course an ongoing crowd favourite, as is the Hound. Even Theon got his moment in the sun, although a) I’m not sure that “kick in the crotch has no effect on the castrated” ploy would have worked because even if it didn’t hurt him the guy could have just pushed him away and gone on creaming him; b) even if Theon now rescues Yara I don’t think there’s redemption in it for him, even if Jon wants to sign off on it. But it’ll be fun to see.
The side-quest to grab a wight and bring it as evidence for the formation of a living vs. dead treaty was fun, with a shockingly abrupt Benjen-reveal and an excellent epic battle. Gut-wrenching to see the dragon die, what sort of spear was that the Night King was using and how can a human stand up to it?
And this brings us neatly to the dragon wight, and a huge section of the Wall coming down. Exciting times.
Or, more accurately, a whole lot of waiting for Game of Thrones VIII, which is projected for a late 2018 to early 2019 release.
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I quite liked season 7 as well.
To be fair, though, the plotting and character development have pretty much parted ways with logic, consistency, subtlety, and the unexpected by now. It’s all Hollywood-style Epic Spectacle and Rule of Cool, with most main characters wearing Plot Armor so thick that all they can do is pose. And the dialogue doesn’t hold a candle to Martin’s or Martin-inspired words in the early seasons.
But, as far as it goes, it’s really well executed. The production values are something else. As long as you don’t stop to think about stuff too much, the show is pretty great fantasy action-adventure blockbuster entertainment.
Agreed! I enjoyed the Hound teaching Tormund about “dick”, which he likes apparently, to borrow the joke. As for the spear, I think a human wouldn’t fare well, but I doubt it would be wasted on a human. Then again, the Night King could throw it through a line of humans judging from that shot. I wondered how they got past the wall…now I know. Seems almost inevitable, what happened with the dragon.
Quite a lot went exactly how you thought it might, such as the Theon fight…and you’re right, that was silly how he got the upper hand. Yeah, right. Ahh, well, whatever.
Yara again had me thinking how utterly ridiculous it was to change Asha’s name just because it’s like Arya. Did any of the writers notice that Yara and Arya have EXACTLY the same letters? FFS. SMH.
Awesome season though. My enjoyment was only slightly tarnished by watching it whilst visiting my mom, undergoing chemo for cancer #2.
Now there’s some fun discussion on the newsgroup about who the three heads of the dragon are likely to be at this point.
Jon, as something of a zombie himself, is still very much in the running to take over that role.
Holy crap, you’re right, they did change her name didn’t they?
Although, didn’t they change it so it was less easily confused with Osha? That gave readers difficulty, let alone the great unwashed of the TV viewing world … but then again, the TV version of Osha, aka. Tonks, wasn’t really named all that clearly. She was just a random “oh yeah and also that character” who was in some scenes and then got the shit killed out of her.
I think Season 6 still has it beat for feel-good moments, since this one was far more back into the Bad Shit Happening format which will hopefully pave the way for the final season to be amazing. But yeah, it’s a close one and considering its relative darkness it was still far more enjoyable than … say, whichever season it was where Oberyn got his head smooshed. And better than Season 5, which was a giant pile of meh.
Best wishes to your mum and good vibes to you and yours from here, it sounds really … well, it sounds really cancer. Fuck cancer.
“Now there’s some fun discussion on the newsgroup about who the three heads of the dragon are likely to be at this point.
Jon, as something of a zombie himself, is still very much in the running to take over that role.”
Well, go ahead and call me “No Fun” but I’m going with Dany on Drogo, Jon riding whichever one didn’t just get killed, and the Night King riding the zombie one until they kill it.
Sometimes the simplest answer is best. And I think Jon is 0% zombie.
Side thought: they have some dragon eggs to reveal soon, right? I hope?
‘Yara again had me thinking how utterly ridiculous it was to change Asha’s name just because it’s like Arya. Did any of the writers notice that Yara and Arya have EXACTLY the same letters? FFS. SMH.’
“Holy crap, you’re right, they did change her name didn’t they?”
Yar. Uhh, they did.
“Although, didn’t they change it so it was less easily confused with Osha? That gave readers difficulty, let alone the great unwashed of the TV viewing world … but then again, the TV version of Osha, aka. Tonks, wasn’t really named all that clearly. She was just a random “oh yeah and also that character” who was in some scenes and then got the shit killed out of her.”
Oh was it because of Osha? She had almost no name-mentions in the show, what a stupid reason to change a name XD
I wasn’t aware of the reader confusion. I mean, when you READ the name, you SEE how it’s spelled…. SMH continues….
“I think Season 6 still has it beat for feel-good moments, since this one was far more back into the Bad Shit Happening format which will hopefully pave the way for the final season to be amazing. But yeah, it’s a close one and considering its relative darkness it was still far more enjoyable than … say, whichever season it was where Oberyn got his head smooshed. And better than Season 5, which was a giant pile of meh.”
Man I can’t remember what happened when. I would have thought Oberyn was 2 seasons ago, so season 5, but maybe it was 4. I’m just enjoying it all.
“Best wishes to your mum and good vibes to you and yours from here, it sounds really … well, it sounds really cancer. Fuck cancer.”
I’m sure I’m not the only person to wish cancer got cancer. Thanks, bro.