RaffoBaffo
Ex-Newser of the late Berserk Chronicles
I loved this scene in particular.
Tell me if it's too much spoiler.
Tell me if it's too much spoiler.

I can only agree with what’s been said so far, the only thing I can add is that, to add insult to injury, the picture quality when I watched was awful. At first I thought it was my TV/wi-fi/phone but reading some comments I realized I wasn’t alone. Someone said it best when they said that the episode looked like a DVD rip. A truly disappointing experience.![]()
I watched on my 4k projector and the standard pic was causing all kinds of black distortion until I adjusted the gamma. Didn't know it was such a wide spread issue until morning.
How could they NOT see Euron's boats, especially from above?
And then there's the leaks.
Ramins score made it hard to nitpick at first. That piano was beautiful and I was absorbed. Soon after I had a "wait, hold the hell up" lightbulb flickering. Everyone has nailed the problems that are obvious. If only the payoff was as good as the drama attached.
Yeah. We're in the "make people stupid to drive drama" phase, and it's horrible. Losing Viserion to the Night King's javelin was impactful and distressing in a good way, and that's because he wasn't clearly defined, we didn't know what he or the White Walkers were completely capable of. But here, on the southern side of the continent, we've established scorpions exist, and they were made specifically to kill dragons. Dany was fired at already. She knows what's up.A lot of it stems from feeling contrived.
Another perfect example of an episode that should have been at least two. It basically already was two stitched together so I don't know why they didn't just make it official and fill in all the blanks, show their work, and add some character development. It's clearly all about the destination at any cost at this point.
That pretty much what I've been saying since season 7 and "8" were announced in this janky structure where these guys are basically saying they can only crank out 13 more episodes jam-packed with every remaining plot point stuffed in if you give them 3 years to do it. Yeah, that doesn't work and in fact sucks.
I hope they prove me wrong with spectacle and shock value at least (ala season 6), stick the landing and retroactively validate or minimize the sins to get here (much like season's past, 5 sucked but Hardhome made you forget, and hey, at least they put in the time and effort), but that's about as realistic a chance there is of coming away from this remotely satisfied.
I think the thing that this season has shown me is people finally getting on my page about the shock value season finales.
I think you're right on with the broader strokes of your method of fixing seasons 7 and 8 if we have to keep seasons 5 and 6 as they are, but I really think that the issues go a lot deeper. D&D, as evidenced by the exclusion of Cthulhu Euron and zombie Catelyn, as well as the completely unsatisfying dropping of the Lord of Light and Faceless Men plotlines, as well as a host of random side characters they included in the show for no reason (Quaithe???), don't care much for the high fantasy aspect of the series.
But now, we have a show that's completely disappointed fantasy fans and has completely ruined all the politics.
The real question here is, what shows do you guys recommend that capture that palace intrigue feeling from the first several seasons? Whether it's medieval or not, that's the kind of show I wanna get invested in instead of continuing to waste so much of my time as I have for four weeks wandering the Internet marinating in alternating disappointment and bemused disbelief.
But what's really made it go from messy to sloppy to downright bad, besides the obvious rush job, is how the show pivoted back to fantasy at the end of season 5, most of season 6, then completely so in season 7, to the point everything was about that, even the happenings in King's Landing.
First thing that came to mind if you haven't already seen it: The Sopranos. "Family" intrigue galore, and way, way, way, WAY better written than this shit. The first season of that show is a fucking novel and this is like a goddamn picture book.
I hope they prove me wrong with spectacle and shock value at least (ala season 6), stick the landing and retroactively validate or minimize the sins to get here (much like season's past, 5 sucked but Hardhome made you forget, and hey, at least they put in the time and effort), but that's about as realistic a chance there is of coming away from this remotely satisfied.
I've been so bad about checking out The Sopranos. It's pretty clearly some kind of masterpiece that I need to look into.
Speaking of, since it's an HBO show, I wonder given the context your article brings up, whether the HBO higher-ups are pissed at how poorly handled their golden goose has been the past two weeks (to say nothing of the past several years,). Disney seems to have shrugged off mass frustration with the direction of TLJ. I wonder if behind closed doors, there's some irate folks over at the network.
Season 5 was wayyyyy better then the mess of season 6 to be honest. Anyways starting from season 6 the show went downhill pretty fast.
Did you know that they almost skipped the Dorne plot? (Considering how badly they've done it, they should have left it out at that point.)
Was that predominantly 5 or 6? I think I'm holding it against 5 but if I'm wrong that would further change my estimation of each, because that less than half-assed plot was like the preview of how they're handling everything now. So perfunctory they might as well not have done it, anyway.