In the end, we just want more GOT 😭

@@Th0cast Personally, Im kinda burned out. Don´t know if I´ll even bother with the new show or the last two books (if they ever come out). But these essays just do it for me, for some reason XD

Personally, I always learn more from failure than success, and GoT has been a masterclass in what _not_ to do with your narrative.

Honestly, it’s videos like this that get me up in the morning

@@maximilianovazquez9988 nah thats cope i did the same but you want more no matter how bad it hurt us

Arya who had maybe a year of basic sword training in which she only used a wooden sword and not her Needle. Arya who then did nothing but waved broken tree branches at night to remember the basic while rarely ever having a sparring partner. The only other combat training she did was stick fighting while she was blinded, which lasted for a few months at best. The book even has Arya mention how Needle is just a child's toy at that point and only has value to her due to it being the final family connection she has. Yet the Writers called Needle the symbol of vengeance. Somehow that's enough for Arya to fight Brienne who had decade of training and experience.

The one argument that could be made is that they were sparring, and Brienne wasn't actually trying. But it's still fucking stupid.

@@akosszilagyi2656 Yeah the only believable argument is that they were just sparring. Even then, it didn't really look like it. A light sparring in which Brienne looks like she struggling with a practice sword as if it's much heavier just look forced. If anything, even if they were sparring, Brienne should have more advantages overall against a girl who has maybe 2 years of messy training regime that didn't even focus on sword fights.

Equals not out matched

Not to mention a smallsword like needle would be basically useless against someone in full armor. Sure, you could go for a gap but an experienced fighter is going to know that. Smallswords were specifically designed for unarmored fighting.

I went from wow, they killed her, to wow, she won't be doing much for a while, to when did I accidentally turn on a Teminator sequel?

I heard Syrio Forel's voice saying, "Dead. Dead. VERY Dead."

My moment of clarity was at the start of season 6 when the Boltons catch up to Sansa and Theon. Brienne arrives in the nick of time (what are the odds???) but then Podrick is unhorsed and a Bolton soldier slowly advances on him with a stupid evil grin on his face. Every single person knew what was going to happen because we've seen it a million times before. Obviously the slowly advancing bad guy is stabbed from behind before he can deliver the killing blow. Thrilling stuff... :/ Also the hounds that were pursuing them are nowhere to be seen.

Once they ran out of books to mirror the show quickly slipped into high fantasy BS territory. Fear for character safety was out the window.

@@blowfish1702 they were changing shit well before they ran out of books to adapt.

Yeah, GRRM is only quoted as giving them "the broad strokes". They started deviating from the books that were already published, so it's not about his ending plan at all.

Others passed that training without being a Warg. It's not clear that she wouldn't have without it. Normals were likely meant to learn a different lesson, but because she was able to thrive with her imposed handicapped, she learned different lessons. The Faceless Men appear somewhat surprised. But it doesn't mean should wouldn't have passed as other non-wargs obviously had.

She fucks up all her missions in the books IIRC. There's something else going on.

@@patrickcarr9906 She did succeed in killing the insurance man with the poisoned coin. If fact it was her idea to use poison to do it too iirc.

@@Dadecorban I remember reading this scene and thinking “yep, she just side-stepped this lesson through cheating. This is going to come back to bite her later.”

But the show has to appeal to football players and soccer moms

I totally agree with you! The “Frey Pie” event and Wyman Manderly in general were an interesting aspect of the whole Northern Plot and how many actually defied the Boltons through sly brutality, not just cowering in fear or obedience like the show. Also Arya’s whole Titus Andronicus ploy came to be hypocritical when she’s says “I know a killer when I see one” like Ma’am you just carved people into a pie and also murdered an entire family, you don’t really have a leg to stand on

There's also the fact that without the context that the book provides, the pie scene loses all nuance and meaning. Because the people who Wyman serves them to are people who he plans to have killed in the most violent way he can possibly concoct.

The best part is he serves the pies himself to Roose and the other freys present

I never thought about this detail, but does Arya even know how to bake a pie ? 😂

@@animen2463 I like that Roose doesn't end up eating the pie, as he only eats what Wyman eats for fear of poisoning.

@Bart Simpson's secretary Lol. Man this show had potential like no other. It was lightening in a bottle and they ruined it

@Bart Simpson's secretary You're right I totally forgot about the fake Arya plot in the north. So much potential wasted.

yeah, i think treating the audience like they’re stupid led to shitty writing and ultimately it’s downfall. like i’m sure we all could have followed the more complicated & populous storylines 🙄

Lot's of things cut from the book hurt the show. The show was okay for about 4 seasons, but it always shied away from so many of the more fantastic elements of the book, almost like the show writers were ashamed of it's fantasy origins.

@@tinamoul which is especially hilarious considering the show has zombies and dragons.

Damn straight. The Night King, in the God's Wood, facing off against Bran. The culmination of the warring ancient beings. He kills Theon (whose last line should have been "what is dead can never die"). Night King is poised to become a continent ruling ice god and then STAB. There is no god but death.

Honestly I didn’t want the Night King to die in a fight to begin with. He’s literally the embodiment of Winter and he gets beaten by a stab to the gut. Lame…

@@YourBlackLocal That's understandable, but if that was the direction they (and possibly GRR Martin) wanted to go with it still could have been done so much better.

@@TheManofThings777 The thing is it wasn’t. In earlier seasons D&D specifically said it wasn’t going to be your standard good vs evil battle. Then they just changed it later.

@@YourBlackLocal Oof

Arya's time in Braavos at least started with the writers absolutely going for the "mystical transferable skills" trope often present in Kung-Fu and Martial Arts stories (because it IS applied in real-life. Eg, empty handed skills in Aikido become sword skills and movements once you add in a blade) such as the famous "wax on, wax off" from Karate Kid. The protagonist learns humility in a menial repetitive task and then once they have proven their "faith" and personal discipline they are rewarded with the revelation that they've actually been learning a strong mindset, badass movements and kung-fu muscle memories the entire time. Arya is shown sweeping floors for discipline, respecting the dead by washing them, respecting Life and the "necessity" of Death (according to Faceless Men philosophy) by putting children out of their misery with poisoned water. She even literally goes blind so she can fight in the dark. Trouble is, as you say, the show never presented any inclination that any of these activities were actually "secret badass training", and the "your training is complete" was utterly un-earned and a cheap attempt to capitalise on the secret training trope.

Your comment raises an interesting question. Why didn't the writers kill off Arya, then everything plays out how it did in the show for the most part, but Arya gets the throne only for it to turn out, with a major cliffhanger ending to the show, that it was Jaqen all along? Edit: it would explain why "Arya" had the ability to change faces to begin with, something she wasn't supposed to be able to do based on what we saw in the show like you said.

they should have done a Bran - cut back to her two seasons later with her training a complete mystery because the Faceless Men should remain so. We see her enter the temple and the next time she is killing the Freys in a surprise re-appearance

Maybe I'm misremembering but it was more Jaken:a girl is now no one (you're ready) Aria: no a girl is aria stark of winter fell Jaken nods approvingly What the fuck did it mean‽ In addition to the no real training being showed that you complain about, why this "slave" (I can't think of a better term) of the many faced god approving someone basically spitting in the face of his master? Is jaken not "no one" ? He's payed her back as far as he is concerned why would he help her any more than accept to train her ?

@@Al77343 and this was after she had to convince Jaken begging and pleading in the previous season to be trained and yet she threw the whole "I am no one" out the window after her teenage drama with the Waif. They took one of the coolest characters from the earlier seasons and completely ruined him and his mystery. This makes me suspect they didn't have that strong of an outline from Martin on Arya with the Faceless Men nor with latter plot developments which really began to show by Season 7.

That was a ridiculous moment. The show went from medieval House of Cards to blowing up a cathedral of people including nobles with 0 repercussions.

@@ericlarochelle650 It's the fact that they had to use modern concept (assassination by explosive device) and shoe horn it into the setting they created (by using barrels of Wildfire under the church). That's a pure jumping the shark moment.

Right! And remember in season one where she pleaded with Joffrey not to decapitate Ned Stark because of all those pesky consequences??

and there was no lasting consequence. the sept was destroyed and cersei became queen. no one opposed. what happened on that moment would be enough to sparkle a rebellion.

@@hunterkiller232134 to be completely fair to the show, the wildfire was hinted to have been Aerys' stockpile from the end of the rebellion when he planned to burn the city down to spite his enemies. Not saying Cersei shouldn't have faced IMMENSE and immediate consequences for that particular act, especially from Jamie, who murdered one king for attempting to do as she did.

Perfectly put. I hate it when ppl use "it's fantasy" as an excuse when that has nothing to do with terrible writing.

It's literally a common joke that the difference between fantasy and reality is that fantasy has to make sense. There's a reason why it's called fantasy literature and not nonsense literature.

Aged like milk in the Sahara. Could've been one of the greatest TV shows in history, but now it's so dated it's going to be little more than visual shorthand for the early 2010s when they make nostalgia bait for Zoomers/younger Millennials. I bet my entire ass that the finale of GOT will be the focus of an episode of our version of That '70s Show or Stranger Things.

Haha, her time at the House of Black and White in the books is pretty much all introspection and the fact that little things matter.

Thank you for admitting that you got what you wanted and it sucked. Fan service is ruining a lot of great stories these days.

exactly, the show runners made it clear that Arya was their favorite character so it's obivous now that they couldn't separate themselves from their work. They probably thought exactly as you did but stopped at "i didn't want her to turn evil" and ceased all interesting development for the shallow girlboss method.

"She was just awkwardly crammed into a hero mold that she did not fit." This is 100% the perfect way to put it. They did the same Tyrion all in service of keeping him the loveable audience favorite.

@@badlucksparrow40 absolutely, to quote Martin on his favorite character "I've got to admit I kind of like Tyrion Lannister. He's the villain of course, but hey, there's nothing like a good villain." The show was so caught up in making sure Peter Dinklage stayed a fan favorite that they missed the point of the character that we really start seeing in book 5

There should be atleast show an episode or 2 of Arya infiltrating the twins and employing what she learned.

It would also for better with a noble doing it because a similar event is a major plot point in Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus. Not that I'm surprised that DnD have no knowledge of classic literature: I'd be surprised if they've ever read anything more intensive than a hair gel bottle.

Just like any zealot, evidence of them being wrong causes them to double-down. Seeing that the universe was NOT grateful, to the point they had found a way to undo his 'holy work', caused him to literally blame the inhabitants of the universe for not seeing things his way and recreate the universe in his image.

The funniest part is in the comics the reason half the universe has to die and there's no other solution is because he's such a simp for Lady Death. She's mad that more people are living than dying. She also knows he wants her to notice him. So she gives the task to "balance the scales of life and death in the universe", which means killing half of all current life in the universe. And the Infinity Gauntlet and Gems are the best (quickest) way to do that. Movie made the right choice putting the onus on Thanos and his own ego/trauma imo rather than having him go "durr well bc I am horny for u I need to do dis"

@@solidsnake11087 Isn't Lady Death in love with Deadpool and therefore Thanos wouldn't have a chance of getting her anyways? Or am I mixing things up? I thought to remember that one of Deadpool's versions just literally could not die because Death himself does not want Deadpool to get close to his wife and as such simply refuses to acknowledge his death? You know, like one of those Chuck Norris facts

Which parts of Infinity War/Endgame allude to the idea that he could increase the resources instead of killing tons of people?

@@ngotemna8875 Yeah, that's about right.

Or just...starve them. You cant supply an army that far away from any crop fields, a problem the night king did not have. Wait for a month and our heros would have to withdraw.

@C G, that would be pretty interesting. I’d love a scene of the characters discussing what their next move is. Sort of having to accept that they’re probably not going to win this battle and they must act offensive instead of defensive because there is no other way. A lot more casualties would have been better anyways.

For the drama. Differences between books and media is books can be carefully crafted by 1 person. Media on the otherhand has to many cooks in the kitchen who prefer the safe bet of dumb dramatic action.

Because Winterfell was between the Nightking and Kings Landing? Huh, doesnt sound very satisfying...

@@abraham2172 I guess you never heard of the "go around" strategy?

You know what, I hadn't even realised the fact that she cut the candle because she can fight blind I don't know if it's just me being dumb though

This became a running theme - Bran told Arya and Sansa about John being a targaryan off screen - the biggest moment for our core characters and all the implications for their family history. Off screen

The funniest part is, the Waif also went through the blind training, so she would have been proficient enough to still kill Arya.

@@linkofvev The writers sort of forgot that part and they no longer had the answers to the test to copy from.

Despite how Arya had only the very basic training that she never even got to train with Needle and spent huge portion of the story praciticing with broken tree branches with no sparring partners, Arya still gets to go toe to toe against Brienne. While Arya gets to twirl around and show her back.

i actually think the game designers didnt know about how blood circulation works. the cauter-scene a few minutes later is an attempt to say look, all the bad stuff is burned away

People loose appendages by swimming in the ocean with open wounds. Biology is super gross.

I can't remember which Tomb Raider game you're talking about and I've played a lot of them. But she gets stabbed in a lot of them which is probably why I can't remember lol

The newer Tomb Raider games (havent played the older ones, i'm young, don't judge) have sorta become my prime example for plot armor. The thing is, with tomb raider i'm not *that* mad about it, since the plot armor is established early on and i'm just there for the ride, and I can laugh at it. I laugh at the thousands of candles people must have lit in incredibly hard to reach places, I laugh at the oni, i laugh at samurai being portrayed as mystical figures, when in fact, they were real people partaking in japanese history til the meiji period. I laugh at Laras ability to effortlessly read old chinese and japanese texts, I laugh at the fact that by the end of the game she basically committed genocide to the entire island. I laugh at how they portrayed the Yamatai and Himiko myth. To be honest, it's just very funny, almost camp.

@@Freaky0Nina gotta agree for the genocide part lol! Although you can make your way though the game with minimal carnage, the mechanics all encourage you to deal with NPCs in a deadly manner. But that’s an entirely different conversation on the gaming industry in general. I personally think only the Dishonored franchise balanced this killing aspect right.

Not to mention that early seasons were so very much into the whole "family bond" / "The Starks" dynamics and how Jon was part of that clan without being part of the clan. So, old Jon&Arya dynamics should have been explored, absolutely; or how Sansa and Jon did not have the warmest of relationships. Or how they lost literally everyone else between them last seeing each other and reuniting. But this kind goes into my biggest problem with the show (and perhaps the books): Death is meaningless. Not to us as the audience, and not to the show as far as political consequences is concerned (again, earlier seasons rather than the cluster*** that was the ending) but as far as personal impact is concerned. People die and the emotional impact on their families is minimal. Sure, there is 'a moment's grief' shown at the Red Wedding with Catherine or with Cersei when her kids die, but them coming to terms with the death of a loved one is insufficiently portrayed. Death is used as a shock value rather than an impactful event on a character on a personal level.

@@hopelessgeek3776 Totally agree. Overall, the lack of things coming full circle leaves it feeling much less impactful. When a hero returns home a changed man, you want to see him interacting with the things he once did and see how he's different. Game of Thrones featured so little of that because even in the last two seasons, they were still introducing new characters and having surprise character interactions. It's NOT as important to me that a Wildling thinks Brennan is hot than Brennan developing a relationship with the Stark girls she spent SEASONS looking for. Stranger Things hits you with satisfaction every season by having the kids, teens, and adults struggling alone and then they reunite 2/3s through the story. All the horror in the world isn't as satisfying as "everything is okay now, the family is back together." And they do it every season because they KNOW that's what makes the horror meaningful. Game of Thrones thinks basic feelings get in the way of their grimdark. God, Jaime returning to Cersei turned my stomach. Jaime lost ALL his children and every step of the way it was Cersei's fault. Her need to MAKE an enemy out of everyone. What is the point of Tyrion marring Sansa and Jaime risking everything to help the Stark girls if you are going to twist the characters' arms to still care more about Cersei than the Stark girls. What is the point of the deaths of every woman Jamie and Tyrion tried to protect if the last few years of their lives don't led to them overcompensating to help Sansa?! Why can't Sansa have men in her life who aren't trying to rape her?! You think it's cool to literally end the story on her being a frigid bitch who basically looks like the next Cersei? Wow, so profound.

@@Cityweaver Can't hit enough likes for this comment. Absolutely. The lack of payoff is painful. But I don't think there was a true vision behind the latter season, especially not the last one. They did not think "how do I get from A to Z", they just knew they had to end up with Z. The worst plot decision is the handling of the Nightking. These creatures were built up in the first scene of the first episode. The "Winter is Coming" is such a profound, threatening ... Catelyn put it best in the book ("The words gave her a chill, as they always did. The Stark words. Every noble house had its words. Family mottoes, touchstones, prayers of sorts, they boasted of honour and glory, promised loyalty and truth, swore faith and courage. All but the Starks."), the scene with Bran getting the story about the White Walkers when he's bedridden in the first season is one of the best in the show show. And from all that suspense, built up over years, came nothing.... "Winter is Coming" is a joke! The Walkers come with the winter, they don't bring it, so why would the winter end with the death of the Night King. Who was the Night King? What was their purpose? Hell, the "Night King bows to Bran, the Three-Eyed Raven" had so much more potential and shock value than anything else could have. Ironically, the most nihilistic ending would have almost been so in line with the Shock Value that is GoT that they could have gone with this and people would have been more satisfied than the Happy Ending we got. Grimdark was kicked in the teeth, too (and I am not a fan of grimdark; I am a High Fantasy kinda person all the way through, but I do enjoy my pain, angst and tragedies, and GoT could have been that). On a character level, so many of them betrayed their own journey - mostly in a completely nonsensical way without true motivation or reason - I don't know where to start. Jamie's deterioration into... what exactly? Something worse than in season 1. Honor and pride are the very foundation of this character, he does horrible things and he's an arrogant ass - who may well be Prince Charming in many other stories (the looks, the skills, the intelligence, the well-versed expressions), like Gaston in Beauty and the Beast - but even hurting Bran he does 'out of love'... "I never really cared much (for the people of King's Landing), innocent or otherwise" SAYS THE PERSON WHO BECAME A KINGSLAYER OVER IT, his most honourable dead from a moral standpoint would forever be viewed critically by those looking at loyalty and honour to the crown as untouchable. This was almost worse than running back to Cersei, and more out of character. It's just frustrating how all that character development was for nothing. And Sansa, by God, Sansa, I will never understand why writers believe a 'strong female character' has to become a cold-hearted bitch. Sansa, who learned to use her weapons early - her clever manipulation of Joffrey at the siege sending him out into the fray - who may benefit from being more clever about her kindness and less naive should not have turned out to be the Winter Queen. Daenerys is a whole different mess of "too little progress and suddenly too much too soon". Cersei's arc halted and she may as well have died in earlier seasons because her impact on the story in Season 8 was nil, except for being a point of motivation for others. Tyrion drank a whole lot of the stupid, and so did many other characters. This whole thing was a mess, and the worst thing is, that there are a hundred ways this could have ended better. Expectations were high, but not unachievably high. Yikes, sorry for this monster of a rant. I do appreciate talking to you about this :)

@@hopelessgeek3776 Rant away! They spent years of our life driving a great story into the ground like so many peppercorns.

@@Cityweaver What frustrates me about is that fan frustration always leads to the idea/complaing of "entitled fans" and "toxic fanbases". Not that they don't exist (I have. escaped a few of them), but I do dislike the notion of being satisfied with subpar writing that does not deliver on its promises because "They kind of forgot..."

Amen. Imagine sucking so much it UNDID a decade of extreme hype. Imagine also the people who had GoT tattoos, who had GoT-themed weddings.

To be charitable to GOT, even successful shows stop getting talked about on the regular after enough time has passed. Breaking Bad. Mr Robot. Mad Men. I rarely hear discussions about these shows today. The world moves on. That's how it works.

@@PreggoJohn Or any little girl name "Khaleesi" or "Daenerys". Especially at the end, when that specific character ended up as one of the worst monsters in the show.

@@firewithfire2745 Yeah, but when you say, "I actually missed Breaking Bad the first time around, and I'm finally watching it," old fans are like, "Man! I won't say anything, because I want you to watch it unspoiled, but I can't wait to hear your thoughts. It was so great." Whereas when you say, "I'm finally watching Game of Thrones" the reaction is "Ooooh, listen. Gotta warn you, this might be an exhausting waste of your time."

@@firewithfire2745 I disagree. I am not just talking about successful TV shows, or good TV shows, of which there are many. I am talking about shows that ran for more than 4 or 5 seasons that were so big and so successful that they became iconic in their run, to the point of being a cultural phenomenon. These are rare. Mash, Seinfeld, The Simpsons and Friends all had a lasting cultural impact, from changing public attitudes to war to influencing our patterns of speech. They are still spoke about today. As are shows better written (but less culturally relevant) show like X-Files, The West Wing, The Sopranos and Lost. People remember them fondly. Game of Thrones is the only one to have been both spectacularly successful and wonderfully written and got things so badly, badly wrong quickly fell out of public conscientiousness (Friends came close with a bad final two seasons).

it's wild because D&D touted Arya (and also Sansa) by the end as such Strong Female Characters that...they became nothing else. they were just that Strong Female Characters, not the complex girls-now-women that had been crafted and fleshed out from the very beginning. just. she's Strong, and she's Female. they became so BLAND. they made them so Strong that they lost the actual strengths they had organically developed over the course of the story (e.g. Arya's scrappy, survival skills and determination to remember her family even as the House was training her to be no one, Sansa's subtle silk-hiding-steel while never truly losing her kindness). Arya stood about looking either smug or expressionless, threatening people or just downright anti-social. D&D conveniently forgets what the whole intrigue of the game of thrones was about because Sansa had no filter anymore and just made demands left and right or (god almighty) shit-talked Dany in the crypt within earshot of Dany's own allies. because they're STRONG WAHMEN. LEAN IN.

@@Bluey306 Ikr? It's so insulting to women.

Arya used to be one of my absolute favorites but at the end of the series I couldn't stand her. It's truly sad when you think about it.

Oh God thank you for putting this so well! I couldn’t put my finger on why exactly Arya made my blood boil - it’s totally that grin! It was a horrible acting choice.

absolutely bang on about that grin being insufferable. She was so charming and humble in the first series and just developed so well up to series 4 then the steady decline happened

Her getting eviscerated was in season 6. People tend to lose sight of the problems w/ season 5/6 cause season 7/8 were just so awful.

@@alabaster7958 True. Seasons five and six had substantial virtues still, but there were problems with them that the first four seasons did not have (Arya’s story & the Sand Snakes in particular).

I've never seen a political drama turn into a absurd comedy so quickly.

The first two episodes I was like "okaaaaaaaay... i can kinda see this going well... i guess?" And then the rest of it fell off a cliff and hit its head repeatedly on the way down.

literally any character that had been in the Jon/Night's Watch arcs would've made some sense - those arcs after all was always related to the Night King in some manner. throw in Jon actually doing something _useful_ (like...helping...the character that kills NK, instead of just screaming at an ice zombie dragon. heck, kill the ice zombie dragon! mans was resurrected and is consistently told it was for a reason, well give us that!) and it would've been epic.

I mean, i would have even been ok with Arya doing it but with an assist - Ghost bowling NK over from behind as he's holding Arya by the throat, and gets shanked by the Catspaw in the fall or something..

True. She's smart and it's pissing me off how much some bitter people are trying to say otherwise. I agree with you, that her rushed transition is what caused criticism to her character arc. Had it been done properly, then these people wouldn't have anything to try justifying their hate boners for her

I guess that really speaks to the major issue with GoT: rushing. The first 3/4 seasons are SO SLOW, and so character changes feel gradual, and things feel earned. The last few seasons are written at a ridiculous pace to the point that character changes don't feel believable at all. If they'd had a few more seasons to flesh out some of these ideas (Dani becoming the Mad Queen, Sansa becoming more like her mother, Arya becoming a super soldier, etc), I think they could have had the same character beats, but without the complaints. It's the same with the suspension of disbelief: we didn't have to do that in the first few seasons, so having to do that in the last few seasons feels jarring and uncharacteristic, just like intense character pivots feel jarring because they'd never been written that way before. And don't even get me started on the teleporting lol.

Nice

Yeah me too

Know the feeling, but your choice of words were far from Spartan. Or Ukrainian as we say since two weeks past.

Only a man could write a woman being smug about her own r@pe. “Lol, it made me stronger” is peak r/menwritingwomen

@@vysharra the worst part about it is SPOLIERS for A Fest for Crows and A Dance with Dragons That is completely unnecessary because Sansa never marries Ramsey in the books, he married a fake Arya. Sansa is safe in the Vale learning from Petyr how to play the game

@@vysharra You know that bit of hackneyed writing advice that goes something like "If you have no idea what to do next, have someone run into the room waving a gun and wrote yourself out of that situation instead?" DnD seem to take that line as gospel, but instead of having someone wave a gun around they have someone get raped. That's how blasé they are about it.

@@vysharra Doubt it. Painful events do make us stronger. My girlfriend died when I was 17, I used to be hungry pretty much all the time as a kid cause we didn't have money for food, I was abused, suicidal, ill... all that has made me stronger. It's not so difficult for me to imagine that a person is raped and, after some introspection, decides to come out of that situation mentally stronger than before. That's just how life works. With every painful experience, you're presented with a choice: become stronger or become weaker.

@@andreashort310 so even speculating, it’s NOT a guarantee. Weird. It’s almost like I wrote how Sansa shouldn’t be smug about something you’ve never experienced.

Good comment but "writing team" haha, that's a very generous term for D&D who refused to have a writing team to help them out.

Not only was it taking from the Manderly scene, but that part is also so subtle that if you aren't looking for it, you can easily miss it on the first read. It's noted that the two Fray's are missing, and then there is a brief focus on the pie and them eating the pie. That's it. That's the whole scene. You have to put together that the reason Manderly was pissed was that there were several members of the Manderly line at the Red Wedding who were slain and this is his quiet personal revenge. Compare that subtlety to Arya baking the pie with slasher movie human bits in it, killing Fray and then flipping everyone the bird while she backs out of the room in her darkest sunglasses.

@@SignalWarden oh it was indeed subtle but Wyman started giving it away when he started talking about the Rat Cook tale. I think he doesn't really care if it gets found out now because he's already set his plan in motion. He is truly like most old men in the north prepared to die because winter has come.

@@SignalWarden But yeah man I don't know why they had to make Arya so "cool" like her character just became so obnoxious after awhile. I was done once she survived a mortal wound and jumped into the Bravoosi canals. I remember thinking that it was Arya disguised as the waif who stabbed the waif who had disguised herself as Arya (confusing I know lol) but no there was no fakeout Arya legit had mortal stab wounds jumped into a filthy canal and got BETTER.... lol shame

Yeah, if Arya had actually had the Faceless Men after her, she never would have made it a hundred feet from the first village, let alone back to her home castle for weeks and then onto a ship.

If Arya used her skills to assassinate ppl (using poison, surprise dagger stab in dark etc), that would have been believeable. Yet, Arya gets to go against Brienne pretty well despite how she only had basic sword training for about a year at best in Season 1 and some staff fighting later on when she became blind for few months. In order to make Arya look good, Brienne suddenly swings her sword slowly as if it's made out of very heavy material while Arya spins around showing her back to her opponent.

I always like to point out Sarah Connor's escape from her hospital room in T2. She fakes being catatonic to lure in the orderly. She goes for vulnerable areas and gets him off his feet. Then she arms herself with his baton to knock him out. Also, he's an orderly, not a trained fighter in any way. It's a believable way for a small woman to take down a large man. She didn't go toe to toe. She used strategy and pressed an advantage when she gained one. That's because in such a fight, all he'd need is one decent hit.

Well, if that's how you feel about physically small women being depicted as badass warriors, then I can't judge; but as a man (who's practised some martial arts), I can tell you it's not realistic either, when even a physically strong man is depicted fighting throngs of other physically strong men and single-handedly beats all with barely a scratch on him. Like, Jon Snow isn't that big either, yet he fights dozens of enemies one after the other (while wielding a heavy longsword on top of that) and never runs out of energy. Between the weight of the armour, the sword, and the enemy blows parried constantly, a guy of Jon's build would hardly be able to go through a battle like the Battle of the Bastards to the end - let alone still have enough energy to run all the way to Winterfell on foot. My point is, it's all fiction, and in fiction some liberties are taken for the spectacle. If a man can single-handedly take on hordes of other physically fit and armed men, why can't a small woman be a good duelist? (let's not forget that the two times Arya fought a pitched battle, she got to a point when all she could do was run and evade the enemy - which seems realistic for someone who's trained at assassination and 1vs1 fights).

@@WoodSageSeaSalt Exactly! That actually really bothered me. Arya’s “too heavy for me” comment referring to Jon’s hand and a half sword. They’re actually pretty light weight. It’s not a crowbar, and Brienne would have zero issue making pretty nimble strikes with hers. And the little small sword being used as a slashing attack weapon demonstrates that they don’t know how it works. It’s pretty much a devoted thrusting weapon, and could potentially break, if simply struck hard. A parry could be overpowered by regular old physics… it was just too “lazy Hollywood sword play” and while I know that the sword choreography in GoT wasn’t always top notch (Jamie, I like you but you look silly), it was just one more scene that showcased the dramatic drop in quality of the show to me. I agree with you. If she had actually been an assassin, using covert skills and tradecraft, it would be amazing! Few people would probably suspect a girl her size. As the original commenter points out, like herself, she’s a diminutive size, and so to challenge a man (or Brienne!) who is over six feet tall and perhaps a couple hundred pounds of muscle, would almost certainly end up with her being steamrolled in a spectacular fashion….

But if recent movies have taught me anything (a tall man in good shape), it’s that you would throw a hesitant strike at me, and then it would be my job to really sell how hard you hit, and then accommodate you by playing dead for a while. In all seriousness though, I actually kinda worry about the message sent by this weirdly specific but also pretty pervasive Hollywood trope. Girls have taken it to heart (much in the way that men confuse movies and video games for gun training), and have actually gotten hurt in uneven fights with boys… Just because the new Mulan or Arya are badasses, picking a fight with someone who is way bigger than you is usually a recipe for a painful physics lesson.

Most definitely. That line where Arya said (to Sansa) “You passed the sentence, I just swung the sword”. That shit made me cringe. D&D clearly either didn’t understand that Stark tradition or hated them and didn’t care.

The horse, much like main characters in the final seasons, won't be able to die until DnD decide that they need it to die, in which case it will die in the most nonsensical and unsatisfying way possible.

Roooooxaaanne 🗣

Why

​@@IchibanOjousama It was ridiculous because Sansa was uncommonly stupid. The writers hurried to make her a worthy leader, hence they had Arya make that declaration without a shred of context as to why she thought Sansa was smart. Being slapped around by the man she WILLINGLY married, knowing his treacherous family had murdered her own, did not automatically make her an expert in warfare... though she loved to hold up her essentially self-inflicted pain as a badge of honor. Yet, there were a flurry of scenes showing Sansa giving advice to armorers, preparing for a siege, and trying to undermine Jon during a meeting of the bannermen. It all came out of nowhere. Still, she continued to display the weak, entitled, cunning dishonesty that always drove her.

Sansa's story arch - unbelievable/insufferable, vomit. Arya's story arch - annoying/ridiculous, vomit. Jaime's story arch - pathetic/irrelevant, vomit. Danaerys's story arch - stupid/exasperating, vomit. Tyrion's story arch - boring/useless, vomit. Jon's story arch - pointless/pitiful, vomit. Thanks, D&D, for letting this happen. I suppose George is responsible, too, for letting this all move forward, knowing what would probably happen.

Oh, I forgot,: Bran's story arch - unconscious/sleeping/comatose, vomit. and Night's King story arch - WHO FUCKING CARES, VOMIT.

Or ‘I know a killer when I see one’.

Doesn't the Frey Pies make more sense in the book? Since they are served at a wedding, which has the symbolism of the manderlys getting back at the Frey's for breaking guest right, and it makes more sense for a small army to have the time and resources to bake some Frey Pies, than arya. The Frey pies in the TV show is a fun nod, but it doesn't make sense.

@@orionh5535 It makes way more sense, and the scene is a million times better. With Manderly eating all the pies too so nobody is suspicious. And how absolutely pissed he is at the Frey's and other turncloaks for his sons death. He's an amazing character.

@@orionh5535 Exactly. But, remember what I said about the scene being for "book readers." Granted, it was a fun nod, but the scene could have done without it. Then again, how else was Arya Stark going show her face to Walder Frey?

“Minor character” - pfft! Bite your tongue! Nobody refers to “MyMan” Manderly as “minor”! 😎

@@TrueYellowDart Well, NOT everyone read the books, so I was avoiding SPOILERS!!!

most of my d&d campaigns are more grounded...and my GM's preparation for sessions usually go like "oh f it, a big dragon in an abandoned castle"

A show made famous for unexpectedly killing off their beloved characters, surprised us by killing the show itself.

"You raped her, you killed her, and you murdered her children" - Us to D&D

@@farrex0 They killed the show, the fanbase, the hype for future projects, and apparently any reason for Georgie to finish the books.

The entire show is just a weak shitty reference to a book series.

Please explain what you mean about the ending of The Prestige. I love that movie.

@@juniorm641 The tesla machine. Not that its soft magic, but that it wasnt established that something like that was possible untill the end, when the device was revealed. I enjoyed the movie, but I know other people who disliked the ending becuase of the tesla device.

@@orionh5535 Yeah one of the plottwists in "The Prestige" being "Btw magic is real lololol" was soooooooo bad, because the entire time the movie is very adamant about showing that magic doesn't exist and that everything is a trick. That's the whole point of the other, extremely good, plottwist.

As an example. Storm of Swords: When anyone talks about Rob Stark they ALL say "... bloody Rob Stark!" And what happens to Rob Stark.

Louder for the writers in the back

Absolutely. Even a majority of book readers, I think, aren't aware of the story being a mystery story, chocked full of clues for the reader to notice and try to figure out what is really going on. There are so many puzzles to be undone to help enjoy the deeper layers of the narrative. I don't know anything else in literary history that is like this. Add that the writing is spectacular, the characters sublime, the plot twists electrifying or soul-crushing, the action bad ass, the world building epic and total. By the way, why go through this whole video and never mention the creator of what the narrator praises as such fantastic storytelling. You keep saying 'the show' was 'this great' and 'that great'. You jerk, George RR Martin was 'this great' and 'that great'.

There is no way the writers thought of this.

@@sergeant_chris6209 I'm going to have to see which way she's sailing at the end. It's meant to be west but if it's east its back to the temple. Nonetheless I think that part is still in the compound writing where grrm had some influence. It'd still possible even if the show runners had no idea what was going on

@@deSloleye She's definitely sailing West in the end. She says something like "what's west of westeros?"

@@sergeant_chris6209 I remember, I just think the unreliable narrator is a reasonable chance

@@deSloleye I'm sorry man, but I think you are really grasping at straws here in order to justify a disappointing ending to a series you were very committed to. And that isn't meant to insult you, I was pretty committed as well

She hung out with Hot Pie and he made good pies, and because she's a woman she just naturally knows how to cook. This was all very well established at the start of the show when SHE WAS EXPLICITLY THE OPPOSITE OF ALL THESE TROPES GODDAMMIT D&D

Zack Snyder's Army of the Dead has a whole mag of magic bullets.

I mean.. it was something stupid to make her look cool in the scene. She killed an entire house and there are no consequences in world for it.

Honestly they both make sense at face value. Night king just takes one lil poke with the right dagger Mary and pippin could do that. The problem is when they haven't been part of this arc at all then come riding in om treebeard to finish it lmao

... Or like having Eowyn and Merry kill the Witch King of Angmar? Not a fan of how GoT did it but you can't make a comparison to LotR when a duo including one of the exact same characters you're talking about successfully did a very comparable thing.

ugh, in hindsight it's crazy how it's as early as that. S5 still had some book material to work with, so the decline wasn't nearly as noticeable - but you're right, it was there.

it is known

Rhanerya has a MF ARMY

i liked the idea of Catelyn having a moment in her past where she kinda cared about Jon (Michelle Fairley did that monologue quite convincingly, and the monologue itself was nice - i like the _idea_ that she blames herself for everything that has happened bc she prayed to the gods once but didn't follow through in her promises, bc when you're going through a shit time you'll think about every dumb thing you've done in your past and wish you hadn't done it), but you're also right. the characters are very Shakespearan that way - their very real flaws becoming deadly within context and making bad decisions with huge ramifications, etc - and not to mention the scene didn't matter much in the grand scheme of things? it didn't really change anything. her hatred of Jon Snow is one of, if not _the_ greatest rifts between not just her husband but also Robb, who loved Jon as a brother and was fully prepared to legitimize him. (all the more reason for Robb to stop taking her advice on other matters, though of course it wasn't the only reason.)

I feel like Jaime killing Cersei would have been better. Imagine if it turned out the valanqar in the prophecy was not Tyrion but Jaime because Jaime is still younger by a couple of minutes. It’d be a perfect way to end Jaime’s character arc.

@@John-xr9ry Yea that's what I assumed the prophecy really meant but it's been a while so I forgot about it

You maybe. I such up books and movies like Kirby.

ok consumer

Tomatoe, tomato

I suppose people nowadays don't respect themselves enough to consider themselves "customers" rather than "consumers". Maybe they'd appreciate being called "cattle" even more, I dunno.