Game of Thrones - Season VII - July 16-2017

Because they knew these episodes were going to feature huge battles and be very expensive.

I would think of these last episodes as part one and two of one long season, not two short seasons.

 

One theory going around as how Benjen knew exactly when and where Jon was, in order to save him, was because Bran may have sent messages to Benjen or even may have been controlling Benjen. I think that may be plausible since Bran knew Benjen was still north of the wall in the vicinity because of his encounter with him in season 6 after fleeing the wights when Hodor allowed him and Meera to escape.

One question: Can the dead be killed again? Benjen getting swarmed by wights shouldn't do anything to Benjen.

 

My defense would be, that pretty much all the building and development of the characters, and the connections and conflicts and intrigues between them, has happened. Even though this is technically the penultimate season, we have basically arrived at the final conflicts that the rest of the series has been pointing toward. It doesn't really make sense to do the slow burn anymore. Now it's time for the dragon burn. Even though the jumping around feels too quick I think we're at the point now where having to leave an episode in between each major development to show the characters on the road would hurt the pacing.

And when it comes to the White Walkers, the writers pretty much have to be in Lord of the Rings mode more than they have been with all the palace intrigue. There isn't going to be nuanced political drama when the characters are fighting ice demons.

And I wouldn't say the show has been taken over totally by spectacle. There is still back and forth between the characters. Look at Sansa and Arya in this latest episode.

 

This is a function of the (IMO) poor production decision to limit the show to only 13 remaining episodes. 20 episodes would better suit the story that's being told so far.

 

I thought Jon was going to be rescued by the other dragon, revealing that he too could be a dragon rider.... although, with one dragon in the hands of the enemy I don't know that the "three dragon riders" people have been waiting for since the beginning are ever going to happen.

 

I was thinking this also. I need to go back and watch the episode again, but on first viewing it was unclear what happened to the third dragon? Wouldn't this be Rhaegal, named after Jon's father?

 

It wouldn't surprise me that at the end they defeat the Zombies only to have Cersei in charge ,and Snows head is on a pole

 

The dragon riders is out the door. Maybe Jon will ride the other but unless Dany is dead they seem to do her bidding by her mere presence.

 

Only Viserion was killed in the battle. Dany still has two dragons: Rhaegal and Drogon (though I agree it was unclear how many dragons remained after the death of Viserion).

 

So here's a question, since the popular consensus is that the primary reason for the shortened season's is money. If you could choose, would you opt for less gigantic battles and special effects for more time and a better story? The answer seems so obvious it almost seems impossible that the show runners themselves never thought of it. If so, perhaps it's more than just about money?

 

I'm going to go with that explanation - I like it. That way, I don't have to try to rationalize how our band of adventurers survived an overwhelming army of the dead via a stare-down. Thanks for voicing that potential explanation.

 

The special effects for the big spectacle scenes certainly add to the cost of producing the series, but the series is plenty expensive in any case--all those location shoots all those costumes, all those props and elaborate sets, plus a cast that gets, as I understand it, more expensive every season. I suspect, that there would still be severe limits to how long they could keep this going even with more modest spectacle.

L.

 

I take your point, truly - but at the same time, when the full-grown dragon(s) swooped down and incinerated almost everything in sight in the last two episodes, it was some of the more breathtaking TV I've seen in awhile. I generally prefer plot and characterization, and I'm not an action junkie - but wow.

 

As Deion Sanders once famously told Jerry Jones in a pizza commercial: both.

 

How are you guys able to tell the two smaller dragons arpart? Drogon was easy because he was so big. But the other two always looked identical to me. I wasn't sure which one was killed until reading comments here. Then again, I never noticed any individual personality traits of the two small dragons either, so its not like it mattered which one was dead and which lived.

 

Also, 5 of the actors on the show get paid over $1 million per episode (Jon Snow, Cersei, Jaime, Daenerys, and Tyrion.)

 

I couldn't say that better myself.

The only observation I would add that a whole bunch of main characters accompanied Jon north of the wall, (Tormond, Sir Jorah, Thoros, Dondarrian, The Hound, Gendry), they face impossible odds and only one of them dies along with a couple of Wildling extras. You might have put red shirts on those guys, this was like some episode of Star Trek.

Right now I feel the conclusion will probably be some kind of "feel-good" ending after next season, but not something GRRM would write.

 

Looks like we're going to have a meeting.

 

Or they made us feel terrible for 5 seasons, good for 1-2 seasons, only to ultimately make us feel terrible again. For all we know the song of fire and ice isn't John and Daenerys, but the Night King and Daenerys...

 

Yea, I've said as much many times, and you are right that it is much more noticeable this season because the pace of the story has gone to warp speed.

 

One reason why they told so much story in that one episode was because it covered several months. Which is nice in the beginning, but not when everything is coming together for the end-game. This last episode (S07E06) covered several days, so the overall storytelling had less to cover (in time). And included a huge action event.
Could the storytelling been better? Surely. But it also certainly was a very enjoyable episode.

 

I seem to only be seeing the 'show creators' as the writers for ALL the episodes, this season..
... though, I'm sure there must be some sort of 'writers-room'..... right?

 

As far as I know, a faceless man (no one) can only wear the face of a deceased person. In spite of that, I keep thinking Arya will manipulate Sansa by way of wearing Littlefinger's face. If she hasn't already.

 

When you speak of "shortened seasons", keep in mind that the original plan was for seven seasons. So one season has been shortened, but another (short) season has been added, giving a greater number of total episodes than originally planned.

So while the reason for "shortened seasons" may be money, it's less about production expenses and more about milking the franchise for another year to entice people to subscribe to HBO.