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Game of thrones season 8 [contains spoilers]

.... why Sam in particular was left alone again (for at least the third time when a walker or the dead could easily have killed him)

In every book, there's a character that is the stand-in for the author. In Steven King books, all of the characters are some aspect of King, including the monsters. Probably especially the monsters. Samwell is Martin's stand-in for the series. I don't think he'll kill Sam off. He needs someone to survive to write the tale.
 
In every book, there's a character that is the stand-in for the author. In Steven King books, all of the characters are some aspect of King, including the monsters. Probably especially the monsters. Samwell is Martin's stand-in for the series. I don't think he'll kill Sam off. He needs someone to survive to write the tale.

True, though it isn't as if Sam is kept out of harms way or has a series of lucky escapes (at least in the TV series) - the walkers know he is there but act differently with him than they do with almost everyone else.
 
never seen anyone do this in real life. ever.

If you want to show a conversation and see both characters’ faces you conventionally do so with over shoulder shots and reverses to show the other character, cutting between the two depending on whose face is going to be most useful in telling the story.

The shot you’ve identified has the obvious advantage of seeing All The Face Acting, but also allows for longer continuous takes without editing. Unbroken extended shots like this create an intensity that can add to a feeling of growing tension / claustrophobia / the atmosphere between the characters.

It’s not impossible to achieve that with standard shoulder and reverse takes edited together (the coin toss scene in No Country For Old Men is a really cool example of how those simple standard shots back and forth can feel impossibly tense) but it is sometimes the best call.

I mean Jesus, in theatre it happens more or less constantly. It’s just a convention of acted narrative.
 
They are based on the Mongols but Martin's based his research on 5 minutes on wiki and the worst parts of the rants of the victims of the fall of Baghdad and Kiev.

Worse than even his Viking substitutes the Dothraki, hell the entire Essos range of cultures, is mired in racist stereotypes, colonialist prejudice and poor research.

You are right that the Dothraki are based on a completely wrong view of what Mongol culture was like, but I am not sure the Essos cultures (at least the ones Dany visits in the books) are necessarily mired in racist stereotypes so much as they are a consequence of Martin having to answer the question of how the cities could have survived with such an apparently overwhelming force roaming about their lands for generations.
 
The hound and the red lady/witch fucked right? That’s why at the end they came out of the dining hall, she aged and he was shattered.

Who wrote the score to that episode?
 
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I thought the thread might be interested in this; Strategic mililtary analysis of the Battle of Winterfell in Game of Thrones

tl;dr - the Dothraki were fucked whatever they decided to do.
Points against that piece:

1. Dothraki have experience of fighting against fearless opposition. The battle against the Free City of Qohor where the Unsullied kicked their arse. Their solution. They never did it again choosing to trade with Astapor rather than mess with Unsullied. They knew of their ineffectiveness yet went at it anyways. Dumb.
2. No mention of the another alternative use of the cavalry. Dismount them, eat the horses and use them as infantry. Commanders have historically done this when hiding behind walls really was the only option.
3. Special forces. All well and good but Faceless Men's main tool of assassination is infiltration so is largely irrelevant here. More relevant was her combat skills which although honed to some extent in her training wasn't really the point of her training. It probably owes more to her waterdancing training.
 
There's only one dragon left now, right?

I think zombie Viseryion and Rhaegal killed each other, then Rhaegal got resurrected and then bit the dust along with the rest at the end. But the dragon bits especially were poorly shot and confusing as hell so who knows.
 
Well, that's completely inaccurate. The one I saw was mostly like the one at the bottom.
The one at the top is presumably what many people saw, but the one at the bottom is how it looks if you adjust the settings on your telly.
All i had to do with mine is change the settings from Game to Sports
 
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The fact was, the episode pulled off something unexpected. Everyone was, I think, expecting loads of major characters to die and White Walkers to basically continue unimpeded, or at best minorly inconvenienced by the forces of the North.

Gsv was a bit 'what was the point of them, then' & it may be simply wiping out about 90% of the North's fighting forces. But this being GoT, one assumes other ramifications of this too.
 
Not sure why Varys didn't die. and surely having both Lannister brothers still alive is a little extravagant?
 
Not sure why Varys didn't die. and surely having both Lannister brothers still alive is a little extravagant?

relax. still 3 more episodes to go. curtail your thirst for death and let it play out. Mellis Andre told varys he will die in westeros. There are 3 more episodes to go for this prophecy to be fulfilled.
 
The one at the top is presumably what many people saw, but the one at the top is how it looks if you adjust the settings on your telly.
All i had to do with mine is change the settings from Game to Sports

Yes, I realised yesterday I could do that on the vlc player. And it does make a difference. Will re-watch with brightness bumped.
 
relax. still 3 more episodes to go. curtail your thirst for death and let it play out. Mellis Andre told varys he will die in westeros. There are 3 more episodes to go for this prophecy to be fulfilled.

I think the number of survivors (well, VIP survivors) is testament to how far the TV series is, from where the book will be at this point.

Unknown unknowns :D
 
I think the number of survivors (well, VIP survivors) is testament to how far the TV series is, from where the book will be at this point.

Unknown unknowns :D
Martin is famously quoted as saying that he gets labeled ass being blood thirsty for killing off soo many main characters but points out that the TV show are worse and have killed off far more that he has.
 
Here's what I think happens next:

Arya still has her list, which she'll complete but not without dying in the process.

The only people left are Cersi, the mountain and the hound.

Brown Eyes, Green Eyes, Blue Eyes.

Big Bad Blue eyes is done.

Hound is brown, Cersi is green.

I reckon she offs the hound in an act of compassion (reckons he becomes fatally wounded and saved him from a slow and painful death). Their relationship is complicated and so will reach a complicated end.

She also offs Cersi but then has the Mountain to contend with who is technically already dead. So no eyes.

Mountain Kills Arya, but not before Arya also lands him a fatal blow.

I'll probably be 100% wrong.

Makes sense as good as any theory tho.
 
I have read that there are a number of prequel ideas in development, I expect they'll make at least one.
 
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