A Game of Thrones **BOOKS OFF LIMITS** v2

[DiracSpike]

I don't get the complaints on that episode feeling anticlimactic. They had been building up the WW for the whole series, but they've also been building up Cersei for the whole series too and there's only 6 episodes to deal with both of them. Obviously the Night King was going to die this episode, the only alternative is that he wipes everyone out and all the characters that have been around the whole show die in a giant pile of corpses. Which I think would spark more complaints and claims of the show being anticlimactic.

Also who cares about the back story of the ice zombie king who never talks. He's supposed to be the embodiment of death he doesn't have to have a purpose, death doesn't. It just is, and sweeps across everyone and everything without mercy or motivation. I really don't see how finding out who his family is or any other periphery details are relevant to his story purpose at all.

The show is winding down, it's easy to keep growing and growing a story universe but collapsing one is much harder. It leads to difficult decisions and a feeling of weird finality, like the big villain for 8 seasons getting killed but that's what needs to happen for this show to end.

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

I like how Bran basically told Theon he was a good dude, now be a good dude and die.

I'm not sure why Theon did that. Maybe wait until the night king gets close, then take your chances? The run was almost comically stretched out, too. Reminded me of this(no spoiler, just hiding it):

Spoiler!

Yeah, that was weird. Why did he even have to do that? He didn’t buy any time or anything. If he could have made it a small fight to give the would-be hero time to show up, it would make more sense.

Maybe he would have just been in the way of Arya so Bran had to send him.

[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by DiracSpike

I don't get the complaints on that episode feeling anticlimactic. They had been building up the WW for the whole series, but they've also been building up Cersei for the whole series too and there's only 6 episodes to deal with both of them.

Agreed. More characters have an emotional investment in the showdown with Cersei than with the Night King. And if there was ever any doubt about what would be resolved first, it was cleared up by late in Season 7.

3 Eps of buildup and battle at Winterfell --> 2 Eps buildup and showdown with Cersei --> 1 Ep wrap-up seems a pretty natural distribution of show time for the final six episodes.

[Azure]

Originally Posted by Rando

Seriously though, these accusations of fan service are so lazy.

It's a logical conclusion that a major character would take out another major character, isn't it? Arya the girl trained in assassination and super sneakiness is a logical choice. Jon was the other but it could've been anyone. Would those have been fan service too?

Who cares about Azor Ahai. Unless I missed something Melisandre never called Arya that, she just said she'd shut some lights out, that was her prophecy for Arya. Nothing else. The 2/5 Prince that was promise mark doesn't matter.

At that point it was great writing. Arya had been out of the picture for sometime, you have cut backs to Jon trying desperately to to Bran and Arya comes out of nowhere to do it.

Well done.

Plus they dedicated a lot of screen time in other season to developing Arya. Would have been pretty stupid if she didn't actually do anything with it.

[ClubFlames]

No one could kill the Night King.

Night King was killed by No one.

[troutman]

Originally Posted by ClubFlames

No one could kill the Night King.

Night King was killed by No one.

[Looch City]

How can I watch this in actual 1080p without all the artifacts from the darkness?

I think that's part of the reason what upset me. Couldn't make out half the ####. Maybe I'll try it on my computer screen instead of TV.

[Manhattanboy]

The end credits to last night's episode included two pages dedicated to the Calgary Unit, which is pretty cool.

Any ideas as to which scenes were filmed here in sweet home Alberta?

[KTrain]

[sureLoss]

Originally Posted by Manhattanboy

The end credits to last night's episode included two pages dedicated to the Calgary Unit, which is pretty cool.

Any ideas as to which scenes were filmed here in sweet home Alberta?

Been mentioned before, but the wolf that portrays Ghost is from Southern Alberta and any scenes involving him have the Calgary Unit.

[Fuzz]

So I just checked on Crave and it looks so much better now. I wonder if they are dynamically adjusting the compression based on number of viewers? Last night it was utter trash. It's still way to dark, but at least most of the gradient artifacts are reduced.

[Shazam]

[Party Elephant]

Originally Posted by sureLoss

Been mentioned before, but the wolf that portrays Ghost is from Southern Alberta and any scenes involving him have the Calgary Unit.

Can confirm, I know two of the guys who had their names listed in the credits.

[Erick Estrada]

I watched it in the dark and it was fine on my TV. That said I knew early into the episode that there would be a lot of complaints about how dark it was seeing this is the current trend in movie making. This has largely been born of HD which has higher dynamic range so night scenes don't have to be shot in artificial lighting so directors can film in more realistic lighting. Now I use Disney WOW on all my TV's to calibrate the screens and that may be why I didn't have an issue with it but if you have an HDTV that's on the normal, vivid, dynamic, etc chances are the back light, brightness and contrast are set far too high for accurate movie viewing.

[Fuzz]

How were you watching it? I'm not necessarily against dark scenes, but the Crave feed had low contrast, and massive gradient compression issues. No calibration is gong to fix that. Watching on a 96" projection screen makes it all the more obvious.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

How were you watching it? I'm not necessarily against dark scenes, but the Crave feed had low contrast, and massive gradient compression issues. No calibration is gong to fix that. Watching on a 96" projection screen makes it all the more obvious.

I watched it on a 65". The Shaw HD feed is also pretty compressed which doesn't help but I imagine the lighting also may have worked its way into CGI budget as they could hide some of the details in the darkness. I do agree it was hard at times to tell what was going on but that's pretty well par for the course in most movies these days when it comes to action scenes in the dark. For me at least it didn't take anything away from the episode.

[Fuzz]

My wife said "can you just tell me when a main character dies? I can't see what is going on." And it was true. At one point it was just a brown smear on the screen.

[Fuzz]

And when you have this many articles about it:


https://www.google.com/search?&q=gam...es+dark+blurry


blaming the user is a poor excuse. This one is on HBO.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

And when you have this many articles about it:


https://www.google.com/search?&q=gam...es+dark+blurry


blaming the user is a poor excuse. This one is on HBO.

Yeah no amount of changing settings or having fancy tv is going to completely make up for poor source. But I don’t think it’s all on HBO. Cable feed quality just isn’t great. I can’t imagine live streaming an episode is easy either so no surprise lots of quality complaints there.

[Ashartus]

Originally Posted by Mazrim

The piano part near the end of the episode reminded me a lot of Westworld, actually. Not too surprising since it's the same guy composing for it and similar musical themes have been used in that show as well. I was also ready for a "cease all motor functions!" call-out.

Maybe it's a subtle hint at how everything is going to end - all these people who miraculously survive battles against all odds, aren't affected by dragon breath, come back from the dead - are guests as "Westeros World."

Can you imagine the reaction?