- Registrado
- 13 de Mar, 2018
Just a few thoughts now that I'm sober, nothing to see here.
I think this sort of nullifying of everything that was built up is the cause of the fans' outrage. And, while I find it amusing, it's not unjustified. I just always saw the source material for what it was, was impressed when HBO managed to polish the turd into something presentable for the first few seasons, and now have watched it go sideways until gloriously imploding into itself in a black hole of failure in the last episode. Rather glorious, really. Of all the ways they could have left it, they chose this. I mean, even waiting for the Unsullied to leave and then bringing Jon back would have been fine and made more sense but no, he killed a woman and people might reeeee about that if we let him also have power. It's just really spectacular in its lack of any kind of sense or awareness of itself or its audience.
Yes, that is correct.
Disclaimer: If you're a fan of the books you probably shouldn't read the below, in which a person who is rather too well-read in the actual (non-sci-fi/fantasy) literature of the world points out a lot of things you might not like to hear about them.
I agree that a huge part of the issue is Martin and his lack of a clue of what he really wants to do with this. It is well-known that he loves sniffing his own farts by reading fan ideas and theories, which is an exceptionally bad idea when you don't yourself know what you intend to do with your material and worse when you are easily influenced, as he clearly is. While the books are popular and many people like them, from a mechanical and literary standpoint they are barely managing mediocre. He is absolutely terrible at any kind of plot or pacing and cannot seem to resist including, in massive and unnecessary detail, countless diversions and forays into characters, places, or things that are utterly irrelevant to the main plot. The concept itself is not unique; it's merely based off of historical events but set in a fictional world with very nebulous and undefined notions of magic and divinity. The characters are hit and miss as to depth, growth, and consistency. If he had stuck to telling this particular story in a trilogy, as he originally intended, it would have been much better and he then could have fucked around writing a bunch of other garbage set in the same universe that most people wouldn't care about. Instead the books became more and more bogged down with his egotistical ramblings and subplots until they ground to a halt entirely. So, while they are better than other fantasy books and people who primarily read that genre often think they are great because they don't read much else, by literary standards they have serious shortcomings across the board.
That said, the show creators (I guess most call them D&D?) fell flat on their faces obviously. I am aware that many of the actors were getting understandably restless after a decade of work on the show. Most were aging out of their roles and after ten years of the same parts I'm sure that many of them will struggle to find roles after this. I don't understand the decision to do six 90 minute episodes; if you're filming the damn season anyway, do ten 90 minute episodes and wrap it up properly. I suspect that they, too, fell into the trap of reading too much into what the "fans" (read: whiny SJWs on Twitter) wanted and thought that this was going to be some sort of grand twist of an ending that people would be stunned by but ultimately like.
The issue is that the bulk of their fanbase isn't autistic enough to spend all their time on Twitter and Reddit talking about it, and this ending completely invalidates so many aspects of the past ten years of the show. Why is Jon a Targaryen if not to do something with the dragons and become king? What is the point of sending him to the Wall again when the Unsullied were leaving anyway? Why did Arya fuck around learning to become an assassin and do the face swap bullshit if not to assassinate a queen? She killed the Night King, yes, but she didn't really use her skills for that. Why is Cersei allowed to escape the death she has earned by dying in Jaime's arms instead? Why validate Bran, one of the least relevant and interesting characters in the series, by making him king? What claim does he have, and what the fuck is the three-eyed raven garbage? Why validate Sansa, who has become a distasteful mixture of Catelyn and Cersei, by making her queen? Not to mention, what the fuck was the point of the dragons at all? Daenerys could have shown up in King's Landing with just the Dothraki and Unsullied and had the same outcome. If two of the three dragons were dead anyway, and then the last one leaves instead of sticking with the last Targaryen, why have dragons at all? Why not save the budget?
I agree that a huge part of the issue is Martin and his lack of a clue of what he really wants to do with this. It is well-known that he loves sniffing his own farts by reading fan ideas and theories, which is an exceptionally bad idea when you don't yourself know what you intend to do with your material and worse when you are easily influenced, as he clearly is. While the books are popular and many people like them, from a mechanical and literary standpoint they are barely managing mediocre. He is absolutely terrible at any kind of plot or pacing and cannot seem to resist including, in massive and unnecessary detail, countless diversions and forays into characters, places, or things that are utterly irrelevant to the main plot. The concept itself is not unique; it's merely based off of historical events but set in a fictional world with very nebulous and undefined notions of magic and divinity. The characters are hit and miss as to depth, growth, and consistency. If he had stuck to telling this particular story in a trilogy, as he originally intended, it would have been much better and he then could have fucked around writing a bunch of other garbage set in the same universe that most people wouldn't care about. Instead the books became more and more bogged down with his egotistical ramblings and subplots until they ground to a halt entirely. So, while they are better than other fantasy books and people who primarily read that genre often think they are great because they don't read much else, by literary standards they have serious shortcomings across the board.
That said, the show creators (I guess most call them D&D?) fell flat on their faces obviously. I am aware that many of the actors were getting understandably restless after a decade of work on the show. Most were aging out of their roles and after ten years of the same parts I'm sure that many of them will struggle to find roles after this. I don't understand the decision to do six 90 minute episodes; if you're filming the damn season anyway, do ten 90 minute episodes and wrap it up properly. I suspect that they, too, fell into the trap of reading too much into what the "fans" (read: whiny SJWs on Twitter) wanted and thought that this was going to be some sort of grand twist of an ending that people would be stunned by but ultimately like.
The issue is that the bulk of their fanbase isn't autistic enough to spend all their time on Twitter and Reddit talking about it, and this ending completely invalidates so many aspects of the past ten years of the show. Why is Jon a Targaryen if not to do something with the dragons and become king? What is the point of sending him to the Wall again when the Unsullied were leaving anyway? Why did Arya fuck around learning to become an assassin and do the face swap bullshit if not to assassinate a queen? She killed the Night King, yes, but she didn't really use her skills for that. Why is Cersei allowed to escape the death she has earned by dying in Jaime's arms instead? Why validate Bran, one of the least relevant and interesting characters in the series, by making him king? What claim does he have, and what the fuck is the three-eyed raven garbage? Why validate Sansa, who has become a distasteful mixture of Catelyn and Cersei, by making her queen? Not to mention, what the fuck was the point of the dragons at all? Daenerys could have shown up in King's Landing with just the Dothraki and Unsullied and had the same outcome. If two of the three dragons were dead anyway, and then the last one leaves instead of sticking with the last Targaryen, why have dragons at all? Why not save the budget?
I think this sort of nullifying of everything that was built up is the cause of the fans' outrage. And, while I find it amusing, it's not unjustified. I just always saw the source material for what it was, was impressed when HBO managed to polish the turd into something presentable for the first few seasons, and now have watched it go sideways until gloriously imploding into itself in a black hole of failure in the last episode. Rather glorious, really. Of all the ways they could have left it, they chose this. I mean, even waiting for the Unsullied to leave and then bringing Jon back would have been fine and made more sense but no, he killed a woman and people might reeeee about that if we let him also have power. It's just really spectacular in its lack of any kind of sense or awareness of itself or its audience.
Yes, that is correct.
