8x06 Review Thread (Spoilers)

The more you think about this season the more astonishing it is at how poorly the showrunners understood their own show.

And I love all of the stories about Game of Thrones fans needing counseling after the final season with smug-ass statements like 'if a TV show is upsetting you this much, your life is too good lol.'. Fuck you. Everyone saying shit like this is enjoying a much more luxurious lifestyle than GoT fans complaining on social media.

I say this as a person who works in the media, but they are so far offbase like this for many reasons. Our society is setup so we spend most of our time performing labor that will benefit rich and powerful people. The only joy we get out of life is love and escapism through entertainment. Empires learned this long ago with the bread and circuses doctrine. The only way the masses stay pacified is through compelling new content. So don't come at me with the 'it's just a show' bullshit. These shows might just be the one thing preventing us from realizing how fucked up wealth inequality is in our generation and doing something about it. But no, WE'RE the entitled ones because we're upset about the shit writing from a trust-fund baby of a Goldman Sachs executive.

I do think Jon would be a terrible king, though. Like, okay, he's a great fighter, a nice, honest guy and certain people gravitate towards him cause they like him, but it takes more than that to be a good king, in my opinion. You have to be smart, you have to possess some cunning ... and Jon is so freaking dense. I think if they made him king, his advisors and his enemies would play him like a damn fiddle and he wouldn't even notice. Kind of like Robert, honestly. 

Out of all of Ned's children, ironically Jon is the most like him. Ned couldn't survive the capital, and neither would Jon. In my opinion, of course. 

I'm not arguing in favour of King Bran, mind you ... just against the idea that Jon would be a good king. Caring is important, but you can't be in a position of such power and be stupid and so brutally honest. Once you show weakness, you know people are gonna exploit it. And the ending of the show absolutely did not break any metaphorical wheels, everyone is still playing the game of thrones ... and the game of thrones would have destroyed Jon, as it did Ned, as it did Robb.

I do agree though that Tyrion's solution is incredibly naive and not really feasible in the long term. Maybe they'll have relative peace as long as Bran and Sansa are alive and in power, but once that's over, more civil wars are pretty much guaranteed. What happens when the lords don't unanimously agree on who should be king next time? The North declaring its independence will inevitably lead to more conflict in the future as well, and the fact that Dorne and the Iron Islands didn't leap at the opportunity to declare their own independence is pretty ludicrous in itself.

I don't know who the best candidate for the throne would have been. Bran would definitely not have been my choice, but neither would Jon. Honestly, I still think Dany, pre ... ehm, "going mad", is probably the best person to hold absolute power without abusing it. 

Noble idiot Jon is a show creation though, Jon in the books has good intentions and everything, but he is also ruthless when necessary. Let's not forget he dumped Ygritte for his duty and forced Gilly to abandon her son and take Vals nephew against her wishes. And sent Sam to the Citadel knowing how traumatic that would be for him.

The show did Jon dirty, like they did almost every character.

As I said, I think the ending falls apart if you really think about it. The show needed a whole 10 episode season to set it up but instead they had 20 minutes.

I agree, Jon would be a terrible King both show and books. Great intentions, terrible at executing them.
The show is even worse than the books because of all the stupid ass decisions they had him make. They basically transformed him into cliche hollywood action star.
Definitely very like Ned. Jon’s time on the Wall in DwD highlights that imo. He thinks he has a handle on his antagonists but he really doesn’t. Then he isolates himself by sending away his closest allies. I know “keep your friends close but your enemies closer” is a thing but it really shouldnt have been used here

Yeah i understand the cast are defensive about the show they poured so much hard work into, but if they actually took time to engage with the criticisms they’d understand what is being criticised. No-one, as far as i can tell, is trying to negate the hard work the cast and crew put in. In fact a lot (myself included) have praised things like the acting, score, visuals etc. this season. So when you have the cast coming out and telling people who are criticising to fuck off amd stop whining because they put in a lot of hard work its kind of frustrating

I love fired up raccoon boi, by the way.  These are the same writers that framed Dany's actions as heroic and than used those actions are "foreshadowing" that she would go mad.   You have highlighted the bad writing aspects of this episode.

Why is it never brought up that people could have feared that Jon would go mad too?  How about Jon fearing it?  How about Jon suggesting the wall or far north for himself?  We know Jon never wanted a throne.  He never did so I don't think him not being in consideration for the throne bugged him.  Why couldn't we have had a scene of Sansa visiting him in the jails, where they discuss this?
Granted Jon going to the wall is supposed to appease Grey Worm and Yara, who think he should be killed for killing Dany.  I think the show tried to clumsily make a case for this.  Especially with Tyrion telling Jon it's a good compromise, one that no one is happy with.

I'm surprised that Dorne and Iron Islands did not ask for their freedom, especially considering that when Robert died, Balon was quick to declare himself King.  I would like to know how Dorne found a new prince since show Doran had one child-Trystane. 

I do agree that Tyrion's solution is naive.  The North will have no more say in the South since they are an independent nation.  The peace at this point is fragile. Tyrion's argument for Bran is that Bran knows the history of Westeros and by knowing this, maybe they won't repeat the same mistakes (could be very naive here) and that since Bran really isn't "Bran"-he is able to be completely objective over matters and the fact that he cannot sire heirs (as far as they know) is a good thing because then the throne is not a right by birth (although the Lords/Ladies are still deciding who sits there) but a weak attempt at democracy and keeping power in the hands of the noble houses.  Again, this needed more set up.  Bran needed to factor in more of the show and his powers better explained.  

With regards to the petition, I feel bad that the actors are getting upset about it.  I don't think a single soul on this show did not work hard to make it great.  It just didn't work and I think D&D thought it would be great too and the weak writing was majorly exposed this season (though it had been there since the books were surpassed).  The bottom line---they needed better writing.  Perhaps Cogman should have handled the end?

Damnit i just came here to share it 

All I'm gonna say on the "is Bran good or evil debate" is that he spent more time explaining the origin of his wheelchair than he did explaining the Others, Cersei's plans, Daenerys' turn to the dark side or literally anything that could have avoided all the ridiculously uneccessary bloodshed that occured over the past two episodes.

Bran literally did nothing when the fate of the world was at stake, what makes anyone think he'll lift a finger when, IDK, the Iron Bank want all that money they invested in Robert, Jofferey, Stannis and Cersei back? What will he do if Yara suddenly remembers that she asked Dany for independence back in S6? What will he do if any of the Free Cities decide now is a good time to take advantage of a weakened Westeros and invade? Maybe he'll explain the origins of his haircut or something...