GoT - warning spoilers

Lord Tyrion said:
I found the dragon scenes particularly tricky. Lots of flying around in the mist. Which was a good dragon, which was not? Where were they flying? John & Dany looking quizical on the back. There were some good dragon bits but it was not their best moment.
Click to expand...

The dragons have always been poorly realised, I do think they've always been the series weakest aspect in aesthetics and narrative. The CGI has oscillated between awful and acceptable, they've rarely managed to frame a dragon with a human rider well within the same shot. Portraying such a contrast in actor scale is a really hard problem to deal with on screen, you can't easily show both at acceptable detail so you're always trading off fidelity between the large thing and the small thing. You have to constantly cut between two or more viewpoints. To see more of the small thing you have to see less of the big thing and vice versa.

It's a common problem in CGI and it's why a visual language has evolved over the years in ways people don't immediately realise. Jurassic Park was a landmark for identifying and solving some of these issues so it's not like these are new problems. A simple trick is to ensure silhouettes are different, maintaining strong visual contrast in form and colour, which helps viewer recognition. But in GoT the dragons all looked mostly identical in form and colour, and it was compounded because Dany and Jon both had a very similar and vague outline shape of humans wearing furs. No contrast and very little colour cues = very difficult for a viewer to interpret, especially in low light and at distance where everything moves towards vague greys.

As you say, it worked sometimes. One example being the wide shots when it's simply red flame versus blue flame, so instantly understandable. Or another good example is use of perspective in linear shots to give a good separation of foreground and background, framing within a context of something/someone else, so Jon's progress being blocked by the Night King's dragon within Winterfell is another good example of it being done well in this episode, I thought.

Anyway, because I'm professionally interested in computer graphics and all that jazz it's very difficult not to look at it critically. I still enjoyed it all immensely despite all the technical problems. Ultimately though I think other battle scenes in GoT have been better and more impressive - Battle of the B's is still their best I think.
 
Jimaroid, interesting to hear a technical take on the CGI.

Totally agree with your last sentence. The Battle of the B's was immense, very difficult to top that. I was still a bag of nerves watching last night though.
 
Jimaroid said:
Anyone have any idea why Melisandre (the witch) killed herself?
Click to expand...
Not specifically. I assume that was her destiny as laid down by the Lord of Light, or whatever his name is. She fulfilled her role, time to go.

From the looks of her without the necklace, we all shudder at that memory, she had had a good innings.

I decided to google this and this response came up "The Lord of Light’s battle was won. The Long Night was prevented and so Melisandre had no reason to fight anymore. When you’re as old as she was (800 I think) and the fight is over I think she just wanted to rest. "

The above isn't fact by the way, just GoT opinion. It fits though.
 
I think the way Melisandre went out was really well done - denied Ser Davos the revenge he wanted and went out on her own terms.

So who do we think the person with green eyes is for Arya? Is it Cersei???? I can't remember if the Mountain now has green eyes though - can you imagine that fight scene if it's him and Arya? Especially if the Hound dies before then and Arya uses his face!!!
 
PieMan said:
I think the way Melisandre went out was really well done - denied Ser Davos the revenge he wanted and went out on her own terms.

So who do we think the person with green eyes is for Arya? Is it Cersei???? I can't remember if the Mountain now has green eyes though - can you imagine that fight scene if it's him and Arya? Especially if the Hound dies before then and Arya uses his face!!!
Click to expand...
I believe Cersei has green eyes but will be surprised if it isn’t Sansa who kills Cersei.

Mountain must end up in a fight with The Hound

The question is out of the follow main characters who is going to die

Jon Snow - alive
Daenerys - alive
Arya - dead
Sansa - Alive
Tyrion - Alive
Cersei - dead
Jamie L - dead
Brienne - Dead
Brann - alive
Sam - Alive
 
Fade and Die said:
I generally agree but think Tyrion dies too, ending the Lannister House.

Be gutted it Arya dies! 😢
Click to expand...
No, no, no, no, no 😱😱😱😱😱. That can't happen.

I'd like Arya to live, particularly after last night, but I can see her dying whilst killing Cersei. Hope I'm wrong on that one.
 
I initially thought that Tyrion would die but there is always the line that he is a survivor and can see him being the hand for whoever wins the throne

Sansa on the Throne with Jon Snow as King of the North ? Is it too cheesy for Daenerys to be with him - so maybe her dying with her dragons is what’s going to happen. I really don’t want Arya to die
 
I thought Cersei had her future told to her in an early series that all her children would die before her and she would be killed at the hands of her brother, so either Tyrion or Jamie!
 
Bran and Sansa are both 2/1 with skybet to rule at the end. Gendry and Jon Snow are next at 9/2. Cersei is out at 40/1.

Assume bookies arent daft and will have taken expert advice wrt odds offered.

Wondering what role Lord Varys might have, he was a major character early on but has done very little last few series but he's being kept around?

Tempted to have a quid on Ghost at 500/1, maybe he'll Morph into Ned Stark reborn 😉
 
Think Arya will survive and be queen with Robert Baratheons illegitimate son as king, Jon or Sansa will be allowed to rule the North, the other will die. Think it is pretty much game over for the rest, except maybe Brienne.

Mind you, I am sure that I read that in the deeper lore, the Golden Company were originally rebels trying to put a Targeryon heir on the throne so they may change allegencies to out Jon or Danerys on the throne
 
I'm not really a huge fan of the battle episodes - other than BotB I don't think any would make my Top 10. I completely understand why they need to happen for progression, they're just not the ones I enjoy the most.

Even in that context, I was pretty disappointed in this one, I thought it lacked any drama and certainly no risks. We were almost certain there would be deaths and the Night King would die. Other than the momentary shock of Arya appearing from nowhere nothing really grabbed me. Only tier 2 characters died, and no major twist.

Hoping the remainder are back to what GoT does best, and very intrigued to how it all plays out.

Some of my predictions

Jamie kills Cersei. Goes with what the witch said would happen to her. There's also been some foreshadowing with him already being the 'Kingslayer'. I think Jamie probably then kills himself.

Bran / Raven ends up on the throne. It would be a real switch from the current monarchy setup - otherwise what is to stop the cycle starting again in 10 years time? There has to be an 'end' and without that I can't see what it would be.

Arya might end up back at the House of black and white.

No idea what happens to the rest!

One thing I would like to see is the return of Littlefinger in some capacity - I don't think Cersei knows of his death (may be completely wrong) and Arya could use his face for some deception. Would be a great way of catching Cersei out.
 

Perhaps we need a Forum GoT meet! Golf on Sunday afternoon and then stay up and watch the last ever episode Monday morning!! 😂😂
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top