Yeah. These TV networks don't want to let their golden gooses die, so they drag it out. With Lost, it wasn't so bad to drop from 22 episodes to 16. Game of Thrones is talking 30-40% of their season if they do 7 and 6. Given how much CGI is likely to be necessary for dragons, white walkers, battles, etc... I guess I can understand shortened seasons w/full length budgets as a compromise. Still, I don't like waiting a year to get a month and half of GoT. Hopefully, if they do go that route, they'll do it like the BBC does with Sherlock, and give us extended episode lengths.
Gendry's served his purpose. He was a clue for Ned Stark in season 1. A friend for Arya in season 2. And character exploration for Davos, Stannis, and Mel in season 3. He has no endgame purpose. I doubt we'll ever see him again. And really, we shouldn't. We probably wouldn't recognize him anymore either. He'd be like Walt (from lost), 6 feet tall and grown up. Look at how much Bran grew up from season 4 to 6, now imagine season 3 to 7/8.
Yeah, look at what happened to Rickon Stark. Speaking of him, of all the Stark deaths, his was the least.... what's the word I'm looking for... impactful?
I hope RR Martin doesn't bring Rickon back just to kill him. I didn't watch this season yet, however, I do not see how that death was earned.
Can you give me examples where TPTB killed off characters because they couldn't resolve a plot thread?
Myrcella's death was three fold. 1). Character development for Jaime 2). Revenge for Oberyn 3). Fulfillment of prophecy Rickon, I'll give you. But that's not indicative of every death
The whole dorne story was poorly done. Given the context of events, her death wasn't the result of being unable to resolve a plot point.
I think that is debatable. Mostly because I am debating it. They were unable to cause her death in a meaningful way, so they just killed her in a plot that didn't make any sense, because they were unable to resolve it. Also Osha.
http://collider.com/game-of-thrones...utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=collidersocial Easy to read lineage chart
I thought they were basically declaring war and looking to hurt Cersei I didn't think it was meaningless plot wise.
It's actually completely accurate. In addition, Rickon's death was totally avoidable in-universe if not for bad and inconsistent writing of Sansa's motivations. It was a poorly written shock sympathy death to make the stakes in the second Battle of Winterfell artificially higher, as if the viewers needed any more motivation to hate the cartoon character that Ramsay Bolton had become. It was made possible by the writers having zero clue what Rickon's actual fate is, and needing to resolve his loose plot thread. The resolution was the same as all the others: kill 'em off. High Sparrow, Loras Tyrell, Margaery Tyrell, Mace Tyrell, Lancel Lannister, Brynden "Blackfish" Tully, Rickon Stark, Osha, Brynden "Three Eyed Raven" Rivers, "Fat" Walda Frey, Roose Bolton, unnamed Bolton infant, Walder Frey, Summer, Trystane Martell, Doran Martell, Lem Lemoncloak, Smalljon Umber, Areo Hotah… I can keep going.
off screen!?!?! Such a waste of a good character. I am beginning to be happy they didn't have Strong Belwas. They probably would just have had him killed during that little revolt. I guess the book did maim Loras off screen.
I don't agree that he plot arc didn't make sense and she was killed off in a meaningless way. She was always going to die anyway, along with all of the Cersei's kids. Her death impacted Jaime significantly, as he becomes concerned with his role as a father (see Tommen), and galvanizes Jaime and Cersei. Her character was never destined to achieve anything in the story. Same for Osha... Osha is a static character. Her plot/motivation was over. She served her purpose, rescuing the Stark boys and looking out for Rickon. When Winterfell is captured in the name of the Ironborn, she seduces a nameless character and kills him. That paved the way to saving the Stark boys and getting them out of dodge. Afterwards, she stays with Rickon and acts as his guardian. Rickon is recaptured and handed over to Ramsey. It makes sense that she's recaptured too. She tries the same trick on Ramsey (static character) and fails, so she dies... What are you guys expecting from these minor characters? How could Osha's death have been made meaningful? She was never meant to have any more than she did... She served his purpose in progressing the story and died when she could no longer could push the story forward. Same for all the other characters. I can agree that Rickon, Doran, and Blackfish didn't get what their characters deserved, but their deaths aren't indicative of all character deaths.
1). You don't know who lives or dies in the book universe. You have a habit of inserting claims about what the show is doing vs. what the books will do, that aren't based on anything but your own version of fan fic. For example, when Stannis had Shireen burned in the show, you claimed it was an something that Stannis wouldn't do... Yet, the writers out right said that GRRM told them that Stannis was going to do that in the future books. As for Rickon, his death was hollow. I'll agree to that. That could of been handled better and it wasn't. 2). Your list is ridiculous. All of the characters who died in the Sept at the hands of Cersei (and Qyborn) very well may die in the Sept once WoW is released. That entire Sept sequence had build up. We've been theorizing about it for a good part of this season, so it didn't just "happen" out of thin air. There was plenty of buildup for that sequence from this season, and looking back, a number of seasons. NOTE: There will be no Cleganebowl in the books, as the story/buildup is directly against what Martin has previously outlined in the available books. Come on... Fat Walda Frey made the list... Yeah, I'm sure Martin is going to give her an entire POV chapter, whereas the writers were just lazy and unable to resolve her "plot." She was a loose end for Ramsey's lineage/title and Ramsey killed her. Perfectly fine and fits the narrative. The only names on your list that I'll agree with is Doran Martell, who got shafted and Blackfish. Although it's likely he dies at Riverrun in the books too, I hated the way he died off screen. Everyone else is subject to debate and you're really reaching on more than a few. In fact, this debate is less about characters dying as a result of the writers not being able to resolve plot points and more about Book-to-TV adaptation.
Point 1: Let's say you pick a bar fight. The guy kills you. So your wife goes after the guy's boss and kills his daughter. That is the story of Myrcella's death. It was pointless as it was meaningless as it made so little sense. I was so angered by the stupidity, I didn't even watch the last episode due to that stupid pointless meaningless god awful death from a terrible story line. Point 2: They could have not killed her and done anything else. Literally do anything else. In fact your statement that, "she served his purpose in progressing the story and died when she could no longer push the story forward." is the crux of my problem.
Your memory here is flaky. GRRM's response was "People will die in the show who don't die in the books." You can go as far back as Mago in Season 1 as an example. They may very will die in TWOW, yes. But they likely will die with far more revealed about their motivations and intentions. That is, they'll die further along their plot arcs. The show took an event from what should have been in Season 4 or early Season 5, Cersei destroying the Tower of the Hand with wildfire, and merged it into Season 6 as Cersei destroying the Sept of Baelor with wildfire. They adapted a book event to the show continuity to kill off some dangling plot threads. It's a joke. Do you understand humor? Do you allow for the fact that I am a human being who will make jokes, and can poke fun at things without taking them seriously? She did, as did her infant, as did Roose Bolton, because it's extremely unlikely that book Roose Bolton is going to spend two books antagonizing Ramsay only to put himself in the position of allowing himself to be stabbed in what might have been the most predictable death in show history. Those were aborted plot arcs that the writers killed off because they did not know where they were going. Fat Walda, the infant, and Roose may very well die in the books. But they aren't going to die for shock value in a stupid way to a cartoon character villain. What you're not understanding is that I am complaining about the implementation and manner of the deaths, not that they occurred. I'm not trying to claim "they'll never die in teh bookzzzzz!" I'm trying to claim that THEY ARE BADLY WRITTEN IN THE SHOW.
She had to die due to the prophecy. She also had to die because of choices Cersi had made. Which of Cersi's enemies would have killed her if not for the Sands?
They could have killed her in a much better story line. Anyone but the Sands, as making the Sands kill her makes zero sense. It makes more sense for Arya to kill her.
Yes. Yes there is. However, the whole Dorne thing is just bad story telling angst. Everything about that was stupid. Literally everything.
How would Arya have killed her? Arya was in Braavos. You say anyone, but virtually everyone else either doesn't fit with their character or doesn't fit the parameters. Again, she had to die and her death had to be because of Cersei's scheming. I feel like this is more about just not liking the Sands/Dorne storyline in general, then specific problem with them killing her.
She didn't have to die last season. She didn't die because of Cersei's scheming. Tyrion was the reason she was over there. Cersei literally thought that Tyrion killed her son. The trial by combat was also Tyrion's idea. Oberon taking the call to battle was Oberon's scheming as his entire point was to kill the Mountain and get a confession for his sister's death. You feel incorrectly. This is about the Sands killing her and how it makes no sense for them to do so. Oberon was a man who had a plan and his plan went wrong. It was his fault that he died, as his showboating is what caused his death, that he put himself in. Wanting revenge to kill the daughter, a very important pawn, who is worth way more as a prisoner, makes zero sense. She had to die. I know that. However how she died was terribly written and made zero sense in the world that was created. Edit: She is still alive in the books. Putting that out there that she didn't have to die last season.