This chart on viewers in the US shows that the show has only gotten more and more popular. I've been wracking my brain trying to come up with why Benioff & Weiss would want to end everything quickly when it seems like literally everyone else would have been happy with it going on a bit longer... The behind-the-scenes for that last episode did really reinforce just how insanely complex and ambitious and expensive! the production of every episode of this show has become. I am thinking that they may have been worried about the show being cancelled unceremoniously by HBO if the ratings numbers started to dip and ending up in a position where they don't get to finish their story, as has happened to countless shows in the past.
But HBO basically gave them a blank check for the final two seasons and they still chose to do what they did. It doesn't make any sense other than they wanted to get to Star Wars faster.
They probably shortened it because they knew how hard it would be to go forward without having the books
Things I have felt would come back around in the final season but are absolutely not necessary: - The Faceless Men/Arya using a stolen face (has she really only done this to kill two people?) - The Red Priestesses/learning what the voice in the fire said to Varys (probably not going to happen...) - Bran using more of his visions/time traveling/warging abilities.... I thought his powers would be more prevalent in the final season but they don't seem to be very important anymore lol
These two are really glaring to me. The abilities of the faceless men and Bran are game changers, its weird to do so much to develop them and then drop them during the most critical times. Besides that, I just want more faceless men. There's just no way if the books get finished they won't be a bigger part of the story. Especially given that the books seem really interested in telling us more about them and one of them has infiltrated the citadel (book spoiler only unless the show takes a really unexpected turn lol)
theres been a lot of ragging on Martin's style in here by many myself included but they really are great reads and some of the differences from the show are gonna be a big deal if you're not already privy to them
Right, they are just cool and creepy and mysterious in general so I want to see more of them. haha. This is one of those things where you naturally assume it will come into play in the final parts of the story. We spent tons of time seeing Arya learn this skill and she immediately used it on Walder Frey so you think "Shit, this will come in handy once we get to the BIG bad guys"....but then it just kind of goes away. haha. I thought it was especially weird considering Sansa found a bag of faces at Winterfell, but Arya hasn't utilized them since.
Yeah was really expecting more usage of that ability. I feel like her BIG MOMENT was killing the Night King so it would be interesting if she gets one more significant kill utilizing that or not. Unless killing the Frey house was supposed to be the payoff?
I mean more importantly the faceless mine helped hone her ability as a fighter. The ability to change faces is nice when needed but she didn't really need to change a face to fight the Night King or even go into Kings Landing. She's a deadly enough killer without it that she really only needs it when she needs to infiltrate something in secret.
I get that, but it's more that there was so much focus on that technique for so long (it's in their name even lol). And yes, in hindsight she didn't need it for Kings Landing or the White Walkers, but that doesn't mean they couldn't have utilized it whatsoever. That was kind of my point is that I thought it would come into play but they wrote it in a way that it wasn't needed. The murdering of house Fray seems to be the biggest payoff.
The writers can write whatever they want, including situations where a character’s very specialized and dramatic power would be necessary in the endgame of their series
I thought her facelessness MIGHT come into play with Cersei but otherwise before the season started I didn't see another reason for her to need it based on what we assumed was coming. I think the Frey payoff was a big one, that maybe doesn't feel AS Big now because that was like the last of the War of the Five Kings vendettas that needed to be settled before we got to the two big baddies.
Yeah I think for some reason the wiping out an entire house at the drop of a dime goes under the radar, and mostly because it was thrown into a crowded episode of holy shit moments and followed the Battle of the Bastards. What would have made me scream (and I've said it in here before) is if they started season 7 out the way the did with that scene ... but never showed us her killing him. That would have been fucking cool.
Yeah I guess its also weird that a whole major family being mysteriously poisoned and murdered only gets a passing reference by Jamie if I recall correctly.
Honestly I think everyone is so depleted at this point and preparing for the big war that they don't have the time to deal with things like who gets House Frey's lands. Most likely someone like House Mallister has moved in to take the castles or something haha