I see what you're saying but I could point to 100 interactions since the series began where a character should have died but didn't. Because it's a TV show. Not real life, lol
There’s definitely a difference between characters surviving because they have a major role to play (which is fine, if sometimes clumsily handled) and a character surviving completely arbitrarily only to die completely arbitrarily later simply because it’s the end now. Or someone like Bronn who has fulfilled everything they need to do within the story but is kept around because the fans like him. It all comes down to the execution, just like with the rest of it.
It's pretty shocking to me that this is where we're at with this show, one of the major hallmarks of which was at one point the idea that actions and events have consequences and no one comes to save anybody at the last minute. It doesn't mean no one can ever make out of a dangerous situation but surely its undeniable that this show was defined in the early years by consequences being unavoidable. I understand how annoying it is to harp on these things, but seriously. Characters were completely overtaken by a wave of thousands of zombies and then got up and kept fighting lol. It's not necessarily a bad thing but its definitely a change.
lmao....show ends, credits end, all of a sudden we see Tyrion sitting at a desk writing letters, Bronn walks in stomps up to Tyrion and smashes him the nose, Tyrion asks what's that for and Bronn says THAT'S what a broken nose sounds like. Edit-I misread the original post but whatever I like my ending now
There’s also the completely bizarre repopulating armies thing. The Unsullied clearly have mastered mitosis and have taught the Dothraki their ways.
My main point with the 'plot armor' and 'subverting expectations' thing was directed at people not on this board, to be clear. The ones who read those terms on reddit or twitter and think they're an 'abracadabra' that turns them into an astute critic or some shit. I know I should ignore them but sometimes it's tough, haha
Without a doubt, there was a ruthlessness that GRRM has that D & D do not and I think that shows. That's not to undercut what the latter did in GoT's early seasosn, but, I'm going to add a clunky NBA trope in here, they don't have that killer instinct later on. They want to please people.
My apologies to Dinosaurs Dish in advance lol. I tried to think of a different term but plot armor fits too well! Plot armor can be annoying and appropriately complained of when we're pushed to believe no really this time how can this character make it out and then they make it out in a ridiculous way or in a way that doesn't make any sense. Like Arya getting stabbed multiple times by the waif and not only living but being able to run and fall down stairs and still fight and win. Jon Snow being saved by Dragon airlines AND stupidly fighting with zombies instead of joining everyone else and missing the flight but still being saved by his half-dead uncle is annoying plot armor. I'd much rather the story be written in a way that just doesn't put the characters in such overwhelming peril than have them just keep trying to trick us into thinking a character will die only to have them be saved in eye rolling ways. Not every show relies on this trope so I don't see why we can't be annoyed by it. This show I feel plot armor can be particularly glaring because for so long the show was notorious for seemingly not giving anyone plot armor, and if the character's choices and situation called for their death they got it. .
I just can't see how using plot armor as a criticism now makes sense when the whole series is riddled with times they should have died but didn't.
For me its only certain times when the solution to the peril they are in feels overly contrived. Most situations, even Jon coming back from the dead, didn't bother me at all because you can see the logical way they were saved. At least the pieces add up. I don't think the tide turning at the battle of the bastards, for example, is a poor use of plot armor. We thought and were hoping Sansa's influence and the Vale would come into play and it did, even if it was in the nick of time.
It is true that "plot armor" has always been there in the show, but I don't think it's ever been "in your face" so much until lately. That is why it is so glaring and why people are easy to pick at it.
the more i watch the inside the episode things, the more i get annoyed they did a shorter season. they clearly are great storytellers; i just wish they weren’t so done with the show that they had the time to write out the things they’re saying in something we shouldn’t have to be forced to watch
I mean, I certainly called that out through my entire watch, but I became the thread heel for it. Lol. Arya and The Waif will always be a top five use of that. At least it led to the hilarious sequence of her falling down on fruit for a million steps.
Sure, it doesn't bother me when people point out stuff like that in general, it's just... be consistent! I see people who have loved the entire series all the sudden worrying about realism and shit and it's like, what show have you been watching??? Haha
That's one of the issues I have with this season. We saw only a handful of Dothraki ride back toward Winterfell after their failed charge, but last week there were obviously way more of them. The number of survivors at the end of episode 3 would've resulted in Cersei having the upper hand (even with the gross under-representation of the Golden Company), but W&B chose to magically re-populate Dany's forces because it suited their story. Someone mentioned that W&B don't have the same edge that Martin does, and I completely agree. The hallmark of his world has always been the subversion of traditional fantasy tropes by showing the mortality of all the characters, and the real consequences of every action. The show has dabbled with those concepts post-books, but only when it suits the story. The defeat of the Night King and Euron hitting Rhaegal repeatedly both seem a little too open-and-shut for Martin's version, but they obviously occurred to facilitate Dany's actions last week, and those seem a little more like something Martin might spin.
So all over yahoo news today (one of the few sites that isn’t blocked at work) there are stories about people legitimately thinking Jaime will be in the next episode. Because “it’s GoT, nobody really dies in this show”
A friend sent me in article enthusiastically arguing that Littlefinger is alive and is a faceless man and will sit on the throne. I had no idea this theory existed or that there were Littlefinger fans out there
I think there was some leak or rumor a long time ago that said he was contracted for six episodes or something and people had been making theories about his survival based on that. Maybe Bran will finally do something and he’ll be in a flashback.
people are so bad at consuming media, the idea that anyone could watch this show and really think this is absolutely fucking insane to me