A Song Of Ice And Fire

(For the last time in 2024) Things I liked / Random Observations

• This was a bizarre finale.
  • Game of Thrones used this clever formula of having a great/impactful/explosive penultimate episode and then the finale episode as a palette cleanser and next season setup. This felt more like the latter without the former, and it hurt it.
  • I wouldn't call it a letdown, but I can see how the rumors about this being changed from a 10 episode season hurt.
  • Season 3 has the potential to be the best ASOIAF television event - this is a great setup for it.
  • On a more darker take - I can totally criticize this as a 70 minute trailer for season 3
  • I feel like the story was just split between S2 and S3... so did we just get A-Feast-For-Crows/A-Dance-With-Dragons'ed ?
• I didn't expect Otto to be imprisoned.
  • I think there's something wrong about Otto being imprisoned - specially with what happens to Otto in F&B.
• This episode had GoT S8 teleporting going on:
  • Rhaenyra: Fly to Harrenhal and back.
  • Alicent: From the Kingswood to King's Landing and then Dragonstone.
• Alys is now intimately tied to the (future) lore of the series... lets count the easter eggs in that vision
  • Brinden Rivers (could this be an cameo from the actor playing him in D&E?)
  • The Others/Whitewalkers (just the whitewalkers or the GoT Night's King?)
  • A possible vision of the extinction of the dragons?
  • I'm shocked we got a Daenerys cameo.
  • Kinda related... what the hell was that thing in the godswood ?!?!?!?
    • I re-watched with subtitles on: antlered human 😱
• A dragon with striking cobalt blue coloring leading a Hightower host. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Prince Daeron Targaryen & Tessarion!
• I am pretty sure that the ending montage had all the leitmofifs of the great houses. Somehow it didn't stick with me?
• The Rhaenyra/Alicent meeting felt like the Sept scene didn't occur ? Is it just me, or did it felt like they were meeting for the first time in the season ?
  • I'm sorry, but having Alicent being OK with "a son for a son" as a setup for the fall of King's Landing is fine? did Prince Jaehaerys didn't count?

Going back to the antlered human in the godswood... I would have preferred an antlered being as a vision from a certain event in ASOIAF:

In a vast river stood a monstrous figure, antlers crowning its massive, muscled form. Shadows deepened as it loomed over a horse-sized black dragon, whose obsidian scales glistened in the dying light. The antlered being roared, eyes aflame with defiance, but the dragon matched it in relentlessness. With a bone-shaking bellow, the giant struck, its immense strength driving into the dragon’s chest. Blood mingled with the river’s waters as the dragon’s life ebbed away, sinking into the depths