Chris Fritz's Blog - Posts Tagged "tv"
I re wrote the ending of Game of Thrones
Rewrite GOT
Like most of the critics I found the conclusion to Game of Thrones quite disappointing. Despite my better judgement I’ve re written the final episodes to try to improve upon what happened on screen. I’m going to be re writing outlines for seasons seven and eight because that’s where I think everything went wrong. Here we go.
We start off in Kings Landing where queen Cersei is having quite a hard time dealing with a group of rebels within the city. A large group of citizens that hate Cersei and don’t want to be ruled by her. They’re upset because she blew up the sept of Baylar killing thousands or maybe they just don’t want to be ruled by a woman. Whatever the reason they hate the queen and they are willing to commit several acts of violent terrorism to make that opinion heard. The knights of kings landing have a hard time keeping the peace against this threat.
Meanwhile in the north Jon snow consolidates his power and choses his council. He makes a controversial pick to make little finger the hand of the king but does make a sensible decision and makes Sansa the lady of Winterfell. He embraces his role as king in the north fully with the lives of his people resting on his shoulders. He must fortify the northern strongholds, like the dread fort, moat Cailyn, as well as the night’s watch at castle black. The northerners will be the ones to fight the army of the dead they need to be ready. After murdering the entirety of house Frey by poisoning Arya rides north to Winterfell for an uncomfortable reunion. On her way there she runs into the brotherhood without banners in conflict with the hound. They have an uneasy reunion because Arya thought the hound was dead and the hound probably thought the same of her. After this reunion they all agree to ride to Winterfell together. Once they reach the gates of Winterfell Arya is reunited with Jon and Sansa in a heartwarming reception. Again they both though the girl was dead and are presently surprised to see her still kicking.
Dany lands in Dragonstone with her iron fleet, her dragons and her overwhelming military might. Dragonstone is deserted so nobody stops her occupation. It’s not long until she marches her forces on kings landing. With Cersei and her forces at their weakest Dany takes the city in conjunction with the rebel forces of kings landing. With the minimal amount of dragon fire on her part. Unfortunately it comes with a price. The moment before Dany officially wins the battle over Cersei the queen of the seven kingdoms orders that the cashes of wildfire hidden in the city be blown up to take out Dany’s forces. Killing thousands in the process and leaving Dany with a scarred city. Cersei, Jamie, Bronn, Chyburn, Gregor, and a battalion of Lannister troops sneak out of the city just to hold on to their lives. They retreat back to Casterly Rock and leaving Daenerys to rule over a broken city. The last Targaryen has won the iron throne but it has come at a steep cost.
Bran Stark travels south to the wall and reaches the tunnel that leads to castle black. The nights’ watch receive him and take him to Winterfell to reunite with members of his family. He brings with them a grave warning. The night king’s army is gargantuan and it will kill all life if he’s not stopped. The night king wants Bran. He wants the newly found powers of the three eyed raven. With this power the night king can reach into the minds of every living thing and kill the minds of every living thing. He will double in strength and he will kill the world. Jon Snow is not happy to hear these words but they make his mission to defeat the night king more urgent.
Samwell Tarly is studying to become a maester when an unsettling fellow drops into his life, Jorah Mormont. The man is looking for a cure for the horrible affliction of grayscale. He thinks it’s a true challenge but Sam is willing to take it on. Sam cooks up his own half-baked cure and tries to sure the diseased man. Unfortunately it results in a horrible death for sir Mormont. Maybe an unsatisfying death but it would truly subvert audience expectations and might just make Gorge R.R. Martin proud. For this horrible failure the Maesters excommunicate him and cast him out. With nowhere else to go he heads to Winterfell to join his old friend Jon Snow.
News of Daenerys taking the Iron throne finally lands on the ears of Jon Snow. When he hears that she has three dragons he’s intrigued. Dragon fire can cut through white walkers like a knife through butter. So he needs her dragons to defend against the oncoming battle against them. Also she controls Dragonstone which has a gracious mine of dragon glass. With this stone made into weapons they can kill the white walkers. Many reasons for this queen to be an ally of the north. As fate would have it Daenerys needs the assistance of Jon Snow as well. She needs some relief and some aide to help rebuild kings landing and fortify her position on the throne and against the Lannister’s. With both parties finding themselves in need they come to the logical conclusion that marriage would be the smoothest and most efficient way for everyone to get what they want and benefit Westeros in the greatest way possible. So Dany’s council talks to Jon’s council and they hammer out the specifics of the deal. When negotiations are settled Jon Snow rides south for his wedding.
When he meets the mother of Dragons they get along quite well. Her three dragons, Reaghal, Vyserion, and Drogon Warm up to Jon immediately and accept him as part of the family. Once their wedding ceremony takes place and they consummate the marriage now their political alliance can move forward. There is one matter that Dany has to take care of first which is fulfilling a promise to the Greyjoys. Yara and Theon Greyjoy sail their fleet to the iron islands to wage battle against their traitorous uncle Euron. The two of them have one hundred ships but Euron has five hundred ships leaving them at quite a disadvantage. That would have been the chase but Dany and her dragons back the young Greyjoys in this fight. When he sees that his battle is lost Euron retreats with a handful of ships away from the Iron Islands. The good guys have won and Yara takes her place on the salt throne. Pledging loyalty to Daenerys Targaryen and commanding the Iron fleet.
While all this was going on the Lannister’s consolidated their forces at Casterly Rock. Even though they lost a lot of men to the dragons their force is still great. With this force they invade high garden and kill Olena Tyrell. House Lannister takes high garden for themselves adding to their power. Shortly after this Euron Greyjoy shows up at Casterly Rock in the hopes of forming an alliance with the Lannister’s. The alliance is agreed to and Euron helps them gain more power. He sails what few ships he has to Dorne transporting thousands of Lannister soldiers to the gates of Dorne. They invade the city and take it in the name of house Lannister. They kill the Dornish royal family and take more power for themselves. Now the Lannister’s have taken revenge on people who have betrayed them in the past and taken vast new amounts of power for themselves. Daenerys once had allies in High Garden and Dorne but now she only has enemies.
The River lands is where Dany’s forces and the Lannister army clash in major battles. A truly vicious, bloody drawn out brawl with no end in sight. It gets worse when the Lannister’s reach out to the Iron bank for help and the bank gives them the golden company. Eventually this fighting reaches a plateau and peace must finally be negotiated. Varys and Little finger are sent to Casterly Rock to negotiate with Cersei and Jamie. Cersei gives them an ultimatum for peace if Tyrion Lannister is executed then a truce will be settled. They give this news to Dany and she rejects the offer valuing Tyrion’s life. Little Finger goes behind everyone’s back and tries to have Tyrion assassinated in his sleep. This assassination attempt is thwarted and Little Finger is found out. A betrayal of this magnitude can only be dealt with one way. Dany has Drogon burn the man alive. A truly sad day for everyone and an end to little fingers slimy schemes.
This big war between Dany and the Lannister’s goes on until Dany finally mobilizes her forces to move on Casterly rock. On a day that would be remembered as the battle of Casterly rock. The battle is truly epic Cersei will sacrifice all of her men to defend this place and Dany will march to defeat her enemies. On the Lannister side the ground forces are led by Gregor Clegane and Dany’s forces on the ground are led by grey worm the hound and Breanne. On this great battlefield Gregor and the hound meet face to face for the first time in a long time and for the last time. It takes a lot to bring down the mountain that rides but the hound does it with help from Breanne and grey worm. Eventually the tides of the battle turn and the Lannister’s are on the losing end. Jamie urges Cersei to surrender honorably but Cersei won’t hear it. She would rather die than lose Casterly rock. The woman goes completely mad with desperation afraid of what the enemy would do to her if they are captured. She wants to die with Jamie in her arms so she grabs a knife and tries to kill Jamie. In an act of self-defense Jamie stabs Cersei killing her. The two of them have now truly lost everything. Euron was there to see Jamie kill his sister and didn’t like that one bit. He attacks Jamie with a sword and Jamie has to defend himself once again. A fight between these two breaks out and it is tough for both of them but eventually Jamie defeats Euron and kills him. With his allies dead Jamie waves a white flag and surrenders to Dany’s army.
Dany is quite reasonable in the terms of surrender. Jamie must give control of Casterly rock to Tyrion and the Lannister army must fight against the white walkers in the long night. Speaking of which the long night is still coming. It starts with the knight king marching on the wall with his army of the dead ten million fighters strong. Even with all this necro power he still has to get over the wall. Here’s how he does it. He makes the whites stack themselves like an unholy monstrous human pyramid. These bodies climb and stack up the wall until they reach the top. What few men of the nights watch try to stop them from coming up the wall but they can’t stop it as much as they can stop the sun from rising. The night king makes it to the top of the wall then his dead army drops down on the other side sieging into Westeros. They start by attacking castle black and over running the nights watch. The long night has begun and the army of the dead marches against the living.
Our heroes must act quickly. The first thing they do is put Bran on the back of a dragon and fly him to kings landing this way they can put a thousand miles and the armies of the seven kingdoms in between the night king and Bran. Ready to defend Bran is Jon Snow, Arya, Breanne, Dany, the dragons and all of Dany’s forces. Jamie is there two and he has been given the valerian steel sword widows wail to fight with. A sword his son once used and now he will fight with it proudly. As the dead army marches south it arrives at Winterfell. An army of north men attack the dead but it is no use they are forced back behind the walls of Winterfell and the night king continues to march south. The same thing happens as they keep marching. Grand armies stand up to them and grand armies are pushed back. Carving a swath of destruction and that will leave Westeros scarred for eternity. All the way to Kings landing and all the way to Bran. The night king is drawn to him like a moth to a flame.
As the armies of kings landing prepare for battle Bran tells Jon a secret of his past. That Jon is not the son of Ned Stark, his father was a Targaryen and his mother was Ned Stark’s sister, Liana. His real name is Aegon Targaryen the rightful ruler of Westeros. This gives Jon a lot to think about before the long night. Sure enough the night king and the army of the dead lay siege on kings landing. The battle is epic and many lives are lost. Dany attacks and kills large swathes of the army with her dragons but they just keep coming and coming. Many brave warriors lose their lives in this battle. One of the most unfortunate casualties comes when the night king strikes down Vyserion with an ice lance. Dany weeps as the fearsome dragon is struck from the sky. Eventually the dead breach the walls of the city and raid kings landing searching for Bran. The night king is drawn to him and he’ll kill any man who stands in his way.
One of those men is Jamie Lannister. He fights bravely to defend a child that he once pushed out a window and crippled for life. Unfortunately the night king kills the king slayer and adds him to the army of the dead. The night king fights through every living thing in kings landing and eventually makes it to Bran. The wheelchair bound Stark is prepared to defend himself against this threat. The night king grabs him by the throat and tries to absorb his psychic powers into himself. With all of his mental might Bran resists his deadly magic. For a handful of precious minutes these two are locked in a silent battle of spells. To an untrained eye it looks like they just stare at each other intensely but in reality they are trying to get the upper hand on one another. One fight for all the power in the world. Bran uses their psychic connection to paralyze the night king.
This gives the brave warriors of kings landing time to slay the frost covered killer. The night king is stabbed by Arya, Breanne, Grey worm, and Jon Snow. When their swords thrust into his body the night king shatters into pieces. With him gone a chain reaction occurs and every dead soldier falls to the ground no longer a threat. The army of the dead has been defeated. But it came at a great price. It turns out that stunt Bran pulled to paralyze the night king cost him his life. When the night king died Bran died as well. When the dust settles and the living rise up to rebuild they have many people to mourn the passing of. All seven kingdoms must now work together to rebuild after the long night.
Among this period of spiritual rebirth some seeds of revolution are planted as well. Jon confesses to Arya to last piece of knowledge Bran told him. That Jon is a Targaryen and the rightful ruler of Westeros. As secret this big is too much for Jon to carry alone. Eventually Arya tells Sansa and Sansa tells Varys and the secret is no longer secret. It’s turned into information. Whispers echo through the seven kingdoms. Saying that Dany is a false queen and Jon should be on the iron throne. This narrative is very pleasing to the ears of the smallfolk and the noblemen alike. The entire north love John and he has a few supporters in the south. Also among some of the nobles inherent sexism takes place as some people just don’t want a woman sitting on the throne and they want a man instead.
Through all of these whispers a revolutionary coalition is formed. A campaign to dethrone Dany and put Jon on the throne. Dany hears these whispers and confronts Jon about them. He tells her the truth that he is a Targaryen and is the one who belongs on that throne. He has no affiliation with the coalition and doesn’t want Daenerys to be dethroned. Even though Jon Doesn’t want the throne the people want him to have it anyway. Soon some random acts of violence occur throughout kings landing under the banner of revolution. These forces won’t stop until Jon is on the throne. Dany issues an order to end the violence and keep her throne. She issues an order to kill Jon Snow. Jon escapes Kings landing with the help of an unlikely ally. Drogon comes to Jon’s aid and flies him away from the city up north. The wise scaly beast has taken a liking to Jon and in this moment he betrays the woman who raised him to assist the man.
When Jon flies back to Winterfell and brings news of what transpired the north is furious. They won’t take an attempted assassination on the rightful king lying down. They openly revolt against Daenerys and her rule. Arya won’t take such a thing lying down either. When she hears what happened she travels to kings landing in secret to kill the queen herself. First she sneaks into the city and ambushes Grey worm. She ambushes the poor man and takes his face. So Arya can walk around the city undetected and get close to the queen. She bides her time waiting for the right moment to strike.
Jon spends weeks trying to stop the open rebellion against Dany. He does everything short of killing random people. But eventually rebellious forces move on the south and revolt against the queen. Jon Flies Drogon down with them but violence ensues despite his best efforts. Jon gets there just in time to see Arya make her move against the woman who tried to kill him. Wearing Grey worms face Arya gets close to Daenerys and slits her throat. In her eyes she saved Jon’s life and now he can take the throne like everyone wanted. Unfortunately one of the queen’s most loyal supporters the large dragon Reaghal swoops in and kills the girl that killed his mom. The dragon eats Arya just before Jon can intervene.
In a fit of frustrated mourning Drogon flies in and attacks Reaghal. Drogon kills his brother for killing Arya. With all the killing that took place in this short period of time Jon is stunned into sadness. The bells ring out in the city and the violence stops. Kings landing I told that Daenerys has been killed and they all know that the only person in the land that can take the throne now is Jon Snow. Every person in the city bows to him as they rush to declare him the new king. Jon can barely comprehend what happened today and what the people expect of him. He is disgusted by everything that happened today and recently. He didn’t want Dany to die or Arya or Reaghal. He loved them all but now they’re all gone. When the people want him to take the throne he can’t even stand to look at it. He orders Drogon to burn the throne down in to the shock of the people of kings landing. Once the Iron throne is only a puddle of hot goo Jon addresses the people. “There will be no more Iron throne! The seven kingdoms will be just that, seven independent kingdoms. If I ever hold anymore thrones it will not be this one and I will not be on this day.” That’s the last thing he tells the people before he flies away on the back of Drogon.
The people learn to govern themselves in the absence of a king. They rebuild and achieve great things. Nobody ever really sees Jon again. Every once in a while they hear a story of a man coming down from the skies on the back of a dragon. People just whisper stories of seeing him or his dire wolf Ghost or they see Drogon flying through the sky. Some say he only comes down from the skies to help solve the problems of the smallfolk or to resolve conflict. He fades into legend ruling the land on his winged throne. The Man of Ice and Fire they would call him and if they ever write a song about him it would be a Song of Ice and Fire.
Well there you have it here’s an outline for how I think game of thrones should have ended. I have to admit this outline really got away from me. As I just kept thinking and thinking about what I should or shouldn’t write it got more and more complicated. I guess now in a way I’ve been through want the showrunners have been through trying to wrap up this series. I don’t know if I did the best job at it because I think my version would have taken up a lot more screen time and would have cost a whole lot more money. Now the real way this franchise could be redeemed is with the prequel series that is in the works with HBO. I’m really excited for that. I hope they don’t let D and D touch it. I think they have a really good set up for a series like this. The other way to gain some redemption is when George RR Martin releases the sixth and seventh books in the series. A lot of fans have made theories as to why he hasn’t released the sixth book yet. Some people think he’s not writing enough. I think the opposite is true and he’s writing too much. That man can write glorified bricks. So I can safely say that whatever he’s going to publish next is going to be over twelve hundred pages long. So all I can do is a imagine a situation where he just keeps writing and writing then he gives just stacks of pages to his editor or a team of editors. Then the editors have to filter everything based on criteria like continuity and logic within the bigger story. While that goes on George just keeps writing and writing more stuff that he wants to put in the book and all that stuff just piles up. Creating this gargantuan monster of a story and in turn a giant monster of a book. That’s just my theory anyway. What do you guys think? Will the last two books be great redeeming masterpieces or will we never even get a chance to read them?
Like most of the critics I found the conclusion to Game of Thrones quite disappointing. Despite my better judgement I’ve re written the final episodes to try to improve upon what happened on screen. I’m going to be re writing outlines for seasons seven and eight because that’s where I think everything went wrong. Here we go.
We start off in Kings Landing where queen Cersei is having quite a hard time dealing with a group of rebels within the city. A large group of citizens that hate Cersei and don’t want to be ruled by her. They’re upset because she blew up the sept of Baylar killing thousands or maybe they just don’t want to be ruled by a woman. Whatever the reason they hate the queen and they are willing to commit several acts of violent terrorism to make that opinion heard. The knights of kings landing have a hard time keeping the peace against this threat.
Meanwhile in the north Jon snow consolidates his power and choses his council. He makes a controversial pick to make little finger the hand of the king but does make a sensible decision and makes Sansa the lady of Winterfell. He embraces his role as king in the north fully with the lives of his people resting on his shoulders. He must fortify the northern strongholds, like the dread fort, moat Cailyn, as well as the night’s watch at castle black. The northerners will be the ones to fight the army of the dead they need to be ready. After murdering the entirety of house Frey by poisoning Arya rides north to Winterfell for an uncomfortable reunion. On her way there she runs into the brotherhood without banners in conflict with the hound. They have an uneasy reunion because Arya thought the hound was dead and the hound probably thought the same of her. After this reunion they all agree to ride to Winterfell together. Once they reach the gates of Winterfell Arya is reunited with Jon and Sansa in a heartwarming reception. Again they both though the girl was dead and are presently surprised to see her still kicking.
Dany lands in Dragonstone with her iron fleet, her dragons and her overwhelming military might. Dragonstone is deserted so nobody stops her occupation. It’s not long until she marches her forces on kings landing. With Cersei and her forces at their weakest Dany takes the city in conjunction with the rebel forces of kings landing. With the minimal amount of dragon fire on her part. Unfortunately it comes with a price. The moment before Dany officially wins the battle over Cersei the queen of the seven kingdoms orders that the cashes of wildfire hidden in the city be blown up to take out Dany’s forces. Killing thousands in the process and leaving Dany with a scarred city. Cersei, Jamie, Bronn, Chyburn, Gregor, and a battalion of Lannister troops sneak out of the city just to hold on to their lives. They retreat back to Casterly Rock and leaving Daenerys to rule over a broken city. The last Targaryen has won the iron throne but it has come at a steep cost.
Bran Stark travels south to the wall and reaches the tunnel that leads to castle black. The nights’ watch receive him and take him to Winterfell to reunite with members of his family. He brings with them a grave warning. The night king’s army is gargantuan and it will kill all life if he’s not stopped. The night king wants Bran. He wants the newly found powers of the three eyed raven. With this power the night king can reach into the minds of every living thing and kill the minds of every living thing. He will double in strength and he will kill the world. Jon Snow is not happy to hear these words but they make his mission to defeat the night king more urgent.
Samwell Tarly is studying to become a maester when an unsettling fellow drops into his life, Jorah Mormont. The man is looking for a cure for the horrible affliction of grayscale. He thinks it’s a true challenge but Sam is willing to take it on. Sam cooks up his own half-baked cure and tries to sure the diseased man. Unfortunately it results in a horrible death for sir Mormont. Maybe an unsatisfying death but it would truly subvert audience expectations and might just make Gorge R.R. Martin proud. For this horrible failure the Maesters excommunicate him and cast him out. With nowhere else to go he heads to Winterfell to join his old friend Jon Snow.
News of Daenerys taking the Iron throne finally lands on the ears of Jon Snow. When he hears that she has three dragons he’s intrigued. Dragon fire can cut through white walkers like a knife through butter. So he needs her dragons to defend against the oncoming battle against them. Also she controls Dragonstone which has a gracious mine of dragon glass. With this stone made into weapons they can kill the white walkers. Many reasons for this queen to be an ally of the north. As fate would have it Daenerys needs the assistance of Jon Snow as well. She needs some relief and some aide to help rebuild kings landing and fortify her position on the throne and against the Lannister’s. With both parties finding themselves in need they come to the logical conclusion that marriage would be the smoothest and most efficient way for everyone to get what they want and benefit Westeros in the greatest way possible. So Dany’s council talks to Jon’s council and they hammer out the specifics of the deal. When negotiations are settled Jon Snow rides south for his wedding.
When he meets the mother of Dragons they get along quite well. Her three dragons, Reaghal, Vyserion, and Drogon Warm up to Jon immediately and accept him as part of the family. Once their wedding ceremony takes place and they consummate the marriage now their political alliance can move forward. There is one matter that Dany has to take care of first which is fulfilling a promise to the Greyjoys. Yara and Theon Greyjoy sail their fleet to the iron islands to wage battle against their traitorous uncle Euron. The two of them have one hundred ships but Euron has five hundred ships leaving them at quite a disadvantage. That would have been the chase but Dany and her dragons back the young Greyjoys in this fight. When he sees that his battle is lost Euron retreats with a handful of ships away from the Iron Islands. The good guys have won and Yara takes her place on the salt throne. Pledging loyalty to Daenerys Targaryen and commanding the Iron fleet.
While all this was going on the Lannister’s consolidated their forces at Casterly Rock. Even though they lost a lot of men to the dragons their force is still great. With this force they invade high garden and kill Olena Tyrell. House Lannister takes high garden for themselves adding to their power. Shortly after this Euron Greyjoy shows up at Casterly Rock in the hopes of forming an alliance with the Lannister’s. The alliance is agreed to and Euron helps them gain more power. He sails what few ships he has to Dorne transporting thousands of Lannister soldiers to the gates of Dorne. They invade the city and take it in the name of house Lannister. They kill the Dornish royal family and take more power for themselves. Now the Lannister’s have taken revenge on people who have betrayed them in the past and taken vast new amounts of power for themselves. Daenerys once had allies in High Garden and Dorne but now she only has enemies.
The River lands is where Dany’s forces and the Lannister army clash in major battles. A truly vicious, bloody drawn out brawl with no end in sight. It gets worse when the Lannister’s reach out to the Iron bank for help and the bank gives them the golden company. Eventually this fighting reaches a plateau and peace must finally be negotiated. Varys and Little finger are sent to Casterly Rock to negotiate with Cersei and Jamie. Cersei gives them an ultimatum for peace if Tyrion Lannister is executed then a truce will be settled. They give this news to Dany and she rejects the offer valuing Tyrion’s life. Little Finger goes behind everyone’s back and tries to have Tyrion assassinated in his sleep. This assassination attempt is thwarted and Little Finger is found out. A betrayal of this magnitude can only be dealt with one way. Dany has Drogon burn the man alive. A truly sad day for everyone and an end to little fingers slimy schemes.
This big war between Dany and the Lannister’s goes on until Dany finally mobilizes her forces to move on Casterly rock. On a day that would be remembered as the battle of Casterly rock. The battle is truly epic Cersei will sacrifice all of her men to defend this place and Dany will march to defeat her enemies. On the Lannister side the ground forces are led by Gregor Clegane and Dany’s forces on the ground are led by grey worm the hound and Breanne. On this great battlefield Gregor and the hound meet face to face for the first time in a long time and for the last time. It takes a lot to bring down the mountain that rides but the hound does it with help from Breanne and grey worm. Eventually the tides of the battle turn and the Lannister’s are on the losing end. Jamie urges Cersei to surrender honorably but Cersei won’t hear it. She would rather die than lose Casterly rock. The woman goes completely mad with desperation afraid of what the enemy would do to her if they are captured. She wants to die with Jamie in her arms so she grabs a knife and tries to kill Jamie. In an act of self-defense Jamie stabs Cersei killing her. The two of them have now truly lost everything. Euron was there to see Jamie kill his sister and didn’t like that one bit. He attacks Jamie with a sword and Jamie has to defend himself once again. A fight between these two breaks out and it is tough for both of them but eventually Jamie defeats Euron and kills him. With his allies dead Jamie waves a white flag and surrenders to Dany’s army.
Dany is quite reasonable in the terms of surrender. Jamie must give control of Casterly rock to Tyrion and the Lannister army must fight against the white walkers in the long night. Speaking of which the long night is still coming. It starts with the knight king marching on the wall with his army of the dead ten million fighters strong. Even with all this necro power he still has to get over the wall. Here’s how he does it. He makes the whites stack themselves like an unholy monstrous human pyramid. These bodies climb and stack up the wall until they reach the top. What few men of the nights watch try to stop them from coming up the wall but they can’t stop it as much as they can stop the sun from rising. The night king makes it to the top of the wall then his dead army drops down on the other side sieging into Westeros. They start by attacking castle black and over running the nights watch. The long night has begun and the army of the dead marches against the living.
Our heroes must act quickly. The first thing they do is put Bran on the back of a dragon and fly him to kings landing this way they can put a thousand miles and the armies of the seven kingdoms in between the night king and Bran. Ready to defend Bran is Jon Snow, Arya, Breanne, Dany, the dragons and all of Dany’s forces. Jamie is there two and he has been given the valerian steel sword widows wail to fight with. A sword his son once used and now he will fight with it proudly. As the dead army marches south it arrives at Winterfell. An army of north men attack the dead but it is no use they are forced back behind the walls of Winterfell and the night king continues to march south. The same thing happens as they keep marching. Grand armies stand up to them and grand armies are pushed back. Carving a swath of destruction and that will leave Westeros scarred for eternity. All the way to Kings landing and all the way to Bran. The night king is drawn to him like a moth to a flame.
As the armies of kings landing prepare for battle Bran tells Jon a secret of his past. That Jon is not the son of Ned Stark, his father was a Targaryen and his mother was Ned Stark’s sister, Liana. His real name is Aegon Targaryen the rightful ruler of Westeros. This gives Jon a lot to think about before the long night. Sure enough the night king and the army of the dead lay siege on kings landing. The battle is epic and many lives are lost. Dany attacks and kills large swathes of the army with her dragons but they just keep coming and coming. Many brave warriors lose their lives in this battle. One of the most unfortunate casualties comes when the night king strikes down Vyserion with an ice lance. Dany weeps as the fearsome dragon is struck from the sky. Eventually the dead breach the walls of the city and raid kings landing searching for Bran. The night king is drawn to him and he’ll kill any man who stands in his way.
One of those men is Jamie Lannister. He fights bravely to defend a child that he once pushed out a window and crippled for life. Unfortunately the night king kills the king slayer and adds him to the army of the dead. The night king fights through every living thing in kings landing and eventually makes it to Bran. The wheelchair bound Stark is prepared to defend himself against this threat. The night king grabs him by the throat and tries to absorb his psychic powers into himself. With all of his mental might Bran resists his deadly magic. For a handful of precious minutes these two are locked in a silent battle of spells. To an untrained eye it looks like they just stare at each other intensely but in reality they are trying to get the upper hand on one another. One fight for all the power in the world. Bran uses their psychic connection to paralyze the night king.
This gives the brave warriors of kings landing time to slay the frost covered killer. The night king is stabbed by Arya, Breanne, Grey worm, and Jon Snow. When their swords thrust into his body the night king shatters into pieces. With him gone a chain reaction occurs and every dead soldier falls to the ground no longer a threat. The army of the dead has been defeated. But it came at a great price. It turns out that stunt Bran pulled to paralyze the night king cost him his life. When the night king died Bran died as well. When the dust settles and the living rise up to rebuild they have many people to mourn the passing of. All seven kingdoms must now work together to rebuild after the long night.
Among this period of spiritual rebirth some seeds of revolution are planted as well. Jon confesses to Arya to last piece of knowledge Bran told him. That Jon is a Targaryen and the rightful ruler of Westeros. As secret this big is too much for Jon to carry alone. Eventually Arya tells Sansa and Sansa tells Varys and the secret is no longer secret. It’s turned into information. Whispers echo through the seven kingdoms. Saying that Dany is a false queen and Jon should be on the iron throne. This narrative is very pleasing to the ears of the smallfolk and the noblemen alike. The entire north love John and he has a few supporters in the south. Also among some of the nobles inherent sexism takes place as some people just don’t want a woman sitting on the throne and they want a man instead.
Through all of these whispers a revolutionary coalition is formed. A campaign to dethrone Dany and put Jon on the throne. Dany hears these whispers and confronts Jon about them. He tells her the truth that he is a Targaryen and is the one who belongs on that throne. He has no affiliation with the coalition and doesn’t want Daenerys to be dethroned. Even though Jon Doesn’t want the throne the people want him to have it anyway. Soon some random acts of violence occur throughout kings landing under the banner of revolution. These forces won’t stop until Jon is on the throne. Dany issues an order to end the violence and keep her throne. She issues an order to kill Jon Snow. Jon escapes Kings landing with the help of an unlikely ally. Drogon comes to Jon’s aid and flies him away from the city up north. The wise scaly beast has taken a liking to Jon and in this moment he betrays the woman who raised him to assist the man.
When Jon flies back to Winterfell and brings news of what transpired the north is furious. They won’t take an attempted assassination on the rightful king lying down. They openly revolt against Daenerys and her rule. Arya won’t take such a thing lying down either. When she hears what happened she travels to kings landing in secret to kill the queen herself. First she sneaks into the city and ambushes Grey worm. She ambushes the poor man and takes his face. So Arya can walk around the city undetected and get close to the queen. She bides her time waiting for the right moment to strike.
Jon spends weeks trying to stop the open rebellion against Dany. He does everything short of killing random people. But eventually rebellious forces move on the south and revolt against the queen. Jon Flies Drogon down with them but violence ensues despite his best efforts. Jon gets there just in time to see Arya make her move against the woman who tried to kill him. Wearing Grey worms face Arya gets close to Daenerys and slits her throat. In her eyes she saved Jon’s life and now he can take the throne like everyone wanted. Unfortunately one of the queen’s most loyal supporters the large dragon Reaghal swoops in and kills the girl that killed his mom. The dragon eats Arya just before Jon can intervene.
In a fit of frustrated mourning Drogon flies in and attacks Reaghal. Drogon kills his brother for killing Arya. With all the killing that took place in this short period of time Jon is stunned into sadness. The bells ring out in the city and the violence stops. Kings landing I told that Daenerys has been killed and they all know that the only person in the land that can take the throne now is Jon Snow. Every person in the city bows to him as they rush to declare him the new king. Jon can barely comprehend what happened today and what the people expect of him. He is disgusted by everything that happened today and recently. He didn’t want Dany to die or Arya or Reaghal. He loved them all but now they’re all gone. When the people want him to take the throne he can’t even stand to look at it. He orders Drogon to burn the throne down in to the shock of the people of kings landing. Once the Iron throne is only a puddle of hot goo Jon addresses the people. “There will be no more Iron throne! The seven kingdoms will be just that, seven independent kingdoms. If I ever hold anymore thrones it will not be this one and I will not be on this day.” That’s the last thing he tells the people before he flies away on the back of Drogon.
The people learn to govern themselves in the absence of a king. They rebuild and achieve great things. Nobody ever really sees Jon again. Every once in a while they hear a story of a man coming down from the skies on the back of a dragon. People just whisper stories of seeing him or his dire wolf Ghost or they see Drogon flying through the sky. Some say he only comes down from the skies to help solve the problems of the smallfolk or to resolve conflict. He fades into legend ruling the land on his winged throne. The Man of Ice and Fire they would call him and if they ever write a song about him it would be a Song of Ice and Fire.
Well there you have it here’s an outline for how I think game of thrones should have ended. I have to admit this outline really got away from me. As I just kept thinking and thinking about what I should or shouldn’t write it got more and more complicated. I guess now in a way I’ve been through want the showrunners have been through trying to wrap up this series. I don’t know if I did the best job at it because I think my version would have taken up a lot more screen time and would have cost a whole lot more money. Now the real way this franchise could be redeemed is with the prequel series that is in the works with HBO. I’m really excited for that. I hope they don’t let D and D touch it. I think they have a really good set up for a series like this. The other way to gain some redemption is when George RR Martin releases the sixth and seventh books in the series. A lot of fans have made theories as to why he hasn’t released the sixth book yet. Some people think he’s not writing enough. I think the opposite is true and he’s writing too much. That man can write glorified bricks. So I can safely say that whatever he’s going to publish next is going to be over twelve hundred pages long. So all I can do is a imagine a situation where he just keeps writing and writing then he gives just stacks of pages to his editor or a team of editors. Then the editors have to filter everything based on criteria like continuity and logic within the bigger story. While that goes on George just keeps writing and writing more stuff that he wants to put in the book and all that stuff just piles up. Creating this gargantuan monster of a story and in turn a giant monster of a book. That’s just my theory anyway. What do you guys think? Will the last two books be great redeeming masterpieces or will we never even get a chance to read them?
The Legend of Korra: What went wrong?
As most of you know I’m a big fan of Avatar: The Last Airbender. I was really excited when I heard they were making a sequel series called the Legend of Korra. Unfortunately the sequel series didn’t live up to some fans expectations and didn’t get the same critical praise that the first show got. So with the series long wrapped up let’s ask ourselves what went wrong. How could a show that tackled such complex topics such as racism, communism, police brutality, the societal repercussions of advancing technology, religious extremism, civil war, war profiteering, propaganda, anarchism, monarchy, fascism, and PTSD possibly miss the mark this badly. There are little things that happened that I could just pass off as the root of the problem like Nickelodeon cutting their budget, or not having enough episodes to flush out their stories or being generally disrespected by their network. But I think the problem goes deeper than that.
I think it’s this the Legend of Korra punishes the fans of the first show for liking the first show. It all started in the first season. The villain Amon uses a technique to take away a person’s bending. A technique that the audience had seen in the previous show by Aang in the final episode of the series. He used it for good and to save the world but Amon used it for evil. It was twisted for nefarious purposes. The first time I watched Amon use it on the show I was devastated that something so sacred could turn into something evil. The audience was being punished for connecting to that technique from the original show. The next part of this comes in season three. The next thing that gets inverted is the nation of Airbenders.
Going back to the original show we actually learned very little about the air nomads. We were told that they were a nation of monks who loved meditation, spirituality and pacifism. They had vegetarian diets and great senses of humor. Their genocide was a tragedy but we learned about them through Aang. What little we learned we could deduce that the air nomads where nice people. Fast forward to season three of Legend of Korra and we are introduced to Zaheer. A villain who was given the power of air bending and he was well versed in the philosophy of the air nomads. This villain takes the philosophy and goes off the edges with it. He turned the Airbender philosophy of freedom and turned it into anarchy. He imposed this anarchy onto the world by assassinating world leaders and trying to kill Korra. Everything the audience loved about the airbenders and subsequently about Aang was twisted by this villain and turned rotten. Once again the show is punishing the audience for liking what happened in the original show.
My last piece of evidence is the biggest. It has to do with something that Niche would call the death of god. On the original show Aang traveled all over the world. Almost everywhere he went he could tell people that he was the avatar and people would love him. They would respect his authority and help him in any way they could. Even though they hadn’t seen the avatar in over 100 years they loved him and he gave people hope. Needless to say the audience parroted this sentiment and favored the avatar. Knowing the avatar is a special savior whose authority is respected. Now all throughout the legend of Korra this belief in the avatar is slowly eroded away. With every villain Korra faces her authority as the avatar is dwindled slowly but surely. Amon came in the beginning and convinced a large portion of the population that benders are evil and the avatar is the ultimate evil. When President Reiko takes power in republic city he doesn’t do anything to help Korra at all. He doesn’t recognize her authority. Unaloc tries to replace her and turn himself into the dark avatar. This true death of god metaphor is ilustated when Unavaatu tears down that giant statue of Aang in the bay of republic city. When the spirit vines take over republic city the entire city blames the avatar and her approval ratings go down to single digits. At this point the entire city hates her and Rieko kicks her out. Later on the earth queen puts a bounty on her head just for doing the right thing. Essentially the entire earth kingdom hates her.
When she goes away for three years the world essentially moves on from her. The average world citizen doesn’t think the world needs the avatar and Kuvira convinced all of her followers of the same. So watching this series is like slowly watching the god and savior of the fandom die. Even Korras duties to the world fade away. The avatar is supposed to be the bridge between the physical world and the spirit world but when she opened the spirit portals she doesn’t need to bridge them anymore. She combined them into one world. The avatar is supposed to have connections to their previous incarnations to access the wisdom of the past. But when she went through harmonic convergence she lost her connections to her previous lives. She’s supposed to be able to bend all the elements but by the end of the series the military has mech suits that can spit out fire and lightning bolts. It starts to become possible that even non benders can gain the powers of the avatar using enough of their advanced technology. By the end of the whole thing the audience could question what being the avatar even means. With all this it does kind of alienate the audience that fell in love with the last Airbender and maybe it had a hard time gaining a new audience at the same time. But what do you guys think? Is the legend of Korra a misunderstood masterpiece or did it fail to live up to the expectations of the last Airbender?
I think it’s this the Legend of Korra punishes the fans of the first show for liking the first show. It all started in the first season. The villain Amon uses a technique to take away a person’s bending. A technique that the audience had seen in the previous show by Aang in the final episode of the series. He used it for good and to save the world but Amon used it for evil. It was twisted for nefarious purposes. The first time I watched Amon use it on the show I was devastated that something so sacred could turn into something evil. The audience was being punished for connecting to that technique from the original show. The next part of this comes in season three. The next thing that gets inverted is the nation of Airbenders.
Going back to the original show we actually learned very little about the air nomads. We were told that they were a nation of monks who loved meditation, spirituality and pacifism. They had vegetarian diets and great senses of humor. Their genocide was a tragedy but we learned about them through Aang. What little we learned we could deduce that the air nomads where nice people. Fast forward to season three of Legend of Korra and we are introduced to Zaheer. A villain who was given the power of air bending and he was well versed in the philosophy of the air nomads. This villain takes the philosophy and goes off the edges with it. He turned the Airbender philosophy of freedom and turned it into anarchy. He imposed this anarchy onto the world by assassinating world leaders and trying to kill Korra. Everything the audience loved about the airbenders and subsequently about Aang was twisted by this villain and turned rotten. Once again the show is punishing the audience for liking what happened in the original show.
My last piece of evidence is the biggest. It has to do with something that Niche would call the death of god. On the original show Aang traveled all over the world. Almost everywhere he went he could tell people that he was the avatar and people would love him. They would respect his authority and help him in any way they could. Even though they hadn’t seen the avatar in over 100 years they loved him and he gave people hope. Needless to say the audience parroted this sentiment and favored the avatar. Knowing the avatar is a special savior whose authority is respected. Now all throughout the legend of Korra this belief in the avatar is slowly eroded away. With every villain Korra faces her authority as the avatar is dwindled slowly but surely. Amon came in the beginning and convinced a large portion of the population that benders are evil and the avatar is the ultimate evil. When President Reiko takes power in republic city he doesn’t do anything to help Korra at all. He doesn’t recognize her authority. Unaloc tries to replace her and turn himself into the dark avatar. This true death of god metaphor is ilustated when Unavaatu tears down that giant statue of Aang in the bay of republic city. When the spirit vines take over republic city the entire city blames the avatar and her approval ratings go down to single digits. At this point the entire city hates her and Rieko kicks her out. Later on the earth queen puts a bounty on her head just for doing the right thing. Essentially the entire earth kingdom hates her.
When she goes away for three years the world essentially moves on from her. The average world citizen doesn’t think the world needs the avatar and Kuvira convinced all of her followers of the same. So watching this series is like slowly watching the god and savior of the fandom die. Even Korras duties to the world fade away. The avatar is supposed to be the bridge between the physical world and the spirit world but when she opened the spirit portals she doesn’t need to bridge them anymore. She combined them into one world. The avatar is supposed to have connections to their previous incarnations to access the wisdom of the past. But when she went through harmonic convergence she lost her connections to her previous lives. She’s supposed to be able to bend all the elements but by the end of the series the military has mech suits that can spit out fire and lightning bolts. It starts to become possible that even non benders can gain the powers of the avatar using enough of their advanced technology. By the end of the whole thing the audience could question what being the avatar even means. With all this it does kind of alienate the audience that fell in love with the last Airbender and maybe it had a hard time gaining a new audience at the same time. But what do you guys think? Is the legend of Korra a misunderstood masterpiece or did it fail to live up to the expectations of the last Airbender?
My Story of a Professional Boondoggle
This post is about a movie called Run Hide Fight. This movie is controversial in a million different ways and unfortunately it tangentially involves me. The plot and premise of this film is very simple. It’s basically die hard in a school. Shooters attack a small town American high school and it’s up to one heroic student named Zoe to stop them and save the day. Seems pretty simple enough. A movie like that can be controversial for its dramatization of school shootings. A real life tragedy that has happened quite a lot in America. With all that in mind I’ve watched the movie so you don’t have to so review it. This movie was very hard to watch. Not only because I pirated it but because the violence in the movie is very graphic so it’s not something to watch with the kids. It’s hard to watch in the same way that Schindler’s list or American history X are hard to watch. Unlike those movies Run Hide Fight is not good. It spends most of its run time seesawing from graphic violence to cringey edge lord humor that makes the whole thing more awkward then it needs to be. There are four students in this story that do all the shooting and play the part of the villains. They consist of a big dude with a shaved head who exhibits symptoms of schizophrenia, a suicide girl who dresses like she robbed a hot topic and puts on flawless make up for committing acts of terrorism, a dorky kid with frizzy hair who admits he’s been bullied and that’s his reason for shooting everyone, and their fearless leader who is a teenage copy and paste of the joker and wants to shoot everybody so he can get likes on social media. Now the hero of our story Zoe is actually a pretty decent character. The only problem I have with her is that she constantly talks to hallucinations of her mother who died from cancer. Mourning a loved one is a serious thing but this movie acts like the fact that this girl is going through the mourning process makes her emotionally dead inside and that somehow this gives her the emotional fortitude that she needs to kill the bad teenagers that are shooting up her school. Personally there are times when I can’t stop laughing about how dumb and awkward this movie is but I don’t think most people who watch this will laugh as much as me.
Now that we’ve talked about that there is even more controversy surrounding this movie. Mostly focusing on its production and release. It was make by a company in Dallas Texas called Cinestate it focuses mostly on making right wing or conservative movies targeted at right wing audiences. The company faced accusations of abusing its employees with long hours and hazardous work environments. This movie’s production also saw some cases of animal cruelty and one of the co-producers of this film named Adam Donaghey was arrested in April 2020 for the sexual assault of an underage girl. So there’s not a lot to be happy about here. Critics absolutely hate this movie. It has bad scores on rotten tomatoes and Meta critic. It premiered at an Italian film festival in 2020 after its film festival run it didn’t get picked up by major distributors. That is until earlier this year it got a deal to be distributed by a site called the Daily Wire. For those of you who don’t know the Daily Wire is a conservative propaganda site founded and run by a Mr. Ben Shapiro. They’ve promoted this film as a conservative right right wing movie for conservative right wing Americans. Now personally I believe the daily wire and Mr. Shapiro are a danger to society but I don’t think this movie is a danger to society. I also don’t really believe this movie fits in well with the right wing conservative media agenda.
So where do I fit in with all of this? I have met the man who wrote and directed this movie and I’m currently friends with him on facebook. His name is Kyle Rankin and I actually worked for the guy for a brief moment on his previous film called the Witch Files. A really great watch if you like found footage movies and magic. So I’m not sure how exactly how to feel about this. Maybe the film industry makes strange allies of the most unlikely of people. Maybe I don’t know Kyle as well as I thought and he is just more than happy to make crap and be a fertilizer salesman. So who knows maybe Kyle Rankin and Ben Shapiro would disagree on a lot of things or maybe I and Kyle Rankin would disagree on more things. Truth be told I’m kind of pissed off. I hate Shapiro’s guts and now on a professional level I’m one degree away from him. Woe is me, woe is me. If some resolution to this ever dawns on me I’ll tell you guys about it. Just know that this situation is messy and life is messy as well. I’m not done talking about this and sometime soon I’ll post part two of this professional snafu and maybe I’ll find some more answers.
Thanks guys
Now that we’ve talked about that there is even more controversy surrounding this movie. Mostly focusing on its production and release. It was make by a company in Dallas Texas called Cinestate it focuses mostly on making right wing or conservative movies targeted at right wing audiences. The company faced accusations of abusing its employees with long hours and hazardous work environments. This movie’s production also saw some cases of animal cruelty and one of the co-producers of this film named Adam Donaghey was arrested in April 2020 for the sexual assault of an underage girl. So there’s not a lot to be happy about here. Critics absolutely hate this movie. It has bad scores on rotten tomatoes and Meta critic. It premiered at an Italian film festival in 2020 after its film festival run it didn’t get picked up by major distributors. That is until earlier this year it got a deal to be distributed by a site called the Daily Wire. For those of you who don’t know the Daily Wire is a conservative propaganda site founded and run by a Mr. Ben Shapiro. They’ve promoted this film as a conservative right right wing movie for conservative right wing Americans. Now personally I believe the daily wire and Mr. Shapiro are a danger to society but I don’t think this movie is a danger to society. I also don’t really believe this movie fits in well with the right wing conservative media agenda.
So where do I fit in with all of this? I have met the man who wrote and directed this movie and I’m currently friends with him on facebook. His name is Kyle Rankin and I actually worked for the guy for a brief moment on his previous film called the Witch Files. A really great watch if you like found footage movies and magic. So I’m not sure how exactly how to feel about this. Maybe the film industry makes strange allies of the most unlikely of people. Maybe I don’t know Kyle as well as I thought and he is just more than happy to make crap and be a fertilizer salesman. So who knows maybe Kyle Rankin and Ben Shapiro would disagree on a lot of things or maybe I and Kyle Rankin would disagree on more things. Truth be told I’m kind of pissed off. I hate Shapiro’s guts and now on a professional level I’m one degree away from him. Woe is me, woe is me. If some resolution to this ever dawns on me I’ll tell you guys about it. Just know that this situation is messy and life is messy as well. I’m not done talking about this and sometime soon I’ll post part two of this professional snafu and maybe I’ll find some more answers.
Thanks guys
