Fantastical Musings

I don't think it's controversial to say that season 8 of Game of Thrones has been divisive.  There are a lot of scenes and episodes that many people take issue with, often for legitimate reasons. In fact, this is so much the case that there is currently a petition on Change.org with a million signers asking HBO to re-do season 8 . I myself am deeply disappointed in the direction season 8 has taken, especially episode 5 ("The Bells"). I'm not going to re-hash why I feel this way because I think a lot of people have had their say about this, and I'm probably not going to add much. If you want to know why I feel this way, you can read my review of season 8 episode 5. The fact is that the writers have ruined the ending of the Game of Thrones TV show. Okay. So, what now? Although the final episode redeemed some of the missteps made earlier in season 8, in many ways the show came to a deeply unsatisfying conclusion that left a lot of people feeling that the ...

I have never been truly disappointed by an episode of Game of Thrones before, but boy am I disappointed now. Actually, frustrated is a better word. It's as if the showrunners have been watching a completely different show all this time; what's been happening in season 8 has convinced me that they don't understand their own show at all, or--even worse--they don't care about it anymore. A quick disclaimer before we start: I know some people like this season. I know some people are happy with how this is working out. This is no shade to you. Your opinions are valid, and I respect them. Frankly, I wish I could enjoy this season too. I've defended this show for YEARS, even when they made big plot bumbles (in my opinion). I've defended other episodes in this season because I thought we were building to something that would be satisfying. Now, I'm beginning to regret that. I never thought I'd say this, but I'm glad the show will be over next week. I'...

I'm not quite sure how I feel about this episode of Game of Thrones. On the surface, there's nothing wrong with it. We're back to the political drama which characterized the earlier seasons of the show, and I'm happy about that. I always enjoyed the political intrigue and plots more than the dragons and ice zombies. However, to me,  this wasn't a very memorable episode. I enjoyed it while I was watching it, but it didn't leave me burning with anticipation of the next episode. I'm guessing that the last three episodes are going to represent A Dream of Spring , the forthcoming last book of the ASOIAF series. So, episode four was probably designed to set up the conflicts for the second half of the season. In this episode, the showrunners are moving all the pieces into place before the action kicks off again. But, viewed as a single episode, it's a bit uninteresting. Plus, as others have pointed out, there are some frustrating and disappointing moments i...

What do we say to the god of death? NOT TODAY! Guys, that episode absolutely destroyed me! I was a nervous wreck the whole time! I was literally shaking when it was over. But, seriously, it made me horribly anxious. About half way through, I checked the time stamp, and I was like "I still have 45 minutes of this! I'm not going to make it! It's too intense." At that point, I actually wanted to stop watching because it was too much, but, by the same token, I had to keep watching. Usually, I watch each episode several times, but I don't think I'm going to be able to watch that again! Once was enough of a heart attack. Typically, I try to go through the events in each episode in chronological order, but I'm not even going to try to do that this week. I'm too overwhelmed by what happened to try. Now, as much as I was shocked and overwhelmed by this episode (in a good way), and, as much as I appreciated it, I do have some nitpicks that I want to ge...

The title of this episode should have been "sitting around the campfire singing Kumbaya." All kidding aside, I loved this episode. I loved all the emotional moments and seeing all my favorite characters (probably for the last time). However, let's be real, nothing really happened here. As I was watching, I kept checking the time left in the episode, like "okay, I'm ready to get back to the plot now!" In another season, I would have loved seeing this episode. However, we only have four episodes left and one of them is going to be entirely the Battle of Winterfell.  That means we only have three episodes left to wrap up this huge plot! Keeping it real, we don't have time to be sitting around talking about the good ole' days. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the episode, but I worry that we're going to have to rush to wrap up the rest of the season because of it. Anyway, I'm going to move past that concern and dive into the review. Fi...

Game of Thrones is back, all right! (Kudos to you if you got that very early 2000s reference). Like everyone else in the English speaking world, I was beside myself waiting for season 8 to air. I almost can't believe it's happening! I feel like I have to keep pinching myself. As I was watching episode 1, I kept thinking "this is the last GOT premiere ever! How is this real?" I thought this episode was a good way to start off the season. True, we didn't get any big surprises or dramatic battle scenes, but this episode did a good job of setting up the stakes and conflicts for this season. Plus, we got to see some great reunions between our favorite characters. The episode opens with callback to season one. We see a nameless little boy running to see the Dragon Queen and the King in the North arriving in Winterfell. I have to admit that when I first saw this little boy, I expected there to be a horde of wights behind him. I was imagining him getting killed in s...