Anyone else finally getting sick of the unrelenting grimdarkness of GoT?

[Worgen]

We have gotten news that things will change a lot in the new season.

Spoiler

a new character will emerge and take the throne for herself

Spoiler

If you pay any attention to my posts then you knew this was coming.

 

[thewatergamer]

Yup, the show has always suffered from what I've christened, "EVERYTHING IS TERRIBLE" syndrome, where nothing good hardly ever happens to the point where the audience just starts to get desensitized to all the grim darkness of the show

 

[Yuuki]

I'm more annoyed by the ridiculous number of concurrent plot lines. We get to see maybe 5-10 mins of WTF is going on with all the characters and then the episode is over. I honestly fear whether the series will manage to tie-up all the plot lines, and how it will do it.

 

[The Lunatic]

I've never really been the sensitive type, so, some of the things that people complain about have never much bothered me.

However, the slowness of the series is getting a bit grating.

A lot of episodes just feel like "Well, nothing happened besides those 2 minutes at the end".

 

[Zhukov]

I honestly don't find it all that grimdark. Or even just plain dark really.

No, at this point it's firmly entrenched in the realm of comedy. Or more precisely, the realm of bad parody as written by a crew of edgy highschoolers.

The show's all, "Sansa's being raped. RAPED I tell you! And Theon is being MADE TO WATCH! Look at his tears of shame and humiliation!" And I'm just chuckling and going, "Oh, you!"

Don't even get me started on Dorne and the antics of De Bad Pussy Brigade. Non-stop hilarity.

 

[Sexual Harassment Panda]

No, not really. I still enjoy the show just fine. I didn't read the books, so I have no pre-conceived notions of what should be what anyway. There is only the ride as it happens, and I'm staying on it for now.

I can relate to feeling that way elsewhere though. I didn't finish the Tomb Raider reboot, I got burned out. I can stay on track with bleak, but I at least need some visual breaks. GoT will give you some beautiful country-side to look at, and the The-Last-of-Us manages to be bleak and do the same too... Give me some bloody colour once in a while.

 

[K12]

There needs to be balance between the grim bits and funny/ heartwarming/ lighter parts.

The problem is that the lighter parts are less likely to be advancing the plot and with the cluttered plotlines they just don't have the time for it. Based on the last 4 episodes the show seems keen to just murder every minor character that they don't have time to develop so... we'll see.

The show has also over-exaggerated several darker parts of the story which I don't think was a good idea, it's just made the "bad guys" less identifiable rather than making the "good guys" more . Stannis/ the Sparrows and Ramsay Bolton are way more evil and less nuanced than in the book (Ramsay isn't actually nuanced in the book but he's far less gleefully in his sadism)

 

[briankoontz]

If you wanted frolicking unicorns then you got the wrong show, this show is about some dark messed up shit, if dark messed up shit isn't for you then try something else.
I'm really not sure how people keep missing that feature of freely choosing ones entertainment, or maybe you are held captive and forced to watch GoT? Well then you need to find some way to escape first, that is a most pressing matter.

It's not as simple as you're indicating. Once something becomes popular enough, it pervades the culture and can't be avoided, and then as a matter of cultural intelligence one *needs* to watch the source material to understand the culture itself (ones friends, family, and acquaintances). Most people in recent years, especially young people, who have watched Star Wars did so because it's a big part of popular culture, not because of the "quality of the movies".

Despite frequent criticism of this sort, it's perfectly reasonable to want some aspect of media to become less popular, so that one can spend time doing something more to their liking than examining as aspect of culture they feel isn't worthy of that culture.

This idealistic vision of media consumption as "it's just about pleasure" isn't reflective of the real world.

Most people who read Mein Kampf don't do so out of admiration for fascism, but because fascism is culturally and historically important. If fascism never existed, they could spend their time doing something more pleasurable than reading Mein Kampf.

In short, it's fine to watch a show for reasons of cultural intelligence while at the same time not enjoying the show and wanting the show to become less popular.

"If you don't like the show, stop watching" is ignorant of this.

 

[WolfThomas]

It is just bad TV mate.

Join the glorious Book Elitists race and ignore the TV show.

*I am actually somewhat serious. The books are obviously better than the show.

At this point I'm pretty disillusioned by both. The first 3 books are really great and were released quite close together. AFFC and ADWD aren't bad, but they're pretty lacklustre for the amount of time we had to wait. And I can't see things wrapping up quickly or soon.

For me now the best of ASOIAF is the Hedge Knight books. Perfect enclosed stories. More light-hearted yet crushingly realistic at times. I'm more excited for the next one of those than anything else.

As for the show. My enjoyment has ebbed from high in the first season to basically breaking in the last. The worse thing is that it seems rather haphazard. ASOIAF in it's entirety is impossible to film. I feel they should have started trimming plotlines much earlier and focused on adapting what remained as faithfully as they could.

Did we need any of the Dorne crap last season? All they needed was a single scene of Doran Martell revealing that he has in fact been waiting for years until a Targaryan can return and now with his brother's death they'll act to bring Daenarys back sooner, with Ellaria Sand substituting for Arianne. That way Oberyn's death has meaning and we trim the rest of the crap.

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

Its called Dark Fantasy. Of course its going to be grim. And I love every minute of it.

If you want a more lighter mood in your fantasy taste that the Warcraft mabye for you. But then again Warcraft 3 had plenty of Dark Moments I mean fuckin Arthas and the Lich King.

Agreed. Its like saying Grand Theft Auto is a bad game because the main characters aren't the nicest chaps. Its a game named after a felony crime, what did you expect?

GoT its a good change of pace from the endless amount of Tolkein-lite fantasy that TV has now.

 

[Wintermute_v1legacy]

Not really. It wasn't the excessive violence of the show that turned me away from it. In fact, I thought it was kind of cool. I stopped watching the show simply because it felt like it was going nowhere.

 

[Orga777]

I still stand by the fact that Season 1-4 is freaking fantastic storytelling for a television show. Maybe not as rich or good as the books, but as its own contained universe, it took what was good about the books, and delivered a quality story experience for the small screen that was an amazing adaptation.

Gonna complain a lot, so SPOILERS AHEAD!
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Season 5 and the beginning of season 6 have been ATROCIOUS in comparison. Seriously. These storylines are just terrible right now. Dorne being the worst one of all. There has been nothing but a complete and total character assassination being done to many characters at this point. From all of Dorne, to Stannis, to Jaime, and on and on and on... So much garbage is dragging this series down now that it is all a waste of time. If it wasn't for all the action at The Wall, the intrigue with Bran's flashbacks, or how hilarious Varys and Tyrion are together, there would be pretty much NOTHING interesting or worth watching right now at all to even bother with the show.

Daenery's is so far removed from the plot now that she is back to where she started in the beginning. What a waste of time THAT is... just waiting for the Wonder Duo to find her so this plotline can get back on freaking track, because, it really adds nothing right now. Then we have Arya. Talk about padding. The last three episodes were so pointless and a waste of time. She is also completely removed from the plot right now as well, except they REALLy like padding out her story that adds nothing to the plot what so ever. They spend two episodes of her getting beat up before going back to the House of Black and White... could of just did all that in one freaking episode. Don't get me started on Winterfell! My god, why the hell did the show give Ramsay so much attention? He is the most stock and boring character in the entire show. At least Joffery had some personality with his awful cruelty. Ramsay doesn't. He is just a cardboard cut out monster that has no real agency. The show is spending way too much time on his dreadful character that he doesn't deserve. He gets more screen time right now this season than any other god-damn character so far. Heck, he had more screen time than everyone not named Tyrion, Daenerys, or Jon Snow LAST season. WHY?? He is boring as hell! At this point it is just a roll of the eyes any time he does something evil. The show just has him around at this point for "shock" value. He serves no other purpose. Speaking of shock deaths for the sake of shock deaths, it is clear that D&D are trying really hard to make everything like the Red Wedding by saying "oh, this is worse than the Red Wedding!1!1!!!1" every damn season, without realizing WHY the Red Wedding worked as a shocking moment that people give a god damn about and were surprised about. Do they not know how to write? Do they fail to understand why that scene and Ned Stark's death worked so well? Are they that oblivious? They need Martin there to hold their hand obviously, because they just seem to think shocking for the sake of shocking is all that it takes to get people to care, when that is the farthest from the truth.

Also, Tyrion in Mereen... YAWN. If it wasn't for Peter Dinklage, there is nothing of value here. He is with characters that he can't play off of, and now he is reduced to just spouting one liners now. Yes, he was always sarcastic, but without his family or Bronn to work off of, he is lost. Heck, even Jorah had good moments with Tyrion last season that worked well character wise. Being stuck with these boring people he can't work off of is completely awkward. If it wasn't for Varys there would be no value here. Heck, Varys is doing more than Tyrion right now. He isn't as muted and is actually trying to move the plot forward.

I could go on, but it will go on too long. I am extremely disappointed with the last two seasons. The writing took a nose dive. I don't know if that has to do with them running out of book material, GRRM leaving all parts of the show, or the lack of writing skill of D&D. It is probably a combination of all of the above, really. The only reason I am watching at all now is for completion sake and the hope that when all this FAT (which is at least half of these dumb plot lines right now) is trimmed away, the show will be able to breath and flourish again.

 

[Politrukk]

They've been pandering to the popular characters and just cutting away all the deadwood instead of actually wrapping up their storylines.

"how do we have a greyjoy storyline with the old bugger still there in the series? well we kill him".
"Oh right Osha and Rickon they exist, just kill them to cut the storyline"

Stannis and our lovely knight who was with Daenerys are also prime examples of this.

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

Its called Dark Fantasy. Of course its going to be grim. And I love every minute of it.

If you want a more lighter mood in your fantasy taste that the Warcraft mabye for you. But then again Warcraft 3 had plenty of Dark Moments I mean fuckin Arthas and the Lich King.

GoT its a good change of pace from the endless amount of Tolkein-lite fantasy that TV has now.

Examples?

 

[DrownedAmmet]

I don't mind the grimdark, the problem I have is that things that happened lately in the show are far less interesting than what happened in the books, which is saying something since the books went downhill in books 4 and 5.

Spoiler: Spoilers for said books...

Stannis killing his daughter and marching headfirst into certain defeat was just dumb and boring, but in the books he puts together an actual fucking siege of Winterfell
Brienne and Pod running into Lady Stoneheart was far more interesting than her getting to kill Stannis and rescue Sansa.
Sansa actually starts to "play the game" while still under Creepy Baelish's thumb
Myrcella gets named heir to the throne by Dorne in the books, instead of her just being killed off
Davos looking for Rickon Stark instead of chilling with popsicle Jon Snow for no reason

It actually makes me look a little more fondly on those last two books...

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

Just saw the recent episode.

Now this was more like it. Much better then the last one.

Now I just wonder how this will all end.

 

[FirstNameLastName]

Just saw the recent episode.

Now this was more like it. Much better then the last one.

Now I just wonder how this will all end.

Agreed. I feel this episode was a significant improvement over the previous ones, since it finally seems like something is happening.

For a moment there I was seriously afraid Daenerys would attempt to escape from Vaes Dothrak with Jorah and get caught, only to spend even more time having to come up with some other plan. I'm glad to see she's finally back on track again, and will hopefully begin leaving Essos now.

It's also nice to see that the Lanisters/Tyrells, Jon Snow, and Petyr Baelish all seem to be mustering their respective armies at the moment. It seems the plot should hopefully be picking up the pace a bit now. Although, as nice as it is to see Jon and Sansa together now, I'm a little concerned about Jon's desire to head south. I'm not we still need some characters to remain at the wall to interact with the White Walkers, so if Jon is leaving I'm a little worried that might mean we'll be waiting even longer to get more of them.

On the more negative side, while some of the writing was great (I especially liked the business with the slavers, it was an interesting conflict), I feel like some other parts were either cliche or predictable. I really didn't believe for a second that Osha would be able to penetrate Ramsey's plot armor, and so I was just waiting for him to either catch her in the act or for her to fail somehow.
Likewise, the scene with Daenerys at the end, while still a nice way to end the episode, was extremely cliche.

Still, it feels like this episode went a long way towards recreating the feeling of the first few seasons, where it felt like important events were right around the corner and things were progressing towards some kind of point.

 

[balladbird]

What amazes me the most about this week's episode is that, in a post "cinema sins" world, they seriously gave Ramsay Bolton an "eat this apple, it'll make you look like even more of an asshole" scene.

 

[Fappy]

Ramsay is currently the worst part of the show (second to Dorne, maybe). Talk about a flawless, uninteresting Gary Stu villain, holy shit. He might have more characterization than the Mountain did, but at least Gregor technically lost to a superior warrior in the end and was proven to be no more human than everyone else (he would have died without the maester's help).

Ramsey, however, has become the most predictable and boring aspect of the show. If I wasn't watching this show with my roommates I would probably just fastforward through all his scenes. "Oh, he has that grin on his face. He probably used his superhuman insight to know that the person he is talking to is hiding something from him/lying/whatever. Oh, he killed them effortlessly. Moving on."

I felt nothing when he killed Osha in the last episode. We hadn't seen her in so long that I barely even remembered her and now you want me to feel bad that Ramsey 'Plot Armor' Snow added her to his kill count? Sorry, but no thanks.

The sad part is that I am not even going to feel any catharsis about his death (which I am sure the show runners are hoping for). I will just feel relieved that the show has one less shitty blackhole in the plot.