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Black mirror striking vipers review (spoilers)

The new season of black mirror has arrived; after the innovative experience that was Bandersnatch Black Mirror is back to straight TV, the show comes with the promise of more brilliant commentaries on the dangers of modern technology. This season has gone down to an episode count of three, I presume so they can focus the budget to make these three episodes of the highest quality, that’s fine by me, TV shows have been known to suffer for being drawn out with episode after episode, quality over quantity is preferred especially in a show such as black mirror. Striking Vipers revolves around modern dating, taking it to a new level with the cheeky addition of pesky technology which makes things go too far. At the start we meet young couple Danny (Anthony Mackie) and Theo (Nikki Behari) who are enjoying their time together with little responsibility and only affection and lust for one another, yet the episode cuts to the future where Danny and Theo now have a child, we learn how life is very different for them as proper adults working, married and with the responsibility of parenting. I liked how the show made Danny seem a little burned out with the whole facade of his birthday party, the other blokes bored him, he had turned 40 and his life in general although not bad seems to be lacking any kind of real excitement, it was cool to see Anthony Mackie play this character as well, before I had only seen him as Falcon from the marvel cinematic universe who is a cocky and charismatic character, but in Striking Vipers he’s a drained adult looking for a bit of escapism, I like the variety we see in his performance. We meet his best friend Karl (Yahya Abdul Mateen II) who tells Danny of the thrills of modern dating, so we have these two characters in opposite situations, one is in a monogamous marriage whilst the other is floating between sexual partners, yet both are somewhat dissatisfied, the episode was showing the downsides to any sort of relationship, Danny was growing bored whilst we see Karl lacking any kind of deep meaning in his one night stands. So this leads them to playing a VR street fighter game, yet instead of fighting, well they end up having sex. It was a funny and shock twist and also an interesting change of pace for black mirror. This episode never really gets dark but it is a very intriguing episode none the less, Danny’s marriage begins to fall apart as he becomes addicted to the VR game, while his wife tries to power through and hold their marriage together she too begins to feel like she needs excitement. The episode was a great commentary on modern dating, it demonstrated that because this couple rarely shared the truth of their feelings they began to drift apart. The VR game offered Danny and Karl both what they were lacking in real life, Danny needed excitement that his marriage wasn’t giving him, Karl needed real connection over meaningless sex which is why nothing in real life could match it, no girl he met on his dating app or one of the NPCs from the VR game, he had connection with his best friend and the VR game added the means for intimacy. Striking Vipers like San Junipero and Hang The DJ was a different kind of episode, a different kind of pace and all three focused on the theme of dating and relationships, I do feel San Junipero and Hang the DJ were still stronger episodes, I felt attached to the characters much more in those episodes and how they’re relationships would turn out, I was absolutely rooting for them, in Striking Vipers I was interested to see how things would turn out but at the same time I didn’t feel quite the same feelings for what was happening to the characters, however overall this didn’t take much away from the episodes quality, it’s just something I felt it was missing. I found the episode certainly intriguing, it was a realistic take on modern dating whilst also adding that black mirror fantasy with technology taking things further, it wasn’t a fast paced or twist fuelled episode but I didn’t think it needed to be, the characters were understandable, all wanting to escape their seemingly dull reality through excitement, it shows how marriage can oft seem dull and so can polygamy, how people can escape their problems with addiction rather than talking about it, then once Danny and Theo talked over they’re problems they were able to compromise, an entertaining and interesting episode with something to say on modern dating too.  4/5

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2019 Aladdin review

The live action remake of the Disney classic Aladdin has hit cinemas. Disney has been on a mission with taking these beloved cartoon films to live action, now that the movie industry has CGI and greater visual effects than ever before you cannot blame the temptation to reimagine these classics into a new modern version. That doesn’t exactly mean they always should however, here is my review for Aladdin.

The story is still the same and it is just as enjoyable and sweet to watch, we meet Aladdin played by Mena Massoud, he comes across as a cheeky and intelligent young rogue, who does what he needs to survive such as stealing but with a heart of gold truly who cares for others. This kind of devilish sly but charming character is one we see all the time in cinema now, it’s nothing new but Aladdin is still likeable enough in the live action film. The first number has Aladdin and a woman he doesn’t know try to escape the authorities, they sing as they dash through the city, it’s a sequence that’s fun but all the scenes of the chase sort of take away from the songs value and it ends up quite forgettable, this happens a lot throughout the film I found with the songs feeling rushed and sort of fast forwarded, they felt more like interludes throughout the film rather than big moments, there are some which do stand out however which I’ll get to later. Aladdin and the woman escape the guards and begin to bond at his home, they reveal to each other that they both feel trapped in where they are, Aladdin feels his identity is attatched to the name ‘street rat’ which is given to him, whereas the woman who is really Jasmine tells him she feels the same just in the role of a handmaid to the princess, I didn’t find the chemistry between the two particularly captivating, both characters were wrote well enough and they connected over their dreams and problems however I still didn’t feel much while watching the scenes between the two throughout the film. Jasmine like Aladdin is likeable enough, she cares for her people and wishes to help and feels she should rule for their sake, but there is a wall between her and the throne being the tradition of having a male ruler, Jasmine and Aladdin both are dealing with walls to overcome to be where they want. On the other side is Jafar, the films antagonist, who is sick of being number two, all his life he has had to be second to another and like Aladdin he began as nothing, the key difference is Jafar is concerned with only himself, all three of the main characters are interesting and well written characters, the film presents the characters motivations and struggles well, it stays faithful to the story as it should, it’s a timeless classic and so it is still certainly enjoyable to watch. The stand out actor throughout the film was unsurprisingly Will Smith, despite the avalanche of memes about how hilarious the CGI Will Smith looked as the Genie it still was a great take on the genie, I think casting somebody who has a large enough personality as Will Smith does was the best kind of choice, there’s always a certain kind of magic and essence Will Smith will bring to a role, just like the late Robin Williams would who played the cartoon genie from the 1992 animated film, if Disney were to cast somebody to be similar to the genie from the animated movie this would probably be overshadowed by people thinking back to how much better Robin Williams’ performance was, I think it was a perfect to choice to bring a big hitter such as Will Smith to take the role of the genie as he has a very distinct style which cannot be compared to anybody else. My favourite songs from the film was Friend like me, A Whole New World and Speechless, these songs made the film actually seem like it took a pause so we could take in and enjoy the numbers, while others felt like they were sort of just hanging in the background as the action progressed.

The next thing to discuss is the CGI, I think CGI is great and works wonders however I simply cannot get fully behind live action Disney remakes, watching Aladdin, although the films look good for sure and it’s cool to see everything brought into a realistic version, why does it actually need to look realistic? Aladdin the 1992 cartoon movie still looks gorgeous, I think the cartoon visually captures a magic the film just cannot, some scenes do look great, it’s nice to see rich deserts, vibrant city colours and the costumes, but I still feel the cartoon did it better, this is coming from someone who wasn’t even born when the cartoon came out, so by all means the CGI film should actually be more accessible for me, it sort of is, but I still find the cartoon to be more artistic and fantastical to look at then the remake.

So, to sum this up, Aladdin is for sure an entertaining watch, it’s a wonderful story still and always will be, with good characters who are entertaining and well written and it’s fun to watch Will Smith bring a new take at the genie which is his own, however I found that some of the best aspects of what made the classic animation so good were set aside like the stunning visuals and the musical numbers which proved a lot more memorable, this film felt like it set those things aside, it’s not exactly a crime, it’s a reimagining for an audience who today prefer much more stimulation and less subtlety but I feel it loses quite a bit of the magic in doing that.

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Bojack Horseman is a cartoon like no other

So I started this show maybe about two years ago, I went into the Netflix original expecting just another cartoon comedy, I was sure it’d be fun and entertaining, something I could easily chill to and watch for a quick twenty minutes on an evening, well I couldn’t be more wrong, I had little idea that I was actually dropping myself into a complete roller-coaster of emotions.

On the outside Bojack Horseman is a wacky comedy where animals are humanoid, it has bright colours and interesting concepts, but beneath this is a very real and deep commentary on the life of those who are glamorized. The main character being a celebrity horse who is bitter that he is no longer as famous as he was in the 90′s when he was the star of the sitcom ‘Horsin around’, so at first my impression was “ah a show about a horse man probably trying all sorts to get himself back into the limelight” but that’s far from it, Bojack Horseman is not a character to laugh at, he’s very cynical and has a devil may care attitude which makes him entertaining and funny, but not a character you see as silly and humorous, the character comes with a lot of baggage, as you progress through the show you realize this is not just a comedy.

Every character is amusing in their own way, but they’re all very human, yes even all the animals, it all seems so wacky but every character has deep motivations, wants and weight that they carry on their shoulders. This show reveals itself to be a look into the life of people who seem to have it all, Bojack is a celebrity with a very troubled past, he constantly looks to fill the dark void left inside him with pleasure of the moment, be it stardom, drugs, alcohol or newfound friendships that he quickly destroys, you realize just how much you can empathize and relate to his character even if you’re not a mega star like he is, he is opposed by Mr Peanut Butter who is as famous as Bojack and was also in extremely successful sitcoms, yet Mr Peanut Butter is generally happy, it’s great to see them interact with each other as Mr Peanut Butter assumes everyone likes him including Bojack when in reality Bojack despises his always positive attitude. Diane who starts out as Bojack’s ghost writer for his autobiography is another great character who you can relate to, struggling to be the best person she can whilst also going out of her way to care for her unstable friends such as Bojack, she’s riddled with her own self-doubt and need for purpose. Princess Carolyn, Bojack’s agent is a workaholic who constantly sacrifices her personal life for her career and its incredible to see her character grow throughout the show as she must question her priorities, finally there’s Todd who is the central comedy relief of the show, Todd basically lives with Bojack and crashes on his sofa, doesn’t work and just has fun all the time, he is completely wacky and you’ll find it hard to understand him but that’s sort of the point, he’s  the needed comedy break from some the shows heavier moments. The show explores all the characters really well, we see them grow as people as they try and find their sense of self, happiness and fulfillment, Bojack pursues more fame, more drugs and alcohol, Diane is trying to prove to herself she’s a person who can make an impact, Princess Carolyn is always pushing her career fourth, even Todd is always looking for the next distraction. It’s amazing to relate so well to cartoon characters, I don’t think any cartoon has given me such a realistic drama and yes half of the characters are literally animals, you almost forget, because the show is so goddamn real.

The show also succeeds in being an entertaining satire on Hollywood, the movie business, the internet and well, society as a whole, it looks at washed up actors, desperate agents and shifty producers all in fun and exaggeration but still making it believable, we see fun and entertaining plots such as new singers rising to fame with questionable talent and lyrics, movie marketing way of grabbing whatever is most popular at the time, people following the latest trends whether it be stars, films or what is on social media, watching the characters traverse the rocky roads of stardom and the painful journey to find what truly makes them happy makes for a show which takes you through joy, bitter sweetness, sadness, shock and despair. Bojack Horseman is the full package and it does not hide its motivations, the show has something to say and will say it, it gives us an outlook into how even the most idolized in society have demons, how celebrities can go off grid or into a drug fueled binge despite seemingly having it all, it has something to say on enjoying the moment and that happiness is not intertwined with materialism or attention, it’s something closer and within you, you will laugh yet you will also be heartbroken many times in this show, I cannot recommend it more.

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The decline of Game of thrones SPOILERS INNIT

So the show has finally came to an end, it took the world by storm with its twists and turns, the violence, intrigue, characters, worlds and winning the award of most genitalia shown on a TV screen. But the last season was unfortunately blasted with lots of heat, negative opinions rained fire on the show’s creators just as Dany did to all those innocent Kings Landings citizens. So where did the beginning of the end start for game of thrones? Let us take a look at thrones in its entirety and talk about what happened to the show we all once loved.

I absolutely loved the first six seasons, they were incredible, season one introduced us to a world of deep political intrigue, not your usual fantasy, this one was incredibly dark and realistic, realistic even when it had zombies and dragons, like a world that really could exist, because the show managed to capture so elegantly the motives of each character and why they acted as they did. Seasons two, three and four brought the same brilliant realism, intrigue and storytelling but upped the ante with some incredible spectacle, I remember watching the battle of kings landing for the first time, seeing the shot of wildfire explode and thinking this show was just something else, season three brought serious shock in terms of the red wedding and season four showed off the shows continuous ability for intense battle sequences mixed with great character development during the battle for the wall. The first four seasons for me are basically near perfect, I’m sure there are flaws here and there but none I can remember too well, they facilitate game of thrones as one of the greatest shows on television.

Season five is where things began to change a little for me, not greatly though, season five was still fantastic, the plot with the sons of harpy, the tensions on the wall, in Mereen and so forth but I felt the pacing did struggle at some points especially in Mereen and Kings Landing, luckily by the end of the season I felt things really begin to kick off as Dany had to fall to the whims of the slavers and re open the fighting pits, Cersei got in hot bother with the sons of the harpy and was arrested for her sins and who could forget Hardhome, it was amazing. However even though season five was still a high quality part of the thrones story it does to some degree begin to mark the beginning of the end as this was when things really began to deviate from the books, I hadn’t read the books the first time I saw season five so I wasn’t sure what I was missing out on, but my god, I’m up to date on the Song of Ice and Fire novels now and there is some difference, mainly where a certain place named Dorne is concerned, this is where most people’s complains about season five stem from, the whole Dorne arc seemed to be a little rushed and quite flimsy at points, but this was game of thrones, it had delivered so much, so why would we have been worried? Well I certainly wasn’t but looking back now this was where you can really put the show creators into question, they properly deviated from the books this time and it was up to them and their own creativity and it was the first time the show seemed to fall short a little, not that I hated the Dorne arc or anything but at the same time the frustration people feel comes from how good it was in the books I believe.

Season six, I really enjoyed season six, it was the point where the show seemed to really be moving on to its grand conclusion, Bran was having visions about Ned Stark and Lyanna and if you had seen any internet theory video on the fabled R + L = J then you knew what was coming, the hype was real, Jamie was facing off the Blackfish in a part now taken from the books, rather than his Dorne arc which the show writers created the season before and the change in quality here with a sequence from the book was more evident, the battle of the bastards gave us one of the most gut wrenching and intense battles not just on TV but really in any medium, straight out of a movie really, who could also forget Cersei’s glorious revenge against everyone who ever screwed her over when she blew up the Sept of Baelor and finally the season ended with Dany making her way to the seven kingdoms, season six for me was absolute quality and I think we were all pretty hyped for what was to come in season seven.

But then, all of a sudden, something was different. Season seven was when things began to truly go downhill; the show had veered off from the books fully now and it was up to the show’s creators to keep the quality up, season seven for me was poor for a number of reasons, the biggest flaw for me was how they had completely thrown away game of thrones’ realism, not in terms of fantasy, the white walkers and dragons are fine, but how it became a show where things happened for plot convenience and really badly at that, people were using teleportation all over the map by this point like the show was an MMO or something, beyond the wall was the perfect example of this, we see Jon, Tormund, the hound and the rest of the gang travelling north to capture a Wight, its cool to finally see so many beloved characters in one place but at the same time the whole thing feels messy, it looks like a hard and long trek and they send Gendry back to the wall when they’re in trouble because he’s ‘the fastest’, Gendry makes it back to the wall in record time and sends a raven off to Dany, the raven reaches her and she’s off to the north to fight the white walkers, meanwhile Jon and the gang are surrounded by hundreds of the dead, things felt so sped up by this point, there was no pacing, everything was going on at once. Another issue with season seven was to do with the death of intrigue and compelling writing, Kings Landing, where pretty much every scene from the show was riddled with genius dialogue and political stakes was now completely forgettable, not once in season seven or eight did you actually see a crowd of nobles watching the queen decide the fate of the realm, it was simply Cersei and her closest allies treating with Euron and not much else, I was really disappointed with how little interest seemed to be going on in Kings Landing, as for Winterfell, my god, I was furious with the treatment of one certain character, Arya, she was easily one of my favourite characters in the show until this point. The entire debacle for me was over how her relationship was handled with Sansa, they seemed to force some kind of split between the sisters for the sake of it and it just felt completely uncalled for, I get that sisters are like to argue but Arya was pointing out such strange things about Sansa, she was genuinely trying to do what was best for the people of Winterfell but Arya began accusing her of all sorts, of being power hungry, narcissistic and self-serving, I really just didn’t buy it, if they gave it more time and some more development of such an idea like Sansa really trying to uproot what Jon was doing as King in the north then I would have understood, but it really just seemed like the show creators were forcing a divide between the sisters so they could have an excuse to build tension, then have them reunite to kill Littlefinger, which to me was also a bit of disappointment, I think a lot of us didn’t expect Littlefinger to go out so easily, he seemed like he could have a plan for almost anything, if it did come to the point where he was put on trial for being more or less a giant snake wouldn’t he have something up his sleeve? like how maybe the Lords of the vale are under his rule, bound by law to serve their lord, when Robb Stark executed Lord Karstark the north lost all Karstark men, when Sansa executes Littlefinger the Vale just shrugs it off, meh, is basically their reaction, this is the vale which loyally served a lunatic of a women, everyone could see how much Lysa Arryn had lost her mind, but the laws are laws, people must follow their Lords and ladies, such is the nature of Westeros and its culture, or so we’d think, the men of the Vale allow their Lord Littlefinger to perish, Littlefinger being a supposed genius, wouldn’t he think something like, I don’t know, ‘I should probably make sure all the vale is loyal to me so they love me and protect me’ the man is always tactical and conniving, finally he is the Lord of an entire people and he doesn’t really use this to his advantage at all. The dynamic between Dany and Jon Snow was fairly interesting; Jon refuses to have the North bend the knee to the iron throne once more regardless of who is sitting on it, but he also needs Dany for the obsidian down in the Dragonstone mines, it’s a pretty interesting plot, yet still I found the dialogue wasn’t as conveying as the previous seasons where the words which came out of characters mouths were like music to my ears. It was in season seven I began to worry that the lack of episode count in the season really pushed the writers to hurry up and get this thing moving, therefore sacrificing a lot of the shows quality.

Let’s move on to the final season, game of thrones had a much needed years break it seemed to me, I was glad about this, I mean look how long it’s taking Georgie to write the next book Winds of Winter so by all means go ahead HBO and give the show some time to work on what it needs to, so the first episode aired and well, I was excited you know, they had a year off so things seemed to look up, but erm, well I wasn’t exactly super impressed by the opening scenes, one in particular, we’ve got Tyrion and Varys in a carriage, famed for their trading of incredible wit and knowledge, clearly the years have not been kind to Tyrion as all he can muster up in this scene is, “I have balls and you don’t” I know it’s not much but for me it really just set the tone of how dialogue would be handled this season. The next episode picked things up a little for me, there was more character development, Samwell is traumatized by the news of his father and tells Jon of his true heritage and Sansa is also none too happy about Dany and the power she now has over the North, it seemed like things were moving in the direction of some in-fighting, Sansa would maybe raise the north up against Dany, Jon would be highly conflicted on the matter and friends would have to turn on friends, classic game of thrones, I was thinking maybe they would end up destroying each other, and as the white walkers come they are decimated, too busy fighting politics the white walkers end up causing serious damage the living, thus the lesson is humanity could not hope to survive divided. Anyhow the white walkers invade in episode three, now this episode for the most part I found really enjoyable, the action was crazy, it was intense and the visuals were something else, scenes like the Dothraki swords being lit on fire got me all chuffed about how far the show had come and Arya being trapped in the library with a bunch of Wights was gut wrenching, however then comes the end of the episode, in a twist pretty much nobody was expecting, Arya kills the Night King, well damn, there it was, the apocalypse was over, it was very strange to say the least, no one expected it to happen, I was one of the people who was a little optimistic about the season still, I got it, so the Night King is beat and the final battle is for the iron throne, ok I guess it is all about the Iron throne at heart but still it did leave a strange taste in my mouth as the shows greatest enemy was defeated before the final episodes, it felt like whatever could happen now was just a little underwhelming compared to the fight against the dead, all this we heard about no wars mattering but the great war as Jon would say, but now it was over. In the next episode Dany declares optimistically that ‘the we have won the great war, now we will win the last war’ ok cool I get it, I’m thinking let’s see what the show has to offer from here, the party scene shows that everyone loves Jon Snow and that Dany is becoming very insecure about her ability to rule as everyone loves Jon and that he is also the rightful heir to the throne, this all seemed well and good to me, things were getting interesting, sure the dialogue still was off par compared to earlier seasons but I was still behind the program here, despite my fears, by this point a lot of people seemed to have lost faith in game of thrones, I understand this, the decline here was evident but I was kind of hopeful that despite the bad writing and entire rushed feel of the final season the ending would be satisfactory, therefore not taking away from the shows overall glory. As episode four continued some more questionable things began to happen, Rhaegon is straight up shot out of the sky with four straight bolts placed perfectly, it all happened in an instant, so fast I couldn’t really process it, Dany then goes into a rage and heads straight to Euron’s ships to toast them all, as at least a dozen more bolts are shot this time and Drogon is arguably in better range they all seem to miss? The plot armor is pretty strong here, never the less Dany retreats and Euron’s fleet destroys Dany’s. Oh and I almost forgot to mention, let’s take a pause from the episode and have a look at one certain character, Euron Greyjoy, if you haven’t read the books then I’ll explain things for you, Euron from the books is a straight up psychopath, his presence is felt in every page he’s in, the way he is portrayed in the books is brilliant, he’s extremely selfish, power hungry, savage yet also comes across intelligent in a horrifically manipulative way, he’s also very mysterious, the man came back from travelling all over the world, he’s seen things no one else in Westeros has but in the show, he’s pretty dull to be honest, he’s mad but in just a silly lunatic fashion more than anything else, I just don’t think anyone is that bothered about Euron in the show, he’s not a great character, I’m ok with things being different from the books, its fine, but Euron isn’t different to the book in an interesting way, he’s just a really bad version of the real Euron, this is illustrating my point further that the writers don’t seem to be handling things well if it’s not taken from the book, which is sad because in earlier seasons there’s scenes that aren’t in the books that are exclusively part of the show that are brilliant pieces of dialogue, every exchange between Littlefinger and Varys in the show is purely the show writers creation, ‘the chaos is a ladder’ scene isn’t in the books, and it is one of the shows definite high lights. Back to the main story, Dany makes it to Kings Landing and Cersei declares she will not be making peace any time soon, thus beheading a captured Missandei, ok so we all know what is coming, one final battle for Kings Landing. Episode five, some scenes in this episode are actually great, Tyrion setting Jaimie free and them having a brotherly bond hit me hard, visually everything was excellent and you truly felt right in the middle of the onslaught. Drogon absolutely rips through Euron’s fleet like butter, which was weird to me because the season set up how dangerous the scorpions (the giant dragon killing crossbow machines) were to dragons but apparently not, there’s plenty on the city walls and on Euron’s ships but Drogon evades all and destroys every one of them, finally he flies back to the front of the city and destroys the golden company who are meant to be pretty formidable but they completely disappoint, they just act as more cannon fodder really, also I was well salty that no elephants appeared, why even set that up just to tear down our expectations? Then the moment that shocked us all, the men of Kings Landing surrender despite Cersei’s commands, yet Dany decidedly burns the whole city anyway and murders plenty of innocents as part of her rage. So this is where pretty much 90% of the shows audience turns on the show, that’s not an exact statistic but it seems like a whole lot of people got furious here, I want to go in deep on Dany’s turn to full madness, some of it can be explained, she was insecure that the thing she has worked for so hard is now out of reach because she is not in fact the true heir despite believing that for most of her life, she’s lost two of her dragons and one of her closest advisers betrayed her via her lover revealing he is in fact the true heir, it’s tough we can definitely say that, but does it merit what the creators did with Dany, overall no I don’t think so, certain signs were indeed there, she nailed nobles of Mereen to crosses independent of their part in the slave trade and burned one of them to root out the sons of the harpies, from her slow decline you could see how Dany becomes less of savior to more of a lawful bad in serve of the greater good, she wants the best but she’ll be absolute in judgement to achieve it, however the slaughter we see in Kings Landing is chaotic evil, not lawful, it’s just utter madness, killing soldiers in an army is lawful and cannot be avoided, their all farmers and villagers when you think about it, enlisted into the ranks but in war killing them is virtually unavoidable, however I don’t think Dany could see murdering innocent children as unavoidable, the greater good always seemed in her best interest, serving the oppressed in society, here she murders everyone she claimed to once motivate her, her turn to madness is just, well, mad. Her character is completely butchered and not just her, Cersei’s ending I found to be pretty underwhelming, I felt the shows undoubtedly greatest villain should have gone out in a blaze of glory and madness, Cersei was truly mad, yet she gives up completely while Dany takes the spotlight of lunatic, it just doesn’t seem right, it feels completely rushed. Moving onto the final episode, I was hoping despite all that had happened this episode could make the ending still satisfying to a degree, everyone would have to fight Dany and restore order to the kingdom, again the visuals are stunning, the scene where Drogons wings fly over Dany and it looks like she’s half human half dragon was crazy good, I also loved how the throne room looked exactly the same as it did in season two when she had her vision of the red keep, but the action is over before it starts, with Jon killing Dany while she kisses him, it was certainly an anti-climax, what happens from here is by far the worst.

This is where I just wanted the show to end already, there are so many strange things going on in the finale, Grey worm decides to not kill Jon Snow despite already being shown as blood crazed and exclusively loyal to Dany, Grey worm has been in Westeros for maybe a year or less I’m not sure and at no point does he show any care for the other lords of the kingdom, only his queens law, as you’d expect, he’s from the other side of the world and it was Dany who saved him from slavery, he only came to Westeros to serve Dany, but for some reason he keeps both Tyrion and Jon alive and awaits the judgement of some nobles he barely knows or cares about, and what great judgement they all have. This was the biggest crime of all for me, Tyrion spouts some absolute garbage about stories uniting people, to one point I get it, everyone loves a good story about their ruler but really it just wasn’t a very convincing reason overall for me, and to choose Bran as the King of Westeros, what… the … f### ok so the reasoning for Bran to be king is that he, well, knows everything, but this isn’t even a good reason, a king must have heart, he must sympathise with his people and make a choice for the realm he believes is right, having an overpowered omniscient wizard as king is a terrible choice, Bran is so un-relatable, he can’t even connect to his siblings, telling Sansa how she looked beautiful during one of the most traumatising moments of her life and completely freaking her out for example in season seven, Bran also has zero experience ruling anything, he is literally the least suitable choice for king out of everyone sat there, just elect the Dornish geezer because he has a cool beard, that makes for a good story, Brans sister who has survived the Lannisters, Littlefinger and Ramsey Bolton and has also got experience ruling the north is just passed up for the magical tree wizard, I was happy Sansa ended up ruling the north but really did Tyrion not consider her for the throne? She even shows her commanding presence when she completely shuts down her uncle who tries to state why he should be king. Now what about the other characters, Jon gets sent back to the wall, what an unsatisfying character arc for the man rising above his constant mistreatment through childhood as the bastard, as the soldier on the wall, to lord commander, to king in the north, the ultimate underdog, oh then back to the wall, it’s just ridiculous and he doesn’t even seem bothered, neither do his siblings, then he goes off with the wildlings to I assume become king of the free folk which isn’t really explained but we just take it as it is, poor effort I think. The complete decline of smart decisions is shown off with the new small council, why is Bronn on the small council! This is completely baffling, I liked Bronn’s whole point of all Lords and houses beginning out as cut throats, Littlefinger started out from nothing but he’s a devious genius who worked his way up to the small council, Bronn is just there, chilling as the new master of coin literally nothing but a bloodthirsty mercenary, I mean who needs someone with actual knowledge of Westeros’ economy anyway? It was simply so we could see a familiar character we once liked be there for maybe an attempt of fan service or something, it’s strange the final season on one hand feels like a bad attempt of fan service but then also a bad attempt of completely subverting fan expectations.  

So, game of thrones, this is how I feel overall, it was my favourite tv show hands down, it was genius, the first four seasons are near perfect to me, I’d say the decline of this show is down to two main things, the deviation from the books, unfortunately the writers of the show don’t live up to George R.R Martins masterful way with words, the rushed nature, they only had two seasons to finish everything up, with less episodes too, we cannot fully blame the writers, I think in earlier seasons they demonstrated an ability to make great original content for the show, but with the added pressure of finishing the show in just two seasons and thirteen episodes this just put things in disarray, the mistreating of characters, bad dialogue, flimsy plot choices  and an unsatisfactory ending. However despite this I’d say we can still enjoy the good parts of this show, like any form of art, its subject to interpretation, nothing can be perfect and this is ok, I hope the writers of game of thrones take all criticism constructively and don’t get disheartened by the some of the monumental hate they’re getting, this is how art improves, through feedback, I don’t think game of thrones should be rewritten or anything like some are proposing, take it for what it is and enjoy the show for what it once was, a masterpiece and it’s not like there were not some enjoyable parts in the last season, the battle for Winterfell in episode three of season eight was genuinely incredible to me, and who’s to say if you loved the last two seasons you’re wrong, this is simply my opinion so by all means if you loved game of thrones all the way through, more power to you, don’t let others ruin your opinion, I think it’s important for us all to have our own opinion on shows and other forms of entertainment, this is mine, let me know yours! Thanks for reading, peace dudes : )