It’s a busy time of year for Game of Thrones fans, is it not? We’re on the cusp of the new year, with season 9 right around the – Oh. Oh, right. Sigh. Well, in any case, the show might be over, but the hits, they keep a’coming! From awards wins to stars idolizing one another to science and GOT merging, we’re seeing it all. We’ve got a couple of itty bitty tidbits to round up so buckle up, and head on in.
Up first? The awards. Never one for sitting on the sidelines, GOT continues to steamroll the competition, and this time at an awards show I’ve never never heard of! What are the Clio Awards? Where are the Clio Awards? Who are the Clio Awards? According to a quick Bing search, I should head over to Google. But according to a Google search, the Clio Awards are the “premier international awards competition for the creative business, celebrat[ing] creative excellence in advertising, and honor[ing] the work and talent that pushes boundaries, permeates pop culture, and establishes a new precedent around the globe.” More specifically, it nominates and awards trophies to ad campaigns, rather than the shows themselves. GOT won three Clio Awards:
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Game of Thrones, ‘For the Throne’
2. Game of Thrones, ‘Joust’
3. Game of Thrones, ‘Bleed for the Throne’
Well done, all! And now I’ll add this awards show into my knowledge bank!
Next up, a star in his own right gets starstruck by the star of our show, our very own mother of dragons:
I’ve always wondered what it would be like to be famous and run into another famous person. Do you just talk like friends, or do you freak out like so many of us? Well now we have an answer that People would be proud of: Stars. They’re just like us!
Next up: the science stuff. Turns out, paleontologists have a sense of humour too, as shown when they discovered a brand new pterosaur. The newly dubbed Targaryendraco wiedenrothi has some meaning behind its name: “…pterosaurs have inspired some biological aspects of the dragons” claim the scientists. Says study leader Rodrigo Pêgas, “I always thought this was very nice, especially because I work on pterosaurs….I am a big nerd and a big fan of Game of Thrones.”
Well these are all the odds and ends for today. What else is going on the world of Westeros? A release date for The Winds of Winter? A casting notice for House of the Dragon? I’m not sure; You tell me!
The Marketing of GoT is alway pretty damn good, they deserve it.
And amazing with the name of the Dino.
So Drogon was real millions of years ago?
In other news, Drogon’s mother meets one of the best football wingers of my childhood.
Scientists and stars enjoying themselves alike.
”I’ve always wondered what it would be like to be famous and run into another famous person. Do you just talk like friends, or do you freak out like so many of us?…”
———
The question you’re pondering made me recall Maisie Williams describing her reaction to meeting Emma Stone a few years ago…
“I met Emma Stone today (the ultimate love of my life) and I didn’t manage to complete a sentence, not even once.”
– Maisie Williams Twitter, Jan. 26, 2015
https://mobile.twitter.com/Maisie_Williams/status/559603241000771585/photo/1

kevin1989,
I couldn’t tell from the video thumbnails: Did the pre-Season 8 teaser with Jon, Arya and Sansa in the WF Crypts win any Clios?
That was the teaser with the three of them walking through the passageway by torchlight, (passing the tombs of Ned, Cat and maybe Lyanna or hearing their voices) until reaching statues carved in their own images and turning around with weapons drawn when a freezing wind iced over the floor.
I thought that one was really well done – especially the photography relying on existing light, i.e., torchlight. (Which, I have to admit, made me wonder why they didn’t use the same cinematographic techniques during filming of “The Long Night.”)
Ten Bears,
Speaking of Maisie, did you see her tweet with this awesome picture of her as her new character “Kim” in Sky One’s “Two Weeks to Live”.
https://twitter.com/maisie_williams/status/1190968543032070145
Ten Bears,
That was one the best of season 8 for me.
I also liked season 7 teaser, that one was brilliant.
Marketing genius indeed! Between the musical score and cinematography, all teasers and promotions were extremely well done. I applaud all who were part of this phenomenon.
The naming of the pterosaur is both brilliant and hilarious at the same time.
#FORTHETHRONE was effective, but it built up expectations that the ending would be all about who sits on the throne. Then when it was Bran, those expectations built up by the advertising just left people scratching their heads. Melting the throne also put a major dent in marketing expectations, since technically there wasn’t a throne at the end. When the White Walker threat ended after episode 3, I looked back at the advertising for solace. I saw in the advertising that they put the focus more on the GAME and who would end up on the Throne and less on the existential threat of the Long Night. So I could make some sense of the decision to end the threat after episode 3. I almost felt like the show was happy to get the White Walkers out of the picture so they could focus where they really wanted to focus. The early defeat of TAOTD was when I saw a huge shift with GOT fans in regards to season 8. I didn’t mind as much as others at the time, because I figured the show was going to focus more on the human drama of who would end up on the throne based on the ads.
It was an effective campaign with the throne popping up around the world. The posters were also awesome.
Ten Bears,
Emilia Clarke told a similar story about her meeting Beyonce.
Brilliant marketing from start to finish, I had a lot of fun with it.
Most iconic pterosaur in Jurassic history.
Jack Bauer 24,
There was a time you would criticise season 7… If you don’t remember, I could search for your posts back then. But I do know you have always loved the show in general.
There is an adjective he’s used consistently in expressing his love for the show in general and in most particulars.
Hint: It starts with a “B.” And no, it is not “Bittersweet.”
Tron79,
”When the White Walker threat ended after episode 3, I looked back at the advertising for solace. I saw in the advertising that they put the focus more on the GAME and who would end up on the Throne and less on the existential threat of the Long Night. So I could make some sense of the decision to end the threat after episode 3. I almost felt like the show was happy to get the White Walkers out of the picture so they could focus where they really wanted to focus.”
———
I don’t know about the decision to end the WW existential threat by Episode 3. Getting the White Walkers “out of the picture” so abruptly in order to focus on…. Cersei wistfully staring out the window sipping wine and bumming out that she didn’t get her elephants, was kind of a letdown. In some ways, Cersei was a bit too sympathetic to be the Big Bad.
I really thought the “Long Night” was supposed to last a generation, not a few hours. For seven seasons the AotD was built up as the ultimate enemy – terrifying monsters and ghouls dead-set on exterminating all of humanity. “The War for the Dawn” was hyped as the Super Bowl of GoT. (For that matter, Bran’s “powers” were supposedly indispensable to defeating Team NK. He turned out to be a benchwarmer. Ummm… why was it again that Jojen, Summer, Hodor et al. died for him?)
The one-and-done, abrupt end of the WWs also bothered me because in addition to what felt like a retconned addition of the stock scifi “mothership” device (taking out the top dog deactivates all of his minions), it required the dumming down of the best general and tacticial commander on the show. I’m not talking about Jon Snow or Tyrion.
My boy NK, aka Ol’ Blue Eyes, was a sharp cookie. He had outmaneuvered and overwhelmed the silly humans in every encounter.
. He would never come anywhere near the battle zone if one stray dragonglass-tipped arrow, one well-aimed DG spear, or a single thrust of a Valyrian steel weapon could instantly destroy every single one of his 100,000 WWs and wights. Since his primary objective was to kill Bran [because memories???] any one of his WW lieutenants or gaggles of wights could have hacked or ripped apart a kid in a wheelchair.
While I had suspected Dany would end up flame broiling the residents of KL, I did not think getting the WW “out of the way” was necessary. To the contrary….
(To be cont.)
Ten Bears,
I really thought the “Long Night” was supposed to last a generation, not a few hours. For seven seasons the AotD was built up as the ultimate enemy – terrifying monsters and ghouls dead-set on exterminating all of humanity. “The War for the Dawn” was hyped as the Super Bowl of GoT. (For that matter, Bran’s “powers” were supposedly indispensable to defeating Team NK. He turned out to be a benchwarmer. Ummm… why was it again that Jojen, Summer, Hodor et al. died for him?)
totally agree. And it wasn’t a world wide problem, just a northern one. No one else knew they existed. Could have saved lots of trouble and deaths to just move everyone down south, with the dragons used as cover….Ah well.
Ten Bears,
You won’t get much argument for me. I agree with you too.
With regards to the advertising, it was all about the Throne, so after episode 3 ended, I figured they were going to focus on the throne now. I suppose the ads had a red herring with the NK ending up sitting on the throne in one of the posters.
It was awfully convenient that they went with the “mothership” idea as you call it. But perhaps D&D couldn’t think of another way to defeat the seemingly undefeatable foe.
I thought they would barely survive the battle and have to fight another day as the WW’s made their way down to KL. I did think that both Jon and Bran had to have a larger role to defeat TAOTD. But I did feel a tremendous sense of relief when Arya struck the final blow. As the intensity of episode 3 grew, I had the thought that entire cast was about to die!! So I felt incredible relief and exhilaration when Arya did her knife drop. When the wights all started crumbling, I wasn’t upset at the time, because I realized so many of our heroes would make it out alive. But after the relief faded away, I had many issues as did many other fans. As I said, I thought Jon and Bran would have larger roles. It would have been great if Jon and Arya would have teamed up at least and Bran did some mind game on the NK to distract him. I was upset that Jon was stuck flying for most of the episode and he had to just yell at Icy Viserion.
I also agree that Cersei was stuck in that window all season. I would have loved to have had Sansa and Cersei together. It was almost like Star Trek II The Wrath of Kahn when Ricardo Montalban and William Shatner never shot a scene together (even though at least in the movie they looked like they were together from one ship to the other)
Ten Bears,
“Getting the White Walkers out of the picture so abruptly in order to focus on…. Cersei wistfully staring out the window sipping wine and bumming out that she didn’t get her elephants”
Well now, that’s some distortion.
“In some ways, Cersei was a bit too sympathetic to be the Big Bad.”
Cersei wasn’t the “Big Bad” of GoT and it wasn’t Dany either, anymore than Saruman or Frodo’s PTSD is the “Big Bad” of the LotR novels. The two big bads were Littlefinger and the NK. Everything after those two die is like RotK after the One Ring is destroyed.
Logically, the fight against the dead had to end at Winterfell. The Wall was by far the best place to fight the AotD. Barring that, the only other place the living might ever have been able to mount an effective defensive would be at Winterfell. The NK had to get through there to get to the rest of Westeros. If Winterfell had fallen, the NK would’ve added ~1M civilians to his army. That would’ve overrun Moat Caitlin easily, then after that it would be nothing but an unstoppable slaughter in the south. Oh, and before you say “the Eyrie”, that wouldn’t work because it’s located at the end of a road and the NK would be in no rush at all to go there. Winterfell was always going to be the final battle, winner take all, just like the Battle of the Black Gate in RotK. There would be no other chance to beat the AotD anywhere else. “If the North falls, we fall.” -Jaime 7×7
It also thematically reminds me of that speech by Catelyn: “The maester said if [Jon] made it through the night, he’d live. But it would be a very LONG NIGHT. So I stayed up with him all through the darkness, listened to his ragged little breaths…” 3×2
As for Bran, we don’t know exactly what he did, but it can be reasonably deduced that whatever it was, it made the NK change his strategy. The NK had two choices once the trench was lit: attack or starve them out (just as the Blackfish told Jaime). Easy choice, right? The AotD was never going to get hungry, tired, sick, or demoralized, whereas the living had to feed virtually the entire population of the North, several large armies, and two dragons with whatever food Sansa had managed to procure in advance. But then Bran flew his ravens right up to the NK (which he’d never succeeded in doing before), and suddenly voila! – the NK presses his attack and flies straight to Bran, whereupon the two dragonriders try to take him down.
“Retcon”? That would mean the show’s given us information prior that they DIDN’T have a mothership. Did I miss that part somewhere? No? Okay, then it wasn’t a retcon.
The NK could’ve had any of the wights or his WW generals kill the old 3ER too. But why didn’t he? Obviously because he wanted that kill for himself. So there’s precedent for his behavior. And please tell me how the NK was supposed to know there was a prodigal faceless assassin with a Valyrian steel dagger lurking in the shadows and how he was dumb to not take precautions against that?
Tron79,
There was only one way to defeat the AotD: kill the NK. And the only way the NK would ever expose himself would be if the 3ER was there. Beyond that, there was literally jackshit anyone could do to fight them. They can’t be fought in the field – the performance of the Dothraki against them proved that. And they can’t be outlasted in a siege for obvious reasons. Even using the dragons are a huge risk because if an ice spear downs one of them and it gets resurrected… might as well just kill yourself, save the NK the busy work.
Farimer123,
”Beyond that, there was literally jackshit anyone could do to fight them.”
https://gifer.com/Fzt0
Ten Bears,
I don’t follow.
Farimer123,
Stannis Baratheon, King of the Grammar School of Westeros, did not like your use of the word “literally”, which is quickly becoming the most overused and misused word in history.
Yes that is a good point that their strategy was to get the NK out in the open, since they had a theory that if the NK fell then all of TAOTD would fall. Bran knew that the NK wanted to kill him. Samwell’s monologue explained the theory that the NK wanted to wipe out the history of man. Sam’s dialogue about the 3ER felt very contrived to me. D&D needed to come up with some explanation for why the NK wanted to kill Bran, and they came up with Sam’s speech. Jon and Dany’s plan was a decent one to lure the NK out in the open and then hit him with Dragonfire. Unfortunately the dragonfire had no effect.
I wish the book prophesies came into play more. The show just ignored them. It would have made sense to change the order of events where Jon needed to kill Dany with Longclaw before having a showdown with the NK. Killing Dany through the heart with Longclaw would have fulfilled the Nissa Nissa prophesy. Then Long Claw would become the real Lightbringer, which Jon would use to defeat the NK in an epic final confrontation. I would have loved it if Arya could have helped out her brother take on the WW’s and then Jon would deliver the final blow using Lightbringer. The “others” in the books don’t have a leader as of yet, so I’m not sure exactly how this will be done in the books. There wouldn’t just be one NK for Jon to defeat with Lightbringer. This would all fulfill the AA prophesy as well. I can’t say I’m an expert in the prophesies, but I’m betting that the books won’t ignore them. GRRM may have an awesome twist at some point that turns the prophesy on it’s head, but they won’t just be ignored. The prophesies didn’t bug me as much at the time, because I hadn’t read the books yet. But now, I’m just a bit sad they ignored them.
Mr Derp,
It’s LITERALLY becoming the most overused and misused word in history.
Tron79,
“This prophecy, that prophecy, Lightbringer, Chosen One Jon Snow epic showdown of ultimate destiny with Evil Dark Lord Night King” sounds like something straight out of Harry Potter or Masters of the Universe. Now THAT, in my opinion, would have made for bad fan fiction: the kind that’s completely untrue to GRRM’s vision and is happy to completely miss every point going so long as its favorite characters look cool. And why would Jon have to kill Dany with Longclaw of all things? It’s just the repurposed Mormont family Valyrian steel sword – there’s nothing mystical about it.
Have a look at this:
By S7, even Melisandre – pretty much the only exponent of prophecies in the whole show aside from those witches that dealt with Cersei and Dany – was openly admitting that prophecies aren’t all they’re cracked up to be. Here’s how believing fervently in TPWWP ended for the Baratheons:
https://pm1.narvii.com/6101/d8f7742aabcf39ac74a741fcfd476f401ba644d9_hq.jpg
https://unaffiliatedcritic.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Selyse-Baratheon-Tara-Fitzgerald-in-Game-of-Thrones-5×10.png
https://i.imgur.com/4EMdIT3.jpg
Maisie Williams – she’s just like us!
Farimer123,
1. What we got is also pretty what Harry Potter did. Kill Voldemort and the baddies are defeated. Like they did with kill the NK and the baddies are defeated. And what we saw with Dany getting killed because she is evil, is also done many many times. Last time I could remember it was X-men 3. Wolverine killing his loveone Jane to save mankind of her.
2. Who says that Azor Ahai reborn is the same as the last hero? I think for instance that they are 2 different people.
3. To understand what Grrm wants to do with ASOIAF try to read other books of him, I read them all, some I didn’t remember well but it’s made clear what grrm is building to with his stories. Sandkings, Tuf Voyage, song for Lya. It also could give some sense in what he wants with prophecies. And one thing is for sure he won’t go with the mothership kill them all plot.
4. Who says that the WW are the last enemy to defeat in the books? I mean even at the end of dance there is some loftcraftian shit going on. Wights are afraid of water, but there are dead (living) things in the water. That means that those aren’t wights but something else. Kraken’s are also seen at the shores of Westeros (if my memory served me well it was west of the North). I don’t know for sure but I think in the books the White Walkers aren’t the real treat that they need to defeat, but something else instead.
5. And that depends, Nissa Nissa could happen because Jon believe that it would work. I think Dawn is lightbringer. But what if Jon kills Daenerys and the prophecy bites him in his ass? (not literally Ten Bears), what if it’s all bullshit and he killed Daenerys for nothing, or what if it only could cast the WW back into land of always winter but never defeat them, or what if Azor Ahai will become the new start of the WW that that’s the price or what if something else erupts because of it, so many possibilities.
So many people have an opinion about what GRRM is of a writer, but they never have ever read any page of ASOIAF and most never read a page of any of his other books, how could people understand what the theme of GRRM writing is if they never have read the other books? And I have to say, 90% of those books are just brilliant. (And some pretty small). George won’t let the Azor Ahai prophecy left hanging, he will get that prophecy into play, and it will have to do with the treat of the north, but it will have a plottwist that we didn’t saw coming.
I think that the For the Throne campaign is one of the best marketing strategies I’ve ever seen.
It was large, global, and cultural. Various aspects of it reached my country too (and we’re not fanatics about watching GoT, but there were big posters all over, especially the “Would you bleed for the Throne” campaign).
But here’s the thing, I think that it hurt GoT. Not the campaign per se, not the strategy per se, but the mentality behind it that turned GoT into anything else but the story told.
It was not about the story anymore, it was about the art, the response of the people, the audience’s improvisations and reproductions and fan art, the pop culture (t-shirts, dolls, games, cups, beers, whiskey, etc, you name it, it has it), so in the end it was about anything else at the expense of the story.
The channel and everybody who’s implicated in the production at the highest level of decision-making put everything they had on the marketing and the attached pop culture, they pumped it up as much as they could.
It’s like they found the goose -oops, dragon, I meant- that lays the golden eggs and their decision to continue with House of Dragon continues a trend in reality, not a story. It’s all about dragons, and dragons will keep on selling for many years to come, until the audience grows bored of them.
Relating to the show, this meant that they changed the story to appeal to that part of the fandom that sympathised with the antagonist, and that antagonist was Daenerys. The Starks are nice, but who cares about them, they have no dragons, right?
So the story was completely changed, the Starks were completely sidelined in favor of Daenerys, but here’s the thing, if you show Daenerys as an antagonist until 7.5 (she still refuses to fight for the North), to completely retcon her story in the next ep. and until 8.6, peope are bound to sympathise with her; they won’t understand how is it that the “hero” gets to have such an ending, when everything was going alright.
And people are right on this one.
(I don’t agree, but I’m just me)
Story-wise, you can’t portray an antagonist as a hero.
You can’t suppress the hero to the benefit of the antagonist.
In fact, you can’t inflate the antagonist to resemble a hero and sacrifice all character, PoV, story, arc of the real hero(s), to the benefit of the antagonist just because you can (of course you can, no one doubts that), and, more importantly, you can’t expect that no one will protest.
This is why no matter the clever marketing, no matter how deeply cultural it was (I’m not against it because it makes people feel like they’re participating and even if they don’t it brings them closer to the creation process and makes them feel like they’re part of sth big, so it’s a good thing), the story fell flat, and the people’s disappointment is justified.
The campaign was very successful, modern pop culture now has another favorite, the visuals and production techniques put the bar very high.
But the way they handled the story is a textbook about what not to do to a story. It’s a textbook about the don’ts. (which is why they missed the big awards)
Still, the bitter thing is, that no matter how the story was handled (and no matter what this will mean to the new show producers separately), the money will always beat it.
[unfortunately it’s the times we live in]
Efi,
No, making Daenerys the antagonist was the change in the story and the ending was meant to appease Stark fans even while taking away the honorable qualities that had made the Starks likeable. Even before Season 8 gave her the illogical burning of King’s Landing (along with displays of plot-induced stupidity and out-of-character actions by everyone else as well), starting around Season 4 the show started whittling away at the best qualities she displayed in the books by giving them to her advisors instead in the show versions of those scenes.
Refusing to fight the White Walkers didn’t make her an antagonist; she had very little reason to believe or support Jon while she was in the middle of a more immediate war, and even then she let him mine dragonglass to arm his forces free of charge when he was giving her nothing in return.
Efi,
Actually, if there’s someone who was made more sympathetic in the show than he was in the books due to popularity, it’s Tyrion.
B,
Each and every thing that you say proves my point exactly.
B,
No, making Danerys the final antagonist wasn’t to please Stark fans. It was the natural progression of her story. And yes, burning King’s Landing was illogical, but Danerys has done illogical things in the past, so it was very much in line with her character.
I must say I’ve never heard of the Clio awards but I’m glad GOT seems to be winning a ton months after the show finished. It’s a small rebuttle to the doubters and recognition for all those who worked tirelessly over a decade to deliver the best TV show of all time.