Last night, we hosted the Watchers on the Wall Awards, our annual celebration of the best of Game of Thrones, celebrating the final season. In case you missed the event, we’ve rounded up the highlights for you, the award winners and the lucky winners of our giveaways!
During the ceremony, there were four exciting prize giveaways for our readers. The giveaway winners are…
Arya Stark with Two-Headed Spear Funko Pop! Figure: Steve
Brienne of Tarth Kingsguard Armor Funko Pop! Figure: Nymeria
Dragon Eggs Shot Glass Set:
Sansa Stark Coronation Gown Funko Pop! Figure: Erin M
Congratulations to our giveaway winners!
The ceremony is still available online:
The Watchers on the Wall Awards season 8 winners:
Best Episode: Episode 2, “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” written by Bryan Cogman, and directed by David Nutter.
Best Leading Actor: Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Jaime Lannister
Best Leading Actress: Emilia Clarke as Daenerys Targaryen
Best Supporting Actor: Alfie Allen as Theon Greyjoy
Best Supporting Actress: Gwendoline Christie as Brienne of Tarth
Best Guest Actress: Carice Van Houten as Melisandre
Best Guest Actor: Vladimir Furdik as the Night King
Best Dramatic Scene: The Knighting of Brienne by Jaime
Best Visual/Special Effects Scene: Jon, Dany and the dragons take on the Night King by moonlight
Funniest Scene: Tormund tells a tale of giant and her milk
Best Death Scene: Jorah Mormont dies protecting his khaleesi
Best New Costume: Sansa’s elaborate coronation gown
All-Around Best Quote: “In the name of the Warrior….” – Jaime Lannister
Funniest Quote: Edd: Stay back, he’s got blue eyes! Tormund: I’ve always had blue eyes!
Best Speech: Jaime recites the oath while knighting Brienne
Best Fight: Cleganebowl
Best Battle: Battle for Winterfell (From “The Long Night”)
Thank you to everyone who joined us for the festivities and conversation, and for your dedicated voting!
Omg! I got almost all the ones I voted for right. The only one I voted differently for was Tobias over Vladimir and Maisie vs Emilia.
Also: HODOR!
So pleased for A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. My fave ep in season 8.
It’s sad to think these are the last WotW awards. Feels weird too.
802 is completely overrated. Episode wasn’t challenging in terms of writing or directing. It’s nostalgia fest and soft recap of the show. Fine, but nothing special.
The song was great, but that’s it.
Peter was much better than Nikolaj, but the fandom never cared fot Peter. Too mainstream I guess.
Giving every possible award to that (great) scene with Brienne shows the lack of diversity in opinions. Best line? Really? Lol
Best episode: As I suspected episode 2. Amazing episode.
Best Leading actress: Emilia 😀 She totally deserved it. What she did in season 8 was just amazing. She gave 200%.
Best leading actor: Nicolai, totally deserved, his scenes were amazing.
Best supporting actress: Gwen, I would have expected her to win but 85,6%? I would not have guessed that, but she deserved it 100%. Gwen was amazing this season. And it seems Jaime and Brienne both won in the end. Even if it was not in love but the WoW awards.
Best supporting actress: Alfie, again deserved of course. I only expected John Bradley to be higher.
Best guest Actress: Who else than the best actress of my country, Carice van Houten. I loved her in the long night. And I’m happy 84,2% of the people agree with this. As for the other 15,8% no “Stroopwafel” and “Bitterballen” for you.
Best guest actor: I’m happy Vladimir got that many praised; I loved what he did with the Night King. He is not an actor as he stated, but what he did with the Night King was amazing. I love his scene where Dany burns him and he laughs.
Best dramatic scene: I bless this outcome in the name of the seven.
Best VSE scene: Still remains my screensaver on my phone. Such an amazing scene.
Funniest scene: As suspected this one would win. And I think Kristofer needs to be the one to get praise for it, without him this scene wouldn’t have worked.
Best death scene: I’m shocked the death of Mellisandre is the lowest.
Best new costume: I don’t really know anything about that but I love what we saw with GoT. I think they all deserved it. But Sansa’s coronation dress is something special with all the Stark personalities in it.
All-Around best quote: As I suspected this one would win. Amazing scene.
Funniest quote: Still make me chuckle that scene.
Best speech: It seems we know which scene was the favorite of people in season 8.
Best fight: I expected this; it seems my choice still became number 2.
Best battle: As I suspected, episode 3 was also a bit more of a battle than episode 5.
TormundsWoman,
Maybe we will get some awards for the whole show. Maybe best episode, best season. Best overall actor/actress.
I can’t say I’m surprised by most of the results. A lot of my votes came in second, like Maisie Williams, Rory McCann, and Peter Dinklage. I can’t fault them for losing, though, especially Maisie as season 8 was both Dany’s most well written arc and Emilia Clarke’s best season in terms of performance.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms was a great episode, but in a series full of episodes that range from great to absolutely spectacular, it didn’t really stand out much to me. I voted for The Long Night, another one of mine that came in second. Still, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms was a very well written episode and I applaud its victory. I would also like to give a special shout out to Daniel Portman and D.B. Weiss for Jenny of Oldstones, which was the highlight of the episode for me.
mau,
I have to agree with this. I was prepared for A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms to win Best Episode and for knighting of Brienne to win Best Dramatic Scene, but to also give it best line and best speech is a bit much.
Cleangebowl, Seriously? Ok. And really didn’t think the giant story was that funny.
Interesting that some categories had fewer people voting, wonder if that affected the outcome. Otherwise, reasonably pleased.
Thanks to the mods for all the work that I know had to have gone in to this, Bravo/a!!!
I don’t dislike the results though they don’t all accord with my votes. I’m surprised Lena Headley did so poorly but then she had relatively less screen time than in previous seasons.
Congrats to all the people who put all the work for this to happen! I suppose there’s already lots of nostalgia involved.
I’m glad that most people voted for best ep based on script and content rather than action and episode 2 got what it deserved, because on the whole it encapsulates the essence of GoT: it’s not the action scenes, the battles or the fantasy that surrounds the main story, its those character moments in the midst of the surrounding drama that made GoT what it was and people loved it.
The results regarding the roles I think somehow reflect season 8 and the story per se. It makes sense that none of the Starks figure in them because it wasn’t a story about them. We saw more of Tyrion and Jamie than we saw about any of the Starks. We saw more of Dany and we saw almost none of Jon. So it’s clear.
Tyrion? I suppose that as a role/character he became too contractual for a good story and for the audience’s taste, so Jamie got ahead of him.
Cleganebowl, lololololol. It’d be either that or Jamie-Euron. Both too conventional no matter how one looks at it.
I don’t agree with the battle of WF but I see why people liked it. In truth I don’t remember what I voted on that one. Perhaps I voted for that one too, lol.
In any case one of my favorite moments was the suspending dragons in the moonlight, so…
Brienne and Jaime keep on winning. That’s all I care about.
Young Dragon,
On Gold Derby The Long Night was voted as the best episode of the year. And Gold Derby is site for fans of television in general(and movies), not only GoT.
mau,
For me episode 2 if season 8 was the best episode of season 8 and one of the best episodes ever. It sure was the best written episode of season 8. For me episode 3 will always be the worst written episode ever. And I had so high hopes for it after such a great episode 2. Episode 3 had great visuals, but that’s the only good thing about it. And I love the show and I appreciate D&D a lot because they did such a great thing in previous seasons, that’s why it’s so painful how bad episode 3 was.
mau,
Yeah, I voted for The Long Night myself when voting for the Gold Derby awards. It’s my second favorite episode of the series, so I’m glad it received recognition somewhere.
Chilli,
Episode 2 isn’t at all high on my list of favorite episodes, it doesn’t even crack my top 30, maybe not even my top 40, but it was still a great episode. I just found it struggled to stand out among the rest in the series. In terms of writing, I feel like The Last of the Starks and The Iron Throne are much better written episodes. In fact, I consider The Last of the Starks to be the most underrated episode of the series.
I also disagree with you on Episode 3. That was a masterpiece if there ever was one.
I disagreed with almost all the top votes.
You’re right, people have been swayed by nostalgia and wish-fulfilment. Best Dramatic Scene? With everything else this season had to show us? Ridiculous.
Chilli,
Well I never said everyone has to agree with me.
Young Dragon,
I’m not saying it’s not good for what it was but it’s written in a way to celebrate the show and to not make anyone angry.
It has no plot so people can’t complain about plot holes. Everything is happening in one place so people can’t complain about “teleporting”. It’s just characters taking about the past mixed with great song at the end. It’s sentimental and nice but it was literally the easiest episode to write.
I love Lena Headey, both for her portrayal of selfish Cersei and for the wonderful human being she is in real life. Yes, Season 8 skimped on screen time for Cersei, and didn’t give her much to do in the limited time she did have.
Still, Lena Headey would have gotten more votes and might have eked out a win:
(a) If Cersei hadn’t been saddled with that goofball Euron. Ugh.
(b) If Harry “Blink and You Missed Me” Strickland had brought the damned elephants!
🐘🐘🐘🐘
(c) Most of all, if Cersei had been given a memorable death scene to showcase Lena Headey’s acting, instead of whimpering about her alleged baby, crying in Jaime’s arms despite paying to have him whacked, and then dying off camera in a roof collapse that curiously didn’t crush her and left her corpse covered by only a few tiles.
While I did not want Arya to be the one to kill Cersei, I can only imagine how Lena Headey would have nailed an extended death by a thousand cuts type farewell scene, or something along the lines of the multiple puncturing + exsanguination of Meryn F*cking Trant.
I felt Lena Headey the actress and Cersei Lannister the character deserved to go out in a stubborn rage of anger and pain, with a “hang the world” attitude. A sobbing, sympathetic Cersei + pristine corpse just… didn’t do the trick. A mortally wounded Cersei flinging insults with her dying breaths … that would have been more faithful to the character built up over seven seasons.
For me, it’s hard to just look at the technical aspects of the episode. Bryan Cogman captured the emotions I was feeling at the time. With all of the hype of how many may die in Episode 3, I was a nervous wreck all week. Episode 2 gave me a chance to say goodbye to all of the characters I grew to love over so many years, because I thought most wouldn’t make it past episode 3. Even though most did survive, many of the others did die before the end of season 8. And all of them are gone now that the show is over. For me, it captured what was best about all of the characters. I’ve said it before, but Jenny’s lyrics were also perfect, because I never wanted to leave. I wanted the show to go on longer. Taking all of my emotions out of it, I wouldn’t be looking at the same episode, and I wouldn’t have rated it as high. Looking at it more detached is impossible for me to do though.
Episode 2 is the best by default. It has the fewest issues and plot holes compared with the others.
Episode 1 was bland, and Episodes 3 to 6 were disastrous in terms of writing. Episode 2 wins by virtue of having far fewer problems than Episodes 3 to 6, and being far more emotional than Episode 1.
Episode 2 was the true goodbye to the characters, and yes, the incredible Jenny’s song was the best moment of the season, along with Brienne’s knighting. So no surprise that Episode 2 would win.
Young Dragon,
I agree. The Long Night is spectacular and brilliantly written by Mr. Benioff and Mr. Weiss. My favorite episode of the season is The Bells, second The Long Night. I also think that The Last of the Starks is a brilliant episode too. It has many great scenes. People just dislike it because they don’t like how Rheagal and Missandei died.
Chilli,
I thought episode 3 was a masterclass in how to write a giant 80 min battle and not get boring.
Ten Bears,
I thought her breaking down before she died was incredible. Had me getting very emotional.
That’s the problem. Cersei was the “hateful” villain we loved to hate because she was so unapologetically wicked. I’m not saying her warped upbringing (cold, selfish father) and life experiences (e.g., philandering, abusive husband)
didn’t play a significant part in producing such a self-centered, vengeful woman. (I’ve always felt that Tywin taught her to be cruel as a child. and man-whore Robert’s infatuation with a long-dead girl doomed any chance for Cersei to have a normal adulthood).
Still, to turn her into a sympathetic figure at the end felt like a betrayal of her character. She deserved to go out with her unrepentant “hang the world” attitude, not fearful and whimpering. After all, “when you play the game of thrones. you win or you die. There’s no middle ground.” She had a glorious run. Nothing to whine about.
• Disclaimer/Pseudo Spoiler Alert:
I’m admittedly influenced by Lena Headey’s kickass performance as the lead villain in the underrated “Dredd” (2012).* Here are two clips:
The introduction to her character; and her final scene.
Backstory:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqLL9Mt5t1U
Final scene:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkUUI9jGCU8
———
* Not to be confused with the silly Sylvester Stallone mess “Judge Dredd.”
Fireandblood87,
(First attempt to reply at 4:44 pm stuck in moderation. I’m re-posting without the two embedded links to clips from a Lena Headey movie, “Dredd” (2022). Multiple links sometimes trigger the site’s algorithms.)
——-
You wrote: “I thought her breaking down before she died was incredible. Had me getting very emotional.”
Reply: That’s problem. Cersei was the “hateful” villain we loved to hate because she was so unapologetically wicked. I’m not saying her warped upbringing (cold, selfish father) and life experiences (e.g., philandering, abusive husband)
didn’t play a significant part in producing such a self-centered, vengeful woman. (I’ve always felt that Tywin taught her to be cruel as a child. and man-whore Robert’s infatuation with a long-dead girl doomed any chance for Cersei to have a normal adulthood).
Still, to turn her into a sympathetic figure at the end felt like a betrayal of her character. She deserved to go out with her unrepentant “hang the world” attitude, not fearful and whimpering. After all: “When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die. There’s no middle ground.” She had a glorious run. Nothing to whine about.
• Disclaimer/Pseudo Spoiler Alert:
I’m admittedly influenced by Lena Headey’s kickass performance as the lead villain in the underrated “Dredd” (2012). Here are two clips:
The introduction to her character; and her final scene.
****
[Please check back later for links after my 4:44 pm comment is liberated from Moderation.]
I’m NOT controverting what you wrote about Episode 3. I’m just unclear what you meant that it was the “worst written episode.”
I had my own problems with Episode 3, mainly that the NK turned into an idiot and needlessly exposed himself and his entire army to disintegration (thanks to the insertion of the cliched “mothership” plot device); Jon Snow
didn’t do much beyond yell at an undead dragon; Bran’s big contribution was warging into birdies for some never-explained reason, and the existential threat of the “long night” teased for seven years was over and done with in less than an hour and a half.
There wasn’t a whole lot of dialogue in the episode considering the run time. It was mostly action sequences.
Did you mean the plotting and logic weren’t well-conceived? Or that the battle strategies and defenses didn’t make sense?
Well, a consensus of opinions doesn’t really show a “lack of diversity in opinions.”
As for Peter Dinklage in S8, I personally found his performance as Tyrion underwhelming especially compared to the witty Tyrion of Seasons 1 – 3.
I almost cringed watching Tyrion outside the city walls trying to “negotiate” with Cersei by bringing up her alleged baby; and again during his speech in the finale about “stories” and nominating “Bran the Broken.” (His final scene at the Small Council meeting – rearranging chairs and then starting to tell the jackass and honeycomb joke again without delivering the punch line for a third time – was derivative and not very amusing.)
Look, I’ve acknowledged repeatedly that writing sharp, witty and intelligent dialogue for a character like Tyrion must have been extremely difficult without source material. And for whatever reason in the final seasons Tyrion’s “clever plans” resulted in a string of failures; he was consistently outsmarted and outmaneuvered; and the plot apparently called for Tyrion to take Cersei at her word – when there’s no way early season Tyrion would ever trust Cersei. Turning in his bff Varys and persuading Jon to put down Dany (instead of doing it himself) were not shining moments for Tyrion or for Dinklage. (And that’s not even considering the ridiculous wight hunt plan he came up with in S7.)
The way I look at it is that Peter Dinklage suffered the most from the lack of source material.
Chilli,
Episode 3 wasn’t bad!
Ten Bears,
For me nothing made sense in episode 3, the plotting, logic, battle strategies, defenses, … And it’s the first time in GOT history that a whole episode didn’t make sense at all. I liked the visuals, but that’s the only thing. I agree with you about Bran and Jon, but sadly that weren’t the only problems. You see Sam being overcrowded by wights and the next time you see him, he is perfectly alright. And that happens several times with different characters. Even an episode like Beyond the wall, at least finished a fight by someone helping out the person in trouble. And I couldn’t believe Sam would be such a coward since he’s the only one besides Jon who had already killed a white walker and survived the fist of the first men.
To be clear, I love Arya, but Arya in the library with a wight I was really wondering what both were doing there. It just took me out of the episode. And the main problem, I had expected a more damned if you do, damned if you don’t ending. Arya killing the Night King with a jump out of nowhere, was too much Deus ex machina. I don’t care if they use a Deus ex machina in smaller episodes, but not for a problem they were talking about for 8 seasons. I had really hoped Bran and Sam would have contributed somehow by revealing who the Night King was defeated the first time. I thought that was why Sam went to the Citadel and Bran became the 3ER. But nothing came of it, besides from alienating Jon from Dany and because of that so many people in Kingslanding were killed.
I should rewatch the episode to write down all the problems I had with it. I rewatched it once to see if I missed something, but it didn’t get better on rewatch.
I had so high hopes after episode 2, but GOT died for me in episode 3.
Game of Thrones did excellent battle episodes in the past, I really loved Blackwater, Watchers on the Wall, Hardhome, … That’s the reason why I was so disappointed with this episode 3 because I knew they were capable of so much better.
mau,
I liked Episode 2 because of the Sandor-Arya “I fought for you, didn’t I?” interlude, and though I was taken aback at first I thought the Arya interrogation/seduction of Gendry was well-done.
I can see why Jaime knighting Brienne was the highlight of the episode and the highlight of the season. It was a great moment for both characters – notwithstanding its dilution by the awkward sex scene and Jaime subsequently abandoning her.
Ten Bears,
Tyrion’s scenes in the last two episodes are better than anything Nikolaj did since S3.
Tyrion’s plans have nothing to do with his acting. Peter showed true range in the last season, from comic relief to dramatic scenes. And his “power of stories” speech was another masterclass in acting.
Ten Bears,
Your obsession with Arya is becoming creepy I must say. Almost every post you write is just about her and you spin every conversation to Arya.
Ten Bears,
Cersei was sympathetic figure since S2. Not all the time ofc, but she was never written as a pure villain.
I’m not sure what you are really talking about when it comes to her death. Giving her comic book villain’s death would be betrayal of her character, not what D&D did. Her death was consistent with the way the show wrote her, because they constantly refused to give sense of satisfaction and catharsis when something bad happens to Cersei.
Every “punishment” towards her was written to make you feel bad and see the futility of revenge. Death scene was consistent there.
Fireandblood87,
True. You see cracks in her since the end of S6. She tries to act like she is beyond caring but she is not. In 701 in that scene with Jaime she literally runs from conversation about Tommen because she knows it hurts so much, she can’t talk about it. In scene with Ellaria in 703 you again see that when she said “why did you do it”.
Iconic scene with Tyrion at the end of S7 you see her almost breaking again. After Euron leaves in 801 she almost starts crying. And finally in The Bells there is no point in keeping that mask anymore. She is broken.
Oh my yes a thousand times!!! why they ,made her a little cipher the entire season just made no sense, and yes I wanted to see her die fighting! This is the woman who survived the walk of shame, survived the death of her children, who had way too many woman ‘younger and more beautiful’ try to take away everything she had. I would have paid good money to see that (hell, let her die getting in the middle of Clegane Bowl, that would have been m ore interesting
I do wonder if at any point during the bells, she would have put out a white flag. If she offerered to surrender, would Dany accetp it, would it be sincere, and would it be enough to stop the slaughter?
Tron79,
And all of them are gone now that the show is over. For me, it captured what was best about all of the characters. I’ve said it before, but Jenny’s lyrics were also perfect, because I never wanted to leave. I wanted the show to go on longer. Taking all of my emotions out of it, I wouldn’t be looking at the same episode, and I wouldn’t have rated it as high. Looking at it more detached is impossible for me to do though.
Totally agree Id also include parts of 4 in this; Jons eulogy, the grief of Sansa, Dany, the celebration of life with the characters we love, some of whom do end up dying in the end. I felt a part of it and its really hard to let that go (have to admit having the photo and costume books help!, but still)
Ten Bears,
I also was frustrated by Tyrions character (not his performance, which was always on target)But its almost like the writer needed to call GRRM and ask for pointers o dialogue and plot coz they really seemed to drop several IQ points. And why oh why didn’t he share his conversation with Bran with the others? He does say ‘I think we might just live’, but this would have given us a sense of what was really ging on in this kids head. To suddenly say, oh he has the best stories = huh?
Chilli,
I too was disappointed that the supposed brain trust of Sam snd Bran didn’t unearth any information to defeat the WWs. I suspect this is another instance where the narrative gaps caused by GRRM’s dilatory writing rendered the showrunners unable to come up with meaningful contributions by Sam and Bran. (And that stuff from Bran about the NK coming after him to erase his “memories,” and Sam’s word salad about “forgetting” making us no better than animals, surely could not have been what GRRM had in mind.)
And as much as a fellow commenter recently groused about my appreciation for Arya, and although I liked her brief wight-slicing and dicing
scene, I agree with your observation that:
“To be clear, I love Arya, but Arya in the library with a wight I was really wondering what both were doing there. It just took me out of the episode. And the main problem, I had expected a more damned if you do, damned if you don’t ending. Arya killing the Night King with a jump out of nowhere, was too much Deus ex machina. I don’t care if they use a Deus ex machina in smaller episodes, but not for a problem they were talking about for 8 seasons.”
The related problem with the showrunners’ decision to have Arya take the kill shot is that it neutered Jon Snow. It essentially eliminated him from the very climax of his own story line that had been built up since S1, and teased in the spooky staredown by NK at the conclusion to “Hardhome.”
Benioff said something like “it didn’t feel right” that Jon should square off against NK so they chose Arya because nobody expected it. Like springing “Bran the Broken” as king at the end, sometimes going with an unlikely candidate without build up doesn’t “subvert” expectations; it just feels like it came out of left field.
“The Long Night” was loaded with sensory treats. I’ll appreciate it for that.
After all Cersei had done to win the throne and hold onto it, I wouldn’t want to see her surrender. I’m not sure she was even capable of entertaining the concept of capitulation. Too proud.
Surrender would have probably meant being paraded in chains down Main Street, and I doubt she’d ever allow herself to be humiliated like that again after the Walk of Shame.
And who knows how Grey Worm and Dany would react after what Cersei did to Missandei. Based on the way Grey Worm was murdering Lannister soldiers who had already surrendered, I doubt that an offer to surrender would have been accepted by Dany and stopped the slaughter. I’m not sure Cersei’s head would have remained on her shoulders long enough to find out.
A final thought: During the Battle of the Blackwater when it looked like defeat was imminent, Cersei was ready to poison Tommen and have Illyn Payne kill her rather than being taken prisoner by Stannis. She wasn’t sulking or crying about her child. She wasn’t afraid of dying. She was a steely-eyed, fearless realist who’d rather die as a queen than live as a defeated (and likely violated) captive.
That is the Cersei I had expected to see when defeat and death were imminent in “The Bells.”
ash,
”… And why oh why didn’t he [Tyrion] share his conversation with Bran with the others? He does say ‘I think we might just live’, but this would have given us a sense of what was really ging on in this kids head. To suddenly say, oh he has the best stories = huh?”
Right? Add that to the list of “Missed Conversations.” We saw Tyrion pull up a chair to listen to Bran tell him his story — and then the scene abruptly ended. We never heard what Bran told Tyrion, and Tyrion “didn’t share his conversation with Bran with the others.”
Geez… If the whole reason for nominating Bran and persuading everyone to say “Aye” was that Bran had “the best story,” it might have been nice to know what he was talking about. (How would the participants even know what a “Three-Eyed Raven” is? And if Bran repeated what he’d told Meera and Jaime, that he really wasn’t Brandon Stark anymore, then the assembled lords might wonder who exactly they were voting for.)
No worries. Simple solution: Don’t read what I write and don’t respond to it, and I’ll ignore what you write and won’t reply to it. Deal?
FYI: I came across this clip of a brightened version of the concluding scene of S8e3 (Theon kamikaze charge, Jon yelling at Viserion, Arya taking out NK, Sandor Ahai bringing the dawn, and Melisandre walking off).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IwGlctLkL0
I was able to better appreciate some of the details watching this brightened clip, e.g., characters’ expressions and movements.
I agree about the funeral. Watching Sansa and Theon together really got to me in season 8. I don’t think WotW had a poll for the best couple of season 8, but I would have voted for “Sanson” or “Thesa”. Was there ever an official name for them? When Sansa placed the Stark pin on Theon, I lost it. They had wonderful moments without saying anything. It also showed me just how much Sophie Turner grew as an actress over the 10 years. Alfie I think was always a great character actor throughout the series, and he took things to a new level for me in season 8. I agree with the voting for him.
It was also pretty cool how they made the flames work. I watched the behind the scenes video, and the GOT crew was quite clever.
Wanna see how many of the 17 awards went to the candidates I picked…
-Episode–yeah, #2 easily. Emotional, close to perfect, the most like a prior-season episode. TLN would be #2, except the excitement got murdered along with the Night King when he was killed so quickly and easily, when the Great War felt as if it were just getting underway. Winterfell #3. Then TLotS, which I sort of liked at first but now loathe as Act I of the three-act play that destroys the series’ rewatchability. I made it through all the full-series Blu-ray bonus material recently, but there’ll always be that nagging feeling of “I’mma have to leave off those last episodes and choose my own ending, knowing where this is going.” The finale+The Bells=dead last.
-I think I went with Nikolaj, Emilia (Lena & Maisie kinda tied for 2nd), Gwen, & Vlad. Probably picked Iain for Supporting Actor, but the only acting category I felt very strongly on was Guest Actress anyway (no contest there.)
-Did I go with the Dothraki charge for Dramatic Moment…or Jenny of Oldstones? Well, either way, I’m pretty fine with Brienne’s knighting taking it.
-VFX scene was between the moonlit dragons and the charge again…so yeah, fine choice there.
-Funniest scene/line–I think I chose Tormund’s speech for one of ’em, probably scene…maybe I did the “blue eyes” or Sam quote…but most of the “funniest” nominees were hilarious anyway.
-Mel’s death came in 5th?! D-8 Well, Jorah’s would’ve gotten my silver medal, so…
-I voted for the 3rd-place costume, fight, and overall quote. A lovely quote won, though.
-Voted for the close 2nd-place speech (but boy, people sure did love Brienne’s knighting, lol. Can’t really blame ’em.) And yep, obviously the BoW for Battle.
Sooooo that means 8/17 or 47% of my votes won…nearly half. Not too shabby, I suppose. Especially since some were so difficult.
Mad points to TB, Chilli, Nick20, Kevin, & Ash.
Ship name for Theon and Sansa is Theonsa. Yeah, those two pulled on my heartstrings and had great acting chemistry together.
Ten Bears,
If people can make fun of Jack’s obsession with Mr. Benioff and Mr. Weiss, I don’t see why people can’t make fun if this, because it’s equally ridiculous.
Fully disagree. How does it ‘neuter’ Jon when everybody including Arya is there because of him? He (and Sam and Bran) is also responsible for all the dragonglass there.
And yes Jon and the NK have a staredown in Hardhome. But something way more important happens in that same episode. The NK sees Jon kill a WW with Longclaw.
So why o why would the NK let Jon get close to him? Let alone fight him in a 1 on 1 combat. It would be so obvious and cheesy. And you see in the LN episode that the NK keeps Jon away from him.
And I don’t think they chose Arya because nobody expected it. I think they looked at her story up until that point and because of all her training thought she is the only one to deliver the final blow.
mau,
I agree that Cersei’s death was mostly on point. The only problem I have with that scene is that she cries too much. I think a middle ground between her scene in Blackwater and her scene in the Bells would have been perfect. But I didn’t dislike her death. We were always meant to not feel happy at her death.
Jucor,
To be honest I wanted her to cry far more. I would love complete mental breakdown Hitler-style.
The Wolves of Winter,
Thinking that the entire Jon’s story lead to his duel with the NK is missing the entire point of his character and the entire story.
The Wolves of Winter,
I misspoke (or misstated?). I should have said I thought Jon was “neutered” during the battle itself. There’s no question that he was primarily responsible for assembling the anti-WW coalition and obtaining dragonglass. Further, despite his arguably unnecessary knee bending after the debacle on the Frozen Lake, Jon did succeed in accomplishing both objectives of his mission south: bring back dragonglass and allies with dragons.
Still, when it came down to the battle itself, did the dragonglass make that much of a difference? It looked to me like the zombies swarmed WF anyway. Neither dragonglass nor fire trenches slowed them up for very long. For that matter, none of the VS swords took out any White Walkers as far as I could see. (I was hoping Jon might at least try to impale undead Viserion with Longclaw instead of yelling and ducking behind a rock. Experienced swordfighters wielding Oathkeeper, “Widow’s Wail,” Heartsbane and Longclaw were all gathered at WF. Did any of them pulverize a WW?)
I don’t recall how Bran was “also responsible for all the dragonglass there.” Didn’t Jon know already know WWs and wights were vulnerable to dragonglass (see e.g. bag of DG offered to Wildlings at Hardhome in S5e8) and hadn’t he already left on his mission to Dragonstone in S7e2 before Bran’s return to WF? I don’t remember Bran helping in obtaining dragonglass.
As for Sam, yes he saw the map in the Citadel showing a dragonglass deposit on Dragonstone, and fired off a raven to Jon notifying him about it. My only problem is that Sam was already aware since S5 that there was dragonglass on Dragonstone since Stannis had expressly told him that. Maybe Sam didn’t know the exact location of the motherlode designated on the map, but he did know enough to justify sending prospectors to look for dragonglass. The presence of DG on Dragonstone certainly wasn’t news to Sam; I’m not sure why Sam hadn’t suggested an exploratory expedition to Dragonstone while he was still with Jon at CB.
As for NK avoiding Jon and Longclaw during the battle? (You wrote: “And you see in the LN episode that the NK keeps Jon away from him” for that reason.) I didn’t perceive it that way. I’ll watch again. I saw NK reanimate a bunch of corpses when Jon was getting close…
In any event, I still question why NK himself was anywhere near the battlefield when any one of his lieutenants or wights could have taken out a kid in a wheelchair, and anything from an errant DG-tipped arrow to a VS sword slice could pulverize NK and his entire army.
I’ll have to go back and find Benioff’s explanation for “deselecting” Jon and choosing Arya to be the Night Kingslayer. I thought I remembered Benioff giving their rationale during the “Inside the Episode” segment following S8e3.
(You wrote: “I don’t think they chose Arya because nobody expected it. I think they looked at her story up until that point and because of all her training thought she is the only one to deliver the final blow.“) You may be right. I could have misunderstood what Benioff said.
BTW, some fans had suggested that Jaime should have delivered the final blow to NK to bookend his “Kingslayer” story. I wouldn’t have minded if Theon had gotten the kill in his final moment while sacrificing himself in the defense of WF. Or, based on characters’ stories “up until that point” and their training…
[Gotta go; to be cont.]
Hmm, do not get me started.
Damn foolishness – 8.4,8.5 and 8.6. – Damn foolishness.
Tar and feathers…quartered and hung…stuff like that.
New York Times voted GOT8.2, KN7KN as one of the best episodes of TV in 2019.
It was one of the best episodes of GOT. Period.
Well, that went mostly as expected (and as I’d have liked). Except the way Melisandre died and maybe some of the fights.
The Wolves of Winter,
(Cont. from my 7:40 am reply)
Here’s the Benioff segment I was thinking of (re: “deselecting” Jon and designating Arya as Night Kingslayer):
“Inside the Episode” – The Long Night, S8e3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJ1yC3yESLQ
At 8:57 – 10:03:
Benioff explains that they “hoped to avoid the expected” and it “didn’t seem right” that Jon would deliver the fatal blow. Benioff also said that three years earlier they’d selected Arya as the one to kill NK, and they wrote the episode so “we won’t think about her,” i.e., we’d hopefully forget that Arya ran out of the castle earlier in the episode.
It’s no more creepy than your obsession with D&D.
Whats the obsession with the knighting scene?
dont get it…
anyway loved the season overall, sad to see my faves didn’t win but its all fun and games 🙂
Young Dragon,
agreed 🙂
I still love D&D, don’t get me wrong. I really loved most of the episodes they wrote! I only had a few problems with the final episodes, but I loved most of the episodes they have done before. I even loved them more than the book-versions. At least D&D ended their story, while we’ll probably never know the end GRRM had planned. I only wished D&D had left GRRM and gone for their own ending that naturally followed from the previous episodes, not some shocking moments that were never really established.
Mr Derp,
lol
I can’t remember everything I voted for but it looks like a few won 🙂
Chilli,
I share a lot of these sentiments! 🙂
Chilli,
”… At least D&D ended their story, while we’ll probably never know the end GRRM had planned. I only wished D&D had left GRRM and gone for their own ending that naturally followed from the previous episodes, not some shocking moments that were never really established.”
Somebody analogized the showrunners’ unanticipated challenge of completing GRRM’s unfinished story while reaching GRRM’s planned ending, to staging Romeo & Juliet if Shakespeare had only completed half of the play but supplied the ending. To paraphrase the analogy:
– A boy and girl meet and fall in love before learning each other’s last names, and then realize their families are bitter enemies. They meet in secret and declare their love for each other in beautiful, poetic language.
– Then stuff happens in the yet-to be written second half.
– At the end, the boy kills himself and the girl kills herself.
With opening night a few weeks away, a theater director forced to extrapolate scenes from scratch that justify the predetermined ending would be hard-pressed to match the eloquence and artistry of the dilatory playwright.
Despite the theater director’s best efforts under severe time constraints, he’d likely be excoriated as a “hack” who “butchered” Shakespeare’s masterpiece, turned Romeo into a dweeb and Juliet into a bimbo, and left gaping “plot holes” in the story.
Undoubtedly much of the audience would walk out muttering “that ending sucked.”
Chilli,
But they were established.
Ten Bears,
It would have been great to see Dinklage ask “Where do Whores go” over and over.
Fireandblood87,
I miss the Tyrion and Dinklage’s performances of the early seasons.
Like this:
Tyrion & Lancel S2e4 “Garden of Bones”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFdj7wPf2XI
(At 1:01 -Check out how Tyrion looks up, knowing he’s snared Lancel)
Fireandblood87,
And rape slaves. It’s interesting that twitter never had problem with GRRM using rape of female “extras” to develop male characters.
Grandmaester Flash,
yeah, people get easily swayed by sentimental scenes like that. I don’t understand it either. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy the scene but “best” anything? No, nope, no.
Belatedly I would like to congratulate the winners of the prizes – as well as the winners of the categories.
Ten Bears,
Of course we’re all entitled to our opinions but have to disagree with yours. The beauty of Headey’s performance was that she was a sympathetic villain. Her conversation with Robert regarding their marriage and with Ned Stark regarding family. Her love of her daughter. The complete disrespect from her father regarding her abilities. Unlike Joffrey and Ramsay who were evil for evils sake, there were many reasons for Cersei’s behavior. I thought her final scene was totally believable. In other instances (like the probable win by Stannis) where she was in danger, she had not watched her entire world be destroyed, had not lost her children and her lover/brother. At the end she had lost everything she held dear except Jamie and him returning along with her carrying his baby would be enough for her to become finally to be the needy one. To lose all pride and show her weakness with the only person left to her she could do it with. She also had no other real choice and in the past, she always had some control over her destiny in even the worst situations. She couldn’t walk out and surrender, she would have been burned to death by Drogon. She could have committed suicide but there was no time. So for the first time, she had no other options, no way out. She was finally broken. To me, anything else would have been a false ending for her.
Hard to disagree with any of these! Also thanks to the Watchers staff for organising these polls, even though I missed a few they were all really fun to participate in and generated lots of good discussion within the comments. Sad to think there won’t be any more at least until the prequel drops next year.
Overrated seems very harsh. I feel it carried tension and emotion and explored the character relationships as they faced near certain death. I would struggle to pick a fault with it. No doubt in my mind it’s main competitor was/is the Long Night which is immense TV however I could pick some (relatively minor) faults with that episode.