It Was A Fantastic Episode

Published May 29, 2019 · Updated July 6, 2022

Hey Big D & Gene,

First off Big D, you need to shut the fuck up about George R. R. Martin dropping the ball. You have contradicted yourself in the same episodes. You’re talking off the cuff and not even thinking about what you are saying. Because if you did, you’d shut the fuck up.

You and Gene both tell us how the series was awesome….until Marin stopped consulting on it and then the showrunners had to write the script themselves and everything went downhill from there, boo hoo hoo. Shit on Martin, not the Double D’s. And yet, your’e telling use how amazing it was that the scene where Dany finally touches the Iron Throne in a broken throne room while ashes fall like snow is exactly like the premonition scene all the way back in…Season 2. Seven Hells years ago…when Martin was still writing and consulting for the show. Hmmm odd how similar the scenes are when the showrunners had no fucking clue where it was going once Martin left.

Here’s my gist: Martin knows how the books are going to end and thats’s how he told the showrunners to end it. He’s known all along how it’s going to end; they’re not writing this thing on the fly. We know this from when they told us that Martin informed them how Hodor would get his name. The only difference is that the showrunners have had to fill in the details. Stop bitching about Martin sucking. Actually, stop bitching in general. For claiming you two love the show so much you’ve been doing an awful lot of criticism about it this season. Just fucking enjoy it dudes *Eeyore voice: “it lasted a little too long…I could have done without seeing Arya on the ship or Sansa getting crowned. It was too much like Lord of the Rings.”

Give me a fucking break. Lord of the Rings was 3 years and 9 hours and took 45 min to wrap up. This show was 8 years, well over 71 hours, and it hasn’t earned an extra 10 minutes to tie up loose ends?? Come on Big D. For reals. I think the only reason Martin has taken so long to write the books is because he no longer has a story to tell. The show has done it for him. Why should he wrap it up on paper when the show has outdone him on screen? In my mind, I think the show has told every major point that Martin was going to get to, they just did it in a less circuitous way. (If ya’ll had read all 5 books you’d understand what I mean.)

Now is the part where I quit my bitching about you two and talk about the show.

Did I like the ending? No fucking way! I wanted to see Cersei die by dragon fire. Or, better yet, I wanted Jaime to be the one that killed her. I wanted to see a happy ending where the heroine and hero live together happily ever after and rule over Westeros in peace and harmony and they die peacefully in their feather beds holding hands at a ripe old age of 95.. Just like every other American film or TV show where the hero always eeks it out in the end. If he doesn’t, he dies an honorable death and is revered as a hero after. But that’s not why we like GOT is it? We know why we like it. We remember vividly that moment 8 years ago. We all got hooked in Season 1, Episode 9, where Ned Stark, the honorable hero, did not eek it out in the end. Nor, in fact did he die an honorable death. He died giving up his honor, by betraying his own conscience, and then he fucking lost head anyway. That’s not how it was supposed to end! He was supposed to be saved at the last second. He’s Sean Bean motha fucka. He’s a fucking legend!!! He can’t die. If he does die at least it’s supposed to be honorable! And then… we fell in love. Because this was no ordinary show. The honorable hero doesn’t necessarily win in the end in this show.

So…how the fuck did I get wrapped up in the thought that Dany and John were going to get married and rule Westeros together in harmony as king and queen forever? I literally lost $25 on that bet (my friends and I had a betting pool going). How could I have been so stupid? And I wasn’t even mad that Dany died. I was pissed off that John, the last of his name, the last Targaryen on earth, the last of a great dynasty family that has gone on for centuries, the one true, rightful heir to the Iron Throne…and his own brother exiles to the end of the world. Fuuuuuuck you GOT. (To his credit Bran knew he would just seek freedom beyond the wall which is why he exiled him there. The only caveat is he has to live in Siberia for the rest of fucking frigid life. Fuck that. I live in South Florida and currently in California part-time. I hate frigid places.)

I was mad, and pissed off at the ending. And then I realized, this is exactly how I felt at the end of Season 1, episode 9. And this is why I love the show. It was unpredictable. Yet it gave viewers predictable scenes that the audience had been yearning for after 8 years. (Big D, would you really have preferred that The Mountain simply threw the Hound down on the bricks, smashed his head and kept going? Would that really have been satisfying for you? Really? After 8 years? Gimme a fucking break. You’d be complaining about lack of imagination in the writing.). And, GOT gave us a happy ending after all, even if we didn’t like it. If they had truly wanted to buck the trend Cersei would still be Queen and Dany and her Stark friends would all have their heads sitting on spikes atop the Mud Gate.

This show is genius. It has set the bar for any big shows that come after it, and I don’t know if we will see anything like it in our lifetimes. I don’t watch TV. I just don’t. I don’t know why. Maybe I need to relax more. Maybe I should stope trying to go to full time grad school and full time work at the same time, but even before I started school, I didn’t watch TV; I just don’t have time. But I watched GOT. I work the night shift, and I would make it a point to ask for Sunday nights off just to watch it. I tried to get into Breaking Bad, couldn’t get past the first episode. Tried to start the Walking Dead. I love zombies. Still haven’t gotten past the first episode. Only got through half of Season 1 of Westworld. GOT is epic. I look forward to the spin offs; I will watch them diligently, I’m sure. But there will be nothing like this show for a long time.

As much as I diss you guys, I loved the podcast. Stay well, and you’ll probably inspire me to watch more TV just so I can listen to your podcast afterwards. Volar Morgulis.

David in Cali

PS: Gene, if you ever want to get a drink together, just lemme know. Wherever you are, I travel often. 😉

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