canyonwalker (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
canyonwalker) wrote2022-11-11 07:53 am
canyonwalker) wrote2022-11-11 07:53 am
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Game of Thrones Season 7: Unearned Plot Points
Something that's bugged me across the arc of Game of Thrones season 7 on TV is the series's reliance on unearned plot points. The writers have written a number of results into the season's plot that are unsupported by... well... the previous 60+ episodes.
This happens a number of times in season 7. Armies loyal to the queen score major victories... how, exactly? We're told they're depleted of soldiers and money from years of war. Meanwhile their enemy is numerically superior and wealthy. And in one case is holding a defensive position worth a significant force multiplier. Yet the queen's side wins.
The ridiculous victories happen off camera, of course. Some might point out that many great battles in the previous 6 seasons were fought off camera, too. How is this different? It's different because those previous fights were plotted out carefully. George RR Martin wrote painfully long books full of way too much detail about battles. (It's a failing of certain fantasy authors, I've noticed, to be battle obsessed.) Now that the showrunners are firmly beyond everything written in the books published so far, they're totally on their own and they're winging it.... Badly.
It's not just battle results that are unearned. The heroic rescue at the end of S7E6 was unearned. Writers flouted rules of time and space to accommodate lazy writing, then the director sneered at fans for calling shenanigans. The surprise with Petyr Baelish in S7E7 was mostly unearned, too. The writers included major characters suddenly having key bits of knowledge and, more importantly, tight coordination on how to act, without showing how either was accomplished. We can guess where the knowledge came from, but the coordination is hard to believe.
Do other shows take cheap shortcuts in writing to support desired plot outcomes? Of course they do. And I call them out when they happen in those shows, too. But the TV writing for Game of Thrones has been fairly tight in that regard, at least up through season 6. That makes the suddenly amateurish writing more appalling.
This happens a number of times in season 7. Armies loyal to the queen score major victories... how, exactly? We're told they're depleted of soldiers and money from years of war. Meanwhile their enemy is numerically superior and wealthy. And in one case is holding a defensive position worth a significant force multiplier. Yet the queen's side wins.
The ridiculous victories happen off camera, of course. Some might point out that many great battles in the previous 6 seasons were fought off camera, too. How is this different? It's different because those previous fights were plotted out carefully. George RR Martin wrote painfully long books full of way too much detail about battles. (It's a failing of certain fantasy authors, I've noticed, to be battle obsessed.) Now that the showrunners are firmly beyond everything written in the books published so far, they're totally on their own and they're winging it.... Badly.
It's not just battle results that are unearned. The heroic rescue at the end of S7E6 was unearned. Writers flouted rules of time and space to accommodate lazy writing, then the director sneered at fans for calling shenanigans. The surprise with Petyr Baelish in S7E7 was mostly unearned, too. The writers included major characters suddenly having key bits of knowledge and, more importantly, tight coordination on how to act, without showing how either was accomplished. We can guess where the knowledge came from, but the coordination is hard to believe.
Do other shows take cheap shortcuts in writing to support desired plot outcomes? Of course they do. And I call them out when they happen in those shows, too. But the TV writing for Game of Thrones has been fairly tight in that regard, at least up through season 6. That makes the suddenly amateurish writing more appalling.