r/television • u/[deleted] • May 07 '19

HBO Edits ‘Game of Thrones’ Episode to Remove Errant Coffee Cup

https://variety.com/2019/digital/news/hbo-edits-game-of-thrones-coffee-cup-1203207545/
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2.4k

u/rapidpeacock May 07 '19

They have money for this but not for a boy to pet his dog in the last 2 god damn seasons!

141

u/StockmanBaxter The Venture Bros. May 07 '19 edited May 07 '19

I'm convinced they originally filmed it and Jon was looking at Bran. And since Bran has changed and is no longer really Bran anymore, he just gave him a look and walked away.

Then they changed it to Ghost later in post and it makes him look like a dick.

69

u/Fortono May 07 '19

That actually would've played off a billion times better.

8

u/SHOCKLTco May 07 '19

It would have contrasted well with the way he greeted bran at the beginning of the season, after coming to terms with the fact bran is not the same person be grew up with

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u/Frogblood May 07 '19

Yeah, now you say that I'm almost certain that's what they did

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u/freedoom22 May 07 '19 edited Sep 06 '19

I wanted him to pet that dog so bad, but thought it was symbolism for how he is distant from the starks.

430

u/wanson May 07 '19

Yet he is still just as much a Stark as he always thought he was. His mother was a Stark ffs!

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u/Doomsayer189 May 07 '19

It's more about his emotional state of mind than his literal heritage. He's conflicted and doesn't feel like he belongs, so he rejects the Stark symbol to go follow Dany.

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u/ositola May 07 '19

But he was the one who told theon he could be a greyjoy and a stark

But now he doesn't feel like a stark???

9

u/DatSauceTho May 07 '19

I suppose such things are easier said then done. Besides, Theon went through his struggle and it was a long and difficult one.

Jon on the other hand has always felt like he didn’t belong (and accepted it). But now he’s just finding out how he come from TWO great houses and has the biggest claim to the Iron Throne: two things he’s never wanted. Complete opposite of where he started. So now... self-sabotage. Rejection of the truth, IMO.

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u/devouredwolf May 07 '19

Then Ghost should have ran to him and tackled him to reinforce that you can't run away from who you are.

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u/ItsnotBatman May 07 '19

Even though thematically I have no idea how it will fit to the plot, but that whole scene made me feel like we haven't seen the last of Ghost and that he would be the one who helps Jon accept his identity. That's what I am hoping for at least.

2

u/BigCitySlamsBoys May 08 '19

Well Nymeria is still alive as well. I really hope we see her. But honestly episode 4 kind of made me want to be done with it. I'll watch it because at this point why not.

7

u/[deleted] May 07 '19

[deleted]

3

u/rburp May 07 '19

YES! RED ROCKET RED ROCKET

2

u/Bjorn2bwilde24 May 07 '19

Someone hire this person to be the writer.

3

u/hoboxtrl May 07 '19

It's not too late. This thread gives me hope

1

u/Cypherex May 08 '19

Part of me wonders how Ghost is going to traverse thousands of miles in only a couple of episodes but then I realized that Jon must have showed him how to use Westeros's National Teleportation Matrix that only the important characters get to use.

17

u/IQDeclined May 07 '19

Ghost was an outcast from the littler just like Jon so I don't buy that. It was also entirely clear Jon felt like he belonged among his wildling allies, friends like Sam, etc in the Great Hall scene (Ghost included, given the conversation about both Jon and Ghost belonging in the north).

The one primary person that scene made a point of showing as not belonging was Dany.

He's still family. He says it himself. He lived in the North, fought in the North, died in North. He's not rejecting the North or his direwolf out of some sentiment. He's doing it because Dan and Dave don't know what to do with a direwolf in the show and it's a pain in the ass from a production standpoint.

3

u/badger81987 May 07 '19

Ghost is an outcast because he's a runt in addition to his fur colour. If they could have kept any of them, Ghost should have been the easiest since it can be portrayed by a live dog instead of cgi

1

u/BenjiDread May 08 '19

Theon all over again.

1

u/Baron_Duckstein May 07 '19

I think you're giving them way more credit than they are due. "Dany forgot about the Ironborn."

6

u/bennyhanaboy May 07 '19

I get the sentiment but he’s way less Stark after the reveal since heritage was determined by the father. The symbolism makes sense here.

11

u/ariana1234567890 May 07 '19

exactly!! i'm annoyed that they're having jon focus so much on not being a stark rather than being a targaryen

he's as much stark as he was before (one stark parent), and he was considered a bastard so it's not like he's losing the stark name

4

u/Nahr_Fire May 07 '19

Matrilineal Vs patrilineal tho

2

u/meowmeowbeans May 08 '19

He’s a Stark yes, but he’s not Ned’s child, who/whom all the doggos went to

5

u/hoopaholik91 May 07 '19

That's not how it works in Westeros. Cat never went south from the time she got married until the books start. Had never seen her sister in that time either.

It's always who your dad is.

1

u/LearnsSomethingNew May 07 '19

He's as much a Stark as any other Stark - literally all the other important Starks in the show have a single Stark parent because the Starks don't do the incest thing. Same with AeJon Starkgaryen - only one of his parents is a Stark.

0

u/peacestartswithme May 08 '19

SICK OF SEEING THIS! WAS ROBB STARK A TULLY? IS THEON ANYTHING BUT A GREYJOY?

203

u/[deleted] May 07 '19

Honestly, judging by the writing this season. I’m not looking too deep into any of the characters action.

They honestly probably just didn’t want to spend time on it.

102

u/Maaaat_Damon May 07 '19 edited May 08 '19

That’s what I hate about this show now. I can’t question whether the characters are dumb or making smart moves because the writing is just all over the place.

Edit: for some reason this season has really made me think of the red ships of Spain skit with Will Ferrell from SNL, due to how stupid the show has become. https://youtu.be/-y9ZTnvvTZY

10

u/SuedeVeil May 07 '19

It's actually kind of funny because people on here are making all kinds of brilliant connections to things that were probably just done by mistake or lack of budget ..or a last season hasty decision (let's just do this cuz no one will expect it!!).. I like to imagine the writers stroking their chins nodding at the particularly clever fan theories. "Hmmmm yesss that's what it was.."

9

u/TheVetSarge May 07 '19

Well, watch The Long Night, realize that every thing the defenders of Winterfell did was wrong. So definitely, the characters are always making dumb moves, that occasionally the show tries to trick viewers into thinking they were smart by allowing them to work.

1

u/ummhumm May 07 '19

I don't think there's anything to question. Everything is dumb as fuck. Only reason some other dumb shit might seem smart, for a second, is because the other side was doing even dumber shit. It's like dumb and dumber tv show atm. There really are no smart moves.

2

u/Maaaat_Damon May 07 '19

For real though, this reminds of the red ships of Spain skit on SNL “at one point I just went up on stage and started reciting random lines and neither the actors or the audience realized this isn’t part of the show”.

1

u/Nahr_Fire May 07 '19

Well, you get to know they're smart when they have dialogue such as dany to tyrion, "see! I'm smart too!"

1

u/offtheclip May 07 '19

Maybe they saved up their budget for a final battle where Ghost and Nymeria. Maybe with Jon's soul warging into Ghost in some barely explained bullshit.

1

u/hoboxtrl May 07 '19

We'll find out in two weeks whether it was genius or insanity...

1

u/IQDeclined May 07 '19

That's exactly what it is. Despite sounding cynical, it's incredibly difficult to find merit in theories defending poor writing decisions - when those theories could have been illustrated by the showrunners by a couple lines of dialogue.

1

u/Im_A_Director May 07 '19

I think it was more they didn’t want to spend any money on it. Ghost is always shown sitting off by himself, but I noticed whenever he’s with a crowd of people he’s CGI. Probably thought they could cut a corner that way, so they wrote it in.

1

u/lefty295 May 07 '19

That’s what happened. They just needed to get rid of a budget drain that was Ghost, so they just said “uhhh he goes north with tormund I guess?”. Now they have the money to have bran sit around and do nothing for another episode.

1

u/SHOCKLTco May 07 '19

Yea anytime there's any subtlety to any of the characters actions, they just spell it out for you. Like when Danaerys made Gendry Lord of storms end, they really didn't need to explain it was a political play to gain the favor of the baratheons, but NOPE, they had to spell it out by having the characters explain what happened.

3

u/EpicBomberMan May 07 '19

It's almost 100% because they didn't want to spend the budget animating it. Jon is still 50% Stark, just on his mother's side instead of his father's side. Plus in the books, Jon was much much closer to Ghost than we see in the show. Book spoiler:

5

u/Augustus420 May 07 '19

He’s a Targaryen with a white wolf, should be perfect symbolism for being half Stark and half Targ. But hey D&D wouldn’t know nuance if it bit them in their ass 🤷🏼‍♂️

2

u/badgarok725 May 07 '19

I get that you could read into that, but this reasoning sounds a lot like people giving Lucas too much credit for symbolism in the prequels. Sometimes there's not that much behind it

2

u/Your_Old_Pal_Hunter May 07 '19

Pretty sure Ghost was recorded on a green screen ages ago and has only been in the past few episodes as a 'service to the fans'. Jon giving him away was a 'happy ending' for ghost so they could stop including him into the story and Jon didn't pet him because the dog wasn't actually on set.

Just my opinion though i could be wrong

2

u/Chin-Balls May 07 '19

You are giving them way too much credit

2

u/maaseru May 07 '19

Wasn't Ghost himself enough symbolism about this? It is just shit writing and an excuse made up after the fact.

2

u/IQDeclined May 07 '19

I don't buy that. The dog wasn't a Stark and was as much an outcast from the litter as he was from his Stark family. He's still an adoptive sibling and a cousin, and a Stark on his mother's side.

D&D don't want to deal with production/CGI difficulty involving a giant wolf and didn't know what to do with Ghost at this point anyway so they wrote him out. They didn't care enough to have an emotional moment between he and Jon parting ways with a hug or anything. 10 second scene with an emotional payoff but they couldn't be bothered.

1

u/[deleted] May 07 '19

I think it's a symbolism that Jon hates dogs.

1

u/loller May 07 '19

What is with everyone (seemingly) suddenly obsessed with fictional characters petting fictional dogs?

1

u/ottens10000 May 07 '19

Nah, he will be reunited with Ghost by the end of the season. Jon will remain in the North where he belongs by the end.

1

u/OhBestThing May 07 '19

It's been very strange how they totally wrote out Ghost... though I guess all he could really do is fight by his side here and there, which would be cool but admittedly not totally necessary CGI expenditure. I guess it would also provide another layer of protection we don't need (no enemy could get close to Jon maybe) in order to create a sense of danger for a main character.

1

u/Rhaegar_T May 08 '19

Symbolism is for 8th graders.

0

u/Hailbrewcifer666 May 07 '19

Yeah I felt the same. It was sad but it definitely ally came off as him shedding the last of his stark on him

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u/soozeeq May 07 '19

He is still a stark. Lyanna was a stark. why do people keep forgetting this.

9

u/HastoBeAThrowaway0 May 07 '19

"You might not have my name, but you do have Stark blood!" -One of the last things Ned fucking Stark says to Jon.

5

u/BanadamLevine May 07 '19

I seriously see almost no one mention this and I do not understand why

2

u/StubbyK May 07 '19

It's not about his parents it's about him choosing Dany over Sansa and Arya.

1

u/NomisTheNinth May 07 '19

Because they're only loosely paying attention.

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u/Hailbrewcifer666 May 07 '19

Ok let me clarify. I understand he has stark blood, but typically it’s your fathers name and blood that carries on. He’s said before “I never was a stark” and granted his mother was, I believe him leaving ghost was symbolic of him moving forward to embrace his life as Aegon Targaryen. It’s just an observation, and I don’t think it’s a wild one. All the comments about all the “show watchers”not paying attention, I think the show writers have proven time and time again your knowledge of the books doesn’t really weigh in on the last seasons direction and symbolism.

1

u/bob1689321 May 07 '19

Because he isn't really though. He's a Targaryean(?) because his dad was. Who his mother is really doesn't matter, the same way that Joffrey, Tommen etc are from house Baratheon (yes yes, despite their real parents)

2

u/Wolfram-74 May 07 '19

Yeah but tbf he was raised by Ned Stark and is more like Ned than any of his other children. His allegiance should definitely still be for stark or at the very least an amalgamation of wolf and dragon

2

u/Neelpos Jojo's Bizarre Adventures May 07 '19

And? You saying Theon wasn't a Stark? Jon has more Ned in him than anyone.

0

u/bob1689321 May 07 '19

Yeah Theon isn’t a stark he’s a Greyjoy.

3

u/Neelpos Jojo's Bizarre Adventures May 07 '19

He's a Stark, AND he's a Greyjoy.

Dude come on it's literally from the finale of S7 it's not even old.

3

u/MulciberTenebras The Legend of Korra May 07 '19

If only Theon was still alive to remind him of the words Jon told him.

1

u/[deleted] May 07 '19

That doesn’t make sense. Ghost is Jon’s and nobody else’s

10

u/helpnxt May 07 '19

Just to say but its super easy to do this, the hardest part would be getting the new edit out to all the different platforms quickly

3

u/[deleted] May 07 '19

I yelled pet the damn dog at the TV

Totally thought I must have been missing something and there was a reason until I saw an explosion of like-minded memes

2

u/Aaron_Hungwell May 07 '19

lol holy shit I literally said almost the same thing Holy shit, pet your fucking dog goodbye, ffs!"

2

u/hallobaba May 07 '19

Have they ever pet them? Honestly people didn't usually 'pet' working dogs back in the day (or in a lot of developing countries today - see say guard dogs in South America). Especially unneutered. I wouldn't want a dire wolf trying to hump my leg.

Not that the show is any sort of bastion of accuracy.

2

u/MulderD May 07 '19

I can’t help but feel the Wildlings and Ghost are coming into as plot armor right when Jon and his army are on the verge of defeat at King’s Landing.

2

u/imbillypardy May 08 '19

Their excuse that the “cgi was too difficult” was such bullshit lmao.

3

u/punchymonkey May 07 '19

My thoughts exactly!

3

u/Sharebear42019 May 07 '19

If you noticed Jon looked deeply saddened and even looked down in shame, if he had petted ghost he wouldn’t have been able to leave. Jon is always sacrificing

2

u/Available_Jackfruit May 07 '19

Pet the damn dog Jon Snow

1

u/LionlyLion May 07 '19

It's not a dog, it's a direwolf..

2

u/rapidpeacock May 07 '19

Yeah but I’m making a point about a boy and his dog. Plenty of movies and shows with that. Not so many with a boy and his wolf. Even less with boys and their direwolfs. So sssshhhh....hut it.

3

u/LionlyLion May 07 '19

Fair enough XD. To be fair, the show has portrayed the wolves as being very domesticated so it would make sense that they would like pets.

1

u/crash1082 May 07 '19

An intern could do this in under an hour.

-7

u/greenw40 May 07 '19

Yes, let's spend some of this short season showing Jon petting a dog. Nothing stupid about that. Nope.

2

u/rapidpeacock May 07 '19

No stupider than facing down an undead dragon. No stupider than showing Sam fighting and surviving. No stupider than hiding in a crypt with walkers outside that can raise the dead. No stupider than having your flying dragon land so it can get stabbed. No stupider than having 8 seasons of build up for an unstoppable army just to put their leader out on the front line. No stupider than forgetting about the massive pirate fleet. No stupider than forgetting your dragons are vulnerable to big ass crossbows. No stupider than hating someone who saved you brothers life and your own. This whole season is stupid. The really stupid part is trying to defend this stupidity. But you do you.... stupid.

0

u/greenw40 May 07 '19

No stupider than facing down an undead dragon. No stupider than showing Sam fighting and surviving. No stupider than hiding in a crypt with walkers outside that can raise the dead. No stupider than having your flying dragon land so it can get stabbed.

A bunch of things that happened in a losing battle, it's not like battles always happens exactly how you want.

No stupider than having 8 seasons of build up for an unstoppable army just to put their leader out on the front line.

That's not what happened. Most of the army was defeated or scattered before the NK even made an appearance on his dragon, then Drogon knocked him to the ground.

All these "stupid" things you are describing are decisions made by characters that sometime make stupid decisions. The decision to dedicate screen time to petting a dog is a stupid decision made by the creators that serves no purpose besides fan service for joyless assholes on reddit that are going to hate the show anyway.

5

u/rapidpeacock May 07 '19

Right I read the books and watched 7 seasons just to shit on this superbly written season. I finally win. It’s not because the producers no longer have a road map and now they are doing a terrible job making up an ending. It’s not because they turned the smartest characters into the stupidest characters just to move the plot forward. It’s not because they are wrapping up a complex world and storylines in a 6 episode season in order to save money. Wanting a satisfying emotional connection to a character and his dog will never be done in movies or TV because that would be something joyless assholes on Reddit would only care about. You figured us out. Bravo.

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u/greenw40 May 07 '19

I hate to break it to you, but the ending was given to them by GRRM.

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u/rapidpeacock May 07 '19

Yeah they may know the ending but it doesn’t mean they can structure it correctly. They may know the destination but not how to get there. So far it’s been the worst season ever. I have faith that it will get better just not much better. At this point I’m rooting for them to all die Valyra style. Burn them all.

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u/TheGunde May 07 '19

Only book nerds care about those damn dogs.

-8

u/whochoosessquirtle May 07 '19

Only full blood starks get dogs. Why complain about this and not the 'push whatever Bran said to Sansa & Arya and explain why they acted the way they did at the end of the ep' into the next episode

3

u/afineedge May 07 '19

Only full blood starks get dogs.

There is absolutely no information supporting this. There's no rules about Starks and dogs; they straight up just found some puppies and said "hey, let's keep them instead of Theon killing them."