Game of Thrones begins....

[The Brain]

You know, one of the founding premisies of the novel/show was never actually addressed.  Why are the seasons out of whack?

Out of whack how?

[Grinning_Colossus]

Yeah, the seasons seem normal to me assuming the planet is orbiting a short-period variable star. 

[Josquius]

GRRM has specifically said the seasons are magical.
It's weird that there was no mention of them after the others were defeated

[celedhring]

GRRM has specifically said the seasons are magical.
It's weird that there was no mention of them after the others were defeated

You know, you've just made me wonder what your average, say, burgher in the low Middle Ages would think that causes the seasons. I guess they thought they were magical, too (divine)?

[Razgovory]

GRRM has specifically said the seasons are magical.
It's weird that there was no mention of them after the others were defeated

Yeah.  That's what I was thinking.  It's like a Chekov's gun that everyone forgot about.  There was talk earlier in the show that the when winter comes they need to have plenty of food stored away to feed King's Landing.  When Dany arrives at King's landing it looks fairly warm outside.  Then after she destroys it, it snows.  Then a few weeks later when they have the big summit it's the trees have all their leaves.  So did they change the climate when they killed the Night King?  Or is just not so bad when winter comes?

[Razgovory]

GRRM has specifically said the seasons are magical.
It's weird that there was no mention of them after the others were defeated

You know, you've just made me wonder what your average, say, burgher in the low Middle Ages would think that causes the seasons. I guess they thought they were magical, too (divine)?

I think they believed it had to do with the way the wind was blowing.

WHAN that Aprille with his shoures soote 1   
The droghte 2 of Marche hath perced to the roote,   
And bathed every veyne in swich 3 licour,   
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;   
Whan Zephirus eek with his swete breeth           5
Inspired hath in every holt 4 and heeth   
The tendre croppes, 5 and the yonge sonne   
Hath in the Ram his halfe cours y-ronne, 6   
And smale fowles maken melodye,   
That slepen al the night with open ye,           10
(So priketh hem nature in hir corages: 7   
Than longen folk to goon on pilgrimages,   
And palmers for to seken straunge strondes, 8   
To ferne halwes, 9 couthe 10 in sondry londes;   
And specially, from every shires ende           15
Of Engelond, to Caunterbury they wende,   
The holy blisful martir for to seke,   
That hem hath holpen, whan that they were seke. 11   
  Bifel that, in that sesoun on a day,   
In Southwerk at the Tabard as I lay 12           20
Redy to wenden on my pilgrimage   
To Caunterbury with ful devout corage,   
At night was come in-to that hostelrye   
Wel 13 nyne and twenty in a compaignye,   
Of sondry folk, by aventure 14 y-falle 15           25
In felawshipe, and pilgrims were they alle,   
That toward Caunterbury wolden ryde;   
The chambres and the stables weren wyde,   
And wel we weren esed atte beste. 16   
And shortly, whan the sonne was to reste,           30
So hadde I spoken with hem everichon, 17   
That I was of hir felawshipe anon,   
And made forward 18 erly for to ryse,   
To take our wey, ther as I yow devyse

that should clear it up.

[Tamas]

GRRM has specifically said the seasons are magical.
It's weird that there was no mention of them after the others were defeated

Yeah.  That's what I was thinking.  It's like a Chekov's gun that everyone forgot about.  There was talk earlier in the show that the when winter comes they need to have plenty of food stored away to feed King's Landing.  When Dany arrives at King's landing it looks fairly warm outside.  Then after she destroys it, it snows.  Then a few weeks later when they have the big summit it's the trees have all their leaves.  So did they change the climate when they killed the Night King?  Or is just not so bad when winter comes?

Quite clearly they just wanted to wrap the whole thing up and go home. They had more pressing matters.

[Tamas]

Read a good point in a review:

One of the last scenes was Tyrion arranging the seats at the council table. This was clearly a reference to his moment of dragging his chair earlier (season 3 I think?). These two scenes are the best showcases of the fall in quality.

The original scene was awesome: it was funny, yes, but it also told you a lot about the dynamics of the council and the people in it. This last one? Had no purpose whatsoever. Seems like all they thought was "people laughed when the dwarf was messing with the chairs, let's have him mess with them again".

[grumbler]

The seasons were magical because of their uneven length, but just in Westeros.

There were just SO many unfired Chekov's guns.

[Josephus]

Global warming. Winter didn't last as long as they thought.

Seriously I agree. There was lots of talk for years about "winter's coming"; which made it seem that A)Winter is an unusual event and B) wasn't it supposed to last a long time?

But yeah, King's Landing looked nice and tropical and even the north looked like it normally did. One would think that in winter it would be inhospitable, to the fact that jon couldn't just get on a horse and ride into the sunrise at the end.

[crazy canuck]

Winter was actually less severe in the North than it had been in previous seasons. Remember why Stannis burned his daughter?  The writers didn't.

[The Brain]

The last two seasons felt like watching a Peter Jackson movie.

[Habbaku]

I feel like they ripped off Jackson's work, yes. The Ride of the Rohirrim, Helm's Deep...

[The Brain]

I feel like they ripped off Jackson's work, yes. The Ride of the Rohirrim, Helm's Deep...

I was thinking the clueless use of source material, reliance on big battle scenes, and glacial pace.

[Tamas]

I feel like they ripped off Jackson's work, yes. The Ride of the Rohirrim, Helm's Deep...

They should have taken note of how the elves didn't line up OUTSIDE of Helm's Deep to defend it.