Glad to see some activity on this thread!
I agree about the detrimental affects the Young Griff cuts and Euron’s character assassination had, but the show is just too damn good to give up on and even the later seasons had some brilliant moments. I have been planning my own fan edit but there are some really tough things to fix from season 5-8 and on first read I agree most of these things look impossible.
I think that boils down why I am interested in an edit project like this. The first four seasons of the show is some of the greatest episodes of television history, in my opinion, and I think making changes to help improve the latter half of the series is worth the effort.
I’m sure we will get a lot of people saying that the edits still don’t change certain fundamental flaws of the latter seasons, but I personally believe smart edits can do a lot more for the show than people think.
Poppa, thanks for sharing the first of hopefully many sample edits that can be made here in the future! I definitely think it is an improvement over the original. I think it was a good idea to cut Tyrion’s crap about the stories, since I think it takes away from more of the fact that bran would be a good King since he can see all of history and the mistakes that have been made in the past.
The only editing issue I really noticed was seeing Tyrion in a new position without seeing or hearing him move to that spot. You also lose Bran naming Tyrion his hand, if this version would actually keep that scene. But I like how you built to the climax of Sansa declaring independence. Honestly I kind of think it is weird how they cut to a shot of Yara and the Prince of Dorne’s reactions to Sansa declaring independence, since if any kingdoms were to be independent, it would be the Iron Islands and Dorne (since they are so culturally different). I would also say that specific reaction shot should be cut since, imo, it highlights that weird question of why the North deserves independence and not the other kingdoms?
Personally, I kind of wish there was a way to change the dialogue where they decided all the kingdoms would become more independent, with Bran being a High King that mediates disputes between them. Many “high kings” throughout history were chosen by lesser rulers through election, so it fits within what we see happen. Maybe Sansa’s dialogue could be altered off-screen to suggest this. Though this might be too complicated to get across in an edit. I just really don’t think Yara Greyjoy and Dorne would just be like, “okay, we’ll accept a Stark king and accept that the North will be independent also under Stark leadership.”
Also, I’ve heard that people find it weird that Bran says, “Why do you think I came all this way?” It seems to suggest he knew this would happen, which also kind of implies he knew what Dany was going to do, which makes it feel like he allowed all that to happen in order to become king. Though this could make more since if we were to edit it to give Bran more visions throughout, or maybe make Bran have ulterior motives like others have suggest. A lot to think about. Although I think how much we change really depends on how much you all think we should be allowed to stray from the source material, if we all work together on this, which I think we should!
Also Poppa, I like your color correction for the Long Night. Something like this will definitely be needed for an edit of that episode.
I would be delighted to take part in this sort of effort. My list of edit ideas has been growing for years. There are definitely some things that need to happen with season 8, and I love that re-cut of Rhaegal’s death. Makes so much more sense. In particular, there’s a lot in-between Dany’s death and the final montage that needs to go. What I’d love to see is a “consistency edit”. For example, things like the Eyrie should look the same in all seasons, rather than undergoing a complete re-design retcon. One of the most jarring changes was Daario, but that would be a major undertaking.
Thanks for chiming in Tsiskwa! Would love to hear more of your ideas!
The “consistency” idea is interesting. I think this can be done to some extent with locations if we just reuse establishing shots, but I also think this should depend on how much needs to be changed, if anything, in those episodes. Like, I don’t think changing an establishing shot in one episode would be worth it if it was the only thing that needed changing in that episode. But if we were editing something else in that episode anyway, then I’d say go for it.
big_gareth also makes a suggestion like this, regarding the recasts, like Daario, Beric, and the Three-Eyed Raven. Something like this could be done for Beric and Daario with a deepfake program (maybe make first Daario’s hair darker too), and maybe we clever editing could replace the first TER with Von Sidow, but honestly with the amount of effort needed I don’t know if it would be really worth it. At least for me this would not be my personal focus, but if it someone else really wanted to do this I would be happy to help and give feedback.
The Dorne storyline is still the worst in the show. It would be nice if Doran was shown as smarter and Ellaria was more sympathetic. A lot of those scenes can be cut entirely. Would it be doable and make sense that Ellaria might not kill Doran but instead just take over after Areo Hotah dies?
With the footage that we have, how much can the Dorne stoyline be altered? How much is possible to change?
Thanks for chiming in Will and Samuel! If you haven’t, you should go back and read my first reply in this thread that briefly touches on my idea to improve the Dorne subplot. Since Doran does not show up as the Prince of Dorne in the finale, I do think we have to keep Doran dying earlier in the show, unless we were somehow able to swap that guy out with Doran, but that would be extremely difficult. I think Ellaria still must take part in a coup backed by the people to put one of Oberyn’s daughters on the throne, but maybe we can make Ellaria seem a lot smarter through editing. Though if someone has an idea to keep Doran around I’m all ears.
Also, is it possible to show more moments of Dany cracking in seasons 6 and 7? Maybe edit some scenes to make her seem more ruthless so it is not as jaring when she burns King’s Landing. What if she refused to parley with masters in 6x9?
I think this is a good question. I think if we decide to edit certain episodes for larger narrative reasons, and those episodes contain moments where we could make Dany appear more ruthless, then it could be something we can consider. But I don’t think it would be worth it if that was the only thing about an episode we were going to change.
I’ve mentioned this already, but I think my favorite idea regarding this would be using VFX to have the citizens of King’s Landing along the walls when Missandei is executed. We could take crowd elements from earlier episode moments, like the King’s Landing riot or Cersei’s walk of shame. So we could see them along the walls, and more importantly, hear them jeering at Dany and then cheering when Missandei is killed. I think to Dany, it would make it feel like the citizens were participants and they also needed to be punished.
Another idea I’ve heard suggested is not to have the bells ring, but the episode is called “The Bells”, so it might be counterintuitive to do that.
I will post again to touch on some of big_gareth’s idea list, and I will add some other ideas I had of my own.