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HBO's Game of Thrones - Fan Edit Ideas — Page 2

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Was thinking about the show again and wanted to bump this thread back up.

I was trying to think of ways to edit the show in order to make the Season 4 finale feel like it could’ve been the end of the series. Obviously it would be a rather open-ended conclusion, but I think seeing Tyrion escape King’s Landing, ominous bells for the Lannister’s future, Bran finally reaching the Three-Eyed Raven, and Arya sailing away from Westeros is a somewhat optimistic ending that leaves a lot to the imagination.

I would rather find a way to change as few episodes as possible, rather than edit the whole series. Basically, I want to end the finale in a somewhat satisfying place for all the characters.

For Jon, I would like to bring some things from Season 5, like Stannis offering to make Jon a Stark, Jon refusing and him being named Lord Commander. I feel like this would be a nice place to conclude his story.

I think Dany’s could end where it does, with her deciding not to go to Westeros and instead try to rule Essos. I’m not sure her chaining up her dragons is the happiest way to end her story, but it does mirror Jon’s story in a way, where they reject parts of their identity in order to do what they think is right for their people.

Unfortunately we wouldn’t get much of a conclusion to the White Walker story, beyond Bran learning to become the Three-Eyed Raven. But I think it would be a nice touch to somehow implement the snow falling on King’s Landing from the finale of Season 7. The tag line of the show is Winter is Coming, and showing that winter is finally here by the end of it could give the show a nice bookend. Although it is open-ended, like all of this is, it leaves some room for interpretation. Does this mean all of these characters are doomed to fail, having been too distracted playing the game of thrones?

I think it would be nice to just edit “The Children” into a longer finale that could work as an alternate ending for the show. So the objective would be to just add or delete scenes to help tie up some loose ends. If anyone has any ideas I would appreciate hearing them!

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This is a cool idea I would like to see it done, but my hatchet to bury is with seasons 7 and 8 (especially 8) and I don’t think i’ll have a peaceful nights sleep until I do! So i’m going to focus on that - but best of luck and I would love to see your new finale if you make it!

I had to take a break for a while because my 120gb ssd was woefully ill equipped to do any serious editing. I’ve got a 1tb hdd now and 136gb of raw episodes, extra, histories + lore to utilize and i’ve been learning how to use Davince Resolve for a few months.

I’ve been making a lot of notes and i’m about to do a full rewatch from S1 with a notepad in hand in order to: note down any and all landscapes/locational shots that don’t have context of when they are from as well as which episodes to split the 5.1 audio and get clean versions of spoken dialogue. Because a lot will get cut from an already rushed final season, I want to draw some scenes out if I can too and try to make them feel less rushed.

Instead of being overly precious i’m just going to go for it - if i’m going to spend about a year doing it, I might as well give it everything.

From all my own thoughts and the general impetus of fan ‘fixes’ on the internet I think it makes sense to start by trying to fix or improve from the ‘capture a wight’ point in season 7 and move onward from there - If S7 and 8 had been the quality of 1-4, I think the fans would have forgiven 5 and 6.

I think the Bran as NK has potential, its ambitious and might not work, but i’m going to give it a go because if it works it brings depth to 2 characters who felt chronically underwritten in the show. The fan theory I read had him causing the Mad King to go mad also which is cool and it gives it another layer in the endgame and final episodes - as well as changing where Rhaegal dies, some of who dies in the Long Night, making Jamie ring the bells, removing ‘plot armour’ fake out deaths and christ if I can learn VFX maybe even do some warg eyes on some people and make Arya wear Beric for a shot.

If it sounds like too much, its because it almost definitely is! - but dang it i’m going to try!

I’ll post some updates here if I have any 😃

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I’m still really disappointed that the Tysha confession was removed. I feel like that’s the biggest flaw with the season 4 finale. That did so much for Tyrion’s arc. I think him being more vengeful was the better route.

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Hello all. I just happened to see that there were some new replies here. I have started my edit of the whole series, and expect it to take until my now seven year old son is actually old enough to watch it with me. Haha. Anyway, I did a deepfake to replace Myrcella in S1E2 with the later actress, and have edited out some unnecessary shots with the first actress where possible. I’m stuck on the Mountain and Lord Beric though. Going to see if I can find any footage of the later Beric, maybe from other works, that I might be able to use. Other random thoughts at the moment are Daario, and that time Melisandre took off her necklace in S4. Those will be challenging, and that’s not even getting to S7 and S8. Still interested to collaborate if anyone else is interested

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I was curious if anyone was going to work on the continuity errors. Honestly I think re-casts can be sort of overlooked. The most glaring recast is Daario, for sure though.

I think giving Mel the necklace is actually a good continuity fix considering her needing to wear the necklace is so character relevant. Would love to see some tests if you ever feel like sharing!

@WillS8, totally agree. Too bad we can’t do anything about that!

@Mizukitron, would love to get an update from you on if you’ve made any new observations since you’ve been going back through the whole series.

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@RogueLeader - These are definitely minor, mostly unnecessary fixes at this point, I realize. However, I think they’re important from a learning perspective. If I can learn enough from doing these, hopefully I’m better prepared to tackle things like Daario. And we’re not even talking about Seasons 7 & 8 yet. Haha.

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I’ve just recently made a Game of Thrones fan edit called ‘An Honorable cut’, in this I’ve streamlined a lot of the narratives and trimmed the whole series down by about 25%, it’s really for someone who wants to rewatch Game of Thrones in a different way, missing out all the worst parts. I’ve made a topic about it on these forums called “Game of Thrones: An Honorable Cut”, if you’re interested give me a message! I’m new on these forums, I’ve been working on this fan edit for a number of years now and only realised there was a whole community for these kinds of videos.

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That’s cool, @gotedits11 ! I actually personally like a lot of those elements of the show, but I think it’s good to build the community for this. I love GoT, and really don’t like how the fandom turned against it in the end. It’s honestly not unlike a betrayal we might see in Westeros. I ran into some technical issues with my Beric face swap deep fake, so I’m experimenting with a new method. Hoping to get a more streamlined work process for doing these.

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Enjoyed seasons 1-6 greatly and honestly I still like the overall narrative and all but 3 character arcs for the penultimate and final seasons (Little Finger, Tyrion, and Varys were wasted potential). It all could’ve been better (or just not done at all in the case of the "Behind the Wall episode), but I wouldn’t really be into an edit that changes anything radically.

What I’d want is something that’s lke what I saw but much shorter in length for a casual revisit every couple of yrs down the line. I’m not a fan of the books. I’ve read the first 2 but I don’t like the writing style and instead prefer the show. Ive seen some shorter edit ideas and they talk about cutting the gratuitous sex and brutal violence but I like all that stuff. I just want a leaner revisit.

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Game of Thrones came back to my mind recently, and I began thinking again about how one could potentially edit the final season to make the conclusion more satisfying. I know there have been many interesting rewrites across the internet, but I think a general consensus would agree that it is likely impossible to make a wholly satisfying conclusion given what we have to work with. After seeing so many people wrack their brains (including myself) trying to think of a better ending, it isn’t uncommon to see frustrated fans half-joke that having the Night King win would still have been a better ending than what we got. After reading several of these types of comments, I began to ask myself, “What if it actually ended this way?”

Back in October of 2018, George R.R. Martin was interviewed by The New York Times and was asked this question:

Manjoo: Many observers have pointed out that “Game of Thrones” offers a perfect metaphor for understanding climate change. What do you think of this interpretation?

Martin: It’s kind of ironic because I started writing “Game of Thrones” all the way back in 1991, long before anybody was talking about climate change. But there is — in a very broad sense — there’s a certain parallel there. And the people in Westeros are fighting their individual battles over power and status and wealth. And those are so distracting them that they’re ignoring the threat of “winter is coming,” which has the potential to destroy all of them and to destroy their world. And there is a great parallel there to, I think, what I see this planet doing here, where we’re fighting our own battles. We’re fighting over issues, important issues, mind you — foreign policy, domestic policy, civil rights, social responsibility, social justice. All of these things are important. But while we’re tearing ourselves apart over this and expending so much energy, there exists this threat of climate change, which, to my mind, is conclusively proved by most of the data and 99.9 percent of the scientific community. And it really has the potential to destroy our world. And we’re ignoring that while we worry about the next election and issues that people are concerned about, like jobs. Jobs are a very important issue, of course. All of these things are important issues. But none of them are important if, like, we’re dead and our cities are under the ocean. So really, climate change should be the number one priority for any politician who is capable of looking past the next election. But unfortunately, there are only a handful of those. We spend 10 times as much energy and thought and debate in the media discussing whether or not N.F.L. players should stand for the national anthem than this threat that’s going to destroy our world.

I definitely agree that this symbolism is pretty apparent in the series, and because of that I had hoped the series would have given a more nuanced resolution to the White Walker plot line beyond our heroes simply burning or killing their problems. Even with the power of modern editing software, you can’t change the story we were given enough to change the fact that the story really did go with such a simple solution.

I remember the week before The Long Night episode premiered, everyone was speculating on who was going to die. Jorah? Brienne? Jaime? Now, imagine how shocked audiences would have been if the Night King actually won, and all of our heroes died. Really, nothing like that has ever really happened in the history of television, at least for one of the most popular shows in the world. I know I mentioned earlier that I was trying to figure out a more satisfying ending to the show, and this probably would have been the least satisfying ending possible, but maybe it would have been the ending we needed.

As the show went on, we slowly learned that all of the politics and fighting did not matter in the face of what was to come. Winter is Coming. It was the show’s tag line from the beginning. If the show had ended by killing all of beloved characters, many people would have hated it, but in a way, it could have been a huge wake up call for people our own existential threat we all face, and what the consequences would be if we don’t do something about it. Your character arcs, your fan theories, your lore, your entertainment, your game of thrones, none of it matters in the end if this problem isn’t solved.

You could argue that this ending would be really nihilistic or pessimistic, but to me it would function like any cautionary tale. As per Wikipedia:

A cautionary tale is a tale told in folklore, to warn its listener of a danger. There are three essential parts to a cautionary tale, though they can be introduced in a large variety of ways. First, a taboo or prohibition is stated: some act, location, or thing is said to be dangerous. Then, the narrative itself is told: someone disregarded the warning and performed the forbidden act. Finally, the violator comes to an unpleasant fate, which is frequently related in expansive and grisly detail.

In this story, clearly the threat of the White Walkers is the warning that was disregarded until it was too late.

I am not trying to say that this would have been objectively the best possible ending for the show, but I think this type of fan edit could at the very least work as an alternate ending to the series that tries to make a thought-provoking conclusion, and arguably be more true to the themes of the series, rather than succumbing to Hollywoodization.

I also think, from a practical standpoint, it would require less bending over backwards to try and piece together an improved ending. Obviously it would shorten the already short season, but I imagine it playing out something like this:

While we can’t add new death scenes for these characters, the last time we would see most of them would be when they are overwhelmed by wights, fighting for their lives. We never see Arya leave the room with Melisandre and the Hound. The Night King walks up to Bran, raises hand to unsheathe his blade, and we cut to black. Or, we end on a wide shot of Winterfell on fire, and fade to black.

It could end there, but I think it would be interesting to take it further. We could then fade back in to a sequence of scenes where we see King’s Landing being burned by a dragon, but instead of orange flames, they would be blue. Confirming the Night Kong’s victory at Winterfell and subsequent destruction of civilization. We could even see Euron’s fleet be destroyed by the wight dragon (but make them be at Pyke), as well as reusing recolored shots of the Battle of Slaver’s Bay to show that the White Walkers eventually reach Essos, and spread across the world. I imagine the last shot could be of the Iron Throne covered in snow and the hall in ruins (editing the shots to mask out anyone who might be in them), showing that in the end, none of it really mattered because Westeros failed to come together in time.

Perhaps you could add some kind of epilogue to show spring eventually return, and show the some people did manage to survive (except now civilization will basically have to start over). This footage could be pulled from other material. Or, maybe The Long Night could be cut in a way to show that some people managed to escape Winterfell, namely, Jon, Tormund, Ghost, and some other random people. Then, the epilogue of Jon going beyond the Wall with Free Folk could be reinterpreted as Jon and the small group of survivors going to hide beyond the wall until their distant dream of spring finally becomes reality. But personally, I think I would prefer a more somber ending, where no character survives the Long Night, and we are left to contemplate the meaning of it all.

Anyway, these are just my thoughts regarding a potential fan edit. It is an appealing idea to me, not only for thematic reasons, but also because it would be less time consuming to make than to edit the entirety of Season 8 (and potentially Season 7 as well). Just edit one episode, The Long Night, and include a brief epilogue to leave the audience to thinking.

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I’m still working on my consistency edit. I actually just picked it up again today with Season 2. Yes, it is a years’ long effort, and I’m not a pro by any means, but I’m trying. (I’m actually rather shocked that with the vastness of the fan editing community that I seem to be the only one trying to do the entire series.) I’d be interested to see your Long Night edit if you end up doing it.

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RogueLeader said:

Game of Thrones came back to my mind recently, and I began thinking again about how one could potentially edit the final season to make the conclusion more satisfying. I know there have been many interesting rewrites across the internet, but I think a general consensus would agree that it is likely impossible to make a wholly satisfying conclusion given what we have to work with. After seeing so many people wrack their brains (including myself) trying to think of a better ending, it isn’t uncommon to see frustrated fans half-joke that having the Night King win…

I remember the week before The Long Night episode premiered, everyone was speculating on who was going to die. Jorah? Brienne? Jaime? Now, imagine how shocked audiences would have been if the Night King actually won, and all of our heroes died. Really, nothing like that has ever really happened in the history of television, at least for one of the most popular shows in the world. I know I mentioned earlier that I was trying to figure out a more satisfying ending to the show, and this probably would have been the least satisfying ending possible, but maybe it would have been the ending we needed.

As the show went on, we slowly learned that all of the politics and fighting did not matter in the face of what was to come. Winter is Coming. It was the show’s tag line from the beginning. If the show had ended by killing all of beloved characters, many people would have hated it, but in a way, it could have been a huge wake up call for people our own existential threat we all face, and what the consequences would be if we don’t do something about it. Your character arcs, your fan theories, your lore, your entertainment, your game of thrones, none of it matters in the end if this problem isn’t solved.

In this story, clearly the threat of the White Walkers is the warning that was disregarded until it was too late.

I am not trying to say that this would have been objectively the best possible ending for the show, but I think this type of fan edit could at the very least work as an alternate ending to the series that tries to make a thought-provoking conclusion, and arguably be more true to the themes of the series, rather than succumbing to Hollywoodization.

I also think, from a practical standpoint, it would require less bending over backwards to try and piece together an improved ending. Obviously it would shorten the already short season, but I imagine it playing out something like this:
I think it would be interesting to take it further. We could then fade back in to a sequence of scenes where we see King’s Landing being burned by a dragon, but instead of orange flames, they would be blue. Confirming the Night Kong’s victory at Winterfell and subsequent destruction of civilization. We could even see Euron’s fleet be destroyed by the wight dragon (but make them be at Pyke), as well as reusing recolored shots of the Battle of Slaver’s Bay to show that the White Walkers eventually reach Essos, and spread across the world. I imagine the last shot could be of the Iron Throne covered in snow and the hall in ruins (editing the shots to mask out anyone who might be in them), showing that in the end, none of it really mattered because Westeros failed to come together in time.

Perhaps you could add some kind of epilogue to show spring eventually return, and show the some people did manage to survive (except now civilization will basically have to start over). This footage could be pulled from other material. Or, maybe The Long Night could be cut in a way to show that some people managed to escape Winterfell, namely, Jon, Tormund, Ghost, and some other random people. Then, the epilogue of Jon going beyond the Wall with Free Folk could be reinterpreted as Jon and the small group of survivors going to hide beyond the wall until their distant dream of spring finally becomes reality. But personally, I think I would prefer a more somber ending, where no character survives the Long Night, and we are left to contemplate the meaning of it all.

Anyway, these are just my thoughts regarding a potential fan edit. It is an appealing idea to me, not only for thematic reasons, but also because it would be less time consuming to make than to edit the entirety of Season 8 (and potentially Season 7 as well). Just edit one episode, The Long Night, and include a brief epilogue to leave the audience to thinking.

I agree with you all the way. Anjohan is figuring out how to deal with the last two seasons for his series to movie approach. One of his ideas is:
Bran Stark is the Night King. Upon becoming the Three Eyed Raven, what he really became - was the Night King. This is why he is so distant and mysterious. He’s really the bad guy, in his final form, plotting his last moves. The Night King of the White Walkers is what he once was, but is no more - and therefore ending his former self, like in the clip above, does not matter to him no more

He suggested that the NK kills Arya (via vfx with some blood on his face), bran warging into Aryas body and hit the final blow.
I think that would work perfectly as far as the source materials allows such drastic change to the ending.
There would be a lot off-screen killing (Jamie, Brian, Sam, Jon, Sansa etc.) but maybe there is a half-believable option due to switch the fight at kings landing and the long night.

Anjohans thread: https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/Idea-Wanted-for-solving-Game-of-Thrones-The-Ending-Chapters/id/78072

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Don’t know if anyone is still following this thread, but I thought I’d offer an update on my Game of Thrones Consistency edit. I’m currently on Season 3. I’d love to hear thoughts / input, and if anyone is interested in collaborating, I’m very interested in that as well. Here are my current dilemmas (in terms of decision making as opposed to technical challenges):

  • Martyn and Willem Lannister, Episodes 3 and 5: Martyn is played by Charles Dean Chapman, the same actor who later played Tommen. This is a unique problem, because I’ve otherwise been dealing with re-cast characters, not re-cast actors. I think these scenes are important for the story, because they eventually lead to the execution of Lord Karstark, which precipitates decisions leading to the Red Wedding. So I don’t think I can cut them out. But they are also minor characters that were never portrayed by other actors, so I don’t have any basis to attempt a deepfake. Do I just leave it? What do you think?

  • Exterior establishing shots: Thus far, I haven’t attempted any of this yet, but it’s time to start considering it. Season 3 Riverrun is virtually devoid of establishing shots, so I’m considering lifting some from Season 6 to insert and establish consistency. But this got me thinking about other locations. I already plan to use the Season 1 Eyrie instead of Season 4, but I don’t know what I want to do yet with Vaes Dothrak. I need to make a decision between its Season 1 and Season 6 incarnations. Season 1 was much more realistic, but Season 6 was much more over the top epic scale. I think I’m leaning towards the Season 1 version, but again, what do you think?