Rain--King

After having this great piece of work generously shared with me, I must say I am immensely impressed with the skill that’s gone into this edit. It is quite likely the best fan edit of the last two seasons of Game of Thrones one can find.

Overall, it strikes such a good balance between reworking/re-ordering problematic plot points and thematic decisions while also retaining all the good elements that were present in the original cuts. While tempting to remove them, I am also glad that certain less-than-ideal segments were retained to prioritise narrative clarity (e.g. the Wight Walker scavenger hunt beyond the wall). It’s amazing how smoothly the new story flows and how seamless the edits are. This was honestly so close to becoming my own personal head canon for how the series ended…

Until the final 15 minutes of Episode 11 (“And Full of Terrors”). From the scene in the ruined throne room onwards, it is painfully obvious that the footage has been stitched together from different episodes and scenes to resemble something other than what was intended. None of which is the fault of the editor. The skill on display is phenomenal. This is simply a symptom of how little of value there was to work with from the original ending and how monumentally difficult it is to craft something new almost entirely from scratch that feels satisfying.

(This is almost the same dilemma I have with Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut — the definitive version of the story right up until the very end, where it all falls apart a bit.)

Unfortunately, while it works so much better thematically in its new form, the new throne room scene has a very “off” sense of pacing and unnatural flow to the dialogue, which unfortunately cannot be mitigated. Speaking constructively, the rest of the ending after that could potentially be made more cohesive by further simplification. For example, while I understand the desire to keep the wonderful Stark siblings montage, it does cause some confusion when paired with the footage of John and Danaerys flying into the sunset with the dragons beforehand. Ditto for the scenes of John going into the woods beyond the wall with the Wildlings. Maybe prioritising footage from the same source episode is the painful, but ultimately best way to go.

At this point, my mind is simply wondering and indulging in armchair editing, so I’ll stop and simply say again that this is an absolute joy to watch for 95% of its runtime — heartily recommended for anyone with an unhealthy investment in this series and its conclusion.