OT: Winter is Here (spoiler alert!)

[Guest]

Rumors are that each episode is going to be over an hour long, possibly 1.5 hours long.  That's damn near making a full length movie for each episode.  If it took them 2 years to pull off 6 movies, that's flying in production terms.  With sheer amount of CGI used in the show, that also makes it an impressive feat.  

[Guest]

@AllBS said:
Rumors are that each episode is going to be over an hour long, possibly 1.5 hours long.  That's damn near making a full length movie for each episode.  If it took them 2 years to pull off 6 movies, that's flying in production terms.  With sheer amount of CGI used in the show, that also makes it an impressive feat.  

The “Game of Thrones” season finale Sunday night smashed a series record for ratings, attracting 12.1 million viewers, according to Nielsen.
HBO said on Monday that when views on HBO Go and its stand-alone HBO Now app were included, the 79-minute episode had 16.5 million viewers.
Though “Game of Thrones” has been HBO’s most popular show ever for some time, its audience is getting only bigger. Sunday’s total viewership was up 36 percent over last year’s finale, which had 8.9 million viewers, and it was 19 percent better than the sixth-season premiere in July, which had 10.1 million viewers.
There’s also plenty of delayed viewing, apparently: HBO said that each episode of the current season is averaging more than 30 million viewers across platforms, which is nearly eight million more viewers than at the end of last season.
The record ratings provide a ray of sunlight for what has been an otherwise rocky summer for HBO, which has been dogged for weeks by a hack and by controversy surrounding the announcement of a new drama in development, “Confederate.”
The only other bad bit of news for HBO — and the show’s fans? The next and final season of “Game of Thrones,” which is to have six episodes, won’t have its premiere for some time — possibly in 2019. HBO is also developing potential “Thrones” prequels.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/28/arts/...ml?mcubz=3

[Guest]

@Mike Olson said:
Also there isn't enough time for that plot twist to play out. 

As an aside Cersei may die in childbirth to a Dwarf. She isn't supposed to have more than 3 children by prophecy. She is said to be killed by little brother.... Which is why she hates Tyrion.... But Jaime was born moments after her..... AND he just set off for the North, and likely impregnated her. If she is in fact prgenant. 

But Cersi had a son with Robert before her three little inbreds. That one supposedly died while still a baby. But Gendry really doesn't fit into the plot anywhere. So, my theory is that the baby hadn't died. But at that point in her life, Cersei wasn't completely evil yet. So she sent their son away. And now, her and Roberts son has joined Jon.

[Guest]

@wiviking said:

But Cersi had a son with Robert before her three little inbreds. That one supposedly died while still a baby. But Gendry really doesn't fit into the plot anywhere. So, my theory is that the baby hadn't died. But at that point in her life, Cersei wasn't completely evil yet. So she sent their son away. And now, her and Roberts son has joined Jon.

I know the Gendry Son of Cersei theory is getting popular, but if she was not yet evil, why send the baby to be raised in a brothel? It would take a lot of complicity from others for Cersei to be pregnant, give birth, and then claim it was stillborn; she would need the midwife/Maester going along with it, etc. She would also need to hide Gendry's existence, but he was known to Robert Arryn and to Littlefinger (most likely because his mother was a whore).

I think Gendry's destiny is to restore House Baratheon. They are pretty ruined with Robert, his children, Stannis and his daughter, and Renly all dead. I think he will prove valuable to Jon and Daenerys (already has, in fact) and someone will legitimize him. 

[Guest]

It's been awhile since I read the books...  but I believe Gendry was a bastard from some whore that Robert slept with in a brothel, not Cersei. The only children Cersei had were fathered by Jaime (her brother), not Robert. 

[Guest]

@Wetlander said:
It's been awhile since I read the books...  but I believe Gendry was a bastard from some whore that Robert slept with in a brothel, not Cersei. The only children Cersei had were fathered by Jaime (her brother), not Robert. 

Correct.