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Warning: This article contains major spoilers for John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum.

John Wick franchise director Chad Stahelski is not a man to count his box office chickens before they’ve hatched.

“I can’t tell you enough about how amazed we are by everything,” says the filmmaker, who made his directorial debut with 2014’s John Wick, the film which introduced Keanu Reeves‘ titular assassin. “We did the first one, and my co-director at the time Dave Leitch (Deadpool 2), we finished the movie, watched the first cut, and we were already looking for second unit jobs. We were like, Our directing careers are over! We’re done! They’re going to laugh at us! The second one, me and Keanu watched, and went, ‘We got a little weird on this one. We’re never going to work again.’ And it did well. This one, I’m already starting to look for janitorial jobs.”

Looks like Stahelski isn’t going to be picking up that broom any time soon — unless he’s using it to rehearse another action sequence. The just-released John Wick: Chapter 3 is expected to earn $35-40 million over its opening weekend, which would make it the most successful entry in the series so far. The movie also concludes in an extremely open-ended fashion with Ian McShane’s Continental Hotel-managing Winston betraying Keanu Reeves’ titular hitman. Wick then teams with Laurence Fishburne’s The Bowery King, who is planning to take on The High Table, laying the ground for further mayhem in a fourth movie, which Stahelski reveals he is keen to direct.

“I enjoy making these movies because there’s no limit,” he says. “We create our own mythology, and we have a studio (Lionsgate) that both stays out of our way and supports us on the wacky decisions. If people go see the movie, and it makes money, and they came back to us, Keanu and I have ideas for days. It’s a fun world. I could live here for the rest of my career. If people like it and want to watch more, I could think of way worse ways to spend your career. We’ll let the audience figure that out.”

Lionsgate is also planning to launch the John Wick universe on the small screen. In January 2018, it was announced that the studio and Starz are developing a spin-off TV show titled The Continental whose executive producers include both Stahelski and Reeves.

“They have a writers’ room working on it right now, trying to develop the first season,” says Stahelski. “Keanu and I have sat with that creative element, and laid out what we feel makes John Wick special, and what would make the TV show unique. Now, it will be a round of back and forths. But, yeah, Lionsgate is in actual full development of it and it’s called The Continental. It should be fun.”

Watch the trailer for John Wick: Chapter 3 above.

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Full spoilers ahead for “The Iron Throne,” the series finale of Game of Thrones!

For even more on Game of Thrones, be sure to check out why Drogon did what he did in the end, or our side-by-side comparison of the characters from their first and last appearances. Or peruse every IGN Game of Thrones episode review ever, why Westeros' new leader could be a terrifying choice, and why Drogon did what he did in the finale.

Continue reading…

No Code is what I’ve always called a ‘scrappy’ studio. It’s been our way since the start, and has become something that enables us to do big things with small teams. It’s not about being ‘messy’ or cutting corners, but about finding innovative solutions to problems that might at first seem odd, allowing us to accomplish more than what a team of our and size should realistically be able to.

Observation, to be released on PS4 in a matter of days is full of these types of solutions. Whether it’s methods of allowing designers and artists to build shippable gameplay, or ways to give our small art team the ability to generate so much more high quality content than we thought possible — making games at No Code is certainly a unique experience.

 

Finding creative solutions to animation requirements in particular is one aspect that has helped shape Observation into the cinematic adventure we hoped it could be. With only one animator, we needed to develop a large number of animations, from AI/gameplay navigation, to convincing and captivating cinematics, that all needed to be in zero gravity. All this while keeping development time and cost inline with our budget.

A lot of the more cinematic moments took inspiration from big budget space films, such as Gravity or Interstellar, where behind the scenes, large teams working together, geared up with complex pulley rigs, could push and pull the actors in a believably zero-gravity way. This was something we definitely could not do in our small Glasgow office, so we had to come up with a plan!

 

Our Animator Chris Wilson, with 15 years experience in traditional optical-based Motion Capture, knew this would be our best bet for producing the quantity and quality of movements required for Observation. However, an optical system was out of the question due to budget and space limitations, and using a Motion Capture Production studio didn’t fit with our production schedule. Crucially, it would restrict the freedom to iterate gameplay, script and characters as the game evolved. It would mean we only had one shot to get things right.

Before long, Chris had found an accelerometer-based capture system; a web of wired sensors using the same type of accelerometers you get in your console controllers. The kit was comparatively very cheap, easy to use, and could capture virtually anywhere, with a very fast turnaround from capture to running in game.

What this meant for the team was that a new gameplay or scene idea could be developed, and within hours, Chris could have the suit on, acting out new motions and animation requirements (sometimes just at his desk), and have that content in the game by the end of the day. A lightning-fast turnaround that gave the rest of the team the agility we needed to build something as different and experimental as Observation.

To capture some of the actions used throughout the game, we had to think outside the box (and maybe flip the box on its side occasionally), while keeping things grounded. Anything we had available in the studio suddenly became a possibility to be used to capture. Office chairs, various parts of a drum kit, tables, and even a cheap mechanic’s car creeper, were all repurposed to simulate life on a Space Station.

One example of this, was a scene near the beginning of the game where the game’s main character Emma Fisher wakes up after blacking out from a disturbance on the station. As she wakes up, she is tumbling, spinning gently in mid air, flipping head to toe.

We planned to capture the scene, with all the action being rotated 90 degrees — what was up in the game, was now horizontal. To get this backwards-tumble motion, Chris lay down on his side on a swiveling drummer’s stool, while a colleague would gently spun them around. This was then motion-captured up to a certain point (when the character would wake and steady themselves). This was captured with an upright orientation.

These two sections were then rotated, matched, and blended together to make one continuous performance. With no pulleys or motion-controlled supports, just a rotating drummers stool left over from the days of No Code’s band a decade before, we had a convincing zero-g scene.

For facial animation we decided to get video reference of Kezia during her recording sessions. The best way to capture this would be with a head mounted camera. Once again, due to the nature of the project and ideas coming about very quickly. It wasn’t entirely feasible to purchase or rent the equipment as dialogue was written and rewritten; to do this the ‘real’ way would have been way out of our budget.

However, in this case we took some inspiration from a story on the real ISS. Astronauts on board needed a specific gauge of tool to fix an equipment issue, and so they were emailed a file, which they then 3D printed on the station and used. We could do the same!

We were lucky enough to have a 3D printer in the studio, so we repurposed an old VR headset (worn backwards), then designed and printed up the components to make a custom head mounted camera rig, using a mounted GoPro to record the footage. Chris took measurements of the headset, and build a modular set of printable components to give us a flexible/extendible head rig which, including the headset, cost about £90 to make!

This took us from requiring a piece of equipment that would have cost us thousands of pounds to hire and rehire, to a piece of customised hardware we could design and redesign for whatever we needed.

I hope this has given you some understanding and insight into not only how creative solutions can be found for expensive problems, but also see the outstanding work such a small team has been able to achieve in the time we had for Observation. Looking at the finished game, it doesn’t look like it was made by a small team of 11 people, in a tiny office in Glasgow!

The post How the team behind new PS4 sci-fi adventure Observation achieved Hollywood scale on an indie budget appeared first on PlayStation.Blog.Europe.

Hulu is venturing into a Stephen King fairy tale.

The streaming service is developing a series based on King’s 1984 novel The Eyes of the Dragon, which is set in a medieval fantasy kingdom where a court magician is conspiring to manipulate the heirs to the throne.

King wrote the novel for his daughter Naomi, crafting an epic tale of wizardry and daring-do, focused on two boys who are next in line to rule the realm of Delain after the death of their dragon-slaying father.

The villain is a sorcerer named Flagg, implied to be the same demonic villain from King’s plague novel The Stand, who becomes a trusted court advisor but is secretly willing to kill his way to power.

Peter, the oldest son, is wise to Flagg’s machinations and witnesses some of his evil deeds through the looking-glass eyes of Niner — the dragon his father famously killed and installed in his palace as a decoration.

His younger brother, Thomas, is more easily swayed and quickly becomes the puppet of the unscrupulous Flagg.

The book later became woven into King’s broader The Dark Tower fantasy series, with the kingdom of Delain getting threaded into that larger story as it grew over the years.

The pilot is being written by Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter author and Lego Batman Movie screenwriter Seth Grahame-Smith, who also produced the recent film adaptation of King’s It with his KatzSmith Productions partner David Katzenberg.

The two will be executive producers of The Eyes of the Dragon series with Bill Haber, Roy Lee, and Jon Berg, according to Deadline, which first broke the news.

“The goal for this series is to feel unlike any Stephen King adaptation before, with this rich underlying source material, and the only true fantasy book he wrote that has kings and swords and princesses,” Grahame-Smith told Deadline. “We will honor the spirit of the book and the legacy.”

Fox 21 is the studio making the project, and Hulu will build on its King legacy, having previously released the J.J. Abrams-produced adaptation of King’s JFK assassination time-travel thriller 11/22/63.

The Eyes of the Dragon is just the latest in a new wave of adaptations of King’s work, including the recent Pet Sematary, the upcoming It: Chapter Two, and in-the-works projects like The Stand, Salem’s Lot, The Tommyknockers, and Lisey’s Story, which King is adapting himself.

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Warning: This story contains major spoilers for the final episode of HBO’s Game of Thrones.

Emilia Clarke read a paragraph in the final script for Game of Thrones.

She read it again and again. Seven times, she says, she read the words that revealed the devastating fate of Daenerys Targaryen, a character she’s portrayed on the HBO global phenomenon for nearly a decade.

“What, what, what, WHAT!?” the actress recalls thinking. “Because it comes out of f—king nowhere. I’m flabbergasted. Absolutely never saw that coming.”

It was October 2017. The actress had recently completed filming Solo: A Star Wars Story and had just returned to London following a brief vacation. She electronically received the scripts the moment she landed at Heathrow and recalls that she “completely flipped out,” turned to her traveling companion and said, “‘Oh my god! I gotta go! I gotta go!’ And they’re like, ‘You gotta get your bags!’”

Once at home, the actress prepared herself. “I got myself situated,” she says. “I got my cup of tea. I had to physically prepare the space and then begin reading them.”

Clarke swiped through pages: Daenerys arrives at Winterfell and Sansa doesn’t like her. She discovers Jon Snow is the true heir to the Iron Throne and isn’t thrilled. She fights in the battle against the Night King and survives, but loses longtime friend and protector Ser Jorah Mormont. Then her other close friend and advisor Missandei dies too. Varys betrays her. Jon Snow pulls away. Having lost half her army, two dragons, and nearly everybody she cares about, Daenerys goes full Tagaryen to win: She attacks King’s Landing and kills … thousands of civilians? Daenerys’ longtime conquest achieved, she meets with Jon Snow in the Red Keep throne room and … and then … then he …

“I cried,” Clarke says. “And I went for a walk. I walked out of the house and took my keys and phone and walked back with blisters on my feet. I didn’t come back for five hours. I’m like, ‘How am I going to do this?’”

Two days later, Clarke was on a plane to Belfast for the final season table read.

Sitting next to Clarke on the flight, as it so happens, was Kit Harington, who plays Jon Snow. Harington deliberately hadn’t yet read the scripts so he could experience the story for the first time with all his castmates. Clarke, positively bursting with wanting to talk about her storyline, found the flight maddening. “This literally sums up Kit and I’s friendship,” she says, and sputtered: “Boy! Would you? Seriously? You’re just not?…”

At the table read, Clarke sat across from Harington so she could “watch him compute all of this.” When they got to their final scene together, recalls Harington, “I looked at Emilia and there was a moment of me realizing, ‘No, no…’”

And Clarke nodded back, sadly, ‘Yes…’

“He was crying,” Clarke says. “And then it was kind of great him not having read it.”

The main story driver of Game of Thrones’ final season is the evolution of Daenerys Targaryen from one of the show’s most-loved heroes into a destroyer of cities and would-be dictator. Author George R.R. Martin calls his saga “A Song of Ice and Fire.” Jon Snow is the stable, immovable ice of Winterfell; Daenerys the conquering, unpredictable fire of Dragonstone. After years apart, they came together in season 7. The duo fell in love, help saved the realm from a world-annihilating supernatural threat and, in the series finale, their coupling is destroyed — Daenerys perishes, while a devastated Jon Snow is banished to rejoin the Night’s Watch.

Was this ending Martin’s original plan? The author told showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss the intended conclusion to his unfinished novels years ago but, since then, the HBO version has made several narrative detours. The showrunners are not giving interviews about episode 6 (and told EW they plan to spend the finale offline — “drunk and far away from the Internet” as Benioff put it).

Regardless of the final season’s narrative’s origin, the Thrones writers have planned Dany’s fate for years and have foreshadowed the dark turn in the storyline. In previous seasons, producers would sometimes ask Clarke to play a scene a bit different than what she expected for a seemingly heroic character. “There’s a number of times I’ve been like: ‘Why are you giving me that note?’” Clarke says. “So yes, this has made me look back at all the notes I’ve ever had.”

After Episode 5, “The Bells,” the reaction to Dany’s “Mad Queen” turn has been explosive and frequently negative. Some critics insist Daenerys doesn’t have the capacity for such monumental evil and the twist is an example of female characters being mishandled on the series. Others say Dany’s unstable sociopathic tendencies were indeed established, but the final season moved too fast and flubbed its execution.

For Clarke, the final season arc required mapping out a series of turning points. Dany’s attack on King’s Landing might have seemed abrupt, but from the beginning of the season Daenerys has reacted with increasing anger, desperation and coldness to one setback after another, shifting the Mother of Dragons into new emotional territory that would ultimately lead to her destruction.

Sitting in her dressing room on the set of Thrones last spring, Clarke broke down Daenerys’ entire season 8 internal journey leading up to the apocalyptic King’s Landing firebombing in a single breathless monologue.

“She genuinely starts with the best intentions and truly hopes there isn’t going to be something scuttling her greatest plans,” she says. “The problem is don’t like her and she sees it. She goes, ‘Okay, one chance.’ She gives them that chance and it doesn’t work and she’s too far to turn around. She’s made her bed, she’s laying in it. It’s done. And that’s the thing. I don’t think she realizes until it happens — the real effect of their reactions on her is: ‘I don’t give a s—t.’ This is my whole existence. Since birth! She literally was brought into this world going, ‘Run!’ These f—kers have f—ked everything up, and now it’s, ‘You’re our only hope.’ There’s so much she’s taken on in her duty in life to rectify, so much she’s seen and witnessed and been through and lost and suffered and hurt. Suddenly these people are turning around and saying, ‘We don’t accept you.’ But she’s too far down the line. She’s killed so many people already. I can’t turn this ship around. It’s too much. One by one, you see all these strings being cut. And there’s just this last thread she’s holding onto: There’s this boy. And she thinks, ‘He loves me, and I think that’s enough.’ But is it enough? Is it? And it’s just that hope and wishing that finally there is someone who accepts her for everything she is and … he f—king doesn’t.”

And losing Missandei? “There’s a number of turning points you see for Daenerys in the season, but that’s the biggest break. There’s nothing I will not do after losing Missandai and seeing the sacrifice she was prepared to make for her. That breaks her completely. There’s nothing left to making a tough choice.”

Executing Varys for treason? “She f—king warned him last season. We love Varys. I love . But he changes his colors as many times as he wants. She needs to know the people who are supporting her regardless. That was my only option, essentially, is what I mean.”

Burying Cersei Lannister under the collapse of the Red Keep? “With Cersei, it’s a complete no-brainer. Lady’s a crazy motherf—ker. She’s going down.”

Yet Clarke also had another, more personal reaction to Dany’s meltdown. “I have my own feelings and it’s peppered with my feelings about myself,” she admits. “It’s gotten to that point now where you read the character you , ‘They’re not talking about you, Emilia, they’re talking about the character.”

Like many actors who have played the same role for a long time, Clarke identifies with her character and has put much of herself into the role. She believes in Daenerys’ confidence, idealism and past acts of compassion. As the actress wrote in a New Yorker essay in March, she played the Breaker of Chains through some life-threatening personal hardships, secretly enduring two brain embolisms during her early years on the show. “You go on set and play a badass and you walk through fire and that became the thing that saved me from considering my own mortality,” she wrote. Clarke has drawn strength from Daenerys and infused Daenerys with her strength.

“I genuinely did this, and it’s embarrassing and I’m going to admit it to you,” Clarke says. “I called my mom and—“ Clarke shifts into a tearful voice to perform the conversation as she reenacts the call: “I read the scripts and I don’t want to tell you what happens but can you just talk me off this ledge? It really messed me up.’ And then I asked my mom and brother really weird questions. They were like: ‘What are you asking us this for? What do you mean do I think Daenerys is a good person? Why are you asking us that question? Why do you care what people think of Daenerys? Are you okay?’”

“And I’m all: ‘I’m fine! … But is there anything Daenerys could do that would make you hate her?’”

During EW’s visit to Northern Ireland last March, I took a walk with co-executive producer Bryan Cogman into the dark woods near the production camp. It was around midnight and bitterly cold. Our boots scrunched on the muddy gravel and the bustling sounds of crew activity from the set slowly receded into the distance.

“Emilia has been threading that needle beautifully this season,” Cogman says. “It’s the hardest job anybody has on this show.”

As we pass crew members our voices cautiously go silent. While Dany’s Mad Queen arc was known by all, her death in the finale was a secret even among many who work on the show. Killing Daenerys was a massive and difficult move. On a show that’s introduced dozens of distinctive breakout characters, Daenerys is arguably the most easily identifiable and iconic. She is T-shirts and coffee mugs and posters and bobbleheads and memes and the name of hundreds of kids around the world with GoT fan parents; a fearless figure of female empowerment.

“I still don’t know how I feel about a lot of what happens this season and I helped write it,” Cogman says. “It’s emotionally very challenging. It’s designed to not feel good. That said, I don’t think that’s a bad thing. The best drama is the type you have to think about. There’s a dangerous tendency right now to make art and popular culture to feel safe for everybody and make everybody feel okay when watching and I don’t believe in that. The show is messy and grey and that’s where it’s always lived — from Jaime pushing a little boy out the window to Ned Stark’s death to the Red Wedding. This is the kind of story that’s meant to unsettle you and challenge you and make you think and question. I think that was George’s intent and what David and Dan wanted to do. However you feel about the final episodes of this show I don’t think anybody will ever accuse us of taking the easy way out.”

I point out Daenerys’ final season arc shifts the entire series, or at least her role in it. Upon rewatch, every Daenerys scene will now be viewed differently; the story of the rise of a villain more than a hero.

“Yes, although I don’t know if she’s a villain,” Cogman says. “This is a tragedy. She’s a tragic figure in a very Shakespearean and Greek sense. When Jon asks Tyrion if they were wrong and Tyrion says, ‘Ask me again in 10 years,’ I think that’s valid.”

Tyrion actor Peter Dinklage says the showrunners on set compared Dany’s dragon-bombing of King’s Landing to the U.S. dropping nuclear bombs on the Japanese cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki to decisively end World War II in 1945. “That’s what war is,” Dinklage says. “Did we make the right choices in war? How much longer would have gone on if we didn’t make horrible decisions? We love Daenerys. All the fans love Daenerys, and she’s doing these things for the greater good. ‘The greater good’ has been in the headlines lately… when freeing everyone for the greater good you’re going to hurt some innocents along the way, unfortunately.”

Gwendoline Christie, who plays Brienne of Tarth, adds there’s another political lesson to be learned in the final season as well. “The signs have actually always been there,” Christie says of Daenerys. “And they’ve been there in ways we felt at the time were just mistakes or controversial. At this time, it’s important to question true motives. This show has always been about power and, more than ever, it’s an interesting illustration that people in pursuit of power can come in many different forms and we need to question everything.” 

Killing Daenerys also forever changes Jon Snow, leading to his circular fate: returning to serve the rest of his life at The Wall. Harington spoke about the show’s finale in a production tent on the season 8 set, his voice so cautiously low a recorder could barely pick him up. Harington explained he avoids talking about the death scene on the set, and he and Clarke came up with a secret hand signal to refer to it — touching a fist to their heart.

“I think it’s going to divide,” Harington says of the finale’s fan reaction. “But if you track her story all the way back, she does some terrible things. She crucifies people. She burns people alive. This has been building. So, we have to say to the audience: ‘You’re in denial about this woman as well. You knew something was wrong. You’re culpable, you cheered her on.’”

Harington adds he worries the final two episodes will be accused of being sexist, an ongoing criticism of GoT that has recently resurfaced perhaps more pointedly than ever before. “One of my worries with this is we have Cersei and Dany, two leading women, who fall,” he says. “The justification is: Just because they’re women, why should they be the goodies? They’re the most interesting characters in the show. And that’s what Thrones has always done. You can’t just say the strong women are going to end up the good people. Dany is not a good person. It’s going to open up discussion but there’s nothing done in this show that isn’t truthful to the characters. And when have you ever seen a woman play a dictator?”

There’s plenty of tragedy for Jon as well, he points out. “This is the second woman he’s fallen in love with who dies in his arms and he cradles her in the same way,” Harington notes. “That’s an awful thing. In some ways, Jon did the same thing to Ygritte by training the boy who kills her. This destroys Jon to do this.”

Back in Clarke’s dressing room, the actress is preparing to film one of her final scenes on the series. Understandably, she can’t quite bring herself to feel sorry for Jon Snow.

“Um, he just doesn’t like women does he?” Clarke quips. “He keeps f—king killing them. No. If I were to put myself in his shoes I’m not sure what else he could have done aside from … oh, I dunno, maybe having a discussion with me about it? Ask my opinion? Warn me? It’s like being in the middle of a phone call with your boyfriend and they just hang up and never call you again. ‘Oh, this great thing happened to me at work today — hello?’ And that was 9 years ago…”

Clarke’s phone call metaphor is characteristically witty, and the actress has given some fascinating insight about the season as a whole. But nothing yet quite feels like the bottom, the blunt truth of how she feels about Daenerys’ fate.

“You’re about to ask if me — as Emilia — disagreed with her at any point,” Clarke intuits. “It was a f—king struggle reading the scripts. What I was taught at drama school — and if you print this there will be drama school teachers going ‘that’s bulls—t,’ but here we go: I was told that your character is right. Your character makes a choice and you need to be right with that. An actor should never be afraid to look ugly. We have uglier sides to ourselves. And after 10 years of working on this show, it’s logical. Where else can she go? I tried to think what the ending will be. It’s not like she’s suddenly going to go, ‘Okay, I’m gonna put a kettle on and put cookies in the oven and we’ll just sit down and have a lovely time and pop a few kids out.’ That was never going to happen. She’s a Targaryen.”

“I thought she was going to die,” she continues. “I feel very taken care of as a character in that sense. It’s a very beautiful and touching ending. Hopefully, what you’ll see in that last moment as she’s dying is: There’s the vulnerability — there’s the little girl you met in season 1. See? She’s right there. And now, she’s not there anymore…”

A crew member comes for Clarke and she stands up. It’s time for her to go. Clarke begins to walk away, turns around, breaks away from the staffer, and comes back.

There’s one last thing she wants you to know.

“But having said all of the things I’ve just said…” Clarke says. “I stand by Daenerys. I stand by her! I can’t not.”

More coverage of the Game of Thrones series finale:
— Game of Thrones final episode recap: This is the end

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This is the end. The end of watching the Starks, Targaryens and Lannisters. The end of journeying to Winterfell, King’s Landing and Castle Black. The end of dragons and direwolves; schemes and ravens and trials by combat. This is the end of Game of Thrones. It might not be the end you wanted. But if there’s one thing the remaining characters on Game of Thrones have learned over their eight seasons of epic struggle, it’s that survival depends on dealing with a situation as it really is. So let’s break down what actually happens in the final episode of Game of Thrones.

The 80-minute series closer is titled, of course, “The Iron Throne,” and is directed by showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss. The writers are not seasoned directors but this episode was gorgeously made and nailed many of the absolutely crucial character moments. The wintery apocalyptic and immensely suspenseful first half deals with the fallout of Daenerys’ devastating attack on King’s Landing, the optimistic and dream-of-spring-like second half focuses on deciding the future of Westeros leadership and the fates of the remaining characters. The two halves are like death and rebirth. I suspect at least two things are going to make some fans upset: Jon Snow killing Daenerys and Bran Stark essentially ending up on the Iron Throne (technically, the Iron Throne is destroyed, but we’ve used the term “Iron Throne” for a decade and not stopping now).

But as for all the rest: Sansa crowned queen in the North, Brienne running the Kingsguard, Bronn as Master of Coin, Samwell Tarly as maester, Tyrion as Hand of the King, Jon reuniting with Ghost (he pets his direwolf, does that make it better?), Grey Worm going to Naath, Podrick becoming a knight, Arya embarking on a trip — that’s all rather nice, isn’t it?

The biggest determining factor of how you feel about the finale might not be something from this episode, but Episode 5, the divisive “The Bells.” If you felt Dany’s “Mad Queen” turn rang false, then the finale would feel like a journey to a place that should not exist. If you felt the twist was earned, then everything that happens in this finale flows rather logically from that. Perhaps even this litmus test is too simple. Because the Game of Thrones finale is really a bunch of different endings rolled into one. All the outcomes combined add up to a finale that’s sort of … bittersweet, just as author George R.R. Martin has been saying all these years.

King’s Landing: We pick up after the devastating dragon attack where Daenerys treated King’s Landing like her own personal creme brûlée.

Tyrion goes looking for his brother and sister and uncovers their bodies folded together in the ruins of the cellar. Cersei and Jaime Lannister, the twins, returned to an in utero state, exiting the world as they came into it.

In the streets, Grey Worm is executing prisoners on Daenerys’ orders. The humanity that bloomed in Grey Worm during his time with Missandei was abruptly crushed by her execution, and he has regressed back to Unsullied killing machine mode.

Outside, Daenerys gives a victory speech in Dothraki. The fascistic, dictatorial imagery is clear. Everything about this sequence is rivetingly well done with a very ominous score by Ramin Djawadi. This is not a post-election unification speech where a new leader says she’s going to put aside past disputes and reach across the aisle and work with the opposition party. It’s first stop Westeros, next stop the world, and everything in it.

Also, it has this incredible shot:

Since Dany’s became the Mother of Dragons she’s often expected everybody else to fully submit. Dany has long assumed she has a right to rule not because of her deeds but her birthright (Stannis was the same way after Robert Baratheon died). But Dany’s always gone about her power plays in a less heavy-handed fashion, to say the least.

Tyrion listens to this speech and knows he backed the wrong candidate. He takes off his Hand pin to resign. Dany brands him a traitor and has him imprisoned.

Jon: Jon visits Tyrion, who admits Varys was right all along. Tyrion walks us through Dany’s murderous history like so many of us explored after episode 5. Tyrion tells Jon he’s the realm’s only hope to stop her.

“Everywhere she goes evil men die and we cheer her for it and she grows more sure that she is right,” Tyrion says. “She believes her destiny is to build a better world, she believed that. If you believe that, wouldn’t you kill whoever stood between you and paradise? … Love is more powerful than reason. We all know that. Look at my brother…You are the shield that guards the realms of men. Who is the greatest threat to the people now?”

Some have pointed out that Tyrion hasn’t had as many powerful moments in the later seasons of the show. But in the finale Tyrion is absolutely crucial — really, the focal point in many respects –and Peter Dinklage’s performance is amazing. Kit Harington is fantastic as well.

“You have to choose now,” Tyrion tells Jon, who looks almost terrified at the decision before him.

Throne Room: And here we go. Jon approaches the ruins of the throne room and is blocked by Drogon emerging from a pile of snow. (The dragon moments this season have been the best of the series.) At first, we think Dany’s dragon isn’t going to let him pass, but he does.

In the throne room, we see Dany fulfilling her prophetic vision from season 2. The roof is broken open from the attack and snow is falling in (fine, fine, it’s snow, not ash, but there was also a lot of ash!). In her original vision, Daenerys didn’t touch the Iron Throne. This time she does touch it. Finally. She turns around and she is just… about … to sit down …

Jon enters. The two have a heated conversation. Jon is practically screaming. She’s murdered countless children. Jon is looking for a reason to not do what he’s thinking of doing. He’s looking for some degree of mercy in Daenerys, some measure of sanity.

“I know what is good and so do you,” she says.

“What about all the other people who think they know what’s good?” he asks.

“They don’t get to choose,” she says.

And that, I think, is what does it.

They kiss. We hear a stab. We don’t know for sure. Dany, for sure, never expected it. All these years, striving for one thing, and she’s so close. And now, the great love of her life, plunges in the knife.

Daenerys Targaryen dies in Jon Snow’s arms. Exactly like Ygritte.

She’s wide-eyed, shocked and fearful. She looks like a girl who would never harm anyone.

Drogon knows what’s up and enters. We think he’s going to annihilate Jon. Instead, after a moment, the dragon nukes the Iron Throne, the twisted symbol of the realm’s murderous lust for power. It’s also the seat forged by Aegon the Conqueror after he attacked the massive castle of Harrenhal and roasted everybody inside. The chair was forged from the swords of his victims. Given that Dany is dying and Jon Snow is the last Targaryen and will certainly not take the throne, there is no longer any hope this chair will ever be occupied by a Targaryen again.

Once again, Drogon seems to know a bit more than everybody else.

(EW has an exclusive interview with Emilia Clarke, Kit Harington and writer Bryan Cogman that’s all about Dany’s Mad Queen turn and her death which has a lot more insight and analysis on this event. Read that story for much more on this).

Dragonpit: A time jump has occurred. A few weeks at least, according to Tyrion. We return to the summit spot from season 6. The location is fitting. This arena once housed dragons and the ground is littered with bones from dragon skeletons — they’re basically in a Targaryen graveyard to discusses the ramifications of the death of the Mother of Dragons.

The group debates who should be king. Some fans hoped that nobody would get the Iron Throne and the realm would become a democracy (I was rooting for that outcome as well). But what would that look like in the finale, dramatically speaking? A montage of a months-long election process with Flea Bottom citizens casting votes? Samwell even floats the idea before the lords laugh at him — Westeros is not quite ready for that, it seems. Still, this scene is at least a version of representative democracy as there’s a vote among characters representing various kingdoms and with a promise of that in the future. “From now on rulers will not be born, they will be chosen,” Tyrion declares. “That is the wheel our queen wanted to break.”

Indeed: Daenerys ended up accomplishing, in a way, her original vision for a more idealized Westeros: But only through her own demise.

Tyrion makes an eloquent case for Bran given the Three-Eyed Raven’s knowledge of the past and that he has no ambition to lead whatsoever. Tyrion would say this. Remember the book that Tyrion gave Joffrey at his ill-fated wedding? The book was on the wisdom of four legendary previous kings, something he hoped Joffrey would read and learn from. Well, Bran knows all the knowledge of all the kings.

When Bran is asked if he’ll be king he says, “Why do you think I came all this way?” Is the BranBot 9000 actually developing a sense of humor?

Granted, Bran is not an inspirational choice. He would give the dullest speeches (“Hi. I’m the Three-Eyed Raven. I mostly live in the past….”). One gets the impression such crowdwork isn’t really part of leading Westeros anyway. While one might have preferred a fan favorite character on the Iron Throne, such as Sansa, if you’re looking at the story from the perspective of an utterly exhausted Westrosi resident whose life has been a total hellscape over the last decade as various figures battled for the throne, the choice of Bran is probably a relief. It’s like when you’ve had four years of a president who is chaotic and is always finding new ways to distract you and stress everybody out, you might then decide to choose a really stable and boring president after that. Ahem.

There’s also something pretty boldly anti-fan service about picking Bran. Make no mistake: The GoT writers fully realize that many don’t like the character. And the question of “Who will end up on the Iron Throne?” has been part of the show’s storyline and marketing for years. So to not only refuse to pick a popular character for the throne, but arguably pick one the show’s least popular and most-mocked characters, it’s an audacious move in an era where most entertainment is terrified of annoying its fandom.

Also, I wouldn’t be surprised if this was Martin’s vision too. Granted, the showrunners could have put whoever they wanted on the throne in the HBO version. But the first chapter in Martin’s debut A Song of Ice and Fire book was from the perspective of Bran. The boy was our entryway into the story of the Starks and Winterfell and his attempted murder is what kicked off the main storyline, so there’s something rather full circle about him ending up on the throne (and the final season has been full of “coming full circle” moments).

There was also this prophecy hint in Martin’s recent Targaryen history book Fire and Blood: “When the Hammer shall fall upon the dragon, a new king shall arise and none shall stand before him.” Fans speculated this meant Gendry (who has wielded a hammer-like weapon). But I can’t help but wonder — and this sounds like a joke and is probably wrong — but I wonder if the “none shall stand before him” hint isn’t referring to the fact that Bran is in a wheelchair. Subjects are supposed to kneel before kings and then can stand with permission. But since Bran is always sitting down, would that change the protocol of how subjects are expected to respond to him? It’s not something addressed in this episode, but I could see it being touched upon in the books.

Sansa refuses to vote for Bran. She holds out to get what she wants and deserves: The North as its own free and independent nation. It’s not entirely clear in the episode if Sansa wanted the Iron Throne or could have gotten it. Strict Iron Throne succession law is that inheritance passes to the male heir, something that is glossed over a bit here. I don’t actually think Sansa really wants the Iron Throne — she’s not a fan of King’s Landing and feels a responsibility and kinship with the Northerners and a duty to Winterfell. But I cannot imagine the reaction if this scene was written so that Sansa did want the Iron Throne and the men explained that she can’t have it because she’s a girl.

The group also has to decide what to do with Jon Snow. One of the big twists of the final season is everybody expected the Kingslayer Jaime to kill Cersei and were disappointed when that didn’t happen. Instead, Jon killed Daenerys. Does this mean Jon Snow is Azor Ahai? The Prince Who Was Promised who would stab his lover in the heart? Sure.

Grey Worm insists Jon must be punished. They decide to send Jon to Castle Black to rejoin the Night’s Watch. “No one is very happy which means it’s a good compromise I suppose,” Tyrion says.

Jon looks haunted. “Was it right what we did? It doesn’t feel right.” And, of course, it shouldn’t.

Drogon: One dragon survived Game of Thrones. Drogon has wisely decided to fly off to do his own thing.

Bran remarks “maybe I can find him,” a total wink to fans who have been waiting for Bran to warg into a dragon for years, yet never did.   

Small Council: The order of business of the realm continues. We meet a new Small Council which is a total GoT dream team: Tyrion is Hand of the King, Davos as Master of Ships, Brienne is head of the Kingsguard, Samwell Tarly is maester, Bronn is Master of Coin (he knows how to spend it, at least). Who else wants to watch a procedural spinoff series chronicling the workaday business of this new small council?

Samwell presents a book, “A Song of Ice and Fire,” which is a fitting nod to author George R.R. Martin’s title for his saga of novels. The book is a history of, well, this show (somehow leaving out Tyrion).

We’re teased with an ending to Tyrion’s brothel and honeycomb joke that we’ll never get.

For Tyrion, it’s the third time he’s been appointed the Hand. We hope he’s learned his lessons. We’re told he must make up for all his tragic makes over a lifetime of service. We’re confident he will do so.

A Lannister, after all, always pays his debts.

Brienne: Brienne, touchingly knighted by Jaime Lannister in episode 2 this season, has been elevated to a position she never dreamed was possible, and is perfect for her.

In the Red Keep, Brienne writes in the White Book, the 300-year history of accomplishments by members of the Kingsguard.

Brienne fills pages with the deeds of Jaime Lannister, who all his life was defined by his murder of the king he swore to protect. Her chronicle then concludes: “Died protecting his queen.”

There is a scene in this room in season 4 where Joffrey ruthlessly mocks Jaime Lannister for how little was written in the book about his accomplishments. You can see the silent pain on Jaime’s face. I recently rewatched the whole series knowing what was coming in this finale and that scene now has so much more resonance.

Arya: The Starks say goodbye at the docks. The last time we’ll see them all together. One of the bitterest of the bittersweet elements of the finale is that the Starks all go their separate ways. They are four lone wolves, once again.

Arya asks what’s “west of Westeros.” She wants to go explore.

She’s a young girl who will travel the unknown world all by herself.

And we know Arya will be just fine.   

Grey Worm: The Unsullied commander took a grim turn in the finale. But now with nothing left to fight for, the captain decides to journey to Missandei’s home country of Naath and see the beaches there for himself. He’s honoring the dream he and Missandei had together, only he has to do this without her.

One of them, at least, became truly free.   

Sansa: We get a cool shot of a crown going on Sansa’s red hair.

Queen in the North! Queen in the North!

Long may she reign. As Jon said: “Ned Stark’s daughter will speak for them, she’s the best they could ask for.” I suspect this will be many fan’s favorite moment of the finale. We’ve seen so many characters crowned and then commit fatal missteps. But Sansa has learned everything she needs to know to rule.

Her mother would be very proud.

Castle Black: Jon arrives at The Wall. He pets Ghost! I bet the producers knew you wanted to see that in their last parting, deliberately didn’t do it, fans got so mad, and all along they were planning on showing it at the end. Direwolf schnuggies at last. I’m not sure how much of being sent to The Wall is really a punishment given he wanted to join the Night’s Watch anyway when we first met him in season 1.

Remember the old blind maester of the citadel, Aemon Targaryen? He was Jon Snow’s great-great uncle who gave up his crown to join the Night’s Watch. It’s like Jon is now filling the maester’s place in the Watch (and it’s fitting Aemon was quoted earlier in the episode).

Jon going to The Wall brings him full circle. Granted, the man is never supposed to be with a woman again but, frankly, that’s probably for the best. Now that The Wall is in shambles, the Wildings are free to come and go as they please, and the Night King is defeated, I’m not sure what they’re all going to do with their time. But Jon Snow is probably ready for a long rest.

Perhaps we can all agree on one thing? The final moment of Game of Thrones is perfect — a reversal of the opening of the pilot, where members of the Night’s Watch walk out and the gate slowly closes instead of opens.

Westeros is in good hands.

…

EW has an exclusive interview with Emilia Clarke and Kit Harington and others that’s all about the killing of Daenerys Targaryen and the Mad Queen turn. Clarke is candid, hilarious, insightful and heartbreaking. It’s my favorite season 8 interview and you can read it in full here.

Also, we have Sophie Turner answering a burning question: How does she feel about Sansa Stark not getting the Iron Throne? 

We also have much more to come tonight, Monday and beyond.

Monday afternoon we’ll have our podcast where I’m pretty excited to finally talk about the finale being on set for its filming, and all of these twists and turns.

This is a recap in progress, updates to come… 

I want to thank every person who has ever read any one of my Game of Thrones recaps from 2011 until today. It’s been an honor to attempt to chronicle this worldwide phenomenon and I appreciate those who stuck with us over the years and left comments and shared these recaps with their friends.

Spoilers for the series finale of Game of Thrones to follow… 

It’s a bit weird to see Bran Stark casually walking around.

Over the years on HBO’s Game of Thrones, the character (who lost the use of his legs in the show’s 2011 pilot) has always been carried, dragged and wheeled into scenes (aside from a few vision sequences). During our set visit to the production in Northern Ireland last spring, there’s an uncanny feeling when Bran Stark gets up from his wheelchair that’s parked under Winterfell’s weirwood tree where he’s waiting for the Night King and stroll over for chat about the series finale.

First, to answer the inevitable question, yes, actor Isaac Hempstead-Wright knows there’s a good chance you’re not going to be thrilled that Bran is crowned king of the six kingdoms (not seven, read our series finale recap for the details).

“Not everyone will be happy,” the 20-year-old says. “It’s so difficult to finish a series as popular as this without pissing some people off. I don’t think anybody will think it’s predictable and that’s as much as you can hope for. People are going to be angry. There’s going to be a lot of broken hearts. It’s ‘bittersweet,’ exactly as George R.R. Martin intended. It’s a fitting conclusion to this epic saga.”

That said, after years of fans wondering “who will end up on the Iron Throne?” the actor was thrilled to find out his unlikely character was chosen for the honor (even if Red Keep’s iconic seat of power was destroyed by Drogon). And at first, Hempstead-Wright couldn’t believe this was the real ending.

“When I got to the in the last episode and they’re like, ‘What about Bran?’ I had to get up and pace around the room,” he recalls. “I genuinely thought it was a joke script and that sent to everyone a script with their own character ends up on the Iron Throne. ‘Yeah, good one guys. Oh s—, it’s actually real?’”

That said, “I’m happy,” he says. “Though I kind of did want to die and get in one good death scene with an exploding head or something.”

So will Bran be a good king for the people of Westeros? Almost certainly yes. Bran knows the entire history of the realm, and some of the future too. He’s utterly fair and makes decisions without emotion.

“I think he’ll be a really good king actually,” Hempstead-Wright says. “Perhaps there will be something missing in having real emotive leader, which is a useful quality in a king or queen as well. At the same time, you can’t really argue with Bran. He’s like, ‘No, I know everything.’”

Bran Stark has always been pretty meme-worthy, but his fan playfulness with his odd character went to an entirely new level in the final season, with Bran’s hazy stare becoming a thing. Across the series, Hempstead-Wright’s all-time favorite Bran moment was in season 8 during his confrontation with the Night King.

“Getting to do those night shoots when the Night King gets was pretty powerful,” he says. “Seeing the end of one of the most important powerful characters come to an end. There was a moment between Bran and the night king where Bran almost feels sorry for him. He didn’t ask to be the Night King. We saw him being strapped to the tree and get that Dragonglass plunged in his heart and he’s been on a hellbent mission of destruction. That was probably my favorite thing to shoot.”

At least now Hempstead-Wright is free to talk about his character’s reign. While most of the show’s actors have said they felt pressure to protect final season spoilers, Hempstead-Wright had all those secrets plus the desire to share his character’s enormous victory.   

“I just want to shout: ‘King motherf—ers!,’” he says. “Though that’s probably not a wise plan, obviously.”

More exclusive coverage of the Game of Throne series finale:
— Emilia Clarke, Kit Harington, producer on ‘Game of Thrones’ finale’s shock twist
— ‘Game of Thrones’ series finale recap: This is the end 
— Sophie Turner on whether Sansa wanted the Iron Throne

Spoilers on the Game of Thrones series finale are discussed in this article. 

It’s called “Longbottoming,” when someone you once made fun of for his Herbology obsession all of a sudden, as if overnight, drops a shirtless Attitude magazine photo spread and confirms he’s no longer that weird little kid who got Petrificus Totalus-ed in his jammies. The Game of Thrones series finale had a moment like that.

All hail Robin Arryn, “Sweetrobin,” Drinker of Milk, Mother’s “good strong boy,” and Lord of the Vale. Yes, Lysa Arryn’s son, who once wiped away a breastmilk mustache on his mother’s lap as their entire court looked on in quiet horror, turned into quite the looker.

Actor Lino Facioli, now 18 years old, appeared in the conclusion to Game of Thrones season 8 after that awkward hug between Jon and Dany played out. He was spotted among the lords and ladies of Westeros who all gathered to choose who should rule the now Six Kingdoms, with the Seventh, the North, becoming an independent nation. Fans took notice — and Facioli took notice of the fans taking notice.

“Definitely didn’t expect my morning to start off like this,” the actor tweeted on Monday.

Definitely didn't expect my morning to start off like this #GOThttps://t.co/jKxVPZNB5R via @TVGuide

— Lino Facioli (@Lino_Facioli) May 20, 2019

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“Longbottoming” comes from Matthew Lewis, the Harry Potter actor who was once a chubby-cheeked kid wizard in The Sorcerer’s Stone in 2001 and now has washboard abs in his late 20s.

Viewers, understandably, have a lot of feelings over #HotRobinArryn. Can present-day hotness ever really wipe the memory of past eating habits?

How excited was the kid who plays Robyn Arryn when they told him he’d be back for the series finale and also hot now #GameOfThrones pic.twitter.com/mPf6dWFvmv

— Ruth Kinane (@ruthiekinane) May 20, 2019

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Why is nobody talking about this glow up wtf #GameOfThrones pic.twitter.com/ex6W0MgPdL

— Emily Ginn (@ginn_emily) May 20, 2019

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Robin Arryn: a glowup #GameOfThrones pic.twitter.com/WQ3uyV2KZc

— Bettina Cecilia (@bcdgonzalez) May 20, 2019

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I didn’t notice the bottled water because of Robert Arryn. #GameOfThrones pic.twitter.com/DAl60V70O0

— kierarktina (@AelinsRowan) May 20, 2019

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stop i cannot allow myself to think that Robin Arryn is hot right now #gameofthrones pic.twitter.com/MmVwsKjYuF

— 𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐱 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐥𝐨𝐤𝐢 ४ (@grimescallies) May 20, 2019

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Related content:

Where everyone ended up in the Game of Thrones series finale Game of Thrones: Sophie Turner answers question about Sansa’s series finale fate Game of Thrones series finale recap in progress: This is the end

Your watch of Game of Thrones has ended, but your watch of Game of Thrones content is far from over.

With the mammoth series coming to a divisive conclusion, HBO is looking to keep the Westerosi coin flowing in, having already ordered a prequel series that definitely can’t be called The Long Night, while George R.R. Martin says two other “successor shows” are “edging closer.”

But why stop there? As Fast & Furious has taught us, you can never have too much of a great thing. And with Thrones leaving many of our beloved characters in intriguing places (some more so than others), there’s plenty of ground to explore. So here’s the spin-offs we’d definitely watch at least 7 seasons of before turning on it and signing a petition.

Raisin’ Bran

A workplace comedy about the day-to-day headaches managing Westeros under a boss who doesn’t just THINK he knows everything … he does! Just imagine Bronn and Tyrion’s “working” lunches at the newly-constructed brothels and Sam shooting Jim Halpert-like looks at the camera. Bonus log line: “Small Council, Big Problems.”

Westworld IV

Is it a coincidence that Westworld debuted the first look at season 3 (Westworld III) on the same night that Arya headed west? Probably, but what if our favorite killer’s journey has her crossing paths with our favorite robot, Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood)? Would that mean that Westeros was possibly one of the parks? The questions and confusion are endless!

Jorah the Explorer

If we’re talking prequels, then there’s plenty to learn about Jorah Mormont’s time before meeting his queen. What led to him disgracing his name and becoming a slave trader? How did he get involved with the Dothraki? Has he always been into much-younger women?

GoT Milk?

Breastfeeders unite! Upon learning of Robin Arryn’s handsome transformation and love of milk, Tormund takes the young man under his wing and trains him to be the greatest warrior in the realm.

Life’s a Beach

Grey Worm fulfills his promise to Missandei, bringing her back home to Naath. But after he buries the love of his life, he discovers his toughest opponent yet: retirement.

Beyond the Wall

Jon Snow settles in for a new life of peace with the Wildlings, but when tribal warfare breaks out, the former King in the North digs up Longclaw and prepares to reluctantly take the lead once again.

Rewriting History

After taking great pride in writing the end of Jaime’s story, Brienne discovers a time machine that Qyburn built before his death and starts traveling back in time to alter notable events and rewrite the history books.

A Song of Ice and Fire, as Told By The Valets

Think Key & Peele meets Drunk History meets Game of Thrones. With Archmaester Ebrose completing the Tyrion-less A Song of Ice and Fire, there’s no one more hilariously qualified to narrate and reenact the events than Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele’s valets. Long live, Khaleesies.

Related content:

Emilia Clarke on Game of Thrones finale’s shock twist: ‘I stand by Daenerys’ Bran Stark speaks: Isaac Hempstead-Wright discusses that Game of Thrones ending Game of Thrones: Sophie Turner answers question about Sansa’s series finale fate

Game of Thrones started out erotic and ended ultraviolent. We met Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage) in a brothel, his hair Cobra Kai blond, his body attended upon by a thinkpiece of prostitutes. Our first sighting of Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) was right during bath time, just before her forced marriage to a musclebound barbarian whose butt would glisten in the firelight. Eight seasons later, the fantasy drama’s series finale united those two in cauterized catastrophe. Tyrion’s hair had long since darkened a prestigious shade of bummer. He walked through the King’s Landing napalmscape, noticing child-sized ash mounds, uncovering not one but two dead siblings from a pile of plot rubble. Meanwhile, Daenerys stood triumphant above a city-sized graveyard, celebrating the triumph of her will, her personal kill count suddenly large enough to make the all-consuming Night King look about as fatal as a single Sand Sister.

The finale belonged to Tyrion and Dany, really. More so Tyrion, unfortunately, and Dany got a bit overshadowed by her dragon. Oh, the show paid fealty to the Stark siblings, handing out happy endings to all Ned’s remainder. Two Starks sat on two thrones in Westeros. Another Stark sailed west to discover America. And their protagonistic brother-cousin rode north with his hippie tribal pals, his smile warming the snowy forest. We all agree, he totally snubbed the Night’s Watch, right? And moved up north to start a wildling family? In hindsight, Jon (Kit Harington) only ever felt happy camping in the snowy wasteland. He earned himself a happy kind of punishment, hunting forever with best pal Tormund (Kristofer Hivju). No wonder Grey Worm (Jacob Anderson) looked so unhappy. His Queen got killed, and the culprit got a minimum-security vacation.

Game of Thrones loved the Starks in the end — a bit of a twist, really, since it couldn’t always figure out what to do with them. Bran (Isaac Hempstead Wright) spent long years hiking north, before returning to Winterfell with his emotion chip removed. Arya (Maisie Williams) sold her cockles — “Oysters, clams, and cockles!!!” — on a semester abroad where she learned a very awesome shape-changing power the final season forgot about. Sansa (Sophie Turner) followed Dany into forced marriage — a miserable wound the series would try healing by promoting her into a Very Important Administrative Role that also pushed her to the narrative sidelines.

Being cruel to be kind here: There was always at least one thing wrong with Game of Thrones. Jaime (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) went to Dorne. Brienne (Gwendolyn Christie) spent a season staring patiently at a window. There was that time when Dany’s whole thing was “My dragons!” and I think you had to really love pyramids to ever fully groove on her days in Meereen. Nobody could ever make the Red God happen. Season 7 reunited Arya and Sansa, by then two of the most famous TV characters of the decade… and teased a goofy fake-out about maybe one of them killing the other. In season 8, Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey), the longtime antagonist whose whole Disney Princess Plotting Incest Homicide Coups iconography practically invented this series, got to dispassionately bang a pirate Viking before staring patiently out a window. And then she died in her lover’s arms, reads her plot summary, an oddly clichéd ending for a character who was anything but.

And none of this mattered when the show was really going: when Thrones hit its stride in its relentless third and fourth seasons, or when it threw its whole narrative chessboard out the window next to poor Tommen at the end of season 6. Actually, the imperfections of Thrones deepened the fandom, I think. You could play the game of thrones along at home, rooting for certain characters and families, preferring one ongoing story arc over another. The source material was literary and the drama’s intentions were epic, but its success reflected the instincts of reality TV, a competition culture that inspires engagement toward an endgame: the final Rose Ceremony, the Head of Household competition, whoever will finally sit upon the Iron Throne. (This is why Game of Thrones was especially beloved by people who think art should be enjoyed like sports.) There are annoying people on every season of reality television, human beings whose mere presence on camera can feel like an assault on good taste. But you learn to laugh about it, like most viewers learned to laugh whenever a journey on Game of Thrones took a whole season, like those same viewers learned to laugh again when the continent shrunk in season 7 and everyone started teleporting between cities.

I preferred Game of Thrones in its middle ages, I guess, when it was still cheap enough to require a sense of humor. That was the magical golden era when King’s Landing was filled with colorful personalities, Lannisters and Tyrells, phony Baratheons and randy Dornishmen. All the bitchfaced backstabbery therein crosscut into the more recognizably epic-fantasy antics of Jon and Dany, battling barbarians and monsters in extreme climates. This was some heretofore unimagined nexus point for people who loved Dark Souls and people who loved Gossip Girl, and the contrast had a purpose. You could watch Game of Thrones and conclude two things: The obvious heroes were awesome, and the obvious heroes were idiots. Politics was everything, because real power depended on which Lannister made better allies — or politics was nothing, and all the florid dialogue scenes between smart characters would soon enough fall under blue zombie people and dragons.

Whereas this final season was all about big-huge set pieces, and a lot of the complexity burned away. I don’t think anyone can be happy that this season focused, in the end, on Jon Snow, the least complicated main character on an ensemble full of brutal instincts and grasping ambition. “You’ve always tried to do the right thing,” Tyrion told Jon, in a scene that also featured the line “Love is more powerful than reason,” yeesh. Jon became, briefly, a proxy husk besieged by two bigger personalities. In one corner: his queen, his lover. “Build the new world with me,” she asked him. In the other corner: Jon’s pal Tyrion, whose oratory would be powerful enough to singlehandedly transform Westeros into an elective monarchy.

Jon killed Dany, and then her dragon incinerated the Iron Throne. Both actions look a bit inexplicable to me. Credit Clarke for playing her final scene with an unreadable, unblinking confidence. The finale tried to explain her turn into mass homicide, by which I mean Tyrion literally explained it to Jon. It sure sounded like she was talking about conquering the world, which isn’t really a thing she’s ever expressed an interest in. Was Dany psychotic? Was she acting out a particularly violent strategy for eventual peace? Even her two scenes in the finale felt whiplashed, from imperial kill-the-bastards fascism to lovesick adoration. I appreciate the confusion, though I’m still left feeling like Thrones lost track of Dany in its final phase.

Whereas Drogon’s destruction of the mega-stabby swordchair is very on-the-nose — and very funny, if you accept that a dragon can have serious ideological problems with the monarchic system of governance. It was a big moment, the kind of hashtaggy mini-event Thrones tried to create often in its last few years. That urge could leave some characters in the lurch, though, sacrificing drama at the altar of coolness. The single most maddening sequence in the entire run of Game of Thrones came in the penultimate episode, when two giant man-hulks met on a stairwell for their final eye-gouging punchfight — and Queen Cersei Lannister, First of Her Name, had to quietly skitter past them. Was that scene supposed to be funny? It felt reductive, no matter what, all her great plans dissolving away from a climactic bro-down.

This wasn’t a great finale, and I didn’t think it was terrible. “Middling” sounds right: It left you with a lot to think about, even if most of those thoughts jockeyed between “Bwaahhhh??” and “Huh.” The most intriguing scene came after the epic moments were done, when the remaining lords and ladies of Westeros assembled to figure out what the hell to do with this country of theirs. There was a very funny cameo by Tobias Menzies as Edmure Tully, whose brief moment of gasbaggery also reminded you how funny this show could be about preening egomaniacs who believe in their own self-righteousness, before it became all about badasses doing war stuff.

And yet this sudden return to political realities after all the shaky-cam warfare felt a bit like parliamentary bumper bowling, like no idea could be a bad one by virtue of finalehood. A few years ago, every halfway powerful lord of Westeros used a tiny rumor of succession fraud as an opportunity to declare revolution. In this finale, the Dany-allied Iron Islands and the grinning new Prince of Dorne nodded along while an imprisoned Lannister suggested making the least famous Stark the new King of Westeros. It’s because, Tyrion explained, Brandon the Broken has the best story. Didn’t Arya just become famous for killing the walking personification of death? You’re telling me that tracks lower for the average illiterate Westerosi than some kid who survived a bad fall before swallowing Ancestry.com?

Worth remembering, I think, when Game of Thrones was at its best. That would be season 4, the phase when every corner of the opening-credits map hit runaway-train momentum. Every new character still felt immediately essential: Hello, Oberyn (Pedro Pascal), you sure seem fun! And there was the whole perfect little show-within-a-show where Arya and the Hound (Rory McCann) wandered from one dead end to another.

George R. R. Martin’s source novels, comprising the yet-unfinished A Song of Ice and Fire series, are brilliant and idiosyncratic. In Martin’s telling, the wars of Westeros flip between up-close perspectives, a shifting POV narrative roughly TV-equivalent to the focal-episode style of Lost or The Leftovers. The series that showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss extrapolated from those novels was never so inventive stylistically. It visibly suffered when it ran out of story to adapt — and some of their changes could feel a bit dull, like keeping Theon (Alfie Allen) on screen for two straight seasons of relentless torture.

But credit Benioff and Weiss as producers. They cast child actors who grew into compelling adults, especially Turner and Williams. That decision alone gave Thrones added potency as it went along. If you were born at the right moment, you followed the Harry Potter heroes from prepubescence into British drinking age, and then tagged along with the Thrones kids from their teenage wasteland into twentysomething political prominence. And Benioff and Weiss seemed willing to make a little room for pleasant surprises, like Bella Ramsey’s Lyanna Mormont, a scene-stealer who slayed a giant. Game of Thrones will be remembered for its ornate decade-long narrative — and yet the best flourishes I’ll associate with Benioff and Weiss feel impulsive, even self-immolating. They initially tried to adapt the books’ version of Euron Greyjoy, a looming pantheistic menace. And then they seemed to just throw up their hands and let actor Pilou Asbæk have some fun, making Euron the last person in Westeros who seemed remotely happy to be here.

I love all the source novels, which I guess is one of many possible biases you could have against Game of Thrones. But Benioff and Weiss could be compelling adaptors. They built up the animosity between Littlefinger (Aiden Gillen) and Varys (Conleith Hill) in vibrant conversations not really present in the books — though that thread dropped away as both characters started blabbing their way toward avoidable executions. And in Martin’s telling, Robb Stark is a well-meaning zero viewed distantly — but the writers gave Richard Madden a little more to do, romantic material that turned the character’s exit truly despondent.

Left to their own devices, they eventually gave in in to some of the worst instincts of fan fiction, like that time they threw a bunch of characters together for a dull trip beyond the wall to pick up a zombie corpse. I believe strongly that the best instinct of the books and the series was the urge to subvert your narrative expectations — but by the time the show staged #CleganeBowl as a showdown out of a Mortal Kombat movie, it felt like Twitter’s trending topics deserved a co-writing credit.

Am I being too mean? Am I being too nice? It’s hard for me, in the shadow of the series finale, to conjure up much ice or fire for the vast expanse of Game of Thrones. It had its ups, its downs, its transcendent moments, its miserable phases: a lot to take in, or an unusual definition of “okay.” The show was beloved enough to be criticized by everyone for something, and unique enough to create a whole new shared cultural language. It had some very good seasons and then a couple of indifferent seasons leading up to an ending that felt more dutiful than inspired. It became a generational phenomenon, uniting viewers in a shared symbolic perspective of the world. You didn’t have to squint to see the Army of the Dead as a symbol of climate change, though specifically the kind of climate change you could kill with a cool battle scene. And the gradual global rise of Dany and the Stark children fed, I think, into a particularly millennial feeling of ascension, of young people rising up to change the world. Every possibly -ismatic framework has been glued onto Game of Thrones, a whole symbiotic lit-pile of deep readings into the gender politics, the racial stereotyping, the portrait of liberation philosophy edging into fascism, its portrait of religious zealotry. All great fun to read, and I don’t think any TV series about killing a dragon with a giant crossbow can fully sustain this kind of analysis. And then Thrones did itself no favors by deciding that, like, the solution to every complex statecraft problem was to let the Starks handle everything.

This final season wanted to tell two stories: a final showdown with the Army of the Dead, and then a final showdown between two queens. Agree to disagree, maybe, on the variable excitement of fighting zombies in near-total darkness. I couldn’t muster much emotion for the Battle of Winterfell, and its mere existence felt like the last gasp of Hardcore Gritty fantasy, a muddy brand of poorly lit “realism” that looks a bit lame and played-out in the ecstatic age of Thor: Ragnarok.

As for those queens… well, Cersei didn’t have anything to do this season, which strikes me as the one complete failure of imagination. The final two episodes of Game of Thrones gave plenty of real estate to, like, Tyrion’s love for his brother Jaime, or Tyrion’s fraternal bond with Jon. Anyone approaching Game of Thrones from a gender-studies perspective would have a field day with this finale. The last words Tyrion said to Jon were about pissing of the edge of the world, a “callback” that sounded like an invitation to cross some streams. And the last properly heard spoken conversation ever in Game of Thrones was a joke about a brothel! The broseph mentality shined through in this last season, all the more obvious after a couple years that strove hard to build the female characters into major roles. Tyrion could cry majestically over his fallen brother, but Dany would react to Missandei’s death with a cuckoo makeup job. This last season couldn’t get Arya and Cersei into the same room — but it had time for Euron and Jaime to fight over Cersei, or for Tyrion to bond with Jon over how much they both loved the ker-azy gal they had to kill.

I wonder if Benioff and Weiss wrote themselves into a corner. Season 6 of Thrones ended with a killer one-two punch, the thrilling Battle of the Bastards that ended Ramsay Bolton (Iwan Rheon) and the even-more-thrilling finale which exploded the High Sparrow (Jonathan Pryce) and a whole Tyrell generation. At the time, this felt like a statement of purpose, a decisive step forward from the source material. It was also a bit of schadenfreude: Ramsay and the High Sparrow had spent their time on the show physically or emotionally torturing key characters, and it was a kick to see them receive comeuppance via canine or explosion.

In hindsight, I’m not sure Thrones really had that many moves left. As Queen, Cersei’s big story line was pregnancy, a sacred last-ditch subplot for any long-running series out of ideas for female characters. Jon and Dany fell in love, but there was a basic lack of chemistry there. Everyone had to get a zombie corpse to convince Cersei to help, and then Cersei just didn’t help, because why on earth would she? It all just started to feel small, really, like Westeros was precisely as large as the Starks and their pals. Jaime hooked up with Brienne, which was just a bad idea — another reductive twist, suggesting that “emotionally complicated professional respect” was too complicated for the show to maintain. Missandei (Nathalie Emmanuel) got killed, and that drove Daenerys to some kind of madness, and yet it was hard to remember the last time the two characters even spoke to each other. Missandei got lost in the shuffle, like a lot of the non-royal characters. There were more buildings to explode, I guess.

And then Thrones could just get a little repetitive. At the end of season 4, Arya set out for unknown shores, devastation behind her in the ruined Westeros, new adventures illuminating her horizon ahead. It was an optimistic vision of hard-won grace — not even triumph, Arya Stark would never properly experience that, but something like hope. Season 8 ended on a similar note. Arya was setting out west this time, fulfilling an ambition to explore off the map. Her sorta-brother Jon was on a similar journey, going north to begin a new kind of watch with the newly chill wildlings. But then Sansa took up residence on a new throne in Winterfell, while Bran launched a somewhat absentee reign as the King of Westeros.

Certain logical questions come to mind: Why is there still a Night’s Watch? Why are the wildlings going back to live in punishing glacier country? Did they really rebuild the Red Keep that quickly?

But I’m struck by the fact that — even right here at the end — Game of Thrones let you have it both ways. The Starks left Westeros, the Starks stayed in Westeros. Choose your own adventure.

Final season grade: C

Complete series grade: B

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Actress Emilia Clarke and actor John Bradley-West, known for their roles as Daenerys Targaryen and Samwell Tarly respectively on HBO’s Game of Thrones, each shared their own emotional goodbye to the series on Instagram on Sunday.

“The mother of dragons chapter has taken up the whole of my adult life,” Clarke wrote, accompanied by a cast picture featuring multiple key actors from the final season. “This woman has taken up the whole of my heart. I’ve sweated in the blaze of dragon fire, shed many tears at those who left our family early, and wrung my brain dry trying to do Khaleesi and the masterful words, actions (and names) I was given, justice.”

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Warning: This article contains spoilers for Game of Thrones' series finale, "The Iron Throne"!

Game of Thrones has racked up quite a body count over the course of eight seasons. Many of the great lords and ladies of Westeros at the beginning of the series are now long dead. Perhaps no scene in the series finale better illustrated how much the political landscape of Westeros has changed than Tyrion's judgment at Dragonpit. Tyrion stood before the surviving leaders of a war-weary kingdom, pleading his case to lords and ladies both familiar and unfamiliar.

Here's a quick breakdown of all the surviving rulers of the great Houses of Westeros present in this pivotal scene, including a little speculation for characters who aren't immediately recognizable.

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Full spoilers for Game of Thrones' series finale continue below. For more on Game of Thrones, be sure to vote in our poll for your finale reactions and let us know what you thought of the episode in "The Iron Throne" review.

What happened to Drogon?

Game of Thrones dramatically concluded Daenerys Targaryen's storyline in its final episode, "The Iron Throne." After turning full Mad Queen Daenerys in the penultimate episode, "The Bells," she made it clear in the series finale that she thought she did "good" for the world -- and was ready to conquer the rest of it, to "free" every person who ruled under a "tyrant," not realizing she had become one herself.

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Full spoilers ahead for “The Iron Throne,” the series finale of Game of Thrones!

For even more on Game of Thrones, be sure to check out our WTF questions about the finale, why Drogon did what he did in the end, or our side-by-side comparison of the characters from their first and last appearances. Or peruse every IGN Game of Thrones episode review ever, why Westeros' new leader could be a terrifying choice, and why Drogon did what he did in the finale.

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Weather forecasts in the US could be in trouble, as the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) – the guys in charge of flogging off the wireless spectrum for the 5G network to be developed – are being warned by meteorologists that it could make weather reports around the world.

It’s a tough situation for the FCC, as the feds now have to decide whether accurate weather forecasting or a faster mobile phone signal is more important. Meanwhile, 5G bods around the world could soon be facing a similar conundrum.

The acting chief of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Neil Jacobs, took to Capitol Hill on Thursday last week to say that interference from 5G phones could hit weather reports, making them 30 percent less accurate. This is quite a substantial change, Jacobs said to the House Subcommittee on the Environment: “If you look back in time to see when our forecast scale was roughly 30 percent less than today, it was 1980.”

This was reported by WIRED, who have dug a little more into what this means.

Related: What is 5G? 

When asked for examples, Jacobs suggested that the reduction in capabilities could lead to inaccurate predictions of storm paths, and even two or three fewer days of preparation time for coastal residents faced with hurricanes.

The reason behind it is a real moment of weird science: water vapor emits a very faint signal at the 23.8 GHz frequency. Meteorologists monitor this using satellites.

Now, the FCC began auctioning off its 24GHz frequency band to wireless carriers around the world, faced with objection from NOAA, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the American Meteorological Society. The 24GHz band is pushing pretty close to the magic 23.8 GHz the weather bods need.

Related: 5G Smartphones

And the NOAA reckon that interference to its satellites from 5G could result in a 77 percent loss in data. While the FCC could switch to a different bandwidth, the FCC has already planned 5G auctions for frequencies close to the ones used to detect atmospheric temperature (50.2 – 50.4 GHz), rain and snow (36 – 37 GHz) and clouds and ice (80-90 GHz) so the problem isn’t a simple fix.

This will come to the world stage in October, with a world radio conference taking place in October for nations around the world to come together and hash out the interference level. However, while countries with milder weather might be okay, places dealing with dangerous weather could have a tough dilemma on their hands: do they want the fastest possible internet or accurate weather predictions

The post 5G will make weather forecasts worse, warns the NOAA appeared first on Trusted Reviews.

After three years of selling convincing plant-based burgers, Impossible Foods is on the verge of releasing its next product: sausage. We first learned about and tried the product during a trip to Impossible's headquarters in Redwood City, CA -- whic...

The US-China trade war has just turned very sour for Huawei, the world's second-biggest smartphone manufacturer and key 5G network equipment provider. Companies like Google, Intel, Broadcom, Xilinx, Qualcomm, and others, have suspended business with the Chinese maker, following an executive order by the President of the United States. This means any future smartphones will come without Google services or any sort of networking hardware. Regarding current owners of Huawei smartphones, Google confirmed on Twitter the following: [..] services like Google Play & security from...

Update 05/20, 9pm: Following last week's ban and Google's suspension of business operations with Huawei, the U.S. Commerce Department has issued a new waiver for the company to continue purchasing limited goods from U.S. companies for maintenance purposes. Under the 90 day waiver, Huawei will be allowed to purchase hardware and software services to maintain current infrastructure as well as provide software updates for existing Huawei Android devices. As noted by Reuters, however, Huawei is still banned from buying parts and equipment for manufacturing new devices – meaning that as things currently stand, the company can only keep building affected products until their stockpiles run out.

While the waiver itself is initially only for 90 days, it can be extended as necessary by the U.S. Government.

Update 05/20: Huawei this morning has responded to reports and the U.S. Commerce Department’s ban, issuing the following statement:

Huawei has made substantial contributions to the development and growth of Android around the world. As one of Android’s key global partners, we have worked closely with their open-source platform to develop an ecosystem that has benefitted both users and the industry.

Huawei will continue to provide security updates and after-sales services to all existing Huawei and Honor smartphone and tablet products, covering those that have been sold and that are still in stock globally.

We will continue to build a safe and sustainable software ecosystem, in order to provide the best experience for all users globally.

This answers one of the most important questions for the moment – what happens to support for current devices – however it remains to be seen what this means for new Huawei smartphones, particularly the Honor 20, which is launching tomorrow.

Original: According to a recent report by Reuters, sources claim that Google is to suspend some business operations with Huawei due to the U.S. Commerce Department’s blacklisting of the company earlier in the week on Thursday.

Huawei is said to lose access to non-open source software and services provided by Google, which in layman terms means essentially all Google services besides baseline Android. Losing access to the Play Store would be a major blow to Huawei’s mobile operations besides the Chinese market where Google doesn’t operate any services.

Huawei will continue to have access to the version of the Android operating system available through the open source license that is freely open to anyone who wishes to use it.

But Google will stop providing any technical support and collaboration for Android and Google services to Huawei going forward, the source said.

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These latest ‘leaks’ have given us a good impression of what we can expect from the display of Xiaomi’s upcoming budget fitness tracker.

The below image seems to show that the Xiaomi Mi Band 4 will have a 0.95-inch full colour OLED display, with a tempered glass cover rather than plastic.

This is a big improvement from the monochrome display of previous devices in the range, and should make it far more attractive to use — but we don’t know yet if it will translate into a price rise for this low-budget device.

AndroidPit says that there will be two models in the Band 4 range, with Bluetooth 5 common to both, and the pricier variant receiving NFC abilities too. These tweaks should increase the versatility of the device, a significant upgrade from previous bare-bones models. Packing NFC also means it could work with some sort of mobile payments service, a feature that we absolutely love on the Apple Watch 4.

We reviewed its predecessor, the Xiaomi Mi Band 3, to which we gave 3/5 stars. While it’s inexpensive, water-resistant, and has good battery life, we were very disappointed by its inaccurate heart-rate tracking, which is a fundamental feature of any fitness tracker. So we’re hoping for big improvements from the Mi Band 4, and not just a visual makeover.

Related: Best Fitness Trackers

A key rival to the Xiaomi Mi Band 4 will be the Fitbit Charge 3, which received a 5-star review. We were very impressed with its design and display, battery life, and the app. The only criticisms we made were the removal of in-built GPS, and lack of SpO2 sensor at the time of review.

Related: Best Fitbits

Samsung has also released a new competitor onto the market, the Galaxy Fit. Occupying a similar price range, this device also has a 0.95-inch OLED screen. This device is also expected to be released by the summer, and has impressive software functions such as stress management, sleep tracking, and a quick reply option for incoming notifications.

The post Xiaomi Mi Band 4 ‘leaks’: Should Fitbit and the Apple Watch be worried? appeared first on Trusted Reviews.

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It's no secret that ASUS had been struggling in the smartphone world, but following the resignation of its previous CEO, the company has since shifted its focus from the masses to power users, with last year's ROG Phone already hinting at a new direc...

Kennedy McMann stars as the titular character in NANCY DREW, an updated version of the beloved books coming to The CW this fall. In the show, Nancy is described as “a brilliant teenaged detective whose sense of self had come from solving mysteries in her hometown of Horseshoe Bay, Maine – until her mother’s untimely […]

Ruby Rose is fighting crime in Gotham City in BATWOMAN, the latest addition to The CW’s DC comics shows. First introduced in the most recent Arrowverse crossover, Kate Kane is Gotham’s unlikely vigilante. When the show begins, it’s been three years since Batman mysteriously disappeared and Gotham city is suffering. Without the resident superhero, the local […]

Aquaman and Furious 7 director James Wan and Chaos Walking and Sierra Burgess is a Loser's Lindsey Beer are set to be executive producers of Netlix's The Magic Order from the mind of Mark Millar.

In addition, Wan will direct the debut episode and Beer will act as writer and showrunner for the series that is based off the first Netflix published comic book after acquiring Millar's Millarworld in 2017.

For those unfamiliar, the official description of The Magic Order is that "five families of magicians sworn to protect our world must battle an enemy who’s picking them off one by one. By day they live among us as our neighbors, friends and co-workers, but by night they are the sorcerers, magicians and wizards that protect us from the forces of darkness — unless the darkness gets them first."

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Hello everybody, It’s a pleasure to be back on PlayStation Blog for a new feature about PS VR platformer Astro Bot Rescue Mission. Today I would like to show you the way the team has been coming up with the various gameplay ideas that made it into the game. It all starts on a sticky note….

Since the forming of ASOBI Team back in 2012, we are making a habit of brainstorming ideas regularly. Brainstorming is a relaxing time where anybody from the team gets to voice their ideas out in the open. The first thing we do is lock onto a specific areas to dig into. We never discard any idea. Because an idea that sounds ridiculous today could well be relevant tomorrow or become the springboard of something better.

Ideas we thought of are jolted down on colourful sticky notes that decorate our office walls. We keep it very visual because it is more fun, accessible and fits well with our international team. It does mean everybody needs to be able sketch their ideas to some extent. However basic it may look, the important is to get a clear, fun concept across.

In the case of Astro Bot for instance, on one occasion, we were looking for “Boss ideas”: something huge towering above the player that would feel like an epic battle. I clearly remember one of our designers drawing a huge gaping mouth with teeth you had to punch loose. A few discussions later, we added the hook shot and we had something we could take to the next level.

The post-it is then handed over to one of our game designers who will flesh out more details about the gameplay and create a simple storyboard.

Once again, we keep things visuals and avoid wordy descriptions. This ensures anybody in the team can get a grasp of the idea within seconds without having to read too much.

Once we are happy with the plan, the storyboard is handed over to a Gameplay Programmer who will single-handedly create a gameplay prototype. At this point, visuals do not matter, we are looking for fun gameplay first and foremost. The Gameplay prototype may take anywhere between a few days (for a small mechanic) to a few weeks (for a complex boss) until we are happy with it.

The final stage is the production. At this point, up to a half dozen people of all disciplines work together to bring the look and feel to what will be experienced by the player. This is when the dragon gave way to a gorilla to be more in phase with our city theme. The first version is always pretty rough, without fluffy hair, headphone and dramatic lighting.

Over time then, we refined every aspects, improved graphics, added special effects, sounds all sorts of other bees and whistles. Throughout the rest of production, we often do additional gameplay rebalancing until it feels just right. This is also when we turned the top of the building into a first-generation PlayStation console. Had you ever noticed?

This way of working may seem simple. And it is. It is a very useful way to try out lots of innovative ideas quickly while involving everyone in the thinking process too!

Thank you for reading today’s story, let us know what you think in the comments below and just like our colourful sticky notes, be sure to stick to PS Blog for more Astro Bot Rescue Mission behind-the-scenes!

The post How Astro Bot Rescue Mission’s creator turned a simple sketch into an epic gorilla boss battle appeared first on PlayStation.Blog.Europe.

The Google Titan Security Key uses FIDO standards for two-factor authentication, so it's handy for professionals and securing popular apps, like Twitter.

In an interview with Business Insider, Avengers: Endgame directors, Anthony and Joe Russo, confirmed a speculation that fans had about Loki in the film.

Spoilers follow for Avengers: Endgame. Continue and your own risk and read our spoiler-free review of Endgame if you haven't seen the film yet.

The Russo's have confirmed that Loki did in fact create a divergent timeline after taking the Space Stone in the past timeline when Captain America and Iron Man went back to try and retrieve the stone.

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TBS announced the renewal of the Simon Rich-created anthology series Miracle Workers on Wednesday, starring Daniel Radcliffe and Steve Buscemi. The pair, who respectively played a low-level angel and God in the comedy’s freshman season, will be back alongside costars Geraldine Viswanathan and Karan Soni to tell an entirely new story.

In season 2, the Lorne Michaels-produced series will focus on a group of villagers during the Dark Ages who are trying to stay positive in a time of inequality and fake news. It’s a medieval tale about family, friendship, and trying not to get murdered.

“Simon’s brain is very inventive, and he’s very excited about the next chapter,” Soni said during the show’s presentation at the Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour earlier this year.

“There’s this whole world he’s created for all of us to play new parts,” he continued. “We’ll be paired up with actors that we didn’t work with enough in the first one. We all get along so well, so we’re excited to do something together again that’ll be totally different. It’s rare as an actor to get that type of opportunity where we just reset each year.”

Rich added, “This is one of the reasons we hired such a versatile cast who have so many different moves and so many different strengths. We are trying to do this sort of repertory company where people can play wildly different characters.”

Radcliffe fell in love with Rich’s books years ago and was determined to work with the Man Seeking Woman creator.

“My girlfriend gave me a copy of What in God’s Name, and I loved it,” the Harry Potter star said at TCA. “Then, I read more of his short stories and thought about how amazing he is. I knew I had to meet him. When I did, I told him that if he ever did anything with the book that I’d love to work with him on it in any capacity. About a year later, he phoned me about making it into a TV series and I told him to count me all in. And if we get another season, I can’t wait to see what he comes up with for us.”

TBS reports that Miracle Workers reached an audience of 26.4 million viewers across all its platforms. No premiere date for the show’s sophomore season has been announced as of yet.

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