When all hope was lost, the over-powered good guy killed the one-dimensionally evil bad guy at the last second. It looks like they simply misunderstood a common theme in GRRM's writing: subverting fantasy tropes. Why can't she just sneak into KL now and end that character hub too? The ending didn't subvert anything but age and gender, which is a political subversion rather than a narrative one. It even undermines Arya's character by making her OP. The entire northern character hub, any characters associated with the Azor Ahai prophecy, the existential threat vs the selfish politicking, is all rendered null and void by this one bizarre decision. In this case, the surprise doesn't add anything to the plot, themes or characterisation. They ass pulled the old switcheroo with a ret conned foreshadowing prophecy, because SURPRISE! Calling this surprise ending a subversion of expectations is an attempt to make an unjustified arbitrary decision sound like a technical creative one. This is D&D's entire justification for giving Arya the killing blow against the NK, rather than any of the genuinely foreshadowed Azor Ahai contenders. Jon Snow has always been the hero, the one who's been the saviour, but it just didn't seem right to us for this moment. She seemed like the best candidate, provided we weren't thinking about her in the moment. God, I think it's probably three years now, we've known that it was going to be Arya who delivers that fatal blow. D&D explain this in their own words on Inside The Episode.įor. It's not some genius original narrative device they invented. smfh.'SURPRISE!' The true meaning of 'to subvert expectations' in the context of the ending of 8x03 is 'SURPRISE!' That's it. Not only did you fuck up the thing you were trying to be clever about you didn't even recognize that your approach fundamentally clashes with job you were given to do. But then Hitchcock surprises his audience with the iconic shower murder scene. We think the film is about Janet Leigh trying to run away with stolen money. **This is itself, even more childish than botching a subversion, as there is a great argument that the traditional structure is the entire point of Star Wars and the source of its cultural power and longevity. What are some good examples of films that subvert expectations For me, the definitive example is Psycho. because you needed some antagonist who could be plopped into 9 to give the retroactive impression that something, anything, really had been going on the whole time. From that point on, 9 had to start and end a brand new conflict without the ability to make sense out of the larger context in which it was placed. It more or less invalidated/rendered unimportant every single thing in TFA (and it's own first two acts). It said, clearly, things have just been happening for no rhyme or reason and no explanation is coming. Him dying without serving that role disintegrates everything. He was structurally critical to explaining what is this story about, How is it happening, and why is it happening. Snoke didn't need to be anyone specific, but his position in the context was required to illuminate what the FO (or really anyone) was trying to do. only the first one got subverted and the second one was left hanging in the wind and with it - the ability for the ST to have any coherent single story or narrative. The problem is that RJ didn't realize or didn't care that Snoke represented TWO expectations. the audience expected him to be pivotal (because he was positioned as such structurally). Essentially, many of TLJ Subversions burned down the ST narrative around it for the sake of surprise (or the sake of a hipster inclination to give SW a post structural treatment**) and offered nothing to replace what was expected. Many if not all of the subversions in TLJ paid little heed to the preceding material or the requirements they highlighted for the story in process. you still have to attend those sources of expectation and you still have to meet your narrative requirements and responsibilities. To subvert them successfully and in a way that is meaningful and constructive to the story. If there's a consensus expectation it's because the story has informed it. Subverting expectations can be tricky because the expectations are real and they are set by the story as it goes along. not 'subverting expectations' in a general sense, but rather specifically the narratively disastrous things in TLJ that were often defended as 'subverting expectations' That's what most people are referring to. many of which were poorly executed subversions to audience expectations. On this sub "subverting expectations" has kind of become a neologism /shorthand referring to a bunch of horrifically bad decisions in TLJ. Subverting expectations isn't bad (and contrary to what seems to be common believe it's not automatically good or meritorious either).
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