Game of Thrones: Redeemed

Thank you for this! I just finished the season and it was fantastic. It genuinely redeems the story and characters of this series. The time and care that went into crafting this is very apparent and well appreciated!


This is the ending that always should have been.

I am a critical reviewer. My score is measured. It will improve as I note this editor is quite clearly a dedicated and tasteful artist who has keen instincts and maintains their cut with care and attention to detail. As such any deficiencies noted, none of which are severe, I anticipate may one day be improved or corrected. If you're wondering whether to watch this or not, the only real question is if you're a fan of Game of Thrones. Then it's a no-brainer. This IS the resolution of the television series. Full stop. That's all there is to it. This is the definitive cut. 3 Dragon's Claws up!

The details:
-The concept is perfect. From a sentiment standpoint, if I was the editor's homie, this is obviously the person I'd want to watch it with since this is exactly the way I would have envisioned it should have ended, Get out of my head - no don't you can stay this is awesome!

-The cuts themselves are in my view best-possible given original source material. It's the right balance between caution and clever boldness. It strikes a good balance in seizing the material that is there and suiting it to coherent story-driving purpose (something that was left to twist in the wind, along with the audience, in the originally-broadcast last two seasons.)

-The integration is fine. Pacing becomes more challenging for obvious reasons in earlier eps of OG S8 / 2nd half of Redeemed. Too much filler and f***ery gummed up the last season. There is only so much you can do. What we get here is lean, clean, and fire-redeemed. I will offer that the final scenes concluding the edit in the form of an epilogue are a touch too long perhaps, a little overly sentimental. I love House Stark too, and Jon, obviously, deserve[s] THE better send-off he gets here. SO MUCH BETTER, so, much so, really... but it drags on a bit compared to the more intelligently aggressive cuts that preceded it. On the other hand, after such a long series with all its twists and turns, it does hit many of the right notes. It's an allowable indulgence for audience and editor alike. Could be a matter of seconds shorter perhaps.

- MY FAVORITE PART - I don't want to spoil it!!! I LOVE THE NEVERENDING STORY AND THE ACTUAL END OF THIS EDIT GIVES ME EXACTLY WHAT I WANTED TIMES 1000!!! YOU HAVE NO IDEA! THE BUTTON THAT PRESSED WAS JOY! JOY! THANK YOU FOR THAT!! WOW! And it was very sweet too, I just love your taste to rest the series on such a lovely, high note!

-Most crucial editing choice: No more Dani Hitler. OMFG what a waste of everyone's time and affections with the unnecessary, unwise, uninspired and unintelligent original conclusion. The amount of scorn and bile that can, has, and rightly must for all time be offered to the creative dead-letter that was the original conclusion cannot be understated. This, this is the world we as the audience, may open our hearts to freely and fondly as it does not toy with our affections so dismally. So barrenly. So bereft of Common Sense no less too!

-All the endless, pedantic, needlessly-glorified intrigue and backstabbing which set up the story so well in the first place earlier in the series is rightly and smartly dispensed with in this edit. Like, we get it. Baelish gon Baelish. Do we need to see him slain? Opinions will vary but Baelish was a clever cat. If things weren't going his way, and he was the first to detect this in any case we saw on-screen, it is supremely unlikely he'd stick around to face the consequences of a failed gamble. Or even seriously risk the possibility he could lose that roll. It's possible he miscalculates, but the death he got didn't fit the character he was in many's estimation. This edit corrects that with a delightful twist at the end. I raise a toast to Almightycutie! Varys is a survivor too. The idea he'd be stupid enough after so many decades to blatantly undermine his ultra-powerful new queen with a paltry scheme to instate Jon as king on the simple-minded principle of him being the most logical "rightful" heir, and knowing little of his character up to that point vs Daenerys who had proven herself a resolute, if temperamental ruler seems farcical. It was a betrayal of the intelligence and feelings of the viewers. That is corrected in this edit. We are not treated to the mouth-breathing, fist-chewing nonsense of the brightest characters in the series meeting ends like dinks where it was not sensible or responsible to the story to do so.

Note: Backing over characters and insulting the intelligence of viewers with perpetual, uncalled-for twists is routine in many series now. It is the death of good writing first, a slight to propriety in the human-relatability of characters second, and just in bad taste finally overall. Almightycutie exposes that in this series so well in their considered, careful, compassionate editing. I commend their instincts, they speak to the better ones in us all!

-The fetch-quest grinding North of the Wall is basically gone. What a waste of the audience's time!!! Fixed that shit fine, right here!!!

-The battles are well-done. Excellent pacing. The character interactions are sensible all-around. These characters make sense from what we know of them earlier in the series. Their arcs are more literary, the actions better-informed and more literate in an objective sense. Somebody knows how to story-tell. Sure, we can hand it to R.R. up front, but HBO really shit the bed with their improvizations later on. Not innovations, really crass, crude dreck. Almightycutie has the soul of an author. This shows in their edits.

-Arya is finally put in her place. Somehow, in the writer's room at HBO, she became the main character in the end! How obnoxious and actually ludicrous from any realistic standpoint. From a fantasy one, she fits a certain Dark Mary Sue mold very well. This however is at odds with the arcs of most every other character in the series and much other popular fiction. You might except I dunno some God Emperor or other from another franchise, but like, yeah, no. Sorry ladies, there are mortal and meaningful developmental and plot constraints that make A STORY, and while Mothers of Dragons may get certain passes as OP characters, attitudinal brats with murderous streaks and quick reflexes make EXTREMELY UNLIKELY saviors of the world. Fictional or otherwise. Good riddance.

It's time to take to task the deficits of this edit. The above was me being critical of the edit, and as you can see, it consists mostly of praise for the Editor's decisions. I thank Almightycutie for their fine work. There remains room for improvement however, so what follows will cover this:

-The post-Battle of Winterfell resolution video effects are in places rough. The inserts serve the story function but visually look raw, and Chef Ramsey would order them to be sent back if he was in charge of production for this product. In fairness to the editor, that's a visual effects job, not an editor's job. There are some talented effects artists out there, and this project could really use your input to round out the rough edges on some of the shots where it is needed to give proper, and kind (visually) closure to some of the storylines and characters. Reach out to Almightycutie. We need you, but it in no way detracts from the merit of the cuts and placement of these scenes.

-The chroma and lighting (what can you do?!!!) of the Battle of Winterfall is ABSYMAL!!!111 It was in the original HBO release and it is still bad now. The best-lit scene in the Battle of Winterfell, as other critics have noted even in mainstream publications at the time, was the brief shot of the dragons flying above the clouds. This is astonishingly poor production quality from a major studio. It is unthinkably bad. I have my doubts the editor here can do the near-impossible task of re-keying it all, brightening it all to be watchable without cranking up all the display settings to unreasonable levels to make it viewable in good detail. But if you can AC, please do give it your best effort. The green (when manually adjusted to be visible,) overly compression-artifact-riddled mess we get is little to no reflection on you, but it makes for a tougher and less satisfying viewing experience all the same. There again, there are experts in this area that may be able to take up the arduous task of manipulating the total exposure throughout that episode. I despair of HBO's recklessness in releasing that material in that shape in the first place. A note to Almightycutie: Regardless of fixing the color and luminance issues, I would strongly prefer that you offer an alternative, more lightly compressed version of this episode. I don't care if it is 20GBs in size. The pixelation present in some scenes is really bad. It's just a product of poor sample quality and technical limitations in rendering it I believe, but if you can do anything to help us to reduce the distortion overall, it would very much be appreciated.

-There were a few spots in mid-late Part 1 (I believe one where Tyrion speaks) and in Bran's voiceovers in Part 2 where the volume jumped noticeably compared to the rest of the episodes. Would be nice to have these levelled a little more cleanly.

Those are the only real criticisms I have, and as I noted, they are mostly baked-in or difficult to resolve things. I commend the work Almightycutie has done here. It's a service to what would be, perhaps ought to be millions were they to take the trouble to look for a better version of the beloved franchise we all enjoyed, and now may enjoy to conclusion with this edit! For those of us who have the joy of discovering this work, I can convey only gratitude for it. This is something special! Go watch it now and enjoy!

This was an extremely enjoyable edit and definitely a great way to rewatch the series.

I'll start with the flaws, Visions / warging were slightly overused. It wasn't needed in the climactic scene and the end scene order was slightly off. Besides some smaller nitpicks like that, this was a PHENOMENAL edit.
The editor used either voiceovers or AI generated voice to add much needed motivations and dialog, cut together various scenes include what seemed like deleted scenes created a much much more cohesive and satisfying story. Lots of small wonderful details, for example repurposing a scene of snow falling on Kings Landing to seem like Ash falling on Kings Landing, fitting with the updated narrative arc.

If this was the actual aired show the love for game of thrones wouldn't have cratered the way it did. I'm actually thinking of watching House of Dragon, which I had sworn off entirely as a result of how disappointed I was in the show ending.

This was an extremely enjoyable edit and definitely a great way to rewatch the series. Personally, I didn't hate the way Daenarys turned evil in the original series, but the decision to remove that storyline does really work well. Flipping the timeline between the large battles and placing the battle against the Night King and White Walkers at the end of the series was definitely the right decision and just works much better than the show. Less Euron, fewer Tyrion jokes and removing the Bran as king ending are all just excellent edits.

I don't have many negative things to say about the edit, only a couple minor things but they don't bog down the final product. Episode 3 ends with Jon and Daenarys outside of Dragonstone during the day, then we cut to Bran's vision and Jon wakes up in a cold sweat at the end of the night. It was a bit disorienting to have that quick jump and the vision might have fit better to start episode 4, but just my personal opinion. Fast-travel was mostly fixed but not 100%. This isn't the editor's fault, you're bound by the source material. The trip North of the wall was a bit fast but the most jarring sequence was the final episode where Jon and Daenarys are in King's Landing, burning the throne, then it jumps back to Winterfell and they're travelling north of the wall. Felt a little bit disjointed but it's still a very satisfying ending.

All in all, great decision making went into this edit and it really made the final two seasons more enjoyable. It's a must watch and a job well done.