Haven't kept up with this thread 100% so others may have shared the same sentiment...but here is my take on GOT I enjoyed all of the seasons even this last one. The last season was the weakest but I still enjoyed it, my only gripe is it felt rushed. Similar to when I would write a research paper in college. The first few parts were in depth and full of quality content. Fatigue would settle in and the quality of writing would take a dip but effort was still there. I would then notice that I am creeping on the page minimum and would want to wrap things up so I can get back to partying, so I would rush through the conclusion.
A top 5 show without a doubt, and will watch the spinoffs. But felt the last season should have at least been stretched to 10 episodes, if not a whole other season. Told my one buddy, if they treated the first season like they did with the last, Ned Stark would have lost his head in the 4th episode.
Season 7 was rushed too... it was only 7 episodes and people were teleporting.
That's what happens when hack TV writers go from condensing hundreds of pages of published written story into 10 TV episodes a season.... to condensing hundreds of pages of mostly unpublished manuscript into 7 episodes of TV.... to suddenly having a few dozen pages of notes of vague plot direction/points and needing to fabricate brand new story that continues and finishes an enormous written series, hacks it apart out of necessity, and then has to try to wrap itself up landing generally where RR Martin claimed it should.
They had 2 years to write and Produce this final season and all they could put together was 6 episodes that crash lands the series at a conclusion, with 2 of those 6 episodes involving little to no story or dialogue, just battle and special effects.
I truly do empathize with the writers in that the task they had for season 7 and 8 were nearly insurmountable for their skillset.
Imagine you do wiring of office buildings once they're built, and you've been wiring these big amazing Sky Scrapers and then on the last two the architect bails and you're put in charge of finishing the entire pair of buildings.... the whole fucking thing.... and you've never built anything in that realm in your life.
I do not however, excuse many of their choices even in the confines of their shitty writing.
Even in the confines of their low quality writing, they chose to do stupid things and create big dumb holes....
they chose to make The Long Night episode oddly dark so you could barely see what was happening...
they chose to have Dothraki poised to charge Wights without weapons that could kill them unless a random Melisandre appearance happend to light their swords on fire....
they chose to have all the Dothraki suicide charge an unknown force in the dark against any common sense, for the sake of a nice visual effect...
they chose to have the Unsullied and Northern troops fight outside the walls, outside their defensive trench, in relatively loose formation...
they chose to just pretend half the Dothraki and Unsullied survived and not give even a hand-waving "Those defending these positions were not nearly as devastated"....
they chose to have Arya play hide and seek with Wights in some random library.... they chose to have Dany land Drogon and get swamped by Wights for no apparent reason....
they chose to have the Iron Fleet teleport into perfect ambush position that somehow Dany could not see from the air....
they chose to have Euron use some magically buffed super Scorpion that fired 3 bolts inside of 10 seconds and killed Rhaegal with no problem....
they chose to have Dany be so fucking stupid she didn't realize she could fly wide around the fleet and burn it...
they chose to then have Dany and Drogon face the same Iron Fleet head on with no changes, but none of the magic Scorpions could touch Drogon the 2nd time for no apparent reason....
they chose to turn Dany on a dime into a Mad Queen burning children alive like a psycho....
Even if I disagree with the way they wrote the final 2 seasons, I've still given many fairly simple ways to go about doing the same stupid shit but not leaving giant holes or questions.
I can live with the ending crash landing because these guys are not equipped to essentially build the story covered by an entire manuscript that RR Martin never fucking wrote, but what I won't ignore is the fact they chose to have these illogical decisions in the course of events and the Production of the show...
You can have a bad story but still not have Starbucks cups in the show, or make sure the lighting is decent enough people can fucking see the action.... They didn't even bother to keep Production quality up.
There are many unforgivable sins about season 8 of GoT, not just the way the story wrapped up.
I am happy it is over.
