Game of Thrones - opinions (possible spoilers)

[Willybomb]

Gudday all,

Just wondering what people's thoughts on GOT, and this last season specifically.

Possible unpopular opinion:  The last episode was always going to be flat.

[Invertiguy]

I'm deeply disappointed. The writing has been going downhill ever since they ran out of book material, but this season it just feels like it fell off a cliff. The entire season felt rushed and forced, characters that were supposed to be intelligent made nonsensical decisions again and again for completely contrived reasons, and they threw 7 seasons of narrative buildup and character development out the window for a few cheap twists. It's a damn shame too, because the acting and production were probably the best they've ever been and I feel bad for the cast and crew for pouring their hearts and souls into it when the writers/showrunners were clearly just phoning it in so they can move on to destroying Star Wars.

[brucer]

I'm deeply disappointed. The writing has been going downhill ever since they ran out of book material, but this season it just feels like it fell off a cliff. The entire season felt rushed and forced, characters that were supposed to be intelligent made nonsensical decisions again and again for completely contrived reasons, and they threw 7 seasons of narrative buildup and character development out the window for a few cheap twists. It's a damn shame too, because the acting and production were probably the best they've ever been and I feel bad for the cast and crew for pouring their hearts and souls into it when the writers/showrunners were clearly just phoning it in so they can move on to destroying Star Wars.

^^This ... mostly.  I thought the last episode / finale was alright ... mostly, but way too rushed getting there this past two seasons (particularly this one) and still some major WTH outcomes.  Arya did WHAT?!? 

[GermanCdn]

I don't think there would have been final season that would/could have satisfied everyone.

That being said, my thoughts

- Season felt way too compressed, and considering some episodes were nearly an hour and a half long, why not make it an eight or ten episode season @ 60 minutes(ish) per episode to make it flow a bit better.
- Season lacked continuity and flow.  First two episode were recap(ish), then battle, then recovery, then a (not so much) battle, followed by trying to wrap everything up in the last episode.
- I actually think the episodes, as stand alone items, were actually pretty good in their own right.  I liked that they turned Daenyrys, I thought Cleganebowl was very satisfying, there were some good closure moments to micro storylines, etc.
- You don't get to pet the dog after you send him away.  You just don't.

All in all, it wasn't Breaking Bad final season good, nor was it Dexter final season bad.

[Muadzin]

I haven't even seen the series, but I did notice that all the fan sites and youtube have exploded with fan rage. A lot of fans feel like Invertiguy. Or even worse. And my friend and his family, who have watched the show, think it was a load of bollocks. I'm glad I have not watched this show though. I kinda wanted too, but I didn't feel like binging. And now I'm glad I did not get emotionally invested in this show. The last time I did and got burned was with the new Battlestar Galactica. Man, did I feel pissed, and still do, with how that show ended.

[HamSandwich]

My biggest beef was dispatching the night king halfway through. I liked the battle of winterfell, and even how it ended, but I always thought the series was being set up as the fight for the iron throne is sort of an ongoing humans will be humans thing, but this army of ice zombies is the real threat. Like the magical fantasy aspect of the show was lesser to the political side. Made Bran and Jon and the Wall's interesting stories seem more like a side quest. Did Bran really become the three eyed raven, become humanities history book and see through time, just so he could rule a kingdom for a few decades? Seems like that could have been larger than that. But it is what it is! Entertainment.

Besides that, I don't think Danny's character turn was bad, I'm glad Jon wasn't just handed the throne, but the outrage is ludicrous. I can understand not enjoying the direction things took or the pacing of the last couple seasons, because I had my issues with them too, but to start a petition for a rewrite of the last season with new writers? Whiny, entitled crybabies.

[Invertiguy]

My biggest beef was dispatching the night king halfway through. I liked the battle of winterfell, and even how it ended, but I always thought the series was being set up as the fight for the iron throne is sort of an ongoing humans will be humans thing, but this army of ice zombies is the real threat. Like the magical fantasy aspect of the show was lesser to the political side. Made Bran and Jon and the Wall's interesting stories seem more like a side quest. Did Bran really become the three eyed raven, become humanities history book and see through time, just so he could rule a kingdom for a few decades? Seems like that could have been larger than that. But it is what it is! Entertainment.

Besides that, I don't think Danny's character turn was bad, I'm glad Jon wasn't just handed the throne, but the outrage is ludicrous. I can understand not enjoying the direction things took or the pacing of the last couple seasons, because I had my issues with them too, but to start a petition for a rewrite of the last season with new writers? Whiny, entitled crybabies.

I don't think that anybody really expects HBO to actually remake the last season, it's more just a way for people to voice their displeasure with the way things have gone and hopefully make Disney think twice about giving the showrunners their own Star Wars trilogy.

[Willybomb]

Cleganebowl was massively underwhelming for me.  I was a little worried when the eye gouging started, but, other than that... although it was nice to see the zombie eye stab trope inverted.

One of the best scenes this season was Bronn threatening both Tyrion and Jaime with the crossbow.  *That* actually felt like it had some drama and danger to it.  Not much else around that held close to the tension of that one scene.

I felt the final episode was a bit too neat.  Pod in the kingsguard, all those little ends, et al.  Still, it was better than the last hour of the LOTR trilogy.

The opening credit sequence actually gave most of the story away.  There's a bunch of blue tiles running from the wall, and they go through the first city (where the kid got stuck to the wall), and stop at Winterfell, going no futher.  Then, they have a scorpion aimed at a dragon in a hallway.  Dead giveaways imo.

[HamSandwich]

My biggest beef was dispatching the night king halfway through. I liked the battle of winterfell, and even how it ended, but I always thought the series was being set up as the fight for the iron throne is sort of an ongoing humans will be humans thing, but this army of ice zombies is the real threat. Like the magical fantasy aspect of the show was lesser to the political side. Made Bran and Jon and the Wall's interesting stories seem more like a side quest. Did Bran really become the three eyed raven, become humanities history book and see through time, just so he could rule a kingdom for a few decades? Seems like that could have been larger than that. But it is what it is! Entertainment.

Besides that, I don't think Danny's character turn was bad, I'm glad Jon wasn't just handed the throne, but the outrage is ludicrous. I can understand not enjoying the direction things took or the pacing of the last couple seasons, because I had my issues with them too, but to start a petition for a rewrite of the last season with new writers? Whiny, entitled crybabies.

I don't think that anybody really expects HBO to actually remake the last season, it's more just a way for people to voice their displeasure with the way things have gone and hopefully make Disney think twice about giving the showrunners their own Star Wars trilogy.

"David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have proven themselves to be woefully incompetent writers when they have no source material (i.e. the books) to fall back on.
This series deserves a final season that makes sense.
Subvert my expectations and make it happen, HBO!"

If you've ever poured your heart into something and had it be totally crushed publicly, you may understand how incredibly disrespectful this is to everyone involved, way way way beyond Benioff and Weiss. The person who made the petition may have back pedal'd hard after he made it, but half a million people signed it before he did so, and now it's above a million. The internet is a harsh place for opinions on things, but this is just dumb. However, this is just another opinion, haha!

[Muadzin]

My biggest beef was dispatching the night king halfway through. I liked the battle of winterfell, and even how it ended, but I always thought the series was being set up as the fight for the iron throne is sort of an ongoing humans will be humans thing, but this army of ice zombies is the real threat. Like the magical fantasy aspect of the show was lesser to the political side. Made Bran and Jon and the Wall's interesting stories seem more like a side quest. Did Bran really become the three eyed raven, become humanities history book and see through time, just so he could rule a kingdom for a few decades? Seems like that could have been larger than that. But it is what it is! Entertainment.

Besides that, I don't think Danny's character turn was bad, I'm glad Jon wasn't just handed the throne, but the outrage is ludicrous. I can understand not enjoying the direction things took or the pacing of the last couple seasons, because I had my issues with them too, but to start a petition for a rewrite of the last season with new writers? Whiny, entitled crybabies.

Yeah, how dare they demand a story that is......., good instead of mediocre. If you're promised a product, and you get something that is faulty and which does not live up to the advertisement, that now makes you a crybaby?

The point of the petition is not to have the series remade. Nobody is that stupid. The point of the petition is to show HBO that they seriously dropped the idiot ball and that their consumers are not happy with the end product.

[matmosphere]

Not to sound jaded, but it is said and done. It made huge headlines in the news for a show like this. HBO probably knows a bunch of vocal fans didn't like it, but HBO has made their money. Somebody else will probably remake all of this in 15 years or something. If the books are ever finished people will find plenty of reasons to complain about how they end.

having said that, I have never watched a minute of this show. I know people love it, but I've just never found the time.

[alanp]

Maybe I'm getting old and boring, but to be honest, I saw S1E1 and got tired of gratuitous titty-shots. I know what has happened in various episodes through cultural osmosis, but can't be bothered sitting through soft-core porn for people without internet search, and characters I like being killed off.

I love Tolkien's response in Epic Rap Battles of History -- "Yes it's true to life for characters to die randomly, but newsflash, the genre's called FANTASY, you MYOPIC MANATEE!"

[matmosphere]

Maybe I'm getting old and boring, but to be honest, I saw S1E1 and got tired of gratuitous titty-shots. I know what has happened in various episodes through cultural osmosis, but can't be bothered sitting through soft-core porn for people without internet search, and characters I like being killed off.

I love Tolkien's response in Epic Rap Battles of History -- "Yes it's true to life for characters to die randomly, but newsflash, the genre's called FANTASY, you MYOPIC MANATEE!"

Hahahaha, I hadn't heard that.

One of the reasons I've never been interested by this show is hearing about all the gratuitous nudity and sex. It's not that I have any objections to that stuff, but if the story is supposed to be that good why does it need all of that just to get people to watch?

[madbean]

I'm mostly okay with where the story ended but wasn't thrilled about how they got there. I think a couple more episodes to flesh out the conclusion would have made all the difference. I kinda love where they went with Daeny but it just was too rushed IMO. There were lots of small moments taking her in that direction over the years but it needed a bit more to sell her transformation. And, since A Dream of Spring will probably never release this is the only conclusion we'll get

Still, it will be one of my all time favorite shows next to Breaking Bad, BSG and ST:TNG. I could probably just watch those 4 shows for the rest of my life and be satisfied, haha.

[HamSandwich]

My biggest beef was dispatching the night king halfway through. I liked the battle of winterfell, and even how it ended, but I always thought the series was being set up as the fight for the iron throne is sort of an ongoing humans will be humans thing, but this army of ice zombies is the real threat. Like the magical fantasy aspect of the show was lesser to the political side. Made Bran and Jon and the Wall's interesting stories seem more like a side quest. Did Bran really become the three eyed raven, become humanities history book and see through time, just so he could rule a kingdom for a few decades? Seems like that could have been larger than that. But it is what it is! Entertainment.

Besides that, I don't think Danny's character turn was bad, I'm glad Jon wasn't just handed the throne, but the outrage is ludicrous. I can understand not enjoying the direction things took or the pacing of the last couple seasons, because I had my issues with them too, but to start a petition for a rewrite of the last season with new writers? Whiny, entitled crybabies.

Yeah, how dare they demand a story that is......., good instead of mediocre. If you're promised a product, and you get something that is faulty and which does not live up to the advertisement, that now makes you a crybaby?

The point of the petition is not to have the series remade. Nobody is that stupid. The point of the petition is to show HBO that they seriously dropped the idiot ball and that their consumers are not happy with the end product.

Not a fair analogy. It was not faulty, it lived up to the advertisement. It certainly wasn't broken. It just didn't live up to your expectation. Or, frankly, mine. If they would have straight up not made the last season, or made less episodes or shorter episodes than what was promised, then I'd get it.

I'm going to start a petition next time I make an overdrive I don't like or I have a banana that's too ripe. Life's too short to be on such a high horse.

Edit: I see now you haven't watched it.