How does GoT hold up for you since the final season?

[DarthSkywalker]

I definitely get that. I came to the show late and didn't start the books until after it ended. So I went in expecting the flood of new characters and storylines (and excited for them, since they were largely unspoiled by the show) and I'm sure that perspective biased me. That and, like I said, I adore the world-building in series like this, so getting to go to Dorne and Oldtown and the Iron Islands was a blast. The AFFC prologue is one of my favorite chapters in the series.

I certainly agree that ASOS is the best in the series thus far, though.

Thus far...

 

[Roose Bolton]

I think part of my overall disappointment started when the show botched the AFFC/ADWD storylines in seasons 5/6.

But I’m also kind of fascinated in a horrible way of how/why they included what they did and how the thought process of that adaptation worked. Because the show versions of the Martells and Greyjoys...well, yeah...

 

[CaptainWagner]

Thus far...

HEY NOW! Winds is gonna come out eventually. Dream? (Assuming he can actually keep the ending contained to two books) Well, Dream is far less likely, but I like to think that once he gets everyone back to Westeros it will be easier to finish.

I think part of my overall disappointment started when the show botched the AFFC/ADWD storylines in seasons 5/6.

But I’m also kind of fascinated in a horrible way of how/why they included what they did and how the thought process of that adaptation worked. Because the show versions of the Martells and Greyjoys...well, yeah...

Yep. I could write a freaking thesis about everything that went wrong with the Martells and Greyjoys. I feel so bad for the Dorne cast especially. Some wildly talented actors who got wasted (Alexander Siddig, Jessica Henwick, DeObia Oparei, Kiesha Castle-Hughes) and then the young POC who lost the chance to break out their careers as Arianne, Quentyn or Alleras/Sarella.

 

[Drizzle]

The show might have actually been improved with the addition of the missing Greyjoy and Martell characters from the books. The addition of those characters also could have stretched seasons 7 & 8 to 10 episodes each with extended storylines but Benioff and Weiss were in a mad rush to the finish line so it is what it is.

Also, this coming Monday will be ten years to the day since A Dance with Dragons was published. A whole decade of procrastination!

 

[CaptainWagner]

The show might have actually been improved with the addition of the missing Greyjoy and Martell characters from the books. The addition of those characters also could have stretched seasons 7 & 8 to 10 episodes each with extended storylines but Benioff and Weiss were in a mad rush to the finish line so it is what it is.

Also, this coming Monday will be ten years to the day since A Dance with Dragons was published. A whole decade of procrastination!

At the very least sticking to the source would have improved the 5th and 6th season, since they were always pretty good when they directly adapted the novels. It was their original content that struggled (outside of individual scenes of dialogue like Varys/Littlefinger, Robert/Cersei).

And you know what's REALLY crazy? It will have been 6 years since that Conan sketch came out. And 4 years since a major Hollywood movie (Logan Lucky) included an extended gag about how TWOW still hadn't been released. And most insane - 10 years and a month since 'Leviathan Wakes' came out, which means George's assistants have written an entire series AND had it adapted into a television show within the time its taken for him to write TWOW

 

[Drizzle]

And you know what's REALLY crazy? It will have been 6 years since that Conan sketch came out. And 4 years since a major Hollywood movie (Logan Lucky) included an extended gag about how TWOW still hadn't been released. And most insane - 10 years and a month since 'Leviathan Wakes' came out, which means George's assistants have written an entire series AND had it adapted into a television show within the time its taken for him to write TWOW

I think the added stress of the show took the wind(s of winter) out of GRRM's sails. He was clearly discouraged about the decision for the show to move past the books but I can't really blame HBO/D&D for that because of all the lost revenue that would have come from the show taking a very extended hiatus after season 5.

 

[Roose Bolton]

Yep. I could write a freaking thesis about everything that went wrong with the Martells and Greyjoys. I feel so bad for the Dorne cast especially. Some wildly talented actors who got wasted (Alexander Siddig, Jessica Henwick, DeObia Oparei, Kiesha Castle-Hughes) and then the young POC who lost the chance to break out their careers as Arianne, Quentyn or Alleras/Sarella.

Alexander Siddig as Doran was genuinely one of the things I was most excited about seeing and...while he was predictably good, the role itself was really cut down and morphed without Arianne to play off.

 

[CaptainWagner]

Alexander Siddig as Doran was genuinely one of the things I was most excited about seeing and...while he was predictably good, the role itself was really cut down and morphed without Arianne to play off.

I still can't get over his death scene. Like, a lot of the changes they made make logical sense within what they were doing in the show. But there was no reason to not just have Doran reveal his plan to the Sand Snakes and back Daenerys. Instead, they decide to end his story with the exact opposite of where it goes in the books. Show Doran is never more than meets the eye, his disability and concern for peace are ruled as literally making him "weak" and therefore unfit to rule. It feels like willfully spitting in the eye of the source.

 

[Roose Bolton]

I still can't get over his death scene. Like, a lot of the changes they made make logical sense within what they were doing in the show. But there was no reason to not just have Doran reveal his plan to the Sand Snakes and back Daenerys. Instead, they decide to end his story with the exact opposite of where it goes in the books. Show Doran is never more than meets the eye, his disability and concern for peace are ruled as literally making him "weak" and therefore unfit to rule. It feels like willfully spitting in the eye of the source.

Yeah I definitely get a sense of, well, contempt for the source material at times. Certain characters really seem like they’re attacked or undercut by D&D.

And I recall ages back it came out that they often changed their minds quite a bit with what characters they were going to include. The Greyjoys return in season 6 was evidently a late thing that they debated doing.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

Yeah I definitely get a sense of, well, contempt for the source material at times. Certain characters really seem like they’re attacked or undercut by D&D.

And I recall ages back it came out that they often changed their minds quite a bit with what characters they were going to include. The Greyjoys return in season 6 was evidently a late thing that they debated doing.

While I definitely felt like they got full of themselves, I think it was less contempt and more not realizing how to adapt past season 4. That was their goal. To adapt ASOS. One they did that, they didn't seem to care.

Also overall, any attempt at condensing or changing material feels like they don't know what is and isn't important. You get a lot of this with Jon beyond the Wall or Dany season 2 and 5 material. This is before we get into how they handle characters like Stannis, Barristan, all the Greyjoys, and many others.

 

[Roose Bolton]

The whole Sansa issue as well....

 

[CaptainWagner]

The whole Sansa issue as well....

Once I started reading the books, it was truly amazing just how much they undermine Sansa's agency from the very beginning. In the books, she's an active participant in her escape from King's Landing. In the show, she just gets dragged off at the last minute. Even things as small as making her just flop around helplessly when Lysa is trying to kill her, instead of fighting back, as she does in the books.

And that's all before getting to the Ramsay disaster

 

[DarthSkywalker]

The whole Sansa issue as well....

I think I blocked that from my memory.

 

[Roose Bolton]

It’s why I’m not really inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt about anything with this show.

 

[CaptainWagner]

It’s why I’m not really inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt about anything with this show.

I still really want to know whether they really did intend to adapt the Vale storyline when they shot that final scene of Season 4 and just changed their mind later. Or had they already made their decision but not told Condal? Or was the whole thing just a massively cruel "prank" on Sophie Turner to tell her she was going to get a love interest and learn to play the game like Littlefinger in the next season?

They ran the show so haphazardly and were so petty to the cast that any of the above seem equally possible answers.

 

[childeroland]

Except for individual sequences (The Mountain and the Viper, Hardhome, Red Wedding, the Hound vs. Brienne, the Cercei-Dany summit, Hold the Door, etc.), not very well.

 

[Another_Fool]

I tend to almost pretend "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms" is the last episode and if I do, then the series holds up very well. However I still don't think the entire final season tarnishes the whole series for me. I only think Jaime's arc gets hurt a bit with his actions and some of his dialogue in his last 2 episodes but I still will always have love for the series.

I genuinely hope the new prequel series will unite the fandom again.

 

[Protagonist]

Rewatched the series and cannot believe that they made Sansa look like a genius and everyone else clueless. I have also noticed that since season 4, Tyrion made mistakes after mistakes and to be honest, he gave some great speeches or jokes, but overall he was constantly outplayed.

 

[godisawesome]

I still like the show, but I can only really love about the first 3/4 of it, and I gradually grow more apathetic as the end of the series approaches.

D&D were at their best when they could condense or improvise new scenes and characters with a true framework from GRRM’s books to help them prioritize things correctly, usually being better than worse; stuff like Robert and Cersei’s last dialogue, the Hound vs Brienne fight, and Hardhome all show how great they *could* be when making changes when they had the books to still focus them elsewhere.

But they could also get more and more mediocre or even downright misguided the further they got form the safety of Martin’s story prioritizing their goals - Dorne was an early sign if that, and the final revelation was in how they assumed things should be done in the final season. Still, there were some bright spots and genuine successes, like the Battle of the Bastards, but the best episode in the last season was the only one where no major plot events happen… which isn’t good.

I also think that some of their more noticeable or likely changes from where the books were heading became more prominent mistakes in the later seasons - Dorne again, the Greyjoys, Barristan’s death for another, shoving Sansa where Jeyne was, and likely having Stannis kill his daughter instead of his wife or having Jamie return ti Cersei without being the “valonquar” trying to kill her.

 

[Protagonist]

I rewatched the series twice now and to be honest, every time I came across further weaknesses. It’s in the open but we have been blinded by the surroundings. GoT is not the masterpiece people have labeled it, even the first couple seasons.

 

[Weather Witch]

Honestly, I'm still really enjoying this show on my re-watch, but finding that a lot of problems people have with seasons 7/8 were already in the earlier seasons as well. As a whole though, it's still an amazing world. I can't wait for the prequel!

 

[Marvolo]

If anyone wants to own the show in 4K, and give it a rewatch the complete series in 4K digital is only $50 on Vudu this weekend. Sale price isn't available yet, but it should appear sometime this morning.

 

[TheVileOne]

I love Game of Thrones all of the seasons. The last two season where not that bad not even close. I know that D&D get all the blame but the reality of it is HBO shares the blame if not all of it. When it was announced right before season 6 that season 7 and 8 would be the final two seasons. That could only happen if HBO agreed. HBO could have let D&D walk away and brought in new executive producers to take over and even more seasons. However HBO decided to go along with it. To be honest I can't say I blame them. They where pour a crap ton of money in to that show.

The Average Show cost 250,000 to 1,000,000 dollars per ep. Game of Thrones cost 6 million per ep. The last season was 15 million per ep. That is a ton of money. So HBO probably wasn't massively motivated to keep the show going. At the end of the day HBO has the final say not the executive producers.

As for the last two season they could been better but they weren't has horrible as many people make out to be. Everything that happens in the final two seasons makes sense and fit if you pay attention to the show.



To be fair she had a lot going on and she riding a dragon with a lot of things going on around her. So yea it could be very easy to for get about the Iron Fleet. But please share you infinite wisdom as you have tons of experience riding dragons in middle of a conflict.

As for the Dothraki, your making the assumption that all the Dothraki where killed off at winterfell fighting the undead. However she could have divided the Dothraki up and hand moved part of that army some other place. There could a thousand and one reasons why she still had a Dothraki Army at battle for Kings Landing. Your basically over thinking it and making assumptions. Now maybe it need scene to explain that she was going not use the entire Dothraki and Unsullied and had movied them to another location as fall back. Either way it's easy to explain off.

The bottom line is it wasn't as bad as every one makes it out to be. yes could been better think that last two season should have gotten a full 10 ep but it didn't.

Last point I'm gone make and then Ill shut up. They could easily kept the depth of the writing up all way to the very end and then just left the show hanging with no resolution. Every one would been really pissed even more about that then they way they ended it. That is all I'll say on matter.

David Benioff literally said all the Dothraki were killed in that battle.

 

[misjuevos]

I was flipping threw the last few seasons. Still has really cool costumes and sets. The dragons were still as I remember, they looked good. The fights were excellent, and there are lots of great scenes to rewatch. You do notice the story shift into we gotta wrap this up now, in the last few episodes. I still like the show. There are just so many cool moments.

 

[GreenKToo]

Season 1 through 5 is excellent. 6 is just ok.
I find myself skipping through most of the sam scenes.
Bronn and the hound were my favorite two characters along with Arya.
Tyrion, Jorah, and lord varys are up there as well, so is Joffrey.
During his death scene I actually stood up and screamed at the t.v. YES!! YES! You pos! die! Die!
It was so rewarding. Lol.

I Loved to hate cersei also, but she got off way to easy. pity.

Sam and Sansa were, and are, probably my least two favorite characters.
They were about as exciting as watching paint dry

I would have loved to have seen more of oberyn though, he could easily have been my favorite character.

I'm Not even going talk about season 7 and 8.