The Impossible Expectations and Inevitable Decline of Game of Thrones

Spoilers for anything and everything Game of Thrones, but especially season eight. You’ve been warned.

This piece was initially going to be part of a Game of Thrones week of posts. It was going to be the fifth in a line up both celebrating the best aspects of the show, while also highlighting my grievances with the last two seasons. But I can’t do that now. I can’t bring myself to write four other pieces for this show. It is with great sadness I do this, because Game of Thrones has been a staple in my watch-list since starting it back when season three was airing, but I do not have the energy to write four other pieces for a show I am starting to hate. I didn’t want to jump on the bandwagon, I was defending the show throughout season seven. The claims of fan service dropped into the season I claimed was simply a reward for the fans who had stuck with the show the whole time. I claimed that the show was looking like it was heading towards a generic fantasy ending was because they were tricking us and of course the ending would be like the initial few seasons, full of misdirection, intrigue, and secret plots coming to life. But I now realise this was all for nothing. I now realise that this show has been doomed since season seven, episode one. I have no aim for this article, other than simply putting down my thoughts so I can makes sense of this in my head. I don’t want you to think about certain aspects, nor am I trying to convince you round to my way of thinking. I am only disappointed.

The show had been great its first four seasons, aka the seasons it was heavily based on the books. I have not read them, but was told by a few friends that the dialogue, especially in the first season, was nearly exactly word for word. The fans of the books were ecstatic, and newcomers were excited by an adult fantasy show that was actually adult in its content. Most other ‘adult fantasy shows’ had a little bit of blood and the odd nipple slipped in. But Game of Thrones committed to its author’s philosophy of showing all aspects of war in its full horror. It worked. It became incredibly popular even in its first few seasons, and even to someone like me who had never heard of the books before the show came out. In fact, these first four seasons were probably its best. I understand some will massively rate some of the episodes from seasons five and six, which I would too, but the first four seasons (especially that fourth season) massively stand out amongst the rest for their interesting storylines around Westeros and Essos. The show was building up a huge mystique, season by season. Each one huge plot lines and character arcs were expected by the fans, or were been waited for by the book fans. All was going well.

Then the show went off-script. They started diverging from the books. Now, of course, this is not a bad thing. Many great productions have been only loosely based on their source material and done fantastic work in achieving a great piece of art, but I was a little worried for season five onwards. They had apparently already done some divergence in parts of season four and that was my favourite season, so I thought it would be fine. And it was. The show got a little more focused towards where the show would eventually end up, Jon, Dany and Cersei being given more focus in the storylines. This makes sense and works well in both the seasons, giving us incredible scenes and impossibly immaculate episodes like Battle of the Bastards and The Winds of Winter. The divergence was still holding up to the initial four seasons, but then there is one thing to talk about when it comes to that. George R.R. Martin was still involved with the project until season four. From the very first season, he had written one episode each year. Even though he only wrote one a season, it still means that he was there for both the creators to ask advice and get his take on character directions and plot details, but also for Martin himself to stick his nose in, as he rightfully should, when he feels a couple of things need to be altered. The showrunners could ignore this advice or take it in, but I feel if Martin ever used this power he had, the showrunners would comply. It makes entire sense, the books and their presence made for the readers, as well as the most celebrated parts of the show already being parts of the book, shows that Martin is an incredible resource that shouldn’t be taken for granted. In a sense, he later was.

Then comes the final two seasons, seven and eight. I actually had high expectations for these last two seasons after the announcement that there would only be thirteen episodes left. They stated that this was because they believed this was all that was needed to finish the show and I believed them. I’ve been a big advocate of breaking the absurd rule that you have to have the same amount of episodes in each of your show’s seasons. Stories have their own length and need to be told in that length, no matter what it is. This works both ways, if a show needs to be ten episodes every single season because the story demands it then that’s how many episodes should be made. The showrunners baited us into the story of the show only needed that many episodes and I believed them. Although we haven’t been told the truth, I suspect it is to do with budget. The issue of episode number, as well as CGI characters like Ghost and the dragons appearing less and less, heavily indicates that the budget was a lot less than what the show needed. Of course producers shouldn’t bend to the will of every artist as the money would be wasted and put the production company in a lot of trouble. It’s always a back and forth between the money providers and the money spenders which isn’t a perfect solution but one that generally works out well for both parties. But this isn’t a season of a generic show, this is the final two seasons of Game of Thrones. This is the end to one of the biggest shows to ever be made. But never mind, as long as the money makers get their large cut, right?

As I mentioned earlier, I defended season seven throughout its run and after. But then came season eight. I was definitely hyped for the season, but on the other hand I had worries. Big worries. And apparently the divine force of the universe decided to make my worries come true and, so far, the season has been a travesty. There’s still things to be appreciated and things that I love in this season, but overall I feel let down and sad. Sad not about a character death or an end to a storyline, but sad about how this show has decided to end itself. Screw it, let’s just go through each episode of this last season and I’ll rant about the choices they made.

So the first episode. Not much to say about this one since it is purely a set up episode containing Dany entering Winterfell and not many people enjoying that fact. This episode could’ve easily been absorbed into the second one which just makes the fact that the season length was probably shortened due to the budget even more depressing. The only big thing in the episode is the reveal to Jon that he is a Targaryen and the rightful King. Although this reveal is necessary and gives some nice tension between Jon and Dany, as well as members of Jon’s family, the reveal feels like the show is turning into a soap opera.

Then the second, probably my favourite of the season, only because it was the only one where I didn’t want to shout at the screen for some dumb decisions. Jaime gets judged by Dany, Jon and Sansa. They let him live because Brienne defends him and apparently Brienne is Sansa’s new lord and saviour. The Winterfell crew then chill before their probable deaths. This rest of the episode is nice character interactions, continuing some storylines and actually giving us some great moments. Including the finale of Jaime knighting Brienne (which is then made less valuable after episode five).

The third episode is where my brain starts checking out. First of all I have to say that I am not some degenerate pleb who gets upset because the lighting in the episode isn’t that bright and I want the show to hold my damn hand throughout the episode. I liked the episode up until the Night King was killed. That moment shattered like the frozen idiot in front of us. There’s many problems to unpack with this moment so let’s start off with one that started before the stabbing. Bran. What was he actually doing? Just scouting where the Night King was? Then don’t put so much emphasis on Bran warging if it’s for some unnecessary event that adds nothing to the episode. When he warged I assumed it was part of some plan, some cool plan to try and defeat the Night King but no, just scouting. Each episode feels like there was an initial plan to do something cool and then an executive calls up the set and says “yeah we can’t afford that so do something else”. Then we have the stab itself. I don’t mind Arya killing the Night King at all, it diverts from the generic trope of having Jon or Dany killing him, which would have been dull. Nor do I mind her sneaking up and killing him, she is a trained assassin from a death cult that dealt with magic. It makes sense that she could sneak up, run and do a jump that others couldn’t to kill someone if she was trained by a magical death cult. The problem is that the Night King died. At episode three of a six episode final season. Not only does this diminish the Night King as a villain as we don’t get any real reasons for why he is doing this, it also completely ruins the theme of the entire show. The very first scene from the first episode of the first season is some Night’s Watchmen getting destroyed by this oncoming threat. The first episode is also titled after the words of House Stark: Winter is Coming. This, as well as the small scenes slowly bringing the White Walkers down the map, leads to show being centred on the White Walkers and how they must be defeated in order to avoid an apocalypse. But no, we instead deal with them in the third episode and then spend three episodes dealing with Cersei and her lot while I mostly no longer care on what happens.

The fourth episode starts pretty dull and only has a few character moments in the beginning similar to that of episode two. But then the episode does surprise a little with the death of Rhaegal, slightly reducing the impact of his near death experience in the last episode, after this the group gets attacked by Euron and wash up on the beaches and regroup as they decide what to do next after Missandei’s capture. They decide to encircle the city when the main army gets there, but Dany and Tyrion get there before and try to convince Cersei to give up. She doesn’t and executes Missandei, enraging Dany. The second half of the episode I just described is full of interesting turns, but it also has predictable outcomes and is simply boring. Not much else to say about this episode.

The latest episode, at the time of writing, really took the biscuit. I will say, the episode had some great moments and some of the storylines were resolved well, but like the rest of the season, the episode was full of dumb decisions and nonsensical moments. I’ll go through character by character and describe my feelings. To get it out of the way, what a waste Harry Strickland and the Golden Company was. Briefly talking with Cersei earlier in the season and then a shot of the Company ready to fight before they get destroyed by a wall and Strickland getting run down by Grey Worm. They might as well not bothered with the Golden Company appearing in the show and just have Lannister soldiers outside the gates. It would have had the same effect. Going back to the first part of the episode, I cannot believe they killed another character like Varys in some dumb way just to make room for the dragons and the sieges. The show has lost its roots of a political medieval fantasy. In some way this is understandable as the show draws to close but on the same point, it is just discard things that contributed to the show’s early success with no thought or real concern. It was simply Dany found out he thought Jon should be King instead so she burnt him. No thought for such a great character like Varys and only concerned with the worst character in this season. Qyburn’s death was reasonable, it made sense that he would eventually be killed by his own creation and it was a good send off for a character who isn’t too important. Grey Worm’s decision, although dumb for him to make, fits his character and arc. The only thing left is for him to take Missandei’s remains back to Narth and his character arc will be fully resolved. Tyrion, along with Jon and Davos, pretty much did nothing this episode, probably leading to some big moments for them in the finale. And then we finally get Cleganebowl. The fight wasn’t anything spectacular but then it didn’t need to be. They got across the feeling of Sandor having no opening nor any way to effectively beat his brother in regular combat well. And the conclusion of taking his brother with him into the fire below worked beautifully. The only other storyline that was actually done well was Arya. After going with The Hound to kill their respective enemies, The Hound convinces Arya to not go through with it as Cersei will most likely die due to all that’s happening around them and that if she goes through with it, she’ll most likely die as well. It’s a great moment for both characters, The Hound accepting his own death while trying to save Arya’s and at the same time that Arya starts her journey in this episode of accepting life rather than death. She then proceeds to continue choosing life as she tries, though fails, at protecting some of the citizens trying to escape the city. This all comes to fruition with a final scene where the battle has ended, no one alive is to be see around her, but a pale white horse approaches. This symbol of death brings Arya’s arc to a close as she chooses to ride it out of the city. You could interpret this scene in a few different ways. My favourite is the simplest. She choosing to ride amongst the dead out of death and destruction to a life of living and rest. Another is to say she is riding the horse of death to one last kill, potentially Dany, before retiring for good. Either way, the setup is fantastic and one glowing part of this episode. Euron’s death was quite bizarre. Not only is he not killed by Yara, which would be more satisfying though I understand the choice to have Jaime do it, but he doesn’t do anything for the whole episode. He’s in the brief navy vs dragon fight at the beginning and then washes ashore to wound Jaime before dying. This character had a ton of potential and most of it was not utilised in the slightest. Then we have Jaime and Cersei. Jaime’s character arc is ruined. Not only does he not personally kill Cersei, but the way in which the character is left and his relationship with Cersei is left just before they die is idiotic. Jaime should’ve come back to help Cersei escape while Cersei revealed some plot to kill a bunch of civilians (I know Dany does this, but this is assuming the battle isn’t just a mess). Jaime then recoiles in horror and has to make the decision whether to kill his true love in order to stop the mass murder of King’s Landing like he had to with the Mad King. But this time it would be a harder and more potent choice. He would die in his lover’s arms while redeeming himself and again becoming a hero of the hour without anyone knowing what he has done to save their lives.

Then there’s Dany, I’m not going to mention her much at all as at this point I don’t care. She makes dumb decisions and snaps in the episode for no reason. It would make sense if there was a trigger for her to go all Mad Queen but there isn’t. There are a few ways you could shoe horn one in but as I said, I don’t care anymore.

There it is, my rant. If this season wasn’t the last I would probably stop watching all together after this episode but there’s only one more episode so I’m not going to be stupid and watch the entire show apart from the last episode. I don’t know what else to say.

Not today.

-Boad