Television Game of Thrones (TV) • The watch has ended

[duffer]

Same here. If you'd asked me during seasons 3 and 4, I would have been sure that I'd rewatch it at least once or twice. Having seen that final season, there's no way I'll ever watch it again. Bit like Lost, in that respect.

It's a strange one for sure.

I think I've re-watched the every season apart from the last multiple times.

Since the final season, I've not re-watched a single episode and even being stuck indoors and this being on Sky, I've got no interest.

I even re-watched a few episodes of Buffy the Vampire slayer last night and I've seen those a million times!

 

[Moby]

Just try pretend this was the final scene of the show:

Yep.

 

[Classical Mechanic]

It's a strange one for sure.

I think I've re-watched the every season apart from the last multiple times.

Since the final season, I've not re-watched a single episode and even being stuck indoors and this being on Sky, I've got no interest.

I even re-watched a few episodes of Buffy the Vampire slayer last night and I've seen those a million times!

It’s weird because I have no interest in the spin offs either now. I remember taking the first two seasons away with me on DVD to the Lakes and I thought it was the greatest thing ever, couldn’t wait for season 3 to appear but by the end you just wanted it to be over.

 

[Moiraine]

I was really really pissed when the season concluded, i was enraged and just couldn’t calm myself. But now I think and feel sympathy for show runners. This was so predictable watching season 7 because of no source material. Book readers will agree to me the ASOIAF are the best written fantasy books ever. And when you are suddenly out of source material, show was always going to go south.

As a fan of the books, I just hope GRRM finishes the books in his life, not another repeat of Wheel of Time. Plus i am really optimistic about the under production TV series on wheel of time. Such a shame they had to stop the shooting because of Corona Virus.

 

[Massive Spanner]

How shit the final two seasons were (and to a lesser extent, season five) has no real impact for me on whether I'd re-watch the earlier seasons. Season one was still magnificent TV even as a self contained season and the other seasons all still had some of the best individual episodes and battles ever put on a screen. I'd happily re-watch Blackwater, Hardhome etc.

As an overall package seasons 1-4 are basically their own "arc" anyway, most of the main plot-lines in them are resolved by the end of S4 and the characters all generally go in new directions from S5 onward.

 

[duffer]

Would anyone have complained about a happy ending? No major deaths in the last two episodes would've been the biggest surprise imaginable.

Jon and Danny on the throne, Grey worm and Missande off to the islands, Cersei and Jamie off in exile somewhere with their kid.

 

[The Cat]

It’s weird because I have no interest in the spin offs either now. I remember taking the first two seasons away with me on DVD to the Lakes and I thought it was the greatest thing ever, couldn’t wait for season 3 to appear but by the end you just wanted it to be over.

Always see reruns on Sky now but as much as I enjoyed it I won't watch them again. I'd have to watch the whole thing and I don't want to watch the last two series again.

 

[AaronRedDevil]

I'm really close to deciding if I want to rewatch this again since I've completed Netflix. But at the same time I dont think I want to put myself through that heartbreak pain all over again

 

[Stacks]

It's a strange one for sure.

I think I've re-watched the every season apart from the last multiple times.

Since the final season, I've not re-watched a single episode and even being stuck indoors and this being on Sky, I've got no interest.

I even re-watched a few episodes of Buffy the Vampire slayer last night and I've seen those a million times!

Buffy was class though!

 

[Art Vandelay]

It was far too rushed. Danaerys goes from saviour to Mad Queen in about 3 minutes of screen time. Have no issue doing what she did, but it needed to be a much longer descent into madness than it was.

White Walkers were ruined. Build them up for 7 fecking seasons as this existential threat that can wipe everything and everyone out if the wall is breached. But they are defeated at Battle 1 and nobody important dies. Garbage.

I bought all the books ready to read but zero interest in it now.

Read the books. They are better than the show and there's so much more in there, there's things the show never even touched on that open giant new mysteries. Admittedly the tubby fecker will probably never finish them, but where the books currently end is still a million times better than the shit sandwich the show ended on.

 

[VP89]

It was far too rushed. Danaerys goes from saviour to Mad Queen in about 3 minutes of screen time. Have no issue doing what she did, but it needed to be a much longer descent into madness than it was.

I think she showed a lot of glimpses in her conversations with Jon, the daft logic she'd use to convince her way was the right way when speaking with Tyrion, threatening him and threatening Varys, burning Varys etc. She got very insecure just like her father before resorting to full pelt madness.

Her father did similar, he took impulsive actions sure but when he was already reacting to a rebellion. Danny didn't have a rebellion in her midst outside of Varys which she disposed of just like her Dad did. I don't think her being mad was happening in a span of 3 minutes, but I agree it should have been a slower transition than it was.

White Walkers were ruined. Build them up for 7 fecking seasons as this existential threat that can wipe everything and everyone out if the wall is breached. But they are defeated at Battle 1 and nobody important dies. Garbage.

Battle 3 (they won when they faced Jon Snow I think at "hornhill"? Forgot the name. And they won when they killed the Jorah Mormont's uncle. But yeah it did seem sudden, I think there isn't really an ending that wouldnt feel sudden given they crammed it in 1 season which was silly.

I bought all the books ready to read but zero interest in it now.

Why? The show got shite when it went ahead of the books.. so if anything the books should be the one to go by.

 

[Massive Spanner]

Why? The show got shite when it went ahead of the books.. so if anything the books should be the one to go by.

The last two books were poor compared to the first three as well, to be fair. There's a good reason the writer's divulged from them in season five and six (with mixed results). I wouldn't have a lot of faith in GRRM to finish the series strongly, either.

 

[Gehrman]

Anyone ever seen this guy ripping into movies and series? He's so good at it, I know it's long but he's good and funny at doing it.

 

[lsd]

Just to be clear, is the major gripe the way the story was told or how the ending pieces were?


I don't think I can complain with where everyone landed up, but I agree it was terribly rushed and told in a shitty way.

Bran should be King because he had the best story ?

 

[esmufc07]

Read the books. They are better than the show and there's so much more in there, there's things the show never even touched on that open giant new mysteries. Admittedly the tubby fecker will probably never finish them, but where the books currently end is still a million times better than the shit sandwich the show ended on.

I will do at some point. They’re fecking massive though and a huge undertaking!

 

[Oldyella]

This show was a cultural phenomenon for 3 or 4 years, and they somehow hit the landing so bad that we hardly ever hear about the show anymore. Bizarre.

I will watch odd clips on YouTube etc but have no desire to sit through it all again.

 

[VP89]

Bran should be King because he had the best story ?

I've got no problem with Bran sitting on the throne at the end - I do disagree with the daft writing to have him there, like the logic of "the best story" you refer to.

One thing that could have made the season better for me was him being alone in his chamber and showing white eyes, suggesting the White Walker was alive through him, him raising his arms and all of the deceased in KL rise to kill whoever was still alive in KL (i.e. the entire "small council" characters) - leaving it to Jon/Aarya/Sansa as the sole saviors for the realm.

 

[dumbo]

I agree with everyone else that the show got better as it went along. The main criticism I had was that Sansa had nothing to do with the Night King so why did she kill him? Apart from that it was the best show that year. Guinevere was my favourite character, so lush.

 

[Gehrman]

I agree with everyone else that the show got better as it went along. The main criticism I had was that Sansa had nothing to do with the Night King so why did she kill him? Apart from that it was the best show that year. Guinevere was my favourite character, so lush.

Sansa didn't kill the night king, I guess you meant Arya. They did to subvert expectations. Personally I think him and Jon should have duelled at least and then you get Arya go in for stealth kill while jon is losing.

 

[Robertd0803]

The show should have ended at The Long Night. Anything after that seemed like terrible fan fiction.

Getting ahead of the books killed the TV show and in turn killed any anticipation for the books for me.

 

[Gehrman]

The show should have ended at The Long Night. Anything after that seemed like terrible fan fiction.

Getting ahead of the books killed the TV show and in turn killed any anticipation for the books for me.

They just should have included 2 or 3 more seasons. They rushed because they thought they were gonna do Star Wars which got cancelled.

 

[Moiraine]

Every time i watch it, it gives me chills. Can’t believe the show runners who pulled of such genius fcuked up so bad in the end.

But then again, show was rushed and no source material. It was always going to be a disappointment.

 

[El-Manos]

The worst part for me is John's story line. They build him up to be the rightful king over several seasons, he even gets resurrected for goodness sake. Ultimately, he just ends up at the nights watch again.I mean come on.

 

[Moiraine]

The worst part for me is John's story line. They build him up to be the rightful king over several seasons, he even gets resurrected for goodness sake. Ultimately, he just ends up at the nights watch again.I mean come on.

Exactly, he did something similar to azor ahai though. Killed his own wife/lover. If that satisfies you

 

[Art Vandelay]

The show should have ended at The Long Night. Anything after that seemed like terrible fan fiction.

Getting ahead of the books killed the TV show and in turn killed any anticipation for the books for me.

They should have ended it at the Red Wedding. They themselves admitted that's what they really wanted to put on TV and I don't think they ever planned anything after that, plus were quickly running out of books. The quality dipped after that and continued to do so. It would have went out on a high with people clambering for more. George Costanza's trick of leaving the room after a good joke leaving people wanting more.

Instead they kept it going until they publicly shat themselves and a lot of people want nothing to do with it, because it's all covered in shit. Maybe people will just kind of forget though. Just kind of forgetting things like big assed boats and fleets happens all the time to people. So maybe this will be forgotten too.

 

[InfiniteBoredom]

They just should have included 2 or 3 more seasons. They rushed because they thought they were gonna do Star Wars which got cancelled.

And because they never cared much about the source material to begin with.

HBO wanted more seasons, the actors wanted more seasons, the story demanded more seasons, but they couldn’t be arsed to do it anymore yet loathed to have someone else step in and continue the story, because then it wouldn’t be remembered as solely a show they produced.

 

[Eckers99]

It's a strange one for sure.

I think I've re-watched the every season apart from the last multiple times.

Since the final season, I've not re-watched a single episode and even being stuck indoors and this being on Sky, I've got no interest.

I even re-watched a few episodes of Buffy the Vampire slayer last night and I've seen those a million times!

Well watching it again is a major undertaking that will end in disappointment. So much effort went into where it was heading that, now we know, it isn't worth it. It's like being asked if you want to take the scenic route to a grim industrial estate.

These days most people just sigh whenever GOT is mentioned, which isn't really conducive to going back for more is it?

 

[RedDevil@84]

All the fake white walkers that came to the battle that day.

 

[P-Nut]

The thing that pissed me off most is all the little bits they sowed in to the previous series and then just seemed to completely forget they had put them in and ignored them as they were rushing to finish.

If they could have been arsed doing another full season and telling the story in the same way they had at the start it could have gone down as one of the all time greats.

 

[Gehrman]

The thing that pissed me off most is all the little bits they sowed in to the previous series and then just seemed to completely forget they had put them in and ignored them as they were rushing to finish.

If they could have been arsed doing another full season and telling the story in the same way they had at the start it could have gone down as one of the all time greats.

They killed off all the characters as well. Tyrion get's dumb and pathetic, Jon becomes Dany's bitch after they have sex and disregards his ideals until after Dany has murdered thousands of civilians, Varys also becomes dumb as feck and Dany becomes Hitler for no reason whatsoever other than Jon didn't want screw his aunt. Jaime suddenly doesn't give a shit about the common folk or innocent or otherwise despite that his greatest achievement was secretly saving the city by killing the mad king. Bran just comes off a creepy retarted person and does feck all despite being omniscient. There is no talk of Arya's coinflipping, despite her ealier taking great pleasure in killing people for revenge. She comes out as a totally good and clean character and doesn't understand the implications of murdering until the hound tells her after she's already killed hundreds people. Sansa for some reason is portrayed as being some genius which she is not.

Bronn becomes master of coin despite in a former episode says he has no clue about finances and is awarded high garden for threatining to kill Jaime and Tyrion.

 

[OleBoiii]

Bronn becomes master of coin despite in a former episode says he has no clue about finances and is awarded high garden for threatining to kill Jaime and Tyrion.

To quote one of my favorite YouTubers:

"... And also now Bronn is the Master of Coin"
"Isn't he the worst possible person for that job?"
"Well he threatened Tyrion. But also; he really likes coins"
"I guess that's qualifying."

 

[Sylar]

Reading this page of the thread brings back some annoying memories. I really really tried to give D&D the benefit of the doubt, with the way the Long Night ended, thinking, ok whatever, as long as the final battle and the finale lands, then the ending can brush over some of the odd things weve seen.

And then that final episode is shown, which actually starts ok, but is utter trash.

It really should have been 10 seasons, but all it required was D&D just hiring some writers to put the ideas together and they could have still focused on other projects. Im sure if they asked HBO they would have been given wht was required as HBO wanted it to go on longer.

Just to be clear, is the major gripe the way the story was told or how the ending pieces were?


I don't think I can complain with where everyone landed up, but I agree it was terribly rushed and told in a shitty way.

For me, its the latter. 3 seasons worth of story in one (cos 7 and 8 were basically one season split up).
If you stop watching at season 6, its all but perfect (minus some dorne type crap from s5)

 

[2cents]

The criticism that they couldn’t maintain standards after running out of source material is a bit more complicated. In seasons 1-4 some of the great scenes were actually not in the books. And from season 5 onwards, they actually chose not to use a lot of great source material from the last two books.

It seems to me that they lost enthusiasm for it after season 3, and that this then proved fatal when they were forced to depend on the 4th and 5th books, which admittedly pose more challenges in terms of adaptation.

 

[Pexbo]

I think the guts of the story were absolutely fine, the delivery was laughable though.

I think the books will have a much deeper and more complex resolution for the white walkers though. I think D&D thought of them as more of an annoying distraction from what they wanted to focus on than a core part of the story.

 

[AshRK]

They single handedly stopped this from being one of my GOAT shows. Sometimes I watch reruns and think whats the point?

This is what exactly frustrates me too. I hate watching the re-runs too. Some amazing scene but then I realize this all will be pointless as the writers were more interested in making Arya stark look cool and Bran the crocked Stark the king.

 

[Stacks]

This is what exactly frustrates me too. I hate watching the re-runs too. Some amazing scene but then I realize this all will be pointless as the writers were more interested in making Arya stark look cool and Bran the crocked Stark the king.

My feeling too. Fan service over sensible storytelling. Obviously there are still some classic scenes with really good acting and humour so it's good to see some of the character stories on youtube, charting their journeys (usually an hour or so long).

Whilst watching "the story of XYZ" It will be a bit annoying thinking how some of the character arcs end up

 

[Sylar]

The criticism that they couldn’t maintain standards after running out of source material is a bit more complicated. In seasons 1-4 some of the great scenes were actually not in the books. And from season 5 onwards, they actually chose not to use a lot of great source material from the last two books.

It seems to me that they lost enthusiasm for it after season 3, and that this then proved fatal when they were forced to depend on the 4th and 5th books, which admittedly pose more challenges in terms of adaptation.

This is worse imo as a reason. If it was because they ran out of source material, then they can always point to the fact they signed up to adapt a story (which they were told would be completed by the time they got to that part)
But just losing interest but continuing is the worst thing - when they could have just made themselves directors, actually hired writers, and if needed, taken 2 years (which funnily enough, there was a 2 year gap between 7 and 8 for less episodes).

The big annoyance was how the characters went away from everything that made them complex, to becoming either good or bad, even though it seemed like initially everybody had a bit of good and bad within them.

 

[2cents]

This is worse imo as a reason. If it was because they ran out of source material, then they can always point to the fact they signed up to adapt a story (which they were told would be completed by the time they got to that part)
But just losing interest but continuing is the worst thing - when they could have just made themselves directors, actually hired writers, and if needed, taken 2 years (which funnily enough, there was a 2 year gap between 7 and 8 for less episodes).

I find it hard to come up with any other reason for the bizarre decisions they made from season 5 onward with regard to the source material in the last two books. I think the first 4 seasons proved they aren’t idiots, season 1 is an almost perfect adaptation, flawlessly executed - to their credit.

It seems clear enough to me they just didn’t care about Dorne or the Iron Islands, which are the two major new plots introduced in the fourth book. They are unrecognizable in the show for all the wrong reasons. And they had no appetite for building on the complexity of Jaime and Tyrion’s characters, which are a major feature of each of the last two books.

 

[Sylar]

I find it hard to come up with any other reason for the bizarre decisions they made from season 5 onward with regard to the source material in the last two books. I think the first 4 seasons proved they aren’t idiots, season 1 is an almost perfect adaptation, flawlessly executed - to their credit.

It seems clear enough to me they just didn’t care about Dorne or the Iron Islands, which are the two major new plots introduced in the fourth book. They are unrecognizable in the show for all the wrong reasons. And they had no appetite for building on the complexity of Jaime and Tyrion’s characters, which are a major feature of each of the last two books.

I didnt read the books so not sure where it starts / stops, but I reckon it was around when Jon died?
I do agree with your thinking that they didnt care (and it showed by them rushing the end, and going off to another project ASAP). But it just indicates how bad it is on them.

I agree, the first 4 seasons were great. S5 had some great moments and one of the best eps. Season 6 overall was great especially the last two eps (although a warning sign should have been arya being stabbed multiple times and surviving after and the way things went down and before that all the Dorne stuff).

Putting a timelimit in terms of episodes on themselves does go towards your point and resulted in what we got which is a shame.

 

[Art Vandelay]

The criticism that they couldn’t maintain standards after running out of source material is a bit more complicated. In seasons 1-4 some of the great scenes were actually not in the books. And from season 5 onwards, they actually chose not to use a lot of great source material from the last two books.

It seems to me that they lost enthusiasm for it after season 3, and that this then proved fatal when they were forced to depend on the 4th and 5th books, which admittedly pose more challenges in terms of adaptation.

Is that also when GRRM stopped helping out with the writing?

They did add some good stuff not in the books, expanding Bronn's role was a nice touch until it kind of got consumed by other bad writing. The stuff they were leaving out and the stuff they were missing the point with in order to portray things like Sansa being a bad ass were a snowballing frustration that got worse when combined with how bad the writing had actually got. The book changes weren't all bad, it's just combining changes with awful writing was probably the worst combo they could come up with.