I definitely agree with you that the problems manifested way before the final season. I have some sympathy with the writers in that the scope of the books just kept getting bigger and bigger, so I can see why they wanted to streamline the narrative in order to come to a conclusion (I think wrapping everything up in the books is a gargantuan task and has probably contributed to Martin struggling to finish the series). While it makes sense in the books the introduction of characters like the Griffs late on and the greater focus on the Greyjoy brothers might have been difficult to balance with an already gargantuan cast. The problem though, is as you pointed out once they began to head in their own direction they just didn’t write any meaningful stories, everything felt really flat and fairly inconsequential. This wasn’t limited to the narrative either as even the characters themselves felt like shallow caricatures of what they had been, and dialogue became either very expositional or painfully rigid.
I wonder how much was down to a lack of (relative) ability and how much was down to fatigue or wanting to move on. Albeit relatively minor changes in the grand scheme of things, they proved that they could write meaningful dialogue and interactions without needing to extrapolate from the books in the first half of the show. There are scenes between Robert and Cersei, Varys and Littlefinger that aren’t in the books but were masterfully done in the show, that aren’t just impressive from an entertainment viewpoint but also capture the essence of their book counterparts. Even changes to the narrative like emphasising Robb’s role worked well. I guess there is a difference to making minor changes within an existing framework as opposed to ripping up the tracks and laying new ones.
“it just had some great moments to carry it” - I think that does sadly sum up the second half of the series, especially early on in the second half. As the quality dropped there was an episode here or there, or a scene that would give some hope for a satisfying conclusion, but they became more and more infrequent.
I don’t agree with that. I actually think season 2 was the weakest of the first four seasons. I’d have to rewatch them again to give more detailed reasoning, I remember that season 1 was my favourite though.
I do think that the signs of the incoming decline was there pretty early on, but less so in the quality of the show but choices they were making and directions they were heading in.
If I had to rank the show personally, I’d say that seasons 1-4 were very good, I’d still have a few shows above it but on the whole I thought it was an excellent production. Seasons 5-6 were ok, with a couple great episodes, and 7-8 were pretty awful.
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