If one goes online, the opinion they inevitably find of Game of Thrones Season 8 is sorely negative. Specific reasons are rarely given, but it's definitely “bad”, “awful”, “a series' killer”, etc. Which leaves me wondering, did we watch the same series? Season 8 definitely has its issues, which I will get into, but as a whole it delivers.
To get the obvious out of the way, yes, Season 8 was too short. It should have added two episodes rather than subtracting two. Ten seems about right to present the showdown with the Night King and still have time to resolve who sits the iron throne. Too much was crammed into too little space, and it was over too quickly. The powerful scenes which needed room to breathe, scenes the previous seven seasons had been building toward, didn't get the freedom they deserved. People with that criticism, I agree. (And people with the criticism that Bran's nod to “democracy” was cheesy, yes, I've got your back. Cheesy.)
But length (and democracy) do not destroy Season 8. Scenes which progress the story exist in organic concatenation, i.e. everything follows linearly from what came before, no wild tangents, no novel producer ideas, no last minute changes to “shake things up”, no new character to revive a fading series as Hollywood is sometimes wont to do. No, it's clearly, identifiably the same story, same actors/actresses, same sets, same writers, same dialogue, etc., and it all flows naturally—quickly, but naturally.
Moreover, events in Season 8 progress into a definitive conclusion. You may like or dislike that conclusion, but it is definitive. There is no cliffhanger—which they could have done. There are no major plotlines left unresolved, etc. Season 8 manifests the groundwork laid in the previous seven seasons. This is where I want to dig deeper as I think there are some butt-hurt viewers out there with misguided conceptions of what should have been.
One of the fundamental lessons of high school English is the Greek split between tragedy and comedy. The Cliff Notes read: comedies have happy endings, tragedies have sad endings. All of Shakespeare's oeuvre is clearly divided along those lines, for example. What's more, books or stories which attempt both often leave the reader confused. Imagine the last episode Friends being the death of all main characters in a car crash. Jarring, yes? Conversely, imagine Citizen Kane living through the final act, going on to start a new family, be a wealthy aristocrat, etc. The whole film would deflate into meaninglessness. You would have been led toward one thing, then been given another. For me, this is the same as Game of Thrones ending with Jon Snow & Danaerys Targaryen sitting side by side, blithely ruling the seven kingdoms from the iron throne, happily ever after. Weird image, yes, almost fairy tale...
All this leaves me confused as to why viewers wanted/expected Game of Thrones to be a comedy—a happy, fairy tale ending. Good guys and heroes died every season—every season! The beloved Eddard Stark in Season 1 was a shot across the viewer's bow. Don't fall in love with characters, they will die. And in case you needed reminding, his wife and son die in Season 3, as do many other characters. The madness of Targaryen blood was also a sub-plot appearing often enough to clearly say to viewers Hey, this might be a factor before all is said and done. Danaerys might go crazy. And lo and behold she does! Martin foreshadowed it many, many times, then he revealed it, and still people are surprised. Strange, that.
I didn't know exactly how it would end, but armed with high school English I went into the final season of Game of Thrones knowing it would not end well. I expected drama, heartbreak, grief—the stuff of tragedy. I was ready for Jon Snow to get his head chopped off. Tyrion could be betrayed in the most despicable way possible. Cersei could still rule the iron throne in the final scene. Danaerys' blood could definitely boil over. So many terrible things just within reach. I never once expected a happy ending. It would have been artistically dissonant—a car crash ending to Friends. You bridle at the word 'art' being bandied about here, sure, no problem. But for seven seasons the show was consistent in delivering tragedy, why would it change in the final season?
So, let's close this frustration
venting commentary with a question: what did people expect
going in to Season 8 that was not delivered? Why the strong
negativity when most everything lines up save volume of content? The
outrage would seem to warrant more issues than that...
Note: This article was an off-the-cuff reaction to a straw that broke the camel's back; I read a baseless negative comment on the series, and reacted. It's not as detailed or thought out as some of my other articles. So, if there is a point I missed (likely), please point it out.
I don’t think most people hated Game of Thrones season 8 because it ended tragically. What disappointed me (and many others) wasn’t that it ended badly for characters, but how it was written and executed.
ReplyDeleteThe show last season didn’t just felt “too short,” it felt rushed in a way that undercut storylines built over years. Daenerys’ descent into madness wasn’t shocking because it was tragic, it was shocking because it felt like a light switch was flipped in two episodes rather than a gradual unraveling. Tragedy works when it feels inevitable, not when it feels abrupt.
Also there is the fact that bad dialogue and other minor details can be more irritating and off putting than overall plot arcs.
I think that's because the smaller moments and conversations contribute to audience buy-in on the broader story, and without that, even with the right themes and concepts in place, viewers (or readers) will feel disconnected from the characters and events.
Like for instance, the interactions that led into Dany burning KL just sucked. We have characters like Sansa saying she doesn't trust Dany for no specific reason - that distrust needed to be established by some relatively minor event or exchange that could've occurred even prior to their meeting face to face. For instance, if Dany allowed her dragons to, idk, chow down on some livestock that was earmarked as food for Sansa's troops without asking permission, that could've put Sansa in the wrong mood for the meeting in the first place. And then if Dany came off as flippant or entitled - literally just a few words! - it would've solidified Sansa's dislike. Instead, Sansa just... doesn't like Dany's vibes?
Same for Varys turning traitor and preferring Jon. Minor interactions and dialogue pile up over time.
So when the big plot moment of "omg Dany's gone crazy" kicks in, where it should be built on a foundation of these moments, we got very little, and her heelturn seems sudden and random.
Not quite sure how to respond about the first comment. To me, too short = rushed, particularly when I stated the final season didn't have a chance to breathe. But ok.
DeleteYou say "Tragedy works when it feels inevitable." I'm not sure that is 100% true. What about the scene in The Departed when DiCaprio's character is suddenly executed. It was known he was playing in a shadowy world, yet the abruptness of his death hits hard. Zero people watching the movie for the first time expect that to happen at that moment. But its tragedy is palpable. Viewers feel it.
Regarding Dany's descent into madness, it was not abrupt. Martin/the showrunners foreshadowed this on a couple occasions. For me it was not: Could Dany go crazy? Rather: Will Dany go crazy? It was a coin flip, not a surprise.
Sansa disliking Dany, ummmm... Is any reason necessary? Maybe she didn't like her clothes? Maybe she considered Dany a threat? Maybe she didn't like Dany boinking her brother? There are a million reasons, but I don't think that it is character conflict that needed additional motivation beyond the setting and story to that point.
Varys didn't turn traitor. He supported orphans and bastards like Jon his whole life. That was his character. Not sure what you missed there.
Its was rushed not in sense that there are 2-3 episode missing but as the whole 2-3 season were crammed into one season.
DeleteIts been years since i rewatched the show(well last few seasons) or just thought about it. The show, well for me at least, used to reward thinking about it and discussing it. By the last couple seasons, especially 8, the show stopped doing that work. It wasn’t that the ending was sad or tragic, it’s that it no longer felt like the show earned that kind of attention. I still feel like an idiot sometimes for analyzing something that stopped bothering to analyze itself.
So i think the difference between The Departed example and Dany’s arc is that DiCaprio’s death was shocking in a way that still fit the story’s tone and logic. With Dany, the issue isn’t whether she could go mad, the foreshadowing existed, sure but that isn't character development. A slow burn unraveling would’ve made her destruction of King’s Landing feel earned. Instead it came across like the show skipped steps.
We had SEASONS establishing character who were crazy, mad, cruel, tyrannical in Tywin, Cersei, Ramsey, Joffrey and so on. The show did once establish things. What did the show setup for her going mad? It once told about Aegon Targaryen, who grilled thousands of people to create the iron throne and he was then hailed as protector of the realm. How come, he is not "mad"?
On Sansa and Vary, they can dislike or turn against someone for lots of reasons. But drama feels stronger when those reasons are shown clearly, not just assumed. That’s why people call the season rushed: the connective tissue between characters and choices often wasn’t there on screen. Without that buildup, big moments land less powerfully, even if the broad strokes make sense.
I could go on. But I don't want to any longer. Anyway you think the show made sense, good for you. Really. I thought the show grew shittier right from season 5 onwards but back in the day I hoped the payoff will be there.
Also about Varys, he is not a good person. Varys is a horrible monster, he buys child slaves and cuts out their tongues so that he can use them as spies for the good of the realm.