There would have been lots of character moments and adventures. Everything is way too rushed now.
shareAgreed. They should have made this season 10 episodes like all the others. Apparently they also cut down the writing staff to three people, and two of them are the showrunners. Both issues have negatively affected the series.
shareIt's a tradeoff, because if it were slower there would be people complaining about "filler".
shareI agree.. I think we've 'seen' north of the wall, we've had a season of Jon doing that, do we really need another season of more or less the same? It is rushed, I thought it would be more than 1 episode, but we didn't need it filled out too much more.
shareEarlier seasons had the books.
shareYeah, it's getting annoying how they're always like "Had to throw out material because of the shortened season."
Okay, so have they considered that shortening the seasons wasn't necessary then? If it feels more like you're throwing out good material as opposed to just throwing out filler, reconsider. It's not as if this show is crap now and no longer justifies the 10-episode seasons. Especially if the final season's episodes end up being "feature-length," ie 90-120 minutes. That's still 9-12 regular episodes. Why wouldn't they divvy it up the normal way, if for no other reason than marketing purposes?
I think they just don't have the material to use. No books, just whatever outline GRRM gave them. Everything else, the show writers make up on their own.
shareI am starting to think Martin didn't really give them any information about what happens this far out. And they are frustrated and just decided to end it with a bunch of fan service. That's the only explanation.
shareYou do have a point there. GRRM said once that he likes a gardener approach to writing, i.e. not planning much out and just going where the characters take you. So he probably gave them some broad strokes, like Jon and Dany getting together and Sam getting fed up with the Citadel, but very few details on how to get there.
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