It's been a year
since it ended.
Have any feelings changed about the final season?
Nope still feel utterly let down! What a total waste. Ruined what was otherwise a fantastic show
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MovieChat Forums > Game of Thrones (2011) Discussion > It's been a year
Nope; still feels like one of the worst final seasons in all of Television history and combined with the fact that it was a story that depended on sticking the landing; the show and franchise has 0 re-watch value.
shareNo I still think they deliberately fucked up the last season to spit in the collective face of the viewers. You can see them working it out, ' Now what are the worst things we can do to really stick it up their arses ? ' and that's what they did.
Battle of Winterfell π
Battle of Kingβs Landing πππ
Final resolution of power πππ
Aside from the first two episodes, which led us all to highly anticipate the following events, it was all SHITE. But that build-up was ALL FOR NOTHING. I actually get the impression the actors no longer cared, either - I'm sure the Dany actress would've pointed out the Starbucks coffee cup just before they started shooting that scene, but it's like she was "meh, this boring hard work shit is almost all over with, let it be treated as the joke that it is". After all, if JRRM doesn't care enough to conclude the story HE wrote, then why should WE?
Yes, my feelings have changed; as time goes on I get more angry and disgusted with the finale season.
Are the first 2 (of only 6) episodes boring filler that literally no plot development happens in?
Is the battle of Winterfell still shot through a potato lens and contains some of the most mind numbingly dumb tactics ever put to screen?
Is there whole plan depending on the night king acting like a generic mindless bad guy, and the plan works because he ends up doing just that? Does this solve the white walker threat (the existential crisis of the series) way too fast and cleanly?
Is Jon Snow mitigated to background support for the plot resolution of the plot he was the center of since the beginning; and instead Arya (who was literally the most disconnected person from that plot) the one that resolves it?
Is the prophecy of azor ahih and everything related to the lord of light and the 'dark night' just forgotten about?
Does Dany still 'kind of forget' about Euron and the iron fleet? Yup
Does Tyrion and Varys become inexplicable morons, does Varys basically commit suicide by proxy? Yup
Does Dany still go completely genocidal insane and go out of her way to target innocent women and children (cuz she is just so made at Cersie for suggesting she wanted to burn cities... oh yeah whoopsie, kind of proved Cersie right on that one)
Does Jon lose all sovereignty and become a drooling retard that can only say 2 lines?
Is Bran made King through one of the most insane and divorce from logic justification ever in fiction? Does Sansa decide not to submit to her brother as king and emancipates the north despite the last living son of the beloved Ned stark being the king? is everyone just okay with this, the iron islands don't also try to get independence? Is all of this lead by Tyrion, who was currently under arrest for conspiring to murder the Queen? Does Jon end up at the partial destroyed and now defunct Wall?
No, the crushing disappointment hasn't changed a bit.
Sadly, what's changed is my feelings about the show as a whole! in time I hope I can get over that, and remember how incredibly fucking great the show was for years and years.
Yup; that is the real disappointing aspect; not only was the end so unsatisfying and so insanely dumb it actually ruins the enjoyment of the rest of the show.
I have a discussion going on the Dexter board about this; the idea that Dexter and GOT season 8 were arguably equally as bad but the last season of Dexter doesn't impact the enjoyment of earlier seasons (which can be watched in a bubble without much need for a 'series finale). GOT was not the same type of show; so much of the plots and characters depended on how their stories ended, it is almost impossible to divorce the end from the rest of the show.
it's true, some shows can get away with having some bad episodes or a bad windup, but "GoT" can't.
I think it's because so much of the show's appeal was in the suspense, for a long time every episode ended with a shocker or a cliffhanger, and every Sunday the entire fandom had to run to their TVs to see WHAT HAPPENES NEXT. Which isn't unique to "GoT", lots of shows try for that kind of suspense although few have succeeded so well, what *was* unique was that it was based on famously unfinished books. So in addition to the show's genuine shockers and intense drama, there was this highly publicized Great Secret that only a few people knew, and everyone wanted to know.
Which made the letdown of a bad final season that much more crushing. All those years of curiosity, suspense, wondering what happened when the books ran out, secrecy, leaks, spoilers... and it came down to THAT'S IT? THAT'S WHAT ALL THE SECRECY WAS ABOUT? oh, it hurt. I don't know that I can ever devote myself to a long-running show again.
True, it has to do with the show structure. GoT was all 1 long interconnected story. Other shows each season has its own sort of independent arc and can serve as a series finale; often because the showrunners don't always know if they will be getting more seasons. The only other show that I can think of that was 1 long interconnected story like this was Breaking Bad, and that show ended perfectly.
Yes the suspense came from the clever writing; that seemed to say that 'no one was safe' and anything could happen. That added to the appeal and because there was so much hype being built up around how it was going to end; added to the inflated expectation. Which again which is why it was so important for them to do a at least mediocre finish; flaming out would be better then blowing it all up. I hate when people say no ending would be satisfying, if that were the case why were most people happy with the ending of Breaking Bad but people almost universally despise the end of GOT.
I wonder if it was even worse for the book readers like me; I read them before the show came out and was very invested. So when the shows started deviating heavily starting in teh Season 4 finale it caused concern. But it felt like the show would still bring us an end that might never come in the books; and this is what we got.
I feel the same way; and for books to. Because of Game of Thrones I decided on a new rule for myself, i will not invest something unless it is complete. I won't watch new shows, read new books unless the story is done and people give the complete arc positive reviews. The down side to this rule is this means I will often never get invested in shows again and even if I do it will be much after others already were over it; but the plus side is I have a lot more free time to put towards more worth while endeavors.
" Because of Game of Thrones I decided on a new rule for myself, i will not invest something unless it is complete"
Holy cow, I thought I was the only one who'd taken this fantasy show so seriously that the letdown has affected my future viewing habits!
D&D should really be ashamed of what they did.
Actually I had already kind of been doing that my hole life. There was a good amount of shows that i was hesitant to start because I felt like it might not be worth it; but then never actually got around to watching them. The Sopranos and The Wire are 2 that come to mind. I was always hesitant to invest in a story that wasn't complete because that would be like reading a book's first few chapters before the book is complete.
Game of thrones was just the final nail in the coffin that confirmed my reluctance to invest in an incomplete story. Maybe if the books were finished before they started it would not have happened like this.
Edit: but yes; Dumb and Dumber should be absolutely ashamed of how they finished such an epic story with such a subpar final season.
That's the thing, I'm getting older, and over the last few decades I'd been increasingly reluctant to commit myself to a new show, I'd seen so many things flame out or get cancelled before whatever they were trying to do was complete. Getting invested in a new show seemed more trouble than it was worth, given my ridiculous tendency to go straight from casual viewership to over-the-top geekdom. "Game of Thrones" was a huge exception, I was instantly hooked by a DVD rental and became one of those nerds who'd analyze Littlefinger's plans down to the last permutation and harangue others who didn't understand the subtleties of the writing, and look how it turned out.
I really ought to write those negligent bastards D&D and tell them all this. The way things are right now, I need someone to take my bad temper out on.
Yeah I feel almost exactly the same way. It was not the show that got me hooked though; basically what happened is around 2009 or 2010 relative who's entertainment opinion I trust told me the show was getting produced so I should read the books before they came out, since I was a huge fan of LOTR since I was a kid and I also really like Sean Bean. I binge read the books that were out up to that point; if I remember it was a feast for Crows. A Storm of Swords totally blew me away, I never had a book have me feeling like I couldn't believe what I head just read. The red wedding chapter I read 3 times because I was in almost shock by what I had read. The show adapted this almost perfectly, IMO. Starting with the season 4 finale all the characters starting behaving totally unlike themselves and it seemed like the writers lost their way; removing the Tysa reveal for Tyrion before he kills his father basically removed his arc, the hound and Brianne fighting seemed like total fan service and totally gets the characters wrong. Arya's leaving him to die makes no sense in the context of the show. After that things started to deviate too much and characters that were once deep, brilliant, subtle, or Machiavellian started being brash, crude, reckless, or just altogether stupid. As an example littlefinger, but I would say he checked out just in time; look what they did to Varys the last season.
They don't give a shit; that is the most frustrating thing. They thought they shit gold and could move on to star wars and netflix deals. I hope it all blows up in their face; that way they don't "kind of forget" what they did to the GoT fans.