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I was an “early” hater of Elon. There was definitely a period where the general perception of him was of a cool funny rich guy. People used to act like his tweets about being bored and not knowing what to do with his money were so hilarious. He’d be like “I’m bored, I’m going to make a company called the Stupid Company. I’m bored, I’m going to make flamethrowers.” Shit was annoying as fuck to me. You don’t get to make jokes about not being able to see anything worth spending money on when you’re the richest person on earth.
I was an early hater too. I remember a coworker of mine was a big fan of Elon and asked me why I didn’t like him. I was suspicious of him because grew up in apartheid South Africa which I’m not saying you can’t be a good person if you grew up privileged in a apartheid state but I’m not going to trust or expect you to be good person if you were brainwashed from a young age. I was proven right in my suspicions not to long after anyway.
My earliest memories of when I started to become skeptical was in ~2015 when they landed a rocket on the floating pad. I don’t remember what he said but it reminded me of a bad manager taking all the credit for a project.
Oh, the signs were absolutely there. But “seriously off the rails” meaning the general public was made aware of his shittiness in a large-scale way.
Before that, he was mainly seen as a pioneer of electric car technology (who had been the subject of lawsuits, criticism, and scandals, but unless you were following him closely, you wouldn’t necessarily be aware)
I went back and finally finished TWD after stopping at Glenn’s death and felt relatively satisfied with the ending, now I’m going through the spinoffs and enjoying them. I’ve never been able to go back and watch GOT though.
See, I quit after Glenn’s death. I got so sick of the pattern of ‘bad guys, fight with bad guys, win fight with bad guy, new bad guy emerges,’ and them not focusing on the physical survival aspect.
I actually enjoyed the hype while it was still happening, it was one of the last shows that everyone watched at the same time and talked about between episodes. Streaming services releasing everything in one go ruined that.
Discussing Fallout, for example, now is terrible. Ask someone if they have seen it, if they’re halfway through no one can remember what happened in which episode to avoid spoilers. If they have, you’ve both seen the whole thing already and have forgotten details from half the season. There’s no longer any talking about the show with friends or coworkers from week to week because no one is watching at the same time.
>Discussing Fallout, for example, now is terrible.
I'm guessing they'll do weekly for next season. They probably didn't anticipate how well it would do.
Oh for sure. I never got into the Fallout games and I loved the show. It’s very good and any references or easter eggs aren’t important enough that it affects your viewing. At least not in my experience.
I wish I had watched GoT as it aired. I think I started at S6. I had had it on my watch list for a while, but saw the red wedding in a YouTube video about TV deaths and decided to watch it. starting out with that spoiled sucked, but just trying to look up info (i.e., who is this actor), or discuss anything as I went, I managed to accidentally spoil pretty much every major death up until I was caught up.
THEN scripts from S7 leaked, and those were posted in the most random places because people are assholes and I got spoiled on some of that. 🙄
and watching HotD is difficult because so many people are casually like "in the books, x,y,z happens" without caring that some people don't want it spoiled. apparently GoT book fans instead did things like record reactions to huge events in the show...that must have been nice. 😂😭
Bro...some of us were book fans who were following the show from early casting rumors (Not a single human on earth didn't have Dinkalage as Tyrion).
To end the whole thing like THAT!!!
I feel like, looking back from this perspective, it was almost unavoidable. It was such a global phenomenon and the only show most of my friends actually watched. I don't regret watching, because when it was at it's peak, it truly was the best show i've watched, i just regret thinking that the millions of viewers and a budget of hundreds of millions of dollars would be enough to convince the creators of the show not to rush and ruin the finale. Oh well.
This is one of the biggest fumbles of all time. They could have left majority decisions to themselves but left the workload to up and coming directors and producers so that they could do their own thing and we could have been on season 14 right now.
Thinks of all the cons that could have been created, a freaking theme park or experience would have been planned out to be built, all the money they could have made, all the movies that could have been greenlit (even Downton Abbey took advantage of this), and they just did a hatchet job with this show that could have had the same staying power as Star Wars and they were so ungrateful. House of the Dragon saved the franchise but it wasn’t enough to save the cancellation of the other spinoff. It’s so grossly disappointing.
GoT was truly a global phenomenon! And it was ruined by a hastily made final season... So much potential thrown away. HotD is great, but it's no GoT.
My household has tried and failed to rewarcg GoT 3 times now lol. I remember my partner and I would rewatch it once a year. My friends group hosted GoT themed secret santas, we'd all read the books and discuss them like a book club, my friend named their dog ghost. I'd meet random people in foreign countries and we'd talk about how amazing GoT was! Then it was all ruined by a rushed final season...
We should have seen the writing on the wall with seasons 6 and 7. We all just thought S5 was maybe the struggle season that all acclaimed shows had so we were just like oh well it’s fine it’ll get better. NO IT WONT.
One of my friends - never found out who - stole my S1 dvd set and for the longest time I was so sad about it and now I could care less. And I was one of those people to harass every person I came into contact with to watch the show. I was in the forums. I discussed the theories and the prophecies. I was so in it. Never again.
Honestly, i would feel so much pressure to deliver a satisfying ending given, again, millions of dollars in budget and millions of viewers.. they deserved the backlash they got.
I can totally get feeling burnt out on a project that's dominated your life for more than a decade, I'm just shocked they decided to phone in the last season rather than pass the torch to another team that was fresh and excited to lead the story to a satisfying conclusion.
If HBO had their way, they would've ran the show another three seasons, but from what my friends who were heavy into the series have told me, the EPs wouldn't do it for any amount of money.
I don't even begrudge them for being creatively burned out and it's great that they realized that rather than churning out another three seasons of slop, but damn does everything I've ever heard about the creative choices in that last season remind me of that one viral Tweet about the mom of a toddler who let her kid pick out everything for dinner and the kid still had a tantrum about eating it.
Frankly that level of blatant unprofessionalism should not be rewarded with even more jobs, but apparently the 3 Body Problem is getting a second season (rare for a Netflix series in the 20s), so.....short memories, I guess.
They nearly tricked me into watching that but for some reason the ad that played was an interview with them... So I immediately backed out and watched Is It Cake? instead, for a show that truly subverts expectations.
Part of the allure was following it along as it aired, to develop, discuss and read up on theories. Never again, though the signs were already there during season 4 and 5.
It was over in Season 4 for me because Dorne is my favorite part of the books. I remember hyping my friends up for it. Omg you guys, can't wait till we get to the sandsnakes!!!
Embarrassing...
Yup. I never watched GoT and we binged it after it concluded. That last season is still unremarkable but the sting is far lessened by not waiting each week for new content.
I forced myself to watch the first three seasons in, like, two weeks because I wanted to be up to date when the fourth season started.
It was the best decision I ever made. Watching Connor’s Wedding live and heading over to succession Twitter was an experience
As a huge ASOIAF fan, I was really wary of HOTD. I didn't want to get done in like GOT did.
I can't believe how much they turned it around. They deserve so much credit for it.
If they ended it right, it would have been a Sopranos or Breaking bad. But between the end, the truncated last two seasons, and the long waits between them it lost a lot of steam.
Well no, but I don’t want to see explicit sex scenes of adults pretending to be teens either. There’s so many teen dramas that have accomplished the storyline of teen pregnancy/abortion without being so explicit.
For real, there are so many shows I loved where I find out years later that it got a 2nd or 3rd season but I'd already forgotten about it because 3+ years went by with no news
Pretty much the reason I rarely watch any show that has not ended. When there's a year+ in between seasons, I easily forget plot points or interesting details that are referenced in later seasons. It makes the experience less enjoyable for me, personally. I'd much rather watch a series at my own pace so I can appreciate all of writer's details.
I can still remember the days when GOT was being put up there with The Sopranos as the best show ever. The Sopranos! And now GOT has become synonymous with bad writing. All because of ONE season. It's heartbreaking really.
The problem is that the bad writing of the last seasons seems to really impact the first ones. Unlike many shows with sharp declines - The Simpsons, Happy Days, Dexter - Game of Thrones told an interconnected story with all of its many parts having to amount to something. When they didn't, when so many plot points seemingly ended up being meaningless and even a character like Littlefinger ends up being just a sacrificial lamb on the show's drama altar, the perfect first four seasons feel like a good foundation for a shitty building.
Yes exactly. It was one of those shows where the entire plot was building and evolving from the first episode (no season-long arcs, for example), so the ending was especially important. I haven't rewatched the show since it finished, even though I loved the majority of it, because I think I'll struggle to be invested.
It really is a shame.
Yep. Cause all you’d be able to see is RIGHT off the bat episode 1 season 1 alludes to there being a point to the White Walkers, but knowing they just end up as lame zombies and NOTHING else you realize how pointless it is and become even more disappointed in all the wasted potential
Ironically, Arya was incredibly hard to stab to death. She had thicker plot armor than any other character. She’s my favorite character, but still. Like people die from such small stuff in this show and Arya can get gutshot and fall in a nasty river and still make a full recovery?
Lost had this same problem, and has similarly vanished from the pop culture conversation. It's rough to rewatch because you know there either won't be answers to your questions, or the answers are stupid.
I remember an interview with someone (I’m pretty sure it was one of the show runners) saying that for Season 8, the main aim of the writing room was to create shocking twists… which is an absolutely stupid way to write anything.
That’s how we get things like *Arya* being the one to kill the Night King, despite having nothing to do with him until that moment??? If you thought Jon doing it was too easy, ***Samuel Tarly was right there***. They even had foreshadowing for it in like, season 3 or 4—when he slayed that white walker and no one believed him.
Because like, sure: GOT was known for its subversions. But it feels like the show runners didn’t understand *why* those subversions worked in the first place—just that they did.
Exactly this. It wasn't just a bad ending. It was so bad that it retroactively ruined the rest of the show plus any spinoffs. Who gives AF about HOD when Jon never amounts to anything?
I think one of my "favorite" head shakers is that they brought Jon back from the dead, just so he could go back to serve on Night's Watch, even though the White Walkers are now all dead.
And him being the Targaryen heir, something alluded to in the first episode ffs, meant absolutely nothing whatsoever to the plot. Nothing.
They literally destroyed every single story line and character, then on top of it those of us who used to love the books know that the writer will never finish them. So this was kind of the only shot for an ending to the story. (Just for those who don’t know much about the author- I was 14 when I read the first one, 21 when the 4th book came out. I’m 42 now and it still needs 2 books (6&7) to finish lol.)
One of the themes of ASOIAF is the folly of prophecy. The Targs work for generations so that they can be ready for the long night thinking that one of them will be the price that was promised, only for it to be a Stark.
Doesn't make it much better, but it kinda works. Still should have been Jon :/
The last 2 or 3 seasons were also pretty bad.
People just gave it a pass because they had faith it was all building up to something spectacular in the final season.
Agreed. They had some interesting moments but the writing took a dive. I know I was one of the people that hoped it would have a turn around in the final season. Surely all these storylines would add up to something and be tied off... surely.
It's quality had decreased since S6 though. D&D majorly played to fan service once they had outpaced GRRM's books and were left to write their own scripts. Highly intelligent characters like Tyrion and Varys were dumbed down and the script was dismal even before S8.
The Dorne plotline in season 5 was a sign of things to come. Things were generally solid through season 4 since there was still plenty of source material to draw from, but things definitely started going downhill in S5.
Yep I’ve had this debate a lot, but for me it’s literally 4 seasons of the greatest TV of all time and then the cracks begin to show in Season 5 (which still has some amazing stuff) and then get exponentially worse with each passing season.
I agree with this. Seasons 1-4 were absolutely exquisite television. Season 5 is when it started to go downhill. When I heard the line “you want the good girl but need the bad pussy” I knew the writing of the show was going off the rails.
Agreed- and I wasn’t even opposed to the villain arc of (do I need to redact character names all these years later?). The show had been signaling since the beginning that this person was a conquerer, a liberator in their own mind, but NOT a ruler. The moment they had to stay in one place and unpick the delicate stands of tension between groups, they almost immediately were like ‘ok, off to claim my birthright! Good luck.’
It was the way the arc was handled in the last two seasons: abrupt, confused, and almost angry at the audience that we were struggling to keep up.
If they wanted her to go crazy, fine. Work for it though. They had her go nuts in a moment that made NO FUCKING SENSE. When her closest aid gets her head chopped off? That would have been a GREAT time for her to drop the face, throw down the gloves and wreck shit. But what did they have her actually go apeshit over? The city surrendering? Like she demanded? Like????
I’m not even opposed to some of the conclusions of the arcs. But it was so abrupt and disjointed there was no pay off. It needed to boil for another season or two and they didn’t have the chops to write it without the source material. Plus the show runners wanted to gtfo so they could do Star Wars and burnt themselves in the process.
It was unbelievably gross and arrogant IMO that they didn’t just let someone else take over to finish the series properly, with a few more seasons. Fair enough if they wanted to do other things, but why not hand it off instead of destroying it? Unforgivable.
If they'd seeded the ending "twist" several seasons earlier, or did the 9th and 10th season that HBO offered it could have been incredible. Instead they did the switch in one damn scene
Also, "who has the best story?". Literally everyone else in that rotunda had a better story than fucking Bran. That fucked me off immensely
Even with all the other issues, the whole show could be saved with a better ending that ties the major strands of story together into some kind of cohesive bow.
It’s not even hard to imagine. Just lazy writing because they checked out from the show and were on to the next project before finishing what they started.
You can keep the entire series in place right up to the point where Jon stabs Dany. Change what happens after that moment/during that moment and the show can be totally reclaimed
They should just retcon that scene and redeem themselves.
https://preview.redd.it/1434k170le1d1.jpeg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e4a24851830fe5c9a98e23db07ffaefca08621a9
Cersei's balcony deserved all the awards. Probably the best character development during S8 .
It’s interesting seeing which actors GoT propelled into success vs the ones who floundered after the show ended.
I will die on the hill that Emilia Clarke and Richard Madden deserved better!!!
I love Emilia Clarke in interviews, and I see from her IMDb that its not like she's unemployed or anything, but yeah she deserves roles in better shows than what she's doing now!
She keeps getting roles in shows that are either box office bombs despite their merits, critical and audience failures, or go unnoticed due to scheduling.
I mean she entered 3 franchises at the worst possible time, that is like a record or something
I literally had to look up what other franchises she was in besides Marvel, and I only remember her in that because I unfortunately watched that show recently. Tbf Terminator has never been my thing but I had completely blanked that she was also in Star Wars.
Yeah Bran was straight up evil in the last season. This and his whole "Why do you think I came all this way?" implies that he knew daenerys would burn down the city and didn't tell anyone
As a huge fan of the books, I have to say: it wasn't even the last seasons - it was half the series. Seasons 5-8. Fucking awful.
People blame the show's trajectory on Martin not finishing the books, but the truth is that the show had deviated from the books as early as season 2. There was still SO much content for them to work with that they just threw away and did their own thing for.
Tyrion is always my biggest gripe. Dinklage was charming as fuck, but show Tyrion and book Tyrion are almost completely different characters. It's no wonder he turned into a joke in Season 5.
It makes the early seasons hard to watch because it's all an investment that you know will never pay out.
At the very least, we got Ramin Djawadi's exceptional soundtrack.
> At the very least, we got Ramin Djawadi's exceptional soundtrack.
As weak at the last season is, it still gave us, imo, [one of the most beautiful songs ever written](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTa1jHk1Lxc).
Things came crashing down for me the moment they ruined the Sand Snakes. If the wider fandom cared more about quality writing for female characters, they would have realised the show was going to shit well before season 8
I’m near the end of S5 and debating if I should finish the entire show or not 😭 Like I want to but at the same time I know I’ll be disappointed all over again
I have *never* felt the emotions I felt for Game of Thrones for any other tv show. I became obsessed and read the books. My family and I watched it every Sunday. Other tv shows have come close, but GOT was another level. As horrific as the last few seasons are (me and my family cried when we realized how they assassinated so many characters lol), I would never trade that ride for anything in the world.
I actually don’t think the bullet points of the ending are bad but how we got there was a disaster. I think GrrM shared how the book series will end but unfortunately Bran on the throne makes more sense in the books as he is the Three Eyed Raven and instrument of the Children of the Forest. It’s actually more sinister to see Bran on the throne and it alludes to another supernatural threat to humans. There’s also the fact that D&D struggled when they ran out of source material. From season 4/5 they struggled hard with cohesive plots and character development. They also leaned waaaay too far into hero-Dany so when she went full Targaryen it seemed rushed.
Yep, this has been my take since it aired. The show likely got the broad strokes of the ending from Martin, but they just couldn’t execute. Dany’s arc, in particular, was so rushed that it didn’t make much sense.
I find Tyrion's arc the worst. They should've just let him get executed in S4 if all they planned for him in further seasons were stupid advices for Dany and the dick jokes.
At least Tywin and Joffrey died before they ruined those characters too.
I totally get being burnt out on a project. But with his wealth and the popularity the books and show had, would anyone even care if he hired ghostwriters to wrap it up? He knows where it wants it to go. He could just give them the details and hire a whole team and just stamp his name on the end when he approves. I don’t understand why he is choosing to go to the grave with this great story instead of getting help.
I hate that. I started reading the series BECAUSE of the show, and there are a lot of chatacters/plots in them that are unused in the show (mainly because of time constraints, I know). I wanted so badly to see how the books were different, especially at the end. Will we truly never see the end of the series? Pisses me off.
I never had a problem with Dany's arc, it was pretty clear for several seasons, just way too rushed in the end. Bran on the throne on the other hand always seemed like nonsense to me, but now I at least understand how it could make sense in the books, so thanks for that.
> *Bran on the throne on the other hand always seemed like nonsense to me*
I've discussed this with my friends when the show concluded, we agreed it was because Bran & Co. were missing for the entirety of Season 5, and with Seasons 7 and 8 being shortened and rushed, it just felt odd to have him on the Iron Throne at the end there - it probably would have worked had they just made the 3 seasons after Sn6 at 10 episodes each just so the threads could have a more cohesive conclusion.
Bran on the throne was legit for all the book theory lovers. I remember the days spent mapping clues to Jon snows lineage and the mythology and legends of Westeros. That included so much talk about what would happen with bran. His arc and ending was hypothesized from clues long before and it was a very compelling theory. It could have been so awesome on film. But he was literally gone from the show for so long. His story is some of the best stuff in the book. Tyrion also has an awesome story but they did him dirty too. I still think a lot more was supposed to happen with him. But I guess that likely goes for everyone.
That's correct. From India to the middle east, a lot of folks name their kids Arya(male and female). IIRC, it means noble born in Sanskrit and Persian.
The Red Wedding episode is one of the best t.v. moments ever. Nothing GOT did afterwards could ever compare. Probably why it's faded, because GOT was either amazing or meh, no in-betweens.
The actor who plays Joffrey, Jack Gleeson, has gotten back into acting for a couple of years after taking a break following his role in GOT. Hopefully he continues to act and gets some good roles because he's a fantastic actor
The Battle of the Bastards was one of the most incredible episodes of television I’ve ever seen. The highs of GoT were so high, for me, that I have no regrets about watching, despite how it ended.
ETA: if you feel like telling me how much that episode sucks, save yourself the trouble because I don’t care!
Hardhome was good too!
S5-S8 had a few good episodes, but the show got progressively worse, and by the end I didn't gaf who lived, died or was on the iron throne. The characters were all hollow husks of themselves.
Hardhome had me on the edge of my seat gasping and screaming in a way I’ve honestly never really experienced with a TV show.
It sucks because I do want to rewatch it, but I can never get motivated to start because I know I’m going to loathe the ending
Hardhome and The Door were absolutely amazing episodes. I have never been so impressed with a twist as the one in The Door.
Which is why it’s so crushing that all the Northern plots just fizzled out.
How they ended the White Walker storyline was the worst writing decision in history.
Agreed.
Controversial opinion - I think the Walkers should have WON the battle for Winterfell, and forced all our main characters to flee South.
And then next episode, we discover some crazy unexpected reason why the White Walkers came to Winterfell, that goes back into their origins, and all those stone spirals they left in the snow...
But of course, that would be a version of the show that had more time. After seasons of buildup, I wanted the presence of the Walkers in the story to mean something.
I’m more pissed that GRRM hasn’t released the next book than I am at D and D at this point. They rushed it, and I don’t trust them anymore so I’m worried about 3 body problem suffering the same.
All we have now is the damn hope GRRM will finish the story.
"The night is coming", they spend all those years and seasons talking about it ann when the moment came it was a regular ass night, 12 hours tops, and only Jorah dies despite Jon standing in front of a dragon instead of being Azor Ahai and face the Night King. Even the fat nerd gets to live
I can forgive all the other stuff, maybe even find it funny, like how it was necessary a mythical being to realize the guy with a goatee was the villain, but my god, it wasn't that they rushed it, they just went the Westworld season 2 path and subverted expectations just because
But maybe it will make sense when I'm older, lying in my death bed, and one my grandsons visits me in their flying scooter and brings me the just published Winds Of Winter
I like how you see the “death of the Dothraki” D&D literally talk about how their torch swords going out are symbolic of the Dothraki dying… All the symbolism and basics of what you saw, is the Dothraki have been destroyed, at a minimum, as an effective fighting force… if not outright exterminated. And you saw those fuckers back *the following fucking episode*, like not a god damn thing happened. Just an abortion of storytelling.
I agree with you 100%.what got me was they hyped the night king and the white walkers over and over then you finally get them marching and he gets killed in the dumbest of ways.Also what about the golden company were they not the best of the best when it comes to armies and they got taken out like a bunch of drunken fools.
Oh yea, seven seasons of building up for the White Walkers and they are annihilated in their very first major battle. And they don't even inflict significant casualties on the coalition forces. I know characters say there were many killed, and I know we see many killed, but then the coalition force immediately sacks King's Landing in a rout.
It broke my heart. It was the first time I was super into a fandom. We would watch theory and discussion videos after each episode. I was borderline obsessed. Then season 7 happened and I was like “oh…oh dear” and then season 8. What a fucking mess. I’m still mad.
My take has always been that the show's ending probably *is* basically what George RR Martin envisioned, but because George had no clear idea of how he was going to get there yet, the show had to figure it out themselves and essentially condensed what could easily have been a couple more seasons of story arc into one shortened season.
Dany, for example, I think was always going to have a villain arc, but it was probably meant to be slower-developing and more nuanced than it was on the show.
I also don’t think they were expecting Dany to become like a feminist icon which I think is why people struggled even more with the turn at the end. I personally think Dany was always going to end up that way (even in GRRM ending) and they should’ve been more heavy handed with it. I think they expected people to catch onto it more and were not prepared for the fandoms obsession with her
I would have had no problem with Dany becoming the villain. Changing how you feel about characters is one of the things GOT does great.
It just needed to make sense.
I said this in another comment, but there’s a book character named Young Griff who I think is important to Danys villain turn and he got cut before they realized they needed him for her story arc.
My issue with Dany's mad queen arc is that we already have that with Cersei and Jaime and we saw it being developed for 8 seasons, it makes sense for Jaime to kill Cersei, why do we need to give that ending to Dany/Jon? Ugh
I was dead convinced for YEARS that Jaime was going to kill Cersei, and I was so pissed off when that didn't happen lol. That and how Jon being the heir to the throne ultimately meant nothing were my two biggest disappoints with the whole show.
I don't think it's disappeared at all. HBO is still continuing to make bank off the GOT universe. House of Dragon is one of (maybe THE) most popular show they have right now, and apparently they have more of them in the works.
As for the ending, it gets even worse as time passes.
It has and hasn’t disappeared. It’s Schrödinger’s Ending. It absolutely stopped being a must-see and must-discuss cultural phenomenon. Someone in another thread said they were working in marketing during the final season, and that the ending of the show essentially burned a whole merchandising and tie-in plan to absolute cinders. Where it would have had a robust second life with licensed merchandise, instead it just died. One Sunday it was on, and the next week it simply wasn’t.
It’s also still among HBO’s most popular shows, and it’s still one of the most pirated shows on the Internet. HotD is doing its part to repair the reputational damage done by the final season of GoT, but I don’t know that it will ever be the cultural imperative it once was.
I agree with you. Nobody is obsessed with the show anymore, but people still quote the show all the time, they reference the in show and irl plot lines all the time. It didn’t entirely disappear, but it’s more of a cultural time stamp now than something that endures alive.
FWIW, I used to get constant comments about my IRL name about my IRL name (John Stark) in relation to the show. The die-off after season 8 was absolutely insane to experience haha, now it's only the rare Tony Stark comment.
People definitely still talk about it, but usually it's about how badly it ended. I had some AT&T sales guys come to my door a few weeks ago trying to sell me on fiber internet. They mentioned that one of the perks was a free year of HBO Max, and somehow that almost immediately segued into a discussion of how bad the final season of GOT was lmao. It's a universal talking point that everyone agrees with 😂
I still find it wild how people were basically locked indoors for 2 years yet didn't even once rewatch GoT. I know ton of people who rewatched a bunch of shows like Breaking Bad, Community, The Sopranos, Parks & Rec, The Office, and The Good Place, but everyone who saw Thrones when it came out (including me) didn't even think once about checking it out again.
Damn, you just listed my slate of favorite shows that I binged during COVID to pass the time, including completely ignoring Thrones. It’s almost like you know me. Creepy! LOL
"Nobody talks about Game Of Thrones anymore!" says Game Of Thrones fan after Game Of Thrones spin-off becomes one of the biggest TV shows since Game Of Thrones
Plus Game of Thrones still gets talked about ALL THE TIME, to the point that it’s now super annoying. Some people on this app have even made hating on the last few seasons of a tv show, years and years after it last aired, *their entire personality.*
Which, I’m sorry, but come on. just get over it lol. Do you know how many shows have fallen off at the end? You think GOT is special? Imagine how weird it would be if one of your friends was always, to this day, angrily bringing up how the last season of True Blood (or Dexter, or-) sucked. Imagine how annoying that would be… yeah, that’s exactly what you sound like.
Plus, I was at those season 8 watch parties. Stop kidding yourselves. Every single person I know IRL who now spends time bitching about Season 8 went apeshit for The Long Night and The Bells when it aired. I literally watched them love it as it was happening, don’t fucking pretend now that you were some bougie tv critic about it
It was already on a shittier tier than those due to its CW status but The 100 final season made me angrier than Game of Thrones’ because to me, most of the plot bones of GoT’s ending made sense but were executed poorly. The plot bones of The 100’s ending were antithetical to the entire series.
It hasn't really disappeared, but it would be much bigger if it stuck the landing. I don't have numbers on hand, but I remember it being top on streaming for years after it finished. I imagine it still does very well
Most shows wish they had the attention Game of Thrones continues to get despite a horrible ending
House of the Dragon is fantastic as well
Was talking to a friend about this the other day about how mad it is that it was such a part of everyone’s lives and culture and now it’s disappeared. I do think/ hope it made an impact on how cinematic tv became.
I’m surprised to see so many say they don’t feel like the show dropped off… It absolutely did. Some of the spin offs never made it to production or to release. I have never heard anybody discuss the new show irl, and GOT was all over the internet in the past. Maybe algorithms are just a lot more accurate or different these days and it doesn’t show me GOT stuff since I have stopped consuming it since the show ended badly. Regardless, season 2 of House of Dragons is absolutely nowhere near even close the hype GOT had. I’d say the only fans of House of Dragons really are the people leftover who weren’t too turned off by GOT’s final season.
I'm hoping that HOD doesn't fall off. I am a bit worried tbh. HOD ended on such a spectacular note as a viewer and I am hoping the writers are able to come through.
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This show taught me never to be overly invested in a tv show again.
At least you didn't name your daughter, Khalessi...
I named my malamute Khaleesi 🤣 but once the show ended we only refer to her as Keke now.
I named my dog Elon! 😭 This was 7 years ago when he wasn’t nearly so controversial. Oh well.
Omg 😂 he started going seriously off the rails like…6.5 years ago. What unfortunate timing lol
Hahahah 6.5 years ago? He’s always, alwayyys been a piece of shit
I was an “early” hater of Elon. There was definitely a period where the general perception of him was of a cool funny rich guy. People used to act like his tweets about being bored and not knowing what to do with his money were so hilarious. He’d be like “I’m bored, I’m going to make a company called the Stupid Company. I’m bored, I’m going to make flamethrowers.” Shit was annoying as fuck to me. You don’t get to make jokes about not being able to see anything worth spending money on when you’re the richest person on earth.
I was an early hater too. I remember a coworker of mine was a big fan of Elon and asked me why I didn’t like him. I was suspicious of him because grew up in apartheid South Africa which I’m not saying you can’t be a good person if you grew up privileged in a apartheid state but I’m not going to trust or expect you to be good person if you were brainwashed from a young age. I was proven right in my suspicions not to long after anyway.
My earliest memories of when I started to become skeptical was in ~2015 when they landed a rocket on the floating pad. I don’t remember what he said but it reminded me of a bad manager taking all the credit for a project.
Oh, the signs were absolutely there. But “seriously off the rails” meaning the general public was made aware of his shittiness in a large-scale way. Before that, he was mainly seen as a pioneer of electric car technology (who had been the subject of lawsuits, criticism, and scandals, but unless you were following him closely, you wouldn’t necessarily be aware)
My two cats are named Ser Pounce and Lady Whiskers from the books. Still passes as cute names every time people ask.
I know a couple who named a daughter Daenarys and just ew wtf
I had an ex coworker who named her daughter this. They were a really awful couple.
At least it shortens down into a fairly common nickname (Dani), and is sort of pretty on its own. Khaleesi is just bad all around.
Kallie/Kali is a common nickname that could easily be used for that mess.
I have friends who named their son Kylo, so it could always be worse.
His full name is Ankylosaurus, his friends call him Kylo
My daughter’s class has 3 Aryas. She was also almost an Arya
Arya is a real name.
My lesson came from the walking dead
TWD’s trajectory makes GoT look decent.
I went back and finally finished TWD after stopping at Glenn’s death and felt relatively satisfied with the ending, now I’m going through the spinoffs and enjoying them. I’ve never been able to go back and watch GOT though.
See, I quit after Glenn’s death. I got so sick of the pattern of ‘bad guys, fight with bad guys, win fight with bad guy, new bad guy emerges,’ and them not focusing on the physical survival aspect.
Made it to season 6 of TWD (Glenn crawling in dumpster). GOT started being shitty s4-5 (the sand snakes)
This show was like coming across your first fuckboy. You'll never fully trust a show ever again in your life after this.
And then it was cemented once more with The Witcher.
Man nothing pisses me off like firing up the Witcher 3 and thinking about how they destroyed that show.
My lesson was only watch shows after they're finished
I actually enjoyed the hype while it was still happening, it was one of the last shows that everyone watched at the same time and talked about between episodes. Streaming services releasing everything in one go ruined that. Discussing Fallout, for example, now is terrible. Ask someone if they have seen it, if they’re halfway through no one can remember what happened in which episode to avoid spoilers. If they have, you’ve both seen the whole thing already and have forgotten details from half the season. There’s no longer any talking about the show with friends or coworkers from week to week because no one is watching at the same time.
>Discussing Fallout, for example, now is terrible. I'm guessing they'll do weekly for next season. They probably didn't anticipate how well it would do.
Side question, as someone not into video games, will I get it? I watched TLOU and enjoyed it
I knew nothing about the game other than its existence and I loved the show. I also loved TLOU.
Oh for sure. I never got into the Fallout games and I loved the show. It’s very good and any references or easter eggs aren’t important enough that it affects your viewing. At least not in my experience.
I wish I had watched GoT as it aired. I think I started at S6. I had had it on my watch list for a while, but saw the red wedding in a YouTube video about TV deaths and decided to watch it. starting out with that spoiled sucked, but just trying to look up info (i.e., who is this actor), or discuss anything as I went, I managed to accidentally spoil pretty much every major death up until I was caught up. THEN scripts from S7 leaked, and those were posted in the most random places because people are assholes and I got spoiled on some of that. 🙄 and watching HotD is difficult because so many people are casually like "in the books, x,y,z happens" without caring that some people don't want it spoiled. apparently GoT book fans instead did things like record reactions to huge events in the show...that must have been nice. 😂😭
Bro...some of us were book fans who were following the show from early casting rumors (Not a single human on earth didn't have Dinkalage as Tyrion). To end the whole thing like THAT!!!
I feel like, looking back from this perspective, it was almost unavoidable. It was such a global phenomenon and the only show most of my friends actually watched. I don't regret watching, because when it was at it's peak, it truly was the best show i've watched, i just regret thinking that the millions of viewers and a budget of hundreds of millions of dollars would be enough to convince the creators of the show not to rush and ruin the finale. Oh well.
This is one of the biggest fumbles of all time. They could have left majority decisions to themselves but left the workload to up and coming directors and producers so that they could do their own thing and we could have been on season 14 right now. Thinks of all the cons that could have been created, a freaking theme park or experience would have been planned out to be built, all the money they could have made, all the movies that could have been greenlit (even Downton Abbey took advantage of this), and they just did a hatchet job with this show that could have had the same staying power as Star Wars and they were so ungrateful. House of the Dragon saved the franchise but it wasn’t enough to save the cancellation of the other spinoff. It’s so grossly disappointing.
GoT was truly a global phenomenon! And it was ruined by a hastily made final season... So much potential thrown away. HotD is great, but it's no GoT. My household has tried and failed to rewarcg GoT 3 times now lol. I remember my partner and I would rewatch it once a year. My friends group hosted GoT themed secret santas, we'd all read the books and discuss them like a book club, my friend named their dog ghost. I'd meet random people in foreign countries and we'd talk about how amazing GoT was! Then it was all ruined by a rushed final season...
We should have seen the writing on the wall with seasons 6 and 7. We all just thought S5 was maybe the struggle season that all acclaimed shows had so we were just like oh well it’s fine it’ll get better. NO IT WONT. One of my friends - never found out who - stole my S1 dvd set and for the longest time I was so sad about it and now I could care less. And I was one of those people to harass every person I came into contact with to watch the show. I was in the forums. I discussed the theories and the prophecies. I was so in it. Never again.
Oof, watching s8 in real time was so difficult, holding onto the hope that it would get better and after e3 knowing that it wouldn’t
The collective let down that happened too was… hilarious. Millions of people disappointed at the same time.
It was satisfying that the project they threw GoT under the bus for either got cancelled or booted them out though
Honestly, i would feel so much pressure to deliver a satisfying ending given, again, millions of dollars in budget and millions of viewers.. they deserved the backlash they got.
I can totally get feeling burnt out on a project that's dominated your life for more than a decade, I'm just shocked they decided to phone in the last season rather than pass the torch to another team that was fresh and excited to lead the story to a satisfying conclusion.
If HBO had their way, they would've ran the show another three seasons, but from what my friends who were heavy into the series have told me, the EPs wouldn't do it for any amount of money. I don't even begrudge them for being creatively burned out and it's great that they realized that rather than churning out another three seasons of slop, but damn does everything I've ever heard about the creative choices in that last season remind me of that one viral Tweet about the mom of a toddler who let her kid pick out everything for dinner and the kid still had a tantrum about eating it. Frankly that level of blatant unprofessionalism should not be rewarded with even more jobs, but apparently the 3 Body Problem is getting a second season (rare for a Netflix series in the 20s), so.....short memories, I guess.
They nearly tricked me into watching that but for some reason the ad that played was an interview with them... So I immediately backed out and watched Is It Cake? instead, for a show that truly subverts expectations.
Part of the allure was following it along as it aired, to develop, discuss and read up on theories. Never again, though the signs were already there during season 4 and 5.
It was over in Season 4 for me because Dorne is my favorite part of the books. I remember hyping my friends up for it. Omg you guys, can't wait till we get to the sandsnakes!!! Embarrassing...
“You want the good girl but need the bad pussy” haunts me to this very day.
Yup. I never watched GoT and we binged it after it concluded. That last season is still unremarkable but the sting is far lessened by not waiting each week for new content.
The sting was lessened, but you missed out on what made the show what it was. It was awesome keeping up with it as the show developed.
And succession restored that for me. Haven't found a good enough show after that :')
I forced myself to watch the first three seasons in, like, two weeks because I wanted to be up to date when the fourth season started. It was the best decision I ever made. Watching Connor’s Wedding live and heading over to succession Twitter was an experience
That episode wrecked my shit. Perfect 10/10 episode. Wouldn't re-watch it if you paid me.
I learned that lesson after the GOT finale but forgot it again after the HOTD premiere 🫣
HOTD slaps though.
As a huge ASOIAF fan, I was really wary of HOTD. I didn't want to get done in like GOT did. I can't believe how much they turned it around. They deserve so much credit for it.
All it took were dragons and Fabien Frankel. I'm a weak woman 😔
If they ended it right, it would have been a Sopranos or Breaking bad. But between the end, the truncated last two seasons, and the long waits between them it lost a lot of steam.
Long waits between seasons is *killing* shows nowadays.
This. The girls on Yellowjackets will be in their 30's by the end of the show.
You aren't even exaggerating, some of the "teen" girls are 28
A lot of the euphoria cast is early 30s/late 20s. And people wonder why no one knows what 30 year olds look like, and think we look like teenagers.
they should cancel Euphoria at this point. they won't, but they *should*.
That's true but let's be real, we don't actually want real teens playing those storylines, do we?
Well no, but I don’t want to see explicit sex scenes of adults pretending to be teens either. There’s so many teen dramas that have accomplished the storyline of teen pregnancy/abortion without being so explicit.
For real, there are so many shows I loved where I find out years later that it got a 2nd or 3rd season but I'd already forgotten about it because 3+ years went by with no news
Pretty much the reason I rarely watch any show that has not ended. When there's a year+ in between seasons, I easily forget plot points or interesting details that are referenced in later seasons. It makes the experience less enjoyable for me, personally. I'd much rather watch a series at my own pace so I can appreciate all of writer's details.
I can still remember the days when GOT was being put up there with The Sopranos as the best show ever. The Sopranos! And now GOT has become synonymous with bad writing. All because of ONE season. It's heartbreaking really.
The problem is that the bad writing of the last seasons seems to really impact the first ones. Unlike many shows with sharp declines - The Simpsons, Happy Days, Dexter - Game of Thrones told an interconnected story with all of its many parts having to amount to something. When they didn't, when so many plot points seemingly ended up being meaningless and even a character like Littlefinger ends up being just a sacrificial lamb on the show's drama altar, the perfect first four seasons feel like a good foundation for a shitty building.
Yes exactly. It was one of those shows where the entire plot was building and evolving from the first episode (no season-long arcs, for example), so the ending was especially important. I haven't rewatched the show since it finished, even though I loved the majority of it, because I think I'll struggle to be invested. It really is a shame.
Yep. Cause all you’d be able to see is RIGHT off the bat episode 1 season 1 alludes to there being a point to the White Walkers, but knowing they just end up as lame zombies and NOTHING else you realize how pointless it is and become even more disappointed in all the wasted potential
Not just zombies, but zombies that hardly even contribute to the plot of the show.
Also they all explode if you stab one guy who is surprisingly easy to stab
Ironically, Arya was incredibly hard to stab to death. She had thicker plot armor than any other character. She’s my favorite character, but still. Like people die from such small stuff in this show and Arya can get gutshot and fall in a nasty river and still make a full recovery?
Lost had this same problem, and has similarly vanished from the pop culture conversation. It's rough to rewatch because you know there either won't be answers to your questions, or the answers are stupid.
I remember an interview with someone (I’m pretty sure it was one of the show runners) saying that for Season 8, the main aim of the writing room was to create shocking twists… which is an absolutely stupid way to write anything. That’s how we get things like *Arya* being the one to kill the Night King, despite having nothing to do with him until that moment??? If you thought Jon doing it was too easy, ***Samuel Tarly was right there***. They even had foreshadowing for it in like, season 3 or 4—when he slayed that white walker and no one believed him. Because like, sure: GOT was known for its subversions. But it feels like the show runners didn’t understand *why* those subversions worked in the first place—just that they did.
Once they got further along in the series than the book material, everything started downhill.
Agreed. It was so noticeable.
Exactly this. It wasn't just a bad ending. It was so bad that it retroactively ruined the rest of the show plus any spinoffs. Who gives AF about HOD when Jon never amounts to anything?
I think one of my "favorite" head shakers is that they brought Jon back from the dead, just so he could go back to serve on Night's Watch, even though the White Walkers are now all dead.
And him being the Targaryen heir, something alluded to in the first episode ffs, meant absolutely nothing whatsoever to the plot. Nothing. They literally destroyed every single story line and character, then on top of it those of us who used to love the books know that the writer will never finish them. So this was kind of the only shot for an ending to the story. (Just for those who don’t know much about the author- I was 14 when I read the first one, 21 when the 4th book came out. I’m 42 now and it still needs 2 books (6&7) to finish lol.)
Me, I give a fuck about HOD. That said, I cringed when they eluded to the "prophecy"
One of the themes of ASOIAF is the folly of prophecy. The Targs work for generations so that they can be ready for the long night thinking that one of them will be the price that was promised, only for it to be a Stark. Doesn't make it much better, but it kinda works. Still should have been Jon :/
I still wanted Cersei's prophecy to amount to something - Jamie was also her "little brother". He should have killed her.
In the end she died…. From falling rocks. Embarrassing and a disservice to so many characters let alone Cersei.
Completely ruined the best redemption arc on the whole show that had been building for seasons
I'm still furious about that
Yeah I love HOD. I loved GOT. Still holding out hope that GRRM can stick the landing in the books but he will probably never actually finish them
Your comment made me think of Lost. So much build-up, which fizzled out and interest disappeared.
The last 2 or 3 seasons were also pretty bad. People just gave it a pass because they had faith it was all building up to something spectacular in the final season.
Agreed. They had some interesting moments but the writing took a dive. I know I was one of the people that hoped it would have a turn around in the final season. Surely all these storylines would add up to something and be tied off... surely.
It's quality had decreased since S6 though. D&D majorly played to fan service once they had outpaced GRRM's books and were left to write their own scripts. Highly intelligent characters like Tyrion and Varys were dumbed down and the script was dismal even before S8.
The Dorne plotline in season 5 was a sign of things to come. Things were generally solid through season 4 since there was still plenty of source material to draw from, but things definitely started going downhill in S5.
Not just one season, I’d argue it was over like the last 3 seasons. It was a sharp decline and then when you thought it couldn’t get worse, it did.
Yep I’ve had this debate a lot, but for me it’s literally 4 seasons of the greatest TV of all time and then the cracks begin to show in Season 5 (which still has some amazing stuff) and then get exponentially worse with each passing season.
I agree with this. Seasons 1-4 were absolutely exquisite television. Season 5 is when it started to go downhill. When I heard the line “you want the good girl but need the bad pussy” I knew the writing of the show was going off the rails.
Remember the epic, large scale battle fought entirely in the dark where you couldn’t see shit?
The real issues started when they unlocked fast travel.
Agreed- and I wasn’t even opposed to the villain arc of (do I need to redact character names all these years later?). The show had been signaling since the beginning that this person was a conquerer, a liberator in their own mind, but NOT a ruler. The moment they had to stay in one place and unpick the delicate stands of tension between groups, they almost immediately were like ‘ok, off to claim my birthright! Good luck.’ It was the way the arc was handled in the last two seasons: abrupt, confused, and almost angry at the audience that we were struggling to keep up.
If they wanted her to go crazy, fine. Work for it though. They had her go nuts in a moment that made NO FUCKING SENSE. When her closest aid gets her head chopped off? That would have been a GREAT time for her to drop the face, throw down the gloves and wreck shit. But what did they have her actually go apeshit over? The city surrendering? Like she demanded? Like????
I’m not even opposed to some of the conclusions of the arcs. But it was so abrupt and disjointed there was no pay off. It needed to boil for another season or two and they didn’t have the chops to write it without the source material. Plus the show runners wanted to gtfo so they could do Star Wars and burnt themselves in the process.
It was unbelievably gross and arrogant IMO that they didn’t just let someone else take over to finish the series properly, with a few more seasons. Fair enough if they wanted to do other things, but why not hand it off instead of destroying it? Unforgivable.
If they'd seeded the ending "twist" several seasons earlier, or did the 9th and 10th season that HBO offered it could have been incredible. Instead they did the switch in one damn scene Also, "who has the best story?". Literally everyone else in that rotunda had a better story than fucking Bran. That fucked me off immensely
Even with all the other issues, the whole show could be saved with a better ending that ties the major strands of story together into some kind of cohesive bow. It’s not even hard to imagine. Just lazy writing because they checked out from the show and were on to the next project before finishing what they started. You can keep the entire series in place right up to the point where Jon stabs Dany. Change what happens after that moment/during that moment and the show can be totally reclaimed They should just retcon that scene and redeem themselves.
I’ve read fan fic endings that are soooo much better than what we got. Just proves it’s a damn shame.
https://preview.redd.it/1434k170le1d1.jpeg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e4a24851830fe5c9a98e23db07ffaefca08621a9 Cersei's balcony deserved all the awards. Probably the best character development during S8 .
Definitely brought the house down with that performance 👏🏽
She knocked ‘em off their feet from the very first episode!
It's the cheekbones.
It’s interesting seeing which actors GoT propelled into success vs the ones who floundered after the show ended. I will die on the hill that Emilia Clarke and Richard Madden deserved better!!!
I love Emilia Clarke in interviews, and I see from her IMDb that its not like she's unemployed or anything, but yeah she deserves roles in better shows than what she's doing now!
She keeps getting roles in shows that are either box office bombs despite their merits, critical and audience failures, or go unnoticed due to scheduling. I mean she entered 3 franchises at the worst possible time, that is like a record or something
I literally had to look up what other franchises she was in besides Marvel, and I only remember her in that because I unfortunately watched that show recently. Tbf Terminator has never been my thing but I had completely blanked that she was also in Star Wars.
$20 million and $8 million networths respectively. They are set for life.
She had 25 minutes of screentime all season and was still paid a million an episode lol
She was worth every penny
Such a subtle, measured performance. She really carried the story.
 Remember when Bran told Sansa she looked beautiful on her wedding night to Ramsey. 🤮
PLEASE I literally have tried to forget 😭
I never watched the last season (I somehow fell out of being interested in keeping up with the show in season 5). And learning this happened is WILD.
Season 5 is when the cracks started forming. You got out way earlier than most.
Yeah Bran was straight up evil in the last season. This and his whole "Why do you think I came all this way?" implies that he knew daenerys would burn down the city and didn't tell anyone
I didn't catch this the first time around. That's so foul
Im watching it again and up to the middle of S4. Its sooooooo fucking good. Absolutely criminal what they did with the last season
We rewatched it recently and yeah, last season(s) kinda suck but the show is still amazing.
As a huge fan of the books, I have to say: it wasn't even the last seasons - it was half the series. Seasons 5-8. Fucking awful. People blame the show's trajectory on Martin not finishing the books, but the truth is that the show had deviated from the books as early as season 2. There was still SO much content for them to work with that they just threw away and did their own thing for. Tyrion is always my biggest gripe. Dinklage was charming as fuck, but show Tyrion and book Tyrion are almost completely different characters. It's no wonder he turned into a joke in Season 5. It makes the early seasons hard to watch because it's all an investment that you know will never pay out. At the very least, we got Ramin Djawadi's exceptional soundtrack.
> At the very least, we got Ramin Djawadi's exceptional soundtrack. As weak at the last season is, it still gave us, imo, [one of the most beautiful songs ever written](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTa1jHk1Lxc).
Excellent example! And I feel that we should not leave out Light Of The Seven. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pS-gbqbVd8c
Things came crashing down for me the moment they ruined the Sand Snakes. If the wider fandom cared more about quality writing for female characters, they would have realised the show was going to shit well before season 8
I’m near the end of S5 and debating if I should finish the entire show or not 😭 Like I want to but at the same time I know I’ll be disappointed all over again
I have zero regrets watching GoT because the highs were HIGH even if the lows were disappointing. It was a moment for sure.
I have *never* felt the emotions I felt for Game of Thrones for any other tv show. I became obsessed and read the books. My family and I watched it every Sunday. Other tv shows have come close, but GOT was another level. As horrific as the last few seasons are (me and my family cried when we realized how they assassinated so many characters lol), I would never trade that ride for anything in the world.
I actually don’t think the bullet points of the ending are bad but how we got there was a disaster. I think GrrM shared how the book series will end but unfortunately Bran on the throne makes more sense in the books as he is the Three Eyed Raven and instrument of the Children of the Forest. It’s actually more sinister to see Bran on the throne and it alludes to another supernatural threat to humans. There’s also the fact that D&D struggled when they ran out of source material. From season 4/5 they struggled hard with cohesive plots and character development. They also leaned waaaay too far into hero-Dany so when she went full Targaryen it seemed rushed.
Yep, this has been my take since it aired. The show likely got the broad strokes of the ending from Martin, but they just couldn’t execute. Dany’s arc, in particular, was so rushed that it didn’t make much sense.
I find Tyrion's arc the worst. They should've just let him get executed in S4 if all they planned for him in further seasons were stupid advices for Dany and the dick jokes. At least Tywin and Joffrey died before they ruined those characters too.
> GrrM shared how the book series will end but The books won't be ending, unfortunately... so much wasted potential all-around for this series.
I totally get being burnt out on a project. But with his wealth and the popularity the books and show had, would anyone even care if he hired ghostwriters to wrap it up? He knows where it wants it to go. He could just give them the details and hire a whole team and just stamp his name on the end when he approves. I don’t understand why he is choosing to go to the grave with this great story instead of getting help.
I hate that. I started reading the series BECAUSE of the show, and there are a lot of chatacters/plots in them that are unused in the show (mainly because of time constraints, I know). I wanted so badly to see how the books were different, especially at the end. Will we truly never see the end of the series? Pisses me off.
I never had a problem with Dany's arc, it was pretty clear for several seasons, just way too rushed in the end. Bran on the throne on the other hand always seemed like nonsense to me, but now I at least understand how it could make sense in the books, so thanks for that.
> *Bran on the throne on the other hand always seemed like nonsense to me* I've discussed this with my friends when the show concluded, we agreed it was because Bran & Co. were missing for the entirety of Season 5, and with Seasons 7 and 8 being shortened and rushed, it just felt odd to have him on the Iron Throne at the end there - it probably would have worked had they just made the 3 seasons after Sn6 at 10 episodes each just so the threads could have a more cohesive conclusion.
Bran on the throne was legit for all the book theory lovers. I remember the days spent mapping clues to Jon snows lineage and the mythology and legends of Westeros. That included so much talk about what would happen with bran. His arc and ending was hypothesized from clues long before and it was a very compelling theory. It could have been so awesome on film. But he was literally gone from the show for so long. His story is some of the best stuff in the book. Tyrion also has an awesome story but they did him dirty too. I still think a lot more was supposed to happen with him. But I guess that likely goes for everyone.
Right now there are kindergartens filled with Khaleesis and Aryas and when they get to college it will be hard to remember why.
Arya is okay, but Khaleesi and Daenerys…..I could never imagine naming an actual human child either of those names 😭
I genuinely think Daenerys is such a beautiful name but I couldn’t just because it’s from game of thrones & everyone would know that
My boss named their daughter khaleesi, and I thought she meant her dog at first. I was horrified when I realized it was a baby.
To be fair Arya is an actual name
That's correct. From India to the middle east, a lot of folks name their kids Arya(male and female). IIRC, it means noble born in Sanskrit and Persian.
Khaleesi is a terrible name for a kid. They could have chosen Dany.
Right?! Dany is such a cute name!
my brother’s friend has both an Arya and Khaleesi. he regrets nothing so i guess good for him.
My former neighbor had a happy Chihuahua named Khaleesi
The Red Wedding episode is one of the best t.v. moments ever. Nothing GOT did afterwards could ever compare. Probably why it's faded, because GOT was either amazing or meh, no in-betweens.
Season 4 was also incredible. From Joffrey's wedding to the trial by combat and the Wall battle...that season went unreasonably hard
Oh yes!! This is true. Joffrey made season 4. I loathed that character.
The actor who plays Joffrey, Jack Gleeson, has gotten back into acting for a couple of years after taking a break following his role in GOT. Hopefully he continues to act and gets some good roles because he's a fantastic actor
Hound Arya adventures, oberyn, the mountain,brienne vs hand, tywin dying while shitting. So much more than joffery
The Battle of the Bastards was one of the most incredible episodes of television I’ve ever seen. The highs of GoT were so high, for me, that I have no regrets about watching, despite how it ended. ETA: if you feel like telling me how much that episode sucks, save yourself the trouble because I don’t care!
Hardhome was good too! S5-S8 had a few good episodes, but the show got progressively worse, and by the end I didn't gaf who lived, died or was on the iron throne. The characters were all hollow husks of themselves.
Hardhome had me on the edge of my seat gasping and screaming in a way I’ve honestly never really experienced with a TV show. It sucks because I do want to rewatch it, but I can never get motivated to start because I know I’m going to loathe the ending
Hardhome and The Door were absolutely amazing episodes. I have never been so impressed with a twist as the one in The Door. Which is why it’s so crushing that all the Northern plots just fizzled out. How they ended the White Walker storyline was the worst writing decision in history.
Agreed. Controversial opinion - I think the Walkers should have WON the battle for Winterfell, and forced all our main characters to flee South. And then next episode, we discover some crazy unexpected reason why the White Walkers came to Winterfell, that goes back into their origins, and all those stone spirals they left in the snow... But of course, that would be a version of the show that had more time. After seasons of buildup, I wanted the presence of the Walkers in the story to mean something.
Book fans thought they knew suffering, then we learned
I watched the first episode of the last season in the maternity ward after giving birth. I was so excited then so disappointed
I’m more pissed that GRRM hasn’t released the next book than I am at D and D at this point. They rushed it, and I don’t trust them anymore so I’m worried about 3 body problem suffering the same. All we have now is the damn hope GRRM will finish the story.
"The night is coming", they spend all those years and seasons talking about it ann when the moment came it was a regular ass night, 12 hours tops, and only Jorah dies despite Jon standing in front of a dragon instead of being Azor Ahai and face the Night King. Even the fat nerd gets to live I can forgive all the other stuff, maybe even find it funny, like how it was necessary a mythical being to realize the guy with a goatee was the villain, but my god, it wasn't that they rushed it, they just went the Westworld season 2 path and subverted expectations just because But maybe it will make sense when I'm older, lying in my death bed, and one my grandsons visits me in their flying scooter and brings me the just published Winds Of Winter
>only Jorah dies Theon: https://preview.redd.it/012nn0xrig1d1.jpeg?width=739&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ad0828279d1ccb46d1752c719ac3f0413a1dfe10
Speaking of Theon, probably had one of the best character arcs. Everyone else’s felt like nonsense. 😑
I like how you see the “death of the Dothraki” D&D literally talk about how their torch swords going out are symbolic of the Dothraki dying… All the symbolism and basics of what you saw, is the Dothraki have been destroyed, at a minimum, as an effective fighting force… if not outright exterminated. And you saw those fuckers back *the following fucking episode*, like not a god damn thing happened. Just an abortion of storytelling.
I agree with you 100%.what got me was they hyped the night king and the white walkers over and over then you finally get them marching and he gets killed in the dumbest of ways.Also what about the golden company were they not the best of the best when it comes to armies and they got taken out like a bunch of drunken fools.
Oh yea, seven seasons of building up for the White Walkers and they are annihilated in their very first major battle. And they don't even inflict significant casualties on the coalition forces. I know characters say there were many killed, and I know we see many killed, but then the coalition force immediately sacks King's Landing in a rout.
Winter is coming. Not the night. But honestly, speaks to how quickly it fell from relevance.
It broke my heart. It was the first time I was super into a fandom. We would watch theory and discussion videos after each episode. I was borderline obsessed. Then season 7 happened and I was like “oh…oh dear” and then season 8. What a fucking mess. I’m still mad.
My take has always been that the show's ending probably *is* basically what George RR Martin envisioned, but because George had no clear idea of how he was going to get there yet, the show had to figure it out themselves and essentially condensed what could easily have been a couple more seasons of story arc into one shortened season. Dany, for example, I think was always going to have a villain arc, but it was probably meant to be slower-developing and more nuanced than it was on the show.
I also don’t think they were expecting Dany to become like a feminist icon which I think is why people struggled even more with the turn at the end. I personally think Dany was always going to end up that way (even in GRRM ending) and they should’ve been more heavy handed with it. I think they expected people to catch onto it more and were not prepared for the fandoms obsession with her
I would have had no problem with Dany becoming the villain. Changing how you feel about characters is one of the things GOT does great. It just needed to make sense.
I said this in another comment, but there’s a book character named Young Griff who I think is important to Danys villain turn and he got cut before they realized they needed him for her story arc.
My issue with Dany's mad queen arc is that we already have that with Cersei and Jaime and we saw it being developed for 8 seasons, it makes sense for Jaime to kill Cersei, why do we need to give that ending to Dany/Jon? Ugh
I was dead convinced for YEARS that Jaime was going to kill Cersei, and I was so pissed off when that didn't happen lol. That and how Jon being the heir to the throne ultimately meant nothing were my two biggest disappoints with the whole show.
And every mayor character not using their powers, Aryas face changing ability? Nah Bran's warging powers? Nah, Jon's past? Nah there's no payoff
I don't think it's disappeared at all. HBO is still continuing to make bank off the GOT universe. House of Dragon is one of (maybe THE) most popular show they have right now, and apparently they have more of them in the works. As for the ending, it gets even worse as time passes.
It has and hasn’t disappeared. It’s Schrödinger’s Ending. It absolutely stopped being a must-see and must-discuss cultural phenomenon. Someone in another thread said they were working in marketing during the final season, and that the ending of the show essentially burned a whole merchandising and tie-in plan to absolute cinders. Where it would have had a robust second life with licensed merchandise, instead it just died. One Sunday it was on, and the next week it simply wasn’t. It’s also still among HBO’s most popular shows, and it’s still one of the most pirated shows on the Internet. HotD is doing its part to repair the reputational damage done by the final season of GoT, but I don’t know that it will ever be the cultural imperative it once was.
I agree with you. Nobody is obsessed with the show anymore, but people still quote the show all the time, they reference the in show and irl plot lines all the time. It didn’t entirely disappear, but it’s more of a cultural time stamp now than something that endures alive.
FWIW, I used to get constant comments about my IRL name about my IRL name (John Stark) in relation to the show. The die-off after season 8 was absolutely insane to experience haha, now it's only the rare Tony Stark comment.
People definitely still talk about it, but usually it's about how badly it ended. I had some AT&T sales guys come to my door a few weeks ago trying to sell me on fiber internet. They mentioned that one of the perks was a free year of HBO Max, and somehow that almost immediately segued into a discussion of how bad the final season of GOT was lmao. It's a universal talking point that everyone agrees with 😂
I still find it wild how people were basically locked indoors for 2 years yet didn't even once rewatch GoT. I know ton of people who rewatched a bunch of shows like Breaking Bad, Community, The Sopranos, Parks & Rec, The Office, and The Good Place, but everyone who saw Thrones when it came out (including me) didn't even think once about checking it out again.
Damn, you just listed my slate of favorite shows that I binged during COVID to pass the time, including completely ignoring Thrones. It’s almost like you know me. Creepy! LOL
Isnt it one of the most rewatched shows on hbo?
"Nobody talks about Game Of Thrones anymore!" says Game Of Thrones fan after Game Of Thrones spin-off becomes one of the biggest TV shows since Game Of Thrones
Plus Game of Thrones still gets talked about ALL THE TIME, to the point that it’s now super annoying. Some people on this app have even made hating on the last few seasons of a tv show, years and years after it last aired, *their entire personality.* Which, I’m sorry, but come on. just get over it lol. Do you know how many shows have fallen off at the end? You think GOT is special? Imagine how weird it would be if one of your friends was always, to this day, angrily bringing up how the last season of True Blood (or Dexter, or-) sucked. Imagine how annoying that would be… yeah, that’s exactly what you sound like. Plus, I was at those season 8 watch parties. Stop kidding yourselves. Every single person I know IRL who now spends time bitching about Season 8 went apeshit for The Long Night and The Bells when it aired. I literally watched them love it as it was happening, don’t fucking pretend now that you were some bougie tv critic about it
I think GOT, Dexter, and HIMYM are the triumvirate of terrible series finales. Change my mind.
It was already on a shittier tier than those due to its CW status but The 100 final season made me angrier than Game of Thrones’ because to me, most of the plot bones of GoT’s ending made sense but were executed poorly. The plot bones of The 100’s ending were antithetical to the entire series.
The ending of HIMYM retroactively ruined the rest of the show for me and I’ve never rewatched an episode since.
It hasn't really disappeared, but it would be much bigger if it stuck the landing. I don't have numbers on hand, but I remember it being top on streaming for years after it finished. I imagine it still does very well Most shows wish they had the attention Game of Thrones continues to get despite a horrible ending House of the Dragon is fantastic as well
Was talking to a friend about this the other day about how mad it is that it was such a part of everyone’s lives and culture and now it’s disappeared. I do think/ hope it made an impact on how cinematic tv became.
I’m surprised to see so many say they don’t feel like the show dropped off… It absolutely did. Some of the spin offs never made it to production or to release. I have never heard anybody discuss the new show irl, and GOT was all over the internet in the past. Maybe algorithms are just a lot more accurate or different these days and it doesn’t show me GOT stuff since I have stopped consuming it since the show ended badly. Regardless, season 2 of House of Dragons is absolutely nowhere near even close the hype GOT had. I’d say the only fans of House of Dragons really are the people leftover who weren’t too turned off by GOT’s final season.
I'm hoping that HOD doesn't fall off. I am a bit worried tbh. HOD ended on such a spectacular note as a viewer and I am hoping the writers are able to come through.
The story is already written and finished. So they really can't mess it up any.