Game of Thrones had two years and around $90 million to spend to make the biggest impression for their last season. But so far, the only impression they’re getting is disappointment and confusion.
Contrary to several fans’ complaints, some scenes so far have been foreshadowed in earlier seasons. But thanks to horrible and rushed writing, they all felt forced and illogical. It’s come to a point that viewers are feeling hopeless about the upcoming sixth episode—which is the final GOT episode ever. That’s not something you want from a TV fanbase you’ve built in almost 10 years.
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If you’re saying, “I don’t get why you’re hating so much,” here are some of the most valid (and funniest) reasons why people have been criticizing GOT.
The shorter season
Last year, sound designer Paula Fairfield told Con of Thrones attendees that season 8 will only have six episodes which are 80 minutes long, even more. The extended runtimes made sense at the time considering the shorter Game of Thrones season. Sadly, this wasn’t applied to all the episodes—the first two were still almost 60 minutes long, while the subsequent episodes are 78 to 80 minutes.
Fans are also realizing how rushed this season really is because of the nonsensical deaths and premature character arcs. It’s also equally frustrating to find out that HBO was willing to give more money to GOT showrunners D.B. Weiss and David Benioff. However, they refused because they wanted the last two seasons to only have 13 episodes in total.
D&D could’ve saved the final season with the four extra episodes. Let that sink in.
Poor editing
This complaint started in episode 3, “The Long Night,” which was unreasonably dark compared to their other nighttime episodes. TechCrunch explained it’s possible that the quality of HBO’s master footage was ruined when it was sent over to the Internet for streaming. Cinematographer Fabian Wagner also blamed the poor lighting on compression. He said that it should’ve been watched in a dark room and that it’s not meant to streamed on a phone.
Remember that HBO Go, the streaming platform that shows Game of Thrones and other HBO titles, is available on Google Play. It has an app and you’re saying it’s not meant to be watched on the phone in the first place?
This wasn’t just an online streaming problem. The poor lighting was evident on cable TV—The Verge even listed down tips on recalibrating your television screens so you can see clearly. And again, the reason behind it is compression.
What took the cake for fans were the simple faux pas that editors missed. Namely, the Starbucks cup in episode 4 and Jaime Lannister’s amputated hand allegedly growing back in episode 5. The latter eventually turned out to be fake, but HBO admitted that it was “a still image that was accidentally released.”
Daenerys’ story arc
Fans are disappointed that the Mother of Dragons slowly turned out to be a Mad Queen like her deranged father, Aerys II. But, if you were paying attention to previous seasons, this is exactly where Dany’s arc was headed. Her way of doing things is to resort to violence instead of negotiating properly. Author George R.R. Martin implied this in the final moments of A Dance of Dragons, which was the last book he released in the franchise. He also confirmed this by praising Adam Feldman’s essays where he suggests that the madness would take over her.
Additionally, you can take into account the fact that Dany is born out of incest—just like several of the Targaryens before, including her grandparents. Her deteriorating mental health may be a mix of her incestuous bloodline, seeing her closest advisers killed in the past two episodes, and the other horrible things she experienced in the last seven seasons.
The problem lies in the storyline that misled viewers into believing Dany was righteous all this time. As Bustle noted, “[In] the end Benioff and Weiss were comfortable with painting Dany as a kind and rightful savior as long as her victims were mostly brown people, and that what needed reforming was a foreign culture that we were told was inherently savage and misogynistic. It’s only when Dany turned her dragons on King’s Landing, populated by a lot of white people, that they suddenly acknowledged the subtext that should have been clear to all viewers all along.”
READ MORE: GOT obviously needs more female writers
That being said, I believe there could’ve been a better way to portray Dany’s transition to Mad Queen status. Again, because S8 only has six episodes, Dany’s traumatic experiences piled up in the span of just two episodes. Then, in the penultimate episode, she burns the city of King’s Landing down with no proper build-up or provocation whatsoever. Weiss even admitted to it being a spontaneous decision by Dany, which makes no sense at all.
“Kind of forgot”
Benioff was the butt of jokes and memes after saying Dany “kind of forgot about the Iron Fleet” in episode 4. This reckless decision to sail to King’s Landing caused the death of her dragon, Rhaegal, and her interpreter, Missandei. But the previous scene was literally Varys telling her why she shouldn’t go.
This also brought up several inconsistencies in S8 where, as fans said, D&D “kind of forgot” about previous seasons and what certain places look like. (Example: Making King’s Landing a desert even though it was a coastal town in previous seasons.)
It’s like the showrunners aren’t even trying anymore. Is it because they want to work on the next Star Wars trilogy so bad?
How Cersei died fo
I, and several fans, believe Cersei Lannister should’ve been killed by her twin brother and lover, Jaime Lannister. Not buried under the Red Keep and make it some romantic gesture between the two. The TV writers didn’t even acknowledge the prophecy of the valonqar (little brother) who would strangle Cersei to death. Ugh.
But hey, at least Lena Headey reportedly got paid $48,000 a minute in S8. All she did the entire time Cersei was alive was look out the window, sit on the Iron Throne, b*tch at slimy Euron Greyjoy, and drink wine. Goals.
READ MORE: Cersei’s death and the spiral symbol: New GOT theories worth a read
Even the cast doesn’t seem to believe S8 is good
We’re leaving you with this three-minute video of the cast, and GRRM, throwing shade while talking about the final season:
At this point, the only saving grace is Arya Stark killing Dany in the end. She has yet to kill someone with green eyes—and yes, people, Dany’s eyes are green. If D&D doesn’t give us this ending, they’re gonna have a virtual mob.
Screengrabs from Game of Thrones via Sky Cable
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