Thoughts on The End of Game of Thrones

Since the show ended, I've been thinking and re-thinking about the series on the whole, the final season, and the final episode.

The final season has left the internet in an uproar. Most people seemed to have enjoyed it, however those that did not were very vocal about it.

Our ‘current’ Ssn 7 and 8 were good - problem was, they were too ‘crammed.’ HBO offered more episodes / seasons, D&D should have taken and followed that plan. Or, at the very least, make Ssn 7 and 8 10 episodes each, each at least 70 min.

Here’s how it should have been structured:

Season 7: 10 episodes, about the Night King
Season 8: 10 episodes, about ‘The Last War’ against Cersei
Season 9 (final season): 10 episodes (each being 70 min at least) about the rebellion against the Queen of the Ashes.

The final two episodes alone had enough potential for two seasons.

Of course, that would probably be another three years; however I'm speaking strictly of formatting of the story that was told, and how to flesh it out properly - not in regards to actually producing a TV series - an area of which I have no experience in.

As much as I loved Game of Thrones through the years, my biggest issue is that after Season 1, the story changed too much from the books. I get that books and TV/film are different mediums etc, but I noticed this in general: the Harry Potter films started off staying pretty close to the books. Heck, even The Lord of the Rings changed considerably, even with the extended editions of The Two Towers and The Return of the King.

This is a general statement: for some reason, fantasy adaptations start out closely and faithful to the source material, and then for some reason, the story changes in the adaptation. I wish it would be kept with the same quality, (in terms of being an adaption) as it is when it first begins.

I frequently state if one did not like Season 7, they probably would not enjoy Season 8. I'm not talking about plot or story, but rather the pacing. People often say that towards the end (Season 7 and 8) it's "rushed." I don't quite feel that's the case....or perhaps I am misunderstanding. I didn't find it 'rushed' but rather 'crammed.'

Ideally, I would have loved to have gotten 9 full, 10-episode seasons that followed the books, and had similar pacing as the very first season did. Consistently, throughout the years, I've always enjoyed Game of Thrones.

Was every episode perfect? No. Was every season perfect? No. But I've always enjoyed the ride, start to finish.

Before I go further, I wish to add that I enjoyed Lost (including the final season and final episode), though I did not enjoy the finales for Battlestar or Dexter.

I re-watched the entire series leading up to Season 8, then it was 'one episode per week, every week.' What I need to do, is re-watch Season 8 (or possibly the entire show, start to finish.) I've found that with Game of Thrones, as fun as it is speculating what will happen between episodes, 'wait times' negatively affects the show. I think that's where most of the disappointment sets in.

I give Game of Thrones on the whole a very solid 8.5 / 10 for the entire series.

I give Season 8 a 7.5 /10.

I give the final episode a 7 / 10. It did what it needed to do, it made sense (though in my scenario mentioned earlier) it could have been the last two, maybe even three, episodes of Season 9) and, for me, it didn't 'ruin' the series.

Even though Game of Thrones is finished, I still look forward to reading The Winds of Winter, A Dream of Spring, more Dunk and Egg, and other Seven Kingdoms-related content by Martin. If the Thrones prequel / spin-off series look good, I may check those out as well: though I'm not 'blindly' interested in them.