Thousands of Game of Thrones fans across the world have demanded a remake of the eighth season of Game of Thrones saying that the script didn’t match their expectations. The final episode of the show, which is in its ninth year, airs Monday.
ThePrint asks: Did the last season of Game of Thrones let down its legions of fans?
Shock-and-awe element of Game of Thrones has been replaced with shameless pandering
Kritika Banerjee
Senior Assistant Editor, ThePrint
HBO’s Game of Thrones could have been one of the best shows of all-time, but not anymore. The highly-anticipated last season failed to deliver on every front, from script to direction.
Right from the start, the show kept telling us ‘Winter is coming’ and we should be prepared for an epic battle between the invincible Army of the Dead and the living. But all we got were some poorly-choreographed fight sequences shot in equally poor light. And before we could understand anything, the Night King was dead, just like that. It might not be an exaggeration to say that Ajay Devgn movies have seen much better action sequences.
All the episodes in this season of Game of Thrones (GoT) seemed too long and boring. That the makers, D. B. Weiss and David Benioff, have done a rush job is evident. They arbitrarily watered down two of the most complex characters in the show. The fiery, defiant Cersei Lannister was reduced to a sobbing wreck. Daenerys Targaryen suffered an even worse fate, with the makers conveniently placing her in the role of the ‘Mad Queen’.
Season 8 of GoT, unmoored from George R.R. Martin’s books, has lost its unpredictability, which made the show a worldwide phenomenon. The shock-and-awe element, which we saw in the beheading of Ned Stark or at the Red Wedding, has been replaced with shameless pandering to perceived popular sentiment.
Game of Thrones season 8 cleverly gave fans the closure they needed
Ekta Handa
Web editor, ThePrint
Game of Thrones started on a grand note with each season leading to a finale that everyone was waiting for. Fans had to wait for more than a year for the release of season eight.
Everyone was expecting the Battle of Winterfell to be the final battle – one between the living and dead. So, fans are obviously disappointed.
But the show, never in any way, hinted that the battle between the Night King and the armies of the seven kingdoms will be the end. Cersei was never going to join that war, she was way too involved in keeping the throne and ensuring the well-being of her child.
People are also disappointed by the way Daenerys Targaryen’s character has taken shape. We’ve always known what she did with people who refused to bend the knee, the only thing is those characters didn’t matter to us as much and so we just ignored her autocratic tendencies. And when she realises that her closest confidantes might be turning against her, she does what she’s known to do always. Burn them.
In a way, I feel that this season is a very clever way of giving the fans the closure they needed. There’s not one but three endings – the end of the Night King and the army of the dead, the end of Cersei’s reign and Cersei (hopefully), and the end of Daenerys’ desire for the throne (which most likely will die with her).
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After a marvellous run, the last two seasons of Game of Thrones have been anti-climactic and almost plain
Manasa Mohan
Senior assistant editor, ThePrint
Spoiler alert: That moment when dragon queen Danaerys burns down King’s Landing, even after the soldiers surrender, is perhaps the best comparison to how fans feel with one episode left to the end of the Game of Thrones saga.
After a marvellous run, the last two seasons have been anti-climactic and almost plain.
Every season of Game of Thrones has always outdone the last. From Ned Stark’s death at the end of Season 1 to the Night King breaking through the Wall at the end of Season 7, we have been left with the promise that you can never tell what happens next.
So when Season 8, the closing chapter to the series, spent two episodes just being generally nostalgic, for fans it was worse than being burnt by wildfire.
To be fair, this season has been the part of the story most untethered to George R.R. Martin’s epic.
Weiss and Benioff had to bring in nuances to the storyline in this season — a skill Martin is a master of. Perhaps the duo didn’t have the patience to wait for Martin to finish his final book. Or perhaps, it was the toll of making a highly popular show. But the almost clumsy way in which Seasons 7 and 8 have hurried through to reach the finish line without the usual politicking and frenemy drama has left many fans weary of the finale.
Will Weiss and Benioff manage to bring all the loose ends together in the last episode? It seems unlikely.
Game of Thrones has more than lived up to the hype this season
Neera Majumdar
Journalist, ThePrint
Each Game of Thrones episode in Season 8 has been like a full feature-length movie. Gruelling work goes into every episode, making it the magnanimous show it is.
In my (unpopular) opinion, Game of Thrones has lived up to its fame and notoriety in this season as well. My only grouch being about the pace of the show – season eight just doesn’t have the slow suspense created in the other seven. It’s like a poorly written answer in an exam – the last few points make sense but have no elaboration or forethought.
That being said, the script manages to tie together all the threads. Each (important) character gets a complete character arc. Daenerys Targaryen’s volte-face was not surprising – she always showed tendencies of an autocrat. The Night King’s defeat was not surprising – he was always a momentary enemy, never the end goal. Jaime Lannister going back to his sister was not surprising – he always put family before strategy. If GoT has taught us anything it is that old habits die hard.
If anything, season one – with its gratuitous sex scenes and nudity – should be remade. No one was thinking about scripts and character development then.
Also read: Want to watch Game of Thrones live? Just tune into the Indian election
Must confess to having spent time watching the other, real life version playing out on our TV screens.