It would be an understatement to say that millions of Game Of Thrones fans had a problem with its final season. It was the first time in the ten-year history of the television show that the audience had more negative reviews to post than positive. Facebook, Twitter, and other social media channels were bombarded with snarky comments, bashing the final season.
But what actually made the last Game Of Thrones season so bad? Though it is impossible to impress 150 million audiences at once, the real reason the final season of GOT suffered was that there was not enough source material from George RR Martin, the actual writer of Game Of Thrones. A difference in approach towards writing the finale between the GOT showrunners, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss and George RR Martin, was also one of the primary reasons the show received sub-par ratings.
Let us dive into a few more reasons to understand what went wrong in Game Of Thrones, season 8.
The Show Needed More Seasons
Among so many issues with the finale, one of the most prominent was that the show needed more seasons or a few more episodes to conclude. The season was nothing more than just a mad rush to the bottom line. The show’s pace took away all the chemistry that made Game of Thrones successful and replaced it with superficial scenes, only covering the narrative grounds. The writer, George RR Martin himself admitted that he did not expect the show to end this way, and it definitely needed more seasons.
The TV Series Overtook The Book’s Story
Almost everyone noticed that the characterization and storytelling of Weiss and Benioff begin where that of Martin’s ends. In early seasons, the shocking narrative twists have been replaced by awkward attempts to subvert expectations—for example, The moment where Arya kills the Knight King. The characters’ deaths began to lack emotional impact, and the scenes became too straightforward, without admiring the scenery and nuances of each character.
The Characters Went Out Of Character
One massive drawback of the final season was that people’s favorite characters stopped acting as their favorite characters. The most prominent example of this was Emilia Clarke’s character as Daenerys Targaryen when her take to burning people alive came out of nowhere. Not only Clarke’s, but Jon Snow’s character was pretty out of order. Jon Snow had many standout moments throughout the show but failed miserably in the finale. Cersei’s and Jamie’s death was nowhere close to what they deserved and did not bend to the same arc on which their respective characters were built.
To know more about why most of the audience took GOT as an epic fail, take a look at this video!
A Bittersweet Ending
The whole plot on which Game Of Thrones was revolving around from all previous seven seasons did not pay off. Viewers invest their emotions and time in long series like GOT. If this investment is not paid off by giving a satisfactory ending, then all of this feels like a sheer waste of time.
Hence, by this yardstick, the final season of Game Of Thrones was a terrible failure, as so many essential side stories and points fell off their way.
