It's not about "pleasing everyone". Yes, there are some touching moments and I'm not stating that I'm detesting every second of this season. It's just disappointing how far the quality of the writing of show has dropped off. You have to admit that all the characters have turned into simple "good vs evil" characters now. Their is no complexity. There is little intrigue. It's a far more simple show than the first 5 seasons were. It's still fun but it's fun in a very conventional way that many other average tv shows reach just without the budget.
Regardless what made the show so compelling was the moral ambiguity of the characters and that feels a bit lost now. Cersei is evil and everyone else seems good. It's just like everything else out there - entertainment. What made GOT so fascinating is how you felt how real everyone is - that you couldn't really say who was good or evil except maybe Joffrey as evil and Lady Brienne as honorable and good. Everyone else was conflicted.
It's that what happens when there are goals? Who's to say that the characters goals now change since the white walker threat is gone? You do know this is the half way point, the goal of defending the 7 kingdoms from death has been achieved and now there will be a new goal for each one of the characters.
I'm willing to grade the producers as incomplete for the deteriorating writing. GRR Martin apparently isn't any better at completing his story or else he would have by now. It's easy to come up with a concept. It's hard to conclude it well. Though, I will say that the show has become formulaic after passing the books.
Look, you don't need to watch 8 hours of TV for something formulaic. I was excited to see if the night king would even show up. Or maybe he flew to kings landing and and raised the dead to sack the city and create two fronts. Or there was some deeper connection between Bran and the Night King. No. The Night King is evil and if you kill the King the whole army dies - we've seen that story a million times. I don't care about the characters really anymore or who wins the iron throne. The show made it out to be secondary as the Night King was the only thing that mattered - and now...it's not? Just rings hollow. At this point, I will watch the rest but I am disappointed with the last few seasons and my expectations have sunk. Probably what's going to happen is Jon will be king and Dani will somehow end up dead, or maybe they will marry or maybe not - who cares? She has no army anymore. Or the Golden Company won't be loyal to Cersei because she's already paid off their debts.. They will convince the Iron bank that democracy is more profitable than slavery and the Iron bank will switch allegiance. Cersei will end up alone and cry. Tyrion will become the first president. Jaime will end up killed. Sam will be the head of the citadel. blah blah blah
That is in part due to Martin not finishing the books. They have no real solid references going forward and their character development is not as complex as what Martin started them off with.
Shows with ensemble casts are hard to wind down, especially with the amount of new threads that blew up midseries. If you want any resolution, you better expect more simplicity and sudden deaths. Not saying I love or approve of the current writing, but if it were easy GRRM wouldn't need delays and longer releases after every book (a medium that's easier to resolve complicated threads with the slower pacing). Late night parties with hookers and blow get boring after a few years... Its really hard to do everyone right, especially, a winner takes all format, rather than resolving a good v evil conflict and letting the winners sail to off to their destined retirement home. The writers seem to choose the latter trope, which is going to make "the intellectuals" complain the loudest.
I called it around season 3 or 4 The "War of the Five Kings" Became the "War of the Five Queens" The most influential and consequential character are all women The only real exceptions are Jon Snow and maybe Tyrion Heck they went above and beyond to give lil lady Mormont a noble death The Primaries are: Arya, Sansa, Dany, Cersei Even the Sand Snake had more time and energy than anyone else from that region Rocket River
Theon saved Sansa. . . so she forgave him because he helped her get out of the hell she was in Bran can look into the hearts and minds of people. . .. I dunno if anyone else really forgave him or gave a rat's ass about him Except maybe his sister who looked at him as a silly fool Rocket River
SOmeone pointed out .. . in the books. . . THERE IS NO NIGHT KING https://www.bustle.com/p/is-the-nig...-books-the-show-created-its-own-villain-78317 Rocket River
I heard we may have some white walker chapters coming in the pipeline as well. They could be more nuanced than on the show. Which would be a big FU to the GOT writers and would keep Martin on his own throne of wonderous depth.
You're assuming Martin gives a damn and will live long enough to push out a final book. Hell, we're still waiting for Book 6. The dude is not young and doesn't look healthy. The show might be the best we ever get.
I quit watching this after three seasons; it was just gratuitously violent. But who was the recipient of that violence? Men and boys: young boy gets crippled; dude gets his hand chopped off; some other dude gets castrated (while the offender eats a sausage ) .... And the women? Yes, there were some "ladies of the evening," but they were all willingly plying their trade. Not even close. But even then, a few years ago, NPR had some report about GoT being misogynistic. Only in 21st century clownworld America..............
