It’s not exactly a hot take to say Game Of Thrones fans aren’t happy with how the last season went. I’m a little more defensive of the final few episodes than most people, and even I would say Season 8 has some major issues. Exactly who is responsible for the downfall, however, is an argument fans are still having. Recently, someone on social media pointed the finger at George RR Martin and accused him of being the real culprit, and let’s just say the diehards did not respond positively.
It all started a few days ago when a user made a thread in Reddit’s ever popular Unpopular Opinion sub. They argued that the acclaimed author ruined the show because he never finished his novels. The user claimed that showrunners David Benioff and DB Weiss “signed up” to direct and write a TV show based off source material, and because the conclusion to the source material never came, the executive producers had to create their own ending to someone else’s work, which is “100x harder.”
The argument sounds very reasonable on paper. Fans have been complaining for years about the slow progress of Martin’s novels, and the acclaimed HBO show was finished before the books, which still haven’t come. Hundreds of comments and thousands of engagements, however, have made it clear many, many diehards disagree.
There are several reasons why so many are unwilling to blame Martin, but the most common definitely has to do with the source material itself. Numerous GOT fans in the thread pointed out how little of the books Benioff and Weiss actually adapted. The first two seasons of the show are fairly faithful adaptations of Martin’s books, but they start diverging very regularly late in the show, especially in Season 5 and beyond. Here’s a sample comment that has almost 1,000 likes…
This opinion falls apart pretty quickly when you read A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons. It’s clear that D&D didn’t adapt any of it at all for season 5 and 6. They had the source material already and they decided to do their own thing anyway. what makes you think if we had the other books anything would change.
There’s also the issue of the pacing and the episode count. The thing that bothered me most as an obsessive Game Of Thrones fan was how fast everything moved, especially during the 7th and 8th seasons. It was like the showrunners were in a rush to get things over with, which, of course, they were because they were planning to go make Star Wars movies.
To me, I didn’t really have a problem with the basics of what happened during the ending (although I still hate the Bran stuff). It was more that it was hard to get on board with the trajectory because it all happened so quickly. The early seasons are such a slow build. You really spend time with the characters and can see why they make the decisions they do. We still get a little foreshadowing and character development in the later seasons, but what we do get is wedged between so many “and this happened” moments. Here’s another comment from a user…
It was their decision to wrap it up so quickly. If they'd taken more time to flesh out the story and character arcs then it would have been better received, even if the story itself was unchanged.
It’s worth noting that even though an overwhelming majority of users were very defensive of Martin and said he was not to blame, there were a very tangible percentage who were happy to throw at least a little shade at Martin. Overwhelmingly, people blamed Benioff & Weiss for the overall issues but admitted Martin has taken forever to finish his novels. Some claimed he’s taking so long because it’s impossible to weave together all the complicated storylines. Others claimed he’s never going to finish the books because the stories are supposed to be ongoing and never have a real conclusion like real life.
Regardless of who is to blame for what happened during Season 8, I prefer to look at the show positively. The characters, worldbuilding and intrigue of the first six seasons are unlike anything I’ve ever seen on television, and I’m really enjoying the first spinoff House Of The Dragon, as well (even if it has the same episode count problems). That’s a credit to George RR Martin and everyone else involved, especially showrunners Benioff and Weiss.
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