So, Game of Thrones is finally over, and I have the urge to write down my feelings about this show. Why? Because in some form this show was different than others. It touched our emotions and feelings and it had some brilliantly designed character developments. It made us feel for so many minor characters because the show gave everybody enough stage time to bond with them. Side characters like Brienne of Tarth, the Hound, Varys, Thormund, Hodor, we cared for them because their stories were narrated very heartwarming.
Another thing that was different than in many other shows was the development between good and evil. Most characters were not evil because they were born to be the evil monster that just kills people because it likes to do it. They were normal people with a life and a story to tell. And that is exactly what the show did.
Jaime Lannister starts as a very hated person into the show and transforms over 8 seasons to a complex character who is trying to do the right thing. Daenerys starts as the innocent, oppressed teenager. The viewer bonded with her and accepted her as a figure you could suffer with. The savior of the world who will challenge the lords and masters to free the people and give them hope again. The transformation into the Mad Queen from Season 1 to Season 8 is a very interesting story idea that in the end was just transformed way to quickly to be pleasing to the viewer.
And here we jump straight into my main problem with the TV show. Everybody who read the books until book 5 knows they are brilliant. As long as the show was able to use this content for the foundations of the storytelling the show was brilliant as well. But the moment the show had to support itself just with some cliff notes of J.R.R Martin the whole storytelling got diluted. A journey that took a whole season in the beginning was suddenly possible within one episode. Even without dragons. Very interesting and deep characters got very flat out of nowhere. Tyrion, one of the best characters in the beginning of the show, got super flat in the end. Cersei Lannister, the brilliant manipulator and puppet master, did not have a single dialogue line in the final season that mattered.
We have been watching the show for 8 years now. We have done this, because it hooked us, and it was a very good show. It constantly provided us with different villains, different heroes, shocking moments and nicely designed story twists.
Everybody remembers the shocking Red Wedding or the surprising death of Ned Stark.
Everybody was aligned in a deep and absolute hate against Joffrey. What a relief it was when he finally died.
Do I need to mention the episode where we learn about the origin of Hodor? It was heartbreaking and still one of the best episodes that left the biggest impact into the viewers perception of the show.
The story twist of Jon Snow being actually Aemon Targaryen and the rightful heir to the throne.
My personal favorite: The Battle of the Bastards. An incredible epic battle scene that I have never experienced in this way before. A cinematic masterpiece.
All these episodes set a huge standard for the whole Game of Thrones TV show. The fan base got bigger and bigger. The success got greater and greater. The budget that HBO provided grew substantially.
And then the storytellers ran out of books. The level of visuals and special effects reached a completely new level never seen before in a TV show. At the same time the storytelling got flatter and flatter. With every success of the show the pressure to create a worthy ending was reaching new levels.
To be fair, I don’t think the show ever had a chance to meet all the fan’s expectations. No matter whatever they produced in the end, fans would have been left unsatisfied.
So, what is the final verdict of what we have been experiencing the last 8 years? To limit the whole verdict now to this last season and then claim to be disappointed of the show would be to easy and not appropriate.
The story was touching, it let us speculate for years, it inspired us to talk about it and created countless fan theories. We must accept the fact that we have experienced a masterpiece and global phenomena that hardly compares to anything we have ever experienced. It is true that most of the show’s real highlights happened between Season 3 and Season 6. During this time the foundation for the global success was created and during this time the fan base grew exponentially. Seasons 7 and 8 unfortunately lacked the depth of these real highlight Seasons but tried to make up with huge budgets and great cinematics.
If I am honest to myself I have to admit that I loved the show! Even if there were some major and minor downturns it would be unfair to reduce a 6 Season masterpiece just because something in the final two Seasons was not plausible or a white shiny horse shows up out of nowhere.
Speaking in the words of Game of Thrones, maybe the true mission of the Show was to wake the desire in me to read the books now. The show has fulfilled its destiny and had to die now.
May it rest in peace, we had a great time together.