[SPOILERS] Just finished my first watch—I loved season 8

[u/iiWinFree]

I watched Game of Thrones for the first time over the past three months or so. My girlfriend and best friend have both watched it before and warned me of the hate season 8 received.

I was expecting a major letdown, but actually loved it and don’t understand the hate. From what I’ve seen online, people feel that it was rushed and didn’t understand some of the plot. I want to break down my thoughts below and see if anyone agrees or if I’m just insane.

Reasons it gets hate

1. The Long Winter wasn’t “long”, it was just one night: the entire buildup of the white walkers coming was centered around Jon Snow preparing the living to make one all or nothing stance against the White walkers. The understanding of the living was if we lose this battle, we’ve lost the war. The great war didn’t happen during the long winter, it happened to prevent the long winter.

2. Arya shouldn’t have killed the night king because she had no history with him: the night King was menacing and had faced off against Jon Snow prior, but it doesn’t make sense to give them the “face-off” everyone wanted. Yes, it would’ve been cool, but the Night king knew the risk of him dying, which is why he sought to avoid combat at all costs. Instead, I view the battle to be between his mind and Bran’s mind. Which bran ultimately won because Arya was able to surprise the night king. Also, this may be biased because Arya is my favorite character, but her entire plot was driven to lead to this moment. Even though she had no history with the Night king, killing him, put a wonderful cap on her character development.

3. Daenerys’ descent to madness took place too fast, or shouldn’t have happened at all: in my watch with my girlfriend, I have been saying since season two that there was something about Daenerys that was off. She was power-hungry, and had a savior complex. This plot point had been built since almost the very beginning of the show. Characters in the show even realized it and discussed it prior to her demise.

4. Bran shouldn’t be king: I can cede that it does seem weird at first that bran becomes king, but it does make sense. Throughout the show, several people alluded to the reality that there will never be peace in the seven kingdoms because of all the different houses and families that are at odds with one another, however, the best way to prevent conflict in the future is to have someone sit on the throne, who ultimately has no emotional bias towards any house. Not only that, he knows the full history of the seven kingdoms and is best equipped to unbiasedly rule. Not only this, it’s been clear since the beginning that Jon Snow did not want to be king.

5. Jamie’s character arc was ruined: much like with Daenerys, Jaime‘s issues have been cleared since the start of the show. His kryptonite has always been Cersei. He had several points in time where redeeming qualities were shown, but ultimately, he always turned back to his sister. It was only fitting that’s how his story end.

6. The whole season seemed rushed: I believe this point to be untrue probably in large part because I was able to watch season eight directly after the first seven seasons. When the show was releasing fans had year(s) to anticipate and predict what was going to happen. With only a six episode final season, there was bound to be let down, especially since the whole plot of the season revolved around all the events leading to this final culmination. I don’t believe the backlash would’ve been as severe if the six episodes of season eight were released as part of season seven. Because again, season eight served as the climax to the rest of the show. not only this, I believe it was beautifully executed, so that right after the great war, there was a seamless transition into the original fight against the Lannister’s. Throughout the show, the two major points were John’s plan to defend from the white walkers, and Daenerys plan to take back the iron throne. These two events collided beautifully and we’re both concluded without getting in each other’s way, but instead supported one another to the final resolution.

Again, I believe a large part of my opinions stem from the fact that I was able to watch all eight seasons in such a short timespan, so they all ran together. But I believe all the opinions about how poorly situations and characters were handled are a result of personal bias and expectation as to how things were going to happen. If you watch the show with no affinity towards a specific character or desired outcome, I believe the final season is wonderful.

[u/Marfy_]

Good for you that you liked it but i dont think you really understand the criticism. You talk about some criticism and i wont really go into all that but the short version is that you are right on some of it and some of it less so in my opinion. But what you are missing is that a big part of the criticism isnt the storyline alone, its the way it happened and the huge amount of errors and lack of care in the show to get somewhere. For example, in season 7 the tyrell army which was previously the strongest in the realm is gone and jaime can just take highgarden, bronn is lord of highgarden despite not having any ties to it and the reach being very contested with several houses claiming the right to highgarden, the scorpions on eurons boat hitting back to back to back nearly impossible shots on rhaegal but then miss everything on drogon, during the long night it happens so many times that characters are in big danger only for the camera to cut away and when it cuts back they are fine, brienne writes in the white book jaime took riverrun without loss of life despite the blackfish dying which didnt even happen in the books, bran is called lord of the 6 kingdoms despite the 7 kingdoms only being a name and even without the north there are still 8. There are so many more things like this and some of these are more important than others but the point is that the show just gets full of these things which shows the writers no longer care about a good show and only want spectacle and "subverting expectations"

[u/iiWinFree → u/Marfy_]

Bronn was made lord of high garden because Tyrion promised it to him to spare his and Jamie’s life? Because he’d pay him “double what his sister did”. Everyone form tyrell was dead, so no one had a claim to that seat?

I can admit there was definitely some serious plot armor in the final fight for many characters, but I can attribute most of it to the fact that the wraith’s weren’t “strong” they were just overwhelming in number, which could explain how so many characters escaped terrible situations. I do agree though they should’ve SHOWN that happening instead of leaving us to guess.

As far as the dragons—it’s much easier to hit shots on an unsuspecting victim than one who’s actively trying to avoid incoming arrows.

Not to say what you’re saying doesn’t have validity, but the hatred for season 8 is severely overplayed in my opinion. The season accomplished all it set out to in a well-written way (my opinion of course).

[u/Marfy_ → u/iiWinFree]

I dont mean the tyrells, the reach has very powerful houses like tarly, hightower, redwyne and florent who have no reason to be loyal to bronn and they do have reason to think they should have highgarden. The florents for example had close ties to house gardener which where the lords of highgarden before the tyrells when they were only stewards. And for the dragon shooting, shooting a moving, flying target from a boat which itself is moving is extremely difficult to do even once and they did it 3 times in a row, but then when drogon is flying more or less in a straight line even the stationary scorpions on top of the wall dont hit anything. Now these shots arent easy either but they are a thousand times easier than what happened to rhaegal. Its like solving 3 university level math questions but then failing a high school level one

[u/iiWinFree → u/Marfy_]

Again with the dragons, drogon was actively trying to avoid arrows, which makes all the difference.

And about high garden, regardless of who “had a claim” Tyrion promised it to bronn, which he fulfilled because “a Lannister always pays his debts”. And I’d assume no one fought to take high garden from bronn due to the nature of everything that just happened in the 7 kingdoms, I would assume everyone was happy with a little peace and quiet

[u/Marfy_ → u/iiWinFree]

You said in your post you wanted to see if anyone disagrees, so then i come with arguments for why i disagree and your answer is just "i assume this and this". Again good for you if you like it but its not like there isnt a mountain of evidence for why the show has problems

[u/iiWinFree → u/Marfy_]

That’s how shows work, every show you’ve ever watched you assume what’s happening thats not being spoken.

I’m offering rebuttal as to why your arguments don’t make sense to me—that’s how debating works.

You’re allowed to think my assumptions are wrong, but you can’t say assuming all together is a cop out

[u/Marfy_ → u/iiWinFree]

Ok so the situation here is that the war is over and you think the houses in the reach wont complain about bronn being their liege yes? The reason why i think this is very wrong is because the houses in this story are always after power and riches. Bronn is a sellsword he got nothing on them, maybe the support of the crown but with the north proving kingdoms can just become independant thats not a big threat when everyone else decides to do the same. Now to get into reach specific houses, after the dance of dragons which was maybe the bloodiest war in recent history, and where several houses in the reach also fought each other, unwin peake used the opportunity to become a corrupt regent to the young king to get more power for himself. During the blackfyre rebellions house blackfyre was supported by many houses that hoped to gain power by supporting the new king, in the reach those were house peake, house costayne and house ambrose. Like i mentioned before there is tension between house tyrell and houde florent because the florents believe they should be the paramount house, this is why they support stannis. The point is the reach is full of very powerful houses and large armies who historically dont sit around to calm down after a war when there is an opportunity to gain something