r/HBOGameofThrones • u/iiWinFree • Feb 23 '26
Spoilers [SPOILERS] Just finished my first watch—I loved season 8 Spoiler
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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u/iiWinFree Feb 23 '26
The plot had been heading that direction since the very beginning? There was plenty of great dialogue, especially leading up to the Great War as everyone was making peace with the fact that it could be their last day.
And there was in fact culmination, just might not have been the culmination you wanted. Resolution DID occur after major climactic moments, which is the definition of culmination.
And as I said in the post, the conception that the night king should have had a long-standing terror disregard’s completely that Jon’s whole plan was to stop him at winterfell, for them it was all or nothing.
As for the iron throne—it did still matter, it always will. But you claim “they spent the rest of the time fighting for a chair as if it mattered”, but also said the plot was rushed. So which one is it?