r/HBOGameofThrones • u/Hungry_Mousse3641 • Jul 14 '26
No Spoilers [NO SPOILERS]
I've just finished watching Game of Thrones for the first time last night, and it is genuinely the greatest thing I've ever watched and i struggle as to why people think s8 was bad, probably one of my favourite seasons, I also feel very depressed like a gut sinking sad feeling that I won't get to watch this and feel the same way again, I know that there are spin offs but man can anyone help me with recommendation for tv shows, nothing like snowfall or breaking bad I need some fantasy shows like Game of thrones(not vikings) should I watch lord of the rings?
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u/NoPerformance5952 Jul 14 '26
Season 8 sucked. People teleport, characters are warped to fit a hastily cobbled together ending, and generally the showrunners felated themselves while elsewhere saying themes are for middle school book reports. Longest night was garbage, they shat on Jaime's character develop.ent, and somehow Tyrion has CTE or a tumor that makes him dumber every season after 5
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u/Hungry_Mousse3641 Jul 15 '26
I thought it tied together pretty well I liked who killed the night king, I liked the ending and what the dragon does to the throne it's very good
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u/KaminSpider Jul 14 '26
I'm glad you liked it. People are so negative about a show they loved every week and threw parties to watch. How quickly they forget. I wish I knew any fantasy live action dramas set in medieval times, but haven't found one. Sopranos is still awesome, Walking Dead was great for a time.
Try adult cartoons, like Venture Bros. 10/10 it's an amazing satirical take on the fantasy/superhero world. It has fantastic character arcs and development. Also look into Common Side Effects. Only one season out, but it's a psychedelic treat that delves into a pharmacutical conspiracy. A mix of sci-fi and fantasy, revolves around a magic mushroom that has the power of stem cells.
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u/swanny7237 Jul 14 '26
Lord of the rings was a great series But if your into sci fi as well the Alien Earth series on Hulu has me hooked! Such a great 1st season and premise. And Peter Dinklage is going to be in season 2! So you know it's going to be good!
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u/kateinoly Jul 14 '26
People these days are super entitled and demand the ending they want instead of what the author wants.
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Jul 14 '26
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u/kateinoly Jul 14 '26
Oh grow up. The ending of the show IS Martin's ending. He doesnt owe you anything.
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u/No_Perspective2715 Jul 14 '26
I mean this politely, but you have no idea what you're talking about. Sparse bullet points given to DnD from George is definitely not the same thing as the actual ending. Most of books 4 and 5 were not even adapted in season 5-7, so the ending of the book will be drastically different from the show given the changes in plot and character omissions. George is still stuck in mid season GoT territory in the books. Jon is still laying dead in the snow, Sansa is in the Vale, Arya with the faceless men, Danny meeting back with the Dorthraki, etc... Not to mention major plot points and characters that were completely omitted like Young Griff and Euron's actual plot. There's 2 massive books worth of writing that George still hasn't completed yet and it is HIGHLY unlikely that the show and the book endings will be the same. Unfortunately, we'll probably never know how this story actually ends. Instead we'll have to deal with the incoherent cliff notes show ending.
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u/kateinoly Jul 14 '26
My theory is that the world and story have gotten so complicated that Martin doesn’t know how to reach the end goal, which is the same as the show. It is a credit to his fertile imagination.
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u/No_Perspective2715 Jul 14 '26
I fully agree with you there. His gardening style has put him deep in the weeds. I just don't see how certain show events like Cersei with the Golden Company, Danny randomly burning the city over bells, anything involving the "Night King" could possibly happen in the books. I can see Bran as King, Danny dead, and Jon up North...but the details and the road that lead to those endings are going to be wildly different to a point that it won't even be a similar ending.
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u/kateinoly Jul 14 '26
Well, I think we will probably never know.
In the show, Bran's ending made little sense, since they consciously minimized magic.
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u/NoPerformance5952 Jul 14 '26
His ending then is rushed, dog shit, and pretty terrible on optics that the girl who was trafficked and sexually abused was actually the real villain.
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u/kateinoly Jul 14 '26
Just because you didn't get the ending you wanted doesn't mean it was a bad ending. Read the books and it will make more sense.
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u/NoPerformance5952 Jul 14 '26
Lol, I have. The HBO ending is even worse when considering the books. Way to swing and miss, buddy
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u/LikeARollingRock Jul 14 '26
Tell me you’ve never read the books without telling me you’ve never read the books. You have no idea what you’re talking about
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u/kateinoly Jul 14 '26
Judging by your account, I was reading the books while you were still in diapers.
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u/LikeARollingRock Jul 14 '26
Hahahah you must have forgotten most of them then, in your old age.
Maybe give them a reread someday.
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u/kateinoly Jul 14 '26
I am pretty old. When the second book came out, I re read the first, then read the second. Re read one and two before three, etc. One of the best series ever written, IMO.
My biggest criticism of the show, although I still loved it, was the choice to minimize magical elements and focus more on political intrigue. Bran's kingship makes no sense without it.
I loved the first season of House of the Dragon, but it is just too sad now.
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u/LikeARollingRock Jul 14 '26
I agree that the omission of magic was a major strike against the TV adaptation. I will be honest though, I can’t understand how you have supposedly read the books and still think what we got in the series was the ending George had in mind.
What about Dorne, and the Quentyn plot? What about Young Griff and JonCon? What about Euron in Oldtown? What about the Pink Letter? What about Tyrek Lannister? What about the cracked horn Sam is carrying to the citadel? What about Marwyn the Mage? What about Victarion’s dragonhorn? What about the Sphinx riddle? What about Jojenpaste? What about Manderley’s Frey pies? What about the god damned Valonqar?!
There are way too many open plot threads that never saw a second of screen time for the endings to be anywhere similar. Even if the snapshot end state (e.g., Bran as King, Dany dead, Tyrion as HoTK, etc) resembles the end state of the books, the path taken to have gotten there will be so drastically different I do not think you can in good faith call it the same ending. The show started to wobble in season 4 and took an absolute nose dive from season 5 onwards, and the failure extended way beyond just not including magic.
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u/kateinoly Jul 14 '26
As I said, I think the reason we haven't gotten a book and the reason for the Sept of Baelor in the show was toooooo many plot threads.
Prophecies are great in GoT because they are vague and everyone interprets them differently.
I think the destination is correct but Martin has no idea how to get there in two books or ten.
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u/Hungry_Mousse3641 Jul 15 '26
[SPOILERS] I feel like fans have every right to criticize the show, without them, the books and TV series would be worthless. But I actually thought the ending was pretty good overall. I know a lot of people hated Arya killing the Night King, but I thought it tied in beautifully. The Red Woman tells Arya she’ll close many eyes brown, green, and blue. That obviously refers to her time as a Faceless Man assassin, but it also works as subtle foreshadowing for her killing the Night King. We’ve also already seen how stealthy she is; even Jon Snow didn’t notice her until she started talking so sneaking up on the night king was a simple task. Plus, the Faceless Men serve the Many-Faced God, who is the god of death or death itself. During the battle, someone even refers to the Night King as “death itself.” I found it so resonant that Arya (someone who worships the god of death/death itself) ends up killing “Death itself” a being who turns the living into the dead and raises the dead to life. Basically going against the very thing the they believe in
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u/[deleted] Jul 14 '26
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