Game of Thrones In Review
I’ve been putting this off for three weeks now, and I can’t take it anymore. Game of Thrones is over, and I need to talk about the show some more!
To say Game of Thrones is the biggest show of the decade would be an understatement; it’s one of the biggest shows of all time. It’s changed our culture in ways that few stories have ever done. The tens of millions of fans, references and parodies by other shows, works by scholars; I could go on! Not to mention that the places they used to film the show got significant boosts in tourism. Croatia and Northern Ireland have websites dedicated to Game of Thrones tourism.
What I’m saying is that this GoT has gotten a lot of love, and that’s why the final season was so divisive. Its sad feeling seeing a story you love end in an unsatisfying manner, and for some, it can sour an otherwise good memory. I’ve spent the past three weeks thinking about that, and I want to give my answer to this question:
Is Game of Thrones Still a Good Show?
The Plot
Few adaptations are capable of carrying over everything from their source material, and Game of Thrones is no exception. The show took liberties with the source material from day one, but they were never too drastic. Some characters got aged up, appearances changed for casting purposes, things like that. As time went on, though, it began to deviate from the books.
Martin gave Weiss and Benioff an outline of how he was going to end the books, and that’s what they used for Season 6 onwards. Which is good and all, but I’m not alone when I say this: they made the final two seasons too short. HBO tried to go for quality over quantity with fewer episodes, but by doing so, they lost both. I liked Season 7, but it was one big event after another. That may work on paper, but in truth, we need extra time to flesh the story out. In short, they should have stayed at the ten episode mark.
You have to admit; though, even at its worst, GoT is still enjoyable to watch. The casting’s amazing, the music is world-class, and the special effects are incredible. It speaks to the high quality of the show when the worst of it is still fun to watch. I still hate Dorne, though.
The Worries about the White Walkers
Depending on how you look at it, the White Walkers are either the best or the worst thing about Game of Thrones. Despite coming from the book, the White Walkers are more of the show’s work. They’re hardly shown in the book, and they don’t have as significant a role as in the show; not yet, at least.
The reason why its a problem is because the show spent so much time building them up as the ultimate big bad of the show. I even considered all the power plays in Westeros as distractions to weaken them for the war against the dead. By Season 7, it was all I cared about. Then in one episode, it ended thanks to the most badass woman in the show, Arya Stark.
I realized then that prophecies in Game of Thrones are worthless. So much Jon being the one to save the day. Then again, since Game of Thrones likes subverting expectations about fantasy, this wouldn’t be out of the question.
Its Take on Medieval Fantasy
Before George R.R. Martin, people would think of medieval fantasy being something like Lord of the Rings or Ivanhoe. Noble heroes fight against evil, epic battles of magic and things. Game of Thrones takes all that and splashes it with a ridiculous dose of reality.
In real life, the medieval world was more or less the same as life has always been: violent and as filled with jerks as it is with good people. More to the point, it’s not a black and white story, either; its grey. As in real life, people sometimes have to do bad things to survive or achieve their goals. As a student of history who has seen some messed up things, I appreciate the fact that they don’t sugar coat anything.
My favorite moment was still The Battle of the Bastards.
My Verdict
So, was the finale to Game of Thrones not what we expected? Yes. Though, the show may have ended up falling victim to its hype. It had become the most excellent show on TV, so expectations for the final season were high, maybe too high ever to meet.
Does the finale make it any less of a show as a whole, though? I can honestly say that, no, it doesn’t.
The show had its fair share of controversies and bad moments before the final season came around, yet it kept going through it all. When you look back on it as a whole, it’s still an incredible story; one of the best stories humanity has ever told, in my opinion. I am upset that we never got to see Jon slay the Night King as I wanted, or Arya kills Cersei, but we can’t get everything. It may have tripped at the finish line, but I still think that Game of Thrones is worth watching. If you don’t agree, then I respect that.
Team Stark 4 Life, people!
One last thing! Did you guys know that there’s a hand-woven tapestry that depicts the events of the show? I’m serious! Located in a museum in Belfast, Northern Ireland, the Game of Thrones Tapestry was modeled after the Bayeux Tapestry in France. It has all the big moments from the show on it up to the end of Season 7, and they’ll be adding the final season soon. Click the link below to see the website about it:
Cool Game of Thrones Tapestry
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Endgame was the end of an era years longer in the making and most fans loved it. I don’t think it was the hype, it was poor storytelling. Subverting expectations just to subvert them doesn’t always work, especially when you’ve been following a theme and people expect pay off. Well, at the end of the day, it comes down to storytelling and the less story the showrunners had to adapt from the books, the worse it got.
George R.R. Martain wanted the series to last longer, but from what I heard, things became a mess behind the scenes, from making the seasons shorter so HBO wouldn’t have to renew contracts to the showrunners getting tired of the series and wanting to move on (they’re doing the next Star Wars trilogy last I heard). Again, rumors but it sounds like it was a perfect storm o misfires by the higher ups thinking they could burp out anything and fans would love it.
Another show is the victim of the dog eat dog world of entertainment, then. I don’t blame the actors though. As great as an honor to be a part of Game of Thrones (I think anyone who worked on the show will stand a good chance of getting hired if it’s on their resume), they want to expand their work.
I hope the actors won’t be typecast from here on out. Kit Harrington’s too good an actor to be limited by Jon Snow. Though if he and Rose have kids, I really hope they name one Jon (Jon Harrington has a nice name).