In these below average reviews/recaps I’ve been doing for the final season of Game of Thrones, I have stuck to a certain structure. I usually give you my overall thoughts, I summarize what happened in the episode, and then I leave with a few parting words.
I’m not going to do that this time around. I’m just going to knock out the spoilers right at the get-go and then just mope a bit.
Side note: I should probably change the title of this post, but I like the consistency.
Here are the spoiler moments for this episode:
- Dany does in fact officially go Mad Queen
- Jon, with some advice from Tyrion, kills Dany in the Throne Room.
- Bran becomes the King of the Six Kingdoms (with Sansa as the Queen of an independent North.
- Jon is sentenced to the Night’s Watch (once again) as punishment for killing Daenerys.
I’m not actively bothered by any of these plot points. Time is the one thing that’s eating at me. I don’t think enough time went into this season.
Well, in terms of manpower and filming, I’m sure a lot of time went into making this season.
But in terms of the story, I don’t think we had enough time to say good-bye.
In the span of a single season, we saw the fight against the White Walkers, the overturning of Cersei Lannister, the ascension of Daenerys Targaryen, Daenerys’ murder, the upheaval of Westeros’ political system, and resolutions for most of the major characters.
And those last four points happened in this final episode.
It wasn’t enough time to do these characters justice. In my previous posts, I held back from any criticizing because I didn’t want to come across like a petulant fandom that is rife with toxicity.
And I’m not saying that there should be a redo of Season 8.
I just wish the ending had been drawn out a little bit. These last six episodes of Game of Thrones feel so rushed compared to what the first six episodes felt like. And I do miss that feeling of slow build-up, that measured pacing before a final explosion of plot-action.
Regardless, I would still recommend Game of Thrones to anybody. This episode still had its highlights thanks to phenomenal characters played by phenomenal actors.
Side note: Tyrion stole the show in this final episode.
I rate Game of Thrones a…
You know what?
I’ll rate this some other time.
I need to recuperate.
Not only from that ending, but from the fact that the one television show I tuned in for regularly is now over.
What’s next?
The Below Average Blog 
It doesn’t seem to matter how much time passes, I’m still moping about this. There definitely was not enough time for any of these things to happen and I would have been on board with most of them if they had been fleshed out (though I’ll admit I’m still bothered by the whole Bran twist
) But yeah, it definitely didn’t do the characters justice. And I hear you about holding back (I think I still had hope in it long after it probably didn’t deserve that treatment) and I don’t want/expect a redo of season 8 either (after more recent articles about fan reactions, I think what I’d like most is space to mope about how much I disliked it in peace 😉 )
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I’m still in a meh place about the last season. It’s weird, because I know a lot of people have been saying Game of Thrones was rushed starting from Season 6, but I didn’t feel it until this final season. (Maybe a little during Dany’s rescue of Jon north of the Wall, but it was still a cool episode.) And a lot of the people complaining make me feel like it’s one of those toxic fandoms. I don’t want to be toxic about it. But…ugh. It was a tad…disappointing.
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