Game of Thrones - TV Review

Normally I use the first paragraph in my articles to have a bit of fun introducing my topic of the week, but this week I'm just going to get straight to the point: We need to talk about Game of Thrones. We spent almost a full decade watching this global phenomenon, having fan parties with friends, coming up with theories, and dressing up for conventions as our favorite characters. But with one last season (or two if we want to talk about the descent in quality) the show turned from masterpiece of television to disaster that everyone and their grandma hated and wanted to avoid. It has been over two years since that infamous series finale and people are still hating on the show. So I decided to risk my sanity to answer a simple question: Was Game of Thrones ever that good?

I have spent more time researching this show than any other topic I've covered on this site. I've gone through all the original A Song of Ice and Fire books multiple times (along with the Targaryan history novel, Blood and Fire, and the history of Westeros in A History of Ice and Fire), watched countless theory and breakdown videos from fans on all the seasons, dived into many interviews with the cast and crew, and taken a lot of notes all the while. When I told people that I was going to rewatch this show I got either looks of surprise to full on spitting-water reactions of horror. We cannot just ignore the fact we spent nine years (well eight year with an extra year needed to make season eight) of our lives watching the people of Westeros and Esso go through trials, conflicts, and war in a fight for the Iron Throne. Through my hours upon hours of research I've discovered a horrible truth: Game of Thrones was doomed to fail from the very start.

In order to fully explain this I'll be talking about spoilers from the show and the books, along with other material relating to A Song of Ice and Fire. This is going to be a very long article because I'm going overdrive on this one so I can all about the positives and negatives of the whole show. This article will not just be about the last few seasons and while David Benioff and D. B. Weiss will have their own section later on they will not the sole focuses of this article. I'm also not going to try and be a book purist and say everything has to be like the books, but I will show how the books do have elements that should have been incoporated (or better incorportated) into the show. Whatever you adapt will have different audiences and some elements might not be that good in the original source material. We need to take off our rose-tinted glasses for the all the earlier seasons in order to truly know if the show should or shouldn't have been put on a pedestal as a landmark of television. So let's start from the very beginning...

Reliving the Journey - Seasons 1 through 4

I had never went back to the start of the show while Game of Thrones was popular. I just thought it wasn't something I would want to do and I wanted to stay with where our characters were instead of trailing backwards. So when I started the first episode of the series I was a little surprised seeing so many dead characters alive again. But that wasn't the only thing that surprised me when I started watching the show because I noticed that in the first season of the show the acting was either hit or miss. Mark Andy's performance of Robert Baratheon, Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister, and Charles Dance as Tywin Lannister were the highlights of the first season. The performances of the Starks though, especially Sansa Stark (Sophie Turner), were pretty dull and lifeless. Even the famous Sean Bean's performance as Ned Stark wasn't his best performance which really shocked me.

But, even with how bad some the performances were at the start I was very pleased to see that even in the early seasons of the show the production was absolutely fantastic! Throughout the whole series the production of the show has been one of its best features. The clothing, armor, sets, and more always looked stunning. HBO put a ton, and I mean a ton, of money into the production of Game of Thrones and it shows! I have so much praise for everyone involve in production (besides David Benioff and D. B. Weiss of course). Everything looks so real that I wanted to be there sometimes, even if it was just to enjoy a feast. This can all be shown though in how epic the intro of the show is. Never during my rewatch had I skipped it because it's beautifully animated and really makes the story feel like a game board.

However, in the fourth episode of Game of Thrones, a prominent problem was revealed to me, one that would persist throughout the entire show: The fights were poorly edited. I feel we were all a little blind to how poorly edited because of how much we cared for the characters, but there are so many quick cuts in fights and almost every blow of a weapon causes the cameras to switch just after or before it hands, leading to awful looking fights. This problem was actually the start of my desire to uncover the truth of Game of Thrones because I was browsing through a video examining fights in media and the fight between the Hound and Brienne of Tarth came up. And it was really bad to the point I was thinking, "That... that can't be how it went! It wasn't that bad... right?" As I went through the show I eventually was able to name around five fights that weren't overloaded with quick cuts and gave us some real hits.

The first season of the show though, despite its problems, is a great setup for the whole series because it focuses mostly on the politics of the world and how even the smallest, insignificant events can trigger a web of problems. The introductions of the dragons in the finale scene of the season was perfect because they're magical basically an additional to a thrilling political drama. It sets the politics and the consequences of character's actions as more important in theme than the magical elements of the show. In seasons afterwards the politics is still the biggest theme and selling point of the show, but we meet the priests/ priestesses of the R'hllor, the Faceless Men, a more in depth look at The White Walkers, and the Three-Eye Raven.

The writing of the first four seasons was quite strong, most likely because the original creator of the story was helping to run the show. Additional scenes were added to help flesh out some characters more like the scene with Cersei and Robert talking about their marriage in season 1 and some of these were really good. After season one the acting also improved, especially with the younger actors. Joffery, even though he's a spoiled brat that we all hate, is oddly captivating because we want to see him taken down. Jack Gleeson puts on an incredible performance as him, he is able to go from kind in real life a cruel, nasty teenager so easily and I help but applaud him in his efforts to make one of the most despised characters in TV history.

While season two wasn't the most exciting season of the show and is probably the weakest of the first four seasons I was getting more hooked on the show during my rewatch. My favorite plotline in the second season would be Tyrion trying to rule King's Landing as temporary hand of the king. It was a continual battle for him with his sister's scheming and the threat of Stannis and Renly Baratheon on the march. Rewatching it I determined while season one was to set up the important of politics and how small decisions can make a major impact the second season of the show was used to integrate the magic of the world into the show. We see glimpses of all those magical beings previously mentioned in some way, shape, or form, along with a few extras like the warlocks of Qarth (even though they only appear once afterwards and never again) and wildfire, which is almost magical in how destructive it is.

Season two though is when the story starts to make a lot of changes from the books. Renly Baratheon almost siding with Robb Stark against the Lannisters, the exclusion of Storm's End in Stannis's quest for rule, Daenerys losing her white horse and one of her blood riders in the red waste (both are still alive in the books), and all of Qarth. Danny's plot is definitely the most changed in the show, with the warlocks of Qarth killing 12 of the 13 leaders of the city in a coup in order to capture Danny's dragons and bind her to the city. Xaro Xhoan Daxos is a lot different in the show. In the books he's totally gay, only wants Danny for her dragons, and appears again in Meereen to ask her to leave Esso for good. In the show we find out while he's interested in Danny, he beds one of her handmaids and both are locked in one of the inpentrable vaults of Qarth at the end of the season. Going through the show again though I loved the addition of Arya and Tywin's interactions, those were really damn good!

Season three is when the show really begins to take off. I found the one bigger highlights of this season was Danny in her conquest of Essos. Daenerys is truly beginning her journey to conquer Westeros this season through her obtaining her Unsullied army and her victories at Astapor and Yunkai. The way she liberates the slaves of both cities made a lot of Game of Thrones fan want her to succeed because it felt not like just a win for her cause, but for the lesser people as well, that she was a ruler who would love all her people and want justice for even the small folk. That's why the ending of season 3, with Danny going into that crowd of freed slaves that cheering her on, brought a lot of tears to me eyes when I first saw it and when I rewatched that moment.

Tyrion and Sansa's journeys in King's Landing in season three was also a strong story arc of the season. The Tyrells, especially Margarey (Natalie Dormer) and Olenna Tyrell (Dame Diana Rigg), added some new concerns and ideas to how people should and how the "Game of Thrones" should be played. Instead of using fear the Tyrells are great at appeasing the masses through celebration and putting on "smiling mask" of sorts to show that they cared for the people. We have seen how Ned Stark's rule wasn't fully successful because he was trust people and how Tyrion's was more profitable due to him bending a few rules while keeping the people his upmost importance, so having more of that, but with more of a kindly outer shell made King's Landing different. Instead of violent mobs and Joffery being a brat we had a kindly woman (Margarey) taming that side while putting on a very friendly and concerning air.

Another plotline in season 3 that while not huge is one that fans have come to enjoy is that of Jon Snow. At the end of season 2 he is captured by the Wildlings beyond the wall after he spares a female Wildling named Ygritte (Rose Leslie). She falls in love in Jon after he spares her and it's a very beautiful relationship. Jon is at first against it because of his vows of the Night's Watch, but relents and reciprocates her feelings back towards her. Also, unlike the books, her dialogue isn't just, "You know nothing, Jon Snow." Seriously, that's like 3/4s of her dialogue in the books and it's nail-bitingly annoying. While that was the biggest part of that storyline we also got to understand the Wildlings as a whole since they were only talked about in the previous seasons like they were savages. Sadly they aren't as developed as in the books, especially Mance Rayder. There is enough though to understand they are desperate to get over The Wall to escape The Others/ The White Walkers. The ending of season two, with Sam witnessing the army of the dead marching south still brought shivers to me because it's scary how large a force they have, one that could easily wipe out all of Westeros without a problem. So it totally would make sense to non-book readers how much of a threat the White Walkers are.

A talk on Game of Thrones season 3 cannot be done without a discussion on the Red Wedding, which is probably one of the most violent moments in television history. My brother spoiled it for me before the show or before I read the books, but most people were completely horrified and heartbroken with how Walder Frey betrays Robb Stark's cause. During a wedding, a most sacred event, and after giving bread and salt to his guess, Walder Frey decides to murder all of House Stark and their bannermen... Only the most depraved souls would ever consider this, let alone do it. And the way it's all shown hides very little of its graphic violence. I actually like a few of the changes the show does, like how it also eliminates Robb's wife, how Catelyn kills Walder's wife instead of his son like in the books, and how Catelyn is never resurrected by The Brotherhood without Banners into Lady Stoneheart. That last one in particular is because bringing her back, even as a cruel monster, would lessen the effect of The Red Wedding, which most likely wouldn't translate well to audiences.

A big improvement that is exclusive to the show is Theon, played by Alfie Allen. We get a more development from him before and after his capture at the hands of Ramsey Bolton. In the 2nd book after he's captured we hear nothing about him again until the fifth book where he's absolutely Reek and a servant of Ramsey. But in the show we see him being tortured in some really unpleasant ways, both physically and psychologically. When we see Theon as Reek in the books he's a lot more physically mutilated, missing several fingers and toes, starved to be bone-thin, the marks of skinning all over him, and with white hair that's falling out. I can understand why all that was removed for the show, the budget and continual practical makeup on him would be hard on makeup, budget, and more. Alfie Allen's performance though, of he likes an abused animal, really sells how broken he is.

Then we hit season 4, which is considered by many the best season of the series. I agree with this statement, there's politics, magic, intense battles, and tons and tons of great character interactions and all of them are at their best in this season. Even with the end of Robb Stark's rebellion and Stannis's failure at the Battle of Blackwater there is still plenty of tension throughout the show. With the threat of the Wildlings at the wall, Daenerys capturing Meereen, and Stannis still alive after the Battle of Blackwater Bay, there are plenty of threats to The Lannisters of King's Landing. Even so it appears Westeros is calming down now that threat from the North is gone. But that doesn't last long. Just when you think the show is going to calm down some and we'll have a bit of peace this season we get the death of Prince Joffery.

One of the first major moments of season four is the death of Joffery, which made me feel so happy because while I was going to miss Jack Gleeson's excellent acting I (along with many other people) hated the cruel, bratty prince. The way everyone acts in the scene and how realistic the choking looked is incredible! Lena Headey puts on such an extra strong performance in this moment, watching her son die in such a horrible way. The buildup to that end of the episode was also really good with tons of interactions all sorts of characters. Also, if you pay careful attention during the start of the feast, you'll notice Olenna Tyrell taking the poison out of Sansa's jewelry and storing it for later. The who feast is well done, with great cinematography, excellent buildup, and some interesting character interactions.

A small change the show made that's an improvement is the apparent end of The Hound, Sandor Clegane (Roary McCann) and his journey with Arya Stark. In the books he gets a wound from a bar fight that gets infected and apparently dies (thought he might still be alive in the books). In the show it's a match between him and Brienne of Tarth (Gwendoline Christie), who wants to take Arya so she can protect her (as she promised her mother). I have mentioned before how terribly shot the fight is, but the feeling of having two characters I really like duking it out and not wanting either of them to die I think made us all ignorant of how shitty the fight was shot. In the end The Hound loses and Brienne is the winner, only to find Arya has disappeared. Ayra leaves Sandor for dead as she travels to the coast and to Bravos.

Another big fight that was memorable, yet poorly shot, was that between Oberyn Martell (Pedro Pascal) and The Mountain that Rides, Gregor Clegane (Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson). We only have heard of how danger Oberyn is and have seen how mighty The Mountain can be (especially a few episodes earlier where we see him literally chopping people in half with his massive sword), but we have seen Oberyn for a while and Pedro put on a really good, charming performance that many of us just couldn't help but love the hell out of him. His role as Oberyn is most likely the biggest reason why Pedro Pascal has obtained more bigger roles in film and television like in The Mandalorian and in the upcoming adaptions of Moon Knight for the MCU and The Last of Us for HBO. There were so many cuts throughout the battle and it was just... Bleh! But that ending though, with The Mountain crushing Oberyn's head like a melon until is explodes, was still horrific and effective when I rewatched it because it showed how much of a monster The Mountain is.

Before the fight though I found the trial of Tyrion Lannister over the death of King Joffery to be one of the biggest highlights of the entire series. I absolutely love Peter Dinklage's performance when he calls out all of King's Landing to be utter awful people and how they suddenly love Joffery even though he's dead and he treated them all like crap. How Tyrion kills his father was also better in the show for me because he's joking some in the books while doing it while in the show it's entirely serious. I will get into later though how the last interaction between Tyrion and Shae though was bad in the show, but as a whole Peter Dinklage's performance as Tyrion Lannister was top tier acting. Sadly after season four Tyrion decided to stop drinking heavily, losing most of his intelligence and unique character in the process.

My favorite moment of season four though, besides Tyrion's trial, is The Battle of The Wall where the Wildlings attack it for the first time. As a full episode, The Watchers on the Wall is my favorite episode of season four. In fact it's my favorite battle of the whole show! Even though Jon and the Night's Watch are mostly up at the top of the wall there are still some dangers from the Wildlings far below, as well as the raiding band that got over the wall that Ygritte and Tormund are a part of. Jon starts really becoming a leader with this episode and the fights can get intense. Unlike most battles in Game of Thrones the fights in this episode were mostly well shot with less editting, better stuntwork, and more wide shots! I even lost saw some characters I really liked such as Pypar and Grenn (both still alive in the books). And of Ygritte dying in Jon's arms was so damn sad!

Reliving the Journey - Seasons 5 through 8

After the incredible fourth season of Game of Thrones George R. R. Martin leaves the production to resume work on his books and other media he's involved in. This is the starting sign that the show would begin to decline in quality because season five, while not a bad season, has multiple story moments that would never have happened if more competent writers were involved. A lot of this section of the show will be me going in depth into how the book interpretations of certain characters and storylines are completely disregarded. I have to because this is where the complex and interesting story that Martin set up begins to dumb down a lot to point it's insulting to viewer's intelligences and becomes a betrayal of what Game of Thrones was supposed to be. You see almost every season of the show up until season 5 is an entire book in the series. After season 4 though this goes even faster, rushing a lot of storylines for some reason or another. This causes characters arcs that should be stretched out like Arya's training with the Faceless Men, Daenerys's ruling of Meereen, and Sansa's meaningful journey in the Vale by Prince Robin's side to miss important character growth moments. It's almost as if D and D were getting tired of running the most popular thing on the planet. But we'll get into that later.

Even with this though season 5 is definitely the best of the last four seasons. There are even some improvements over the books that the show makes, including showing the dangers of the Sons of the Harpy in Meereen and the rising of The Faith Millitia in King's Landing (which are only mentioned in passing in the books). The second one was very effective in the show because it was genuinely scary how violent these religious extremists could become. Additionally the cinematography and special effects, which were already incredibly good, only get better with every season onwards (though the fights, as I keep saying, remain mostly weak). Characters like Tyrion, Jorah Mormont (Ian Glen), Jon Snow, Cersei Lannister, and Davos Seaworth are very good this season! Plus the ending of season 5, with Danny' being captured by the Dothraki, Cersei doing her walk of atonement, and Jon Snow being mutinied by the Night's Watch were really strong moments in the show, especially the last one (which broke a lot of people's hearts).

One of the biggest problems of the show in season 5 onward is Dorne. I will go into it more later, but D and D are not that good at writing women while George R. R. Martin is wonderful example of a real feminist (somebody who believe men and women should be equal and not just have women get a ton more rights and power). Dorne is a country that barely gets shown in the show and what is shown is mostly just one location in Dorne called the Water Gardens. That is not the real issue at hand though, it's the main characters of Dorne is season 5 onwards: The Sand Snakes. They are awful characters. In the previous season Oberyn Martell, also of Dorne, was killed by The Mountain that Rides, Sir Gregor Clegane, in an incredible bloody and brutal way. Before that battle though Oberyn tells Cersei Lannister that her daughter, Myrcella, is safe in Dorne and that "we don't hurt little girls." The Sand Snakes, led by Ellaria Sand, decided that a fair trial by combat deserves the death of Princess Myrcella Baratheon (a little girl), the death Doran Martell, of the Prince of Dorne (who was also brother to Oberyn), and his son, Trystane Martell. They also have such terrible dialogue. Rewatching it I cringed so hard at the line, "You want a good girl, but you need a bad pussy." Just the thought of that line from them makes me want to hurl.

This is all extremely contradictory to the book version of Dorne. In the books Dorne is extremely upset that Oberyn Martell dies, but Doran Martell, instead of being completely weak in the face of this disaster, is playing the long game by appearing to be fine, but secretly planning revenge over decades of waiting. While that's going on the Sand Snakes, along with the princess Arianne Martell (who is never in the show) decides to crown Myrcella as the new queen of Westeros in order to politically combat Tommen Baratheon. That's because unlike the rest of Westeros Dorne believes in both male and female leaders. This crowning though would cause political upset and cause Dorne to official take a side in the war. This fails due to an unnamed (so far) informant. Plus all the characters in Dorne are much more developed and interesting instead of just boss woman, tomboy, butch, and pretty girl. But since D and D want to wrap it all up and do more things like Star Wars we got a simplified, "female empowerment" Dorne.

A major thing that is not shown in all of season five is Bran. You might have noticed I have barely mentioned him so far throughout this long review. That's because to me, and many people, he's the worst character of the show. The fact he is gone for a whole season though was very troubling because it was like the showrunners didn't know what to do with him, they didn't have an obvious storyline to follow so they needed another year to give him one. In season six his training with the Three-Eyed Raven is wrapped up in five episodes, something that totally could have been extended into the earlier season. In the books Bran Stark is a lot more interesting since he's younger and acts more like a helpless kid. And him discovering his powers of Greenseeing is more emotionally powerful. Plus there are hints that Bran's story is doing to get a lot darker in the upcoming A Song of Ice and Fire books, that the Three-Eyed Crow (as he's called in the books) is more sinister than they're letting on.

Season six comes next and now the writing begins really to show how poor it is. It was already bad enough with moments seeing Littlefinger give Sansa away to a pyschopath who violently rapes her with Theon watching or Barristan the Bold, one of the greatest knights in the history of Westeros, is cut down in an alley like freaking nobody. Additionally, as great as Hardhome was as an episode, I saw Jon had some major plot armor on while fighting that one White Walker because that one killed a random guy without a second glance, yet only smacks Jon about just so we can some sort of tension. But even some of the greater moments, after some thinking, are ruined in certain ways. For instance, we got Danny becoming the new Khal of Khals because of her fireproof body. Now the show might have changed that from the start, but the books don't have her as fireproof since she loses her hair in the flames that bring about her dragons. But the way she easily tricks the other Khals of the Dothraki and they do nothing to kill her when she dares defy them kind of ruins the moment. Also the fact that Tyrion, a confirmed kinslayer and suspected kingslayer, is immediately given control of all of Danny's people with very little struggle.

The worst written character in all of Game of Thrones though is undoubtedly Euron Greyjoy. In the show he is a hotshot sea captain and one of the last members of House Greyjoy. And he likes sticking fingers up lady's bums. This is an utter disgrace of character compared to what he was like in the original source material. In the books Euron is mysterious, creepy, and a schemer, but is able to hide that all very well with his wits, charm, and ability to lure in people through greed or arrogance. Book Euron is a pyschopath, a demon in human skin. His personality and skills would fit him in a story written by H.P. Lovecraft. But that's not the only comparison he has to the work one of the most popular horror writers in history. He's obsessed with the occult and has a dark plan that has the potential of granting the power of an Eldritch deity. In a preview of the upcoming The Winds of Winter a certain character has a prophetic dream of Euron sitting on the Iron Throne and the all gods are impaled upon it, dying and rotting away while Euron sits and laughs in triumph. The book version of Euron "Crows Eye" Greyjoy is terrifying and just thinking of those plans sends shivers down my spin. In the show though he is all, "I'm going to go to Daenerys and give her mah' big cock!" Just thinking of that line makes me want to throw up again because the show Euron is a fucking frat boy and not somebody to be feared.

I know plenty of people who love The Battle of the Bastards and I can understand that. There are some really damn good moments in it, from Rickon running across the fields to Jon (though he should have been swerving about like a real person would), the amazing choreography during the long sequence with Jon throughout the battle, seeing the giant, Won Won, break down the doors of Winterfell and subcoming to his wound (that really got tears out of me), and Jon finally giving Ramsey Bolton that face smashing he absolutely fucking deserved! However there is unnecessary and poorly written moments as well, like Sansa somehow knowing about Ramsey not feeding his dogs even though she left the coversation before he revealed that information, how she should have told Jon about the knight's of the Vale or her sending a message to them, or that scene with everyone being pushed together so much that they're crushing each other. Sansa, instead of being quiet in order to have an "epic reveal" should have been more open with her half-brother.

Season six however ends with probably the strongest finale in the entire series. To be honest I would be totally fine if the series had ended with season six knowing how the last two seasons go. We got Cersei blowing up the Great Sept of Balor and becomes Queen of the Seven Kingdoms, Arya killing Walder Frey for revenge because of the Red Wedding, Daenerys finally crossing the sea with an army to conquer Westeros, Jon Snow being proclaimed King in the North, and one of the most epic reveals in TV history that we fans were all dying to see happen: We find out that Jon is not a bastard, but the son of Lyanna Stark (Ned Stark's sister) and Rhaegar Targaryan, which would make Jon not just a legitimate child that was loved from the very start, but the heir to the Iron Throne. All of that and more compressed into a single episode! We all lost our minds and we were over the moon that the show was about to get into the end game.

But all throughout seasons five and six, and especially in seasons seven and eight, there is a key element of storytelling that is missing that the first four seasons had and which elevated those earlier seasons to peak television: The Ripple Effect. You know what I'm talking about, how you throw a stone into a pond and its ripples spread out until they hit something and that starts new ripples while the old ones keep spreading. The first four seasons of the show mostly centered around politics, specifically Robert Baratheon's death and how Joffery ordering Ned Stark's head off cause a ton of problems all over Westeros. Both these characters dying causes the North to rebel, Daenerys to be free of assassins sent by the crown, the people of King's Landing becoming rouwdy, the Brotherhood without Banners to form, Stannis and Renly Baratheon to claim rights to the Iron Throne, Arya to taken away by Yoren to the Night's Watch, and eventually the Iron Bank demanding the Iron Throne pay its debts. Each of these causes more events to happen, which often intersect with one another in this web of stories, affecting multiple characters in serious ways, which made excellent drama! Fans of the books and the show loved this type of drama!

But after season four the writing became very straight forward. Remember when in season five when Arya brutally kills that cartoonishly evil kingsguard knight, Sir Meryn Trant? The death of a kingsguard knight, especially during a political journey outside of Westeros, would cause a tremendous scandal in King's Landing. People would think that Bravos had tried to do something nasty with the ambassadors of crown. Even if it wasn't the disappearance of a kingsguard is a serious matter for the escort and people would be panicking. That death though is only consigned to Arya's storyline and effects no other plot. Another story plot that is kind of glossed over is the difficulties of Tyrion ruling Meereen. Unlike when he ruled King's Landing here we never see him really get down and dirty with the townsfolk, or at least listen closely to them.

Now we he hit season seven. There is absolutely nothing left from the books to put into the show and the first season that isn't the usual 10 episodes long. And the writing becomes bad. When travelling was a massive variable in terms of moving armies or telling a character's journey now people can basically fast travel like they're in Skyrim. We see this continually used by Euron Greyjoy in the most unsatisfying ways. We thought Danny was going to have the upper hand in most of the battles of Westeros, or at the most evenly matched with Cersei. The way she loses so many allies though is ridiculous in the most negative way possible. That's kind of why I still enjoyed the show's portrayl of "The Field of Fire," where she rides out on her dragon with her horde of Dothraki screamers following her into battle. The Dothraki, which only really saw fight on ground despite being masters of horse, were finally given a chance to ride and fight on horseback and it was breathtaking! But that, along with Arya killing the rest of House Frey, were the only highlights of season seven.

Meanwhile Danny is continually advised by Tyrion not to attack King's Landing even thoug they immediately have more soldiers, a fuck ton of Dothraki screamers, and three dragons! Yet Tyrion spouts that mass starvation is better than a quick conquering and that the dragon will just burn all of King's Landing without hesitation. In the last season we see Danny have (suddenly) full control of her dragons and they're not the medieval equivalent of nuclear arms because those explosions cannot be controlled. Danny would easily threaten the city and not burn it to the ground with her dragons, yet again Tyrion is like, "But milady what about the Geneva Convention?" Tyrion, you previous swore you wished you could poison all of King's Landing over how they suddenly now love Joffery now that he's dead and how they just immediately turned on you despite saving their lives. Why do you suddenly care for them, and Cersei, so much?!

This season also introduced one of the dumbest plots ever: Since Euron has cheat codes that allow him to warp about the world with the snap of his fingers and Tyrion only drinks juice that makes you stupid he suggest that in order to prove that the White Walkers exist (because Jon Snow begs her for help before promising to bend the knee) that a small group of people should head beyond the wall and steal a White Walker servant/ zombie to show to Cersei. That's a fucking suicide mission, one a million chance!!! Yet only one character, Thoros of Myr, and a few unnamed side characters, and a god damn dragon die in this mindbogglingly stupid adventure and it could only have succeed if Gendry and the messenger ravens hadn't also used cheat codes to them allowing for super speed. And though Cersei sees it run and attempting to kill her at her she lies in wanting to help the cause, so it was entirely pointless. That episode where the plan is enacted is one of the worst episodes of the whole show. Especially since the Night King now suddenly has a dragon of their own! By season seven everyone has so much plot armor on that even Sean Bean could survive.

Probably the biggest disappointment of season seven though is the death of Littlefinger. Petyr Baelish, the master of coin and one of the most cleverest men in Westeros, once accused of his crimes, openly admits to everything that he's done and does nothing to deny murdering, scheming, and betraying whoever he can fool to get what he wants. It's one of the most pathetic deaths in the show and even worse considering, as stated already, how much of a master he was at playing "The Game." We all knew eventually that Littlefinger was going to die when his schemes caught up with him, but his death was an all-time low for the show. To be honest though, going through the books he's definitely not as creepy and obviously evil as in the show. You can never tell what he's up to in the books, but his accent in the show after season two would tell anybody that he's up to something sinister. Still... losing him in such a poor way was a very bad sign for the last season.

Which leads us to season eight, which everyone can agree was vastly worse than any other season of the show. I'm barely going to talk about it because everyone and their grandmother who has watched Game of Thrones and has a social media account has talked about this season to death. But I will throw in a few personal moments that I was affected by. First is of course Arya killing the Night King. Upon first viewing it was cool and all and rewatching it I guess it's still pretty cool. But in terms of connecting to the story it's incredibly stupid that it was Arya who finishes the Night King. I guess D and D decided it would be her just to make it a quick kill. It should have been Jon Snow who did it because the Night King was his personal main antagonist. Another option though which while not at strong as Jon, but is still a lot better than Arya, would be Jaime who kills the Night King. Bring the whole Kingslayer idea around and it would be a great way to end his redemption (but they would also have to have him not dump Brienne after that). He would be kind of a hero that would be praised instead of a traitor. That would definitely a lot better in "subverting expectations."

Another thing we got to talk about is the Starks as a whole. Ever since the end of season 6 Bran had become an emotionless, dull, annoying boy who did nothing but speak exposition and horrible dialogue. Sansa, instead using the lessons she learned about subtlety and manipulation, is open belligerent of anybody who scorns or appears to scorn her like a fucking idiot, yet is continually praised on being extremely smart. Arya is now just the cool killer who never uses her Faceless Men training after she murders House Frey and, like Sansa is extremely hostile towards anybody not of her house, even though Daenerys continually saves their asses. And Jon...Jon becomes a fucking moron whose dialogue starts to only consist of "My Queen," and "I don't want it." House Stark became the most powerful house in the North because it was wise, strong, generous when it needed to be, and kind. Where all four Stark characters end up goes against everything House Stark stood for.

Fantasy that Fucks And The Loss of Magic

So how did people get into Game of Thrones? The book series had been out since the early 90s, so it already had its own large group of fans. But what qualities made the television show obvious a colossal world-wide audience. I got two suggestions: The dark violence and the uncensored sex. Now hold it right there people who are about to say I'm full of shit. Let's face it, even if you don't know anybody personally who thinks like that you cannot deny there are people less intelligent and more basic who would watch a show with free tits and tons of violence. These people most likely only have seen just The Lord of the Rings in terms of fantasy media and they think everything else is sappy, way too cheery and huggy. They want something that they more understand that isn't about great prophecies, wizards, elves, magic spells, people being emotional and giving speeches about hope. To these people Game of Thrones is a fantasy show for people who don't like fantasy.

In the early seasons of the show Game of Thrones was advertised as being a fantasy show that... Subverts expectations (god I that phrase). They were trying to tell everything it doesn't do the usual fantasy tropes, which it mostly doesn't. But it was also advertised this way because back in the early 2010s drama shows such as The Sopranos and Breaking Bad were the kings of television. HBO wanted to attract people who were interested in shows like those and get them into Game of Thrones. Even the showrunners have said they wanted to make a show that wasn't for people who like fantasy, but for moms and people who play footbwaralls. Now the way they phrase that makes me cringe really hard, but I do get what they were trying to do, they wanted to get as many people as possible to watch the show. And in the long run they were successful as Game of Thrones eventually became the most popular thing to talk about for years.

And with this type of drama, along with the setting of the show, we bring about the idea of the whorehouse. In the very first episode of the show Tyrion is dog-piled by four naked women at once, their titties hanging out and they fat, slappable asses on display with no bars or fuzzy areas to hide them. Eventually we saw girl on girl, guy and guy, and even an orgy that mixed them all with Oberyn Martell (that sexy mother fucker) leading the way. And for some people in this present day that's all you need to get to watching a television show. Deny it all you want, but if there are people out there wouldn't mind being stepped on or choked by a 9'6" vampire lady there are going to be people out there that will watch a political fantasy drama epic for some tits and ass.

The problem though with all of this is that the fantasy tropes that Game of Thrones was advertised not to have were big parts of the show. The prophecy of Azor Ahai, magic being a major part of the show, and the friendships made along the way (as cliched as that sounds) are massively important to the whole of A Song of Ice and Fire plot. The very beginning of the show and the books was introducing the White Walkers and how magic is going to be extremely important in the story! The show immediately sets up that magic is extremely important and that while everyone else is squabbling over politics an army ice demons and zombies are down to wipe everyone out! How George R R Martin blends the magic and the realism together is incredible and that's one of the big reasons the writing for the books is given such high praise. And yet the show eventually had the magic sidelined, which is very much against the original source material and the makes the whole story feel more basic.

Let's look at the White Walkers for instance. In the books they're described as, "strange, beautiful… think, oh… the Sidhe made of ice, something like that… a different sort of life… inhuman, elegant, dangerous." When we get our first real look at them at the end of season two they sort of do look like that, being bare chested, but having this oddity about them that makes them unique, terrifying to look up, and strangely elegant. They do look old with pale blue, wrinkly skin, but that adds a sense of them being ancient, from a time long ago. Later on in the show though, but season 5, they start to wear metal armor that, while kind of matching their physical designs, feels very much against what they're supposed to be: Magical. This was probably added to make them look more like soldiers like the living wear and because medieval warfare required metal armor, but that armor also makes them feel weaker, like they need it order to stay safe when they're supposed to be so powerful the idea of metal armor feels unnecessary.

The "Feminism" of Westeros

Feminism is a dangerous and divisive topic on the internet for obvious reasons. The idea of women having the same equality as men is something that shouldn't be so hard to discuss, but some people want to deny that's the obvious and morally correct thing to do while others want to twist your words into things that you would never say. I have to get into it though with Game of Thrones because David and Dan have a very incorrect in what makes a woman "badass," "cool," or "equal." Feminism, by definition, is the advocacy of women's rights on the basis of the equality of the sexes. Equality of the sexes. Not one being better than the other, but equality. That means both can be treated in balanced manners and that both can be either positive role models or big dicks/ bitches.

George R. R. Martin in interviews has responded in interviews on how he writes women so well by responding, and I'm paraphrasing here, "I don't write them like women, I write them like people." That there is proper feminism, putting both male and female characters on even playing fields and treating them based on their humanity, not based on their gender/ sex. It's no wonder the books have gotten so much praise and how it even became a show, people love the characters no matter what gender they were. But this overuse of same coldness and ruthlessness that D and D use is a problem as it removes what a cast of characters needs in any media: Variety. Just like heroic male characters you need variety in women as well.

Before I go into a few characters who the show do badly I want to talk about some of my favorite women in Game of Thrones. First is Brienne of Tarth, played by Gwendoline Christie. She is my favorite character in the whole show (or at least tied with Tywin Lannister) because despite wanting to be a knight she is not a complete tomboy and still has characteristics that are often defined as feminine. Everyone mocks her because she's a woman, even though she can easily kick most of their asses with hardly any trouble. Her struggle isn't physical like most "strong, independent female characters," but societal. That's what makes her such an investing and likeable character, because she already has the strength to be a great knight, she just has to continually prove to others in a male dominated society that women can be warriors too. She is an inspiration to what women can be and I fucking love her for how much she's willing to struggle to fulfill her duties as a knight! Her knighting in season 8 is the only good moment in that whole season and I cried so much seeing that because it was like a true victory for her in that she finally has her dreams come true.

We also got Olenna Tyrell who is proper badass woman. While she doesn't fight she has strong political power, is extremely rich, and is not afraid to sass people. She's not easily impressed, often with a "I Don't Give a Fuck" attitude towards most people because she has everything a woman like her can want and she's extremely smart, one of the best players of "the Game." In season four there is a moment where she talks with Margarey about a necklace her husband once gave her and how special it was to him. Once she finishes saying this she tosses over a cliff like it's nothing. That's hilarious, but also shows how powerful she is and how much personality she has. Fun fact, the props department were extremely upset by that unscripted moment of hers because that was a real jeweled necklace that they would need to return after the scene was over. That single scene though shows how strong and admirable a character she is!

Also, as much as I don't like the character (because she's a bitch), I think Cersei Lannister to be yet another excellent female character. She's beautiful, narcissistic, wrathfully, overly proud, overly protective of her children, and thinks she is cunning when she is rash. A key feature of her is how she sometimes wishes she was born a man so she can have proper respect instead of being treated like a lady. If she was born a man though her actions would probably have killed her. So instead she uses her manipulation of others through bribes, sex, and beauty to get people to follow her whim. Her actions bring about her downfall, but her belief that she is better than others brings about a somewhat tragic story to her and, in some ways, makes us feel bad for her. Lena Headey is even able to make some of the crappy dialogue she's given later in the show work because she's so damn good!

So I'm going to be talking about the differences between the book and show versions of three prominent female characters in Game of Thrones/ A Song of Ice and Fire: Shae, Sansa, Daenerys.

Shae, both in the books and the show, is Tyrion's lover. She is a whore who Tyrion picks up from a camp and the two begin to bond and form a relationship, much against his father's wishes. Eventually Tyrion breaks off the relationship, fearing that being together would put Shae's life in danger. This eventually leads Shae to falsely confess that Tyrion really did murder Joffery and later on for Tyrion to strangle her to death for this betrayal. It's a tragic love story between these two characters of different social classes and helped us relate to Tyrion not as an ugly, alcoholic dwarf, but as somebody who wanted to find true love.

In terms of personality though the version of Shae from the book is very different, almost completely different, from the version in the show. In the books Shae is not very subtle or mysterious and can be very humorous at times, but is often naive to dangers around her and unaware of the dealings of court. She's a low-born girl who ran away from her father because he molested her. To simplify it, she's a very sweet, young girl who Tyrion picks up from his camp and falls in love with. Thaat, plus her never growing up in a rich house or having the name of a famous family behind her makes her time in King's Landing eye-opening, yet dangerous (especially with how Tywin threatens to hang her if she's spotted in the city).

But in the show she's a lot more serious, cynical, and sharp in her attitude, the identity of a "strong female character." She's also very secretive of herself and isn't very revealing of who she is, even when she gets to know Tyrion more. By having her be more "strong" the showrunners probably wanted her to feel like she couldn't be bossed around by any man which I get. It felt weird though because upon the second watch, if felt like I was watching what Sansa, Danny, and plenty of other female characters would eventually become: Belligerent, superior, and oh so mighty for little reason. They also change her backstory to be a handmaid for somebody powerful before ending up in Westeros. That contradicts how she acts later on in the show, like she doesn't know how to be a handmaid to Sansa (clean the bed, wash the clothes, bring food, etc).

It is absolutely fine to have a woman be a little silly and naive like a "little girl" because having that start would be great as there is a lot of room for growth. It can also be just as, if not more relatable/ understandable, to look at a person like this rather than somebody automatically having a sense of power. I felt more for book Shae than TV Shae beause I understood and so cared for the book version more the one from the show. When show Shae continually hides who she is she becomes less investing because she never lets her guard down and reveal who she really is, which means we the audience don't know who she is.

Let's look now at how Shae dies in the books vs the show. In the show Tyrion, deciding to confront his father, stumbles upon Shae in Tywin's bed. When Shae rouses herself and notices a shocked Tyrion she goes for a knife before he knocks it away from her and strangles her the chain meant for the Hand of the King. What she does is the usual storyline of self-defense, which makes Tyrion seem sympathetic while Shae is unreasonable (which again is often the usual storyline). In the books when Shae is found in Tywin's bed she starts to plead for him to forgive her, possibly lying in that she was forced to make those false accusations in order to stay alive. But she makes a mistake by using the personal, private pet-name she gave him, "My giant of Lannister," as she does this, which was also used during Tyrion's trial and caused everyone to laugh at him. For that Tyrion strangles her because he feels actually betrayed, rather than having to defend himself.

This betrayal route instead of self defense is more impactful to Tyrion as his beliefs in the world and if he can ever find somebody to truely love are broken. It haunts Tyrion for a long time in the books because he really liked Shae and they were building up a sweet relationship. Not saying that there wasn't a sweet relationship built up in the show, but Shae is mentioned afterwards only once in season 5 and never again. She was a big part of Tyrion's life and that moment where she tries to kill Tyrion kind of destroy all that romance we had built up. In a negative way. With how Shae pleads in the book it's more that kind of got herself wrapped up in the politics of King's Landing and was totally out of her depth. But the show Shae has been working for royalty before, so she tries to play the game of thrones and dies. In the end the show version of Shae works... but the book Shae works better.

Next we have Sansa, daughter of Catelyn and Ned Stark. She starts out as a naive romantic, wanting a brave, strong, handsome prince to marry to attend balls and have lots and lots of children. Quickly though she realizes that life isn't a fairy tale or a song when her father is executed in front of her after she and him plead for mercy and Prince Joffery doesn't give a fuck towards either of their pleas. At the start of the show we didn't care much about Sansa because she was an idiot, but she learns quickly in the first few seasons how to survive in King's Landing, a place where she has no allies to help her, by lying and using her surprising wits that nobody expects from her to get out of trouble. That growth and development of her character, along of course with her losing her father, makes her a more investing character.

But since that destination wasn't crystal clear to the showrunners they decided that after Sansa escapes King's Landing that she'll marry the son of the person responsible for murdering most of her family. And in response she's like, "Nooooooo-Okay." Then she gets raped, which again is one of the most uncomfortable scenes on television. After she escapes Winterfell in season 6 with Theon her personality just keeps getting more and more colder until she's a "stone cold badass," showing almost no emotion what-so-ever like most other surviving female characters because that's what the showrunners think makes a woman interesting or cool. Instead of learning lessons from earlier seasons and the books, like knowing when and where to show compassion to others she, like Danny, learns (wrongly) that losing your humanity is the key to being a good leader. In fact in the last season of the show she admits to the Hound that without being raped by Ramsey she could never be the person she is today. When I first heard that I felt a piece of me die inside. Like... what the ever loving fuck?!

In the books, after Sansa is whisked away from King's Landing by Littlefinger she begins to quietly develop into more wise person. It is hinted that she's going to eventually use careful planning, her quickly thinking, and ability to play to play into her enemy's arrogance to trick Littlefinger into revealing parts of how much of a backstabber he is, which will lead to his death. With that she'll rally the Vale and use them to help Jon and Stannis beat the Boltons and win the North back for House Stark. That gentleness, even after she's been horribly treated by others, and knowing when to use it from the books is what makes her so unique and interesting in the original source material. She loses that warmth and compassion for others when she decides to just be a cold, heartless, empowering female who believes that violence and humiliating her enemies is what a professional leader should do. TV show Ned Stark would be rolling in his grave to know that his sweet daughter has grown up to start doing everything that his house stood against.

Finally we have Daenerys Targaryan (or Danny for short), the mother of dragons, the breaker of chains, Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea, all that stuff. She becomes one of the most important characters in the series due to her goals of ruling Westeros in a way in which the common folk are not tread upon like they're nothing, making her a very easily likable character, as well as (supposedly) being the last of house Targaryan, which were known far and wide as the only people in Westeros who could tame and ride dragons. She lost her home when Robert Baratheon killed her brother Rhaegar, Jaime Lannister killed his king and her father, The Mad King, and everyone hunted her down because she was one of two Targaryans still alive. We wanted her to reclaim her home because of how it was taken away and how she has the potential to be a better leader tha her father or Robert.

When we first meet her Danny she is a scared girl being sold to a barbarian leader as his new wife. The way the show portrays Danny's first time with Khal Drogo is really hurtful because of how he basically rapes her. In the books Drogo is more gentle, easing her into the sex. That's because in the books Khal Drogo is leader not just through his strength and brutality, but also how he's wiser than most Khals. In the show he's just a barbarian. I digress though, this is about Daenerys. In the books and in the show Danny is abused by her older brother, Viserys, whic makes her very scared. In just a few episodes after being abused by her brother though she angrily strikes him with great froce and proclaims she's the blood of the dragon and she won't be bullied anymore. We get that in the books as well, but in that case it wasn't in anger, or proclaiming how powerful she is but just to get him to leave. The show Danny jumps from defenseless girl to strong leader too fast to feel natural.

Additionally, when in the books Viserys gets the "golden crown" from Khal Drogo Danny both pities and feels nothing for her brother. That's because despite the abuse she was given she also knew her brother was once a sweet person who did a lot to take care of her and that he became bitter from years of being treated like a "Beggar King." People just don't instantly get over their abusers and Viserys did treat her more kindly when they were younger. The show's version of the scene though has her looking down on her brother as he burns to death with no emotion, not showing a hint of sadness towards her brother and one of the last of the Targaryans dying in front of her. I know this was done to show how much a cool badass Danny is, but her transformation to this is too quick and it's just unnatural. Plus the look she gives is just so... cliche. Emilia Clarke has one of the most expressive faces of any actor I've ever seen and most of the show she barely gets to show that off and it's sad.

The books paint Daenerys as a more of a younger girl, as she's around 14 years old in the books. The aging up of the characters was done in order to not show pedophilia in the show and because these younger characters go through some really traumatizing stuff. I mean Bran is seven when he gets crippled and that would be hard to for an actual seven-year old (and close to seven year-old) to handle. But with Danny that youth makes her more gentle with her subjects and the people she loves. She has that fiercenes and ruthlessness associated with the Targaryans, but that kindness of hers makes her more of motherly figure to her people. In the show though she's not as gentle, instead being more of a mature mother, which isn't as exciting for somebody so young. That youthfulness is also a hinderance in the books, loving Daario Nahari not because of his looks but because of his rougish charm. Though in the show Darrio was originally played by Deadpool's nemesis, Ed Skrein (AKA Francis), before being changed to the less exciting and more moody Michiel Huisman.

This less interesting Daario is later ordered to strip in front of Danny as she looks him over like she's inspecting a trophy. In the books Danny would look at Daario like a wolf eyeing a piece of juicy meat. That lack of passion, in order to make show Danny look more badass, is... dull. That sense of youth makes book Danny more engaging as a character as she's more vibrant with stronger positives, but also more flawed (both of which often lead to better characters). There is no shame in having these weaknesses, in fact it's more relatable if you do have these character traits. Some women and men would head over heels for a person like Daario because having an attractive person love you, especially when you're younger or want to feel younger, should make you lose yourself in the moment and feel comfortable and happy and I just didn't see that with Danny.

In the penultimate episode of the series Daenerys, for some utterly ridiculous reason, decides to burn down King's Landing. In the Inside the episode however D. B. Weiss describes it as Danny going straight to the Red Keep to burn Cersei. There is a moment during the burning though that Cersei is looking down on the city from her tower. In this wide shot of the destruction there is a bit of green fire in the bottom right hand corner. That is wildfire, the highly volatile and destructive substance that burn anything it touches. It was used by Tyrion to destroy Stannis's fleet during season two in the Battle of Blackwater Bay and by Cersei to destroy the Sept of Baelor in season six. Both instances showed how unstable and dangerous of a substance wildfire is. Danny just somehow doesn't care at all about this though and just continually murders innocent people, which is completely against her goals and her moral beliefs.

And then we have the final episode where Danny, dressed in black and red, makes a whole nazi speech about breaking all the chains over everyone across the world. So when she visits the Iron Throne at long last Jon joins her and stabs her because of how unhinged she becomes. Then Bran, the emotionless and chair-bound boy who can see anything and know everything is given the title of king. That, along with Sansa staying Queen in the North, shows that women in power shouldn't be emotional or have goals. This goes even further with characters like Tyrion saying that he is stupid for not seeing how dangerous and "deranged" Daenerys was becoming because she killed some slave masters, evil warlocks that wanted to suck her life away, and Dothraki Khals that love to mindlessly murder and pillage wherever they go and that Tyrion feels stupid for not seeing it sooner that the next step for her would obviously be killing a bunch of innocent civilians. Which is ABSOLUTELY FUCKING STUPID!!!

As the show progressed it started to show that women who were kind and caring, no matter how much of a leader or inspiring figure they were, should be ashamed of their kindness and eventually be killed. It promotes the idea that women can only be treated seriously if they shed away their humanity and show no emotion or care for others. That. Is. Wrong. Game of Thrones eventually became (as far as I've seen) one of the worst examples of female empowerment I've ever seen. They were doing pretty good for the first four seasons it became so trope, nonsensical, and frustrating that these were not the characters we grew up with. Or we thought they were until they made choices completely out of character with who they are.

Something you can see with all of these characters I've gone through is that I say the should have more of a balance between coldness/ ruthlessness and gentleness compassion. I'm not saying this becaus they're women because there are male characters that show a balance of these traits. Jon Snow is capable of hanging even a kid while also sparring other people. Jorah Mormont has great compassion for his queen, but often fights ruthlessly to protect her and her people. Even the Hound, asshole as he is, is capable of showing compassion to others. Look at other female characters in media like Ellen Ripley, Princess Leia, Hermione Granger, and Wonder Woman. Their characters are a mix of aggressive and non-aggresive traits. They're not just "stone cold badasses," they have a variety of personalities, emotions, charm, and skills to each them. That's what makes them so memorable and loveable, because they feel so real with their balance traits. When all your female characters have the same no-nonsense "badass" character trait it's just boring, uninteresting, and cliche.

D and D Were (Much) Worse Than We Thought

Look, we all now hate David Benioff and D. B. Weiss for how much they botched up and rushed the ending of Game of Thrones, that's obvious. When George R. R. Martin said the show could have gone to 11 or 12 seasons these two morons decided they were done with running one of the biggest shows on the planet and wanted to do bigger things like their own Star Wars trilogy. There is ending a show badly though and fucking it up the ass to a degree that shouldn't be possible. But that did it and because of that nobody wants to watch the show anymore. The ending leaves such a bad taste in your mouth that you never want to relive it again.

I can summon up their incompetence with a single quote:

"Themes are for eighth grade book reports." - David Benioff (2011)

To me that is one of the most disgusting and rage inducing quotes I've ever heard. And this quote was made when the show was just starting off, which should have been a massive red flag for us all. Themes are for more than just book reports! They set up the story, tone, and journey of the characters! Themes depend the world around the characters we create, making their lives have more meaning to them and their stuggles more relatable. Without a theme or themes you have just a pile of words.

But their deceptions go far back to before even the failed pilot episode was made. These two Hollywood "screenwriters" have had nothing impressive under the belts before Game of Thrones. Neither of them had ever run a TV show before or dealt with a fantasy story before. In fact most of their work either ranges from meh to vomit inducing bad. For example, these two wrote the plot for X-Men Origins: Wolverine, a film so bad it's considered one of the worst superhero movies ever made. These two thought it was a smart move for Deadpool, also known as the "Merc with the Mouth," to have his mouth sown shut. Think about that guys. And HBO gave them Game of Thrones? How is that possible?!

I got two parts to this, the first of which is that David Benioff's father is Stephen Friedman, former Chairman of the United States President's Intelligence Advisory Board and friend of some of the heads of HBO. Yes, one of the reasons is that David is a rich boy and his daddy's influence helped him get a job he wasn't qualified for. I know, that sounds silly, but the evidence I've already give, along with what's going to come next, will further prove that he and his partner were destined to ruin Game of Thrones. Also, look at other people in power like Donald Trump, a man who gave his son-in-law tasks like bringing peace to the middle east with absolutely no experience in peace negotiations.

The second reason is that Benioff and Weiss conned HBO and Martin into making them think they were the best people to run the show. Having two people in charge instead of one definitely sounds more appealing than just one person, so that also helped. One of main questions that Martin gave them also was a very weak one that somehow convinced him that these two were the right call. That question was: "Who is Jon's mother?" Everyone, I mean everyone, could tell who that was by the end of the first book and maybe even by the first season (for those who never read the books). Now this was what they said when talking about that meeting and that that question/answer was one of the key moments where it was decided their position in the show. Additionally these two have a way of speaking, using quiet, collective voices, along with deflecting any complaints onto other people, that mades them so good at tricking us for years that they're talented people.

How can I say though that they conned these people? As insane as this sounds, they fully admitted it in public. They did it during the Emmys of 2018 and the Austin Film Festival in 2019 in which they had a panel where they were going to talk about their supposed writing talent on show. This film festival was what really opened up how bad these two were at their jobs because in other interviews they've already prepared questions for them to answer and other cast members to pass them onto if those questions were in any way harmful to them. But the questions they were asked during the film festival were not pre-planned and some were answered in a way that revealed how bad they were at their jobs. One question revealed they didn't have a writing room for writers to interact, bounce ideas off of, and refine what they have. Another particular question was from a woman who said, "Why didn't you hire more writers, especially women and people of other ethnicities." Their response: "We thought we were the best people for the job."

But let's go into how they really handled the production of the show with a few incidents. First one we'll be talking is with Ian McElhinney, who played Barristan Selmy/ Barristan the Bold. At the start of the show Barristan Selmy is the leader of the Kingsguard for Robert Baratheon. After Robert dies Joffery basically fires him because he's an old man and Barristan is really pissed because it's a rule that Kingsguard serve for life, even if they're in their 70s. But even as an oldman there is a reason why he is called Barristan the Bold and he leavses Joffery's service in a badass way. After he leaves he joins up with Daenerys and becomes one of her closest advisors and almost a father figure to her. But early in season five this ends when he cut down in an alley by some Sons of the Harpy, which came out of nowhere for a lot of people.

Ian McElhinney, before Game of Thrones started, had read all the books that were released at the time, as well as reading the newly released A Dance With Dragons when it came out. That last book told him that his character, if the show followed the story of the books properly, would be doing a lot of big things such as acting as Hand of the Queen when Danny flies out of Meereen on Drogon, would get into a few brawls, and train the next era of kingsguard, or in this case queensguard. Very exciting stuff! But apparently in interviews he was informed of the early death of his character in season 5 when he was handed the script for season five. No heads up at all. What is worse though is how David Benioff and D. B. Weiss to Ian's concerns over this sudden death. He didn't just try to call them multple times to try and change their minds, he also wrote a passionate letter explaining how much of a mistake killing his character off would be and how he was very eager to keep being in the show as Barristan Selmy. In response to the letter this was said:

"... this here for the first time we got pushback from one of the actors... so yes there was a long conversation, we got a long letter saying this was a bad idea, which made us want to kill that person that much more." - David Benioff (2015)

That is a whole new level of low. That's how a fucking bratty child acts when he doesn't get his way, not how a professional showrunner should act towards his actors! When I first heard about this I was outraged. In fact I'm even more outrated right now! Without these actors you directors and showrunners are nothing. Do you think people like Jon Favreau (The Mandalorian and Iron Man), Angela Kang (The Walking Dead), Peter Gould (Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul), Vince Gilligan (also Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul), Jordan Peele (Get Out and Lovecraft Country), or Jenji Kohan (Orange is the New Black) would laugh at and be more excited to kill off one of their actors after they found out they were going to die in an upcoming episode? NO, they would be there to support them, like a professional and decent human being would. And this wasn't confined to just Ian McElhinney or those character's deaths, Alfie Allen and his torture as Theon, as well as Sophie Turner/ Sansa's rape scene from Ramsey was also a so called laughing point for these showrunners.

Next let's talk about the filming of The battle of Winterfell/ The Long Night in season eight. We were all amazed when we saw (if we could because the whole episode was so dark) by the episode when it came out and how Arya, out of nowhere, kills the Night King despite having no connection what-so-ever to this antagonist. And filming of this episode was torture to everyone. Except the showrunners, who only visited on set for a couple days over an 11 week period! One of the most important moments in all the show and the people in charge mostly stayed in a warm room while everyone was freezing at night in Northern Ireland. The weather was fucking miserable to everyone during the shootings and all of it was done in the black of night with barely any lights day after day after day.

Another problem, obviously, is seeing everything in this battle. D and D insisted that the battle look as grand as possible, but also rejected the idea of using day to night filters for post production. A lot of time has passed since Helm's Deep from Lord of the Rings and both that battle and this one took around the same amount of time, with Helm's Deep being a little longer. Technology has advanced a lot. They also didn't realized that what they were shooting would look different on most television screens, but they probably would have known that if they came to the set more than a few times. That's why we could barely see the battle when the episode premiered.

Lastly for the "Long Night" let's talk about the ice spiders that were mentioned by Old Nan in the first season of the show and often associated with the White Walkers in the books. Why were these mysterious and terrifying characters not included in this supposedly epic, magic filled finale to the White Walker plot? Well I'll let David answer this:

"Big as hounds..." [sighs] "...Didn't we talk about that for 30 seconds? 'Ice spiders' sounds good. It would look good on a metal album cover. But once they start moving, what does an ice spider look like? Probably doesn't look great." -David Benioff (2019)

Magic to these showrunners, as I mentioned in a previous section of this article, was never important to these people. There is so much magic missing from this world when, again as already stated, it was always an important feature of Westeros and beyond. I mean they threw in a fucking zombie polar bear the previous season, why not go all in the magic other than raising the dead.

Lastly, let's go more in depth on the "Inside the Episode" bonuses that aired after each of these episodes. When we see stuff like this with any other show it's seeing behind the camera, seeing the directors, actors ,stunt people, and the rest of the working crew creating the episode. In any other show it goes into what made each episode or movie possible. But now that I'm wiser and rewatching these "Inside the Episode" bonuses I've come to a horrible realization: Almost every single "Inside the Episode" after each Game of Thrones centered around these showrunners talking less about how the episodes were made and more on spoonfeeding us information we already know, along with a few tidbits on why they decided how certain scenes had to play our and a few inspirations on why they happened the way they did.

We never see the actors or the crew making the scenes happen, we mostly just got the showrunners talking in a very bland way why their ideas made it on screen. We don't see all those things I've mentioned that really show us what was happening inside the episode. Instead of letting fans think over what they've watched and discuss among themselves the meanings behind the episodes it's all shoved in our faces like we're idiots. These extra sections made Game of Thrones less a piece of art and more just mindless content to consume. Look at one of the season seven "Inside the Episodes" where Sansa finds Arya's container of faces and it appears Arya threatens her. Well in that inside episode they show that clip before one of the showrunners says that exact thing like it wasn't obvious. That's why the "Inside the Episode" for the series finale was not shown publically, because it had the actors and other producers on the screen desperating trying not to throw shade at D and D. Having uncovered this lost piece of conent there is exactly that, along with D and D contradicting themselves and their previous statements.

That's why in the end I think were made so Benioff and Weiss could take a majority of the credit they didn't deserve. They wanted to keep assuring themselves that they were in charge and they were the most important part of the show. By saying the obvious on what's on the screen both showrunners are making it obvious for while making it seem like their own ideas. These would have been more entertaining and informative if the cast and crew had more voice in them, but that would also have a risk for D and D because that would have been a chance for the crew to throw shade at them or say something which could make them look bad.

And there are plenty of other incidents the actors should have been better trated for like Emilia Clarke having two brain aneurysms in the first three seasons of the show, Kit Harrington having to go to therapy after the show ended, the actors having to eat all sorts of terrible and poorly cooked food on and off camera, and as stated before, a lot of the cast given fake, terrible scripts just for a laugh. At this point though I've had enough, I cannot go any further in my controlled rage or something is going to snap in my brain. I hate David Benioff and D. B. Weiss and they never, ever produce another film or TV show. EVER. AGAIN.

Conclusion

So was Game of Thrones Ever that Good? Was it ever that good that we lorded it over all other shows for it's incredible writing, characters, action scenes, and executions, even before the show started to get really bad?

No. It wasn't.

It was very good for the first half of the show, but even then it had its problems. Then when the man behind the books left the show it just went down, down, and down. While the production of the show was always top notch and we all learned to love the characters, even when they were poorly written, the writing and lack of understand of what made the source material so good doomed the show. And sadly, after two years since the show ended, I fear it will not be remembered for its positive traits, but instead it'll a lesson as how not to run and wrap up a show. In the end the showrunners were the least importance in who made Game of Thrones so wonderful, everyone else (the actors, production, special effects, costuming, etc) made the show so wonderful! And for all of that I'm still giving it a strong score despite how utterly brain damaging in the last few seasons were.

Tentative Score: 7.5/10

Definitive Score: 7.5/10

I have a feeling that some people are going to be very upset with my rating of the entire show being so low in their eyes. But I'm trying to be honest and review not just the garbage, but also not just the pure gold. Yes, talked a lot about how David Benioff and D. B. Weis were very terrible showrunners, but they're a small part of Game of Thrones and, as I have stated, everyone else put so much more into their work!

Another thing I have to mention is that Game of Thrones is one of the rare cases where a bad finale had concentrated backlash. This isn't like Star Wars where people argue if it was the writing or mysogeny that doomed the sequel trilogy, but a vast majority point at the writing and the showrunners who wrote the scripts as the ones to blame. So many of us are happy to continue supporting the actors and other people involved in the show because we grew to love them so much and the failure of Game of Thrones was not their fault. I want to see them in more media because they're all just... yah, they're wonderful people.

I'd like to give special thanks to Lindsey Ellis and her epic Game of Thrones critique videos, Savage Books and their video on the dragons of Game of Thrones, and channel The Dragon Demands for their incredibly in-depth investigations into the production of Game of Thrones and their unveilings of how corrupt and inexcusably incompetent David Benioff and D. B. Weiss were as showrunners. God bless you all!

If any of you are interested in reliving Game of Thrones, but never want to watch the show ever again, I recommend watching Gay of Thrones on youtube. It's a comedy series where Jonathan Van Ness (comedian, voice actor, and wonderful figure for LGBTQ rights) summarizes every episode of the show while cutting people's hair. In the later seasons of the show it became the only reason why I was still rewatching it.