As a fan of George R.R. Martin's source material and HBO's Game of Thrones for the past 12 or so years, I felt utterly betrayed by Season 8. While the show certainly delivered its characteristic shock-value, it was empty. When it delivered character movement, it was a contradiction to previous build-up over the prior seven seasons. The writers of this season were so concerned at arriving at a preconceived destination that they entirely forgot how to chart logical story progression, which greatly ruined the final end. The very embrace of the spectacular that Thrones embraced worked to its detriment: as seasons progressed, writers took zanier routes to plot that culminated in the colossal mistakes seen in Season 8. The decision to turn Seasons 7 & 8 into 13, rather than 20, episodes was a catastrophic error with no logical reasoning.
Spoilers ahead as I dismantle what I believe were tragic betrayals to our main characters.
1. Jon Snow — Jon Snow's ending was fine. His treatment in Season 8, however, was far from it. The moral hero who saved Westeros twice and killed legions of wights was castrated into an aloof servant of Dany, who knew few words beyond "She's my queen." His entire redemption arc from bastard castaway in the Night's Watch, to a valiant hero and rightful heir to the Iron Throne (Aegon Targaryen) lead where? Back to the Night's Watch....
Where were the foreshadowed prophesies that Martin and previous seasons loved hinting at—Azor Ahai / Prince Who Was Promised, etc? After years of buildup with the Night's King, from cunning stares after Hardhome to near death at Eastwatch by the Sea, Jon's prophetic destiny was erased by the writers.
2. Night's King + Wights — the most beloved MacGuffins in recent history. Although they appeared in the pilot and subsequent episodes, the writers never knew how to handle the Undead. There would be stretches of half a season without any mention of these characters, only for us to get a glance at their seemingly-eternal marches towards civilization. The slow buildup of these characters was intriguing for an ultimate good-vs-evil matchup that Jon Snow and Dany began to fight in Season 7, but ultimately this too was a misdirect. Instead of an elegant battle, the Night King, and the audience, was killed in surprise.
3. Daenerys Targaryen — a likely, yet monumentally-mishandled ending. Dany's treatment in Season 8 is rightfully scorned by audiences, as the execution was fatally-contrived. The show has done mere hinting at her tyrannical tendencies for a 70+ hour series, while promoting all her actions with swelling musical scores and character affections. Her descent into madness was poetic, Shakespearean even, but not earned. The writers embraced Dany as a 'breaker of chains,' who subsequently burned a city filled with one million largely-innocent citizens, because she was angry at Cersei? Couldn't she have only burned the Red Keep where Cersei was hiding?
I had predicted Dany would eventually turn shades of evil due to some of the hints seen before and the source material, but the degree to which they performed this transformation was an utter failure.
4. Bran Stark — the most boring character in the show's run. Bran was another awful writing product, as he would go largely absent for seasons-at-a-time to the audience's neutrality since his narrative was so dull. And yet, Tyrion declares in the finale that "no one has a better story than Bran." Really?
Sansa going from a haughty princess, to defiled housewife, to wise ruler isn't a compelling story?
Ser Davos going from Flea Bottom, to Onion Knight, to a loyal servant of the realm isn't strong?
Even Arya, who didn't want to rule (like Bran), who went from a weak little girl, to outcast, to a skilled assassin of heroic biddings is too weak of a tale?
The election of Bran, the boy who famously said after Sansa declared him Lord of Winterfell, “I can never be Lord of Winterfell. I can never be lord of anything. I’m the Three-Eyed Raven.” And yet, here in the finale, he explains to Tyrion, "Why do you think I came all this way?" These two statements are diametrically-opposed to one another, just like many other portrayals this season (esp. Dany and Jaime). To humor the doltish writers, if Bran waited to come to King's Landing for the Throne as he suggests in the finale, he must be sadistic, since he had seen the vision of Drogon over King's Landing back in Season 4, and did absolutely nothing to prevent the slaughter of millions.
5. Jaime Lannister — a reed blowing in the wind. All the effort used to convert Jaime into a sympathetic antihero over seven seasons was crushed under a load of rubble in Season 8. The Kingslayer who left King's Landing to abandon Cersei's diabolical plan and fight for the living soon leaves those very forces to return to Cersei. Why? Because love, as the show explains it, which is as unsatisfying an answer as it was in Interstellar. Jaime killed Aerys II because he wanted to look out for the realm. He freed Tyrion to look out for the realm. He left Cersei to look out for the realm. The writer's decision to throw him back to Cersei was a clueless choice that stunted his growth immediately, leaving him a shell of his former complexity.
Let me be clear, Season 8 was not all bad—it had some terrific moments, from the many intimate scenes in Episode 2, to Bronn's defense of brothels in Episode 6. All the technical achievements of Thrones, from cinematography to special effects, are rightfully lauded as exceptional and game-changing for television expectations. The ends for many characters were not surprising either, but the path the writers took to arrive there was both maddening and inconsistent with the narratives they had built over seven seasons. The tough nature of television is that series are only as good as their endings in the public's memory, and the closure that Weiss and Benioff provided for Game of Thrones tastes as sour as Joffrey's poison. Alas, my watch has ended while I wait for G.R.R.M to finish his magnum opus.
Sean Kelso is the editor-in-chief of CUFPe.