Just needed to get this out there.

[rogueslayer452]

I stopped watching Game of Thrones years ago, like I legit just don't care for it anymore. With this being the final season, with the series finale next weekend, and hearing about the kerfuffle going down and how fandom has been reacting which has been unavoidable since it's been everywhere, I just have this to say:

The show is not the books. The show was never the books. What happens on the show is not canonical to the books.

While there have been some changes made and moments that I liked in the show and while the books themselves aren't exactly perfect and do have issues of their own, the books are 5000% better than whatever the show turned out to be. So whatever has happened so far especially in the final season, and whatever happens in the series finale, just know that the books aren't going to happen the same way (and yeah, I know that GRRM has claimed that it's the same, but he's not been entirely reliable anyway with anything relating to the last two books he hasn't even finished writing yet, so, y'know, take what he says with a grain of salt).

Adaptations are tricky things. Some can turn out to be good even if they deviate a bit from the source material, while others not so good. And unfortunately while Game of Thrones might have started out decent enough with adapting the first book with the first season, it did go downhill after that. There's been many theories as to why, but I personally think that HBO/the showrunners had a completely different agenda from the start that wasn't meant to adapt A Song Of Ice And Fire as it should have been, or at least as what I believe it should have been.

Regardless, the show is almost over. What happens will happen, and we'll just have to hope that GRRM will get on to finishing the last two books so we can see what actually occurs in the end.

And even then, the fanbase for ASOIAF has been having their own fan theories and speculations for the series marinating for so long due to the long delay between the book releases, that I'm sure that even what happens in the final two books won't please everybody and it obviously won't stop them from keeping their particular headcanons. Same with the show, I'm sure. Because that's what fandom does, that's what fandom has always done when they don't agree with canon. So even if you're disappointed or upset or just plain hate everything, just know that you're not alone and that fandom will always thrive with making fanworks and content to fill that void even if GRRM hates it.

Comments

[silverusagi]

You know, I've had this comment in my inbox for like a year. I was going to make a GoT post, as I said, but then I just couldn't be bothered. What's the point of doing it with comments off, and there's no way I'm opening up comments. And at this point (even at the time) everything I could possibly say has already been said. So no post.

I'm sure you've seen Lindsay Ellis' two videos on the GoT ending by now. She lays out everything I hated, much more eloquently.

We're supposed to see Dany as "mad" or "bad" and all of her previous brutal actions are evidence of this, etc. EXCEPT every other character on the show (even the "good" ones) has done just as bad. Arya made people into pies! We're allowed to cheer for that, but nor for Dany killing the slavers. Okay. Everyone in the show operates on a medieval standard of brutality, but we're only supposed to judge Dany for it.

Jon being the true heir was a HUGE fucking deal until it wasn't. If he could have just fucked off North anyway, why couldn't Dany have the throne? When she was alive it was UNSPEAKABLE to not recognize the true king, but after she's dead, NBD to elect a king and let the true king go away. Why is this suddenly an option?

Electing the king was a joke. The bantering of the small council at the end was painful. THESE are the people the realm is left to? Bronn? Really?! So much of the show seemed to be about breaking the cycle, and okay, so we chose the king now, but it's a pretty bleak outlook. The common people have just had their city destroyed, and the council is already bickering about money. This was never a show where "things go on more or less the same" feels like a fitting ending.

In the same vein, Dany's story being about subverting expectations feels like a retcon. The way the show treated her, presented her, and framed her--well, it was like Jon. It felt like a hero's journey. It never felt like it was supposed to be a subversion. Of course, I can't really think of a good subversion at the moment to compare it to. The best I have is Will Graham, who is ostensibly the good guy of the show, and who is definitely presented that way to the viewer, and then he starts to slide, dragging the viewer along with him, even though you're still rooting for him all the while. Dany's story felt like one thing until they decided to pull the rug out from under it at the last minute.

Not sure why Arya was so concerned about Dany when she talked to Jon and Sansa (about Dany not being "one of us") when SHE was also going to fuck off to nowhere. Arya's ending was a thing that I actually liked, but if she's planning on abandoning her family, what does it matter who her family is hanging out with?

As Lindsay said, smart characters got real STUPID in the last season.

And finally, the dragon destroys the throne because obvious symbolism I'm sure the dragon just hated it for some reason.

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

We're supposed to see Dany as "mad" or "bad" and all of her previous brutal actions are evidence of this, etc. EXCEPT every other character on the show (even the "good" ones) has done just as bad.

Exactly. Trying to claim that it's foreshadowing is pointless because, in that case, you could replace her with any other character in the series and that statement would've qualified. And it's true that the show framed Dany as being a hero from the beginning, she made some missteps along the way but that's part of the hero's journey. Pulling the bait-and-switch at the very end to "subvert audience expectations" is not clever, it's just insulting, to the characters, the intelligence of the audience, and to narrative storytelling as a whole. Furthermore, everything that happened in the last season made me dislike the Starks and the way they were portrayed. I didn't expect them to be best friends with Dany, but considering the harrowing journeys they went through I can see them empathizing with one another and understanding that they have common goals and similarities. And yet somehow it turned into pitting girls against each other thing, which I hated because it really made no sense. They truly tried to alienate Dany as much as possible so she could be viewed as "the dangerous other" so that her death would seem like a karmic victory, not a tragedy.

Then again, we know that Dumb and Dumber just never were fans of the books. They outright admitted their incompetence in a proud manner, never truly understanding the characters or the point of the story. And it makes the series wholly unwatchable after the result of the eighth season.

In a way it makes me angrier knowing that the show was handled by these two clowns in the first place. This is a very dense series that needed people who knew and understood the point of the story to make it work. And yet, with everything revealed about how they got the job, how despite their inexperience with running a show and refusing to have anyone else write for the show besides themselves they couldn't just fire them for whatever reason, and they got recognized for something becoming so worldwide popular only for it to foil in the latter seasons, which by that time they were so done with it and didn't care whether they haphazardly ended it because they got their money, their recognition, and wanted to do other things that would bring them more money. This was merely a networking opportunity for them, nothing more, and it's just so infuriating how little care they placed into it. We were all fooled by that first season, and although I stopped watching a couple of seasons into the show, I can't help but feel bad for those who stuck with it until the very end, despite the bad writing and horrific direction, hoping that somehow it all works out in the end.

I'm just glad that Emilia Clarke still defends Dany, and has been quite supportive of the fans who were displeased with the final season (unlike some of the other actors who act like fans who have voiced their displeasure of the direction of the show in the final season to be "entitled"). You can tell that she was deeply affected by what happened to her character, and it makes my heart hurt for her knowing that she was finding strength and courage in Dany only for that 180 to happen. I'm happy that she's able to find that positivity with other fans who are supporting her, and I will always love Dany no matter what. She deserved better, and I'm glad that a good chunk of people out there agree. Even people who weren't initially Dany fans ended up being upset over the way her character was handled.

[silverusagi]

I didn't expect them to be best friends with Dany, but considering the harrowing journeys they went through I can see them empathizing with one another and understanding that they have common goals and similarities

I'm still astounded how everyone in Westeros didn't seem to care about the existential threat of the White Walkers. Cersei was like no big deal, and Sansa was happy to use Dany for her dragons and then toss her aside. Everyone would have been DEAD without the dragons.

Dany's story of not getting along with nobles but having the support of the people was one that I was sure would be repeated in Westeros. How could everyone not love the person who saved them from the ice zombies, etc? Her having the means to defeat the White Walkers just seemed like the obvious way she would end up on the throne. But we didn't get any of that because subversion.

Also, Cersei was a stone cold bitch and deserved a better death than crying and having a ceiling fall on her. I wanted her to go out like a BAMF.

Also, disappointed that Arya turned away from her revenge quest at the last second.

They outright admitted their incompetence in a proud manner, never truly understanding the characters or the point of the story.

I know. That whole thing was so cringeworthy. And I know that they changed things in earlier seasons, too, but once they were left to their own devices and didn't have source material anymore, it completely went off the rails.

I'm just glad that Emilia Clarke still defends Dany, and has been quite supportive of the fans who were displeased with the final season

I always feel bad for actors who get stuck on shows that gradually turn to trash, or whose characters just slide further and further into OOC. I mean, it's a paycheck, but I have to wonder about the satisfaction of doing something that isn't as great as it used to be (SPN, I'm also looking in your direction).

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

I'm still astounded how everyone in Westeros didn't seem to care about the existential threat of the White Walkers.

Seriously. And I mean, they did the entire White Walker arc so dirty by basically making everything about them useless and to be destroyed easily, especially with them being such an looming threat the entire series, but to not have the characters care all that much? That makes zero sense. Here's an unknown entity that is threatening Westeros and all you can do is just shrug your shoulders and go, "welp"? WTF?

And I still can't after them blaming the dragons, and, who was it, Tormund? Who was like, "I don't trust anyone who rides a dragon" or something like that and I'm just like BITCH YOU RODE A DRAGON WHEN DANY SAVED YOUR ASS FROM THE WHITE WALKERS!

Also, Cersei was a stone cold bitch and deserved a better death than crying and having a ceiling fall on her. I wanted her to go out like a BAMF.

That was such a disservice to the character, I still can't believe they gave her a weakass death.

I mean, we can rant for hours about the injustice the show did not just in the final season but just overall throughout the show's run, but basically this was a story that deserved better showrunners/writers. There was just so much wrong with what they did, it's kind of amazing how they fucked up and how much they just don't care, like at all.

I mean, it's a paycheck, but I have to wonder about the satisfaction of doing something that isn't as great as it used to be (SPN, I'm also looking in your direction).

There are some shows, SPN included, where I'm very curious to hear about an actor's thoughts about it after its done and they're no longer underneath contract. Some actors might not want to burn bridges, but there are some who will state discreetly their opinions on certain things (and others that don't give a fuck and will go off the rails and rant about things). I mean, for some of them it is a steady paycheck but sometimes I wonder if they regretted signing their contracts (or extending their contracts) and if it prevented them from doing other things that they might've wanted to pursue.

I know that for some Game of Thrones actors, particularly those that had their characters killed off (esp when the characters were still alive in the books), they had some...choice words about it. Really, there needs to be compilation of all the actors who had negative experiences on that show and spoke about it, whether in a discreet manner or not.

[silverusagi]

they did the entire White Walker arc so dirty by basically making everything about them useless and to be destroyed easily, especially with them being such an looming threat the entire series

I know! They literally opened the series with them, and then you've got the whole winter is coming thing, but no one actually seems concerned? It was such a rush job at the end that all of the mythology and world building that had been built up didn't matter and there was no one magical left alive to comment on it or even talk about it. Like, 'oh the curse has been broken' etc. For a song of 'ice and fire' it spent more time at the end on politics (that didn't even make sense!) than it did on the worldbuilding.

And I still can't after them blaming the dragons, and, who was it, Tormund? Who was like, "I don't trust anyone who rides a dragon" or something like that and I'm just like BITCH YOU RODE A DRAGON

The whole populace just had to be against Dany because of Reasons. And I mean, it's not like I think everyone has to like Dany because I like her, but it needs to MAKE SENSE! It made no sense that everyone hated her so much.

Some actors might not want to burn bridges, but there are some who will state discreetly their opinions on certain things (and others that don't give a fuck and will go off the rails and rant about things).

This reminds me of Robert Pattinson, who clearly had no fucks to give about Edward and Bella. It was really kind of hilarious.