[spoilers]
At last it's over, although 'at last' may not be the right phrase given how rapidly - relative to what come before it - the last two seasons often seemed to chew through their plots.
Having spent so much time watching this show, not to mention consuming often quite detailed online commentary about it, it's hard to distil my feelings about this last season and its ending, but basically it was satisfying enough for me. I liked that the defeat of the Night King wasn't the climax, that nor was an 'all the good guys team up and beat Cersei' scenario, and that Jon Snow didn't end up the ruler of the Seven Kingdoms (or even King in the North), and I also liked where most of the characters' arcs ended up. Dany's is obviously the most difficult, and I can see how it would have been a fine balance over several seasons to lay some groundwork for where she ends up without it seemingly overly foreshadowed as an inevitability, but I don't think there was enough spadework done there and particularly given the extra degree of difficulty involved in portraying a '(strong) woman descends into madness' arc; for me the way that turn is depicted is the weakest part of this last season and how the show ends.
All up I do think Game of Thrones has been pretty great basically all the way through, even if some of the story-telling and characterisation has been rickety as it's attempted to bring things towards its close. One of the best and most notorious things about it has been the way it's subverted various types of expectation, and with the benefit of seeing how it's now played out as a whole, I don't think it's fair to criticise the show for not having held more left turns or - in particular - killing off more of its main (and, especially, sympathetic) characters through its mid to late section until right near the end. Much of its 'subversiveness' has always been in relation to familiar notions of good triumphing over evil by virtue of nobility, and associated fantasy and general story-telling archetypes, while highlighting the role that power, manipulation/scheming, pragmatism and a willingness to act immorally, and chance and circumstance all play in people's lives and ultimate fates - and I don't think the ending is especially inconsistent with those structuring themes that have tun through the show ... I don't think the show's relatively amoral worldview requires it to give its sympathetic characters unhappy endings.
Two good articles criticising the way it ends: on its shift from sociological to psychological storytelling, and on the type of experience - including of terror and horror - that the show provided in its earlier seasons.
The other thing for me is that I'm not that demanding a viewer when it comes to extended epic-type storytelling. I'm willing to overlook plenty of flaws for something that looks and feels great, and at the episode and technical level, season 8 did all the way through, just like the show as a whole, with many (many) characters, scenes and plot through-lines to linger.
Previously: seasons 1 (and again), 2, 3, 4 and 5, then 1-6, 6 again, then 7 (and maybe 7 again but unrecorded?).
At last it's over, although 'at last' may not be the right phrase given how rapidly - relative to what come before it - the last two seasons often seemed to chew through their plots.
Having spent so much time watching this show, not to mention consuming often quite detailed online commentary about it, it's hard to distil my feelings about this last season and its ending, but basically it was satisfying enough for me. I liked that the defeat of the Night King wasn't the climax, that nor was an 'all the good guys team up and beat Cersei' scenario, and that Jon Snow didn't end up the ruler of the Seven Kingdoms (or even King in the North), and I also liked where most of the characters' arcs ended up. Dany's is obviously the most difficult, and I can see how it would have been a fine balance over several seasons to lay some groundwork for where she ends up without it seemingly overly foreshadowed as an inevitability, but I don't think there was enough spadework done there and particularly given the extra degree of difficulty involved in portraying a '(strong) woman descends into madness' arc; for me the way that turn is depicted is the weakest part of this last season and how the show ends.
All up I do think Game of Thrones has been pretty great basically all the way through, even if some of the story-telling and characterisation has been rickety as it's attempted to bring things towards its close. One of the best and most notorious things about it has been the way it's subverted various types of expectation, and with the benefit of seeing how it's now played out as a whole, I don't think it's fair to criticise the show for not having held more left turns or - in particular - killing off more of its main (and, especially, sympathetic) characters through its mid to late section until right near the end. Much of its 'subversiveness' has always been in relation to familiar notions of good triumphing over evil by virtue of nobility, and associated fantasy and general story-telling archetypes, while highlighting the role that power, manipulation/scheming, pragmatism and a willingness to act immorally, and chance and circumstance all play in people's lives and ultimate fates - and I don't think the ending is especially inconsistent with those structuring themes that have tun through the show ... I don't think the show's relatively amoral worldview requires it to give its sympathetic characters unhappy endings.
Two good articles criticising the way it ends: on its shift from sociological to psychological storytelling, and on the type of experience - including of terror and horror - that the show provided in its earlier seasons.
The other thing for me is that I'm not that demanding a viewer when it comes to extended epic-type storytelling. I'm willing to overlook plenty of flaws for something that looks and feels great, and at the episode and technical level, season 8 did all the way through, just like the show as a whole, with many (many) characters, scenes and plot through-lines to linger.
Previously: seasons 1 (and again), 2, 3, 4 and 5, then 1-6, 6 again, then 7 (and maybe 7 again but unrecorded?).
