Game of Thrones is one of the most significant pieces of media of the last decade. It marked new possibilities as far as scale and production values were concerned and continued to provide the watercooler experience that streaming was increasingly denying audiences right up until the end of its run. I think the most important thing Game of Thrones did towards the end was open up a conversation about fan expectations. When David Benioff and D.B. Weiss started to go off-book after season 4, the show notably began to decline in terms of what people were getting out of it. Season 5 was fine but often felt like a slog with the overlong Dorne plot and tiresome use of rape as plot progression, but by season 6, it seemed like the showrunners had much more of a handle on things. Episodes like The Door and The Broken Man were able to draw so much emotion out of big character moments, and the one-two-punch of The Battle of the Bastards and The Winds of Winter felt unparalleled in terms of anything Thrones had done before. And then the last two seasons happened.
Season 7 wasn't bad, but it was short, and often felt like it was compressing ten episodes worth of information into its fairly restricting seven chapters. But let's talk about the elephant in the room: season 8. You've probably read the title by now and I should say up top that I don't think season 8 is perfect. This isn't me telling you how wrong you are or blaming fans for having expectations; I just think so much has been written about where this season went wrong that honestly I think it's time to celebrate what it nailed. The eight season started a really interesting discussion about potential vs. payoff that I think is really fascinating, and along the way it delivered some of the most contentious story beats the show ever saw. But for all of the genuine, absolutely valid issues people have with GOT 8, I have a hard time hating it. In fact, I actually quite like it for the most part. Let's get into why.
I guess I should lay some groundwork, and take this opportunity to say that this post features heavy, frequent spoilers. Just in case you don't know anything about the show or its ending, now's your chance to make like Theon at the end of Stormborn and jump ship. With that out of the way, let's dive in. Season 8 is the culmination of a show who's writers literally came up with half of the story themselves after faithfully adapting the books for four seasons. That's always going to run the risk of being messy, and the detractors of the final season raise some good points. The show butchers the arcs of several characters, from Jaime's nonsensical decision to go back to Cersei to Daenerys going full Mad Queen at the last minute. Winter feels like a slight anticlimax and Cersei is totally undone as a threatening antagonist. Those are the genuine misteps the show makes, and I think they all come down to the shorter length. There just isn't room in six episodes to fit in all of the plot beats the show needs to have a perfect ending. And yet, for six episodes, they could have done a hell of a lot worse.
If you look at most of the problems in this season, they're mainly in the second half. It feels compressed and awkward, especially unfortunate for a show that took its time in establishing a larger world and the forces at play within it. And although the threat of Winter felt cut short, those first three episodes are damn strong taken on their own. Winterfell is a solid reintroduction, the show's final piecemover episode that really doesn't do a bad job at getting these characters where they need to be, even if it does retcon the Greyjoy plot. But the two episodes that follow it are, for me, the season's crown jewel, and genuinely rank among some of the best stuff Game of Thrones has done. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is masterful, reminding you how much you care about the characters while giving each of them a moment to breath before they face death. It's a glorious hour of television that, regardless of what comes after it, does a great job of building anticipation and reminding you why you cared in the first place. It's light on action but if you've made it this far there's absolutely going to be something for you here.
And then there's The Long Night. Dark lighting aside, it's actually a really strong battle episode. Yeah, some of the decisions feel slightly random (Arya killing the Night King in particular could have been set up better), but it still feels like the huge midseason confrontation the show needed. Watching this episode again, the action itself is thrilling and well put together, making great use of location, especially when the characters are dodging and ducking around the halls of Winterfell. Far from hollow spectacle, the action rings true because it respects the connection you've built with these characters over seven seasons. Is it a slightly neat conclusion to such a huge threat? Maybe, but it's such an effective way of bridging together everything that made the show engaging that, despite the fact that it's admittedly too dark, it still has its moments of genuine satisfaction that outweigh every strange decision
And although the two episodes after it drop the ball, they're far from awful. The Last of the Starks has some lovely character moments and a genuinely effective ending, while The Bells compensates for its lapses in logic with great action and effective (if slightly unearned) shocks. The Bells is by far the weakest episode of the season but I still think it delivers some of the best acting the show has seen, and some massive scrapes that channel what Thrones does at its best. The Last Watch especially made me appreciate the level of work that went into every moment of this season, and even at its worst, I can't bring myself to hate it, because so much of that effort paid off
Even the ending feels right. I don't agree with every decision- especially not Bran winning the Throne- but it feels right for a show that was built on denying people what they wanted. It lacked the level of lethality of previous seasons but GOT has always been unpredictable and unflinching in how it subverted expectations. Dany's demise- unlike her sudden descent into evil- feels earned and set-up well within the episode it happens in. The show keeps the focus on the politics of Westeros right up until the last minute, and if it doesn't always work, it's hard to say any of it feels wrong. It's just crazy how quick people were to dismiss it when it's mildly disappointing at worst. At its best, it still feels on brand for Thrones, and those last few character moments leave so much to stew on. It really feels like the story will continue beyond the show, from Jon's journey to the North to the new Small Council having their awkward first meeting. For a show so big, it always knew when to skew smaller
So yeah, I don't hate the eighth season of Game of Thrones. It's not perfect, and I have my problems with it, but so much has been made of what this installment did wrong that I think that its virtues have gotten lost in the blur. It just seemed like such a kneejerk reaction where the disappointment people felt towards certain decisions clouded their opinion on the show as a whole, including everything before the last season. Ultimately, I think that time will be kind Game of Thrones, especially as people revisit the show in years to come and accept the ending as part of the journey. Will I always defend this last season so passionately? Ask me again in 10 years
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