They are wrapping up a million story lines. Unless they extended this ten more seasons it will always feel rushed. I don't think it hit the perfect sweet spot like breaking bad did. But it's not bad considering the desire to wrap it up quickly which isn't a bad thing. I feel like we've set up a final run that will be well paced and give a clean ending, and I'd rather they rush early than rush at the end.
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Did Tyrion actually lose his mind when he was travelling to Pentos with Varys? It would explain his sudden inability to make wise decisions.
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they wanted to move on to the south won the civil war project. Then when everyone went WTF, we are not watching that shit idea they moved on to making their own Star Wars triology.
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I keep wondering if maybe the Lannister siblings have some pact between them we don't know about. Doubtful, but I keep wondering after Cersei didn't fill Tyrion full of arrows when she had the chance.
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After witnessing the Army of the Dead I'm not sure how they could make it work, but seeing a whole season under the Long Night could have been awesome.
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They should have had Winterfell get overrun, and several of the main characters flee to King's Landing, offering them strategy to beat the dead in return for asylum.
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Dumb. If they had got past Winterfell every other territory would be open to attack besides Dorne. Their numbers would quadruple and there would be no way to beat them.
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To make the army of the dead a threat without the idiot ball they would of needed to show them doing more than running forward and attacking or standing still.

Edit:

Here is a drawing of the what Norwich castle looked like and this was an early castle of medium importance:


Notice the layered defenses of both earthwork and walls with fall back defenses. Norwich also had a city wall.
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It doesn't matter how big the army of the dead is, because the only way to ever beat them was taking out the night king.
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So you're saying they would have been able to hold off quadruple the size that attacked Winterfell long enough for the NK to show himself in an isolated area? Yeah right. Let it go dummy.
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That's what everything I've read has said.

They were hemmed in a bit at 8 seasons because that's how long the actors contracts ran, but there was nothing that would've prevented them from doing 8 or even 10 episode seasons.

Hubris or fatigue or whatever the case may be, it was the showrunner's call to give themselves so little runway to work with.

Everything that's gone wrong over the last 2 seasons has been a direct results of Benioff and Weiss.
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It would be totally different if HBO said you only have $100 million this year. Thats 6 episodes only because of battles, Ghost, Dragons etc. make it work.


Everything I've read said HBO was ready and willing to spend more money and make it 8-10 episodes. Actors were on board, money approved but D&D were tired. Your fucking tired? You want to move on? Suck it up and finish this correctly.
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Factually, you’re correct.

D&D deserve the blame that they get.

However, I’m assessing most of the blame to Martin. Martin is what made this story great. Martin is the one that made the thing meander instead of move forward. Martin is the one who hasn’t done shit in close to a decade. Martin is the one that signed off on these guys’ Vision.

Even if he’d have gotten off his hindquarters and had more material out there to guide the showrunners I think the ending would be more palatable. But the problems I see are largely a result of the responsibility of taking the thing to a conclusion. D&D suffer that burden, Martin obviously does not. And therein lies the problem.
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So the first 4 episodes I was all excited for the episodes to leak early, give me an idea what's coming. Today I don't give a shit. My excitement is dead, when it should be at its peak.
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Looking more forward to Veep and Barry, TBH.
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