They proved themselves quite capable of adapting strong source material.

Hopefully GRRM and an editor who is a stickler for deadlines agreed to script their Star Wars movies.
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You were talking about what they did after they ran out of source material....

Keep GRRM away from Star Wars. I want him to finish the books. He's already part of production for FIVE upcoming tv series right now.
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I was being tongue and cheek about GRRM. It was more of me saying that they need a strong writers' room.

I do have doubts that they can write a coherent narrative from the ground up. With strong scripts, they'll make strong movies. The question is whether they have a good script between them.
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I dunno how the more dedicated fantasy fans delineate things, but obviously audiences were okay with accepting a world with flying fire-breathing lizards, resurrection in spite of multiple stab wounds, telepathy/telekinesis, ice zombies and Carice van Houten giving birth to a smoke-monster assassin.

If anything they fucked up by not having more magic involved in some other points as long as they didn't allow them to be obvious deus ex machinas.
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Well Benioff did write Troy and X-men Origins: Wolverine.

But he did also write 25th Hour. Which was pretty good. But a long time ago, and based on his own novel.
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Benioff's Origins got re-written by Skip Woods, who among other things, penned A Good Day to Die Hard. It then got re-written again by two other writers.

Benioff deserves criticism for Season 7 and Season 8. A lot of it. But he does have writing chops, as City of Thieves is a fantastic work as well.
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And 5. And 6. If we're talking about Game of Thrones going off the rails. It started all the way back then. Decisions he made once Martin's work was passed led directly to last Sunday.

He's done some good stuff. He's done some bad. Hopefully Star Wars is on the right side of the ledger. We're suffered enough there already.
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I was fine with the final outcomes but felt it was a bit rushed.

We saw really nothing from Bran that would lead me to believe people would have confidence in him as king.

Also Grey Worm had probably the most power in Westeros at the end. I didn't really buy the whole I'll just sail off and leave thing. He could have continued the plan himself. Also with Dani gone how long till the Dothraki start terrorizing the city. Would have loved to see them and the Unsullied turn on each other leaving no one with a dominant army.

I felt like the season could have used one or two more episodes so things didn't feel so rushed at the end. I feel like this episode could have ended with Jon killing Dani and having the ramifications of that taking an episode or two more. Maybe give something to lead me to believe Bran was the best choice.
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They missed an opportunity to bring Rakharo back at the beginning of Season 6 with the Dothraki. He could have been the "face" of the Dothraki and could have disagreed with Grey Worm's assessment of Jon (hell, they could have united behind Jon). But, because the Dothraki were this sort of plot device to be an army when needed (King's Landing) and gone when not (Winterfell), they just sort of "disappeared" in the finale.
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Not sure what all has been said, as I'm not going to read back that far, but...

I thought that Dani dying in the thrown room, and the lead up of her walking to the thrown were a good throw back to the vision she had much earlier in the series where she approached the throne in what appeared to be snow (must have been ash) but turns away before she touches it to go outside to a tent where Drogo and their son were waiting for her, was cool. I thought that burning the throne was cool. Didn't like how she was merely picked up and carried away. I thought he would let Jon mount him and carry him to safety.

Wasn't enough closure with the Unsullied. They're going to sail off to their own island and, what? None of them can have children. They're all just going to grow old and die staring at each other? And the Dothraki? What of them?

The fast forward from Jon killing Dani to everyone being gathered to determine the fate of the kingdoms was very....abrupt. Then, the Lords and Ladies meet, Tyrion recommends Bran out of nowhere to be king, everyone agrees, and then everything is revealed through Tyrion visiting Jon? All in the matter of about five minutes? Lame.

I do think it was pretty predictable that Sansa would rule the North, so I thought it was cool.

Jon going North with the Wildlings was good, too, I just didn't like that he was banished to the Wall. What Wall? What is it for now? It used to be to keep the Wildlings out, but aren't they all friends now?

And Arya goes from assassin to wanderer? I realize she has pretty much been a wanderer all along, but she was a wanderer with a purpose. Now she sails out just because?

And Bronn becomes Keeper of the Coin? Seriously? I did love Podrick as a knight though.

I really wanted to like the finale, but there was just a little too much "WTF?" for me.
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So as I go through the list and synopsis of all the episodes of GOT as a sort of re-telling of the story, I've decided that I can split them into about 3 tiers.

There are probably 25 truly excellent episodes; stuff that is a testament to what Television can be if you put the time, money and effort into it.

There are a hair over 30 'fine' episodes. They work. They don't actively suck and when considered in concert with the rest of the series, they're more than adequate. If they don't bring up the brand, they certainly don't hurt it.

There are about 15 that just flat-out sucked.

And I think that if you polled 100 GoT fans, they'd actually come up with a similar breakdown but weirdly, they'd pick different episodes than I would.

That's a pretty solid ratio, really. Better than most. And season 5 has the majority of those clunkers (man season 5 was bad).
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You want a good series; but you need the bad pussyyyyyyy
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This is a pretty decent watch. The analysis, if you buy it, point out some things that might soften the hard edges of the writing.

Most notably:
1. Postulating that THIS is the reason he was resurrected by the Lord of Light. Dany is the darkness he must defeat.

2. Points out that the faceoff with Drogon before he ganks her is more than just a pretty picture. Drogon is protecting Dany. It postulates Jon gets by because he is a Targaryen and literally the only person who can get by Drogon to do the ganking.

3. The callback to what Maester Aemon said about love is the death of duty I took at face value. It reminds that Aemon foreshadowed this decision in their conversation, even though Jon thought it was about Ned. It also draws some nice symmetry between the 2 transfers of power with Robert dying and Cersei dying and Jon chooses duty both times. It also points out the parallels between Aemon and Jon. Both were the rightful heir, both stepped aside and took the black for a younger family member to rule.

4. Also points out some subtlety in the filming that I missed. When Jon approaches Dany, she starts to turn towards him, but lets her eyes linger on the throne, noting her obcession. And when she tells that cute story about counting to 20, I thought the writers were tyring to make her more relatable before the ganking. He points out that it isn't trying to be cute, it just is, because she is cute. He points out that is part of the insanity - being deluded.

5. It also points out all the foreshadowing of people telling him that he holds the choice.

Pretty good watch, and points out some things that I missed that do indeed help soften the harsh edges of some of the writing.


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What doesn't help soften the blow is listening to GRRM talk about how he wanted 10 seasons but how he lost and they wouldn't go past 7 (and 'season 8' really was just the back half of 7...).

I tell you, the more I watch GRRM and D&D both talk, the more convinced I am that he had basically nothing to do with the show after he quit writing for them following season 4. I'm not sure whether there was a falling-out or not (I suspect there was) but I think he's just too polite and/or professional to throw them under the bus for what they did to his IP once they ran out of book material. He'll start to say something then spin off. Which is good since it wouldn't really do anything positive for him and he's got a lot of work going with HBO.
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Pretty sure those dudes are ready to spin their game of thrones success into other highly paid jobs while the hype is still there. Probably felt at 10 seasons they might wear out their welcome and miss out on paydays.
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