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It's amazing how the ending of GoT completely killed its influence on pop culture

Catphish

Member
In the end, the showrunners stopped caring. So I did, too.

I was prepared to be a fan for a long time. Now, I just consider it a complete and unfortunate waste of my time, as do many of my friends who followed it. No one talks about it anymore, but when they do, it's never nice. :)

If I were GRRM, I think I'd be kinda pissed. Of course he's loaded now, but I have to think that the creator of such a magnificent world would much prefer its legacy be a positive one, regardless of how much money he made from it. His baby had a shot at legendary status, only to see it shit itself and faceplant down the home-stretch.

+1 to Wasted Potential
 

Kadayi

Banned
It was a totally fucking miserable show that ended miserably. The primary focus was on sex, murder, betrayal, deception, and war.

It's not that the last or last couple seasons were bad, they just weren't Martin's word for word dialogue that was used in most of the early seasons.

The biggest flaw was format change. They shortened the seasons on their fan base TWICE. And what was the overall reaction? Disappointing, unexplained, and felt rushed. Because it was.

This isn't about bad material it's about having no material at all and winging it.

Well, I think it's fair to say that when D&D & HBO penned the agreement with GRRM and gave him a production credit on the show and with a good 6 season advantage (plus pre-production time) they were probably both expecting him to concentrate on finishing ASOIAF so they'd have some material to work from in the later seasons, whereas instead of doing that the Fat Lazy Fuck opted to do anything but, to the point of widescale popular ridicule: -

SHOzAZW.gif


Instead of knuckling down and doing the work to bring his opus to a conclusion, he squandered his time on tie-ins (The world of Ice & Fire) with the gruesome twosome from Westeros.org whose appearance in his life as 'fact-checkers' is coincidentally around the same time his turnaround took a massive nosedive as well as the overall quality of his output (AFFC & ADWD are a turgid mess). Plus the Fire & Blood book (which absolutely no one was hankering for). But of course the faithful would hear his yearly Mea Culpas about how TWOW was delayed and give him a pass so he could feel free to fuck about for another year and make no progress, because after all Neil Gaiman told them 'He's not your bitch' (Good job Gaiman you enabler).

Did D&D fuck up? Sure the events of Season 7 & 8 needed more time to breathe (probably over another season). However, given the writers were basically working off an outline at that juncture it's hard to know what else they could do., which wouldn't have necessarily come across as circling the runway. Plus who knows what kind of demented contractual obligations they might have been under from GRRMs side regarding how far they could stray off the path.

Still, I have noticed a lot of popular narrative creep doing the rounds wherein there's this idea that GRRM is somehow the Prince who was promised whose going to sweep in with the books to save things: -


I can't help but feel that when it comes to the blame game, this Penny Arcade Comic is kind of applicable: -

-rmsK5i7NqerPkG6RaH2fQjqu2ooKv7s-JcLdTeKNxU.jpg
 
Danearys shouldnt have switched to the dark side and the Night King should've killed... pretty much everyone.
The deus ex, happy ending stuff was fairytale BS. GoT should've done better. I can see why the show has been largely forgotten.
 
D

Deleted member 1159

Unconfirmed Member
It was so bad it made me not care for Winds of Winter anymore... apparently it comes put this year

The last book came out in the first year I was dating my now wife. We'll have our 10th anniversary this year.
 
The last two truncated seasons completely erased all the good the first six seasons did. All because they were in a rush to finish it. I'll never understand that. If Benioff and Weiss wanted to move on to other projects, bring in other show runners. The show should've and could've gone on for 10 seasons to finish it up. Instead we got two rushed seasons to get to a shitty conclusion.

And yeah, people have moved on. I know I have. I'm much more looking forward to the next seasons of WestWorld and The Witcher. I'm not even that excited for the GoT spin-off at this point.
 

Kreen101

Member
Up until the last two seasons, the writing was unconventional: it didn't follow Hollywood storytelling tropes. You could tell it came from the mind of a true original whose aim was to be an author of literature, not a writer of Hollywood scripts.

The last two seasons were written by writers of Hollywood scripts.
 

Fbh

Member
The deus ex, happy ending stuff was fairytale BS. GoT should've done better. I can see why the show has been largely forgotten.

Man that final episode was so bad. It's not like I needed some super dark "everyone dies" ending. But the final 30 minutes were some Disney channel tier stuff.
One of those final scenes where Tyrion has a meeting with everyone and they just joke around, and Bronn is the master of coin for some reason and it's all fun and giggles felt so out of place for what this show had been for years.
 
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thequestion

Member
When Little Finger died, so did my interest in the show. The poor quality of the last two seasons transformed a disinterest into strong distaste for the show. In fact, those last two seasons made it so I won’t buy and rewatch any of the earlier seasons - there’s no point - non of the main storylines have any kind of satisfying payoff.
 

EverydayBeast

ChatGPT 0.001
What influence? It's just hours filled with a ancient knight show, we've seen shows come and go with large amounts of success.
 
Same thing happened with Lost, it was a huge cultural phenomenon, with some people even comparing it to Star Wars, then it had a disappointing ending and has now been forgotten.
 

highrider

Banned
I would have to say that with all of the build up with the white walkers and night king, it was so mysterious and cool, and the way it ended was just like 😕 like you would almost have to be like, ok how can we make this as anticlimactic as possible 🤔
 

rofif

Can’t Git Gud
And I still cannot fully understand why... since I loved the last season and most of stuff that happened.
The build up to her actions started in season 1. Why were people so surprised... Then I asked my gf to finish the got and she also loved it.
I mean... I can see the arguments and why people hate it but at the same time it became such a meme to hate on it, that the hate appears itself. Even I feel like an idiot for "liking this thing that whole internet dislikes"
 

Turnt

Member
Well, I think it's fair to say that when D&D & HBO penned the agreement with GRRM and gave him a production credit on the show and with a good 6 season advantage (plus pre-production time) they were probably both expecting him to concentrate on finishing ASOIAF so they'd have some material to work from in the later seasons, whereas instead of doing that the Fat Lazy Fuck opted to do anything but, to the point of widescale popular ridicule: -

SHOzAZW.gif


Instead of knuckling down and doing the work to bring his opus to a conclusion, he squandered his time on tie-ins (The world of Ice & Fire) with the gruesome twosome from Westeros.org whose appearance in his life as 'fact-checkers' is coincidentally around the same time his turnaround took a massive nosedive as well as the overall quality of his output (AFFC & ADWD are a turgid mess). Plus the Fire & Blood book (which absolutely no one was hankering for). But of course the faithful would hear his yearly Mea Culpas about how TWOW was delayed and give him a pass so he could feel free to fuck about for another year and make no progress, because after all Neil Gaiman told them 'He's not your bitch' (Good job Gaiman you enabler).

Did D&D fuck up? Sure the events of Season 7 & 8 needed more time to breathe (probably over another season). However, given the writers were basically working off an outline at that juncture it's hard to know what else they could do., which wouldn't have necessarily come across as circling the runway. Plus who knows what kind of demented contractual obligations they might have been under from GRRMs side regarding how far they could stray off the path.

Still, I have noticed a lot of popular narrative creep doing the rounds wherein there's this idea that GRRM is somehow the Prince who was promised whose going to sweep in with the books to save things: -


I can't help but feel that when it comes to the blame game, this Penny Arcade Comic is kind of applicable: -

-rmsK5i7NqerPkG6RaH2fQjqu2ooKv7s-JcLdTeKNxU.jpg

Did Martin roll over your dog or something? You always seem to have so much vitriol for him.
 

Karma Jawa

Member
And I still cannot fully understand why... since I loved the last season and most of stuff that happened.
The build up to her actions started in season 1. Why were people so surprised... Then I asked my gf to finish the got and she also loved it.
I mean... I can see the arguments and why people hate it but at the same time it became such a meme to hate on it, that the hate appears itself. Even I feel like an idiot for "liking this thing that whole internet dislikes"

I thought the White Walker battle and sacking of King’s Landing episodes were mostly brilliant. For me the issue is that GoT had always been about the slow build towards the dramatic conclusion. The last two seasons were noticeably on fast forward, which was a completely different tone to the previous seasons.
 

rofif

Can’t Git Gud
I thought the White Walker battle and sacking of King’s Landing episodes were mostly brilliant. For me the issue is that GoT had always been about the slow build towards the dramatic conclusion. The last two seasons were noticeably on fast forward, which was a completely different tone to the previous seasons.
yes the last seasons were on fast forward... but remember for how many seasons the army of white walkers marched and winter was coming. The pacing was always off but they got people used to slower pacing
 

Karma Jawa

Member
yes the last seasons were on fast forward... but remember for how many seasons the army of white walkers marched and winter was coming. The pacing was always off but they got people used to slower pacing

No argument from me. The ending was spectacularly shit.
 

BadBurger

Many “Whelps”! Handle It!
Pretty much, talk about crashing and burning as creators. They drove that gold mine right into the ground. This should be a property that would generate millions a year in DVD and Bluray sales a year for a decade or more, instead those dumb ass writers murdered the franchise.

It really shows just how hacky these guys are.
 

Kadayi

Banned
Did Martin roll over your dog or something? You always seem to have so much vitriol for him.

Do I detect a defender of the book faithful in our midst? What part of what I said doesn't have a ring of truth to it? Or are you merely upset with the cut of my jib?


tenor.gif


Everyone in this thread is predictably screaming death and murder at the showrunners, whilst forgetting the fact that for the most part, the seasons were great because the show was an adaptation (Biggest show on Television a fantasy series, who would have predicted that?). When the showrunners ran out of books to adapt is when it hit choppy waters, and whose fault is that? Theirs? Again they could have undoubtedly done a better job even with the outline they had (season 7 & 8 felt rushed, no disagreement there), but the abject failure of GRRM to provide them with further books to draw from is a massive factor in all this that people conveniently forget before slamming down the hammer, and I just don't think they alone should cop all the blame. I think it's important to remind people that GRRM has a significant role in all of this.

Fanciful as the idea some people have that HBO should have shut down production and patiently awaited GRRM to deliver the holy texts, that's just not a realistic proposition when you're having to keep actors on contract and maintain sets and production studios (consider how long it took HBO to get the Deadwood actors all together for the concluding Film after that show ended prematurely). Martin worked on TV series he knew that the show had to proceed and he knew that it would help everyone involved best if they had the book material to work off of, yet instead, of using that as a motivator to do the work he whittled away his time doing anything but, whilst simultaneously playing the pity party when necessarily despite the fact that he knew the time scales involved.

I get it in some ways (I'm an Olympic class procrastinator) it's nice to put the hard work off and fuck about, but sometimes it's absolutely necessary to roll up your sleeves and do the fucking work, and set aside other things, especially when other people are relying on you.

As is I think GRRM fucked everyone, including himself. He fucked the showrunners, I think he probably fucked any further spin-offs because people are still sore after Season 8, and I think he fucked the book readers because he is probably never going to finish the books because he still rather do anything but try and write himself out of the convoluted mess that is AFFC/ADWD.

I mean jeez, even now read the wiki on the progress on TWoW: -


ADWD came out in 2011, 9 years ago, and yet apparently TWoW for GRRM is still not a priority versus other things. Certainly, no one's expecting the guy to chain himself to his desk, but maybe just maybe he might want to put a bit more priority on finishing what he started versus anything else?
 

Patrick S.

Banned
The downward spiral of this show's writing was extremely disappointing. The only show I remember dropping in quality as hard as this was "Dexter". And that one still hurts, because the first two seasons of that were fascinating and unlike anything I had ever seen or imagined.
 

Turnt

Member
Do I detect a defender of the book faithful in our midst? What part of what I said doesn't have a ring of truth to it? Or are you merely upset with the cut of my jib?


tenor.gif


Everyone in this thread is predictably screaming death and murder at the showrunners, whilst forgetting the fact that for the most part, the seasons were great because the show was an adaptation (Biggest show on Television a fantasy series, who would have predicted that?). When the showrunners ran out of books to adapt is when it hit choppy waters, and whose fault is that? Theirs? Again they could have undoubtedly done a better job even with the outline they had (season 7 & 8 felt rushed, no disagreement there), but the abject failure of GRRM to provide them with further books to draw from is a massive factor in all this that people conveniently forget before slamming down the hammer, and I just don't think they alone should cop all the blame. I think it's important to remind people that GRRM has a significant role in all of this.

Fanciful as the idea some people have that HBO should have shut down production and patiently awaited GRRM to deliver the holy texts, that's just not a realistic proposition when you're having to keep actors on contract and maintain sets and production studios (consider how long it took HBO to get the Deadwood actors all together for the concluding Film after that show ended prematurely). Martin worked on TV series he knew that the show had to proceed and he knew that it would help everyone involved best if they had the book material to work off of, yet instead, of using that as a motivator to do the work he whittled away his time doing anything but, whilst simultaneously playing the pity party when necessarily despite the fact that he knew the time scales involved.

I get it in some ways (I'm an Olympic class procrastinator) it's nice to put the hard work off and fuck about, but sometimes it's absolutely necessary to roll up your sleeves and do the fucking work, and set aside other things, especially when other people are relying on you.

As is I think GRRM fucked everyone, including himself. He fucked the showrunners, I think he probably fucked any further spin-offs because people are still sore after Season 8, and I think he fucked the book readers because he is probably never going to finish the books because he still rather do anything but try and write himself out of the convoluted mess that is AFFC/ADWD.

I mean jeez, even now read the wiki on the progress on TWoW: -


ADWD came out in 2011, 9 years ago, and yet apparently TWoW for GRRM is still not a priority versus other things. Certainly, no one's expecting the guy to chain himself to his desk, but maybe just maybe he might want to put a bit more priority on finishing what he started versus anything else?

It’s just whenever a post about Game of Thrones/ASOIAF comes up, it doesn’t matter the exact topic you’re there making the same points.:
You don’t like that he’s taking so long to write the next book. He’s fat and lazy.
Elio and Linda from Westeros.org are a bad influence on Martin
You don’t like that he’s done things other than just work on TWOW
You don’t like AFFC and ADWD as much as the other books.
You don’t like people bringing up Gaiman’s blog post about all of this stuff

I get it. I actually agree with a lot of your points - except about AFFC/ADWD being weak points in the series, I think they’re both great. And I agree that Benioff and Weiss get too much shit. They signed up to adapt a series, not write the ending of one. But it’s like you’ve got a boiler plate post that you wheel out every time Martin’s name comes up.
 

Kadayi

Banned
It’s just whenever a post about Game of Thrones/ASOIAF comes up, it doesn’t matter the exact topic you’re there making the same points.:
You don’t like that he’s taking so long to write the next book. He’s fat and lazy.
Elio and Linda from Westeros.org are a bad influence on Martin
You don’t like that he’s done things other than just work on TWOW
You don’t like AFFC and ADWD as much as the other books.
You don’t like people bringing up Gaiman’s blog post about all of this stuff

I get it. I actually agree with a lot of your points - except about AFFC/ADWD being weak points in the series, I think they’re both great. And I agree that Benioff and Weiss get too much shit. They signed up to adapt a series, not write the ending of one. But it’s like you’ve got a boiler plate post that you wheel out every time Martin’s name comes up.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but you're a random letter poster with Sub 300 posts under your belt, and less than a year's registration here. I find it kind of weird that for some reason you're taking exception to me having a cohesive position on matters and expressing it, even more so when you apparently agree with the thrust of my position save on the quality of AFFC/ADWD (so much meandering). What next? Are you going to pop up in Star Wars threads and berate me for saying JJ Abrams was a terrible choice to head up the Disney Star Wars Trilogy because I use 'Remix with a twist' a lot to describe his creative approach?

Threads not about me, learn2forum
 
Same thing happened with Lost, it was a huge cultural phenomenon, with some people even comparing it to Star Wars, then it had a disappointing ending and has now been forgotten.

i feel like LOST almost just collapsed under the pressure of its own weight. There were so many loose ends/dead ends by the end of the show, they probably figured they couldn’t explain everything other than taking the easy way out, which made the whole journey pointless
 

Mossybrew

Banned
Well here's how I look at it. I read the first three books back in the day well before the show. The show was one of the best adaptations I'd ever seen, right up there with the Lord of the Rings. Did the ending feel a bit rushed? Sure, but all things considered I enjoyed the whole run of the show immensely, and honestly was glad to end this endless series once and for all. I have zero interest in any further books from Martin after A Dance With Dragons because that book was a fucking slog. There is a lot of quality fantasy out there my dudes, put A Song of Ice and Fire in your rearview because the author is many years lost in the weeds and your time is valuable.

And for the record I'm one of those freaks who felt the Lost ending worked just fine, so take that into consideration.
 
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BadBurger

Many “Whelps”! Handle It!
And thus, LotR still retains its title as the true king of the fantasy genre. George RR Martin's tubby as$ should've finished writing his books. can't fukk with frodo bytch

RvhB.gif

I am pretty sure Martin is never going to finish the series and really no longer cares. He's really cynical about the entire affair and clearly doesn't really give a shit.
 

Mossybrew

Banned
I am pretty sure Martin is never going to finish the series and really no longer cares. He's really cynical about the entire affair and clearly doesn't really give a shit.

He's set for life. No fire under the belly anymore. I don't blame him in a way, it's understandable.
 

Kagey K

Banned
Once they got past George’s writing and starting relying on crib notes and general plot lines it all went to shit.

Either he should have been writing faster or they should have stopped when they ran out of source material.

They tanked his writing career at the same time they tanked the show.

I don’t think there’s much he can do now to save it.

Maybe with Wild Cards since it’s no so dependant on him.

I feel bad for him now. He needed to finish the books before the adaptation started or spend less of a time being a celebrity while it was hot.

In the end nobody won.
 

BadBurger

Many “Whelps”! Handle It!
He's set for life. No fire under the belly anymore. I don't blame him in a way, it's understandable.

Yea I'm not bitter either. He seems to enjoy producing TV shows more anyways. So hell, I'm happy he is doing what he enjoys in his golden years. I loved the books in the series he wrote enough already.
 
S

Shodan09

Unconfirmed Member
The funniest bit was watching all the beards disappear more or less overnight. People who can't think for themselves and just do what the magazines tell them to. They must have raced to buy their Gillette razors after that last episode.

It's like a big beard suddenly became a mark of shame like having a swastika tattoo.
 

Ichabod

Banned
I don't care who's ultimately to blame, that final season shit the bed so hard it retroactively killed my interest in anything GoT.
 

Dontero

Banned
Is it because it had shit ending or is it because it was done ?
When something is done people put it into drawer and close it.

Best example of this is story of Twin Peaks. Lynch never wanted to show who murdered Lara.
Because of higher ups they were made to answer that question and whole show was hurt by it and when season 2 ended people weren't interested in it anymore. When movie came out they were also not interested in it as they had in mind only that lara was dead.
 

Kadayi

Banned
i feel like LOST almost just collapsed under the pressure of its own weight. There were so many loose ends/dead ends by the end of the show, they probably figured they couldn’t explain everything other than taking the easy way out, which made the whole journey pointless

LOST is a different beast entirely. The showrunners Lindelof and Cuse, (JJ was really only involved at the beginning) wanted to wrap the show up after a couple of seasons but ABC realising they had a huge international hit on their hands were loathe to do so and so set out a demand for X more seasons (Network shows tend to run forever or until they are cancelled/are too expensive to make) subsequently the show devolved into one of circling the runway and by its mystery nature overplayed its hand.

I feel bad for him now. He needed to finish the books before the adaptation started or spend less time being a celebrity while it was hot.

I'd feel better if there was any sense that he understood this. His yearly Mea Culpas really started to wear when he'd come out and say he'd been working really hard and that it was difficult, yet with the knowledge out there that not only does he only write at home finger typing on some crappy old computer word processor from the stone age (outside of Football season to boot) but you'd go straight from his Blog Post to his Diary Page and see he had loads of Global Con Appearances already lined up regardless. The irony of the whole thing is that the very people who want the books are the ones actually contributing to their delay. He thankfully he seems to have curbed the con appearances, though I suspect in large part its because he knows now that the jig is up and people just want the books, though even then he still seems to be doing anything but when the opportunity avails itself

Either he should have been writing faster or they should have stopped when they ran out of source material.

He had several years to get his shit together. There's no 'or ' too that situation. I already outlined why in post #78

They tanked his writing career at the same time they tanked the show.

In what demented universe does that statement make any sense? How are the Showrunners responsible for Captain Procrastination not getting his act together? Please explain at length because I'm all ears on this one as to how he's not accountable for his own behaviour and inaction but somehow instead it's theirs? Sure the show propelled him to international fame, but he was already a big name in the convention scene before the show was announced, and even then he was dragging his heels with ADWD. If anything you'd have thought knowing the show was happening, he'd have been motivated to finish the fight, but nope, anything but. The dude doesn't qualify for sympathy.
 
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DKehoe

Member
Same thing happened with Lost, it was a huge cultural phenomenon, with some people even comparing it to Star Wars, then it had a disappointing ending and has now been forgotten.

I feel like Lost’s momentum went away before the show finished. I know a lot of people who fell off from watching it a couple seasons before the end and had just lost interest. GoT’s last season may have been poorly received but it still held its audience through to the end.
 
C

Contica

Unconfirmed Member
I thought it was pretty shit from the start. I actually prefer the last couple of seasons because the show spends less time pretending to be deep.
 

Teletraan1

Banned
The final couple of seasons were garbage just like most other TV shows. I was starting to grow tired of it by season 5. This show compounded its issues by also running out of source material.
Adaptation of books vs writing original content is a totally different beast. HBO should have changed show runners when the needs of the show changed when they ran out of books to adapt and shifted to someone better at writing new content. Or maybe don't greenlight shows adapted from incomplete book series. Or even better make original programming so I never have to hear from the book is better brigade ever again.
 

Roufianos

Member
I used to think about the show a lot but now it's like it never existed. I never give it any thought at all. Similar to how MGSV put me off Metal Gear.
 
S

slugbahr

Unconfirmed Member
Do I detect a defender of the book faithful in our midst? What part of what I said doesn't have a ring of truth to it? Or are you merely upset with the cut of my jib?


tenor.gif


Everyone in this thread is predictably screaming death and murder at the showrunners, whilst forgetting the fact that for the most part, the seasons were great because the show was an adaptation (Biggest show on Television a fantasy series, who would have predicted that?). When the showrunners ran out of books to adapt is when it hit choppy waters, and whose fault is that? Theirs? Again they could have undoubtedly done a better job even with the outline they had (season 7 & 8 felt rushed, no disagreement there), but the abject failure of GRRM to provide them with further books to draw from is a massive factor in all this that people conveniently forget before slamming down the hammer, and I just don't think they alone should cop all the blame. I think it's important to remind people that GRRM has a significant role in all of this.

Fanciful as the idea some people have that HBO should have shut down production and patiently awaited GRRM to deliver the holy texts, that's just not a realistic proposition when you're having to keep actors on contract and maintain sets and production studios (consider how long it took HBO to get the Deadwood actors all together for the concluding Film after that show ended prematurely). Martin worked on TV series he knew that the show had to proceed and he knew that it would help everyone involved best if they had the book material to work off of, yet instead, of using that as a motivator to do the work he whittled away his time doing anything but, whilst simultaneously playing the pity party when necessarily despite the fact that he knew the time scales involved.

I get it in some ways (I'm an Olympic class procrastinator) it's nice to put the hard work off and fuck about, but sometimes it's absolutely necessary to roll up your sleeves and do the fucking work, and set aside other things, especially when other people are relying on you.

As is I think GRRM fucked everyone, including himself. He fucked the showrunners, I think he probably fucked any further spin-offs because people are still sore after Season 8, and I think he fucked the book readers because he is probably never going to finish the books because he still rather do anything but try and write himself out of the convoluted mess that is AFFC/ADWD.

I mean jeez, even now read the wiki on the progress on TWoW: -


ADWD came out in 2011, 9 years ago, and yet apparently TWoW for GRRM is still not a priority versus other things. Certainly, no one's expecting the guy to chain himself to his desk, but maybe just maybe he might want to put a bit more priority on finishing what he started versus anything else?
Tldr...
GRRM is a dickhead and/or an asshole.

Don't write stories/series that need conclusions if you're not going to write the conclusions.
Otherwise, they are just half thought out ideas.
A 3-book series missing the third book is the same thing as a story missing it's third act.
 

MetalAlien

Banned
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