Why
I tried so very hard not to write this. I brooded for days, I tried to put it behind me. "It's just a stupid damn TV show", I told myself.
But it's not.
We have all realised by now that Game of Thrones has become something more than that. For whatever reason, it has captured our hearts, captured our imaginations. And it has transcended cultural boundaries. I teach EFL online, I talk to people from many different countries, and "Game of Thrones!" is a reply I have received over and over from people whom I have asked to name their favourite English-language movie/series. Saudis, Turks, Chinese, Koreans, Moroccans, people from all over this god-cursed world have enthusiastically talked to me about Game of Thrones. Many times it has transformed an awkward, stilted conversation into a warmly compatible chat, born of mutual enthusiasm for GOT.
What
The screenwriting sucked wet dogfarts. Everything else was fine.
Although the directing could have been better in places, I have no way of knowing whether the minor complaints I have with the director(s) were dictated by the screenplay. The acting, camera work, sound engineering, special effects, everything else was top notch. But the screenplay seemed to have been written by people who had never bothered to watch the series, heartless hamhanded churls who had no feeling for the characters whatsoever.
Who?
Everyone was behaving out of character.
I could go on for pages, but let's focus, as briefly as possible, on the two hugely obvious examples.
Daenerys
This girl/woman has been tormented for 7 previous seasons, suffering one crushing loss after another, and always she has born up under the load, demonstrating a spine of adamantium. She is a rock, she is a beast, she is unbreakable. The loss of Misandei would not have broken her, or even come close. Valar Morghulis.
Moreover, she has always gone straight after the architects of her suffering. If she was going to burn the town, she would have done it later, after Cersei was fried to a crispy critter. After the last scorpion was destroyed, Daenerys would have flown straight to the Red Keep, like an arrow from the bow, and killed Cersei.
Jon
Jon Snow has always been painfully honest. Not once has he compromised on his morals, Not once has he taken the easy way out. If he was going to kill Daenerys, he would not have done it in such a sneaky way.
When
I could go on for pages, but the rest has all been said, ad nauseam.
This is the end of an age. Game of Thrones is over, and it died not with a bang, but with a whimper. We shall not see its like again.
Where
Where the FUCK does Sophie Turner get off saying we are "disrespectful" for being unhappy with the screenwriting of Season Eight? It is painful to see the extent to which she has fallen prey to the groupthink of the mutually self-congratulatory circle jerk to which the movie industry has devolved. I am reminded of that one scene in Sense8 in which the moviemaker talks about winning an Oscar, in which he says, "as soon as I got home I dipped it in lube and shoved the whole eight golden inches up my ass". Miss Turner seems to have lost sight of the fact that if the audience is not willing to pay to see the result of her efforts, she doesn't have a job.