*SPOILERS*
I know there was already a poll on who wins the Iron Throne but it wasn’t “spoiler friendly” and it’s not immediately searchable. I was also wondering how everyone is enjoying the final season so far.
Are you a book reader? If so had you read them prior to the show? Strictly a show watcher and get annoyed at all the insider whining and lame theories? Do you feel the need to analyze every frame of every episode or just enjoy it and move on to next week’s episode? Do you care if a Starbucks cup made it past the editors or if the only black female character died last episode? Do you follow the show in other ways: read articles, listen to podcasts etc?
I’m a book reader prior to the show. I wasn’t a big fantasy guy but a girl and I gave each other a few books to read and the first GoT book was one of my requirements. This was probably 12-15 years ago and to my surprise I liked it and ended up reading the others. Of course that also means I’ve been stuck in the GRRM zone of annoyance/disappointment as far as the new book(s) ever coming out. I have very little faith that he’ll finish the series at this point and wonder if it will really matter if he does because the show is going to conclude things in one way or another.
I have enjoyed the show a good bit though as a book reader I’ve always been conflicted. I feel like GoT is essentially two shows: the early seasons where the show runners still thought Martin was going to give them another book and so they took their time, and the show after they went off script because Martin failed to produce. Add into that the fact that the show has gotten bigger every season and that the runners had to start looking at how to end it, and it’s not surprising that the show is now more about battles and quick character turns than slow builds and intricate plot.
At this point, I feel like a lot of people are expecting entirely too much out of a bunch of TV writers. GRRM himself would be hard pressed to wrap up his bloated series in the two massive books he claims he’s still going to put out. What most book readers who bemoan the show being too simplified don’t seem to remember is that the later books in the series were not great. Even when the show was still loosely going off the most recent books they had to cut out vast amounts of rather meaningless plot. Our favorite characters were all over the place where George left off. We wouldn’t have any of the interactions that most people love the show for if not for going off book and bringing them together.
My current overriding thought on the show is that people have entirely too high expectations for this season/the last few episodes. There’s only so much time left and there’s no way that these writers could come close to paying service to everyone’s pet theories/Easter eggs from the books. I listen to/read some people who get WAY too into the theories. I like them too but at this point I’m starting to just enjoy GoT for what IMO it really is: a well acted, amazingly filmed/produced, and reasonably well written fantasy/adventure series. I’m pretty sure that is what the writers are going for and to expect some hugely intricate ending is probably going to set you up for disappointment.
Anyway, feel free to give your thoughts/opinions/theories and spoilers are welcome.
TLDR: Theories/Opinions/spoilers. Mainly are you enjoying the final season or not and why?
