I think Game of Thrones gets more shit than it deserves (though it deserves some) considering how complicated the source material is and how they actually have to adhere to deadlines unlike certain other people we could mention
strongly agree | agree | neutral | disagree | strongly disagree
I would say that it doesn’t get enough shit tbh. The only ones that truly criticize the show are a few book snobs and people who care about good writing rather than spectacle.
Those people are in the minority. The show is still winning Emmys for writing, even though the writing has been absolute trash since s4. The show is still universally regarded as the best thing since sliced bread. It got a bit of public criticism with s7, but it still won Emmys for writing IIRC.
As for the source material, well … they shouldn’t have decided to adapt it if it was beyond their skill level. The only thing I sort of sympathize with them on is the fact that there are no more books out, so they did kind of “run out of source material,” (despite the fact that they cut/ignored several characters/plotlines, which made them run out of material faster, but whatever).
No offense, but I don’t like that people use time restraints as an excuse, or try to blame the show’s bad writing on GRRM for not publishing the rest of the series. These people are supposed to be professional writers. They signed up to write this show. Other writers with deadlines are able to write well written seasons under deadlines, why not them? And it does suck that they have to come up with their own material, since that technically isn’t what they signed up for, but every show has some sort of setback included behind the scenes. And again, professionals. They’re getting paid millions upon millions of dollars to write this … and this is what they give us. I’ve seen fans come up with better storylines than them. Fans who are not professional writers. Nearly every theory the fans gave us on Arya’s s6 story in Bravvos was better than the nonsense D&D wrote. The fans came up with the “Talisa is a Lannister spy” theory, which, again, was better than the bad fanfic D&D wrote.
And even without TWOW and ADOS, they should still attempt to embody the spirit of the series, but they haven’t. Instead they give us terribly written, lazy, high budget fanfiction where all they care about is spectacle and shock value over good writing and consistent characters.
Season 7 felt the most like bad fanfiction, but the issues have been there even when the show was still good, i.e. when they did still have source material, because they either cut it in exchange for stupid stuff (like Pod’s magical penis, which has had well over a 3 season arc at this point), changed it and made it bad (like whitewashing Tyrion’s character to the point where he is a boring nonentity, or ruining Robb’s character with that Talisa bullshit and the way it was set up). You can tell they don’t care anymore. If they cared, there’s no way they would have had Arya do that ridiculous Assassin’s Creed escape scene in Bravvos despite her injuries, or make open kinslaying the biggest trend despite the taboo it’s supposed to be (Euron admitting to killing his brother and the Ironborn rewarding him for it by crowning him, the Ironborn helping him try to kill his niece and nephew, Ellaria and the Sand Snakes murdering their entire family … I feel like I’ve forgotten some). Hell, Cersei became queen with no riots from the smallfolk despite the fact that she not only murdered the family they loved, but killed a bunch of them too, and she still has highborn supporters despite the fact that everyone knows she pulled a 9/11 on the world’s equivalent of the Vatican (if Hot Pie knows she did it, then everyone knows). Not to mention the fact that the West is still supporting her even though she’s a kinslayer since she killed Kevan and Lancel, but again open kinslaying is the biggest trend in the show version Westeros). And I’ll be here all day if I rant about what they did to Jaime’s character, or Brienne’s character, or Sansa in s5, or Stannis, or all of the Martells except for Oberyn. They do not care. They stopped caring after they adapted the Red Wedding. They made it clear in interviews that that was what they wanted to get to. After that? Welp.
Not to mention the grossness of their writing — the sexism despite their obvious pandering, the disgusting way they handled Theon and his PTSD, and really so many other things that would require me to write a thesis. It’s been there since the beginning in hindsight, but it’s gotten worse and more obvious since s4.
Honestly there isn’t anything I could say here that @gotgifsandmusings @turtle-paced @thefandomentals hasn’t said. Check out their anti-got/critiques, because I agree with pretty much everything they’ve written. But basically? The show used to be about good storytelling and compelling characters. It used to have logic and realism, despite its fantasy setting. Now all the show has to offer is (mostly) good acting, amazing visuals and cool battle scenes. That’s about it. And that seems to be enough for some people. To each their own. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
