- Aug 28, 2014
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The over riding problem was that without GRRM's books D&D focused instead on big scenes even though they did not provide the character motivations for the scene.
There are soo many but I'll start with a few.
Brianne: Was kept alive only to be seen at the end writing in the book about Jamie. Brianne's character arc ended after she was knighted by Jamie. She, like many others, should have died in the Long night.
Jamie: First of all he and Brianne having sex was totally for the fans who had been "shipping" the two since the beginning. Never mind that Jamie is out of Brianne's league. Jamie returning to Cersei was entirely out of character. Jamie had a seven season redemption arc that was just tossed out the window to "subvert expectations".
Glegan Bowl: More fan service. The Mountain was for all intents and purposes dead. What remained was a zombie. GRRM doesn't go down that path but the fans were screaming for it so we got it. The scene was visually cool but logically made no sense. Hell the Mountain probably survived the fall.
Bron: Even more fan service. Bron's a minor character in the book and D&D obviously didn't know what to do with him. Bron, a shady, greedy character, who doesn't know how loans work, is made Master of Coins. Tyrion promises him Highgarden, one of the most valuable territories in the Kingdom, regardless that their are still heirs to that House.
Gendry: Dirtto, made the head of a House that has heirs.
Arya: Another case of D&D not knowing what to do with a character. This is where they just started gong in to stupid territory. There's no way Arya survives multiple gut stabs, falling in the sewer, then doing parcor all over town. Even in GoT people die from that shyt. Drogo died of a flesh wound. Robert killed by a pig. People aren't Supers in GoT. Then she just walks away from Bravos with no repercussions for leaving the Faceless Men with all the secrets. Arya killing the Night King was maybe the biggest misstep in the show.
I haven't even gotten to the major characters or plot lines. What made Seasons 1-4 great was that everything tied together. Every scene was a clue to what might happen later so you had to pay attention. Then when something happened you could look back a few seasons and tie it together. All that was lost.
GRRM's big picture plot was that the "Game of Thrones" was meaningless in comparison to "Winter Coming". The White Walkers were the true villain of the show. Bran was very important but not because the Night King (who doesn't exist in the books) wanted to end his "stories". D&D purposely scaled back his role because they were trying to not emphasize the magic in the books. However they have no problem magically teleporting people all over the content.
Speaking of magically teleporting, that whole Great White Walker Robbery episode was stupid from top to bottom. Where did they get chains to pull Blue outta the water. We are told they can't swim but apparently no one told them. They also forgot that the mark on Bran's arm removed the magic from the wall so the White Walkers could pass without destroying the wall. But it made for better TV to have Blue do it.
And then Season 8 happened. Entire armies are destroyed in one episode and are back in the next. D&D were so anxious to be done that they assigned each episode to different writing teams. Obviously the teams didn't talk to each other because they forgot what happened in the previous episode.
TLDR
After season 4 the show slowly got worse. At first you let it slide but then the offenses kept piling up and up.
