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The show became a shitfest long before S8. To me, the show was awful after S4. I felt S1 was the best followed by S2. To put it simply, as long as Martin remained engaged the two idiots managed to show something coherent and logical. After that, all logic in plot and storytelling, coherence, character arcs went out the window and we were left with “bad pussy” and the awful Dorne plot. When I think of the juvenile dialogue and scenes D&D came up with, it makes me want to gag. Oh yeah, there was more special effects and bigger dragons and all that money HBO threw at the show. That may suffice for some but not for me and for most of the book readers I know that prefer a good story than spectacle. And like you said to each his/her own. As to your assertion that S6 is “widely” considered to be one of the best, I’ve never kept much stock in TV critics or the audience’s opinions when it came to GoT. IIRC, critics didn’t start universally praising the show until after the Red Wedding... after which the show became a global phenomenon and then every critic and his mum joined the “GoT is the greatest TV of all time” bandwagon, never mind the significant drop in the quality of the show’s story and script.

The blame is squarely on D&D’s shoulders for the show being so bad. If they were lost after they ran out of book material, or were bored, or were burned out, or whatever, they should have walked away. I guarantee you that HBO would have found several other competent writers and filmmakers willing to finish the series in as many seasons HBO wanted. And, we know that HBO wanted more seasons and was willing to put up the money for it. But D&D’s ego and hubris was such that they had to finish it themselves. They probably thought if someone else helmed the show, they would have lost the credit for it. I mean even when they had book material, they thought they could tell the story better than Martin and we saw the outcome of that in many instances.

Bowen Marsh is an idiot who’s soon going to be very dead. He’s a bean counter with no other skill — a short-sighted bigoted bureaucrat. Please explain what “professional capacity” gives him the right to assassinate the LC? Tell me where in the books does it state or show that you can kill the LC if you disagree with him. Bowen Marsh and his cronies are no better than the mutineers at Craster’s. If he was such a paragon, he should have written to Eastwatch, Shadow Tower, and rallied the men at Castle Black instead of stabbing the LC in the cover of dark with a few conspirators. Bowen Marsh is nothing but a coward and a mutineer and I can’t wait for the next book to see him get his dues.

You’ve prolly seen this already but this is a good summary of how awful it was:

This has probably been posted before but this is a good summary of the shitfest:

It seems like D&D forgot (or more like hoping the audience forgot) that Stannis almost won the battle of BW. Granted that Tywin and most of the Lannister force was away, but Stannis didn’t have 3 grown dragons, dothraki and the unsullied. The funniest part of Cersei’s strength (apart from the people of KL and the nobles of Westeros like Tarly all of a sudden beginning to support her non-existent claim to the IT) was her magically multiplying Lannister army. It’s like Qyburn began cloning Lannisters soldiers.

Martin, at some point, began justifying to himself that his characters are different from the ones on the show (lol, yeah he didn’t bother to use his Scarlett analogy this time), and therefore what D&D shows won’t matter in the end. However, I don’t know how well that translates to the general audience and the wider readership. D&D’s characters have become canon to so many. Nevertheless, him mentioning Peter Dinklage’s Tyrion being different from his, gives me some hope. But I agree with you that his statement about pleasing himself and not the wider readership is not very promising, at least not if he wants his books to stand the test of time and gain several generations of readership like LOTR has. IIRC, in the interview, he also mentioned something about the theories people have about the show’s ending — some of which are correct and some of which are not. Again, I agree, nothing substantial from him, but if I were to be optimistic, I would say that it may imply that there’s some tidbits from the show we can take as canon, the rest is D&D’s version. This is me trying to make some sense of that monstrosity and hoping that Martin finishes the books and when he does, I’ll have a smile on my face. Martin has gotten so very comfortable with his arrangement with HBO that he won’t do or say anything to jeopardize that relationship. However, unless and until Martin has the courage to call a spade a spade or manages to finish the books, we are left with speculating about his vague and cryptic statements.

Link to Martin’s recent interview with the Guardian: https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/books/2019/aug/18/george-rr-martin-interview-game-of-thrones-at-own-pace-now Hmm... some of his statements are very interesting to say the least. There’s a sense of nostalgia and melancholy for the good old days in him. ETA: He singled out St. Tyrion being different from his Tyrion.

Yes, I noticed that too. Just another smug comment from them. No doubt Benioff was the recipient of a good liberal arts education (the best money can buy), although what he actually studied or gained from it is debatable.

Yeah, he definitely did that for the Watchmen adaptation.

Got to hand it to Natalia Tena.

Yeah you are probably right that he is being factual but considering what a train wreck S8 was, it seems a bit strange that he’s making the effort to remark (factual or otherwise) on the shows achievements. He even has a special shout-out for those hacks... it seems a bit strange for him to do that if he really hated the way they butchered his work. I understand Martin has to keep the suits at HBO happy considering he’s still working with them. Alan Moore didn’t want his name on any of the adaptations of his work, and rightly so considering how awful most of them were. He took the money but didn’t want the association. And as @divica said, considering Martin’s criticism of the ending of Lost, even indirectly acknowledging that abomination is somewhat hypocritical of him. ETA: Again, I’m probably reading too much into it, and it’s quite natural for him to be appreciative and congratulate the cast and crew, but somehow reading that post of his, I also feel he’s making an effort to calm the storm and acknowledge D&D for their work.

Martin’s recent Not a Blog post on the Emmy nominations that GOT received is a bit troubling. I guess it’s natural that he’s excited for the cast and crew but these words of his give me pause: His effusive praise of the travesty gives me a bad feeling. Maybe I’m over thinking things.

Martin gave that interview in 2013, so say around S3. Then, D&D were at least somewhat faithful to the books’ storylines and characters. It’s after S4 that they went completely off the reservation and deluded themselves into believing that they were better at telling the story than than the author himself. I wonder what Martin will say now about the many characters that were butchered by those hacks.

Netflix’s business model is already losing money. Now they have shelled out millions on two hacks whose facade is broken. Whereas, Amazon got Nolan and his wife for $150mm, and I think that’s a much better deal.