Jump to content

A Beautiful Tragedy...


Han Snow

Recommended Posts

I've made my peace with the show. The writing was never at the heights of the quality the books have reached. Not even in season 1 or 3. But it was excellent a lot of the times. Yet the show as a whole was a majestic and magnificent achievement from all technical angles. Gods, at times I thought I was watching an oil painting come to life. see this video for reference

Unprecedented beauty.

The acting... Phenomenal, Peter, Nikolaj, Lena brilliant, but go watch Jon kill Dany and say that Kit Harrington and Emilia Clarke are not ... they are not just acting, they are living as Jon Snow and Daenerys, truly astonishing. Even the smaller roles. Once the source material vanished D&D wanted them to communicate through their eyes alone, we know why, but, gods they almost pulled it of 99% of the time.

I... am grateful that something like this was a part of my life. I truly am. And I actually respect Dan and David. They set out to do something that was thought about like something that couldn't be done. And maybe they were not competent enough for it to be as magnificent as it should have been, but they did prove that it could be done, that it could be so beautiful...

I'm quite certain that George always intended ASOIAF to be a tragic story.  A classic tragedy in form of a fantasy saga.

And maybe, just maybe the show should have abandoned his ending. I love the last episode, but my rational mind is rejecting Dany as mad, because in spite of everything that was foreshadowed, hinted, and shown in the show I DO NOT BELIEVE she would willingly burn children. The entire premise of the tragedy lies in Dany being the irredeemable avatar of fire and destruction, much like some ancient Targaryen ancestor of hers became the avatar of Ice and destruction, the Night King. She too became death. But if there really was no time to make more episodes, seasons actually. David and Dan should have realized that the show should not walk this path. That perhaps, despite all of its poetic beauty GRRM's version of the ending brings, that it just did not fit the show as it is...

Maybe I'm wrong. Only future will tell. Maybe it's only my sadness talking, but I really think that a plain old happy ending would have been better, they could have shuffled things around, left the Night King as the ultimate bad guy ending, kill a lot more people fighting him and have Jon and Dany rule together, hell make Sansa QITN... Would it endure the test of time better that way? Or will people be more forgiving in the future when they watch the version that we got? Will the show as it is now be remembered as a timeless classic? Well, for me it will.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Or they could have just, you know, swallowed their pride and done more seasons or let someone else do it. Agree with everything you wrote, but I have little sympathy for D&D here. I agree that transplanting an ending inorganically onto a show that hadn't sufficiently explored its themes is part of what left it so lackluster, but I'm not sure completely deviating from the source material and telling their own ending would have turned out any better.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A second before reading your post I was thinking "The show shouldn't have followed the books ending, just doesn't fit"

GoT's world is cruel, too real, but this season should have been the paroxysm of all the storylines, years of struggle to stay alive, fight for their ambitions. A sweeter ending wouldn't have been a treason to the nature of GoT.

There's no denying the quality of the show. We won't see something half as good in years.

I also wanted to ask people here which song they prefered from the show, but then I have to wait years before my post to be approved (or not)...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 hours ago, Han Snow said:

I've made my peace with the show. The writing was never at the heights of the quality the books have reached. Not even in season 1 or 3. But it was excellent a lot of the times. Yet the show as a whole was a majestic and magnificent achievement from all technical angles. Gods, at times I thought I was watching an oil painting come to life. see this video for reference

Unprecedented beauty.

The acting... Phenomenal, Peter, Nikolaj, Lena brilliant, but go watch Jon kill Dany and say that Kit Harrington and Emilia Clarke are not ... they are not just acting, they are living as Jon Snow and Daenerys, truly astonishing. Even the smaller roles. Once the source material vanished D&D wanted them to communicate through their eyes alone, we know why, but, gods they almost pulled it of 99% of the time.

I... am grateful that something like this was a part of my life. I truly am. And I actually respect Dan and David. They set out to do something that was thought about like something that couldn't be done. And maybe they were not competent enough for it to be as magnificent as it should have been, but they did prove that it could be done, that it could be so beautiful...

I'm quite certain that George always intended ASOIAF to be a tragic story.  A classic tragedy in form of a fantasy saga.

And maybe, just maybe the show should have abandoned his ending. I love the last episode, but my rational mind is rejecting Dany as mad, because in spite of everything that was foreshadowed, hinted, and shown in the show I DO NOT BELIEVE she would willingly burn children. The entire premise of the tragedy lies in Dany being the irredeemable avatar of fire and destruction, much like some ancient Targaryen ancestor of hers became the avatar of Ice and destruction, the Night King. She too became death. But if there really was no time to make more episodes, seasons actually. David and Dan should have realized that the show should not walk this path. That perhaps, despite all of its poetic beauty GRRM's version of the ending brings, that it just did not fit the show as it is...

Maybe I'm wrong. Only future will tell. Maybe it's only my sadness talking, but I really think that a plain old happy ending would have been better, they could have shuffled things around, left the Night King as the ultimate bad guy ending, kill a lot more people fighting him and have Jon and Dany rule together, hell make Sansa QITN... Would it endure the test of time better that way? Or will people be more forgiving in the future when they watch the version that we got? Will the show as it is now be remembered as a timeless classic? Well, for me it will.

Yes this the crux - most show fans (who are not book fans) wanted a happier ending than what we got. Years of strife and torment resulted in fans wanting a different and happier ending - what I wanted for sure. Jon dany and babies, perhaps not ruling but happy. It is difficult to equate an 8 year bad with a heroine who goes mad over 1 hour..it needed so much more time to work. Jon was confused all S8 till the end and at the end he was apologising to bran - I felt that's enough of that ! All the lead up to jon/dany baby - that us why people were disappointed plus dany huge sea change in character. Still an awesome series

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Sir Hedge of Hog said:

Yes this the crux - most show fans (who are not book fans) wanted a happier ending than what we got. Years of strife and torment resulted in fans wanting a different and happier ending - what I wanted for sure. Jon dany and babies, perhaps not ruling but happy. It is difficult to equate an 8 year bad with a heroine who goes mad over 1 hour..it needed so much more time to work. Jon was confused all S8 till the end and at the end he was apologising to bran - I felt that's enough of that ! All the lead up to jon/dany baby - that us why people were disappointed plus dany huge sea change in character. Still an awesome series

The absolute worst ending in my opinion, would be Jon and Dany ruling the Kingdom's together.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, The Baelish Mockingbird said:

The absolute worst ending in my opinion, would be Jon and Dany ruling the Kingdom's together.

sure each to their own....I did not want them ruling together (that would have been your lotr ending)...but being together leaving to recover from their losses, etc. that would have been bittersweet. dany recognising jon, making a sacrifice for her people - demonstrating the noble, humane quality she had through several seasons, proving her worth. having said that she was a dragon, and they aint the most humble of creatures. it think the dany going mad, caught people off guard and the non entity that was the NK. fans struggled that dany was the big bad, not some 8000 year old entity that was built up to be the big bad over 8 years. 

so what was your preferred ending? were you happy with finale?

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 5/22/2019 at 12:17 AM, Han Snow said:

That perhaps, despite all of its poetic beauty GRRM's version of the ending brings, that it just did not fit the show as it is...

Maybe I'm wrong. Only future will tell. Maybe it's only my sadness talking, but I really think that a plain old happy ending would have been better, they could have shuffled things around, left the Night King as the ultimate bad guy ending, kill a lot more people fighting him and have Jon and Dany rule together, hell make Sansa QITN... Would it endure the test of time better that way? Or will people be more forgiving in the future when they watch the version that we got? Will the show as it is now be remembered as a timeless classic? Well, for me it will.

We can't be sure what parts of the books they did and which they didn't (apart from the end) since Martin hasn't written the continuation but it was up to them to continue the storytelling. 

Yes I agree that the end did not fit well with the rest of the story...

Obviously they took Martin's start and end and it was up to them to build the "in between". But they created a "between" totally different from what it should have been in order to lead to this end. That's why the end seems so out of place and forced and unearned. It comes from another story.  

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...