What are some happy endings that really wasn't all that happy?
Mad Max Fury Road. They defeat the tyrant, and get the control of the water valves. Then they open the valves and seemingly keep them open. One problem, how long is the water reservoir gonna last now?
Logan's Run. The city dwellers are freed from the computer's iron-fisted rule, and Carrousel. But their city is in ruins, and thinks to the computer providing everything. They don't know how to live without it. The city dwellers are going to start dying off real fast.
“Who has a better story than Bran the Broken? Let’s make him king!”
Okay, not happy in the moment, but it was supposed to be. I’m still mad about it. Of all the shows I’ve re-marathoned, I’ve never even been tempted to redo GoT. It was like S8 was so bad it went back in time and ruined the entire rest of the show. I can’t even entertain watching any spinoffs.
I may buy the rest of the series as novels (ha) but even then it will be with trepidation.
Thinking back on that series, I'm still kind of amazed at what we witnessed with S8. Not the season itself, obviously, but the phenomenon of it.
GoT was a huge fandom. Everybody was talking about it, for years. People were fuckin' naming their kids after those characters.
And then S8 happened and the whole thing was just gone. That entire enormous fandom erased more or less overnight. A moment of confused outage and then... silence.
If you watch, binge, all seasons se08 becomes more logical. There are small markers all over the series predicting it all. I didn't pickup those at first (weekly) watch.
I say more logical, not logical.
Se01-se06 are still TV magic. Se07 (dany's attack on the lannister convoy comes to mind) still is good and se08 just speed runs everything.
I still think that was their only true mistake: speed running the season. It gave us everything we wanted. But in such a way nobody could enjoy it all. Jaime finally becoming true good only to return to his true love? (some very powerful acting there) Check. The long night? Check. End of the night king? Check. Ice dragon? Check. Arya voyage finally given meaning? Check. Jorahs redemption? Check. Cleganebowl? Check. Cersei dies? Check. Return of the mad king queen? Check. Theon's redemption? Check. Destruction of kings landing? Check. Etc etc etc. It ticks all the boxes and more you didn't even know they existed. It's just that it ticks them in such an insane speed which results in gaps in the storytelling. Gaps of which some are filled if you binge it all but most will not.
Se08 had to be 2 seasons. Season 8, ending with the long night, se09, the fall of the red keep.
Yes, the 2nd dragon had to die for the sake of the story. Missandei had to die to cement Cersei being the baddest cruel bitch and complete dany's arc to insanity. But like this? That was stuff for an entire episode. Not the final three minutes of one.
It’s a beast to wrap up and hit all those notes and do it before the heat death of the universe. That’s why we haven’t gotten a book in a decade, and likely never will again.
The hubris to think you can do it in eight episodes of television? Unimaginable.