Game of Thrones S7/8

Here's my current take on S7/8. The first time around, I loved them, for they conjoined the Starks -- and, indeed, all storylines -- in a glorious and ultimately victorious collision.

I admit the writing diminishes. Maybe it's because Martin's standard was tucked away in a tent, busy plotting The Winds of Winter, while the TV producers felt the need to march on. Another way to say this is they were flying the plane while Martin was building it; but he might even be building a different plane! He built ~6 seasons of it, then hid away for the finish, but the producers said "we're already airborne!" So they finished it themselves. Maybe that accounts for the diminished writing, maybe for both the plot and the dialogue. Or maybe the plot is exactly as Martin intended, and he was telegraphing secrets to the producers from his tent. Either way, we lost Martin's standard for the dialogue, and we marched a little astray.

But even outside of dialogue, the production feels sappier and stupider. Granted, it feels less like a soap opera than S1, but somehow S1 was more intelligent. S7/8 have that stupidity of Hollywood epics, like superhero movies. S1 has the uncanny feel of a soap opera while actually being the most intelligent of them all. When S1 cheesily lingers on a distraught facial expression, there's still a lot going on behind the scenes, under the hood, inside the eyes. When S7/8 lingers like that, it just feels excessively dramatic like a superhero movie.

S7/8 also largely deliver reliefs and happy endings. Does that betray the spirit of GoT/ASOIAF? Or was Martin going for happy endings all along, it's just a long road getting there? We shall see, if Martin or his estate ever release TWOW and it gets this far in the narrative. Probably it won't, probably A Dream of Spring holds the answers and is not even started. Probably he has notes on how he wants it all to wrap up though, probably he's just struggling to churn out the prose for it all. Maybe, even of TWOW/ADOS are never published, we'll still hear how he intended to wrap everything up.

I still like S7/8 for their events. These are the sorts of things I always wanted to happen. Also, they're exciting. They just aren't as brutally authentic. But they're more enjoyable. Why be a miserable purist?

Usually I'm the miserable purist. Usually poor writing absolutely destroys a film/series/book for me. I guess that's a testament to how invested I was in the Starks' story, however the micro prose turned out.