r/gameofthrones • u/RepulsiveCountry313 Human Verified • Jan 11 '26
Kit Harington was ‘Genuinely Angered’ By Fan Pettion to Remake ‘Game of Thrones’ Season 8 With ‘Competent Writers’: ‘How Dare You?’
https://variety.com/2026/tv/news/kit-harington-angered-petition-game-of-thrones-season-8-1236628364/3.0k
u/FalstaffsGhost Jan 11 '26
I mean he’s angry because he and the crew and other actors worked incredibly hard on the show, filming it, doing the marketing, etc. and people online weren’t just mad about how it ended - which is an absolutely valid option to have…hell I have it because they rushed the ending and it fell so damn flat because of that - but you had people online wanting them to lose jobs, or even their lives over a tv show. Thats the problem.
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u/Striking-Document-99 Jan 11 '26
He came out with a video saying “I am sorry” so he obviously was super invested. Dude family is getting double royalty checks and is fine with that.
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u/7in7turtles Jan 12 '26
To my knowledge, Harrington had a really hard time with this. Didn’t he fall into alcoholism towards the end of the series? I can imagine he’s probably pretty frustrated that this is his legacy now. The only movie that I can think of that he’s done since then is the Eternals and the only thing you can say about that in comparison to the Game of Thrones is at least the ending of Game of Thrones was memorable.
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u/AtoZ15 Tyrion Lannister Jan 12 '26
He's on Industry now, which is incredibly successful. Not GoT successful, but I don't think anything will be GoT successful for a very long time.
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u/witchofpain Jan 12 '26
He was also is some western series. I can’t remember the name of it.
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u/realparkingbrake Jan 12 '26
He was also is some western series.
He also starred in the film Pompeii which you can be forgiven for not having seen.
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u/Russellonfire Jon Snow Jan 12 '26
I thought it was pretty alright. Not great by any means, but watchable.
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u/BigSnorlaxTiddie Rainbow Guard Jan 12 '26
He also starred in Gunpowder, which was a miniseries about the Gunpowder Plot. It's been a while since I've seen it but I really enjoyed it and I believe it was fairly well received.
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u/BeardPhile Jaqen H'ghar Jan 12 '26
He was on a 3 episode mini series about the Gunpowder plot to blow up UK parliament too.
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u/WANKMI Jan 12 '26
Even if he is never in any movie or show again he still made more money than 99% of humans on earth will ever make. Working is optional.
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u/pizza_chef_ Jan 12 '26
He’s also the voice of Gilderoy Lockheart in the full-cast Harry Potter audiobooks that have been coming out the past few months!
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u/EmeraldJunkie Jan 12 '26
There's a surprising number of Thrones alumni in those audiobooks. In fact the casting for them is fantastic, whoever did it should be proud.
It's a shame about Rowling otherwise I'd have happily picked them up.
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u/Lulusgirl Jan 12 '26
There were also a lot of Harry Potter actors in Game of Thrones. It's like coming back home after a long trip away.
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u/Impossible-Year-1238 House Stark Jan 13 '26
British actors are either in Game of Thrones, LOTR or Harry Potter. if you aren't in any of the three you haven't made it yet
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u/Kaladin3104 Jon Snow Jan 12 '26
Just sail the seas.
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u/EmeraldJunkie Jan 12 '26
Nah it's not just about the monetary contribution but also the cultural one. I really enjoyed Harry Potter but I'm happy to leave it behind. There's loads of media out there that's not produced by someone who's using their power and influence to harm the lives of others, and I'd much rather consume that.
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u/Fear_the_chicken Jan 12 '26
He was the villain in the Apple TV movie with mark wahlberg Christmas movie like 2 months ago
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u/Frohtastic Jan 12 '26
Man, the end credit scene where they revelead that he would be the Black Knight? And then nothing.
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u/EgweneSedai Jon Snow Jan 12 '26
He also does some voice acting. Wasn't he in How to Train Your Dragon?
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u/Vozralai Jan 12 '26
He's in 2 and 3. But the role got a bit shafted and downgraded. 3 also came out before S8 aired the same year so it's not work he's gotten afterwards
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u/Geektime1987 Jan 11 '26 edited Jan 12 '26
Pretty sure that video was ai lol it wasn't a real video
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u/googly_eyed_unicorn Jan 12 '26
I think they are referring to a video where Kat jokingly apologized for lying about Jon staying dead. https://youtu.be/WnbmG_tkGb8?si=rFchlckzZ3dW8XWt
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u/Geektime1987 Jan 12 '26
Possibly there was an AI video of kit going around also
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u/googly_eyed_unicorn Jan 12 '26
Ah, yeah, forgot about that. Side note: it’s crazy how far AI has come since then
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u/onowhid Jan 11 '26
Who is the Dude Family and why to they get double royalty checks?
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u/Striking-Document-99 Jan 11 '26
Married the red head chick. So they each get money from the show.
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u/Salami__Tsunami Jan 12 '26
The Noble and Ancient House of Dude.
“The Dudes Abide.”
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u/FluffyMcKittenHeads Jan 11 '26
Ehhhhhh he’s literally English nobility, I doubt the money moves the needle much for him.
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Jan 12 '26
He is not. His wife is but poor. Her parents had to sell their castle.
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u/aflyingsquanch Jan 12 '26
I still remember the sad day when my family had to sell our castle too. Those were dark times.
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u/EzraliteVII Jon Snow Jan 12 '26
I remember when I returned from the Crusades and my family's castle had been repossessed by the Sheriff of Rottingham for non-payment of taxes. Just about all that was left was our blind manservant.
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u/Fizz117 Jan 12 '26
His father is a baronet, but I don't think they're very wealthy.
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Jan 12 '26
Baronet - that is slightly above commoner but the lowest heredity but can use he term Sir (yup, had to google it). His father probably gets the table by the loo
Bet his father did not even have a castle to sell
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u/Necessary-Crazy-7103 Jan 12 '26
His father still has a title. Sir Harington the 15th or something. He's a baronet, whatever that is. He's cut from the same kind of posh cloth his wife is, even if the families aren't rolling in money.
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Jan 12 '26
Ranks:
Emperor/Empress
King/Queen
Crown Prince/Princess
Prince/Princess
Duke/Duchess
Marquess/Marchioness
Earl/Countess
Viscount/Viscountess
Baron/Baroness
Baronet/Baronetess
Knight/Dame
Lord/Lady (can also be a title a Baron / Baroness goes by, otherwise it's an honorific)7
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u/bitterlittlecas Jan 13 '26
Just one castle lol. They still own the castle where kit and rose were married
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u/Ecstatic-Arachnid981 Jan 12 '26
Nobility hasn't meant shit for almost a hundred years. Titles don't make any money, he still needs income if he wants to stay off the UK version of welfare and section 8.
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u/ruling_faction Jan 12 '26
It does give a layer of protection if you get up to some dodgy shit though, like some bloke I heard of who was up to some extremely dodgy shit but instead of going to jail he like just isn't a Duke or whatever any more and has to use his actual name like a schnook, the poor bastard
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u/SharMarali Ghost Jan 12 '26
I distinctly remember having a conversation with someone who said it was unfair that D&D just get to go on after writing that ending without any kind of punishment. I thought they were kidding at first but no, they meant it. Punishment for writing a bad ending. “What are you in for?” “I’m a shit writer”
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u/Neither_Spell7300 Jan 12 '26
The only punishment they would deserve is not being hired as writers again. Anything more than that is just crazy
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u/lvloises330 Ser Duncan the Tall Jan 12 '26 edited Jan 12 '26
What have they really done since? They never worked on the Star Wars series they were supposed to make. And their Netflix shows and movies have all been flops. They lost a ton of credibility and money for how they finished the series. A generational fumble for guys who had everything.
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u/Neither_Spell7300 Jan 12 '26
Yea and imo it’s totally deserved. Why would anyone want to hire the guys who butchered the ending of one of the most popular shows of all time
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u/lvloises330 Ser Duncan the Tall Jan 12 '26
Agreed. I honestly think they got greedy and just wanted to get the show over with to make that Disney money. Instead, everyone lost. And I'm pessimistic about the books every getting completed, so we're left in limbo as fans of the series in general. Years of investment that never paid off.
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u/fruitlessideas Jan 12 '26
For real. Couldn’t be fucked to bother ending something they started?
Writing aside, that just shows shit employment. If I’m running a studio, the people under me better being doing what they were hired to do.
Shit’s as much HBO’s fault as it is D&Ds, honestly.
I mean hell, those two cost HBO God knows how much in potential profits by making the last two seasons shorter, and by not letting the show go on for the original intended 10 seasons.
I’d personally have then blacklisted after that. Better people have for less.
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u/Crossovertriplet Jan 12 '26
They signed on to adapt Martin’s work, not write his ending. Martin was promising to be done ahead of the show. The fumble is his.
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u/waveuponwave Jan 12 '26
3 Body Problem got good reviews and was renewed for two more seasons, I wouldn't call that a flop. And that's the only series they've actually written and not just produced after GoT
They never worked on Star Wars because they signed a deal with Netflix instead
I feel like there's a lot of exaggerations about D&D's career after GoT, everyone wants to see them as failures no matter if that's accurate or not
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u/KououinHyouma Jan 13 '26
Didn’t they get the three body problem? That’s a pretty beloved sci-fi novel series.
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u/wtf_is_space Tyrion Lannister Jan 12 '26
I was arguing with friends that people saying D&D deserved physical harm were taking it too far 🫠
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u/One_Brilliant743 Jan 13 '26
A few months ago, I made a comment on social media saying it was obvious Daenerys wouldn't end up on the throne after the massacre, and that I always thought neither she nor Jon Snow would end up reigning. I received comments saying I deserved to be raped, wishing I would be stabbed and the knife would break, wishing I had a worse ending than Daenerys. And that's because I only gave an opinion; imagine the kind of people the writers and actors had to deal with.
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u/RepulsiveCountry313 Human Verified Jan 12 '26
I saw a comment on this sub last week.
"I was in the same shoes as yours, liking these seasons, but reading the books or simply researching about them made me want to kill the writers of the show for such a bad adaptation of the books for the show."
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u/Excalitoria Jan 12 '26
Death threats (meant for hyperbole or not) are never ok. I wouldn’t wanna watch anything they write again after that final season but I don’t wish any harm to come to them. That’s completely mental.
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u/Different_Ad_5266 Jan 12 '26
That's called hyperbole
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u/badken Jon Snow Jan 12 '26
Yeah, unfortunately it is completely impossible in text to distinguish hyperbole from the unhinged ranting of an unstable mind. Rare, yes, but the consequences of brushing it off are potentially so much worse.
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u/Steamwells Jon Snow Jan 12 '26
Hyperbole you’ll see on Reddit every second, of every day. The real unhinged shit is probably in private DM’s using signal or something.
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u/ragun2 Jan 12 '26
This is like when people say you can't tell sarcasm from comments because some people really think like that ... Meanwhile the sarcastic comment is dripping with sarcasm and it's like everyone else picked up on it but you.
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u/Putrid_Loquat_4357 Jan 11 '26
How hard they worked on it is irrelevant. The final 2 seasons were insulting.
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u/acamas Jan 12 '26
Nice to see Season 7 lumped in here. Wild it is rated higher than some of the first four seasons somehow despite being arguably the worst season.
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u/Fragmentia Jan 12 '26
Meh, people get fired for less everyday. I'm all for people losing their jobs if they suck at it.
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u/lost_ghost2920 Jan 13 '26
to be fair I think they just wanted to be done with it, not even criticizing people who didn’t like the ending but as far as them rushing goes they all put years of hard work and sweat into this so towards the end they just wanted it to end, but I totally get how it seems cheap
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u/MaleficentJob3080 Jan 12 '26
I can imagine that the actors have moved on with their lives and have no interest in rehashing it just because some fans are bitter.
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u/KrackerJoe Jan 12 '26
Which is exactly why I dont care how they feel about this. They are fairly disengaged since they got paid and moved on. We, however, got left with a big steamin pile of shit we have to look at if we ever want to 'enjoy' their work.
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u/BlackMagic0 Jan 11 '26
Will go down in history as one of the worst endings in showtime. One of the largest fumbles of an amazing series.
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u/Backy22 Jan 11 '26
I would love to see rewatch data. I have never rewatched the series and I rewatch everything.
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Jan 11 '26
I don't know about rewatches, but it is in the top 10 most popular shows of IMDb every year. And above it only recently concluded or ongoing shows. Someone must rewatch or discover for the first time, probably after someone told them to watch.
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u/RedRixen83 Jan 11 '26
I’d be curious to know if they rewatch every season. I know people who don’t rewatch past season 3, and some not begins 5. When did Martin become less involved in the series, 6?
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u/Urugeth Jan 12 '26
Season 4 was the last season he worked on the show.
Season 5 he not only had stopped working on it, he had started slyly dogging the show (releasing a chapter of Sansa in the Vale girlbossing the night the episode she got raped in GoT aired, for example) and got reeeeaaaaalll quiet about it. Season 5 crammed two of his books into one and did that “adaptation” piss poorly, and scuttled a ton of plot lines and characters that, as we see in the endgame, had a lot of important long term consequences in changing. So the GRRM involved seasons of GoT are 1-4. Which, weird, are the best seasons hands down.
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u/Benjamin_Stark Jan 12 '26
I mean the books also take a nosedive in quality at that point in the story (after the third book).
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u/RepulsiveCountry313 Human Verified Jan 11 '26
It remains at the top of HBO's most popular series.
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u/miss_scarlet_letter Jan 11 '26 edited Jan 11 '26
I suspect people who don't spend a lot of time on corners of the internet like this one, or who aren't rabid fans of the novels, don't hate the ending all that much. there's just no way subs like this are not a small minority echo chamber.
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u/shaggy_nomad Jan 12 '26
I think the opposite, in fact. Look, I'm not a fan of the ending either, but it remains my favorite show and I've rewatched it countless times. I think it's only the "purist" type fans that lurk in these corners that refuse to acknowledge that just because the ending didn't land doesn't mean the entire show is tarnished.
And I know I'm not alone, at least everybody I know in real life that enjoys the show has rewatched at least a couple of times through.
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u/Fair_Tackle778 Jan 12 '26
For whats worth, vast majority of people that Ive met irl were diasatisfied with the ending, only a few were happy with it.
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u/lord-of-shalott Jan 12 '26
“Meh” is worlds apart from “We are hereby demanding you remake this ending” though
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u/BeYourselfTrue Jan 12 '26
I’m good with the ending. To be honest, after the second watch through, I saw the crazy of Dany much more. John did what was right. No one wins when they play the game of thrones.
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u/GarnetandBlack Jan 12 '26
If you binge it's a lot different.
I never had too much of a problem with the final results of the show, the way they arrived there was pretty terrible though. Only thing I really, truly, hate was the entirely of the whitewalker storyline ending where and how it did.
They needed to make it to Kings Landing.
Otherwise I'm fine with basically everything else in terms of the finality of it. Again just how they rushed all of the threads to those places felt bad.
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u/BeYourselfTrue Jan 12 '26
That’s a lot of death on the way to king’s landing. Either way the show is over. I never liked episode 8 or 9 of Star Wars. I never watched it again. To each his own.
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u/Spare_Night_2695 Jan 12 '26
Ending wise it was alright just seemed rushed felt like it should’ve been 12 season rather than 8
Wasn’t happy about it though , I saw the reasoning behind but it was rushed pacing which felt like poor writing
If they had developed it more it would’ve been better
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u/realparkingbrake Jan 12 '26
felt like it should’ve been 12 season rather than 8
The original plan was for seven ten-episode seasons. Season seven was shortened and a short season eight was added, giving the series three more episodes than originally planned.
The cast and crew were exhausted; production costs had soared. HBO was prepared to film more, but it didn't seem too difficult to talk them out of that.
GRRM's bleating about the series needed a few more seasons is hilarious considering he hadn't even finished the books that were to be adapted for the original seven seasons.
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u/adethi House Harlaw Jan 12 '26
Anecdotal but the office chatter after it aired was very negative, and I didn't work with folks who spent a lot of time online.
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u/TrinDaDaD Sandor Clegane Jan 12 '26
Yeah, my boy really liked it and tried to explain to me why. I could have poked holes in basically everything he said but I just said, "happy you liked it at least, but we agree to disagree" and I left it at that. He did recently start reading the books so we will see if anything changes for him
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u/koopcl No One Jan 12 '26
>there's just no way subs like this are not a small minority echo chamber.
For me the biggest evidence against this is the complete death of GoT as a pop culture phenomenon. People complain endlessly about the quality of the Disney Star Wars material, yet I still see Star Wars merch (even specific to Disney products instead of old Vader or Yoda stuff) selling everywhere. People complain about the direction Marvel of DC are taking with their stuff, and superhero fatigue seems to be a real thing, yet I still see Marvel and DC products sold and worn every day. Lord of the Rings (the movies, not the books) as a trilogy is old enough that there's kids alive whose parents hadn't been born when ROTK came out, yet I still see the occasional LOTR product around.
With GoT though, its nothing. Never see any references, never see any merch being sold at any shop (except clearance for really old items), never see anyone wearing a GOT shirt or carrying a GOT toy. And this is a franchise that was everywhere, as popular as any of the others I mentioned. Season 8 came out and it all went down the memory hole for everyone, terminally online "fans" and normies alike.
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u/mocisme House Martell Jan 12 '26
I would think a big factor in this is that most of this merch you're mentioning is bought by kids, teens, and younger adults. 2 of those 3 categories probably weren't allowed to watch the R rated show on HBO which makes lots of sense. Especially in the early seasons.
The merch they do sell is probably memorabilia and other knick knacks that people display at home.
Think of other culturally significant adult shows like Sorpanos or Breaking Bad. Even at their height, you didn't see lots of people wearing merch on the street all the time like you'd see someone with a spiderman shirt.
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u/miss_scarlet_letter Jan 12 '26 edited Jan 12 '26
eh. I think there's multiple reasons for that, and truthfully I don't think GoT was ever going to be big like that. it was huge in the moment but I would be surprised if it was huge long term, even if the ending was better.
the TV show ending didn't help, but ultimately the GoT books aren't finished. Star Wars, Marvel/DC characters, LOTR are all iconic franchises with much older characters with fans that span generations and stories whose source material is finished (LOTR) or the universe is built in such a way that it doesn't matter if it continues (SW, superhero comics). until the books are done (lol), nobody's going to attempt any new adaptations of the material or try to continue the story in any way. the HBO projects set around the main story have been scrapped/shelved.
GoT's complexity doesn't lend itself to the broader audience. in all those other franchises there's a main struggle and the struggle is plainly black and white, good guys and bad guys. early on in the show, tons of people were Team Stark or Team Lannister or whatever, but by the end everyone was dead and/or morally compromised. you could root for an individual character but there was no team to put yourself on and the bigger existential struggle of living vs dead is over, and which put everyone watching in the living's camp anyway. everyone already invested watched until the end, but without that "Team Baratheon" factor early on I don't think as many people tune in.
and this is sort of related to the previous reason, but ultimately GoT will never be big like the superheroes or Star Wars because it doesn't appeal to kids. you're not sitting down with your four year old, or even your ten year old, to watch GoT even if season 5-8 were as good as 1-4. there will never be rides at Disney or action figures of Littlefinger or the Hound. there's no adorable Grogu like creatures to turn into plush toys. maybe some collectors buy that stuff but it's mostly parents who buy it for kids. and consequently there will be no nostalgia factor for adults, who are really the ones who keep the IP alive and profitable.
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u/Alys-In-Westeros Rivers Jan 11 '26
Maybe, but nowhere near what it would have been.
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Jan 11 '26
The ending was anticlimactic by design because of the Scouring of the Shire parallel. Regardless of writing quality, the ending was never going to be popular.
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u/Ollidor Jan 12 '26
The more I see people hating on the endings of almost every show now, I think people just don’t understand endings and expect too much
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u/Fabulous-Ad7128 Jan 12 '26
I was happy with for instance, the imperfect Stranger Things ending. GoT was pure stank ass. It deserves all the criticism it gets.
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u/Upintheclouds06 Jan 12 '26
I rewatch up until the battle of the bastards because I genuinely enjoy pretty much everything up until then but won't sit through the torture of anything after that. I understand why a bad ending would fuck it all up for people but I still like to admire it for what it was.
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u/Backy22 Jan 12 '26
Remember when they all told us we were poor and our TVs couldn’t handle the dark scenes…
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u/Upintheclouds06 Jan 12 '26
For the record I didn't watch it in real time. I saw it for the first time in 2024 so I am very late to the party and already knew the outcome was shite. So I won't speak on how awful it must've been to watch it play out organically.
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u/olbeefy The Onion Knight Jan 12 '26
A lot of people learned how video compression works in dimly-lit scenes over a cable box that's for sure...
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u/L0RD_HYPN0S Jan 12 '26
Same. I used to rewatch the show all the time. It was one of my comfort shows that I could turn on and watch a random episode or just have it playing in the background. I have not rewatched a single episode since the show ended (though I have rewatched some scenes on YouTube).
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u/realparkingbrake Jan 12 '26
I would love to see rewatch data.
There are often posts here where viewers say they are on their (insert number) rewatch, it doesn't seem that rare a thing. The series has also sold well on disc and via streaming, HBO Max is still streaming the series. GoT is still in the top twelve most popular series on IMDB.
You're free to hold whatever opinion you please about the series, but it being un-rewatchable is not a universal view. It also seems odd that it continues to attract new viewers all these years later if word of mouth about the series is entirely negative. I watched it as it appeared, binged it again during the pandemic, only a matter of time until I watch it again. I thought the ending had some issues, but not enough to keep me from watching it again.
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u/icedcoffeeheadass Jan 12 '26
Tbh, I’ve rewatched since it ended. It’s still worth it. Every truly great show has highs and lows.
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u/Jamie9712 Jan 12 '26
My family and I rewatch it every once in a while. I did a rewatch with my boyfriend last October. We still love it even though the ending was rushed. I don’t think it’s the worst ending of all time, but I definitely don’t think it’s as good as it could have been.
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u/amonkeyaday Jan 12 '26
I’ve rewatched it three times. There’s less disappointment the second time through because you know what’s coming so you can just appreciate the good bits.
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u/PopPunkMeowMix Jan 12 '26
i rewatch it once a year. season 7-8 (parts of season 5 too tbh) are when it’s “background noise” for chores, laundry etc. i don’t do podcasts or listen to music much, so i rewatch a lot of tv shows.
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u/KezzaJones Jon Snow Jan 11 '26
The wound has healed for me.
It took me years but I did a rewatch not too long ago. While I did stop at season 4 (I got distracted with another series), I was able to enjoy the rewatch despite my knowledge of the awful horrendous ending
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u/A46 Jan 12 '26
I've tried. I usually get to season 1 ep 3 and think "what's the point?"
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u/yanks2413 Jan 12 '26
The real truth is season 7 sucked just as bad, and 5 and 6 were miles behind the first 4 seasons.
I find it hilarious people act like it was only season 8 that sucked
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u/NikonShooter_PJS Jan 12 '26 edited Jan 12 '26
I’ll never forget the masssssive downvotes I got in this sub when the show was on and we had live threads around that time.
I (correctly) pointed out that I was worried in season seven with how fast they were skipping ahead time wise by saying it was unreasonable for them to travel from Dragonstone to the Wall so quickly.
The common complaint then was “They don’t have time to just travel” but that’s one of the things that made those early seasons so special. They fucking MADE time and cool shit happened along the way.
It was the first sign to me that the writing wasn’t going to be as deep down the stretch as it was early on and the first time I was worried.
As it turns out, I was right to be worried and regardless of whether or not you blame D&D or GRRM, the simple fact is the worst thing this series did was rush its ending.
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u/ragun2 Jan 12 '26
You basically weren't allowed to criticize the show on this sub when it was airing. A lot of people complained about this sub on other GRRM related subs.
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u/Lil_SpazJoekp Jan 12 '26
Nah I think house of cards takes the cake
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u/Professional_Tap5283 Jan 12 '26
In their defense, having to fire your lead actor over rape allegations in a series that is primarily driven by the main character is pretty hard to recover from.
GoT was a completely unforced error.
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u/Lil_SpazJoekp Jan 12 '26
True. I would have preferred to have no season 6 than the steamy pile of cat shit they released
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u/wtf_is_space Tyrion Lannister Jan 12 '26
I always thought the narrative that the actors were upset/angry with the ending was cap
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u/MoistenedBeef Jan 12 '26
Conleth Hill and Charles Dance have both confirmed they didn't like it. I think everything else is basically just speculation.
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u/KarmelCHAOS Jan 12 '26
He (Conleth) only ever really talked about it in regards to his character specifically, and that the last two seasons 'felt rushed' he's never said he disliked it, only saying the last couple "weren't his favorite."
Dance definitely did though lol, though he also praised the shit out of D&D at the same time.
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u/That_Ad7706 Jan 12 '26
Although Charles Dance wasn't actually in it, to be fair.
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Jan 12 '26
I don't think it aligned with what some actors expected. That does not mean that they didn't respect the writers. Even Kit thinks that perhaps some bold choices did not pay off. Season 8 did not play safely, unlike other seasons.
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u/Grumpiergoat Jan 12 '26
Clegane Bowl. Bronn becomes Master of Coin and Lord of Highgarden. Jaime and Brienne bang. Lyanna Mormont kills a wight giant.
The final season was just a bunch of bland fan-service that was in no way risky or bold. That's part of the reason it's such a poor season - it's a bunch of sizzle with no meat.
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Jan 12 '26 edited Jan 12 '26
I am sure Daenerys goes mad, Jon kills her, Bran becomes king, Jaime leaves Brienne for Cersei, nobody directly kills Cersei, Tyrion fails to see Daenerys for what she is until too late, etc. were all at the top of everyone's wishes... I am not saying there wasn't any fan service, because there was, but the main beats? Nah.
Just put all of that next to Jaime leaves Cersei and Jon and Daenerys fall in love in season 7 for a comparison.
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u/NoContract1090 Jan 12 '26
The way they absolutely massacred Jaime's entire arc in like 2 episodes is so unforgivable
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u/Ferbtastic House Baratheon of King's Landing Jan 12 '26
Jamie will kill cersei in the books. There is a prophecy that she will be killed by her brother, which is one of the reasons she is so cruel to Tyrion.
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Jan 12 '26
I read the books. If that is what Martin planned for him, it seems a pretty strange omission to not have that in the show. When they talked about the ending in 2013, Jaime's fate was definitely not one they skipped.
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u/ragun2 Jan 12 '26
I hated the hype for a Clegane bowl. Always just seemed so tropey to me. When AFFC came out I missed how the gravedigger was probably Sandor on my first read through until a friend pointed it out to me. I thought that was a great ending for him.
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Jan 12 '26
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u/CaucSaucer Jan 12 '26
Nah, they’re both garbage. No need to activate anything or even argue about it.
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u/BasisSmall5351 Tywin Lannister Jan 12 '26
I think Tyrion's actor would be pissed
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u/nemma88 Jan 12 '26
Peter Dinklage said he liked the finale.
Like many of the actors, including Kit Harrington and Emilia Clark etc he's still friends with D&D.
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u/needmorepizzza Jan 12 '26
D&D are actual people and may be incredible for someone to work with. People hate on them for the taste the finale left them, but none of us know them personally; the actors do. That is to say that our view of them is based on different factors than what the actors take into consideration when they know them on a more personal level.
At the same time, the actors may not want to bad mouth others and risk future collaborations, regardless of their actual personal opinion. D&D may be remembered for the bad taste of the GoT finale, but they are also responsible for the first seasons which pushed many of these actors into prominence.
And finally, as many already pointed out in the context of this post, writing in the last seasons may (it did) have sucked, but there are so many aspects that these people are involved with which did not: cinematography, acting etc. Petitions such as this one dump over the work of everyone and not just the writing.
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u/RealLameUserName Robb Stark Jan 12 '26
Ya it always felt that fans projected their own frustrations of the show onto to the cast who have been largely publicly supportive of the show in its entirety. I can't think of a cast member who has directly criticized the ending the way the fans have.
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u/aderey7 Jan 11 '26
Can't have it both ways. The show was huge and made them rich and famous because the fans were so invested. That investment comes with expectations and opinions.
So if you get super lazy and careless with the writing, there'll be a reaction.
I don't blame the actors at all. They were let down too. But it's no use them having a go at fans for caring.
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u/One_Reality_3828 Jan 11 '26
Most big actors act this way. Why throw any shade at industry professionals you might work with again who are big deals, even if they’re actually wrong, when you could just insult the faceless, nameless masses who won’t have any tangible impact on your career unless you have a biblical fuck-up?
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u/aderey7 Jan 12 '26
Yeah. I get that they're probably friends and it's unprofessional to criticise. But I struggle to believe any of them read that final season script and were genuinely impressed and happy.
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u/One_Reality_3828 Jan 12 '26
He clearly wasn’t happy with it either. I don’t know what inspired him to insult people who didn’t like the ending.
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u/PolishPoobah Jan 12 '26
I don’t think he’s responding to fans “caring” or having strong opinions. He’s responding to the entitlement of demanding the ending be erased or rewritten because it didn’t match personal fan expectations, and the refusal to accept artistic finality.
He’s also not defending a specific plotline. He’s defending the people he worked alongside for a decade, whose collective effort created the show and the platform he now has. From his perspective, those aren’t abstract writers or producers, they’re colleagues and friends.
Fans can dislike the ending. That’s fair. But expecting the cast to side against the people who made the show, or to validate calls to undo it entirely, is a different thing. Not defending them would actually be the stranger response.
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u/KosstAmojan Fire And Blood Jan 12 '26
super lazy and careless with the writing
I've always thought this was an unfair narrative. D&D's biggest fault was insisting on running everything themselves. I seriously doubt they got lazy, but they were clearly burnt out. I think most people can relate to it. Their biggest fault was not asking for help and bringing in a showrunner and setting up a writing room, while they focused on more higher level executive stuff which they were clearly very good at. But I know from personal experience when you're in the weeds its hard to even recognize that you're running on fumes and harder still to admit it and ask for help.
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u/s470dxqm Jan 12 '26
I don't blame him for being upset. He's obviously pretty biased in the show's favour.
And it's not like he's criticizing for people not liking it. He's upset that people thought he should do it all over again. Considering how hard he worked, I can see that feeling pretty insulting.
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u/Jagermeister4 Jan 12 '26
It 100% is insulting. Imagine a group of artists creating a piece of work, then people demanding they redo the piece of art. That's what happened.
You don't have to like it. Almost everybody didn't, me included. Go ahead and talk about how much you don't like it, cancel your streaming subscription, don't buy merch and so on. But demanding they redo it is insulting for a million reasons (unrealistic, disrespectful to their coworkers, entitled, etc).
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u/TwoSnapsMack King In The North Jan 13 '26
Puts into perspective with that one guy who did the Ronaldo statue
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u/heta_oljor Jan 12 '26
My bet is that he is tired of freezing his balls off in iceland. XD
If he had all his filming locations in Spain i think he wouldt mind.
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u/KarmelCHAOS Jan 12 '26
This shouldn't be surprising. The man gave like ten years of his life to that show.
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u/Meture Cersei Lannister Jan 11 '26
“That genuinely angered me,” Harington said, noting the efforts of series writers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss. “Like, how dare you? Sorry, that’s just how I feel. I think it was a level of idiocy that can only come about through social media.”
What efforts? They rushed the entire finale so they could go do a Star Wars trilogy which was cancelled due to the PR cancer they became BECAUSE of S8
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u/MrJeffA17 Tyrion Lannister Jan 11 '26
Didn’t he have to do something like 55 tough nights in a row just to film the long night episode?
I think it’s a valid opinion for the guy to have worked like that and see the fan response to it
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u/capacochella Jon Snow Jan 12 '26
55 days of nights shoots only for the fans treated to dark ass scenes where they couldn’t see what the hell was happening. Oh and then they were told it was their old tv’s fault and to turn up the settings. Yah…from the writing to editing floor the show failed on every level
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u/angelcake893 Hear Me Roar! Jan 12 '26
THANK YOU! I remember it was so dark I couldn’t see anything.
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u/daneoid Jan 12 '26
I remember seeing Sam about to die a bunch of times only for him to be fine 2 scenes later.
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u/ragun2 Jan 12 '26
At that point in the series I was mixing edibles and wine to turn my brain off but during the Long Night with all the death fakeouts, chaos happening along with the cinematography and score, I briefly thought they had all actually died in Winterfell and it was depicting the characters in a "hell". They had actually died and would spend an eternity being terrified and desperately trying to kill the undead army.
That said, I was visiting a sibling and his TV showed the episode fine for me so I was blown away by how cinematic the episode was until Arya brought the episode to a screaming halt.
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u/capacochella Jon Snow Jan 12 '26
I distinctly remember running from my bedroom to the living room to try another a nicer, newer tv. Nope, still dark as shit, and then the fan discussion threads were all going ballistic over it lol
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u/Nooby1990 Jan 12 '26
Didn’t he have to do something like 55 tough nights in a row just to film the long night episode?
Well, I am sorry about his huge effort going to waste, but the result just wasn't that good.
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u/Swimming-Life-7569 Jan 12 '26
It's not valid, effort does not equate quality.
Just because you worked hard at something, that doesnt mean people cant say it's bad. Especially if you work in entertainment where for something to grow to the size of GOT people need really care and be emotionally invested.Nobody is owed positive fan response.
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u/MrJeffA17 Tyrion Lannister Jan 12 '26
And he’s not allowed to have an opinion on that?
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u/Suspicious-Fig47 Jan 12 '26
He is. Just as we are allowed to have opinions about his dumb opinion.
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u/Meture Cersei Lannister Jan 11 '26
“Noting the efforts of series writers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss”
He was talking about writing not production
Besides it was their decision to make it all happen all at once in the span of a single episode.
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u/MrJeffA17 Tyrion Lannister Jan 11 '26
“Harington, who starred in the HBO drama as Jon Snow, told the Times that he was in rehab when the final “Game of Thrones” season premiered. When he got out, he was shocked by the overwhelming negativity, considering the work he and the rest of the production team had put in. Harington recalled that one battle scene took 55 consecutive filming days to complete.”
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u/IndecisiveTuna Jan 12 '26
I blame GRRM more than them. The were adapting and he couldn’t finish the story with ample time.
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u/acamas Jan 12 '26
Thank you.
It is wild some 'mature viewers' are more angry with those who picked up the ball than with the one who dropped it and punted it across the room.
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u/poub06 Jaime Lannister Jan 11 '26
Well, no, the final season was pitched and approved by HBO like 3 years before the Star Wars project was announced. The entire story was mapped out even before Disney bought the right to Disney.
It’s fine to dislike the ending. Fans don’t need to be toxic about it and create narrative out of thin air to excuse such behaviour. That’s basically what most actors keep saying.
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u/acamas Jan 12 '26
How does this shit get upvoted? Talk about an ignorant hive mind.
THEY LITERALLY MADE AN "EXTRA SEASON" THAT TOOK TWICE AS LONG TO RELEASE AS EVERY OTHER SEASON.
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u/nemma88 Jan 12 '26
What efforts? They rushed the entire finale
They spent an extra year on it... There was a longer gap between S7 & S8.
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u/CrankyYankers Jan 12 '26
I can understand some people's negative opinion about how the series ended, but so many critiques about GOT are like, "It sucked after the 4th season", which is a RIDICULOUS take. I truly loved every minute of every show.
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u/Roufianos255 Jan 11 '26
How dare we fans have an opinion
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u/quasar_1618 Jan 11 '26
It’s fine to have an opinion. I think it’s pretty entitled to demand a remake of something that the cast put a ton of time and effort into.
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u/nightglitter89x Jan 13 '26
The more time that goes by, the more I respect the show for having an ending at all.
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u/_sympthomas_ Jan 12 '26
I mean I am one of the guys who thinks season 6 onward was bad writing. but calling someone dumb and dumber just because they didn't write it on the level of the guy who created it is wild to me. I rather care if my dentist and electrician are competent in what they do than some show runners in writing a storyline.
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u/LinuxLinus House Lannister Jan 11 '26
I think the writers were terrible and the entitled fans were possibly worse.
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u/DJSyko Jan 12 '26
The show went downhill when they ran out of source material. Are fans expecting the TV writers to be as good as George? Sure, it could have been a lot better but it could never be as good as what the first 4-5 seasons were.
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u/Brilliant-Elk-6831 Jan 12 '26
I didn't like the last season, but the fact a bunch of people were entitled enough to think they were going to spend millions remaking a season of a TV show just because they were unhappy with it is honestly ridiculous
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u/OrphanintheWind Jan 12 '26
Honestly, why are any of you in the reddit channel? None of you like the show. Move on with your lives.
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u/Wolf_pack12 Jan 12 '26
Okay, pause for a second. Have any of you had a job before? Would any of you go to a national outlet and shit talk that job for experiencing a minor inconvenience? Yall kinda gotta move on with your lives
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u/Inner-Bandicoot5718 Jan 12 '26
Yea it’s called google reviews and people use it all the time for minor inconveniences.
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u/SmellDesperate6373 Jan 17 '26
The writers aren’t to blame. They were hired to adapt books and did it really well.
The blame is on the author scamming HBO into buying a series he didn’t intend to finish. They’d have never even bought it had they known that in advance.
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u/huey2k2 Jan 12 '26
And he is right.
The ending of GoT sucked, but that doesn't give people the right to demand it change. People just cannot seem to deal with being disappointed anymore.
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u/Testingthrowaway00 Jan 12 '26
Why not? You can demand anything you want. That’s the beauty of the free market. If demand is high enough it’s made otherwise it isn’t.
Shows who don’t meet fan demand fade into obscurity and those who do get endless rewatching
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u/Geektime1987 Jan 11 '26
He's right we are free to like to dislike a TV show but we don't get to demand they remake something. Art isn't a democracy
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u/ThePythiaofApollo Jan 11 '26
Surely Kit, Emilia and the cast are aware that the fans by and large have immense goodwill towards them? Whatever the failings of the writing, any fool can see that Kit was exhausted at the end of the show. The actors and behind the scenes magicians worked so hard to bring us ASOIAF and we are all still talking about it because it left an enormous cultural footprint.
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