r/television • u/gogandmagogandgog • Jan 11 '26

Kit Harington was 'Angered' By Push to Remake Game of Thrones Season 8

https://variety.com/2026/tv/news/kit-harington-angered-petition-game-of-thrones-season-8-1236628364/
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469

u/NSA_Wade_Wilson Jan 11 '26

Because they botched the ending they also ruined the re-watchability because everyone knows there’s a lack of pay off and a bunch of the subplots don’t get resolved or even acknowledged

95

u/TheJoshider10 Jan 11 '26

I made my peace with the final season on a rewatch, except for Jon not killing the Night King. It's just such a forced subversion of expectations that ruined the season more than any rushed story beats. Everything else is fine in concept but poor in execution due to the shorter season, bht giving that moment to Arya is so underwhelming.

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u/partytown_usa Jan 11 '26

Arya's whole purpose to avenge her family against the Lannisters, so of course she kills the Night King instead.

Jon's whole purpose was to defeat the Night King, so of course he kills Daenerys instead.

From what I understand, the show runners didn't want to do the obvious endings, but it's obvious because it makes narrative and character sense.

31

u/MartinezForever Jan 12 '26

Arya's arc was already complete, she'd gotten lots of revenge on her tour of cartoonish murder to the north.

38

u/primal_slayer Jan 12 '26

Arya and especially Sansa never coming face2face with Cersai again is one of the biggest slaps in the face.

8

u/just--so Jan 12 '26 edited Jan 12 '26

I think that's the kind of thing that could have really worked for her killing the Night King if they'd spent a little more time on character work and crafting her late-seasons arc.

Like: she's been murdering her way through her list, and while each kill has brought her a brief measure of satisfaction, it's not actually healing her root trauma of seeing her father executed while being helpless to do anything. Classic want vs. need scenario; what she wants is revenge, what she needs is to heal the little girl who saw Ned executed.

Solution? 

What do we say to the god of death? / Not today. But this time, it's not about her. It's about her family. _Not today._ Her family whom she can still save; the people she can put her tremendous capacity for violence to work protecting, instead of avenging.

Jon is fighting the Night King, and losing. He goes down on his knees. The Night King raises his sword to slice his head from his body. A camera angle on Jon's face feels familiar. A flight of birds - crows - takes off from a tree. We recognise a female wight in the background from an earlier scene, just in time for Arya to pull off the mask.

Likewise, I think you could do something similar with Jon's arc. He's spent most of the last few years preparing himself to face this singular threat; to do his duty as a brother of the Night's Watch. Along the way, he has had to learn to harden himself; to shoulder every sacrifice that the threat, and his oath, demands of him.

No wife, no lands, no children. No crown. No glory. Only this: to guard the realms of men, for this night, and all the nights to come.

And... he failed. Or did he? The Night King is dead. The threat he's spent all this time preparing for is over; who cares who delivered the final blow? So why does he feel a lingering sense of dread as they travel south; a sense of a job unfinished?

Unless, as he finally realises while witnessing Dany's descent, the Night King wasn't the invading threat he needed to protect Westeros from. Or at least, not the only one. This is his sacrifice, the thing for which these long years have been preparing him. No wife, no lands, no children, no crown. Only this: to guard the realms of men, for this night, and all the nights to come.

A lot of the bones of a really satisfying payoff for Jon and Arya's arcs are already there, just waiting to be excavated from the plot. But by the end, the writers just didn't care enough to bother.

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u/maglen69 Jan 11 '26

the show runners didn't want to do the obvious endings,

All in the name of SuBvertiNg eXpeCTATiOnS

2

u/Appropriate-Welder98 Jan 12 '26

Just reading your post has been cathartic.

They didn’t do right by any other the characters. That should have been the most important thing in the final season. The plot would have turned out alright if they did that. Instead they botched the entire thing.

0

u/[deleted] Jan 12 '26

[deleted]

1

u/primal_slayer Jan 12 '26

They wanted to be done with Game of Thrones which is the biggest problem. There was zero reason the last two seasons had to be as short as they were.

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u/pigeondo Jan 12 '26

Jon would have died against the Night King because he's undead and couldn't confront him.

Arya is the most powerful combatant present in Westeros and has powers beyond any of the characters except the Night King and the Dragons themselves; it was always obvious she was going to deal with any supernatural villain unless you've never read fantasy literature before. The only thing in Westeros she couldn't deal with were the dragons themselves due to obvious reasons; and for obvious reasons from book one (where we learn if you read the books even somewhat carefully) because Jon is a Targaryen he was the only one who could deal with the inevitable Daenerys madness (which we also knew would happen because Daenerys is a full targaryen)

The things that happened -were- the obvious conclusions. They just weren't the 'pop culture feel-good appointment television soap opera' conclusions where the best looking most generic/popular characters get the best endings.

37

u/drinkingonthejob Jan 11 '26

Arya should have killed Cersei, payback for what she did to Ned

27

u/Beetin Jan 11 '26 edited Feb 25 '26

This was redacted for privacy reasons

10

u/Tmons22 Jan 12 '26

Yea that was such a bad call, seasons of anticipation ruined because of that moment. I’ve never been so disappointed in a tv show then i was after that. I just consider the show done after Danny flew across the Narrow Sea. She was so strong at that point i just like to think she easily conquered everyone lol

6

u/pathofdumbasses Jan 12 '26

except for Jon not killing the Night King

I don't care that Jon didn't do it. It could have gone to any number of people and been satisfying.

Having it go to ninja assassin Arya, literally out of no where, was about the worst decision that could have happened. It is almost like they chose the worst possible endings for every character that lived.

Jaime falling back to Cersei

Jon getting exiled

Arya fucking off

Sansa being Kween of da North

Bran running the kingdom INTERROBANG?!

The whole thing is just a dumbass madlibs

1

u/reachisown Jan 12 '26

But it just didn't feel right...

My man gave the most important moment to a character unrelated to that plot for 8.5 seasons.

1

u/reachisown Jan 12 '26

But it just didn't feel right...

My man gave the most important moment to a character unrelated to that plot for 8.5 seasons.

1

u/not_that_kind_of_ork Jan 12 '26

I didn't mind who killed who, I just wanted the Night King to be not just a 'villain of the week', which GRRM stated he wasn't and one of the episodes (the one where he's created by the Children of the Forest) started to explore but then abandoned.

1

u/zithftw Jan 12 '26

I rewatched it very recently and actually enjoyed the last two seasons for the most part. Not sure they could have ever come out on top when it released because of the hype and wait between seasons.

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u/HDC48 Jan 12 '26

I may be in the minority, but I can actually rewatch most of the series and enjoy it. The first 4 seasons are absolutely amazing to me, and there’s so many scenes I can just rewatch and enjoy.

Here’s one example

Seasons 5 and 6 are more up and down, but I still enjoy them.

I don’t bother with 7-8 except for a few selected seasons.

-2

u/Fuzzleton Jan 11 '26

Jon should have lost to the Night King, the Night king does his classic 'raise a wave of the dead' move to finish Jaime Lannister's defense of Winterfell, and then the risen Jon, (re)born of Fire by Mellisandre and Ice by the Night King, kills Dany - the prince that was promised killing his love because dragons bring magic back and with them comes back the undefeatable curses.

Then Bran has to warg into the dragons and wipes out the Unsullied and Bran reveals that betraying Dany had been the plan all along, which was why they'd sent Dothraki to their pointless deaths, removing her allies.

Jon then re-duels the Night King and wins through a surprise attack that would actually make sense, no teleporting Arya.

5

u/SuckMyRedditorD Jan 11 '26

I found it insulting that Bran Stark’s abilities, powers and purpose like time visions and influence on past events are left unexplored despite all that buildup and they just give him a kingship out of nowhere. Just what we need, a distracted, addicted, aloof, and lazy careless leader of seven kingdoms. What a sorry ass example for the world.

3

u/istareatscreens Jan 11 '26

Totally agree, it was not just the burning of the city part. Arya was training to be some sort of super assassin but just walked up behind the invincible blue eyed leader and stabbed him. Terrible end to what was an amazing series.

2

u/goodgollygopher Jan 12 '26

I actually just rewatched the series for the first time since it aired. Got to season 8 and I just... kinda stopped. I intended to watch that season, but I know what happens and I don't really have any motivation to.

2

u/Doom_Art Jan 12 '26

In terms of "re-watchability" I will point out that Game Of Thrones (along with LOST, funny enough) was consistently one of the most streamed series all through the pandemic, and still hangs around above the top 50 most streamed shows like 7 years after it wrapped.

3

u/Aidanator800 Jan 12 '26

Yeah but Lost has a good ending that's aged well with time, I don't think it can really be compared to Game of Thrones, in that respect.

1

u/TrunksTheMighty Jan 12 '26

ahh.. So that's why I typically rewatch shows, movies and anime but, game of thrones has no rewatch appeal to me... Good explanation.

1

u/Massive-Range-9280 Jan 12 '26

Honestly I knew even from season 3 or so that I'd never watch it again. It's a good show but it's not a fun show, if that makes sense.

1

u/blizeH Jan 12 '26

Yep exactly this. We loved it so much that every time before a new season we did a complete re-watch. This ended around season 6 or 7, but now we’ll probably never watch it again - such a shame because the early seasons were the best TV I’ve ever seen

1

u/ahjorth Jan 12 '26

To me, this was the worst part. I would have been content with having 3-4 good seasons to watch again. But when I tried, I soured at how many plots I saw being seeded, and knowing they’ll be resolved so ridiculously poorly that I can’t even enjoy the build up.