On Sunday, May 19th, the series finale of the popular HBO show, Game of Thrones, will be aired. This is the sixth episode of the eighth season in the series. This final season of the show has attracted a lot of attention and criticism because of how it is attempting to conclude the many storylines the show has introduced. Despite this, students at Prep are still excited for the final episode, and have enjoyed watching Game of Thrones the past five weeks.
A lot of time and resources has been put into the last season of the series. This final season of Game of Thrones has been the most expensive one to produce, even though it has the least amount of episodes. Each of the six episodes has cost about $15 million to create. In addition, it has taken about 8 months in total to film the season. In seeing how much effort is being put into this season, the creators truly wanted to get things right and please the fans.
Season 8 of Game of Thrones has been caught up in controversy to how the writers of the show have been wrapping of the fan’s beloved series. While any shows ending, especially a show as popular as Game of Thrones, will receive backlash because it is impossible to please everyone, this season has truly angered many fans of the show. In the show, many different characters and interactions have their own storylines, and fans have been skeptical of how all of these will properly be addressed and ended. After being able to view five episodes of the season, it appears this worry has become a reality. An online petition titled “Remake Game of Thrones Season 8 with competent writers,” has received over 436,000 signatures. The reason for this petition is stated as, “David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have proven themselves to be woefully incompetent writers when they have no source material (i.e. the books) to fall back on. This series deserves a final season that makes sense.”
Among the students of Cathedral Prep, there are fans of the Game of Thrones series. Friends have held watch parties whenever a new episode premiers on Sunday night at 9, and they look to do the same one last time. After discussing with these fans of the series, Prep students have a variety of attitudes towards season 8, but still have some ideas in common.
Senior Sean Hart shared a common criticism of this last season. “Many of the fascinating character arcs were destroyed in rushing towards ending of the show as a whole,” he said. “For example, my favorite character Daenerys Targaryen was ruined because of this.”
Continuing on this line of thinking, senior Ryan Sweny was unhappy with the ending and final developments to Jamie Lannister’s and Cersei Lannister’s story. “This season has not explained as much as I would have wanted, especially when it comes to the individual characters and their personal developments. With the death of Jamie and Cersei, it seems like there was not much attention to detail.” Furthermore, Ryan notes how this will have another effect on the episode to come. “Due to there being one episode left and already rushed character development, I am expecting many of my questions to go unanswered.”
Some viewers of the show have had more extreme negative opinions, resembled by senior Chris Heinrich. “I have never been so disappointed by a television show in my life. The writing has been getting worse and worse, and it has really hit rock bottom this season. A majority of the episodes this season have been unenjoyable, because of how character development was rushed or simply ignored.”
In light of the variety of criticisms Game of Thrones faces, many viewers still hold a optimistic view for the final episode. “I want to have hope that the final episode will make up for the faults of the rest of the season,” says Sean.
Ryan Sweny shares, “I have enjoyed the experience of being able to watch more Thrones content, and I am very excited for what the ending has to offer.”
