Game of Thrones in retrospect

[Stavros]

Game of Thrones has ended, but will be watched repeatedly, with or without the frustration many have expressed with the final season. It had some terrific moments that have set GoT apart from other tv series. It has often been visually stunning, while its ability to produce sudden moments of dramatic importance that shocked the audience will be hard to match.

If you set aside some wooden acting, some lazy writing, and the role played by the improbable ability of characters to travel long distances in minutes, there are strengths and weaknesses to consider.

GoT was I believe the first significant series to bring people living on the margins of society into its centre as significant characters-
-'the imp' Tyrion Lannister,
-disabled Bran,
-the Eunuch Varys (and also 'Reek'),
-a mental weakling (? is this the right description) in Hodor,
-incestuous couples (Cersei and Jaime, though Martin may have poached this from the old German saga, the Nibelungenlied via Wagner's Ring),
-a person with a visible birthmark (the greyscale of Shireen Baratheon),
-and if I may so describe her, the asexual Arya Stark (until Season 8 )

There was also more gay nudity/sex than is usually found in drama series', and only the third time I can recall seeing menstrual blood in a film or tv series, when Sansa has her first period, thereby creating an opportunity for King Joffrrey to take her virginity; (the other two being the Japanese film Diary of a Shijuku Thief, Nagisa Oshima, 1968; and the film Dimenticare Venezia, Franco Busati 1979).

Critically, these have also been for the most part positive characters, the exceptions being Cersei, and depending on how you see his role, Varys.

Could GoT have employed transgendered actors in transgendered roles? Given the way in which magic, superstition and 'shape shifting' was used in the series, the opportunity to use a transgendered character I think was there, and not just because there were clearly heterosexual and homosexual characters and situations, but because at times the question of gender role was challenged, mostly through its powerful female characters be they mature women or pre-teen.
The Children of the Forest presented an opportunity for gender fluid actors, and with some porn stars taking part in the earlier series in the brothels of King's Landing there could have been -in case I missed it- brief but telling opportunities for well known performers to be seen -and for that matter, to become consorts of a major character. One wonders what the reaction would have been had someone like Oberyn Martell been shacked up with -insert your favourite here- and moreover, have loved her too.

We shall never know, just as there are unanswered questions about characters and plot lines not brought to a conclusion in Season 8.
My favourite characters have been Tyrion, Arya and her instructor Jaqen h'ghar, the immolation of Shireen the most shocking moment in the entire show, the Blood Wedding its most finely tuned drama -but there were, amidst the longeurs, many more great moments, and I think three of the best battle sequences I have ever seen.

I shall wait for the box set of Season to come out on DVD and watch the lot all over again.

A man asks if you would like to share your thoughts on GoT.

[Torris]

Bullshit ending. Felt tacked on to neatly wrap everything up

Bran as King? Tyrion as King maker? Unsullied as farmers? Arya as Dora the Explorer?

They tried to accomplish too much in 6 eps. They blew it.

The tenderness of Drogon scooping up dead Dany and carrying her away was the only thing that rang true. The dragon would have nuked Jon not the Iron Throne

Sansa as bad ass schemer also rang true after all she suffered.

[Torris]

Arya butt crack and side boob

[fred41]

I liked the ending. I've read the books before watching the series, but I can't remember half the shit hard core fans bring up during the season. The ending does seem a bit rushed, but I believe that, even had the series been longer, we would have wound up being in the same places. I like that it was, for the most part, neatly wrapped up. Everyone, that got to survive, pretty much ended up where they belong.

As for the Unsullied and the Dothrakis...I think, as do many fans of the show, that there were far too many seemingly still around then there should have been after the war against the undead. Therefore they are cancelled out in my mind. Adios.

I also like Drogon melting the Iron Throne...almost as if the dragon recognized the cause of all the misfortune. Jon being Aegon Targaryen is most likely what would have saved his ass, so back with the Wildings and his Direwolf where he really belongs.

Arya Stark heading West just gives another opportunity for a spin off. I'd watch it.