Revisiting the DOWNFALL of Game of Thrones | Video Essay

Game of Thrones was a show that had the world at its feet for years in 2011 HBO began adapting George ARA Martin A Song of Ice and Fire novels into some of the greatest seasons of TV ever put to screen but it isn't exactly a mystery That Game of Thrones experienced somewhat of a downfall in its later Seasons which resulted in arguably the worst final season of any TV show in history almost 2 years ago House of the Dragon managed to breathe life back into the Game of Thrones name with an incredible season of Television recapturing some of the magic that made those early seasons of Game of Thrones some of the best TV ever created bringing back the political Intrigue of those early Seasons instead of focusing mainly on large scale plot armor field battles that would become synonymous with the later seasons of Game of Thrones now just before House of the dragon air in 20122 I made a video revisiting the failure of Game of Thrones but that was pretty much the second video I ever uploaded on this channel and it was absolutely terrible House of the Dragons since that video has managed to bring Game of Thrones back in a big way and season 2 of House of the Dragon has just began its run right now and it just so happens that it's been 5 years since Game of Thrones ended so I wanted to take a deep dive retrospective look into Game of Thrones The Good The Bad and The godamn Awful as 5 years on from its end we revisit the downfall of one of the greatest shows ever [Music] made so some background information as we get into this video Game of Thrones isn't just another TV show to me this is my favorite show and IP really ever I've watched Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon multiple times I've read the books hell I even have a Daenerys Targaryen tattoo on my arm this show means a lot to me so just keep that in mind if I get a little heated when we get into the juicy stuff anyway in 2011 we were blessed with Game of Thrones a show that really went above and beyond and became a pop culture phenomenon and was often crowned as the best show in the world when you were tuning into an episode of Game of Thrones you knew that you were in for a good time when you heard this you knew that you were about to sit through 45 minutes to an hour of the best TV you'd ever seen it was a show about well the Game of Thrones in Westeros with several houses plotting and scheming their way to the throne each character perfectly placed in the story to serve their purpose many of those characters extremely hard to read allowing backstabbing plotting and scheming in a political sense to be the core of the show and with all this political squabbling between houses taking place there was a threat in the distance looming over everything Beyond the Wall which would ramp up with each individual season like you were just hooked you were always anticipating what the threat Beyond the Wall would entail for Westeros but you stayed and you kept coming back for that political aspect of the show it balanced fantasy with drama extremely well Game of Thrones quickly gained a reputation where no character in the show was safe any anyone could die at any time regardless of their importance to the story the actor playing the character it didn't matter because plot armor in early Game of Thrones days did not exist if a character was in grave Peril there was a fair chance that they would die it didn't matter if it was a man a woman a child or even a freaking baby this show never pulled any punches with the notion that no character is safe which is something the later Seasons dismissed very quickly despite desperate attempts to recreate it now there were and still are many aspects of Game of Thrones that made it the biggest and best show in the world for multiple years yeah you can point to the story The World building but for me what kept me engaged with this show was the characters the characters of Game of Thrones are some of the best ever created when I think of my top five TV show characters of all time I think probably four of the top five come from this show those being Tywin Lannister Jamie Lannister Tyrion Lannister and Daenerys Targaryen yes I know some of those characters had their entire arcs assassinated in the later seasons but we'll get to that later don't worry but watching these characters in those early Seasons grow and evolve was worth tuning in for in of itself seeing Tyrion go from a smart but lost field Outcast of his family to an essential player in the Game of Thrones was so satisfying seeing Jamie go from a Despicable piece of that gets a little too friendly with his sister to someone who would lay down his life to save people and as we find out was someone who did commit an act which saved Millions despite the negative stigma his actions branded upon him which helped flesh out why he was the way he was the thing is though there wasn't just a handful of well written and thought out characters drawn from The Source material there were literally dozens of them and the show was cast so incredibly well Charles danc as Tywin Aiden Gillan as little finger Peter Dinklage as Tyrion it was just phenomenal casting I still look back on those early days of Game of Thrones and there is one word that can describe the show Almost better than any other and that word is balance this show had an absurd amount of characters to balance and weave through its intricate story you had Daenerys over in the East the Starks in Winterfell the heart of the political side of the show and King's Landing the wool the eie Dragonstone the iron islands with each location featuring multiple Mainline characters it became apparent to me pretty quickly how well they managed to balance dozens of key characters across such a massive show and it still impresses me when I rewatch it to this day a major part of how the early season struck this balance was due to the formula in which the episodes were made we' get 5 to 10 minutes in a certain location and then 5 to 10 minutes somewhere else and by the episodes end we've basically caught up with all the characters and progressed their story in some way there was no filler every single episode mattered despite spending small amounts of time with each character in each episode the show was smart in how it threaded everything together the main King's Landing plot bled into the subplot in winterfeld it even reached across the sea and connected with Daenerys in OS with assassins coming after her at Robert braan request so although these characters were split up for the majority of the show The Narrative remained consistent with all of them everything was separated but still tied together perfectly and as the seasons progressed these stories would overlap and lead to incredible moments I think back to bayor in season 1 where Ned Stark died or the Reigns of castamir aka the Red Wedding which I still think might be the best episode of Television I've ever seen what was great about these moments was they were all earned the show never went for shock value for the sake of it when TV shows in 2024 tend to Trend it's because of a cameo or some form of nostalgia bait Game of Thrones never needed that because the writing was so smart the characters were so rich and every major beat of the story was earned the highs of this show were just unlike anything we see today some of my favorite moments from this show are the smaller dialogue exchanges between these characters like Robert and Cersei talking about their marriage was somehow one of the best scenes of the first season also basically any scene where Littlefinger and Varys were trying to get one up over the other like the iconic chaos as a ladder scene Tywin making every single person in the room seem smaller regardless of who they were even a king he was always the person in control and basically any minor dialogue seen with oberin in season 4 like this show didn't need those big headline moments for it to stand out although it definitely has them but I often find that the gold of this show was found in those smaller moments like the one ones I listed and there are countless others as well now I'd be remissed to ignore the fourth season of this show which is basically where this portion of the video ends season 4 of Game of Thrones is in my opinion the best single season of Television ever created everything from the buildup to the eventual battle at the wall with the Knights watch and the wildlings to the death of Joffrey and all the drama that ensues surrounding his death with tyrion's trial and Obin coming to King's Landing every single scene felt purposeful the writing was so smart the dialogue was perfect everything weaved together to create incredible moments one of the best episodes of the show is tyrion's trial where it's just a trial Tyrion demanding a trial by combat to just stick it to Taiwan gives me chills to this day the sad thing about season 4 of Game of Thrones though is it basically signified the peak of the show in a quality sense seasons 1 2 and three all built up perfectly and improved with each passing season and then it all came to a head in season 4 where majority of the show's greatest moments take place I like to look at the story of Game of Thrones downfall through one particular character that being Tywin Lannister when he's in the show Game of Thrones was perfect when he wasn't in the show the cracks opened and things started to Trend downwards the downfall of Game of Thrones is pretty frustrating it must be said frustrating in the sense that it was a small Decay over the course of multiple Seasons until it really fell off a cliff because it's not as if season 4 ended and then the show just became awful far from it in fact seasons 5 and six of Game of Thrones are still great seasons of Television make no mistake but by Game of Thrones standards there was an undeniable drop off in the writing season 5 of Game of Thrones was definitely a noticeable drop off from the previous four seasons though yet it still had many moments that I would consider to be the best in the show such as hard home Theon saving Sansa cersei's walk of atonement Danny riding drogon for the first time and some other moments too but it became clear that there was evidence of a decline the King's Landing plot became the worst of all of them with the faith militant the show would often stagnate when we had to listen to the high Spar say the same thing over and over again you also had characters such as Littlefinger starting to make questionable choices that would later result in his death in season 7 for example he betrays Sansa and aligns himself with the boltons who the north hates and also don't have tywin's backing anymore because he's dead and this is the first Domino to fall that leads to his death like it's so so dumb one of if not the smartest characters in the show's death is rooted in a writing oversight which is really frustrating you also had so barriston dying for some reason at the hands of the sons of the harpy this character had so much more to offer and his death came off as a desperate attempt to keep the whole nobody is safe notion from the earlier seasons and to have some action because action equals good apparently it didn't feel like an earned death through the writing this character needed to stick around for the sake of Daenerys 's character so Barrison is the only real link Danny had to rhaegar and the Mad King wouldn't this character be literally ideal to have around when you went for the Mad Queen Arc that you rushed in the later Seasons I guess not like what a waste of potential even the actor who played Saron was extremely frustrated by this because characters in Game of Thrones don't die for no reason this was the first time that it really happened there was also a significant dumbing down of Tyrion who was once up there as the smartest character in the show this was the start of what led to Tyrion being just a complete in the later Seasons Stannis also just dies this season after hanging around at the wall not really doing anything and it's just extremely anticlimactic for such a cool character Jon also dies in this season which at face value was actually incredibly ballsy but he's revived a few episodes later and for no reason considering the prince that was promised prophecy was never fulfilled but we will get to that later don't you worry so whilst nothing was season eight levels of disastrous by Game of Thrones standards there was a dip in season 5 and season 6 pretty much followed suit although I'd argue it's a slightly better season than season 5 season 6 did have some pretty disappointing resolutions to certain subplots as well such as arya's time and braavos it kind of just came to a whimpering end after some really ridiculous plot armor and speaking of plot armor this is where it really started to become a problem in this show you could argue it started in season 5 when the white Walker throws JN around instead of just killing him sure but Arya getting stabbed multiple times by the Wai and being fine was just ridiculous and then there's the whole Battle of the bastards plot armor which has kind of become legendary at this point it's one of the best episodes of the show make no mistake but the plot armor is insane and the finale episode The Winds of Winter has one of the best openings to any episode in the history of the show with Cersei blowing up the sept and finally ridding us of the faith storyline once and for all but let's be honest what made this scene so great was Rin jar the composer of the show no matter how much Game of Thrones declined this man always cooked and the music was incredible so seasons 5 and six of Game of Thrones aren't that bad they've got issues but are still pretty good TV season 7 on the other hand that's a different story season 7 of Game of Thrones is entertaining sure but it is one of the dumbest seasons of TV I have ever seen previous Staples of Game of Thrones were thrown out the window all in the name of condensing as much as possible into a season with fewer episodes for the first time in Game of Thrones History season 7 didn't stick to the 10 episode per season structure instead opting for seven episodes which is fine but this season has more major events jammed into it than the past three seasons combined yet it contains up until that point the least amount of episodes we'd seen in a season of this show like just for fun let's list off the major events that happen in just season seven Arya destroys house Frey Danny arrives in Westeros JN meets Danny John goes beyond the wall to catch a white theeran is killed JN and Denny come face to face with Cersei yuron and his Fleet attack theion and Yara Joffrey's killer is revealed The Spoils of War Tyrion and Jamie reunite for the first time since season 4 Uncle benjin dies cersei's pregnant John and Danny shack up little finger dies JN and Theon come face to face the Stark children reunite Jamie finally walks away from JY John's true lineage is revealed and the dead cross the Wall all of that happens in the shortest season to date Game of Thrones used to have a reputation for taking its time letting events build up letting those character moments stew in the audience's mind but it was like the showrunner said well I've done all the buildup in previous Seasons let's just throw everything at the wall this season which I guess is fine at face value as the groundwork had been laid for them to go balls to the wall but all of this happens at the sacrifice of logic like Danny flying from Dragon Stone to Beyond the Wall in 5 minutes as our band of Heroes are stuck in the middle of a frozen lake surrounded by the dead absolutely nobody is buying that the night King opting to not kill the larger dragon with Daenerys on the back standing right in front of him but instead opting to kill the smaller dragon flying a very far distance away in the sky the plot armor surrounding Jamie and Brun in The Spoils of War characters getting from one side of westros to the other in a jump cut Gendry running seven marathons in 2 minutes like all of this in season 7 is stupid it is but again it's also entertaining as hell and despite season 7 being incomprehensibly dumb it does have great moments that we've been waiting to see for a long time like olena's admission this scene is amazing 10 out of 10 the dead crossing the wall amazing most of John and Danny's interactions amazing but at what cost the cost of something that this show held dear logic smart writing and time again when I watch season 7 do I scoff at the stupidity yeah I am but I'm also shoving popcorn down my throat because I'm having a good time because some of the stuff is generally great but it signifies a massive problem with the stigma surrounding what Game of Thrones actually is let me explain a major contributor to the rise of Game of Thrones is how it wasn't afraid to actually take its time in telling a complex story with Rich and vibrant characters leading to incredible payoff due to the time spent building up said story and characters these days as people's attention spans continue to shrink we often see shows just cutting to the chase because large portions of audiences can't make it through an episode without Subway Surfers playing in the bottom half of their screen Game of Thrones never cared about that it knew its audience was mature and it treated its audience as such at least in the early Seasons this was highlighted to me in the later Game of Thrones seasons and pretty heavily after House of the Dragon came out most people loved House of the dragon and said it was a a strong return to the series roots with it not being afraid to push the action to the back and let the politics of the show take Center Stage which is exactly what Game of Thrones did in its earlier Seasons a true return to form to what made Game of Thrones so great yet the vast majority of people who didn't like House of the Dragon tend to form the exact same opinion it's boring nothing happens it's just people talking I want dragons this is what happens in the modern day when a show actually takes its time in crafting a compelling story with complex characters people get bored I know it's insane it really is now why am I saying all of this well for some reason people have this sick notion in their head that what made Game of Thrones so great was the big battles and the dragons but that was just never the case what made Game of Thrones so great and caused its meteoric rise as a pop culture phenomenon was story and characters the political scheming and backstabbing The Game of Thrones the rich World set up by George RR Martin the action was just the cherry on top in the penultimate episode Game of Thrones was a political drama in its early days but it evolved into a fantasy action show in its later seasons and I think season 7 is a perfect example of that it kind of lost its identity a little bit The Game of Thrones side of Game of Thrones was always what made it so great figuring out a character's motivations and how it fits into the story was fascinating who killed Joffrey who did this who did that will this character do this what is Littlefinger up to what is Varys up to like it was just mustat TV now don't get it twisted I'm not saying the action side of Game of Thrones sucks by any means like Blackwater Watchers on the wall hard home incredible battle sequences and some of my favorite episodes the point I'm trying to make is what made this show so great was that political aspect of the show and it's no coincidence that once that side started to fizzle out the show started to decline the show opted for more action and less story in the later Seasons which funnny enough the actor that played hry poked fun of in an interview well that was totally what season 7 was all about wasn't it exactly character development so was clear that a major part of the downfall of Game of Thrones was the switch from it being a sprawling political drama to an action fantasy show it comes back to that word I spoke about earlier balance Game of Thrones balanced the political aspect of the show with action perfectly and then the latest Seasons tipped the scales dramatically in the action Direction and it definitely did the show no favors at all but let's be honest the real down of Game of Thrones it came in the final season so let's just get into it season 8 of Game of Thrones and to be honest this is probably going to take up the bulk of the video I am honestly shocked that it has been 5 years since this season aired and Game of Thrones concluded it's one of the main reasons I wanted to revisit it in this video now I'm going to structure this part of the video going Episode by episode because when I spoke about season 8 a couple years ago I kind of skipped over about half the season for some stupid reason so episode 1 hear me out here this isn't that bad at all it's actually fine yes it has some of the issues the previous Seasons had with Tyrion being reduced to making jokes about Varys not having balls characters doing things because reasons but things start out relatively fine the shots of Arya and Sansa seeing a dragon for the first time are great Theon deciding to go North to fight for the Starks there are subtle nice moments like Sansa and Tyrion Reminiscing on the last time they saw each other being Joffrey's wedding because it reminds us when the show was actually really good but one thing I really don't like about what season 8 did start in this episode Sansa hating Danny it feels forced to create a divide between Jon and Daenerys she logically doesn't have a major reason to hate Daenerys straight off the bat given the context of their situation Sansa says it's because Jon abandoned his crown and bent the knee and what that means for the north but in doing so JN brought two dragons North to fight the undead as well as the unsolid and the doth raki they literally have zero chance of winning if he didn't bend the knee hell even though he did they barely still have a chance so why is Sansa a character that's supposed to be smart by this point so preoccupied with what comes after the upcoming conflict where it's almost certain that they're all going to die sansa's inability to grasp common sense and how it lights the fire of this conflict between JN and Daenerys is so unnecessary it's Benny often wise trying to add fuel to the fire for when Jon's true lineage comes to light meaning that daenerys's Crown is threatened by him but more than anything else this is a drawback of them rushing a mad Queen Arc in one season they have to create as much conflict as possible with Daenerys this season to try and pull it off and this was one of the first missteps they took the conflict between John and Danny makes sense here but Sansa not being able to grasp the situation they're in with the fight against the dead and caring more about titles than common sense is so below the quality you expect from this show and its smarter characters now this episode ends with Sam telling John that he's the true heir to the Iron Throne as the child of rhaegar Targaryen and lyanna Stark which is a scene I actually quite like and although it's revealed to us in earlier Seasons I do like that this scene makes it clear to JN that Ned Stark was an honorable man having kept that promise he had to lyan to keep JN safe from Robert braan this is a rare good scene in season 8 but moving on to episode 2 this is kind of the Calm before the storm much like episode 1 it doesn't screw up majorly most of the episode is delegated to small moments between characters that we've been on this journey with over all these years now for the most part again this episode doesn't do a whole lot wrong it's fine the gend and Arya stuff really wasn't needed at all but everything else is okay for what it is Brienne being kned by Jamie is obviously the best part of the episode and a rare highlight of season 8 jimie also arriving in the north and vowing to fight for the living in front of Daenerys the Mad King's Daughter who he famously killed it feels like a nice completion of his Arc at least for now there's Jamie also confronting Brandon apologizing for what he did in the show's pilot which kickstarted everything again nice completion of jae's Arc for now like they were actually treating Jim's character with respect in this episode and it's basically the last time they do we also get more conflict between sanser and toys but I kind of covered this part already when I spoke about episode one John also tells to nerys who he really is thus swinging into full motion the conflict between JN and Dany which is one of the blocks to full that leads her to going full mad Queen it's a good scene but I just wish the writing around it wasn't so contrived to help pull off this mad Queen Arc in just one season and then of course the dead arriving Winterfell but then we have episode 3 The long night this is where season 8 really started to turn into an absolute famous disaster this was the moment that everyone had been waiting for since the opening scene of the show all of those seasons of buildup the ambiguous mystery surrounding the night King the Dead all of it building up to this moment and it's one of the most disappointing episodes of the entire show maybe the single most disappointing given the buildup over the entire Show's run this episode is just a mess and a perfect encapsulation of everything that went wrong in the downfall of this show plot lines completely abandoned logic just non-existent JN doing basically nothing plot armor my God the plot armor it's insane to me how much they managed to get wrong in what was at the time the single biggest and most anticipated episode of the entire show it also doesn't help that majority of the episode is that dark that you can't see a damn thing there are a couple redeeming moments however one of them is the death of Theon Greyjoy execution wise the death is a little you know whatever but in terms of theon's Arc as a whole this is actually a perfect death for him dying defending the Starks at Winterfell given the insane Journey he's been on since he betrayed them it's actually good writing where was this for everything else and all the other characters I have no idea but at least Theon grey Joy's character made it through Game of Thrones without being totally butchered so that's a that's a positive of this episode if there is any the music must also be complimented the only thing that made the night King's death even bearable to sit through was Ring's score again no matter how low this show got this guy just kept on cooking but let's talk about the night King this is the most disappointing end to an antagonist I have ever seen in a movie or a show the iconic scene in episode 5 at hard home where he raises his arms and all the dead with it is one of the most iconic shots in television history the presence this guy had as a looming threat in this world despite never saying a word was mindblowing and this is the end goal for this character and he just kind of lingers around looks at JN takes 5 minutes to walk up to bran and then gets killed by Arya like I still can't wrap my head around how disappointing this is like at worst the end goal of this episode needed to be John killing the night King not just because that's what fans wanted but that's what you've been building up for multiple Seasons John's true lineage the prince that was promised prophecy melisandra bringing him back from the dead for a greater purpose the shots established between John and the night King over the course of the show all of that just completely thrown out the window because is you wanted to subvert expectations and give Arya something to do this is the biggest writing fumble I have ever seen in any form of entertainment nothing about this makes any sense and is completely unjustifiable it's not like John was really doing anything at this moment either he was just pinned down behind a rock because that's what all the buildup was for I guess like are you kidding me the dagger used to kill the night King that makes sense but the person wielding ites makes no sense from a logic standpoint a writing standpoint nothing this moment feels more like a moment of self sabotage for the writers than anything there's nothing fulfilling about this at all and it must also be said the sheer lack of logic in this episode is just staggering like the Battle Tactics with the Dothraki just charging the enemy headon Our Heroes on the front line surviving being literally engulfed by a wave of the Dead Jon surviving being surrounded by hundreds of the Dead The Women and Children seeking refuge in a crypt when your enemy literally raises people from the dead subverting expectations for no reason characters being hugged by whites instead of being killed like it just doesn't stop this episode was and still is just insulting to every person who watched a second of this show but let's move on to episode 4 the last of the Starks because by this point the season has just completely derailed we get a funeral sequence burning the Fallen from the Battle of winterfall Danny burning Jor was a nice small moment in an otherwise awful episode during the celebrations of the battle it's clear that the show shifts its focus to what lies ahead with Cersei in the South and you can't help but feel like the season is going by stupidly fast the battle with the dead should have been a season long event and then Cersei in another season and the fact it was all crammed into season 8 is just ridiculous to be honest the fact Ben off and wise refused to spread it out logically and decided to cram everything into one season still is one of the biggest fumbles I have ever seen season 8 of Game of Thrones sucks because these two boneheads wanted to hurry up and work on something that never even happened it just makes me want to tomin out the window anyway we do get some small character moments such as the hound and Sansa speaking again and along with Theon the Hound is one of the rare few characters that this season didn't ruin so any scenes with him work for me we then get more conflict with Danny and John John says McQueen and I don't want it about 35 times which from here on out is about the extent of his dialogue so you know rest in peace to one of the best characters in the show I guess in this episode bran also drops one of the single dumbest lines of the entire show that as the three-eyed Raven he doesn't want anymore which contradicts the finale but we'll get to that later Brun also shows up so we can be reminded that Brun is still around and actually in this season this scene virtually serves no purpose at all until the last minute of the show and yet it still doesn't really matter anyway but the thing this episode does that really annoys me well there's a there's a couple things to be honest but the first of them is when Jon Reveals His true identity to Sansa and Arya this is a massive moment huge in the context of the season and of the show as a whole and the entire Journey we've been on with these characters and instead of I don't know showing us that moment they decide to cut away so we don't get to see any reaction at all what the this pisses me off to no end like what were they thinking man now most of the maincast then heads South for the upcoming conflict in King's Landing hoping for a swift surrender from Cersei but along the way the iron Fleet ambushed them and regel is killed in one of the most infamous moments of the entire show 5 minutes before this when discussing their plans the iron Fleet is literally mentioned and in the writer's own words Danny kind of forgot about the iron Fleet and euron's forces what that was their excuse so the plot point of regel being killed can happen with some of the worst writing I have ever seen this scene establishes that the Scorpions are Beyond deadly to dragons as they nail three scorpion shots in a row whilst regel is flying whilst also shooting them from a boat yes the riding is awful because of the fact this situation even happened but keep this in mind for the end of the episode we then cut back to Winterfell to see the climax of Jamie and brienne's six season long Arc and Jamie just up and leaves to run back to Cersei now that the fight against the undead is won this season completed his Arc by having him go North to fight for the living walking away from Cersei once and for all and then after the battle he hits it with Brienne and then pieces out and throws his entire Arc out the window he says to BR in episode 2 of this same season that he's not the person that pushed bran out the window anymore and then after fully redeeming himself he gets postn not Clarity and says he's done bad things for Cersei and she's hateful so so is he like this makes no sense but we'll get to Jamie again later because they're actually not done with completely destroying this character just yet the final moments of episode 4 are honestly amongst the dumbest of the entire season and signify how bad the riding became in this show remember 15 minutes ago when regel was three tapped from A Million Miles Away by scorpions well now they have an entire wall full of them and drogon is sitting on the ground yet they choose not to fire any of them keep in mind these are supposed to be surrender discussions kurn even says in the negotiating that Last Dragon is vulnerable and it's clear that if drogon dies that's the only chance Cersei has of winning so why not just shoot droon here will it result in a battle Yeah but one without a dragon it's the fairest odds Cersei will have and it's not like you can make the excuse that Cersei is being Noble at the peace discussions because she lies to JN and Danny's face at the end of season 7 when she says she'll send Lannisters North to help them fight the dead which is act so bad that it finally caused Jamie to leave her so she clearly has no trouble with being a complete scumbag at the negotiating table so why not just kill drogon here and level the odds he's right there oh that's right because the writing this season is God awful and makes no sense so instead of doing that Cersei kills mande right in front of Dany after refusing to kill Tyrion for absolutely no reason now Danny's mad with a fully able Dragon what a absolute disaster of an episode but episode five the bells is perhaps the most infamous episode of them all John's super extensive and thought-provoking dialogue just continues once again she it's my queen John and Danny's conflict also continues to grow because Sansa told Tyrion about who Jon really is remember that groundbreaking news that we didn't get to see yeah great well Tyrion knows and has now told Varys and Varys obviously has a problem with it because Varys is the only character in this season that actually has some common sense so of course the now absolutely batshit dumb Tyrion snitches on Varys resulting in our favorite unic becoming a crispy boy the only character this season who ever says anything that actually makes sense is now gone we then find out that Danny's forces captured jimie before he entered King's Landing resulting in one of the most insulting scenes of the entire show this scene has been memd into Oblivion because of its sheer stupidity throwing away Jim's entire Arc like it's nothing and completely ruining one of the best scenes in the show when Jamie in a vulnerable moment explains why he killed the Mad King well yeah that's just completely out the window now way to ruin one of the most compelling arcs from one of the best characters of the entire show you did a great job Benny often wise like how can you have a character say he never cared for the innocent or otherwise King's Landing when that character is built on the foundations of the ACT he did to save those very same people but he just doesn't care according to season 8 logic like it's complete character assassination and it's literally unforgivable we then get the massive Battle of King's Landing and I say battle but it's basically Danny's Army just destroying the Lannisters because well Danny still has a dragon because of the dog riding of episode 4 not to mention the doth Rocky that essentially wiped out in the Battle of Winterfell have somehow managed to magically respawn and take out the golden company so the golden company were just completely useless so you know just more great writing really drogon also clears all of the scorpions in King's Landing despite the fact they were op as hell against rayal one episode prior but plot armor and bad riding are Main Stays of this show now so they're literally useless in this entire battle despite being the most OP thing ever in the previous episode great writing the Lannister Army then surrenders as no surprise they can't beat Danny's Army and a dragon so the bells have been rung Daenerys has won all is good except it's not because we have to do the Mad Queen Arc whether or not it makes any sense despite a victory Daenerys unexplained snaps and burns King's Landing through the ground leveling the entire city and just about everyone in it now production wise this is incredibly impressive I have to say the visuals here are amazing and the VFX artists they absolutely crushed this it looks great but the riding around it is so unforgivable the Mad Queen Arc I don't hate it in fact I think if they actually took their time wrapping up this story across two or three seasons it may have actually been possible but you simply cannot pull an arc this dramatic off in just five episodes you simply cannot justify Danny changing that much in that short of a time frame there is no logical way you can defend Danny's mad Queen Ark in season 8 it is simply too rushed again that's coming from someone who actually doesn't mind Danny's end goal being a mad Queen Ark but this is not how you do it this is the complete opposite of how you do it like even at face value there is no reason for daer to snap in this moment maybe if they saved Regal's death for this moment or M H's death for an inciting incident to cause Danny to level the city but there is literally nothing here but Victory and in the final episode Jon actually tries to justify this moment due to regel and M's deaths so why not tie those two events into this moment as an inciting incident because she just snaps in a moment of triumph which makes no sense it is maybe the most dumbfounding moment of the entire show now amongst the rubble of King's Landing we do get Clan ball which brings The Hound's character to a fitting end his and the mountains conflict started with fire and it ended with fire it's a little poetic and I will say I do like The Hound's final scene with Arya and Arya calling him sandor I always loved these two characters together and at least their Dynamic got treated with some respect we also see euron grey Joy die finally this character is complete dog in the show which is annoying because he's a badass in the books Jamie of course runs back to Cersei and they both get crushed by rocks and die 5 years on and I still have no words for this literally any other option for cersei's death would have been better than this how Arya ended up killing the night King but not Cersei is just beyond me Cersei should have died in one of two ways scenario a Arya kills Cersei crossing a name off her list or B Jamie kills Cersei bringing his Arc full circle but the writers opted for rocks like oh my God so that was the bells perhaps the most disastrous episode of Game of Thrones and 5 years on from its release it's still as mindblowing as the day it came out but episode 6 AKA The Iron Throne aka the final episode of Game of Thrones and the final slap in the face for every single person who invested time into this show we see the characters walk through the destruction and Rubble that this show has now become the scene where Tyrion finds Jamie and Cersei buried amongst the Rocks is emotional from the standpoint of the time invested with these characters but is completely overshadowed by how stupid the writing was to get to that point there's also a moment that I didn't realize until my most recent rewatch and that is Grey Worm actually teleports from the streets of King's Landing to the red keep in this episode John leaves Grey Worm to go talk to Danny whilst greyworm stays back to execute the Lannister prisoners and by the time John reaches Danny greyworm is already standing there I guess he learned how to teleport from Arya because she does it in this episode as well by this point stupid lapses of logic like this are the least of the show's concerns though now as bad as this episode is this shot of Daenerys is pretty freaking great that's one thing this episode is shot incredibly well like seriously go and watch this episode again if if you bear to torch yourself enough the visuals are actually unbelievably good but it just goes to show that outstanding visuals can never make up for writing so after it's been established that Dany is now Queen of the ashes characters such as Tyrion turn against her you know it's almost as if he could have seen this coming but Tyrion just became increasingly stupid as the season progressed and now the only person who can do anything about Danny's Madness is JN love being the death of reason is the excuse as to why J even has a hard time deciding what he should be doing in this situation and it's a total cop out but after realizing for himself that Danny is too far gone by this point as if it wasn't obvious already Jon kills Daenerys with the Iron Throne ominously sitting in the background Danny's death alerts drogon to obviously come and kill Jon for killing his mother but no he's a Targaryen and the most plot armor fied character of the entire show so drogon doesn't kill him for reasons I guess and instead opts to burn the Iron Throne to the ground because I think he was mad that the power of the throne corrupted his mother I guess that's the only thing they can even remotely make sense as to why Dron does this and it still doesn't make sense Dron then flies away with Danny's body to probably be resurrected in a show in 5 years time or something there's then a small time Jump as all the remaining Lords of Westeros meet in the dragon pits to discuss what happens now that Danny is dead and Jon has been incarcerated for killing her and this is one of the worst scenes of the entire show Tyrion is grey worm's prisoner and stops him from speaking but then kind of just lets him talk anyway and he proceeds to drop the most absurd monologue trying to make everything that's happened to this point sound profound and then he says bran should be king because he has the best story which is so stupid on top of that remember the line bran said a few episodes ago about him not wanting anymore well it's made clear in this scene that he did in fact want something so you know more good writing he wants the throne it's just like what and then we start to wind the episode Down Tyrion is now hand of the king to spend the rest of his life fixing the mistakes he's made Arya sets off on a journey to find what's west of Westeros Sansa is Queen of the North and Jon is to live out his days at the wall and that's the end of Game of Thrones 5 years on and this is still mind that we got to this point how a show that many would consider to have been the greatest of all time managed to stoop so low and go out with such illogical garbage writing is just insane truly a sad decline for an otherwise masterful Series so that was the decline of Game of Thrones Revisited 5 years after its conclusion despite season 8 being a travesty of Storytelling Game of Thrones is still my favorite show ever That's How Strong the first four seasons are and how much I enjoy some of the moments from the later Seasons Game of Thrones is one of the rare TV shows where you can call it a masterpiece but you can also call it a disaster at the same time and not sound like you're insane it truly is sad to behold the downfall of Game of Thrones

Channel: Movie Overload

Views: 475,732

Keywords: game of thrones, game of thrones video essay, season 8, got, game of thrones season 8, the downfall of game of thrones, movie overload, video essay, hbo, house of the dragon, house of the dragon season 2, hotd, night king, george rr martin, jon snow, game of thrones ending, a song of ice and fire, westeros, aemond targaryen, hbo max, benioff and weiss, dragons, game of thrones final episode, game of thrones finale, daenerys, max originals, peter dinklage, got season 8, stark

Id: gnG0gBLnYDQ

Length: 43min 50sec (2630 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 03 2024