The problem was the execution. A tyrannical Daenarys as the final villain after the White Walkers were defeated makes sense, but she was never actually given the time to be the Mad Queen. She should have gotten a whole season as the big bad after her entire arc from book 1 to present being the buildup to her reign. It’s like they were given the bullet points of the ending and instead of fleshing it out into a proper story, they just used the bullet points as the entire source for the script.
Not that I’m going to watch the last season again to verify, but it felt like she went from savior to genocidal maniac in about 3 minutes of screentime. It was jarring.
Fans had been predicting that Dani would have a heel turn since the first book so it’s not like it wasn’t built up. D&D were just admittedly fanboys of the character and white washed her on the TV show so the twist came seemingly out of nowhere.
Edit: Thinking on it a bit more, it’s also in the books favor that we have access to Dani’s internal dialogue. It’s through this that we get a lot of foreshadowing about her future turn, and is definitely a way the books would have handled it better.
Even in the show Dani is basically a child who’s convinced it’s her birthright to rule over the world. People were rooting for her because the story arc was cool, but if we take the character seriously she’s completely deranged since season 1.
I hope not. The ending didn’t suck, the build up did. I can absolutely see dragon girl nuking kings landing but it’ll take more than one episode between “I don’t want to rule over ashes” and her actually ruling over ashes for me to say “yeah I can see how she got there.”
It was SO bad. My main issue was how they mangled my favorite characters.They made the only protagonist I liked a villain (well besides Margaery, rip). Made her die from the puppy dog Jon Snow, who helped cause BA Ygrittes death because he had no freaking spine. Total insult to my favorite characters.
I will not be reading the book if the ending is the same or similar, which is what brought me to the idea of him holding out because…it was probably the same.
I haven’t watched the new show either, I’m waiting to make sure it’s decent all the way through…if it’s still running? lol.
House of Dragons was actually pretty good. Reminded me of the beginning of GOT. Not sure if it’s continuing, though. But at least it’s a prequel so the plot points are all already out there in his history prequel books.
I disagree, but only because I think I figured out the ending, how GRRM told the show writers, and I can see how they interpreted it.
Possible spoilers:
I think Jon is supposed to kill Daenerys and the writers couldn’t figure out why so they just made up dumb shit. But the reason he kills her is to forge a sword (Lightbringer) to destroy the white walkers. And Daenerys agrees to it.
"To fight the darkness, Azor Ahai needed to forge a hero’s sword. He labored for thirty days and thirty nights until it was done. However, when he went to temper it in water, the sword broke. He was not one to give up easily, so he started over.
The second time he took fifty days and fifty nights to make the sword, even better than the first. To temper it this time, he captured a lion and drove the sword into its heart, but once more the steel shattered.
The third time, with a heavy heart, for he knew beforehand what he must do to finish the blade, he worked for a hundred days and nights until it was finished. This time, he called for his wife, Nissa Nissa, and asked her to bare her breast. He drove his sword into her living heart, her soul combining with the steel of the sword, creating the weapon known as Lightbringer."
-Tyrion tells this story in book 2 I believe
“According to prophecy, our champion will be reborn to wake dragons from stone and reforge the great sword Lightbringer that defeated the darkness those thousands of years ago. If the old tales are true, a terrible weapon forged with a loving wife’s heart. Part of me thinks man was well rid of it, but great power requires great sacrifice. That much at least the Lord of Light is clear on.”
-Book 2
Yeah and he’s stuck as D&D would narc him out of he changed it now in a desperate attempt to save their tattered reputations.
As others have mentioned Danis heel turn was rushed by also Brans story was also cut short. If they had actually given him the time to have some epic adventures and actually save everyone then may be he could have lived up to Tyron’s billing at the council.
Some of it is also he just doesn’t know when to self edit out the additional pov stories. We should be reducing them as we approach the finish not adding new ones as he has been doing.
Oh man, I totally forgot about the new characters being introduced. He should be killing off the big ones and using one time characters to give more backstory/perspective like that alcoholic Frey with the headaches sent to pay ransom.
He could get out of the mereneese knot by showing POV from different factions how Dany tries to govern, but ppl are assholes and the only way is to rule with an iron hand. Bad things, good intentions blah blah blah. Do everything right and still fuck up.
My theory is he actually helped write the ending of the TV show, and when the fans absolutely despised it, realized he had to scrap his entire ending.
The problem was the execution. A tyrannical Daenarys as the final villain after the White Walkers were defeated makes sense, but she was never actually given the time to be the Mad Queen. She should have gotten a whole season as the big bad after her entire arc from book 1 to present being the buildup to her reign. It’s like they were given the bullet points of the ending and instead of fleshing it out into a proper story, they just used the bullet points as the entire source for the script.
Yeah, it could have been interesting to watch her slow decent into madness, but it was like they crammed all the major plot points into a day or two.
Not that I’m going to watch the last season again to verify, but it felt like she went from savior to genocidal maniac in about 3 minutes of screentime. It was jarring.
That’s actually my memory of it too, but I thought I would be generous by saying “a day or two” to give the show the benefit of the doubt.
Yeah, didn’t she snap when they executed her servant?
Fans had been predicting that Dani would have a heel turn since the first book so it’s not like it wasn’t built up. D&D were just admittedly fanboys of the character and white washed her on the TV show so the twist came seemingly out of nowhere.
Edit: Thinking on it a bit more, it’s also in the books favor that we have access to Dani’s internal dialogue. It’s through this that we get a lot of foreshadowing about her future turn, and is definitely a way the books would have handled it better.
Even in the show Dani is basically a child who’s convinced it’s her birthright to rule over the world. People were rooting for her because the story arc was cool, but if we take the character seriously she’s completely deranged since season 1.
i support this. i personally was waiting for a better fight between the big guys.
I hope not. The ending didn’t suck, the build up did. I can absolutely see dragon girl nuking kings landing but it’ll take more than one episode between “I don’t want to rule over ashes” and her actually ruling over ashes for me to say “yeah I can see how she got there.”
This is the best take. It really was the speed run buildup, not the actual events and decisions that ruined it.
Yep, been saying this for years.
We know he told the show creators huge future plot points. That ending was the ending, it sucked, he’s embarrassed, the series will never be finished.
It was SO bad. My main issue was how they mangled my favorite characters.They made the only protagonist I liked a villain (well besides Margaery, rip). Made her die from the puppy dog Jon Snow, who helped cause BA Ygrittes death because he had no freaking spine. Total insult to my favorite characters.
I will not be reading the book if the ending is the same or similar, which is what brought me to the idea of him holding out because…it was probably the same.
I haven’t watched the new show either, I’m waiting to make sure it’s decent all the way through…if it’s still running? lol.
House of Dragons was actually pretty good. Reminded me of the beginning of GOT. Not sure if it’s continuing, though. But at least it’s a prequel so the plot points are all already out there in his history prequel books.
I disagree, but only because I think I figured out the ending, how GRRM told the show writers, and I can see how they interpreted it.
Possible spoilers: I think Jon is supposed to kill Daenerys and the writers couldn’t figure out why so they just made up dumb shit. But the reason he kills her is to forge a sword (Lightbringer) to destroy the white walkers. And Daenerys agrees to it.
"To fight the darkness, Azor Ahai needed to forge a hero’s sword. He labored for thirty days and thirty nights until it was done. However, when he went to temper it in water, the sword broke. He was not one to give up easily, so he started over.
The second time he took fifty days and fifty nights to make the sword, even better than the first. To temper it this time, he captured a lion and drove the sword into its heart, but once more the steel shattered.
The third time, with a heavy heart, for he knew beforehand what he must do to finish the blade, he worked for a hundred days and nights until it was finished. This time, he called for his wife, Nissa Nissa, and asked her to bare her breast. He drove his sword into her living heart, her soul combining with the steel of the sword, creating the weapon known as Lightbringer." -Tyrion tells this story in book 2 I believe
“According to prophecy, our champion will be reborn to wake dragons from stone and reforge the great sword Lightbringer that defeated the darkness those thousands of years ago. If the old tales are true, a terrible weapon forged with a loving wife’s heart. Part of me thinks man was well rid of it, but great power requires great sacrifice. That much at least the Lord of Light is clear on.” -Book 2
Yeah and he’s stuck as D&D would narc him out of he changed it now in a desperate attempt to save their tattered reputations.
As others have mentioned Danis heel turn was rushed by also Brans story was also cut short. If they had actually given him the time to have some epic adventures and actually save everyone then may be he could have lived up to Tyron’s billing at the council.
Some of it is also he just doesn’t know when to self edit out the additional pov stories. We should be reducing them as we approach the finish not adding new ones as he has been doing.
Oh man, I totally forgot about the new characters being introduced. He should be killing off the big ones and using one time characters to give more backstory/perspective like that alcoholic Frey with the headaches sent to pay ransom.
He could get out of the mereneese knot by showing POV from different factions how Dany tries to govern, but ppl are assholes and the only way is to rule with an iron hand. Bad things, good intentions blah blah blah. Do everything right and still fuck up.