More Thoughts…..

Published May 20, 2019 · Updated July 6, 2022

Hi guys

I have had more thoughts during the course of the day as I have been digesting the finale and your insta-cast

I want to talk about season lengths and the impact this has had on how the end has been received.

For me the main issue in the last two seasons in the lack of development of how characters we have grown to know, love or hate has had a detrimental effect on how the story has eventually played out.

Because last season was shorter it put the showrunners in a position of having to resolve the Night King threat, show Dany’s descent into madness, deal with Cersei as well as thing up the many inter-character threads (Jaime + Brienne, Ayra + Sansa, The Hound + The Mountain and so on and so forth) All of these plot points and more had to be condensed into six episodes which were not really (despite pre-season expectations) a great deal longer than a standard episode.

If last season was the normal 10 episodes long you could have tied up the Night King story by the end of that season or at least by episode 2 of this season. In a normal 10 episode season this would leave a minimum of 8 episodes to deal with Cersei properly and provide enough time to chart Dany’s decline to the city burning dictator she became. Jon’s decision to kill Dany happened in like 10 minutes of screen time, we needed to really see him wrestling with this decision due to the loyalty and love he had for Dany but there simply wasn’t enough time for the show to build the tragic love story they were trying to. I felt nothing when he stabbed her, nothing at all. When Drogo died I really felt for Dany as the show had taken the time to show how Drogo and Dany had built a relationship, their love just seemed more authentic.

What are your thoughts? Do you think the decision to reduce the episode count had the biggest impact on how the whole story played out for us?

Thanks again

Mike – The North (of England)

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