Thank You From San Diego

Published May 15, 2019 · Updated July 6, 2022

Hello Shat crew,

I wanted to take a moment to THANK YOU for putting your judgments aside to podcast about the actual episode of GoT and not how the showrunners allegedly did everything wrong. While listening to the Deep Dive today, Gene said: “the team of GoT worked very hard to satisfy an audience that cannot be satisfied.” I agree 100%. It is a total slap in the face to the entire cast and crew who put their blood, sweat, and tears into this show for 8 seasons. Remember GoT was born from a collective vision of 2 guys who loved and adored this book series. They, in turn, got the audience, cast and crew to buy into that same passion and created something amazing. The audience turned on the showrunners like the people of Kings Landing turned on Ned Stark and Cersei. They are ready to put their heads on a stake for all the wrongs that were done to them. I feel this anger is completely misdirected. Instead of being mad at the showrunners, be mad at the characters. GoT has never hidden the fact that their characters have very dark sides. Think about what you tell someone who is about to watch the series for the first time…. don’t get attached to any characters. This show is dark and has been notorious for delivering shock, dismay, and heartache for 8 Seasons. (In fact, the only time I ever felt a semblance of happiness was in Season 8, Episode 2.) This episode did what all other penultimate episodes did… they made you feel something and it gave you something to talk about for days. I believe that the writers have stayed true to the behaviors of their characters and the show as a whole all the way through to this episode. I also have no doubt that they will deliver an ending that will be befitting for Westeros (a world in which we do not live in so we don’t have to take it personally). HBO will be releasing a documentary about GoT on May 26th. I hope after the people who disliked this episode watch it, they will see that there was nothing but love, passion, and grit that was poured into this series and let go of their negative judgments and personal grievances.

On another note:
People have complained about Dany’s sudden turn to the “Mad Queen”. I don’t think this was sudden at all. I think we have been given many signs and reasons for her slip to the dark side. First, she has a family history of madness. Second, she has lost so much in such a short time: most of her armies, Jorah, Messandai, Jon’s love, and her closest advisors betrayed her. Couple that with her feeling alone and isolated in Winterfell, as well as the overwhelming hatred she feels for Cersei, it was inevitable that she would fall into a pit of despair. Think about a time when you were at your lowest. You couldn’t think clearly nor could you hear any kind of reasoning. Even after the bells rang and she knew she won, she couldn’t bare to look at all of King’s Landing. It represented so much pain and heartache in her family history, plus she was so full of rage and emotion that she just snapped. I don’t think we are ever going to understand why Dany did what she did because it came from a place of emotional turmoil (or craziness). If we were to understand what she did, then we would be a little crazy too.

Thank you for staying committed to reviewing the show and not the writers and production crew. Thank you for acknowledging what this show has accomplished and that not everyone is going to be happy. In the big picture, we have been part of a historic moment in tv. You got to and get to be a big part of that moment via podcasting. Life is pretty good in the real world… better than being in Kings Landing.

Thanks,
Gabby from San Diego

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