Didn’t the producers refuse to make them longer because they are doing a Star Wars trilogy? I don’t think money was the issue.

Money can never be an issue for a show that huge.

It definitely was rushed, and needed more episodes, I think everyone can agree on that. As someone accurately pointed out, if season 8 writers were in charge of writing season 1, then Ned would have been beheaded by episode 2 or 3.

You can't spend a whole season on things like establishing Dany as a Khaleesi, and then spend 1 or 2 episodes on doing away with the Night King and his dead, or the battle for King's Landing.

Dunno. I'm willing to bet that this final season was by far the most expensive to make even if it was only six episodes.

comment by Ed The King Woodward (U10026)
posted 4 minutes ago
Didn’t the producers refuse to make them longer because they are doing a Star Wars trilogy? I don’t think money was the issue.
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Yeah, HBO and GRRM originally wanted 10 seasons but if that wasn't possible they wanted season 7 and 8 to be 10 episodes. They've even gone on record as saying budget would be no object.

Can only assume D&D had water tight contracts.

I'd rather have got more episodes with better writing but badly green screened dragons, than the rush job we got with great visuals.

Xavi I thought as much. I can’t wait for their Star Wars trilogy.

If season 8 had been 10 episodes then we could have had five episodes about the Night King and white walkers threat and then five episodes about the attack on King's Landing. No need to rush anything that way.

What makes it worse is they originally only wanted to do 7 seasons and had to be bribed to do season 8

No idea how they thought they could wrap it all up so quickly.

They could have even done King's Landing first and the Night King last, or even still, the 2 cross paths. Dunno why the Night King didn't just decide to fly to King's Landing with the dragon and obliterate everything the way Dany did. They could have made that out to be the dragon's shadow over King's Landing that Bran saw in his vision.

Anyway my prediction of how things ended wasn't a million miles off.

Jon killed Dany
Jon didn't become King
Sansa became Queen (albeit of Winterfell not the seven kingdoms)

Also predicted that Tyrion would become King but he did suggest the new King and then became the King's hand so I must get a half point for that

We predicted it was gonna be shiiit and it turned out to be shiiit. We win

comment by Michael Edwards FC {Proud owner of the 5 000 000th comment} (U2720)
posted 1 minute ago
We predicted it was gonna be shiiit and it turned out to be shiiit. We win
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comment by Superb (U6486)
posted 21 minutes ago
Dunno. I'm willing to bet that this final season was by far the most expensive to make even if it was only six episodes.
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Apparently the main cast members were on circa $1m-1.2m per episode, then you'll have secondary characters who I suspect will be on half that and support characters which are important the the GoT world (e.g. Bronn, Varys, Tormund) who will all be on decent money. Plus the costs of production for something like Thrones.

I have no idea how much each episode cost but with the size of cast and production I think you could easily be talking $15m per episode, quite possibly much more.

I didn't hate how it ended as much as many others did.

Jon, Bran, Arya and Sansa all going off in different directions was quite poetic and it makes sense that the story ended there.

They only have themselves to blame if they spent 55 days filming that atrocity that was The Long Night episode.

even armchair generals come up with better battle plans

Armchair generals > wheelchair generals

You'd think after the 2 years to bring us season 8, they'd have done better with it. I was happy waiting that long assuming it meant they were going to take the care to make it the best they possibly could.

I guess the first warning signs were when they released the size of the episodes.

comment by Naby8 (U6997)
posted 9 minutes ago
comment by Superb (U6486)
posted 21 minutes ago
Dunno. I'm willing to bet that this final season was by far the most expensive to make even if it was only six episodes.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Apparently the main cast members were on circa $1m-1.2m per episode, then you'll have secondary characters who I suspect will be on half that and support characters which are important the the GoT world (e.g. Bronn, Varys, Tormund) who will all be on decent money. Plus the costs of production for something like Thrones.

I have no idea how much each episode cost but with the size of cast and production I think you could easily be talking $15m per episode, quite possibly much more.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
So for season 8 to be ten episodes instead of six then HBO would have had to shell out another $60 million or more.

I think we have our answer as to why we only got six episodes.

Yeah the answer was Star Wars, HBO already said budget was no issue.

Ignoring the pace of plot development because it's been done already and the choices made up until the last episode (also done) then the episode still disappointed me.

Going into the final episode there were interesting questions for me:

Drogon - I think we all assumed Dany would die but she had beside her the single biggest difference maker in the show, Drogon. So how would they deal with the dragon that took the command of Dany? For me that was really fascinating.

Unsullied - the largest fighting force remaining and completely loyal to Dany, how would they deal with the army without the leader and come to a peaceful conclusion.

Jon's heritage - how would he resolve his sense of duty with a lack of desire for power.

Iron Throne - I assumed nobody that wanted power (Dany, Sansa - Cersei already dead) would get it but someone would, that interested me.

So with those intriguing questions hanging over the final episode, what I actually got was:

Drogon - burnt some furniture and buggered off! I'm being slightly harsh in that I actually liked the symbolism of him destroying the Iron Throne but it just felt like a cop out that the weapon which had brought about this situation just disappeared.

Unsullied - dealt with slightly better in that Greyworms loyalty was very evident but ultimately he still allowed Dany's killer and plotter to live and accepted another King with little argument and sailed off into the sunset.

Jon's heritage - almost completely ignored. One of the biggest twists in GoT, that Jon was the true heir, just wasn't addressed and he never had to take the decision of duty or self because they just exiled him.

Iron Throne - Bran. Actually no, Bran with practically no justification other than an interesting story. Which was significantly less interesting than Jon's or Sansa's.

Then there was the weird comedy sketch at the end with the small council. That really missed the mark for me.

So it's all over then. I do take the point that it's not a television programmes duty to make the viewer feel satisfied and yet as a viewer and fan, I'm afraid that's how I feel. Thoroughly underwhelmed.

It was D&D who decides to only have 6 episodes, not HBO.

"HBO would have been happy for the show to keep going, to have more episodes in the final season. We always believed it was about 73 hours, and it will be roughly that. As much as they wanted more, they understood that this is where the story ends."

Really feel like George fed them some of his wildest drafts for ending the books just to see how it would be received.

Didn’t he come out and say the books will end differently?