We’re back with yet another instalment of Respawning’s Let’s Talk series, where every Friday we get every one of our charismatic writers together to discuss a new topic.

Sunday night saw the long-awaited finale of one of the worlds biggest ever television shows – Game of Thrones. Unfortunately the final episode wasn’t received with huge praise and left fans of the show split on whether they loved it or hated it. The rest of the season was not exempt from this criticism either with many of Season 8’s six episodes being slammed. Surely we don’t all think this way though? Or do we..? There’s one way to find out.. Let’s Talk: Was Game of Thrones Season 8 a success or failure?

SPOILERS AHEAD

Mikey

SUCCESS!! Haters gonna hate right?

Before we dig too deep into my thoughts I just want a humble moment where I plug how well I did with my predictions before the season started… Moving on!

I will admit that yes, season 8 felt very rushed and I would have much preferred 10 episodes like the good old days but we’ve known for a while now that wouldn’t be the case so I made my peace with this before the season even began. Once the credits began to roll at the end of episode 6 I felt more than satisfied and was extremely happy with where nearly every character ended up. Being a fan of the books, I can definitely see this being very close to how A Dream of Spring will end. There were some perfect endings here – Bran not taking the throne but becoming King makes so much sense, it’s the only way to “break the wheel” as we were constantly reminded, Daenerys becoming the Mad Queen and being murdered by Jon Snow was the most logical way to go (And if you think the Dany turn came out of nowhere then we can’t be friends), Jon himself returning to beyond the wall where he arguably fit in more than anywhere else was a great ending for that character and Jamie’s blank page in The White Book being filled by recently knighted Brienne of Tarth was enough to bring a tear to my eye.

It was a weirdly happy ending given that we have been conditioned to expect everything to be horrible and dreadful but I LOVED that! I really like it when TV shows mess with my expectations. I sometimes think that maybe this is where the hate comes from.. some people have become so obsessed with the thousands of theories out there and when the story doesn’t play out that way I they predicted then that upsets them (also referred to as The Last Jedi effect). All in all this season had its ups and downs for sure but the good ridiculously outweighed the bad for me.

Alexx

I’d say season 8 was moderately successful, though it is unfortunately not devoid of issues. It was never going to be easy to conclude the epic saga in just six episodes, and measures should have been taken to extend this to allow more breathing room for the writers and actors to bring the various story arcs to a satisfying close. That said, the fan outpouring of fury for this season cannot be ignored, and while I appear to be in a minority of people who loved everything about the finale, it’s especially damning when the vast proportion of the fan base seems to turn on the franchise at the time it needs to shine the most.

I’ve already outlined all I loved and hated in my Game of Thrones season 8 review, but overall I’d say season 8 was as successful as it could be and I certainly would not hesitate to watch it all again, as I am currently doing!

Dea

So Game of Thrones comes to an end and all I’ve heard about it over this week is varying levels of outrage and frustration at the season and series finale. Yet strangely, no one actually wants to tell me why. I’ve asked friends to tell me why they find the final episode to be – As they put it ‘stupid’ or ‘disappointing’ yet they refuse to. It’s honestly interesting, I myself have yet to see it and will have to wait until it goes to Blu-ray or DVD and I refuse to spoil it for myself. But I’ll be approaching it with scepticism I suppose if truth be told. I’ve only seen bits and pieces of various seasons. I’m pretty sure season seven was the only one I watched all the way through.

I may even give season eight a full pass until I can afford the full box set or sneakily nab it off a friend’s hard drive. I want to give the series its proper dues and respects as there is nothing out there like Game of Thrones. But with that all being said, I’m still excited to eventually see the final season and have no illusions that it will be an epic conclusion despite all the vague frustration and negative opinion I personally have heard aimed toward the finale.

Javier

So I’m one of those people who was let down by the final season, and I am genuinely gutted about it. I so wanted to love it as much as I’d loved the entire thing up until now but ultimately I’ve been left wanting more. The only episode I thought that came close to any thing that came before it was episode 5. I’m not as deep into the lore as some people are so there may have been things that didn’t have the same payoff for me but I felt like it’s lost its mojo. It was too short because of the budget being spent… On what I ask? What in this series was any crazier than what we had before? And ultimately I was disappointed with Bran being King. I’m not asking for a rewrite or anything but this series was a 6.0 / 10 for me…

Will

Well well well. Solid ending to an overall poor season! I say solid because it was decent, not special or groundbreaking in any way. It tied up everything with a neat little bow and left us all to go about our lives. Sure something’s could have been done better but so could most things in the series so who am I to judge? Basically did I want All-Bran on the now slightly melted iron throne? Not really. Did I want Arya to travel out on a boat and serve no purpose for the entire episode? Not really. Was I content watching Jon Snow do exactly what he should have been doing from the get go? YES! Also if you ask Alexx nicely I’m sure he’ll tell you about how I predicted that last shot near exactly. So apparently I’m the three eyed raven now? Gimme those 6 kingdoms.

Clarissa

So this may be an unpopular opinion, but I liked the ending of Game of Thrones. I’m actually not all that surprised that Bran became King, because let’s face it the rest of his character arc really didn’t come to much. I liked all the Starks endings, however I am surprised we were left with so many. I thought we would lose at least one more. The last episode did just feel like and ending and I am happy about that. The only thing I would have liked to have seen more of is Dany’s descent into madness. That seemed to happen all to quickly for me.

Joe

Unpopular opinion time. I don’t give a single shite and I’m happy to see the mainstream be opened up for a new franchise to take the reigns. Sorry!