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I was a diehard fan of the show and the books. Mostly the books. The show, I stopped loving after the midway point of season 4 when it dawned on me that these fucks had no idea what they were doing and worse yet: they didn’t actually care.

That the only reason the show had been this good up until now was because they had more or less translated the book into script directly and George had also been with them in the writers room right up until their “creative differences” in season 4.

I originally stopped watching after suffering through season 5 and only went back because my friends begged me to watch it with them and I was the ASOIAF expert in the group. When Arya killed the Night King I quietly turned it off and never finished it.

I think it hit me so hard because had I spent almost a decade being a super dedicated fan who would spend a lot of my free time deep diving into analyses and studying the worldbuilding, listening to interviews and talks with George, listening to fan podcasts that did deep dives, reading and re-reading the books while taking my own notes and making my own theories. It had really helped me through a very very dark period in my life where I felt lost and like I didn’t have a purpose at all. It might sound a bit dumb, but yeah. It was one of many little things in my life that helped me hold on to it and not just peace out, you know.

And to realize that Dumb and Dumber didn’t actually care and that they rushed the shit out of the show and pooped out season 4 because they wanted to move on to star wars (lol how did that go for them?) that was just so painful. Not just ofr myself, but for George too. The cast and crew who dedicated so much blood sweat and tears to this franchise and for the fans like me who loved this world so much and got inspired to write and build worlds ourselves while escaping from things in our real lives that hurt.

And it just got farted out like that when there was no reason for it.

I am not kidding when I say that up until recently when Trump announced for a second time that he wants to annex Greenland from my country, the way Dumb and Dumber treated GoT was the angriest I had ever been. Goofy as it sounds. .

It literally killed my interest in reading books and watching movies and TV shows. It took me three years to start watching movies again regularly and I am generally known among friends and colleagues as the movie buff. I’m the one you ask for movie recommendations. GoT killed my interest in movies for three years. It’s better nowadays, but I still don’t watch TV shows and I rarely read. If I do I try to stay away from series. Only exception was Earthsea recently. But yeah.

The last time I dove into the ASOIAF world was when George released Fire and Blood. I haven’t touched it since and I will probably never rewatch the show nor re-read the books. It’s just such a bitter feeling everytime I see anything from that franchise now.

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autriyo@feddit.org ⁨21⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Without having any of the background you have, I also couldn’t finish season five, it just felt off. The spark was gone, and I wasn’t hooked anymore.

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- Sculptor9157@sh.itjust.works ⁨20⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  So as someone who has never read, nor any intention to read the books, it isn’t worthwhile?
  
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  - piwakawakas@lemmy.nz ⁨20⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    The books aren’t finished, with no indication of when it will be, when the next book will be or even if it will be finished before Martin dies so take note of that before you start.
    
    In saying that, the books are way better than the HBO series. And are worth the read IMO.
    
    This, as someone who had read the books before the HBO series was a thing
    
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    Sculptor9157@sh.itjust.works ⁨20⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    Thank you.
    
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- Nangijala@feddit.dk ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  What happened in season 5 was an emperor has not clothes moment. The “writers” revealed themselves to be completely incompetent and having the minds of 14 year old boys. There were already indications of that in earlier seasons, but it wasn’t as off putting because the writing was so good.
  
  But from season 5 and onwards, they just went full fuckboy and the quality of the writing decreased because they aren’t witty, they aren’t talented, they don’t care about the politics and they don’t understand what they are doing without George holding their hands.
  
  Plus, their original motivation to get the rights to turn the books into a show was to do the Red Wedding. That was their goal. It is so clear that after they got to do the Red Wedding, they lost interest in the story immediately and when George left, their writing skills were put to the first real test since the beginning. And they of course failed spectacularly.
  
  Fun fact: They were in fact so bad at writing that the original pilot almost got the show prematurely canceled but somehow they got a second chance to make a new pilot with new actors and the rest is history.
  
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ZeroGravitas@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
I feel your pain. Truly.

George and Pat Rothfuss changed my reading habits, now I’m not picking up series unless they’re done. Plenty of great works out there, like The Last Kingdom or the Aubrey/Maturin series. Ditto for TV series, especially Netflix produced ones. Too many get the chop on a dip of viewership these days.

I half suspect George lost his will to write after seeing how dnd massacred the last 3 seasons. Who wouldn’t? Especially if they were mangling his book notes. Now he’s treating this series as a chore, and he’d rather do anything else.

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- Nangijala@feddit.dk ⁨22⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Personally, I fully believe that the way the show ended played a huge role in George not finishing the books.
  
  George is a perfectionist and I remember how he once mentioned that he stopped following fan forums years before the show was even a thing because when he saw fan theories guessing correctly the plot twists he had been working on, he started second guessing himself and felt the urge to change them. Instead of doing that, he stuck with the plots he had thought out and cut himself off from the fan forums, as I said.
  
  I also know that George entrusted Dumb and Dumber with the biggest plot twists and they carelessly butchered almost all of them in the show.
  
  While things were still good, George would regularly upload sample chapters for Winds of Winter onto his blog and I read all of them. I used to think that the idiot showrunners would take the show in a different direction and leave it up to George to finish his vision on his own because it was clear he wouldn’t finish the books before the show caught up to them.
  
  Many fans agreed and expected that the showrunners would go in their own direction because they had made several choices along the way that entirely closed off important plotpoints and back then we all thought that they were capable writers.
  
  Turns out the changes were more stuff like "we can’t include Tysha because Tyrion is popular and we don’t want him to go on his villain arc because hes a fan favourite. Stuff like that.
  
  And for me, it became very clear that they were following George’s plot when the sample chapters from Winds of Winter appeared in the show in the most mangled manner.
  
  I believe that the way the show ended was a horror fun house mirror of the true ending that George had planned for decades. They fucked it because they are retarded and lazy. I cannot imagine anything more heartbreaking as a writer with the perfectionism and self doubt that George has to see my big ending with Dany going mad, Jaime and Cersei dying in each other’s arms and Bran becoming the king of the north being done so terribly and being recieved with so much hatred from the fans.
  
  Although I fully believe that Arya killing the night king was Dumb and Dumber following the girl boss trend and not what George had planned for her nor Jon’s characters.
  
  I genuinely think it broke him. The fact that he already struggles with finishing his works because of his perfectionism was bad enough, but to realize that you handed over the pay offs of your decades long magnum opus to two retards… ooff.
  
  I’m still trying to get back into reading. Recently I have mostly stuck with autobiographies of local people in my country. Reading about dirt poor farmers in the 30s and 40a and stuff like that is pretty sick. Makes you both appreciate the comforts you have in the 21st century and mourn the lost connection with nature and the seasons. Anyways, biographies are kinda my catnip these days. For some reasons, and despite loving fiction, I still just can’t find it in me to bother to get invested in someone else’s worldbuilding xD again, Earthsea being the only exception.
  
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DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
As someone that just read the books:

Arya killing the night king isn’t just thematically and plot appropriate with like five different chekovs guns shooting his face at once, it’s just cool to have all this bullshit fixed with a blade in the dark imo.

The problem is that scene was ugly and poorly filmed with shit tier effects. Plus she basically just yolos at the guy… Have her use her goddamn assassin powers, how hard is that?

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- Nangijala@feddit.dk ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  I just don’t believe that is what she’s destined for at all. I think her plot has way more to do with stealth assassinations of people who are untouchable in Westoros. The whole winter is coming part is Jon’s plot.
  
  I do believe that Arya’s story is all about how dedicating your life to revenge makes you a lonely, empty person and Jon says something to her in the first book way before everything happens that j believe was foreshadowing. Can’t remember the exact quote, but they talk about how much she hates sowing and Jon jokes that she will be found frozen dead in spring with a needle in her hand.
  
  It is also important to remember that the night king in the show is not the same as the Night’s King in the books and that he’s not just some dumb villain who needs to be killed. There is so much more to him and he is also a Stark.
  
  I am curious, though, on your perspective and why you believe Arya will kill the Night’s King in the books.
  
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  - DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social ⁨10⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    You don’t train someone as an assassin and specifically give them a sword made of the metal that kills Night Kings if you don’t plan on them killing a Night King, first off. It’s also the exact kind of reversal of expectations for conflict resolving that Martin loves and, on the topic, I think the reason we’re never getting his ending is because it’s clear that this was his ending and people hated it.
    
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    Nangijala@feddit.dk ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    Forgive me, because it has been awhile, but I have zero recollection of Arya owning a Valyrian blade. What sword are you referring to?
    
    I still hold on to the belief that Arya’s fate is to assassinate differnet people in high places around Westoros, but not necessarily her main targets.
    
    Of course the leader is the Night’s King. K just don’t believe he will behave the way he did in the show. The White walkers looked nothing like what they do in the show. They are more like undead ice elves in the books, who speak and show impressive intelligence. The Night’s King will be there, he’s just not the same as in the show.
    
    And I do not believe Arya will be the one to kill him.
    
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