For my traditional "way too late review of previously popular content", I have read this thread in its entirety over the last few days and will now bestow upon you the random thoughts I remember having. I watched the whole series shortly after the final season came out, and read all the books in early 2020.
1. Creating the Night King was a mistake. The walkers and wights are an elemental force. Embodying them in a character was the wrong technique to use here. Creating a persona who kinda sorta seemed to be acting logically made fans expect backstory and exposition. Well, the whole point is that they are terminators that can't be persuaded or bargained with. They represent something much more like Nature than a traditional antagonist, and the weather doesn't have motivations.
2. I feel like a lot of people have started throwing around words like Arcs and Storytelling without really good reasons. "It's bad storytelling", for example. But most of the time i don't really get what their actual problem is. Often people can't articulate a good argument, so they blame bad storytelling as a sort of jargony hand wave.
I write. I read. I read about writing and write about reading and every other permutation. And I've gotten to be a lot more careful about blaming something as vague as bad storytelling. Blaming a writer for bad storytelling is like blaming an athlete for bad sportsing. If you're going to diagnose, you have to be more specific and preferably more respectful of the profession.
3. My last comment on all the back and forth is that I think a lot of people can tell something is wrong, but they don't really know what it is. So they go looking, but all they can find is superficial / trivial stuff. If you find yourself arguing for 40 pages about the physics of medieval projectile weapons to explain why you hated a season of tv, that's not the real issue.
4. I think something is wrong with the last season. Most of the reasons why have been touched on. The sociological vs plot-driven writing, for example. Martin cares a lot more about the world he built than anyone in it, which meant that he can remorselessly follow the topsy turvy logic of his world wherever it leads. B&W can't, they are trying to balance too many external demands. And TBH I'm not sure, after that last season, that B&W ever really understood some of the characters and rules of the world.
5. Danaerys turning was almost too predictable to me. I spent most of the series feeling like she was walking a cliff's edge with insanity one slip away. Without going back and doing a rewatch, I can't say exactly why. But at the same time, when the moment came it didn't quite feel earned. It didn't feel like she "slipped", it felt like B&W walked up and shoved her into the abyss. And that sort of sums up season 8 for me. Very few things happened that didn't make sense, but most of them were hollow in the moment. The plot happened to them rather than letting the characters get there in their own time.
6. Drogon melting the throne and letting Jon walk both made sense to me. Dragons traditionally are sentient agents even if they operate by a different logic, that wasn't random weirdness or some sort of Targaryen protection over Jon. I think Drogon knew that death was her only way out of the pain, just like Danaerys knew it at some level and Jon knew it. She was never going to find the validation and love she craved and felt entitled to, and her character couldn't bear to go without it. The more desperately she tries to force people to love her, the less lovable she is. And I think Drogon blames the throne and what it represented for corrupting her so. The bond he had with Danaerys put him in a better place to know than anyone else.
7. There was still a lot of good in the last couple seasons, but I can't say that they stuck the landing. It felt a little like the whole production was ready to move on and do something else so they just finished it as fast as they could.
8. Most of the lady actors are sweethearts. It's nice, they seem grounded and charming. Wonderful casting throughout the series.
