Game of Thrones: The Final Season & The Last Watch

Now that we’ve had a week and a half to digest the final episode of Game of Thrones and the documentary, The Last Watch, has aired I’m ready to share my thoughts.

First, let’s talk about the documentary. If you didn’t watch The Last Watch, I highly recommend it. I only got around to watch it yesterday because I was away over the weekend, but if you’re a GoT fan then it is well worth the 2 hour watch. It gives you a behind the scenes look at the final season – focusing on the production process, prosthetics, costumes, visual and special effects, extras, sets, etc. You think you know a lot of work has to go in to making the show, but the documentary shows you just how insane it is! There is a guy whose job it is to do all the snow!

They spend days, months, years building the sets and making this whole production. The level of detail will blow your mind. Despite how tired and run-down they all get during the whole process (the Battle of Winterfell episode took 55 nights to film!) you can tell just how much they all love their job, the show, and just being there and part of this world. One guy – I’m not sure what his job actually is, but he seemed like a personal assistant or something to one of the directors – was so ecstatic just to be giving him snacks! He made it his personal mission to keep the director’s energy up.

Seeing the cast at their final table read was so cool and I loved that they included a clip of their table read from season 1 and how much has changed since then.

You do get some glimpses and clips of behind the scenes with the stars, but the documentary is primarily about all the people behind the scenes that the audience never sees. The people in the makeup trailer, the husband and white prosthetics team that hasn’t seen their daughter in weeks because they are away in Belfast working, the food truck people, the guy making snow out of paper and water – it’s fascinating to see and get a look at the hard work these people put in and the sacrifices they make.

Now on to the final season. I know a lot of people were disappointed and there are even petitions to get the final season re-made. But I was actually okay with the final season. Yes, there are things I would’ve liked to see or would change if I had my way, but I don’t think the whole season was trash. My main issue with the season was how it ended, but I could see how the groundwork had been laid out over the years of Dany turning mad. I think the issue people had with that is that it seemed like it came out of nowhere or there wasn’t enough time to show her descent in to crazy town. I agree, but I think if you had rewatched all the seasons then it would make more sense that yeah she’s always been a little unstable. Dany is not innocent – she’s had a lot of people killed. And yeah, a lot of those people were bad, but I think that’s how we all justified it. We rooted for her and thought she was a badass who deserved the iron throne. We ignored the fact that maybe she is unstable and violence doesn’t faze her at all. Remember in season one when Khal Drogo kills her brother by pouring the liquid gold on his head? Yeah, he was a really bad guy but she didn’t even flinch. Her reaction was “He was no dragon”. So I think it’s easy to forget that she’s not really all that innocent and sane but we’ve been on her side for so long that we ignored the signs. Plus, the last season was 2 years ago and the show has been on for 8 years so it’s easy to forget everything that has happened that has led us here.

I also think that if you were not very happy with this final season and then you watch the documentary, you’ll realize how much of a labor of love this show is and there is merit to Sophie Turner’s comment to people wanting the season re-made saying it was disrespectful to all that worked on the show.

As I mentioned above, I didn’t like how the show ended, but I did enjoy the season as a whole. The Battle of Winterfell was amazing. Arya killing the Night King? Epic! I didn’t like that after years of waiting for the Stark children to be reunited, they’re all apart again. I hate the ending for Jon Snow. He deserves a happy life after everything. He was treated horribly by Catelyn growing up because she believed he was her husband’s bastard. He goes to the wall. He saves everyone from the white walkers and fights to save innocent people. He finds out who he really is and that he isn’t a bastard after all. And then he gets…banished?! He can never marry or have children and he has to stay in the Night’s Watch? Nope. He deserved to be happy! And Bran becoming king? Come on! That just makes me think Bran orchestrated this whole thing. I loved all the memes though like one that showed him saying he’s no longer Bran and then when they call him King Bran the Broken he’s like okay!

If I were to choose how the show ended, I would have all the kingdoms come to back Jon Snow (after Varys sent all those messages about him being the rightful heir to the throne). There would be a war between Dany and Jon. Jon doesn’t want the throne, but he can’t stand by and watch Daenerys slaughter and burn innocent people. In the end he becomes king and is a just and benevolent king!

So I’m just going to pretend that was the real ending.

Let me know your thoughts on the season and/or documentary!