Quote:
Originally Posted by duncan_idaho
If people’s standard is to see the twists and turns and subterfuge of SoS throughout the entire series, I think that’s misplaced.
Martin took several years of book events and two entire books to set up SoS. The whole story can’t run at that payoff level perpetually. That’s not how story arcs work (outside soap operas).
Crows, Dragons are meant to set up what we’re seeing on screen now. Which is a much more straightforward representation of payoff, because the stakes and players are different.
Everyone has chosen a side. During the War of the 5 Kings, the stakes were different (win power vs win to save all of humanity) and the players were different and more varied.
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I agree. I think the payoff has the
potential to match SoS, but I personally think Martin's writing has declined to a point (i.e. become too meandering and ponderous) that I'm not sure if it will ever deliver at that level - and that's
okay. If he sticks the landing, he's not going to betray or diminish the incredible achievement that was SoS. The same goes for the show.
People also won't tell you this, but Season 5 of Breaking Bad also received hate like this when it first aired. People loathed Mike's death (they thought it was lazy). Loathed Walt not getting arrested (thought it was a lazy, cowardly cop-out), they thought the train heist went "Hollywood", and some writers hated that Walt had a "payoff" and wanted him to freeze to death in his car as a "realistic" ending.
That finale is now looked at among the gold standard of finales (often mentioned with
Six Feet Under and
The Sopranos, the latter of which was also loathed upon release).
If GOT doesn't pull a
Lost,
HIMYM or
Dexter, and don't betray the arcs and development of each of their characters development for a "gotcha" or "ambiguous" or whatever the ****
Dexter was going for - it's going to be looked back upon fondly, as all of the build up and incredible character moments in the previous seasons would have been built up for the finish.