MovieChat Forums > Game of Thrones (2011) Discussion > Will they just Abandon this show like Ge...

Will they just Abandon this show like George Abandoned the books?


I can definitely see this happen. I'm vaguely curious about what happens but lets be honest, it's not going to be satisfying.

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No. They won't abandon it, in fact I hope HBO has the nerve to actually finish it and not string it out for years to keep all the fans as subscribers!

But yeah, no matter what they do for an ending, someone's going to be disappointed. I may be a bit disappointed myself, because something which does not yet exist has the potential to be infinitely awesome, which something which exists can only be finitely awesome. No matter what they put on screen, whether it's lame or marvelous, can only be finitely awesome at best.


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The show seems to be ending where the major story arcs converge, so it would be a logical stopping point. I doubt the Night King is going to kill everyone, so that situation will be somewhat resolved. It has been strongly hinted over the last 2 seasons that the Iron Throne (or the system it's a part of) won't make it to the end. So the end of the show would be at the beginning of a new era in that world. There is a lot of history the show never got into, a spinoff is almost certain to happen.

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How often are endings satisfying? It's the most difficult part of any film, book or series..
But I think it'll give us closure on those of us that have been hanging in there all these years. Maybe the book readers will have more trouble but I don't know if GRRMartin will ever get back invested in this story with the series giving him an out.

I'm not even sure how I'll want it to end anyway..I don't want happily ever after but I don't want the worst scenario either.
Maybe a little of both.
There may be some ambiguity but I doubt totally. Some things will be left certain. Some not.

And I don't think they're dragging it out. It's taking longer to actually write (w/ longer episodes) ...edit lots of CGI...and they can't film simultaneously as before because most of the cast is now in the same location.

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Series don't climax... As every apex or nadir int he story is followed by yet another episode, plot turn or character arch... They don't really have "satisfying" conclusions because the the time they've been drawn out to several seasons they don't mean something* and have succumbed to melodrama...

This is what happened to Mad Men, arguably the greatest TV drama series, and I can see it happening time and time again... It appears to be inherent in the form of TV series... The best you can wish for is a non-ending like The Sopranos...

Outside of the cinema, only mini-series seem to have the potential to avoid this, as they are limited in time by design and tend not to try to leave room for follow-up seasons... Olive Kitteridge and The Night Of are good examples... Although, with the trend of expansive franchise series, I can see fewer of these...

* I use the word "something" rather than the word "anything" intentionally... TV series do have themes and do have some meaning, they're not meaningless, but they do not have a tight meaning the way a film or a short story usually does. They meander and have to deal with a great deal of exposition, plot and such, whereas the shorter form of film (the standalone movie) allows for mood, atmosphere and a freeing economy of not having to bring an audience along for several years, which generates a more focused meaning that allows for a climax, or a conclusion...

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I think that both The Wire and The Leftovers had satisfying conclusions. The thing they both had in common was that the following was lukewarm, and so they moved to the final season pretty quickly. The Wire is deservedly seen as one of the greatest shows, but much of the praise came after the series had ended. In support of what you're saying, if you think of how The Wire ended, if they tried to have that ending after 10 years of shows, it wouldn't have worked nearly as well.

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I've only seen the first season of The Wire... Good pick, by the way... I think it was very good for a TV show and played to the strengths of being a TV show... The characterisations, process and passage of time...

I haven't seen the conclusion as I stopped at the end of the first season, but that worked as a standalone season more than it didn't. Not common.

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First seasons are often standalone because they don't always know if they will get a second one. What they did with The Wire for the next 4 seasons was to add a different POV each season. It always has the cops and drug dealers at the street level and at the top, but then they do a season on the port with the dock workers, then Littlefinger running for mayor, the public school system, the newspaper business, etc. The later seasons do a pretty good job of tying them all together. But it's always the same story about the different ways people approach their role in a system or institution. Maybe they can compromise, exploit it to get a little something for themselves or do something good for someone else, maybe they get totally corrupted, maybe they just go along to get along. The one constant though, the system is impervious to change, and people who have their mind set to change it get crushed.

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>> I think that both The Wire and The Leftovers had satisfying conclusions.

I thought the Leftovers was terrible ... a lot like Lost, just make it very emotional, weird and crazy and be sure it does not make sense.

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I think, if you liked The Leftovers, you were satisfied by the conclusion. I know that a lot of people didn't like the series.

If you can make it through the first season, the finale of Season 1 is crazy (in an entertaining way). To me, it's worth making it through the first season just for that episode. Along the way, Carrie Coon was enough for me to keep watching; her character was interesting and she did a great job with it.

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I did like the Leftovers ... until the last season, and even that had some good stuff. When they start dying and coming back. I was disgusted by the throwing the girl down the well ... or whatever that was, I can scarcely remember it now. That is when I started to really get offended.

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"GoT" seems like it's going to be a rare series that will have an extremely dramatic climax, it won't end like "Mad Men" where there's a bit of drama and then everyone goes on with their lives. Apparently there's going to be a final battle between the forces of good and evil or fire and ice and spring will come and the world will be remade, and when it ends most of the characters will be dead and the existing power structures will crumble and everything will be different.

Of course we all know that after a while the great houses will go back to squabbling again, which IMHO is going to factor into the "bittersweet" ending we've been warned about. But only after the titanic, climactic battle between Us and Them, because it's Fantasy genre after all.

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>> Series don't climax

Uh, Felina would beg to differ with you ... Breaking Bad?

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And then we have better call saul... 😉

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the most satisfying/definitive ending would have been one where the dead walkers take over the world and massacre/turn everyone

That would also mean that we won't be seeing a 'sequel series' - which is just fine.

Just end it already is all I'm saying.

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Seriously ... did he not finish the books? I like the series but I would never undertake to read so many pages and books. I can see where with all of that complexity anyone would burn out under the pressure ... even with a ton of money at stake. Too bad.

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The books have stalled, for the last two there's been little to no advancement of the plot, he just sorts of follows characters around randomly and reports every little thing they do. And seeing as he takes about ten years between books, and he's old and not in glowing health... what are the odds that he'll ever finish the series?

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If he doesn't finish them, another author will take over. GRRM has told a few people all the important details, and how the story will end. I've looked into it.

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IMHO o th her writers have already taken over- the HBO writing staff.

I don't think it's possible to fix the books at this point, I don't think they'll be finished.

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Peter Dinklage seems very pleased with Tyrion's "ending", for better or for worse, calling it "brilliant".Considering how long it will be before we see it, I truly hope so. It would be a shame for the series to end with a whimper. There will be a certain amount of disappointment in some characters' resolutions, as I have already felt with the Tyrells, but I am hoping that the show runners want to be the heroes and won't let us down too badly.

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I'm already disappointed. They slow-walked everything for 6 seasons, and then suddenly they decide to hit the fast-forward button in season 7. Take Dany for example - it takes her 6 seasons to get across the narrow sea, then a few episodes after landing on Dragonstone, she is already done with fighting the Lannisters and going North to fight the Army of the Dead.

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