I'm curious to see what people would have changed about the final season in order to cement it's place as one of the greatest TV shows of all time.
Which it was inevitably on track to be until the abomination that was the final season (season 8).
Dany would take the throne without slaughtering civilians and would give a big speech about freedom and equality for people all over the world. The Hound kills the Mountain in a duel and Arya takes the Hound off her list. Jamie Lannister stays and gets engaged to Brienne of Tarth but she elopes with Tormund Giantsbane. Cersei Lannister dies in the basement alone and is discovered there by Tyrion and Jamie. Jon Snow would remain loyal to Dany and they would maintain a platonic brother/sister relationship after they learned of their kinship. I was most disappointed about the fate of Dany and the Hound.
shareI would have kept it the same....except slowed down the pace considerably, even if it meant an extra season.
shareHonestly, I was fine with the ultimate outcomes for everyone. They more or less made sense to me. I'd just rather the show had taken more time to get to each of those outcomes. To me, the last two seasons felt a bit like the CliffsNotes version of a good show. It was a bit like the Whedon Justice League: it wasn't as much a problem of what was included as it was a problem of what wasn't. They hit all the correct beats but they didn't take time to earn them first.
Dany going mad queen, in general, seems the perfect narrative move to make, for instance (imo). But having her doing it so abruptly felt ridiculous. Yes, there were hints of it coming for a long time, but they were subtle and showed a complexity to the character. At the last moment, however, that subtle evolution suddenly became nothing more than a light switch of "Alright, she's evil now".
Jon and Dany falling in love made perfect sense to me — if it had happened later down the line. But having them fall head over heels almost instantly? Having Jon immediately groveling at her feet? I couldn't buy it. We weren't ready for that yet. We needed more time to see that relationship develop (like we did with Jamie and Brienne, for example). And a lot of the story ended up depending on the believability of that relationship. When Jon killed her and seemed emotionally destroyed by it, for example, I was just left thinking "Why does he care so much? It feels like he just met this girl." There was no feeling of "they've been through so much together".
It was just a long line of unearned moments like these. If anything, what I'd wish the most from the show would just be an extra season or two-long Snyder Cut of what we already got.
Dany not going completely mad and burning King’s Landing to ashes. That was too much. Maybe limit her madness on killing Cerci and have them both die in a showdown. Two madwomen capped off with one stone.
Bran being the one to go live with the Wildings beyond the wall to become a tree or whatever. His character was not interesting enough to get the show’s biggest prize.
Jon Snow getting the Iron Throne then going into deep introspection on whether his sanity is inherited from the Stark or Targaryan lineage. Lead us to believe he is more Stark minded then show viewers something that suggests a glimmer of madness in him just before running the final credits