Thing is, and I hate stanning for anyone, but compared to most TV writing at the time GoT first started airing, GRRM's writing style is like a game of 5D chess with the audience. He's just very thorough with his character studies and really, really skilled at plotting out narrative that respects your intelligence and the intelligence of the characters. That's definitely what hooked everyone in those first four seasons.
And even though season 5 and 6 royally fucked up Dorne and Jamie's character development, the streamlining of the book 4 and 5 material in the show arguably improves the story.
The narrative quality started declining around season 6 and absolutely did some shark jumping with the "capture a zombie" mission of season 7. Characters do stupid shit much more often as the show goes on, no doubt about it. But unless GRRM put aside his three prequel books time to screenwrite each season (apparently it takes him several months per episode!), which might have delayed season 8 to whenever tf TWoW is currently scheduled for release, there's not much else to do but enjoy a more troped out version of the first half of the show.
And I think it's a half empty/full situation. The amount of trauma we had to endure watching so many characters we like die so many horrible deaths makes the moments of heroism and revenge dished out to the villains in recent seasons all the more impactful. And I'm sure GRRM is planning/has planned a similar bend in his upcoming books. All that suffering gives more meaning to the victories of the surviving characters we root for in later seasons.
So you can both look at it as a groundbreaking TV series that gradually became a bit dumber and more troped out, or an unprecedented TV epic medieval fantasy story that's very much about magic and battles with creatures and dragons and all that stuff, but one made significantly more meaningful via the deep character development and world building leading up to it.
And even though season 5 and 6 royally fucked up Dorne and Jamie's character development, the streamlining of the book 4 and 5 material in the show arguably improves the story.
The narrative quality started declining around season 6 and absolutely did some shark jumping with the "capture a zombie" mission of season 7. Characters do stupid shit much more often as the show goes on, no doubt about it. But unless GRRM put aside his three prequel books time to screenwrite each season (apparently it takes him several months per episode!), which might have delayed season 8 to whenever tf TWoW is currently scheduled for release, there's not much else to do but enjoy a more troped out version of the first half of the show.
And I think it's a half empty/full situation. The amount of trauma we had to endure watching so many characters we like die so many horrible deaths makes the moments of heroism and revenge dished out to the villains in recent seasons all the more impactful. And I'm sure GRRM is planning/has planned a similar bend in his upcoming books. All that suffering gives more meaning to the victories of the surviving characters we root for in later seasons.
So you can both look at it as a groundbreaking TV series that gradually became a bit dumber and more troped out, or an unprecedented TV epic medieval fantasy story that's very much about magic and battles with creatures and dragons and all that stuff, but one made significantly more meaningful via the deep character development and world building leading up to it.
