Why Game of Thrones Jumped the Shark (and why George R.R. Martin will never finish his series)

More like Jumped the STARK.

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Don't talk about feminism unless you actually know what it is…and you don't. You seem to be confusing egalitarianism with feminism, which is the exact same thing the clueless show creators are doing. You complain about them failing, and yet you failed the exact same test. Talk about irony :/

I enjoyed your discussion more than I enjoyed season 7 and i think the 8th season will be worst than the 7th specially Danarias character and her unbelievable ignorance and who jon snow melt down in her presence.
I don't think they can fix the mistakes they had done to the characters in the next season because the next one will be about the war of the night king so a lot of CGI will be add as cosmetic.

Most youtubers seem to have liked the Season 7 of Game of Thrones, maybe people trying to find "feminist progressiveness" everywhere like Sargon of Akkad and others might not have liked it or seasons before, but most seems to have liked it for sure.

I've always said that aliens should just show up at the end, destroy pretty much everything, and enslave the rest to mine for minerals … no better ending than that.

George will never finish writing "A Song of Ice and Fire" because he has
completely lost track of his own story. He has NO idea how to tie up all
the plot threads and wrap things up in a satisfying way. Supposedly, he
can no longer write a single page without consulting with a small group
of rabid fans who have memorized every detail of the saga.

Your right. Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, these fantasy stories usually simply has Good vs EvilGOT has characters who are not straight forward black and white and if they seem that way, they die sooner.I guess Ned proved that. So does Jamie and Jamie is a favorite because he has good and bad qualities.

LOLThank you for saying Dany is extremely boring. Jon is boring as well and the two of them together is Yawn.
Ygritte was all personality made the couple good enough. Dario had a great personality. Dany just barks "bend the knee" all the time

I have to take umbrage with your argument that we are today we are obsessed with mythological rather than tragic narratives, or rather that this wasn't so in the past. Narratives in the past were overwhelmingly mythological, with only a selected few realist works elevated to "canon" status, remaining visible in the 21 century due to the fact that application of the theories of modern schools of criticism can produce a long enough paper fora journal. Also, Dickens wrote tragedy now?

going from 10 episodes a season to 7 was a big mistake everything was to rushed ,like building a 1000 ships in like a week or so !! hmmm

I feel like there are too many "strong" women on the show. Seriously, everyone hates Sansa but her story actual is a survivor story. Better than the so called 100 lb ass kickers

Before I watch this video, I really felt the show Jumping the Shark when Arya spared with Brienne and the show implied that Arya could kick Briennes ass.
Everyone gives Brienne credit for beating the Hound when the show clearly said the Hound was sick from infection from that man biting him and the Hound wouldn't let Arya burn the germs out. Arya comments afterwards that the Hound was walking slower etc and she says he should have let her burn out the germs.BRIENNE IS NOT BETTER THAN THE HOUND
But since everyone forgets that, now the dummies think Arya can beat Brienne therefore making it so Arya could beat the Hound.
If all the things that have bugged me, the Arya/Brienne training make me yell Shark

it wasn't what LotR was trying to be that was the problem. It was what it caused, cookie-cutter the hero always wins fantasy crap. Serious while LotR is good, it caused a lot of damage to fiction writing.

Also aSoIaF isn't meant to be tragic for tragedy's sake. People fail and die for their own decisions. Ned, Rob, Jon. All good men and all set themselves up to fail.

You seem to want him to write the way you want? The characters died for (real/in universe) reasons. not because he wanted them to die. He writes characters being themselves, doing what they'd do and with all the effects it causes.

im not a dany fan, by any stretch, but to suggest she is somehow different than any other person who truly believes they are entitled to sit the iron throne due solely to inheritence, youre just totally off the mark.  most of the characters believe someone, whether joffrey, dany, cersei, someone is entitled by birth to rule.  she is no different.  so why have an issue with her believing so?  just bcz shes a woman, so now its a feminist issue?  holy shit, are you reaching.  poor dude, did you not get laid until your 20s?  your entire video reeks (lol) of self pity and anger, directed at women.  women are not responsible for your shitty life or your problems.  you are responsible for your own life.  just like men arent responsible for my problems.  what it must be like to be able to blame someone else for my failings….

its problemactic to praise a female character, yet they go on and on about how great ned was, and thats ok?  who cares of its a man or a woman, if someone is awesome, its ok to say so.

When GRRM finishes "A Dream of Spring" you should just hang yourself. I've read nearly everything from GRRM and I've never been disappointed. Everything he writes is deep and significantly meaningful.
Fuck David Benioff and Fuck D.B. Weiss.
They're responsible for ALL of the fuck ups in the show. Nobody else.

Your conclusion doesn't make a lick of sense.

Okay, so having a war General recognize the importance of teaching women self defense ( because that was the point of Jon Snow order; not particurlaly bring owmen to the fronts) is affecting your suspension of disbelief?
It is another kind of war, that asks for another kind of strategy.
Go complain with GRRM then, because he fashioned DT to be a feminist icon, despite all his problems with female characters, it is his intention. Fantasy does not exist in vaccuum, so GRRM and DnD do take modernist approaches into their work.
There is a wide variety of books-series-films that do not " push the feminist agenda" for you to watch.

While I find this philosophical discussion fascinating, I'd like to add some specifics as to the show's production. I'm a philosophical simpleton (it's why I love being educated by papa distributist) but I know my way around TV production. So, I'd love to take this rare opportunity to add something I'm versed in to Dave's video. Basically, here's a meta analysis of the show's decline that should clarify some points for those bewildered by Game's deteriorating quality.

Season one of game of thrones was nearly perfect. The sets, effects, action, and most importantly, the story and characters, were executed with a lot of care. I feel it’s one of the greatest pieces of television ever created. In the fantasy genre, few films even compare to this first season. Seasons two and three were also remarkable, despite the occasional misstep and slow plotline. But then season four happens. It starts off solid, the cold open of Tywin is one of the best scenes in the series both visually and thematically, but by the end of this season you start to notice little things here and there. Strange scene execution, lazy cinematography, and stupid or non-existent character arcs. But every show has a bad season, so I wrote it off as a temporary misstep. And then season 5… 6… and 7 happened.

So, one of the biggest issues has been the decline of cinematography and scene execution. Let’s compare two season premiers.

Season Two- http://gfycat.com/FocusedSadBaiji
Season Five- http://gfycat.com/EssentialNecessaryBee
The start of season two is incredible on so many levels. There are a lot of things that make this work… symmetry, color, movement, a great location. We also see some of the show’s best characters and actors interacting in a way that informs us of their relationship, all while setting up the story. Granted, we already had some information about Tyrion and Jeoffery’s relationship (insert gif of Tyrion slapping Jeof over and over) But this scene shows us their relationship in a different context -Jeoffery is a tyrannical king; Tyrion wants to restore order, and poor Sansa is stuck in the middle. And there you have a set up for a great story. Now, compare this to the opening of season 5. What information does this scene relay to the audience? We’re introduced to two characters that are never seen again. And we’re told about a prophecy that, even by the end of the season, hasn’t affected the story in any way. We’ve got drab colors, a boring (visually speaking) shot-reverse-shot conversation, and someone who isn’t even part of the main cast interacting with child actors. The Wood’s Witch isn’t a terrible actress, but her performance is hammy and she’s certainty no Jack Gleeson or Peter Dinklage. Not every actor needs to be on par with your top billing, but again this is the season premiere! This is the time to woo your audience and display what your show is capable of.
And to top it off, they add a jump scare to add tension to the scene. Jump scares are typically used in horror films like Paranormal Activity, by lulling the audience then scaring them with a loud noise. Many critics consider this tactic lazy because it relies on a noisy, startling effect, rather than a creative use of creepy visuals. Overall, I hate this scene. It’s a great example of how game of thrones has stopped using the visual language to communicate information to its audience. Cinematography is important! And can tell us a lot about character relationships:
If they’re equals http://i.imgur.com/0pKTYSR.jpg
Or definitely, DEFINITLEY not equals…http://i.imgur.com/1USLj9l.png

So, why don't we see more of that now? One explanation for the show's decline has been the growing focus on large scale battle scenes (starting in S2E9 Blackwater) and special effects. Game of Thrones executes these scenes better than any TV show in history, and even with more quality than many films. However, it seems apparent that the show runners spent a majority of their resources in one area (like huge battle scenes), leaving the rest of the show lacking in funding and effort. Film production has an extremely high opportunity cost. Time is money, and a budget dedicated to special effects and battles means set time has to be sacrificed. The less time on set, the fewer chances you have to get that perfect take. A great example of this is the infamous Dorne fight scene. The reason this action scene was so horribly choreographed is due to its being filmed on a historic location – that means the director has to work within the rules and time constraints of the property's curator. This resulted in a rushed, half-assed scene that is a microcosm for the series as a whole. Seriously, I think this is where most of the show’s issues stem from. You see, Game of Thrones is a license to print money, and HBO executives aren’t fucking around when they’re using this show on 90% of their advertisements. This puts a lot of pressure on the showrunners. Every season has to be bigger than the last, not just in scale but in the audience brought in. D&D (the show runners) aren’t stupid, a lot of people mistake bad scenes as incompetence, but I think a lot of these decisions are intentional. Why you ask? Pandering. You can make a subtle show with character development and cerebral themes, or you can make a big dumb show with lots of controversy and action. Which one is going to make you more money? Which is less of a risk? Most importantly, it also explains the flowing issue…

BAD STORYTELLING AND CHARACTER ARCS
I’m going to compare a scene to the book, which I don’t like to do, but for this example you’ll see why it’s necessary. In season five, Danny is chilling with her homies watching the game, when rebels try to assassinate her. There’s an action scene, and she escapes after being rescued by her dragon. In the books, all is normal in the coliseum, until the dragon shows up and starts killing everything. Danny doesn’t know what to do, because she’s gentle and kind of a push-over. Finally, she becomes decisive, picks up a slaver’s whip, the very symbol of what she hates, and whips the dragon into submission. It shows her embracing the use of force and cruelty as tools of leadership, and embracing what made her Targaryen ancestors effective. It’s a character arc. In the show’s version of this event, none of the characters grow or change; it’s just an excuse to have an action scene. To pander to people who watch the show to see fights and dragons. And this is the problem with a lot of the newer scenes. Because a scene should do one of two things: advance the story or tell us about a character. But a lot of new scenes don’t do either. They’re either filler, or just there to make people say “This is badass, I’m going to post about it on Twitter!” or say “This is controversial, I’m going to post about it on Twitter!” For example, in the first episode of season four, there’s a scene where Ramsey hunts down and murders a girl with hounds. You have to ask yourself, what is the point of this scene? We already know Ramsey is a psychopath. We already get his and Myranda’s relationship. This scene only exists because it’s something people are going to talk about. There a lot of other pointless action scenes that don’t further the story (Stone Men and skeleton fight come to mind). The point of these scenes are that Jojen dies and Jorah gets a disease. You can have these events in a thousand different ways that don’t eat up your budget and resources, and detract from the story. Have Jojen die from frost bite. Have him starve to death. The ultimate point is how the surviving characters react to his death and how his passing furthers the plot, so who cares how he dies? Unless you’re worried about pandering to a huge audience and need to fill you action-per-episode quota. I can’t stress this point enough – the skeleton fight was, at the time, the most expensive scene the show has ever produced. The episodes that are full-on action are fantastic. Their goal is to be an action movie and they’ve accomplished this better than most modern action movies. The problem is these battles are only one or two episodes out of an entire season. While these episodes are great, they are such a huge priority that every other element of the show suffers.

There are other meta elements related to D&D themselves. Watch their behind the scenes footage where they talk about their inspiration for wanting to adapt GoT. They basically state, with stars in their eyes, that the red wedding was the most compelling thing they've ever read in a fiction book, and that if they could only get to season three they'd be satisfied. Hell, they even wanted 'The Raines of Castamere' to be the theme song for the entire show. They we're obsessed with executing the red wedding. They were obsessed with the high-tragedy that Dave so intelligently points out. Once they had accomplished this goal, combined with the growing intricacies of adapting the later books and the need to write more and more original material (you see this in the decline of dialogue, i.e. Tyrion's "just punch me in the face" line or the infamous "bad poosey") I believe they lost that deep, fanboy level of dedication to the show, gave in to external pressures, and intentionally changed the show's path to one of simplicity and mass-appeal.

I thought the point of ASOIAF was to show that war and fuedalism sucks

Can't believe I watched 29 minutes just to get to that conclusion. Dude. Did you miss the point in season 7 where the very male Jon [Snow] was revealed to be the rightful ruler of Westeros? Should have figured it was heading for this when you mentioned your strange speculation that the audience was supposed to like the sand snakes (the adversaries of two of the most popular men on the show).

George RR Martin is working as a producer on the show. I think his opinion is important to the showrunners. They actually talk to each other. And everything happens for a reason in the show. Books and film/tv are always different in many ways. I highly enjoyed watching season 7.
And I didn't enjoy a bit watching your bla bla video.
Your point of view is just so exhausting….

GoT is some of the most overrated literature of the late 20th and 21st century. Martin has some how tricked people into thinking that his writing has any hint of nuance. The show sucks too. Horrible cinematography and writing.

You're about 2 years too late. I've known and said little Georgy would never finish for quite some time.
His writing went to shit about book 3 and he had no idea where he was going.

This video seems to conflate or group together GRRM with Game of Thrones, or ASOIAF with Game of thrones to an extent that really ticks me off as someone who loves ASOIAF and hates Game of Thrones. It sorta gives the impression that GRRM is somehow responsible for what Game of Thrones is, or that it is somewhat interchangeable with ASOIAF, that you can just swap them out in the middle of a sentence, that they are basically the same thing. And an idea like that is one that I couldn't disagree with more. The show is basically the opposite of the books, of their morals, their point, their whole story. It is an abhorrent work that could only have been made by a disunited group of incompetents, and with none of the directed, precise and collected meaning and delivery of GRRM's singular literary accomplishment.