The final season of HBO's Game of Thrones does have its share of defenders, but it was generally considered to be a disappointing swansong for the mega-popular fantasy drama series.
The final two episodes, in particular, came in for a lot of backlash thanks to some highly controversial creative decisions, one of which saw fan-favorite character Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) "break bad" by laying waste to King's Landing and the thousands of innocent people who lived there just so she could exact her revenge on Cersi Lannister (Lena Headey).
Then, in the series finale, Jon Snow (Kit Harington) killed his lover/aunt when he realized that she'd succumbed to madness and was planning to execute Tyrion (Peter Dinklage), and Bran "The Broken" (Isaac Hempstead Wright) was crowned King of the Seven Kingdoms.
Even if you happened to be on board with these choices, the consensus was that season 8 was rushed, with storylines and character arcs that should have been given a lot more time to fully develop and flesh out brought to unsatisfactory conclusions.
During an interview with The Independent, A Song of Ice and Fire author George R.R. Martin - who also served as an exec producer on the show - addressed what he considered to be a "toxic" reaction from the fanbase.
"I don't understand it, you know. OK, you love a show, you love a character. What's the worst... it's either going to be a good show or a bad show or a mediocre show. Some episodes are good, some are bad. Why are people getting so crazy about it, you know? [...] I don’t understand how people can come to hate so much something that they once loved. If you don’t like a show, don’t watch it! How has everything become so toxic?"
It's easy enough to see where Martin is coming from in one respect - after all, you're never going to please everyone no matter what. That said, it would be nice if he'd acknowledge at least some of the genuine/valid grievances fans had with the final season.
What do you guys think? Was the reaction to the Game of Thrones finale justified, or a little OTT?