Saying that the eighth and final season of Game of Thrones left a bad taste in a lot of mouths would be the understatement of the decade. Not just for some of the storytelling decisions but for the loose ends it left dangling and the extra questions the finale raised.
Simply put, HBO owes Game of Thrones fans an apology.
Even those content with how the epic wrapped up were left scratching their heads. The final season somehow managed to raise new questions it never even tried to answer.
HBO was quick to make clear that the as yet unnamed prequel is the only GoT pot they currently have boiling and that we aren’t going to be seeing anymore of Jon, Arya, Tyrion or any one else.
When you couple the fan backlash the final season inspired with the staggering cost to produce GoT (running around fifteen to twenty million dollars per episode), you could understand why.
But having said (and understanding) all that, the truth is fans invested a lot over the course of GoT’s eight seasons and remained fiercely loyal, even when the show took prolonged absences. It wouldn’t be out of line to suggest HBO owes long time fans a few more GoT morsels before the Song of Fire and Ice saga takes one final ride into the television sunset.
And it should look no further than another HBO juggernaut to see how they could accomplish it in a way that makes everyone happy.
Deadwood.
Or more precisely, how Deadwood thanked longtime fans of the show, concluded the acclaimed western (its abrupt cancellation in 2003 left quite a few dangling story threads) and gave talent on both sides of the camera a chance to say farewell (all of whom were caught just as unaware as fans by the show’s cancellation).
Neither the shows nor their situations are similar. When HBO made the decision to cancel Deadwood in 2003 it wasn’t necessarily because of ratings. While it is true that the show’s viewership shrank over the course of its three seasons after a solid start, what was left was still nothing to sneeze at and you would have been hard pressed to find a more loyal fandom anywhere on the planet. There were a number of factors that conspired to kill Deadwood, particularly when HBO’s bean counters concluded that their slice of the revenue pie (which was subject to a nightmarish tangle of corporate partnerships and licensing agreements) couldn’t cover the swelling costs of producing the acclaimed period drama.
Essentially, when Deadwood called it a day, its small but devoted fanbase wanted more. A lot more. So much so that HBO produced and aired an original movie to close the doors sixteen years later.
It can be argued exactly how much hunger fans have for more Game of Thrones following its ending. But keep in mind, despite all the declarations of “I’m done forever!” that inundated social media during season eight, GoT’s final episode drew record ratings. Far more than Deadwood drew at its height, in fact.
Which is an argument, not just for the short term staying power the Game of Thrones brand still enjoys, but of how loyal its fanbase is. Even weeks later the ending is a source of conversation and divisive misery for millions of people. A sore spot that may never completely heal.
(Irate videos are still popping up all over YouTube and you can bet there will be a virtual tsunami of fan grief next fall when the final season is released on Bu-Ray and DVD).
And HBO should seek to reward that loyalty. They can argue until they’re blue in their collective faces that there’s no need for anything else-that the story of Westeros is closed-but they’d be wrong on both accounts.
Outside of owing it to the fans (and they do), it also makes good business sense. If HBO is going all in on the GoT prequel, they need to extend an olive branch to fans. While nothing the network does will satisfy a large portion of the fandom, even the fans who were gracious about the show’s conclusion should be rewarded for investing so much time and faith in it. Because even they may not be racing towards their TVs to catch anything GoT related after season eight’s dubious conclusion.
HBO could market it as a reward for long term fans, an apology to the ones left looking at their screens as the final credits rolled screaming “THAT’S IT?” and one final, conclusive farewell to A Song of Fire And Ice.
If they really wanted to do it right, they could do a mini-series like their recent smash hit Chernobyl. Even though there was literally no way to continue that show after its five episode run, viewers were chomping at the bit for more.
There was even a narrative avenue built into GoT’s final episode to allow for more. When a pained Jon Snow asks Tyrion if murdering Daenerys was the right thing, Tyrion tells Jon to ask him again in ten years.
Voila.
The final chapter could be set ten years from the conclusion of season eight. And man would there be some genuine storytelling meat it could sink its teeth into.
What would the newly minted Six Kingdoms look like a decade into Bran The Broken’s reign? Would neither the Iron islands (who waged a failed rebellion a generation earlier) nor Dorne (who was the last, reluctant member to join the Seven Kingdoms) have asserted their own autonomy after the North so easily won theirs? What about all the Dothraki that would still be wandering around? They would likely be no end of headaches for whoever was in charge.
And speaking of the North, what would it look like after ten years of Sansa Stark’s rule? Would Winterfell be able to heal the scars that divided the North, especially after the betrayal of Robb Stark and the Battle of the Bastards?
Who wouldn’t want an entire season filled with the kind of banter we saw from the new small council? Watching Tyrion, Bronn and Davos trade barbs would be worth an entire show on its own (not to mention the eye rolls from Samwell and Brienne). But exactly how would the council have rebuilt the Six Kingdoms following years of warfare and turmoil? Not only was King’s Landing a smouldering ruin, but most of the great houses and families that ruled for centuries were completely gone. No more Lannisters. No more Martels, Boltons, Tarlys, Freys and countless others.
Who would have filled the vacuum they left behind? Would the new nobles be loyal to the new king? Or would they be scheming to take advantage of Westeros’ new “choose your new king whenever the current one looks like he’s going to kick the bucket’ system of government? If there was ever a better recipe for a civil war every generation or so, it’s tough to think of one. Most importantly, who would have paid all the taxes necessary to rebuild?
Would Jon have become the new King Beyond The Wall? Would Ghost have met a nice she-wolf and the two had a litter of pups? Would there really still be a Night’s Watch with a huge gaping hole in The Wall that no one could fix?
Would Arya still be sailing the unknown seas of the west? Did she find anything? If so, what kind of trouble would she have gotten into there? Would something have followed her back? Or chased her?
The what ifs extend well beyond Westeros and The Six Kingdoms. What would happen in Essos after they received word that Daenerys Stormborn-Breaker of Chains, Mother of Dragons and First of her Name-was dead? Would the slave trade that was a way of life before Danny came along return? Would the Iron Bank emerge as the new binding power in Danny’s absence (the way the Catholic Church held Europe together following the collapse of the Roman Empire in real life)? Maybe the fanatic faith in The Lord of Light would fill that void instead, demanding live human sacrifices along the way. Or would both climb to the top of the food chain, eyeing each other warily?
What about the prophecy of Azor Ahai, the Prince That Was Promised? A.K.A the saviour who was supposed to return and save the world from eternal darkness. Was that darkness Danny? Would that make Jon Azor, like so may people suspected?
Here’s a twist for you; what if Drogon took Danny’s body back to Volantis where she was resurrected by the Cult of R’hllor, in much the same way Jon was resurrected by Melisandre. Would she still be thirsty for conquest, only now in The Lord of Light’s name? Would she and her still loyal dragon launch a religious crusade across the sea, with a weakened Westeros in her undead sights? Or would she return with nothing more than vengeance in her scarred heart?
It would put the prophecy of Amor Azai back in play while reuniting all the wayward Stark children (not to mention giving writers a nifty excuse to flesh out more about the mysterious religion).
The storytelling possibilities are endless.
In the end, HBO owes it both to themselves and the fans to say one final farewell to one of the biggest phenomenons in television history. The road to TV hell is paved with the regrets of endless writers and producers over failed television finales. Most never have an opportunity to go back and get things right or give the fans something better to hold onto. Something to genuinely say goodbye to. HBO has that chance and they would be foolish to pass it up.
