travelingbears;842862685 said:
...Overall, I think Season 7 has been a bit of a disappointment thus far. It's moving too quickly and isn't allowing stories to develop and viewers to become more attached to the characters. Compared to the earlier seasons (e.g., show pulled you into loving Rob and Cat, then Red Wedding happened out of nowhere to give you shock value and sadness), I agree with others that this show is becoming more predictable and hasn't pulled me in emotionally as much.
I think by now, given the current cast of survivors and the amount of screen time they've each accumulated over the seasons, it's assumed that we already have some degree of emotional attachment to the remaining characters. I think that's reasonably fair. To your comment, I would argue the opposite is true, that the producers need to have viewers more attached to their
stories (and not necessarily the characters, themselves), instead. It's not really believable why and how quickly certain characters accepted certain schemes/arrangements (Olenna for the Casterly Rock takeover/King's Landing siege, Randall Tarly's breaking faith with House Tyrell, Gendry & Jorah to the North of the Wall, etc.). In the past, Game of Thrones excelled in this capacity in two ways: 1) providing clues along the way to give the audience time to appreciate the context/background to a developing plot (for example, we knew the two bastards were on a collision course, and enjoyed the battle more because of struggles and challenges that led up to that episode), and 2) provide texture to key decision-makers that keeps us guessing which path a character would take. These take time to develop, and that's a luxury producers no longer have. The timelines have been compressed, the narrative has been expedited. In the past, it would have taken an entire 10-episode season to lead up to an event like the Loot Train Attack or the foray north of the Wall. Now, the entire introduction, execution, and conclusion of a plot can be packaged together in a single episode (or two). For me, it's a tad unfulfilling.
I've been reading some interesting commentary that 7x06 episode is where Game of Thrones finally fully embraces the fantasy epic genre (most often compared to Lord of the Rings movies) for good or bad. Over the years, a lot of folks have grown familiar with and appreciated the complicated, competing machinations; the long-game narrative, dialogue subtleties, multiple storylines and multi-dimensional characters. For many, these are the reasons that set Game of Thrones apart from other shows, the sources of our enjoyment. Now, characters are seemingly defined more by outcome of events, than the process that led up to them. In the past, those events tended to be more minor - like a betrayal, discovery of a truth, and so forth - that was more significant in its potentiality to snowball into something greater down the line. Well, we're near the end of the line, so the seismic events we have witnessed this season (returning to Dragonstone, meeting of ice and fire, battles, etc.) owe to a larger narrative, and necessarily glosses over nuances and merges character identities for greater cohesion. To some, this departure is sacrilegious. Which leads to the next point: we're all part of the problem, too. For fans, there's simply not a lot of room left for imagination. We have a limited cast remaining and the end game has never been in doubt, the winners and losers (show-by-show, and our own guesses as to the final outcome) are becoming more predictable or, at the very least, has less variability. Leaks don't help. And fan theories, at this point, probably hurt more than enhance our viewing experience. There's only so many scenarios left, we've undoubtedly covered most of them by now. It is invariably setting up for anti-climactic end, and based on growing discontent among some opinions out there, I'm not so sure that reality hasn't already started settling in.
