By Chris Snellgrove | Published
To this day, the failure of Game of Thrones it feels a little surreal. Long ago, it was one of the most popular shows in the world, and was hailed as the best example of how to turn a popular book series into a live action. However, in the end, everything was in full swing. Authors started debates with George RR Martin's books before running out of practice books. As a result, the writing and characterization fell apart, and the final season was so universally hated that many of the show's biggest fans made a Late Night Watch-style vow to never watch the venerable series again.
A critical failure of Game of Thrones it came as a huge surprise to most of the fandom, but it really wasn't worth it. You see, this show was created by David Benioff, a man who first achieved mainstream success through writing Troythe blockbuster adaptation of The Iliad starring Brad Pitt. Even though that movie made a profit, it has a 53 percent on Rotten Tomatoes because it's a poorly written piece of trash. Between that and its poor adaptation of the original source material, writer David Benioff had a fate that even Maester Aemon could foresee: complete and utter obfuscation. Game of Thrones.
A Song of Snow and Failure
The first film written by David Benioff was The 25th houra Spike Lee film about a man enjoying his last day of freedom before going to prison for seven years. It was widely praised, but with a box office gross of only $23.9 million, it was clearly ignored by the public. Benioff's next project was Troyit is an immeasurably ambitious film. Directed by Wolfgang Petersen and starring big names like Brad Pitt and Future Game of Thrones Starring Sean Bean, this thriller has earned nearly half a billion dollars at the box office. Less than two years later, Benioff began talks with George RR Martin about adapting his popular book series.
Most fans agree with that Game of Thrones it was good, forever. Why then I think Troy Did you successfully predict the downfall of this popular HBO series? Simple: Troy it may have been Benioff's best film, but it was also a stinker that was later declared “rotten” on Rotten Tomatoes. There are many problems with the movie (a film that both Brad Pitt and his co-star Peter O'Toole later trashed), but many of the biggest problems come from Benioff's unwillingness to properly adapt the original source material. That means he messed up a lovely story that people were actually reading thousands of years.
Game of Thrones Choked Him Finally
The presentation of the film The Iliad it is full of major changes from the original text. For example, the gods were removed almost entirely. Some characters die meant to live (like Menalus), and other characters live meant to die (like Paris). Some characters are badly rewritten, such as the warrior Odysseus who is simplified to a “wise man” and the captive Briseis who is raised by a Trojan goddess. In the end, the movie condenses a decade-long conflict into a weeks-long skirmish while throwing in a lot of stuff (including Trojan Horse chicanery) that wasn't really scripted. The Iliad.
In short, writing to Troy it was terrible, and those of us who love Greek mythology have despised the film for over 20 years because of its various inaccuracies. A few years later, Benioff Game of Thrones showed a similar disregard for the original source. Major characters like Young Griff (who claims to be Aegon Targaryen, the rightful king of Westeros) are completely cut out. In one instance, the wonderfully terrifying and straightforward apocalyptic Euron Greyjoy is reduced to a cartoonish caricature of swashbuckling swagger.
That Face When You Read The Script
Fan favorite character Tyrion was completely sanitized compared to his portrayal in the books, which was bad enough. Later, his brother's long journey towards independence was completely forgotten so he could nurse his sister again. The story of Dorne was turned into a side story for the students (the sand snakes were just innocent step back), Lady Stoneheart was cut, and the Big Bad the Night King franchise was shot by one little girl.
These are just a few of the problematic ways the show has disappointed its most devoted fans (don't even get me started on Daenerys' dumb heel turn and Bran's mysterious importance towards the end). But it is important to note how the great disillusionment arose Game of Thrones deviated from the original text in many frustrating ways. These were unforced errors made by lazy runners who were more concerned with wrapping everything up than making sure the program was delayed. One of those runners was David Benioff, who described his sloppy approach to book adaptations two decades ago.
Now, Our View Is Over
In the 2004 issue Creative ScreenwritingBenioff discusses his approach to assembling Homer's poem The Iliad into Troyblockbuster feature film. “I always followed what I thought was best for the film; if that meant I was cheating on Homer, so be it.” For the writer, it was an easy decision to cut or change things from the book to create a better film. But Benioff doesn't seem to know or realize that, for big fans of the original source material, major changes will prevent us from enjoying the movie.
In short, that's what happened Game of Thrones. After faithfully replicating the previous books, the show continued to make bigger and bigger changes that upset the fandom. This culminated in a final season that nearly destroyed one of the greatest franchises in television history. All of this is happening under the watchful eye of David Benioff, a man whose entire Hollywood career has been built on bad adaptations of popular, sword-and-sorcery hits. Seriously, go watch it Troythen listen to your favorite mythology tell you everything the movie went wrong in classic Homer fashion. After that, you will know why Game of Thrones' failed conclusion closed long before its first episode ever aired on HBO.
