Game of Thrones' final season can't win: Fans are impossible to please

The Hollywood Reporter

"That's the thing about series finales," says Tim Goodman. "You're not just messing with the lives of your characters — precisely what you should be doing as a writer, moving the pieces around for dramatic effect — but with the lives of your fan base as well. Their emotions are fluid and unpredictable. One moment everybody is feeling all the feels during the Bryan Cogman-written second episode, 'A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms,' because it had breathing room and allowed disparate characters to intermingle and share moments together before the Battle at Winterfell, and the next it was too damn slow and get to the fighting already. But of course, not enough people died in the fighting. Or not the right people. Characters survived when they (maybe?) shouldn't have, and it was all too dark anyway, and for the sake of the Gods they used the dragons all wrong! You see the problems here? People are impossible to please." Goodman points out that the history of TV is littered with people unhappy with final seasons, including for acclaimed shows like The Wire, The Sopranos, Breaking Bad and Man Men. "All kinds of people, including critics — maybe especially critics? — found something to nitpick about those four great series," he says. ALSO: Iain Glen talks about Ser Jorah Mormont's Battle of Winterfell experience.