Game of Thrones proved to be one of the greatest shows in the history of television with its unique storyline and interesting character development throughout its course. Towards the last season, it started receiving endless critique and backlash since the story began to progress at a fast pace. This left the viewers disappointed and let down. Focusing on the specifics, it was tough to see the writers building up a character as a conqueror and taking seven seasons to bring Daenerys Targaryen to Westeros only to tear her down and shape her into the likes of her father, the Mad King. This highlights how the series picked up its pace in the later seasons, defeating the appeal it had built in the earlier seasons with the impressive story buildup that was second to none.
The criticism amongst viewers towards the show and the screenwriters was very intense. There were petitions led in favor of the remaking of the last season. Though these petitions were not met with any responses, the original ending persisted, and fans had to make peace with it.
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After the show, there were several talks about the release of prequels for the show, such as the “House of the Dragon”. The show is still under work and would circle the history of the Targaryen family. However, there were no hopes for the show being followed by a sequel since the ending of the original series had received substantial backlash, which was unlikely to recover from. Although the critique towards the show seemed quite significant, the whispers of a possible spinoff being under development indicate that the backlash was not as meaningful to HBO as one may have thought.
HBO still has a lot of faith in the series. The network believes that the spinoff will have a good fan following. This might be the case since the show ended in 2019, and HBO has taken enough time to bring any sequels into work. HBO has shown restraint in developing spinoffs and thoroughly considered all factors before working on the new show. Not to add, it can establish that HBO might just be trying to win back its lost audience with the upcoming spinoffs of the show, both the Targaryen family-related prequel and the Jon Snow sequel.
While this may appear to be a step in the wrong direction for HBO, especially considering the criticism season 8 of Game of Thrones received, the impending success of the show might not be as predictable. Game of Thrones is not only one of the most pirated shows worldwide, but it is also one of the most-watched tv series on the HBO Max network even today. This signifies that despite the show’s decline and vast criticism, it remains one of the most successful series in television history and has a vast audience to this day.
Speaking of the sequel itself, the show might just be able to gather an audience. It could be due to the long-time gap between the series or because many viewers are curious to see what happens. Whichever it is, the fact that the show is a spinoff of one of the greatest shows in history guarantees that it will have a good audience. The number of sequels HBO might be working on is still under speculation. The direct connection of the original series to the sequel highlights that the criticism did not matter nearly as much to HBO, and they believe that a large audience will remain.
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