Why is it so hard to write a series finale?

[CF DolFan]

Definitely seems like fans are split on the GOT finale and even the whole last season. Most people think Seinfeld finale was one of the worst as well as How I Met Your Mother and Lost. Many times shows face a lot of backlash for their endings but it seems to me that those that flash forward and show everyone happy are best received. The Friends ending as well as Breaking Bad was pretty well liked.  

What are some of your favorite and worst endings and why do you think it's so hard to get an ending most people are content with?

[BuccaneerBrad]

Definitely seems like fans are split on the GOT finale and even the whole last season. Most people think Seinfeld finale was one of the worst as well as How I Met Your Mother and Lost. Many times shows face a lot of backlash for their endings but it seems to me that those that flash forward and show everyone happy are best received. The Friends ending as well as Breaking Bad was pretty well liked.  

What are some of your favorite and worst endings and why do you think it's so hard to get an ending most people are content with?

Probably because they expect it to go out with a bang and everything to be resolved in a favorable manner.   When that doesn't happen, people get disappointed.

[Sunstroke]

I'm going to roll with one of my all-time favorite quotes from a TV show, since it happens to be about writing story endings. The quote is from the Prophet, Chuck Shurley, aka God, from the show Supernatural:

"Endings are hard. Any chapped-ass monkey with a keyboard can poop out a beginning, but endings are impossible. You try to tie up every loose end...but you never can. The fans are always gonna bitch. There's always gonna be holes. And since it's the ending, it's all supposed to add up to something. I'm telling you, they're a raging pain in the ass."

[fyo]

The biggest disappointment of the GoT series for me was the utterly anticlimactic battle against the white walkers. Sure, it was dark and no one could see anything, but to me this was what the whole show (and books) had been building up to: Winter is coming. Not "yet another contender sits the iron throne".

Considering all the wrapping up that needed to be done (no, you can't just go from zero to final battle with nothing in between), the season would have greatly benefited from a few more episodes.

[Dave Gray]

I think it's partially due to the Internet and the water-cooler approach to fiction.

People ask "who did you want on the throne?"  But I think that question itself is flawed.  Art isn't necessarily collaborative.  I don't really take "what I want" into consideration when I read a story, watch a show, listen to a song, or look at a piece of art on a wall.  So long as the choices by the artist(s) are consistent and believable, I'm satisfied. 

I think that there are criticisms of GoT, in that it shifted in style from what it was in the first, say, 4 seasons.  But I noticed the conversation about the show (like, in my office) shifted towards plot stuff, like "who should kill Cersei?", which, in my opinion, completely misses what the show has always been about.   Nothing has been particularly poetic or just.  Nobody got what was coming to them in a manner that gave justice to the audience. 

Had you asked these same questions years ago, like "who should kill Joffrey", would anyone have said "Marjorie Tyrell's grandmother"?  Of course not.  But it was never about justice or being satisfied.  It was about being honest and real about a world with flawed characters that was completely messed up and unfair.

And I think that, if anything, this finale give us that ending, even though the show got away from that style over the last few seasons.  The ending isn't particularly satisfying.  The big picture "win" is that they escape tyranny from lineage.  But we don't really get a clean-cut ending for many of the characters where they are rewarded for being good.  And we are used to that and want that.  But it's not about what we want.

[Tenshot13]

The only thing I was unhappy with was Cersei's prophecy didn't come true about "When your tears have drowned you, the Valonqar (brother) shall wrap his hands about your pale white throat and choke the life from you."  I don't buy whatever technicality you come up with.  Everything else was mostly fine I guess.

[Dave Gray]

The only thing I was unhappy with was Cersei's prophecy didn't come true about "When your tears have drowned you, the Valonqar (brother) shall wrap his hands about your pale white throat and choke the life from you."  I don't buy whatever technicality you come up with.  Everything else was mostly fine I guess.

This didn't happen, though.

[Tenshot13]

^I meant the general "You", my bad for any confusion...people are saying Jamie had his hands around her neck when the stones fell, thus being a technicality.  Easily could have been fixed, have Jamie there to stop her instead of spending their last moments together or whatever, he strangles her, succumbs to his injuries from Euron and Tyrion could have found them in the same position.  Lazy writing not to include this in some form.

[CF DolFan]

The only thing I was unhappy with was Cersei's prophecy didn't come true about "When your tears have drowned you, the Valonqar (brother) shall wrap his hands about your pale white throat and choke the life from you."  I don't buy whatever technicality you come up with.  Everything else was mostly fine I guess.

There were many things that didn't come to fulfillment.

1) Jon Snow's big reveal was he was a Targaryan ... for no reason.
2) Bran journey to be the 3 -Eyed Raven .... for no reason
3) Azor Ahai, the Prince who was promised  .... never showed up
4)  The prophecy of Cersei never happened
5) The person no one cared about was made King based on "he doesn't want it". He demonstrated absolutely nothing to prove he was worthy to be the king.
6) Jaime spent 7 seasons gaining redemption ... for  no reason
7) Dany did amazing things for 7 season for no reason
Arya became "No One" for no reason
9) The Night King had White Walkers for no reason
10) Everyone we wanted to team finally did for no reason
11)Dany going batshit crazy is like having Tyrion walk in and shoot Tywin with little to no backsorty. It wouldn't have made sense either.
12) Grey Worm went from being crazy because of Missandre's death to keeping Jon Snow prisoner and letting Tyrion select the next King although he had just told him not to speak since he was a prisoner. None of that made any sense.
13) They sent Jon to the Wall for no reason
14) Those giant corssbows went from being deadly to being shot by storm troopers and absolutely nothing had changed


I could go on but it's useless. . They obviously just wanted to end the show more than they cared about doing it properly and attempting to address some of the story lines that got all of us interested in the first place.

[Tenshot13]

You're stretching on some of those, but some are legit.

[Dave Gray]

^I meant the general "You", my bad for any confusion...p

No, I meant, the prophecy wasn't from the show.  It was from the books, I thought. 

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

There were many things that didn't come to fulfillment.

Such as your use of number 8.

[Tenshot13]

No, I meant, the prophecy wasn't from the show.  It was from the books, I thought. 

You're right, it was never in the show.  Sometimes brief, important details like that meld together for me.

[Dave Gray]

You're right, it was never in the show.  Sometimes brief, important details like that meld together for me.

Never reading the books may have helped the show go down easier for me.  I just got the audiobooks, though.  I'm a little hesitant to start, thinking this guy might not finish the series, though.

[fyo]

Never reading the books may have helped the show go down easier for me.  I just got the audiobooks, though.  I'm a little hesitant to start, thinking this guy might not finish the series, though.

Since I started read ebooks, I've been spending 10-100x more on books than I used to. One thing that's annoyed me greatly is series that aren't completed. Even if they do, eventually, get written, the wait is just annoying and getting into the whole "world setting" almost takes reading at least one of the prior books again. The series really has to be something spectacular for me to start a series today than doesn't have an ending.

There are exceptions to that style of writing. For instance, one of my all-time favorite series is Malazan Book of the Fallen. Each and every book feels complete. The "local" story arcs are completely followed through and we get closure. The next book in the series continues the overall story arc, but it never feels fake or stretched. And there are no cliff-hanger endings or any of that bullshit. You'll read the next book in the series simply because it's a damned good read. FYI, Malazan Book of the Fallen is somewhat comparable to Game of Thrones in that it is dark (& epic) fantasy, bordering on the grim at times, and tending to quite explicit in the blood-and-gore department. It does feature even more characters than Game of Thrones, so if the number of characters being followed in GoT isn't to your liking, then MBotF probably isn't going to be your cup of tea, either.