Disappointed Game of Thrones fans have taken en masse to Change.org and registered their disdain for the final season fo the HBO fantasy show.
A petition to “remake Game of Thrones season 8 with competent writers” reached 1.06 million signatures as of early Sunday. “David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have proven themselves to be woefully incompetent writers when they have no source material (i.e. the books) to fall back on,” the petition reads. “This series deserves a final season that makes sense. Subvert my expectations and make it happen, HBO!”
After the petition surpassed one million signatures, its creator, who self-identifies only as Dylan D., wrote an update to explain how the plea came about. Dylan explained he penned the petition after the fourth episode of the eighth season, “The Last of the Starks,” because “I was just so disappointed and angry. It was simply me venting a bit.” After Dylan posted it on Reddit, the petition quickly started racking up supporters, but Dylan wrote that he didn’t expect HBO to respond.
“I don’t think people can reasonably expect HBO to completely remake the season, or any part of this particular series (keep in mind the prequel spinoffs). It costs a fortune to shoot one episode, and I think most signers understand that. Will HBO lose gobs of money over this? Eh probably not,” he wrote. “And I think this message is one of frustration and disappointment at its core.”
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Dylan expressed hope that original Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin, whose books were adapted into the series, would pen a better conclusion. “No pressure, Mr. Martin,” he wrote.
Game of Thrones‘ final season has recently again come under fire specifically for its treatment of female characters. Industry veterans and TV critics alike slammed the show’s penultimate episode for its handling of the Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) character. Megan Ellison, Yvette Nicole Browne, Minnie Driver and Leslie Jones were among those dissatisfied with the Mother of Dragons’ arc.
In The Hollywood Reporter, critic Maureen Ryan added, “It’s going to be hard to think of the show without feeling nauseated by what it did — especially to its women — in the home stretch” in a story about the disappointing ways the writers have dealt with its female characters at the end of the series.
Another THR critic, Tim Goodman, had a more ambivalent take on the show’s ending, writing in another piece, “Game of Thrones can’t win. … That’s the thing about series finales. 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.”