re: Game of Thrones S8E5 "The Bells" is officially the worst reviewed GOT episode yet

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Do you need them to spell it out for you? Inch by inch time by time she has done some unspeakable things with less and less justification and now she is essentially alone in a foreign land with her identity gone. It was time for a snap.

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She went from crucifying 163 men in an eye-for-an-eye statement of power to giving opposing forces the opportunity to live. The character arc across seasons 5-7 was actually reducing her ruthless nature, not the other way around.

The point of how it was written was seemingly to string us down one path that, despite her ruthless nature, she was learning to rule with compassion and then to flip the script for a "gotcha" moment.

As others have said, this was GRRM's ultimate endgame, but he would have fleshed it out nicely. The show writers just want to make sure we're all saying "OHHHHH I didn't see that one coming!"

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But I actually enjoyed ep 5 given that I'm just to the point of watching the show to see how it ends.

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The story isn't moving where everyone wanted it to go.

The hardcore readers wanted certain developments that haven't occurred.
The casual viewers wanted things to end on a clean, happy note for the heroes.
The 'film junkie' types bemoan the loss of complex scheming and political intrigue.
So, everyone is disappointed in what was a fantastic buildup, that is closing with the subtlety of a brick through a window.

But here's the thing:
1) Martin hasn't finished the books, the show runners ran out of detailed source material and dialogue to translate. They've had to do 2 books' worth of story in 3-4 years, when it took Martin forever to get that far. And apparently he's stuck. And screenwriters aren't generally of the same caliber as award winning authors for original material. So the book fans weren't ever going to get a truly Martinesque take on the ending.

2) the casual viewers; Martin said this isn't a simple fairy tale with a happy ending. He doesn't have things written, but he almost certainly told D & D certain key elements, like that Dany will come and take the Iron Throne from Cersei, but she will seem heroic but ultimately turn bad. And that it will be a shocking twist you didn't expect.

3) re the dialogue, first off you don't have Martin prepping the table. Secondly, it's time to resolve things, time for action and not words. We have boiled it down to 2 main contestants for the throne, with a couple outlier candidates that don't want it. Jon- he walks away from potential interesting discussions, because he wants no part of it. Varys and Littlefinger are caught and eliminated because the field is narrowed, and people can tell strings are being pulled, and they become pretty clear targets. And of course, with Bran now on site, there's no secret able to be kept as far as the Starks go.

The Night King story... that was a big distraction in retrospect. We (the audience) would think as Jon did, that an existential threat to all humanity would be enough to stop the petty politics. And for a short while, it almost did, other than Cersei never stopped playing. Everyone else, including Jaime, did. Even the Dothraki, who are nothing but a barbaric tribe of rapists and pillagers by definition, chose to fight on the side of the Living in the ultimate battle for survival.
But that threat is over, and to Jon's chagrin (and a lot of us viewers), it didn't change those involved. Jaime went back to Cersei. Sansa still rejected Dany basically out of spite and jealousy. Dany responded in kind, and her lack of acceptance in Westeros pushed her to be brutal instead of magnanimous. She feels like the alliance she made with Jon was a mistake, a bloodless coup attempt; even if he isn't the one doing it, he's being propped up as the better choice.

Things just aren't working out the way people wanted.

What if this is GRRM’s ending and he didn’t tell them until before season 7?

I think It was rushed in season 8 but it was done as best they could the last 4 episodes. Outside Episode 3 she was displaying some pretty Mad Queen tendencies.

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The arc was available to reach this point with her, it just needed to be explored.

They chose not to simply for the shock value of it. A slow burn revealing her true nature would have been better than the delivery we received.

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There were subtle hints for quite a while now not even counting thats its a flip of a coin with the Targaryens in general.

You dont acknowledge them so you didnt like the way it played out. It can easily boil down to that for a lot of people whether they liked it or not.

I thought what we were given was enough to have some hatred built up, at least to go somewhat mad, maybe not burn the entire city but to go a little crazy. But its also not surprising to me that she went further with it than I expected. She snapped. People do things that are major league out of their character every day in life. And if your sitting on top of a dragon I can see you making an unjustifiable action as well. Thats the way they decided to go with her. Whether it be D&D or GRRM, its not the way I wanted it to go, but I thought they did a good job with it.

I dont put much stock into the rating of the episode at all because I highly doubt the reasoning on the matter is nearly as thought out as it is with many on here. Im %100 certain that for the most part, it has such a bad rating is because, as i've said before, it didnt turn out how they wanted. Most casual fans wanted Dany to be a good ruler not a mad queen so its completely different than what they like so they give t crappy rating.

You think JS would stand by her after a burnt village?

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But I still think believing it was too sudden or too extreme, is a lot different than saying "it didn't make sense."

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I never said it didn't make sense. I said her reasoning for doing it doesn't make sense, which is actually the point. She's lost her grip on reality.

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You think JS would stand by her after a burnt village?

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after the NK is made irrelevant, John Snow is pretty worthless. why would his rejection of her matter?

she still has the Unsullied and Dothraki respawns

she still has 2 (or possibly 1) dragon(s)

why does she need John Snow?

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What if this is GRRM’s ending and he didn’t tell them u top before season 7?

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He told them sometime between seasons five and six what the planned endgame of the series was. So that's out the window.

And if this is GRRM's ending then I'm sure it will be better thought out and there will be more back story behind Dany's turn to madness. She won't just suddenly lose her shite in a chapter and a half.

I believe GRRM has even stated that the show will need at least 5 seasons to do his final two books justice. Which tells me that if Dany is destined to go mad and slaughter everyone in King's Landing, there is a lot of build up and development towards that in the final novels.

She’s going nuts

She is feeling all this anger and hate

She gets everything she’s always wanted

And the feeling doesn’t go away

All the anger and all the hate is still there even though she’s won the throne, she’ll easily execute Cersei. Everything

So what’s left to do when you feel like that?

Make a statement. Let those frickers know who you are what you’re about.

They had their change to throw Cersei off the wall before messandie died.

They didn’t.

Let everyone know if they don’t like her that’s ok, She doesn’t need them to.

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You dont acknowledge them so you didnt like the way it played out. It can easily boil down to that for a lot of people whether they liked it or not.

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I've literally sat here and acknowledged every single one of them. What I don't acknowledge is the claim that the leap she made from slightly ruthless to homicidal maniac makes sense in the timeframe it was presented to have happened.