It's the pantser vs plotter problem in the series. GRRM is a pantser, which is why his characters are so richly developed and real. The series writers are plotters because they need to fit the story into the framework of a TV show with an eventual ending. When the series moved beyond the books there was a hiccup as it settled into the plotter role and the difference got more and more obvious the longer the series went on with GRRM to guide them and with their desired end game in sight. In theory GRRM's series could go on for a dozen books or more because he "let's the characters do what they want." Plotters sacrifice that for structure. They want X ending, so they nip, tuck, and squeeze until they get it. Everyone involved for eight years was probably tired and wanted it to end, so they made it happen and tied it up in a bow.
I actually love this about the series because plotting is "
the proper way" writers are taught to write in classes and pansting is not well respected. Both ways have strengths and this series displays that sometimes pantsing can be superior.
Everything you are mentioning is legit, I just expected all these problems in the finale, and overall I'm fine with the ending.
BARGH! You know this. You're a writer!!!! Sorry.
I saw you mention this upthread and while I didn't mention it before, my inner Stannis Baratheon is going to disagree with you on a technicality. Plotting vs. pantsing is simply the order you get around to telling your story... not what you prioritize. You can have a panster that's all about getting to the end of a story and a plotter who does miraculous things with color inside of the lines. I think the term you're looking for is character-driven vs. plot-driven writing. And to a degree, you're right in that a lot of scripts suffer when they eschew story in favor of outcome, but a big chunk of what hinders TV production and encourages formulaic writing is executive meddling. The bigger the production, the more script editors, executive producers and test-audiences and statistics are involved, and those are the things that do the utmost damage to the creative process because for them, its the numbers that talk before anything else.
In the case of
Game of Thrones, the pressure for this season must've been
unbelievable given the expectations and the budget, and naturally, where there's big money, there's big executive meddling. And I'm sure Benioff and Weiss simply checked out somewhere between season six and seven. And the fact that these guys aren't really the most seasoned storytellers probably didn't help matters. It's not that they were afraid to break free of formula-- it's just that they don't know how to do it in a way that was mature and compelling. Both have a history of having high faluting ideas about subverting expectations rather than follow through on what is a natural trajectory of the plot and character.
For instance, do you know what David Benioff is most famous for outside of
Game of Thrones?
Yep. He's the one who greenlit this tomfuckery from
Wolverine Origins.
He's the dude that dared ask:
like, omg, what if we made the Merc with a Mouth have... no mouth at all? 
I mean, sure, we could talk further about the virtues of showing vs. telling and what beats to prioritize on a time crunch, and blah blah blah, all the things you're supposed to know as a good screen writer (which GRRM is, btw) but sometimes it just boils down to ennui and good writing decisions vs. bad/lazy writing decisions... and you'll find no shortage of writers taking shortcuts in every group regardless of how they choose to drive their story or how to plot (or don't plot) their narrative. GRRM himself has not so subtly shaded D&D as simply being a pair of dolts who confuse backshadowing with character development.
[I don't know how to embed things from tumblr - I've been going crazy trying to find this video on youtube but apparently only people on tumblr have it]
We also have countless interviews with the cast where they try to explain their characters and not so subtly hint that their perspectives were ignored. Good television writing doesn't ignore its actors, because when you have truly dedicated performers, these are the people who live inside the characters' heads. That's a rich vein of good storytelling. And when scriptwriter, director
and actor come together, it's movie magic. See: Gore Verbinski and Johnny Depp and their creation of Captain Jack Sparrow for the
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.
With D&D, we know that character motivation was
not a priority and this is where the magic of what was GRRM's Game of Thrones dissipated. Not plotting, not pantsing:
character. When character stopped informing narrative choices, or when narrative choices stopped reflecting character, you always, always get a disconnect.
And it has nothing to do with time crunch or structure. It's literally just... handwaving what made the show so compelling in the first place.
So what we ended up with was a perfect storm of corporate meddling and two writers who never really cared about character, never quite mastered show vs. tell....anddddd who fundamentally got frustrated with the story they were telling but still wanted to 'surprise' their audience by...
.
.
s̜̦͇͈͓̫̯̯̒́́̂̀ù̢͖͚̻͔̤͌̔͐͐͋̑͜͟b̵̜̱͚̳̣̘̣̜͉̂̋̓͆̉̋̎̑͟͞v̶̳̤͙͇̂̐̍̍̀́̚͢͠͡ẽ̵̜̩͙͍̱̖̳̤̺̦̓̌̀͞͠ř̛͔͓̗͙̱̐͋̎̇͜͞t̪͖̰̥̓̌̂̐͒͊͞͝͡ͅi̛̖̠̬̻̱̳̳͓͚͋̇̏͛̒͘̕͡ṅ̷̛͚͉̭͓͕̔̓́͜ͅg͉̙̯͖̱̳̽̾̅͘̕͝ͅ e̵̡̜͓͎̞͈̥͖̘͊̌̾̚͢͝x̵̡̛͙̜̳̺͔͔̠̺́̏̑̚͢p̢̻͙̞̯͔̀̎̈̂̅́͌̉ȇ̢̫͉̘̠̫̌̉͊͗̈̎͛̕͟c̢̡̳̗̝͕̹̣̠̾́̌̃͛̈́͐̋̃̄ͅt̵̡̡̛͔͍̲͉̜̥̰͋͑̑̑̅͊̊̉ã̡̫̫̮͈͊̐̀̋̒̐͘͟͟t̸̠̗̹͚̲̬͍̊̐̃̈͛̏ị̵̧͍̻̳̥̭̯̥̎̾̈́̑͊̆͋͟͞o̸̭̟̘̱͈̙̦̐͂̓͒̌̀͌̀͘͢n̛͉͎̬͉̩͕̟̅̓͑̊̂̕͢s̵̡͔͖̱͊́̽̓̓̓̅͋̔͜͞
.
.
This whole season just smacks of 'fuck it, let's just get this over with.'
And it's such a crying shame.
