Game of Thrones (Season 8) | KnockBack: The Retro and Nostalgia Podcast Episode 230

It's been a long trek, but we've finally made it through. Here is our eighth and final episode of KnockBack dedicated to the Game of Thrones television series, in particular its eighth season. These six episodes -- four of them essentially movie-length -- are contentious. Indeed, I don't think anyone would argue that this final run was blatantly rushed and not nearly as satisfying as to be expected. But it's not so much an insult to HBO's Game of Thrones as it is a compliment. We expected more. Yet, that doesn't mean there isn't much to talk about, praise, and enjoy in this final season, and we do just that. Buckle-up for the resolution not only of Game of Thrones, but of our nearly-20-hour discussion of it.

[@raleighsaige]

I still can't believe how the end of this show completely killed next to all interest in something that was so hugely popular.

[@dk11294]

Yep. It was my favorite "thing" of all time. I could watch the seasons over and over again. After the last season... I haven't had any interest to watch a single episode.

[@TacticalMikey]

An ending can prove the purpose or the lack thereof in a story

[@tazmanceltic]

@@dk11294 don't do yourself a disservice my friend, I was in that mindset for years but at the start of this knockback series I gave it another go and upto season 6 GOT is still very very enjoyable.

[@saking91kingsley43]

The problem with Dany's turn is that it was rushed. She goes completely mad in one episode, and then is dead the very next episode.

[@danbeaman1115]

Season 8 is like watching your favourite bar burn down

[@ezioauditore4061]

Speaking of the Night King, they filmed a scene with Jon Snow fighting him and decided not to put it in the episode. So the footage is out there somewhere uncut. I'd love to see it one day. I disagree though, I think Arya killing him was terrible respective to the rest of the series. They built up Jon vs Night King the whole series. And also, Jon being a cross between Fire and Ice, his destiny was doing something great. Now, I would've preferred the show have gone on for 10 seasons, he fights the Night King, loses, and then has to go back to the drawing board and figure out how to finally be able to beat him. The fact that a character in Arya had no personal connection to the Night King AT ALL, was the one who took him out, and they killed off a villain they built up to such a degree with a single stab and no actual combat or fight scene--they flat out did him dirty. And IMO, purely to subvert expectations. They tried to do something not obvious because they thought it would get wow's. And sadly, this is just one of like a hundred things I hated about the final season.

[@fbbfan9476]

IDk how Jon loses to the NK and lives to tell the tail?

[@HeyMyNameIs...]

You know when a show screws up so bad that a week later everything from merch, books and boardgame related to the show went 80% in sale.

[@tazmanceltic]

Guys I just downloaded wild arms .....it's absolutely fucking fantastic. How have I missed this all these years !!

[@john-wj4ks]

Been binge watching your all of your game of thrones and Star Wars rewrites while in the hospital. Thanks boys you helped alot. ❤️

[@PooPooKu100]

And thus, an otherwise brilliant show is stained by this final season. That’s ok though, I still appreciate the incredible ride that seasons 1-6 are

[@johnbaptist6231]

Colin was very influential in my life many years ago, I have sense fallen off following your content and it is exciting to see you still coming out with content.

[@johnbaptist6231]

Will also add your unbelief towards Bible Christianity is garbage.

[@DoggyP00]

Watching wheel of time really put game of thrones season 8 into perspective. Turns out it's still good even if it's way worse than the other seasons.

[@bdre5555]

Dagan, you should hang the knockback sign on the wall right behind you in that open space 😁

[@gatsu718]

One of the worst things in the last season was no scene of Jon discussing his parentage with his siblings, Just hey Bran tell them then no scene smh.

[@saking91kingsley43]

The worst line of writing this season was when Jaime said that he "never really cared much for them, innocent or otherwise," when discussing why he killed the mad king to protect the people. Completely goes against his character...

[@geralt5843]

The RPG franchise I want revived more than any other is Suikoden. Suikoden 1, 2, 5 are three of my favorite games ever. Talk about amassing a large number of characters, Suikoden is king at that. Love Wild ARMs as well, though. Thought 2 was great also. Underrated soundtracks. Went back and bought some of the PS2 ones I never played sealed a handful of years ago. Just in time too apparently because game prices on eBay have spiked massively!

[@coreyvought6268]

I'll be honest guys, I don't see how you can be so positive on season 8 yet lambast the prequels.

[@fbbfan9476]

IMO the the built up/Battle with The NK should been all of S8. While S9 should have focus on Cerise and maybe even focusing on Danny going mad Queen. If not then explore her madness in S10

[@ItsNewYokio]

Music festival to my ears

[@ajamesbest]

surprised that Colin and Dagan aren't as down on season 8 as the majority. it's a refreshing view and in a way they are right, it's not a terrible show at this point but it doesn't come near the sublime writing of the first few seasons

[@siciliangamer]

With regard to ❄️ in the north--many of the viewers wouldn't even have any idea of what it looks like.

[@bdre5555]

I Believe season 8 has the infamous coffee cup episode?

[@idakev]

"I think you're going to love it, at least the beginning ..." You guys going to watch Westworld?

[@Michael-rv5ib]

The main issue I have is the ending battles. People just surrounded by enemies, in some cases on the ground clearly LOSING, yet there they are at the end.... The army charging the darkness with flaming swords was visually awesome, but made NO sense. It was just so poorly done. One thing I will defend though is Daenarys(however you spell it) turning bad. I watch the whole series as the last couple of episodes were coming out in about a week and a half, and it was clear that she was going to go mad. They laid the groundwork for several seasons, if not from the beginning, that she was not going to stick by her peaceful, different ways.

[@muhls]

I don't even want to listen to this. I'm getting PTSD flash backs.

[@mumuspain2086]

I'm still confused as to why people thought GOT would have a "good" ending. It was a fucked up novel series/show and to me it made sense that it would have a fucked up ending. I do think it was rushed, however to me the events that happened made complete sense.

[@aimcrux2231]

Love the legend of dragoon shout out

[@bdre5555]

This is going to be absolutely fascinating. This is one of the greatest shows in the history of television, all great 7 seasons were almost completely undone by this one season.

[@YourGFsFavoriteBF]

Finished the series for the first time last night, and I can say that while the last season felt rushed and most of the character arcs wrapped up in an underwhelming fashion, I would take this season over Ozarks last season any day.

[@hansolo6831]

Is them mixing up season and episode some kind of in-joke? It's really confusing me

[@battlep0t]

The peak irony is that HBO offered D&D as many seasons as they liked - if they'd taken the deal the ending wouldn't have been as jarring because they would've had the time to develop stuff like the Dany heel turn. But they decided to rush the final two seasons because they wanted to move on to a Star Wars project they would eventually get fired from because they did such a terrible job with the GoT ending.

[@lucascallison2395]

GOT: Nobody can kill the night king LOTR: No man can kill me Lmao

[@zackarybain]

I've always been surprised that people thought Game of Thrones only dipped in quality for this final season. I've always found that the show began to decline in Season 6, and just got progressively worse. Yes 8 is the worst season, but those flaws began to take root much earlier

[@arjungandhi1242]

I’d argue we started to see the decline from season 5. We were getting glimpses with Jaime’s trip to Dorne and a quality gap between plot lines. This just continued to increase ease season onwards. But 8 8 just shit the bed

[@guzzy620]

Completely agree. Season 5 was when the cracks started to show. It had built up so much good will through Seasons 1-4 that I was willing to overlook them. Season 6 was thankfully better quality than 5, but seasons 7 and 8 were so bad I have a real hard time approaching the show again.

[@ldrockmusic]

Wish Collin would have watched when the showed aired on HBO. Then you can include how little effort the show runners cared to leave a coffee cup in episode 2 and water bottle in episode 6. HBO had to CGI out.

[@MattBoehm87]

He did watch it when it aired though? This is a rewatch.

[@Shutupletstalk]

Love knockback but I've never been a GOT fan. SO glad they're done with this series so they can move on.

[@MattBoehm87]

I think the one big thing they could have easily done to make Danny’s turn at the end more powerful is if they held off killing the second dragon until the battle at kings landing. They could have had the surrender bells ringing and her and her army about to stand down then have Euron kill the dragon with the scorpion and have her go “fuck it”, burn them all. I think that would have made for a more emotional and convincing turn where you still aren’t in her side but understand why in the moment she snaps. Gives more nuance to her turn.

[@brannonh7406]

Man I truly can't believe Colin's praise on so much of the terrible writing this season.

[@LightShooters]

I find Arya being the one to kill the Night King strange since her storyline barely ever built up to that until s8. Jon’s whole arc revolves around the white walkers and the Night King and the writers wanted to “subvert expectations” instead of pay off years of storytelling. It puts Jon in an awkward spot because all he did this season was just stab Dany and whine about not wanting to be King. Was that really the whole reason he was brought back to life? I don’t buy it.

[@radelc]

Just watching this. Why would the night king ever leave himself vulnerable. The build up of the undead dragon was such a waste. The fact that Jon didn’t jump from his dragon to the undead dragon to kill the night king and dany having to come save him as he plummeted to his second death is a travesty. The scene wrote itself and instead they pulled a Roundhead a Johnson. Subvert, we must subvert!

[@grashoprsmith]

"Dorf"

[@remylebaou1]

This season killed the show so hard and fast with the sneakers dick vein, that the memes died with it as well.

[@stephenarivers]

Blame George R.R. Martin for the show imploding. A Dance with Dragons came out in 2011. How the hell wasn’t he able to at least finish The Winds of Winter while the show was at its apex? I remember reading about how he writes on an old DOS computer. Once his relationship with Benioff and Weiss soured, it felt like he was self sabotaging the show.

[@jorssu13]

Episode 3 is where the show goes off a cliff for me. That episode is one of the most stupid things I've seen in a show of this caliber.

[@Horrormaster13]

After GoT Season 8, I will never watch any kind of media where David Benioff and D.B. Weiss are involved in....NEVER!!!