As “Game of Thrones” fans gear up for the series finale on Sunday, May 19, some have been underwhelmed by the final season — so much so that one particularly disgruntled viewer has actually launched a petition demanding a do-over of the swan-song season.
According to a petition posted on change.org, fans are so unhappy with the way the season has unfolded that they want to see the entire season remade — but with better writers brought onboard.
“[‘GoT’ exec producers] 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,” states the petition. “The series deserves a final season that makes sense. Subvert my expectations and make it happen, HBO!”
At the time of writing, the petition had already been signed by nearly 49,000 people, and appears to be well on its way to hitting its target of 50,000.
Unlike earlier seasons, which adapted the novels of George R.R. Martin, the eighth and final season was forced to flesh out Martin’s outlines for the final two books in the series, as he has yet to complete writing them.
While fans griped about the season’s third episode, which took place at night and was so dark that many viewers couldn’t keep track of what was happening onscreen, the fifth episode has experienced backlash and outrage after Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) abruptly transformed into an genocidal villain who murdered millions of innocents when she and Drogon torched King’s Landing.
“GoT” actor Pilou Asbaek (who plays Euron Greyjoy) addressed the backlash to the episode in an interview with The Wrap, admitting there’s no way that everyone will be please with the way the season ends.
“The diversity of the fans and the passion they bring to the table is admirable, and you want to have all of it,” he explained. “You want to have the ones that go, ‘This is the greatest show ever made,’ and you wanna have the people that go, ‘I hate this show. I’ve always hated it. I want the books now.'”
He added: “You cannot satisfy one billion people, it’s not possible. But you want to have them commit to the show, even if they don’t like it. There was a guy called P.T. Barnum who said, ‘There’s no such thing as bad press, there’s only press.'”
