Last May, eight years after the premiere of the first season, Game of Thrones came to an end, thus closing a special period on television. The second series, made with such a huge momentum, has simply not been and will not be for some time. Is it worth returning to the world of Westeros with the release of the DVD?
Winter is coming
Waiting for the final season of the series was a great event. After all, until the seventh series, Game of Thrones was released about every year. The fans had to wait almost two years for the final. It is no wonder that the expectations of fans have grown to sky-high during this time. The more so that numerous reports, information from producers and finally promotional materials skillfully fueled the atmosphere of general excitement. It must be clearly said – with the hypiawith fan predictions about the upcoming events multiplying day by day, it would be very difficult to create an ending that everyone would like. By this time most of us had time to themselves create their own vision of the show: how should end threads of our favorite characters, who live, who will die, who will sit on the iron throne … But I guess hardly anybody expected that the eighth season of Game of Thrones fall such a wave of criticism.
Little snow from a big cloud …
At first glance, Game of Thrones in the final version it has everything that should be included in it. The North faces the Night King’s army in a long-awaited battle, dragons fly across the sky for as long as never before, and the title game is finally settled. So everyone should be happy, right? The devil is in the details, and more precisely in a scenario full of simplifications, holes and rushing the action as fast as possible, as long as it is all in six episodes that are slightly over an hour long. Already in previous seasons it turned out that showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss do much worse without the background of George RR Martin’s novel (which, however, was compensated with more and more spectacular scenes). The eighth season is therefore in many respects a consequence of the accumulating disadvantages of previous years, which have become much more visible due to that the story was nearing its end. Of course, the writers’ haste to finish the series much faster than Martin and HBO had hoped for was also of great importance, and thus the story was subjected to terrible compression in the previous series. In the past, heroes often spent entire episodes on arduous journeys, making the journey one of the leitmotifs, until here they apparently developed the ability to teleport.
Naturally, the more intense pace in no way justifies the absurd decisions, including the many pointless behaviors of the characters that have become the source of countless memes.
a ray of sunshine
Despite this, I do not think that Game of Thrones ended so badly and deserved a wave of criticism, or even plain hate. It is not difficult to get the impression that many began to repeat the same slogans thoughtlessly, because driving around a popular series has become fashionable. Meanwhile, I think the final season is pretty good. Yes, the drop in quality is noticeable, but not so much that I could not appreciate Game of Thrones at least as a pleasant, entertaining fantasy. Let us not kid ourselves, this is due to the fact that the implementation at the highest level known today is a great merit. There is no second series in these climates that could compete with the HBO production in terms of momentum manifested, among others, by through the buttoned up, impressive scenery, costumes, special effects and beautiful, various locations (excuse meWitcher , there is still a lot to do.) Therefore, the screenings of the next episodes are simply very pleasing to the eye (except for the infamous The Long Night , but more on that later) and the ear, because Ramin Djawadi has reached the top of his musical achievements here. It must also be admitted that the actors continue to do their best, even if their characters lose their script.
Of the six episodes that make up the season, I can consider four successful. The first two fantastically build the tension and the atmosphere of anxiety ahead of the coming battle. Later, unfortunately, the whole emotional spectacle collapses, so the requirements are reduced to a minimum, as long as it doesn’t get any worse. So episode five was a really nice surprise for me. Yes, it is based on idiotic plot assumptions, but at the same time it is an extremely effective spectacle, and in a few moments it can catch your heart. As far as the final itself is concerned, a lot will depend on who we supported in the fight for the throne. I do not think that the solution offered by the creators is a reasonable ending to the story and it results well from the events so far, but it is not that bad again. The last episode also has a lot of very successful scenes,
Rings full of treasures?
However, I would risk saying that in the case of the Game of Thrones DVD, the quality of the disc edition is more important than the series itself, as it will decide for many viewers whether it is worth buying a set of discs, if we have access to the HBO GO streaming service anyway. In the case of previous seasons, it was definitely worth it, as they were stuffed to the brim with accessories. In this regard, the final series may turn out to be a disappointment. If you were hoping that as part of saying goodbye to Game of Thrones you would see unique special materials, then you miscalculated a bit, because many of them can only be found in the collector’s edition of the entire series (not available on the Polish market). However, by the standards of modern DVD editions, the content still makes a positive impression.
The authors’ comments for each episode will certainly be the most valuable source of curiosities. They give a broader look at some scenes and, more importantly, reveal the backstage of creating the most technically complex sequences. The downside is the lack of any subtitles for comments. This completely eliminates them, e.g. for the deaf. The unused bonus scenes turned out to be a disappointment. Only one scene is new and quite interesting, and the rest are only extended versions of fragments known from the series.
Set visit
The behind-the-scenes material is certainly valuable When Winter Comes . It shows the enormity of work that was done during the creation of the Battle of Winterfell for the purposes of the third episode. It is all the more sad when we see how the potential of the episode has been wasted in post-production, opting for the omnipresent darkness, spoiling the readability and giving the battle a feeling of budget. By the way, I hoped that maybe it was partly the fault of compression in streaming, but customer reports show that even the Blu ray version does not look much better. A similar material Obligation is the death of love was dedicated to the final episode six, in which the cast and creators refer to the ending of the series and the emotions associated with it. You can be slightly moved, or on the contrary – gnash your teeth with anger in reaction to the words of showrunners saying that they knew exactly how they want to end this story at the stage of the third season. It is a pity that, in that case, a solid cause-and-effect sequence was missing at the end, since everything was supposed to be planned … The most interesting documentary, however, is the documentary Game of Thrones: Last Worth (also available on the HBO GO platform). The picture takes viewers on a fantastic journey to the set of the series and introduces the most important moments of work, such as the first reading of the script, preparation of the film set, and finally the implementation of the most demanding shots. Importantly, the work of people who we usually do not think about when watching the series, and who also contributed a lot to the team working on Game of Thrones , such as the team responsible for artificial snow or snacks for tired employees and actors. The film depicts a specific, almost family bond between people who perform completely different tasks, but create one series together.
When it comes to refining the DVD release, I don’t really have any major complaints. After inserting the disc into the player, we are greeted by a beautiful, animated menu, allowing you to select specific episodes. Various soundtracks are available, including the original (Dolby Digital 5.1) and Polish voiceover (2.0). There is also no problem to watch the series with both English and Polish subtitles. The only drawback is the lack of Polish subtitles in the bonus materials.
Winter has come
How Game of Thrones is over – almost everyone has known for several months. The new edition will definitely not attract the unconvinced. However, for those who like the finale and for the biggest fans collecting everything related to the series, the purchase of one of the eighth season releases is a must. Anyway, it’s worth having one of the largest series that has ever been created and a pop culture symbol of the decade on your shelf. The developers’ comments and materials about the production are certainly worth attention. However, I do not think that the DVD version is the most appropriate. The picture quality is second to the streaming in HBO GO, and the Blu ray version can also boast more extras.
