Honestly, I haven't been impressed with this season, with the expection of the Battle of Winterfell. That makes the whole boring, stupidly-written rest of the season worth it, although it doesn't mean that I don't dislike the rest of it. Just makes up for it.
Here's what I thought was good about the season:
-The Battle of Winterfell. That was so beautifully done. Arya killing the Night King was an excellent twist, because it was properly foreshadowed ("What do you say to the God of Death? Not today!") and because it's completely plausible. Arya trained for years to become a killer. The Night King did not expect her and neither did I! Also, Jon vs. the DracoLich was delightful, especially since we're all expected he would go up against the Night King, but since that wasn't happening, they did a great job of giving him a challenge. The other parts like Lord Friend-Zone dying protecing Dany and the Red Woman's fire tricks, etc., all added to what I thought was perhaps the best episode of the series.
-Hound vs. Mountain. This was building up for some time and I'm glad we got to see it. Everything about it was perfect -- the atmosphere of the dying city, the tension between the characters and the actual fight itself, which wasn't pretty but rather brutal, just like brothers themselves. I like that the Hound died by sacrificing himself without it being witnessed. It's a testament to his character as a bit of an anti-hero.
What I didn't didn't like about this season:
-Arya's random decision to bail on killing Cersei. Yes, I know that the Hound just upped and decided to tell her to go, but Arya isn't the type to be scared off. She killed the Mother-Fucking-Night-King for fuck's sake! Why would anything else scare her? Seriously, it was so unbelievable, I was really disappointed. Then she has twenty minutes of running around king's landing for no purpose at all, even running into the same woman three times! In a city THAT large. Then a horse just randomly appears? WTF?
-Dany's decision to murder everyone in King's Landing. Don't get me wrong -- it's completely believable that she's capable of it. It's just that I felt she wasn't quite THERE yet. Dany may have killed others, but she always had a reason. The reason might not be noble, but it wasn't cackling murder, either. It almost feels as if there was a couple other scenes we're missing that brings Dany to that last step. It's a shame, really, because she could have become one of the best antagonists in literature.
-Cersei's death was unsatisfying. I get that the story is all about being unpredictable, but it also has to be fair to the viewers. We spent years watching Cersei commit unspeakable crimes and then the pay-off is her dying under a pile of rocks? Really? She couldn't have been killed by someone, like say, Jamie? I know that seems morbid, but Jamie has that kind of attitude about him, of feeling "She's hateful and so am I.". It would kind of harken back to when he killed the Mad King to protect King's Landing.
-Let's spin a wheel and pick...Bran! Bran wins as King of the Six Kingdoms. Wow, for a guy who does almost nothing in the entire series and is known by barely anyone, he suddenly becomes the King of Six Kingdoms? Da faq? That's not even remotely realistic. Bran has zero qualifications for becoming a king. Most of the country doesn't even know who he is. Yet the most powerful leaders in the land decide he's their king simply Tyrion says so?
-Jon's fate at the Wall. Okay, I get that maybe this is a "closing by return" gimmick, but I don't buy it. Jon is far too significant to end up that way. He deserved either a spectacular death (something like Ned would be appropriate) or to end up as the Hand of the King or something like that. I do like that he killed Dany, because the tension between them is heightened by their relationship, but the scene felt lackluster to me. There needed to be more discussion between them. Maybe some shouting, or a few tears or something.
[There is more I both liked and disliked (a lot-lot-lot more I disliked) but I cherry-picked some items for the sake of brevity.]
What I would have done differently:*
-If they HAD to seperate Arya and the Hound, they could have had a wall of rock do it. Simple.
-If they wanted Dany to go nuts, give more reason, like having King's Landing populace declare their allegiance to Cersei. Or declare Jon king.
-Bran could have become a little more plausible by doing something heroic (say warging into the dragon and stopping him from burning King's Landing).
-Jon could have been eliminated from the position of King by having him fly off on the dragon, taking Dany's body with him. That, or a cool death, as I said.
-If they didn't want to have someone kill Cersei because she was pregnant (a detestable act for almost anyone) they could have had her commit suicide once she realized she'd lost.
*I'm not pretending I'm better than Geroge R. R. Martin. I honestly think most of the garbage here is the TV-show writers' fault, not his.
As far as I can tell, the biggest problems that faced this season was a lack of budget and time. They could have done so much with the huge amount of lore, build-up, and the numbers of characters to make this a truly astonishingly-good show. It's a huge shame, because honestly it had the potential to become something that is talked about for decades. Not that it still won't, but I don't think it's going to be with nearly as much acclaim as it could have been.
