Why the Game of Thrones Season Premiere was a complete waste of time for fans of the show.

A Recap of the Season 8 Episode 1 Premiere

Game of Thrones Season 7 concluded on August 27 back in 2017. Fans of the HBO hit series had been patiently waiting for the premiere for countless nights during the longest break in show history. The anticipation and interest only grew as we found out that this would be the final season and that there would only by 6 episodes. We were left in anxiety as the wall came down, the White Walkers came through, Jon Snow and Daenerys got together as allies and lovers, Jamie abandoned Cersei to fight alongside the North, and Sam and Bran learned a very important fact about Jon Snow aka Aegon Targaryen’s lineage. Wow, now that was an exhilarating ending!

Now on to the Season 8 premiere. After a short recap of everything just described, we were finally back in Westeros following a young boy in the streets of Winterfell watching Deanerys’s massive army marching into town. We were instantly met with the familiar faces of Arya, Jon Snow, Sansa, Tyrion, and even the Hound! Ah, what a great re-union this would be. Then came the dragons, flying in and sending us a reminder that they are here for business and that any sort of pleasantries and sweet moments would have to wait since death is knocking at the door. So, what happened next? Well, we spent the rest of the episode at town hall meetings bickering and with our characters having re-unions and sweet moments with their loved ones. As it turns out the White Walkers and the Night King could wait.

Let’s take a step back and focus on the positive things. This episode brought us back full circle to Winterfell and had many parallels from the very first episode back in season one. You could consider this slow pace nice as we understand that the pieces have to be set back on the board. There were touching character re-unions as the remaining Starks finally got back together after being apart for so long. Old foes got together such as Arya with the hound, and Jamie saw Bran in the wheelchair that he put him in. Those powerful emotions carried the episode. However, there was not much else. We have to be reminded that there are only 5 episodes left in this season and so many loose ends and battles to finish. Also, why even have a have a recap at the beginning if you are going to spend the entire episode recapping the last season? Fans of the show did not forget all these events and had plenty of time to catch up on the show during the long pause. We already knew Jon’s lineage or that Euron and Cersei are gathering an army, and to not push the story line further was a huge disservice to loyal fans. Minus the fact that Sam knows that Daenerys killed his father and brother and that Jon knows who he is (which man he really does know nothing) we are still in the exact same spot that we were in a year and a half ago.

Maybe calling it a complete waste of time is extreme, but with such a limited and precious amount of show time left, it will only rush the ending that we have all been patiently waiting for.

See you next week for the next episode.