Major Game of Thrones Character Ruined by the Showrunners the Most
There's no stopping Game of Thrones fans from discussing the characters of the hit HBO series.
In one of the most recent posts on Reddit, a fan asked if there was any character in the GoT franchise that had been as ruined by the showrunners as Tyrion Lannister. The post sparked a heated debate that has attracted around 1,000 comments.
The general consensus was that the show reduced a lot of the complexity of Tyrion's character, a lot of what makes him challenging and compelling. He was just not made nearly as difficult, interesting or real as he is in the original book.
"They turned Tyrion from a highly intelligent character into not just a stupid one like Varys, but one whose series of stupid decisions drive their entire stupid plot," argues one redditor, adding that Tyrion is the most slaughtered character in GoT.
But others disagree. They say that at least Tyrion has had a few seasons to develop close to the book, unlike Euron Greyjoy. One of the fans feels that Euron has little or nothing to do with what is important about his character in the books. They expected Euron to end up as a much more serious and dangerous antagonist than even Joffrey and Ramsay - a sort of a "final boss". But he ended up being a total nothingburger, the redditor says.
There was another nothingburger in GoT, believe it or not. And it is Jamie. A lot of fans of the show were totally disappointed with how he ended up. They feel his redemption arc was stolen from him the moment they took away Jamie's discovery of Cersei's infidelity.
"They made him hang around Kings Landing with her for ages when he should have left," one redditor suggests. They recall a moment in the book when he throws her letter into the fire, which is a pretty strong move. "But nope. Twincest is romantic and wonderful," says the redditor.
Jamie's death was one of the worst in the series because there was a lot of character development and to see him disappear in such a fashion was shocking.
For others, the death of Prince Doran, head of House Martell, was a waste of a great character played by Alexander Siddig. He was only in a couple of episodes and people are really sad to see him go so soon.
Naturally, GoT fans were unhappy with the showrunners' portrayal of Cersei. The "rocks fall, everyone dies" death was something she never deserved. The problem is that she was reduced to a character motivation for someone else to justify a bad ending. Cersei was an important and very complex villain to be wasted in this way, and it still makes fans' blood boil.
HBO's Game of Thrones Season 8 has been the target of criticism since it ended in 2019. Fans were so upset with the series finale that they urged the production executives to rewrite the season with competent writers. Their petition, launched on change.org, was supported by nearly 1.9 million people.