Westeros Needs To Leave The Jon Snow Spin-Off In The North And Move On To Greener Pastures – Looper

When the final season of “Game of Thrones” premiered, the anticipation was at an all-time high. Numerous exciting plot points were finally about to be epically resolved. What could possibly go wrong? Well … a lot, apparently. Though George R.R. Martin consistently primed us for what he called a “bittersweet ending,” we couldn’t have anticipated the disappointment showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss had in store.

Season 8 fittingly began with nostalgic callbacks before quickly falling to pieces. “The Long Night” showed fans the long-awaited battle against the fearsome Night King (Vladimir Furdik) and his army of the undead, but fans could barely see anything because of poor lighting. From there, one letdown piled on top of another, culminating in a rushed finale that permanently damaged the legacy of Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) and left the complex, nuanced narratives of the past behind in favor of outdated tropes. 

What happens next? Well, who cares? Because the right timing to launch a sequel series, frankly, is still years away. People were passionate about this world, and a cut this deep takes time to heal — which can’t be done if HBO is so quick to dive back into the life of Jon Snow, a character inextricably linked with how it all went down. Furthermore, what sort of storylines could Jon have in store for him, other than keeping him isolated from the grander goings-on and rehashing the Free Folk stuff from Season 3? The barren cold won’t fix the underwhelming finale, and will instead ice fans out even more.