Game Of Thrones Season 8 Redux

It goes without saying that the very tangible opinion en masse is that Game Of Thrones ended badly. Some fans took it upon themselves to correct this error and the results might not be what you expect. It took all my strength to write about GOT Season 8 without swearing so please read on…..

Game Of Thrones Season 8 should have been a celebration of the story and a finale to end all finales. It should have been the culmination of award-winning television, country spanning filming, stunning visual effects, compelling storytelling and involving lore. Instead we got a half-assed and half baked final season which moved characters around for convenience, betraying their previous arc trajectory rather than adequately tying up this portion of their story.

Many shows suffer from success. Many shows also turn in questionable finales. The difference is that a questionable finale isn’t necessarily linked to quality.

The Sopranos, (formulaic writing points aside) caught flak for their “blackout ending”, not because fans wanted to see Tony winning the day, or alternatively going down in a hail of gunfire, but because it was ambiguous. Fans wanted to see something. (For the record I love this ending. Don’t @ me)

The point is that not all of the fanbase are going love every writing decision, but with regards to GOT 8 the decisions made felt lazy. The dip really began in Season 7 but there were multiple factors that led to this downfall. Arguably the overriding factor was Benioff, Weiss, and the cast all being ready to move on to other projects.

I’m not going to get bogged down in these factors, (of which there are many) that’s a different post. The point i’m making is that for a number of the fans this bad taste lingered long after they released House Of The Dragon.

Get Reduxed!

Seeing this injustice, a group of fans got together to right the wrongs of this big-budget farce. Presenting Game Of Thrones Season 8 Redux!!!

GOTS8R is a ten-part fanfiction podcast, presenting an alternative final season to the HBO show Game of Thrones and course corrects the writing points which derailed the ending.

Writer Call Huitson states:

“This all began in early-2021 when I decided to use the downtime of the latest lockdown to get back into writing fanfiction. I’d written a few bits and pieces previously, but never anything that made it beyond my laptop’s “Documents” folder.

I chose to write an alternate Season 8 not from a place of negativity or an attitude of “I can do better than that”, but rather as a way of crafting my own sense of closure on a series I love, in a way that more closely aligned with my own understanding of the characters and their story arcs. To paraphrase a late cameo in GoT:S8R, this pod is not how I think the show should have ended, just “one of” the ways it could have ended.

When I finished writing GoT:S8R in late-summer 2021, I realised I wasn’t ready just yet to leave the Westeros sandbox, and began reaching out in various forums online in the hope of finding like-minded people to join me in seeing how far we could carry things beyond the page. The internet can be a scary place, especially when you’re putting yourself out there with any kind of personal and creative endeavour, so I was hugely but pleasantly surprised to receive a response that was almost without exception positive, enthusiastic, and encouraging. Within a few weeks I’d put together a wonderfully talented cast of professional actors, amateur-dramatics enthusiasts, first-time performers, and Game of Thrones die-hards. Special mention has to go to Nikki Swift, the pod’s Daenerys, and my multi-talented and invaluable “right hand woman”. Actor, audio engineer, artist, social-media explainer, soundboard, and emotional-support Lannister lion, this series wouldn’t exist without her being the very first onboard and the very last to sign-off.

A few things I’d never done before I started this project: produced anything, directed anyone, used audio editing software, solicited actors on the internet, commissioned a piece of art, built a website, spent an hour deciding between three different “squealch” sound effects, released a podcast. It’s been a fun, frustrating, exciting, and exhausting experience, but I couldn’t be more proud of the final product and grateful to the talented people that gave their time and creative energies to help bring it to life.

Finally, I’d like to say an enormous “thank you” for coming here and checking out the pod. We have tried our very best to reach as high a quality of production as possible with zero past-experience and next-to-zero budget: instead of a recording studio, we had Zoom; instead of an audio tech with top-end gear, we had me and Audacity. I hope you’ll be forgiving of our rougher edges and imperfections and engage with the pod on its own terms. If you enjoyed the series, we’d all be so grateful if you could help us reach as wide an audience as possible by passing word on to your friends and sharing us across your social media.

And please stay tuned! Remember: there’s always another winter…“

How Is This Possible?

As with any fan-fiction, the devil is in the details and the best way to explain that is through their associated disclaimer:

Game of Thrones: Season 8 Redux is entirely a work of fanfiction. It is unofficial, unaffiliated, and unauthorised. Neither the podcast nor any individual involved in its production is now, nor has ever been, in any way associated with HBO, Game of Thrones, George RR Martin, or the Song of Ice and Fire book series. The makers have explained this fact clearly and unambiguously to everyone involved, at every stage of production, and have never presented themselves or the podcast to the contrary, either explicitly or via inference or allusion. The podcast was, is now, and shall always be, entirely without profit. Neither the podcast directly, nor its makers indirectly, generate or receive any form of revenue or financial restitution that might otherwise accrue to the rightful copyright holders.

Conclusion

I’m not a fan of fan-fiction as a blanket rule, mostly because a lot of the time the characters are wielded like dolls and put into relationships to suit the authors preferences.

I’m currently about half way through the run of GOTS8R and absolutely loving the project! The voice acting is fantastic and the podcast oozes love for the franchise which is refreshing.

I did have to do a quick recap to see where each of the characters start the season (it’s been a while). This video is excellent for catching up with where each character is and recapping important plot points.

I can highly recommend the project and i’m looking forward to where Call takes the characters.

You can check out Game Of Thrones Season 8 Redux HERE and on every major podcast platform.

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