True to the showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss' words, Game of Thrones Season 8 ended by dividing viewers' opinions. People had been complaining week after week due to the unexpected storylines, character developments, and turn out of events - especially on the episode "The Long Night." So who is to blame?
Miguel Sapochnik has been known as one of Game of Thrones' outstanding directors. He helmed the episodes "The Gift," "Hardhome," "The Battle of the Bastards," "The Winds of Winter," and the controversial "The Long Night" and "The Bells."
He even won the 2016 Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series for "The Battle of the Bastards." Now, HBO nominated him for his work on "The Long Night" for the same recognition.
In an interview for his new movie, BIOS, he revealed his original plan for Game of Thrones Season 8 Episode 3, "The Long Night." Basically, he wanted to kill everyone, but Weiss and Benioff contradicted.
"I wanted to kill Jorah [Iain Glen] in the horse charge at the beginning. I was up for killing absolutely everyone," Sapochnik told Indiewire, via Joe. "I wanted it to be ruthless so that in the first ten minutes, you say 'all bets are off and anyone can die,' but David and Dan didn't want to."
Benioff and Weiss wanted to save the carnage for "The Bells," so they tried avoiding spilling it all in "The Long Night." Sapochnik found it hard not to kill anyone but still make the episode interesting. So, he ended up questioning and arguing with the showrunners.
As he didn't hold Game of Thrones Season 8 and he was only a hired director, Benioff and Weiss had the final say. Sapochnik also revealed he had a larger role for the Night King (Vladimir Furdik), but they only had to prioritize what was important, and it was the scene that involved the Night King, Bran (Isaac Hempstead Wright), and Theon (Alfie Allen).
Despite everyone's effort to craft a perfect ending, Game of Thrones Season 8 still received a lot of complaints. Fans even signed a petition, demanding to rewrite the show. A deepfake video even emerged, showing a manipulated-and-edited Jon Snow (Kit Harington) apologizing for wasting viewers' time.
The YouTube channel Eating Things with Famous People posted a deepfake video of Jon in the episode "The Last of the Starks." In the clip, he made a speech before they burned the dead bodies after the battle against the White Walkers.
He apologized for the wasted time, for not learning from Lost ending, for having fewer lines, and writing the script for six days. The clip ended when they burned Game of Thrones Season 8 script.
