Game of Thrones is a series with dozens and dozens of storylines all going on at the same time; inevitably, some of them will end in an anti-climatic or unsatisfactory way, or not be explored to their fullest potential.
- Yara's vow to free Theon from Ramsay Bolton in Season 3, one of the major cliffhangers of the previous season. It's resolved in a single scene in Season 4, where Yara and her band are easily driven off by Ramsay. And that's the end of that plotline.
- Sansa's story in Season 4 ends with her playing the lords of the Vale like a fiddle, and showing that she's figured out how to appeal to Littlefinger's interests, suggesting she's going to start being a much more active player in politics. But it seems that since Sansa's Vale plot hasn't played out more yet in the books, they decided to end it prematurely. Come Season 5, Sansa spends most of Season 5 locked in a room being abused by Ramsay in Winterfell. Meanwhile, Littlefinger seems to lack any sort of bigger scheme for organising the marriage; he just leaves Sansa in the North and never contacts her or maneuvers her for his own advantage, leaving it a bit vague as to why he did it in the first place.
- Many book fans have complained that removing Lady Stoneheart from the show completely guts the entire purpose to the Brotherhood Without Banners story, plus Brienne and Pod's entire subplot, resulting in their infamously spending all of Season 5 waiting to see a candle being lit.
- The Stannis plot in Season 5 ended very abruptly, with a single off-screen raid by Ramsay and then another off-screen Curb-Stomp Battle, culminating in Brienne apparently killing Stannis... off-screen. This gets especially bad considering in the books Stannis is still alive and looks set to defeat the Boltons and gets worse when in Season 6, Stannis' overall Character Arc is transplanted to Jon and Sansa, who seek to rally the Northern allies and ally with the Mormonts, who in the books finally did ally with Stannis. Considering that the plot is identical to Season 5's, where The Hero gathers a Ragtag Bunch of Misfits, and marches through the cold, to fight the same villain outside the same location, many are upset that Stannis' arc was short-circuited just so The Main Characters Do Everything. It's also thought that Stannis' military plan in the books, where it is widely theorised he intends to trick a Frey army into charging onto an icy lake, would have looked much better than the battle in the show, where a Vale army just turns up suddenly to defeat Ramsay. This has also upset players of the Telltale Game of Thrones, considering that the Forresters' only appearance in the books has them joining Stannis, which lots of players were looking forward to but now can't happen. The showrunners even said that they did not like Stannis, which further explains his rushed ending.
- The fact that Yara's Tough Love treatment of Theon works, rather than backfiring as it probably would in real life, had a huge missed opportunity for character growth. When explaining their reasons, the producers said that a medieval society wouldn't have had much understanding of psychology and therapy. While true, that doesn't mean that this sort of treatment ''worked'' in any point in history. Besides that, what if Theon actually attempted suicide? This would have greatly changed Yara and Theon's relationship. Yara could have had an My God, What Have I Done? moment, while also making the point that recovering from severe trauma and abuse takes empathy and time, not an "inspirational" speech. It may have even given Theon the realization that he shouldn't be loyal to his family that continues to mistreat him, and instead return to the Starks who actually treated him well, and much sooner. A lot of the problems with Theon's later story could have been avoided if they handled this scene more seriously.
- After the Red Wedding, a lot of build-up was made to how beloved the Starks were by the North, and how the North would never forget the betrayal perpetrated by the Freys and Boltons. Come Season 6, when Jon and Sansa beseech Northern Houses for support, only the Mormonts are seen allying with them. The Umbers — whose leader claimed Robb the King in the North in the first place — betray the Starks by handing over Rickon to Ramsay, Lord Glover refuses them outright and insults Robb for losing the war, and barely any Northern Houses join Jon and Sansa's war.
- After Dany's story in Season 5 had so much focus on finding the leader of the Harpies, the end of the storyline in Season 6 indicates that they never had an actual leader and were just a general bunch of malcontents. This is especially so given the books strongly imply Daenerys' supposedly loyal ally and fiance Hizdahr is secretly behind the attacks, using Daenerys' absence following the incident at the fighting pits to seize power for himself (with Ser Barristan leading a coup against him). Considering that in the show Hizdahr comes across as a kind and reasonable man, it could've made a good twist for him to be revealed as the Harpies' leader. However, in the show Hizhadr is truly loyal to Daenerys and gets killed off before the plotline concludes, ultimately contributing little to the story, while Barristan is killed off even earlier.
- Season 6 reintroduced the Brotherhood Without Banners, the Freys and the Tullys after a long Put on a Bus (absent for both Season 4 and Season 5) as well as the Greyjoys. However, on account of being brought back outside their original time in the plot, with the showrunners focusing on the reviled Dorne arc instead, the storylines was subject to much Adaptation Distillation and hastily shortened, with the removal of Lady Stoneheart more or less removing the keystone of the entire section and many felt that if they had Adapted Out Dorne instead and focused on the Riverlands, the show could have been better balanced even with the other changes in the plotline. Pilou Asbaek's Euron Greyjoy despite limited screentime in Season 6 was well-received and many felt that if they had brought him earlier, he could have become the horn-wielding sorcerer of the books.
- It's implied that Cersei blowing up the Sept of Baelor and killing the much-loved Tyrells to seize the throne would have major ramifications for Cersei, such as people openly resisting her rule and flocking to support either Dany or Jon. However, in Seasons 7 and 8, no one in King's Landing (or elsewhere) seems to care much and the only notable consequence of her actions is that it prompts Olenna Tyrell to ally with Daenerys to get revenge and even then she ultimately ends up contributing little to the war effort, due to the Lannisters sacking Highgarden and killing her.
- This can also be considered for the Sparrows plotline as well, as the High Sparrow and his zealots manipulated Tommen into supporting them and every single one of them apparently ended up in the Sept of Baelor when it blows up (with the novel versions of the Stars travelling throughout Westeros to fulfill their oaths to protect the faithful).
- Lord Walder's death and that of every (male) Frey's. Arya uses a face stolen to disguise herself as a serving wench, then takes the part of Wyman Manderly and feeds him the Frey pies before revealing herself as Arya Stark and slitting his throat. The very next episode (and the beginning of season 7), Arya somehow manages to make a mask of Walder's face and poison every single complicit Frey from the Red Wedding. Considering the sheer number of Walder's brood, some believed that they would be better served their revenge by Edmure Tully, the reassembled Stark army or even Daenerys Targaryen (as Harrenhal showed, the Twins strength would do little against dragonfire). Instead, every single one of them die with little fanfare just to wrap up the plotline and show Arya as badass.
- Cersei's pregnancy subplot. In Season 7, she unexpectedly reveals to Jaime that despite most people thinking she's past her childbearing years, she's pregnant again. Viewers went wild with speculation over the potential consequences, from Cersei really being pregnant but having a miscarriage or dying before the pregnancy came to term due to the prophecy stating she'd only have three kids, Cersei lying about the pregnancy to try and guilt trip Jaime into staying with her or even a phantom pregnancy. Things get even more interesting when she tells Euron he's the baby's father after they hook up. Tyrion later tries to persuade Cersei to surrender for the sake of her unborn child in earshot of Euron, who many viewers thought would be able to figure out that something didn't add up because if the baby were his, Tyrion shouldn't know. However ultimately nothing really happens with the pregnancy at all and Cersei dies in the penultimate episode, as does Euron without any confirmation as to whether he figured out he was duped nor any ramifications of this. It's left sort of vague as to whether she was really pregnant and a lot of viewers wondered what the point of any of it was, besides Cersei using it to trick Tyrion into thinking she'd help fight the dead. note
- Despite being one of the biggest plot twists of the series, Jon Snow being the son of Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark, and the legitimate heir to the Iron Throne (R+L=J), ultimately has little impact on the overarching story beyond causing some tension between Daenerys and Jon that partially contributes to Daenerys's Face–Heel Turn in Season 8, which is yet another plot audiences felt could've been implemented better. note R+L=J subsequently never comes up again as a significant plot point, and is not even mentioned when the lords of Westeros are trying to decide who should be the new ruler in the wake of Cersei and Dany's deaths. This kind of revelation would have major ramifications in-universe if it were made public, as it recontextualizes Robert's Rebellion, alters the political landscape of Westeros once again and would possibly change how both Jon and Ned are viewed by other characters, but very little is done with this potential. Jon doesn't really react much to finding out his entire life is a lie, we don't even see how Sansa and Arya react to finding out the truth and it doesn't seem to change their view of Jon or their father in the slightest, and it largely remains a secret from the majority of Westeros.
- At the beginning of Season 8, Sansa brings up concerns about being able to feed all the people in Winterfell and especially Dany's dragons in the middle of winter, which seems like a very legitimate problem that could have potentially severe consequences. However, it's never brought up again after the second episode and never has any impact on the characters. Likewise, in "Winterfell" there is a scene where Daenerys expresses concern that the dragons are barely eating, but this is never elaborated upon or even addressed again for the rest of the season.
- The Prince that was Promised plotline. Given Arya is the one who kills the Night King she's apparently the Prince, even though she barely fits any of the criteria for the prophecy and there was an emphasis on the fact the Prince would be born of Aerys II's line, with the suggestion that this was one of Rhaegar's motivations for running off with Lyanna (the books go into a lot more detail about this), thus implying that the Prince was either Jon (Aerys' grandson), Daenerys (Aerys' daughter) or both. The creators have said that Arya being the one to kill the Night King was decided sometime around Season 6; some viewers would say it shows because it makes little sense plotwise. Alternatively, if the prophecy ultimately didn't matter and anyone could've killed the Night King, some viewers were left wondering what was even the point of including it in the first place as it amounts to nothing, despite being a huge part of Stannis, Melisandre, Daenerys and Jon's storylines and by extension a driving factor of the Brotherhood Without Banners plot (seeing as Lady Stoneheart was Adapted Out).
- The entire sub-plot of the Winter season finally arriving in Westeros. Much like the White Walkers, the threat of Winter has been a major plot point in much of the Northern characters' story arcs (Jon, Samwell, Gilly, Bran and the Night's Watch in particular) and was even made infamous by Ned Stark's ominous "Winter is coming..." line from the very first episode. It was built up on several occasions as the darkest part of Westerosi history and would be a deciding factor in the return of the White Walkers and the struggles of the characters all across the continent when it arrived. And yet, if one were to watch Season 8 even with proper context, you wouldn't know that Winter is "here" at all. The landscape doesn't change in the slightest, Winterfell and the North is still basically the same as it was during Summer (or Autumn?) and there is hardly any mention of it at all from the other characters. In fact, despite Season 7 ending with Jaime feeling the snow coming to King's Landing, come Season 8 it looks as though you could go out sunbathing. Fans have made a point of this, as many were left wondering what all the hype and build-up (again beginning from Season 1) was for, as it virtually had no impact on the story, setting or characters whatsoever, to the point it's very easy to believe the writers just kind of forgot to include it.
- The last episode never even touches on Sansa's reaction to Daenerys burning all of King's Landing to the ground after she betrayed Jon's secret (which caused Varys to abandon her support and led to Dany's Sanity Slippage). It doesn't appear as though Sansa feels any remorse over being partially responsible for an entire city of innocent civilians being burned alive.
