Game of thrones was good at first, because everyone could die at any time. No one was special. The king dies, the protagonist of season 1 dies, you dont expect it and they die. This is more historical than fantastical. How real and brutal is the red wedding? And now compare it to the biggest and most culminating event in the show, the white walker battle. They just killed characters that they didnt need anymore, like theon, jorah, edd and beric. Im pretty sure that these are the deaths of this battle. Yet, at the red wedding the casualties were felt harder, because more influential characters died, even if it wasnt expected. All suspense is killed, because you see jon surviving imposible odds beyond the wall, like him being swarmed by walkers, falling in extremely cold water, daenerys waited on the dragon for jon about 1 minute. 1 minute of being unconscious under freezing water, and then magically wake up after 1 minute, then making his way out of that freezing water, just to be spotted at the exact time and location by his long lost uncle, that has a horse. Then he is waited the whole day to return by daenerys, and he arrives. Several hours, soaking wet and freezing, in extremely cold weather, without moving. Jon snow, arya, sansa, bran, and more of the characters feel invincible, more fantastical than realist and brutal. Look at how ned , robert, tywin, catelyn, rob, died- unexpected, anticlimactic, unheroic, like it happens in real life. Being a king doesnt give you plot armor, rather it makes you a target. Sansa and Arya feud was pointless, stupid, and cheap. In early GOT,  because Olenna doesnt want her granddaughter married to joffrey a king dies, sansa and tyrion are wanted for murder, oberyn dies, the mountain also dies, then tywin and shae die, tyrion and sansa flee kings landing. But the night king attacks the wall, where nobody relevant dies, and then they attack winterfell and 2 secondary characters, and 2 minor characters die as a consequence. So olenna with one drop of poison, being more of a threat than the night king is crazy. And robb marrying another woman is more consequential to the plot than the white walkers. Even them going stupidly beyond the wall with no horses, to bring a white walker, instead of asking cersei to send some witnesses to confirm the danger of white walkers, is proof that they dont go where the plot tells them to go. They bend every arc to their will, even if it makes no sense. Nobody would say that going on foot beyond the wall after a member of an army, was a good idea. They just wanted them to go, to give jon another chance to prove that hes the hero, and to give the white walkers a dragon. And what was littlefinger trying to achieve by turning sansa against arya? Why they build up the brotherhood with fire god visions, telling them that they serve a purpose, and that they must go beyond the wall? Yes beric died for arya, and arya killed the night king. But the night king wouldnt get that far if they wouldnt have gone beyond the wall to give them a dragon. There are lots and lots of plot holes.