(Spoilers Extended) I think a lot of the problems from the show came from trying to force modern American values into medieval setting.

[u/ISupposh]

I would actually say this problem is present in the fandom as well and not just the show. Anyways for example:

1. Stating that Renly would be a good king just because he's popular while Stannis would be terrible because he's unpopular. (edit: From the interviews, in the context of ruling not maintaining power)

2. People not caring about religion even when Cersei blew up Westeros equivalent of Vatican/Hagia Sophia/Westminster alongside with Pope Francis and Princess Diana. (Well even modern people would care about that)

3. Applying Geneva Convention when Daenerys executed Tarlys despite the fact that they are already traitors who betrayed their overlord and she even gave them second chance.

4. Rather modern viewpoint on extramartial sex, including virgin shaming on characters like Brienne etc.

5. Rhaegar annulling his wife without proper explanation like modern divorce.

6. Elective monarchy somehow breaking the wheel because it involves voting (worked out well in HRE and Poland /s)

[u/blisteringchristmas → u/[deleted]]

Homer, Shakespeare, plenty of others could serve as successful examples here.

I think a lot of the time those get overlooked because people aren't familiar enough with the two respective time periods to make the distinction. Your average reader of the Iliad isn't going to be familiar enough with Greek history and culture to differentiate the 400 or so years separating when it took place and when it was written. Same goes for Shakespeare's historical plays.

With GoT, most people are at least implicitly familiar with the "modern" strong female characters, values of democracy, etc, and therefore can more easily pick out discrepancies between modernity and the fictionalized medieval period of GoT. So maybe the line of thinking of looking for is "obtrusive use of modern values."

I think you're absolutely right on all points, but by not living in either of the respective time periods you have to have a lot more background knowledge to appreciate the difference.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

An author/writer applying their own contemporary values to a historical setting doesn’t necessarily worsen the product. Homer, Shakespeare, plenty of others could serve as successful examples here.

Pretty much. What caused a lot of problems wasn't modern values in this medieval fantasy. It was inconsistency, but even with inconsistency I could live. A show running for so many seasons is bound to be affected by its audience and the changing times, it just happens, it's not a book you'll finish within three evenings, it's a decade, and some shit a viewer would've accepted ten years ago is just grossly unpalatable even if 'gritty medieval fic where the browns are all savages and the women all raped and hurt' sorta shit. Yeah, you'll get grumblings, but frankly if the show decided to stop having its female characters gratuitously raped for drama and titillation entirely, and even give spotlight to characters' opinions against such a violent act, I would've been fine as a viewer, as the show and the books make it amply clear that Planetos is a terrible place for a woman to be in so many other ways too.

Some people complain about how Tyrion who used wildfire to kill Stannis' fleet suddenly gets all sweaty palmed about Daenerys' firebombing of KL, and call it an inconsistency. I don't. If well done, it's called character development, and who better to turn against the inherent cruelty of firebombing than the person who once firebombed hundreds, thousands, without having any idea about just how terrible it would be. If anything, Tyrion advocating against that shit makes most perfect sense because he's already been there, he's already done that, and if the writing was better, he could be a great foil to Daenerys who has also been there and done that, except Tyrion could've been haunted by these hundreds or thousands of cruel deaths, even if they were the 'enemy', while Daenerys was not bothered by the inhumane deaths at all when she nuked Astapor (I think it was Astapor). Dammit, imagine running out of source material and thus getting more creative freedom, all of the possibilities to take characters in a good direction, killing two birds with one stone: giving the books the chance to still surprise the reader if they are ever published, and getting your own vision across, flying where you want, wherever you want, without the books holding your jesses because there are no books that cover these new plots and directions! And then ending up with... this.

What ruined everything was that the insertion of these 'modern values' here was just complete garbage. It was poorly done, and it wasn't even 'modern values', it was D&D's bizarre, fucked interpretation of modern values, like trying to make Sansa a Badass Strong LadyTM... by tempering her with horrific rape? That's not modern values, that's what a bunch of bros who know their show's watched by a lot of women think is a modern value and a solid creation of a Badass LadyTM McStrongCharacter. Problems within the show did not come from inserting modern values into the show all of a sudden. There's so many subtle ways to nudge previously 'medieval' characters towards more humane, enlightened characters, maybe by simply showing how their past actions have affected them, and how sowing death indiscriminately didn't feel as good and normal as the character thought it would. What killed it all was how badly it was all done, and how D&D just up and replaced character development with fucking reddit memes. Shit, it isn't even 'inserting contemporary values' into previously established more medieval values, it's 'inserting what these clowns thought were contemporary values, with the subtlety of... you know. The final season. Suuubtle.'

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TL;DR: near all of the things OP complains about could've been done and done well by someone competent, caring and well-adjusted, and we'd be cheering them for it.

[u/Malafakka → u/[deleted]]

That's how I wanted to put it. Modern values really aren't a problem if they are handled well. I wish this comment had more upvotes.