Let’s begin by addressing the obvious here- Game of Thrones is one of the best, most popular, and critically-acclaimed shows of all time if not THE best show of all-time but it certainly is in the Top Ten. The writing and story of the show is phenomenal, has fans and audiences on the edge of their seats, and every single character in the series has a purpose whether it be someone as low-tier as Septa Mordane, as middle-tier as Walder Frey or as high-tier as the Starks, Lannisters, or Daenaerys Targaryen.

When the final season of Game of Thrones was first released, anticipation was sky high and rightly so because it had high expectations. And why should it not? The show was quality and had a reputation to maintain. The final season was literally akin to Avengers: Endgame, hell they even came out around the exact same time so there was something big going on in both the tv and film mediums. It was the talk of the town. And then it came, and reactions were mixed to say the least. Some hated it, some loved it, some are in the middle about it. Let’s get into it of why that happened and discuss a few of the reasons of what I think let the fans down.

The overall factor which generalizes all of the forthcoming ones has already been mentioned above which is high expectations: high expectations of how certain events would play out, what specific characters would do etc. I will get into detail of where I think the fans expected much but did not exactly get what they wanted. We’ll start at the beginning of the season with the battle against the White Walkers and the Night King. The White Walkers were introduced since the very first episode of the show and were antagonists mainly to the Night’s Watch as they lived north of The Wall (which the Night Watch guarded against Wildlings and White Walkers) in Westeros and aimed to cross it, heading south towards the Seven Kingdoms to uproot the living. The White Walkers were established as a threat that was larger and more immediate than the Seven Kingdoms squabbling and conspiring against each other and that the war against the dead was more important than the wars of the living. As much as the Tyrells and Martells and Starks hated the Lannisters and were going for each other’s throats, the audience grew to learn that something more dire was coming- that the Night King was THE big bad of the show. Having watched the season a second time, I know now that was not the case. If you watch carefully again or think back, the Night King has barely any development aside from his backstory that he was once human and transformed into the Night King by way of dragonglass by the Children of the Forest. Sure, he is an awesome, ominous, captivating character enough for audiences to feel the terror of his presence and put him high on the ranks of great tv villains but throughout the series he himself doesn’t do anything other than pose stoically and stare menacingly while his subordinates do his dirty work. It also doesn’t help that he never spoke a word which I honestly don’t know would have helped or not with his character development but I feel like maybe it would have a little. People were angry when he was killed so easily by Arya Stark and I personally still am a little irked by it. We don’t know what his fighting skills were like because he never dueled against anyone properly- he took Theon Greyjoy out without batting an eye and easily could’ve choked out Arya. How skilled was he with a sword? We’ll never know. The Night King is a tricky character because I think the audiences tricked themselves into thinking he was the main villain of the series when he in fact wasn’t. The White Walker plotline was actually always secondary to the plotline of Daenarys aiming to rule the Seven Kingdoms which is why the WW plotline was dealt with in the first half of the final season. Was the battle rushed? Yes. Was the battle too dark? Oh yeah. Were the Dothraki killed too fast after all that build up of Melisandre lighting up their swords using the power of the Lord of Light? Yep. Did Arya kill the Night King too easily? Check. Sure, Arya learned swordplay and became a skilled assassin from Syrio Forel and Jaqen H’ghar respectively but this is the Night King we’re talking about. The one everyone had been waiting for. On one hand, there was much more of a struggle expected because it was one of the main antagonists and it felt too rushed to be appreciated and that the death was done a disservice for such a character. On the other hand it can be accepted if you come to terms that the Night King and the White Walkers were never meant to be the final antagonists nor would their story have served as good a conclusion for the story as Daenarys’. To sum it up: the White Walkers and the Night King were a secondary plotline to Daenarys Targaryen’s story arc. That being said, it should have been Jon Snow to find the Night King and take him down once and for all. Why it was Arya is beyond me. The Night King was Jon’s enemy much more than Arya’s, it would have been more fitting, dramatic, and poetic. The writers did indeed phone it in for Season 8. Strike 1 for Benioff and Weiss. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wGMV60wBm4

The next major event that ticked fans off is Daenarys’ sudden turn to the dark side when she attacked King’s Landing. Leading up to it was Cersei Lannister’s merciless killing of Missandei, completely unprovoked and motivated by sheer spite and pride, not even hate. Daenaerys and her forces (Unsullied, Tyrion Lannister, and Grey Worm) had arrived to seek surrender from Cersei, but because Cersei would absolutely not have it, she had her pet dog Gregor Clegane behead Missandei in front of them. Once the Lannister army had surrendered and the Golden Company was demolished, Daenarys was expected to show mercy to Cersei to show the people and everyone else that she was a merciful ruler. Instead she chose fear, because she knew the people didn’t love her and she had no love for them in return and I think that is why she rode Viserion and burned the subjects of King’s Landing. Mainly it was an act of vengeance against Cersei for what she did to Missandei and Cersei’s subjects could burn for all Dany cared. I believe that in her eyes, since they had accepted and done nothing about Cersei being their queen, that they deserved to burn. Had Cersei not executed Missandei, I believe that Dany would have been in the right state of mind to spare the city, heck that bridge needn’t have been crossed because negotiations would’ve gone peacefully but Cersei was responsible for the death of her dragon Rhaegal which was a HUGE no-no and then her best friend which was the final straw. Dany was not about to let Cersei get away with that and live to tell the tale and she was too angry and distraught to care about the subjects who she knew felt no loyalty towards her. To her, they didn’t matter. She never cared about their fates from the beginning: had Cersei surrendered, lucky for the people, they would have lived. Unfortunately that was not the case: wrong place, wrong time. That is what made people angry, that Dany made a 180 and turned on the people that she said she’d protect. While it did seem sudden when she did that at first, I can now better understand Dany’s rationale. Was it justified? Probably not. She should have simply just gone straight for the Red Keep, burned it down and left it at that but I think she felt that taking her revenge out on Cersei extended to the people, rest their souls, because they were her subjects. I think this action proved that Dany was in self-denial, certain that she was prepared to rule through fear if not by love, contradicting exactly what she said about not being her father and repeating history when that is exactly what she did. Throughout the series, we the audience rooted for her to make it to the Seven Kingdoms because she showed signs of a benevolent ruler such as abolishing slavery in Slaver’s Bay, yet when the time came, she proved her loyalists, the audience, and most importantly herself wrong, which is why Jon had to commit the ultimate act of treason against her, which takes us to our next point.

Our next subject of interest is the death of Daenarys. How should she have gone out? Was it perfect? Was it underwhelming? Was it meh? Was it justified? Was it too easy? Was it predictable? A lot of mixed emotions for this one. An arguable statement is that Dany is the main character of Game of Thrones followed by the Starks and Lannisters, so truly the show is about each of these families’ respective journeys. There were various expectations for how things should have gone down and the exact way those specific things should’ve gone down, one being the aforementioned Jon vs Night King and another being how Jon would kill Dany because everyone saw it coming after her debacle with King’s Landing and it was highly speculated prior to the season premiere. Dany’s death felt rushed, make no mistake and it did feel underwhelming, as Jon and Dany simply embrace in their unorthodox and strange/kind of forced/rushed relationship, with the audience knowing exactly what was coming because it was the only option left for someone as absolute as Dany who said in her own words that her subjects didn’t get to choose what’s good for them. A more confrontational kill would have made for a more dramatic way to go, with a screaming match between Jon and Dany instead of speaking with hushed tones. I picture Dany sentencing Jon to death by burning for treason, using Drogon of course, as Jon takes evasive action to avoid Drogon’s fire, taking cover behind stone and using a bow and arrow to pierce Dany’s heart. Drogon would cease his attack once he realized what’s happened and cries in agony as Jon runs towards Dany and apologizes as Dany tells him she loves him. Only then would Drogon burn the Iron Throne down and fly off with Daenarys, sparing Jon if only because Drogon no longer cares about anything other than her and couldn’t care less about wasting anymore breath on Jon. The Iron Throne unfortunately went to nobody in the series and it was highly anticipated that Jon Snow would claim that throne….as he was the true heir to it but instead he says….he doesn’t want it. Jon was the only fitting choice to take that throne as no one really wanted any other character to take it. Let Sansa be queen in the north. Let Arya discover what was west of Westeros. Bran would have made a perfect Hand of the King to Jon as the Three-Eyed Raven. Jon was the perfect choice to be the next ruler: having the throne destroyed and it going to nobody after all that build-up was a real lame-brain move. If Jon had gone the route of killing Dany, then there is still the matter of Grey Worm. Grey Worm would go to war against Jon and all of the North, a battle which he would most definitely lose, but out of the Starks’ mercy, Grey Worm would most likely be allowed to retreat back to Essos and never be allowed to set foot in the Seven Kingdoms again, (the Six Kingdoms actually), since the North would become an independent kingdom again.

Let’s say Jon didn’t kill Daenarys because he didn’t need to. She didn’t go all berserker on the people of King’s Landing and forced Cersei out of hiding. The Mountain would be burned to smithereens by Drogon for Missandei’s murder and either Arya or Grey Worm would be Cersei’s executioner. I doubt Dany would keep Cersei prisoner but most likely would at Tyrion and Jon’s behest. She’d most likely be kept prisoner in the Red Keep for the rest of her days unless she swore allegiance to Daenarys, again at Tyrion’s insistence but thanks to her stubbornness would refuse to and then be sentenced to death most likely by beheading in retribution for Missandei’s death. Grey Worm would swing the sword as Arya watches in satisfaction as her name is taken off Arya’s death list. As much as it would make plenty of sense for Daenarys to accept that the people don’t trust her in Westeros and that she would make a fine ruler in Essos, good tv drama that does not make. Daenarys takes the Iron Throne whilst Jon is Lord of Winterfell and Warden of the North. The show could end there……with the Starks and Targaryens uniting their houses, Jon marries Daenarys and Bran becomes Lord of Winterfell. Or a ninth season could continue the show and over time discord would be sewn and a rift would grow somehow between the North and the South. Perhaps a post for a different analysis.

The penultimate topic for this post is the deaths of Jaime and Cersei Lannister. Cersei basically disowned Jaime by end of season 7 after outright lying to him and everyone else that she would send support to the North to battle the White Walkers and when he told her he was still going up there, Cersei declared him a traitor but not could not ultimately bring herself to have Gregor Clegane execute him due to their bond. Instead she hired Bronn of the Blackwater to bring his and Tyrion’s head and he would have done it had they not promised him Highgarden. Cersei’s incredible lust for power made her blind and cold to the ones she cared about, who was just Jaime by the end of the series. She lost all her children and her father so understandably she was angry and bitter. She or Jaime had said before (I can’t exactly remember which one) that anyone who was not them was their enemy and so Cersei must’ve felt highly betrayed by Jaime when he decided to fight in the North but I don’t get what Cersei’s problem was- the alliances in the North were formed to battle the White Walkers, not her, she wasn’t the enemy, but because she had decided to stay in King’s Landing she made her stance and position known to Daenarys that she was not her ally and that Dany would still have to contend for the Iron Throne. Pure pride. That was the only reason why she resisted Daenarys. She outright knew she wasn’t heir to the throne but wanted the power and didn’t want to lose it, especially not to some ‘foreign whore’. Anyhow, I digress. Did Cersei and Jaime deserve to die together? Did Cersei deserve to die in the arms of her lover after she sentenced him to death? Jaime had admitted and called Cersei a hateful, hateful woman but also admitted he himself was, which is why he left Brienne to go back to her. We may see that as weak that Jaime went back to her but knowing that Dany was about to attack King’s Landing, Jaime could not for the life of him leave Cersei to her fate, as a brother and a lover. No matter what atrocious actions the other had committed, their love for each other was too strong. Let’s weigh Cersei’s actions throughout the show. She was not outright evil or without a conscience: 1. she implored Joffrey to spare Ned’s life and have him take the black; 2. though she mentally and emotionally abused her, she never physically abused Sansa though she easily could have. There were moments when she did commit some despicable acts, perhaps not directly, but they were her ideas all the same, such as the murder of Robert Baratheon. Though her actions cannot be justified they can be understood and it was because of Robert’s garbage treatment of her that led her to snap. Until the time when Cersei was forced to walk the Walk of Atonement, I don’t think Cersei had any malicious intentions (save for having Tyrion executed but that’s because she truly thought he murdered her son) . Sure she was wary of the Tyrells when Margaery married Tommen but she wasn’t devising or conspiring any evil plans during the Tyrells’ tenure there. The moment she did snap was after the Walk of Atonement- humiliated by the Sparrows and the High Septon and broken, she strategically waited until all her loved ones were nowhere near the Sept of Baelor and then had it blown from underground with wildfire killing hundreds of people including all of the Sparrows and the Tyrells of Highgarden save for Olenna. Cersei may not have been gunning for the Tyrells but they just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and to her it was one less house and enemy for the Lannisters to contend with. Again, not justified, but I understand her motives. It is when Cersei becomes queen that she began losing herself to madness and corruption. We know that she wasn’t aiming for the throne because how could she have known that Tommen would throw himself out of a window after Margaery’s death? She had intended for Tommen to keep ruling but she sure didn’t hesitate to take the Iron Throne after his passing and of course because she comes from the most powerful family in the Seven Kingdoms, she already had a lot of loyalists who would not question her legitimacy to the throne. She outright knew it didn’t belong to her but she didn’t care. The point, moreover, is not whether Jaime and Cersei deserved to die together, it’s whether if Cersei did truly deserve to die with Jaime: if it felt justified for HER to die with him, seeing as how much she was despised (by many but not all fans). Perhaps she wasn’t. She probably wasn’t. She most likely did not deserve her happy ending. That being said, incestuous relationship and undeserved closure aside, there was still something a little satisfying and very poetic about seeing Jaime and Cersei dying together and then having Tyrion find them together while letting his emotions for his siblings out.

The final point which I will discuss is the decision to make Bran king of the six kingdoms. Of all the points that I’ve discussed on this analysis, this is the silliest one of all. First of all, let me say that I understand why Bran was chosen as king- because he has the power of clairvoyance for past and present. As someone who knows the history of Westeros and can see what is happening presently at all times, let me say ok, it makes sense, logically, to make him king. And of course, with his sister Sansa being queen in the north, has no compunction about letting the North be its own kingdom again as it once was. He’s even given a moniker- Bran the Broken- bestowed by Tyrion himself. Kind of a silly title if you ask me. Doesn’t sound as intense as Bran the Builder or Aegon the Conqueror. While Jon was exiled north of the Wall for killing Daenarys (the supposed rightful ruler of Westeros), and because she was his queen, AND because Grey Worm demanded it as an alternative to killing Jon himself, the whole Prince-That-Was-Promised thing became moot. A huge twist and reveal at the end of season 7 just for it to go nowhere. Oh and because he doesn’t want it. I get the character not wanting it, but come on…..such bait. SUCH. BAIT. He even killed Daenarys and for what? Just for him to say, nah mate, not for me, I’ll pass thanks. Highly, highly, missed opportunity.

Well, we have reached the end of this analysis and now it’s time for me to express my final and honest thoughts. The end of Game of Thrones is not terrible. It is not bad, nor garbage. It is disappointing. I will say that it is passable for those that can accept average endings. However, because Game of Thrones is far from an average show, there are those that wished it could’ve met its standards throughout the first 7 seasons. It built itself up so high and then fell on its face but it didn’t stay on the ground for it to be dragged through the mud. Sure, it got up but it sure wasn’t clean. It got muddy, it got hurt, and was splotchy and limped towards the end. That is my analogy, you don’t like it, eat grass. And that is why season 8 of GOT is not in my blu-ray collection because although some would say, “just get it, you have the rest of it anyway”, I cannot, in good conscience do that, but who cares when 90% of the show is fire. Ice and fire actually.