I want to be super excited about writing this post, I want this post to be filled with positivity about how the past eight years have build up to this immensely satisfying and great ending to what has been an epic saga. But sadly it isn’t going to be so.
I just want to put it out there that I am genuinely saddened that I am not singing the show’s praises after its ending. I wanted it to be incredible, I desperately did, but over the last season, it has become increasingly difficult.
*************************SPOILERS AHOY ***************************
I will say that I think that everything before the Night King was defeated was very good, that episode before the battle was incredible, the tension that was built was so great and it was probably one of my favourite episodes of Game of Thrones so far, because the writers were really taking their time to linger on the moment before battle rather than rushing things.
But what I really would have liked to see is just one more season, I don’t understand why season eight couldn’t have been purely the build-up to the battle with the Night King, and then season 9 the build-up to the battle with Cersei, rather than rushing the entire thing after the Battle of Winterfell. After the battle, it just felt like a rush to the finish line, with not much thought of anything in between.
Now I want to make it clear I am not mad about any of the events in the finale or leading up to it. What I am mad about is how I am feeling so unsatisfied at how the show got there.
Take for instance Daenerys. She burns King’s Landing to the ground, has about 15 minutes of screen time and then is dead and pretty much history. I just didn’t have time to process what had happened before we were moving on to the next big event that was happening. That should have been the end of an episode. That’s all I’m saying. What’s more is that as soon as they started kissing I uttered: “This would be a perfect moment for him to shank her” and lo and behold….bam.
Yes, it is kinda shocking but it was just so predictable and I just felt that we didn’t have enough time of Jon being conflicted about what to do. What’s more is that now we have to believe that the dragon somehow has an understanding of the damage that the Iron Throne has done, as he decides to melt the damn thing…I’m sorry but since when has this dragon been more than just a beast…GIVE US CONTEXT BECAUSE THIS FELT SO DUMB AND LAZILY WRITTEN JUST CUZ YOU WANTED THE IRON THRONE TO MELT FOR THE SHOCK VALUE.
Now that I have got that off my chest as it was the only moment in the show that I thought was plain stupid…we shall carry on with my more mature thoughts on the whole thing.
I actually really liked that Bran ended up on the throne, it honestly made complete sense, and for those shouting that it doesn’t, I know you were just mad that Jon wasn’t on the throne…
But it made sense and I actually really liked the outcome. But I just wanted more. I wanted more fleshing out of that narrative, everything just happened so quickly and I just couldn’t deal with how glossed over the whole thing was.
The part with the King’s advisors did for a second make me feel like we were watching Game of Thrones again, but there was this super cheesy sense that they were tying up loose ends, especially when Tyrion was presented with the write up of the war that was called ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’….How on the nose do you want to be guys…it was so damn cheesy. I hated it. I’m sorry.
But also it was such a lazy opportunity to tell us where everyone is now, like Bronn, Sam is magically a Grand Maester now. As I said I am not mad at these outcomes, I just want them to be fleshed out more, so it doesn’t feel like they were cramming everything into the last episode.
Now the Jon thing. I was mad at first, but this was because I just felt sorry for him. But I would have liked that time jump, (which must have been like a month, I guess, from his beard growth) to have been explored further. But possibly the best thing for me that came out of the whole damn thing was him getting a lovely head bump from Ghost…it just appealed to my dog loving nature and it was just the best.
As for Sansa!!! I am so pleased with that outcome, she has been my favourite character probably since season 2 (mainly because I had read the books and seen her character develop) she has had possibly the best character development I have seen, and to see her as Queen of the North is honestly the best thing. BUT I just wanted to see more of her leading up to this, more stuff. MORE.
I was expecting to be crying during this episode. It is the finale of one of my favourite shows, but no. The only bit that got me was Brienne adding to Jaime’s entry into the book of Knights (I know it has an official name…it escapes me). Jaime is also my favourite character next to Sansa for the same reasons, his character development was excellent (we had a bit of a rocky moment with Brienne and him leaving to return to Cersei…but lets not talk about that) and for Brienne to honour him by naming him more than just a Kingslayer, was so emotional for me.
I will say that I loved the final shots of the episode, I adored seeing where the Starks were heading it was pretty epic, seeing them just do what they wanted to do without much of a care in the world anymore was just fabulous and I adored the final shot of the episode, it really made me think of that very first episode and hats off to them for ending it like that.
This post has become a lot more opinionated and emotional than I intended, but I just have a lot of feeling and most of them stem from my frustration with how the show was written, especially in the final few episodes. It feels like I’m eating a roast dinner and the gravy is so thin, watery and tasteless that the whole thing has been ruined.
So now I just await The Winds of Winter to see how George R.R. Martin intended his epic to end and I hope that it will be the satisfying ending I am looking for.
Siobhan of the Dead 