In the game of thrones, you win, or you die, and a lot of fans apparently saw their hopes
for a good ending go down in flames with the series finale.
What did people have to say about the series' controversial conclusion?
Here are some of the more searing reactions.
Tragic, ironic, and maybe inevitable, Jon Snow ended his arc not sitting the Iron Throne,
but instead as the slayer of both his kin and his queen.
Jon's stabbing of Daenerys in the destroyed throne room of the Red Keep is exactly the
kind of story turn we've come to expect from Game of Thrones.
But the turns it took to get there felt pretty rushed to a lot of people.
"So what happened to her?"
"Well—"
"The quick version."
One poster expressed sympathy for Daenerys as a character, writing,
"a moment of silence for daenerys targaryen, a victim to horrible writing and a rushed
story.
may she rest in peace"
Others took the conclusion of her story personally, with more than one poster expressing real
frustration.
According to one commenter,
"daenerys deserves SUCH a better death.
after all she’s done, good and bad, she’s one of the most iconic characters in television
history...and that death did not do her justice AT ALL.
I’M MAD."
Even people who liked the finale seemed to express some frustration with the speed at
which Daenerys' story developed.
"Initial #GameOfThronesFinale thoughts: An excellent finale.
I still think Dany's decisions were rushed but the outcome was satisfying and there were
strong character moments for just about everyone, especially Tyrion."
Some wondered just where Dany's guards were during her final encounter with Jon, who was
able to easily stab the queen during a private moment, at a time when the loyalty of her
advisors was actively being questioned.
As one writer put it,
"why did Tyrion have more guards then Daenerys?
Why did they take Jons weapon away when he saw Tyrion but not Dany?"
One commenter broke it down as follows:
"That was terrible.
Like she'd just wander off to the throne room alone without some Unsullied or Dothraki guarding
her, especially from the likes of Jon Snow, whom she said betrayed her and was the biggest
threat to her claim to the throne."
Others outright rejected the idea that Daenerys would have gone so mad so fast, still feeling
the sting of her sudden heel turn in the previous episode, "The Bells."
Immediately after the finale, the overall impression was that even if her turn to villany
could have worked, the story felt just too sped up.
One of the most surprising outcomes of the Game of Thrones finale involved the out-of-nowhere
crowning of Bran Stark as king of the seven, scratch that, six, kingdoms.
Twitter had a field day with the unexpected turn, and plenty of viewers were gobsmacked
by the idea that it was even happening at all.
In the words of one critic,
"So Bran gets to be king, despite the fact that he just put his name on the group project
and didn’t do any work."
Others found humor in the idea that Bran, with his ability to see the future, has apparently
been waiting patiently for everything to be put into place so that he might take the throne.
As one commenter said,
"So for like 6 seasons, Bran been in his room singing 'I Just Can’t Wait to Be King' to
himself."
Some posters got nostalgic for the early days of the show, and pointed out once again how
consequential Jaime Lannister's actions were when he first pushed Bran from a Winterfell
window.
In the words of one writer,
"Jamie’s [kingslaying] level is so high he tried to kill Bran 8 years in advance"
And of course, plenty of people had jokes to share about Bran's wheelchair taking the
place of the Iron Throne, with one poster writing,
"Dany broke the wheel and ended up with two more"
As for Isaac Hempstead Wright himself, all the actor had to share on Twitter in the wake
of the finale on Twitter was a simple crown emoji and a shrug of the shoulders.
One other big development of the finale was the conclusion of Arya Stark's story, with
the tomboy royal family member evolving from desperate survivor to trained assassin, and
finally to an explorer of the worlds beyond Westeros.
Was it a satisfying end?
One writer asked,
"So who had “Arya invents colonialism” in their end of show pool"
Others saw sequel story potential, with one poster writing,
'I’d watch an Arya Goes West spin-off just saying."
Others couldn't help but see dramatic similarities between the ending of Game of Thrones and
the ending of The Lord of the Rings.
As one observer noted,
"Remember when they told us how different #GameOfThones was from Lord of the Rings and
how it subverted everything ever...Arya goes into the west.
Sam writes There and Back Again.
Coooooool."
During Game of Thrones final episodes, much has been made of the idea of character assassination.
Jaime seemingly throwing away years of growth to go be bad with his sister one last time;
Daenerys throwing away years of stately ambition and just going full rampage mode on King's
Landing.
It's impossible to deny that plenty has happened to cause many fans, and even the series' actors,
to wonder what their characters are thinking.
"...they've put the women and children in a crypt with all the dead people, so… blah.
Tyrion is smart, but I guess not that smart."
But no instance of out-of-character behavior so incensed viewers as Jon Snow's cold farewell
to his loyal direwolf, Ghost, in episode four.
Fans were outraged that Jon, who had the idea for the Stark children to adopt the direwolves
in the first place, would so callously send his dog away after years of sacrifice and
fighting along his side.
The poor boy lost an ear for the one-time King in the North, and he didn't even pet
him goodbye.
What a royal jerk!
"To the traitor and bastard Jon Snow."
But all of this was forgiven when the finale had know-nothing Jon Snow finally smile, kneel
down, and just give a good pet to his loyal dog.
Responding to the backlash, series director David Nutter initially said the two hadn't
interacted during their goodbye thanks to the difficulty of rendering the CGI direwolf,
an excuse which many took as being kind of a stretch.
When Jon ultimately did embrace the wolf during the finale, one poster reacted with relief,
writing,
"Game of Thrones somehow found the money to allow Jon Snow to pet his dog Ghost."
Another writer cheekily proposed the idea that the scene reeked of a quick fix, saying,
"they totally shot that Ghost scene on like Wednesday afternoon, didn't they"
Others made it seem as though this one moment single-handedly redeemed the series, despite
any perceived late-game flaws.
According to one commenter,
"Good boy Ghost finally got the love he deserved.
My happy ending for #GameOfThrones."
Plenty of other commenters just used the occasion to post their favorite animated .gifs of dogs
and direwolves.
The Game of Thrones finale may be contentious, but beloved pets deserving affection is one
thing it seems every viewer can agree on.
As Game of Thrones came to a close, some were incensed not only at the final episode, but
all the events that led up to it during the final season as a whole.
To these critics, the finale was a capstone on many episodes' worth of questionable writing
and bad creative decisions.
Speaking generally, YouTuber Jacksepticeye wrote,
"Game of Thrones feels like the showrunners knew where they wanted the characters to end
up but had no idea how to get them there this season.
It felt incredibly rushed and ham fisted.
What a waste of amazing lore and world building."
Another writer criticized the plot developments in general with a searing summary, tweeting,
"so we waited 2 years for - the night king to be stabbed in his crop
top and die easier than the mountain - cersei to get trampled by rocks
- jon to stab daenerys only for BRAN to become king
- [and] jon to [fly] back to nights watch when there r no white walkers??"
Summing up her own disappointment, author Madeleine Roux said,
"I'd just like to point out that the last spoken words of Game of Thrones were: I once
brought a jackass and a honeycomb into a brothel."
She followed it up with a subsequent tweet, saying,
"I can't BELIEVE I have to clarify this but: This is not a good thing."
In the hours since the series ended, these takes have been accompanied by many, many
others, commenting on a finale that seems destined to be a point of contention for years
to come.
But whether people are outraged, resigned, or genuinely okay with how the series wrapped
up, the story is finally over, and now our watch has ended.
Best of luck with that prequel series, HBO.
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