After an uneven final season comprised of only six episodes, fans were excited, concerned,
and downright desperate to see how the Game of Thrones saga would finally end.
From the Iron Throne to the fate of Westeros and the final showdown between Daenerys and
Jon Snow, here's what the ending of Game of Thrones means not just for the final season,
but for the entire series.
Beware: spoilers are coming!
After the burning of King's Landing in the previous episode, several main characters
wander through the brutal aftermath, with Tyrion Lannister, the Hand of the Queen, looking
stricken as he walks down ruined streets and sees the bodies of those Daenerys burned without
mercy.
As he and Jon Snow survey the destruction, Jon and Tyrion separately set off to meet
the queen.
Jon's journey finds him at odds with Grey Worm over the execution of Lannister soldiers.
But soon after Tyrion sets off on his own, he makes a horrifying discovery.
In a truly heartbreaking moment, Tyrion finds the bodies of his brother and sister and breaks
down amid the rubble.
With the rest of his house literally entombed, Tyrion finds himself suddenly alone, and in
that moment, his resolve to defy his queen strengthens.
Later, as the Dothraki and Unsullied celebrate their victory, Daenerys makes a grand entrance,
riding atop Drogon and landing in a perfect shot with her silhouetted by his wings.
While she gives a full-throated victory speech in which she praises her army for taking down
a tyrant and claiming the city as their own, viewers know the truth: Dany is no better
than the tyrant she aims to replace.
In fact, she's probably a lot worse, as she announces her plans to prolong the war and
conquer the rest of the world.
Daenerys has always bent towards justice, but with this proclamation, it seems as if
she's finally gone too far, and even her most trusted advisors seem frightened by her endless
hunger for power.
In the aftermath of the siege on King's Landing, during which Tyrion begged his queen to show
mercy to those who couldn't defend themselves, it seems as if the last remaining Lannister
can no longer bring himself to follow Daenerys, and has seen her for what she really is - or
at least what she's ultimately become.
Daenerys is already furious with Tyrion after finding out that he freed Jaime - which ultimately
doesn't even matter, considering that Jaime and Cersei are both dead.
But Tyrion has his own grievances with the Mother of Dragons.
As they confront each other atop a ruined King's Landing, he admits that he freed his
brother, but reminds her that she decimated an entire city.
Moments later, he tosses aside the badge that identifies him as Hand of the Queen.
Daenerys immediately has him arrested, but his point is made, marking yet another advisor
who leaves her side when she needs them the most.
Her transformation into a new version of her father, the Mad King, who killed anyone who
displeased him, is complete.
As Tyrion sits in captivity, awaiting his certain execution, he's visited by a visibly
torn Jon Snow, who, despite his allegiance to Daenerys, still obviously trusts Tyrion's
counsel.
Jon defends Daenerys at first, saying that though he can't condone what happened, the
war is finally over.
But Tyrion persists, reminding Jon that Daenerys isn't even close to finished, and the only
way she can achieve her ultimate goal is through even more death and destruction on a global
scale.
Tyrion also reminds Jon that he once had the power to do what Daenerys did - specifically,
to ride atop a dragon and destroy an entire city - and he never would.
Before she sacked King's Landing, Daenerys' destruction often seemed entirely righteous
- like when she freed slaves and killed their masters - but as Tyrion points out, the murder
of countless innocent men, women, and children can't possibly be defended, and at this point,
the Dragon Queen will stop at nothing to achieve her goals.
Though Tyrion recognizes that "love is more powerful than reason," he still does everything
in his power to convince Jon of the path ahead:
"You've tried to protect people.
Who is the greatest threat to the people now?"
Jon - the true heir to the throne, having received wise counsel from the Hand - knows
that there's only one move left to finally end the war once and for all.
Jon finds Daenerys in the Throne Room, admiring the throne she's worked so hard to win.
As he asks her why she murdered children in the streets of the capital, she tries to entice
him with her vision of the "new world" the two of them can build together.
As they embrace, Jon proclaims that Daenerys will always be his queen.
Just when it seems like all hope for peace is lost, he stabs her, holding her and weeping.
This is the moment the series has been building toward since the beginning.
Ned Stark lost his head for being too honorable.
In the end, Jon Snow betrayed his honor in order to save it.
He made the impossible choice: killing his lover and queen, to whom he'd pledged his
eternal loyalty, for the greater good of his family and the world.
After Jon becomes the Queenslayer, all is silent for a moment, until Drogon reappears,
coming face to face with Jon in a frightening moment when it seems like the last remaining
Targaryen might immediately face justice for killing the Mother of Dragons.
However, Drogon's anguish over the death of his mother is directed not at Jon, but at
something entirely different - specifically, the Iron Throne, which he torches into a melted
pile of slag in a stream of fire.
The ultimate symbol of power in Westeros is completely destroyed.
Daenerys has always referred to her dragons as her "children," and her final moments with
Drogon are heartfelt, as he tries to nudge her awake and screams in pain for his lost
mother.
After demolishing the Throne once and for all, Drogon gently lifts Daenerys off the
ground and flies away with her safely ensconced in his claws, making for a fitting end to
Daenerys' arc.
She was reborn with all three of her dragons, and even in death, she remains a part of her
only remaining child.
Moreover, Drogon identifies Dany's true killer without uttering a word.
It wasn't Jon who is responsible for the end of her life.
Instead, it was her unending quest to seek the Iron Throne itself.
It's like Cersei said way back in season one:
"When you play the game of thrones you win, or you die.
There is no middle ground.”
Since the beginning, the throne has represented death.
It was composed of the weapons of the king's enemies, and men and women fought and killed
for a chance to sit on it.
Daenerys always wanted to break the wheel.
Now that Drogon has destroyed the Iron Throne, the wheel in Westeros has finally been broken.
Weeks after Daenerys' death, Tyrion is led out of his cell to face a new council, made
up of familiar characters alongside a few faces who have been absent from the show for
several seasons.
The Unsullied have taken King's Landing and are holding Jon and Tyrion captive, and Tyrion
must not only argue his case against Grey Worm, but for the entire council.
But before Tyrion's fate can be decided, the lords and ladies of Westeros must choose a
new monarch.
As the group debates who should rule next, Tyrion is asked whether or not he wants the
job.
He describes himself as the worst possible choice, and no one really argues his points.
In order to explain who he does have in mind, however, Tyrion begins by telling the assembled
that what unites everybody is the power of a story, then identifying the person he says
has the "best story" - Bran Stark, who has journeyed beyond the Wall and back to become
the all-seeing Three-Eyed Raven.
Everybody seems a bit stunned by this unexpected nomination - except for Bran, but now that
he's the Three-Eyed Raven, looking surprised isn't really his thing.
But once Tyrion points out that because Bran can't have children, the leader of Westeros
will be chosen rather than receive it by birthright, he receives a unanimous vote.
After everything the Starks have lived through, the eldest surviving Stark son is named Bran
the Broken, First of His Name.
In exchange, Bran chooses Tyrion as his new Hand, bringing his arc to a fitting conclusion.
As far as his own arc is concerned, Bran's ascension to the throne may seem surprising
given the path his story has taken throughout the series.
Moreover, in this final season, Bran doesn't actually do much, aside from glower at other
characters from his chair and say weird things.
But if you remember the very first episode of the series, Bran has a front-row seat to
an execution, carried out by his father.
The scene is meant as a lesson for Bran in the rules of justice and leadership: namely
that duty and honor justifies violence and death.
But now that Bran will take over as King of Westeros in the wake of Daenerys's war crimes,
it seems like a sure bet that he'll have taken his father's lesson and will apply the inverse.
Mercy, fairness, and justice trump duty and honor, and are the only true path to peace
and life.
Since the beginning of the season, Sansa, who has established herself as a fair leader
as well as a sharp and shrewd strategist, has bristled at the thought of the North falling
under anyone's rule.
Throughout Daenerys' reign, she argued for the North to maintain its status as an independent
territory with its own monarchs and wardens.
When Jon told her about his true parentage, she immediately shared the information with
Tyrion, clearly hoping to keep control of the North by not only keeping a tyrant from
taking the throne, but by putting a half-Stark regent in power.
While that plan didn't pan out, Sansa ultimately made sure the North was taken care of.
During the council meeting, Sansa is hesitant to cast a vote in favor of Bran, and as she
turns to her brother and tells him that she loves him and that she's sure he'll be a great
king, she insists that the North remain its own territory, and Bran grants her request.
Thanks to Sansa, the North can keep its identity and its independence, and since the North
always remembers, its citizens will certainly remember what the Lady of Winterfell did to
protect them.
As for the rest of the characters, each of them is seen off properly, with arcs completed,
stories told, and journeys finally finished.
Grey Worm sets off for Naath alone, still smarting after losing both Missandei and his
queen.
Bronn returns to claim his lordship of Highgarden and becomes Master of Coin in Bran's administration,
flanked by a small council that includes Brienne, Davos, Sam, and Tyrion.
Podrick Payne, now Bran's attendant, has been knighted and made a member of the Kingsguard
since viewers last saw him.
Not only are several stories completed, but some characters write out stories of their
own, making sure the people they lost won't be forgotten.
After finding Jaime's unfinished entry in the book listing Westerosi knights, Brienne
completes it herself, capping it off by writing, "Died protecting his queen."
Meanwhile, Sam presents the council with a book written by one of the Maesters called
- what else?
- A Song of Ice and Fire, in an obvious and rather heavy-handed reference to the book
series by George R.R. Martin on which the series is based.
Unlike Martin's series, however, this book appears to be finished.
Jon, for murdering the queen, is banished back into the Night's Watch, a symbolic move,
and the only way the council can seem to broker peace with the Unsullied and get them to relinquish
their hold on the city.
Upon returning to Castle Black, Jon reunites with Tormund as well as a large group of wildlings
and his direwolf Ghost, who, despite missing an ear, is thrilled to see his master once
again.
In the end, the series closes with shots of the family with which it began - the Starks,
who have scattered to various corners of Westeros and beyond.
Sansa is coronated at Winterfell, proudly taking her seat as the citizens of the North
raise their swords and cheer for the new Queen in the North.
Arya boards a ship headed for the unknown lands west of Westeros, sailing under the
Stark banner on a quest to learn what lies beyond the part of the world where their maps
end.
Meanwhile, Jon sets out from Castle Black with Tormund, Ghost, and a group of wildlings
in tow.
As they begin their journey to the far North, some green growth can be seen peeking out
from underneath the thick layers of snow.
Throughout Game of Thrones' run, audiences have always been told that "winter is coming."
But now that the Night King is no more and a new age has begun in Westeros, it seems
as if the show's long winter may finally be coming to an end.
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