GoT Fans Share Extremely Blunt Reactions To The Series Finale
In the game of thrones, you win, or you die — and a lot of fans apparently saw their hopes for a good ending for the beloved television show go down in flames with the series finale. While it's not hard to find critiques of the final season of HBO's fantasy epic Game of Thrones online, the series finale itself seemed to inspire many, many hot takes among the show's legion of fans and followers. Were they unrelentingly salty and snarky? Were these reactions written in such a way as to make it seem like the final episode of the series was universally loathed by fans who've been watching for nearly ten years? Reader, you know that they were.
So let's get down to business. Just what did people have to say about the series' controversial conclusion? Here are some of the most blunt reactions fans composed in response to the final episode of Game of Thrones.
Mourning the Queen
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, and a fittingly bittersweet ending to the one-time lovers' stories. But the turns it took to get there felt pretty rushed to a lot of people.
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. Said Jen Chaney, TV critic for Vulture, "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."
Questioning the Queenslaying
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 was even less charitable, writing, "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 ever 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.
Arya goes west
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?
Vox correspondent Zack Beauchamp 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 — not just in the case of Arya's final journey, but also Sam's arrival to the small council with the in-universe book that sums up the last eight seasons of action: A Song of Ice and Fire.
As author Catherynne Valente 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."
Jon pets his dog
During Game of Thrones' final episodes, much has been made of the idea of character assassination. Some prime examples: Jaime seemingly throws away years of growth to go be bad with his sister; Daenerys ditches years of stately ambition and just goes full rampage mode on King's Landing. Even the series' actors have openly wondered what their own characters are thinking.
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. Responding to the backlash from Jon leaving his dog behind, series director David Nutter initially said the two hadn't interacted thanks to the difficulty of rendering the CGI direwolf — an excuse which many took as being kind of a stretch. But all of this was forgiven when the finale stuck the landing, and had Jon Snow finally smile, kneel down, and just give a good pet to his loyal dog. So 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."
Others made it seem as though this one moment redeemed the series. According to one commenter, "Good boy Ghost finally got the love he deserved. My happy ending for #GameOfThrones."
The Game of Thrones finale may be contentious, but beloved pets deserving affection is one thing it seems every viewer can agree on.
King Bran?
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 Atlantic critic Jemele Hill, "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."
As for Bran actor 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.
The game is over
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."
Summing up her own disappointment, author Madeleine Roux wrote, "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.