I haven’t written a blog post in a year, so bear with me y'all, I’m a tad rusty.
So let me just get my only real gripe out of the way. They rushed this season so the writing ended up pulling punches and I think took no chances. Everything that happened makes logical sense and it’s how it would work if these people were in real world situations. But it’s not. It’s fucking Westeros. There’s dragons, zombies, magic and timeline warping. To come this long for so many years and just sweep everything away, throw away arcs and give little to any payoff is soft in my opinion. I enjoyed the episode and the endings everyone got, but everyone seemed really blasé about it. Which I get, people who want to live would just fall in line, real life people. But this isn’t real life. This is a world of extremes and has been since episode 1. I feel like there weren’t any chances taken. Honestly though, that’s just me as a viewer feeling that way, what they want to do with the story is on them and I’m not mad at the choices they have made, it just didn’t have any teeth.
The nods to Bran knowing and by in part having that knowledge and lying by omission knew what was going to happen if not actually orchestrating all of this season was nice, but everyone played it off. “Why do you think I came?” Cold blooded but I would’ve been like, “what the fuck Bran, you could’ve said something?!” I kid, but seriously everyone just seemed so placid; “this doesn’t have a happy ending.” In my best Thor voice, “is it though?” Again, I don’t write this show, it’s their choice to create whatever art they want, but I just felt like everything lacked a much needed weight.
The final seasons were like if they threw a bunch of puzzle pieces on the table. Some pieces fit, some they removed. I guess it doesn’t matter that Sam’s a maester and has a pregnant wife and son. I guess we didn’t need a satisfying ending to Cersei, one of the best TV villains in history. I guess we just have to deal with main villains changing hands in a span of 3 episodes with no room to actually breathe. Once it was said and done though only certain pieces were left so tidying it up became easy. They swept all the pieces together instead of meticulously placing them. The first 3 episodes was the Winds of Winter and the last 3 were a Dream of Spring, I guess fuck me thinking that each could’ve gotten a full season each and had room to stretch its legs. But hey, this isn’t my show and I get that. But for the fans out there that think it’s wild that we as viewers don’t get to have an opinion is just as short sighted as the writers cramming it all into 6 episodes.
I’m thinking back on it now, back on the finale and back on the ten years #ThronesYall has enveloped my life and truly, I’m very happy with where everyone ended up. They cleaned everything up neatly. Maybe too neatly for my tastes but everyone got the ending they deserved, minus Cersei.
I give the finale an 8.25/8.5 out of 10 and I give Game of Thrones as an entire show 8.8/10. Quality TV and any hater out there can try and tear it down, but this show was a thing, a BIG THING and it did it’s thing for years. I applaud the actors who were not at any fault for story narrative, I applaud Djawadi for the score, I applaud GRRM for creating a world we love and got to see adventures in and lastly I applaud D&D. They had the impossible task of trying to live up to the hype everyone created and as many short comings anyone wants to point out or hold over their heads, they did their jobs, how well they did it is up for you to choose.
Good friend Jon Zlinsky put it really well. "In the light of the day, I think I've come around to the ending just.... fine. Like ordering a meal at a restaurant that sounded good bit it didn't really hit the spot. Yeah it satiated the hunger but you think about what could have been if you just ordered the ribs instead."
I of course just like many of you have theories and wishes of different outcomes. This was a solid finale. The arcs are closed and the characters are moving on. Some to where they've always wanted (Sansa), some to where the wind is taking them (Arya), and some to where they need to be (Jon). In the end though, the viewer and characters alike may not have got what they wanted, but they got what they needed and this kids was purely a matter of relevance.
