The Game of Thrones is Over

The Game of Thrones has been won. After years of watching, theory crafting, and hoping that it would end well, a new character sits on the iron throne. Before I write about my thoughts regarding the new ruler of the 7… well 6 kingdoms, I ask you to indulge me in a trip down memory lane.

In the summer 2013, the internet was in a tizzy over the show Game of Thrones and more specifically an event called “The Red Wedding”. At the time I was almost entirely unfamiliar with the HBO show and the George R.R. Martin epics that inspired it. The little I did know was Sean Bean was the lead, Winter was coming, and a character named Jon Snow knew nothing. My curiosity and FOMO won over all and soon my girlfriend Jenny and I sat down to binge the series.

In reality, we watched it over the span of three weeks, but even when not viewing a new episode the experience didn't leave me. At work, I speculated about the fates of the characters; when Sean Bean’s character Ned Stark had his head removed, it established no one was safe, something that added to the addictive property of the show. The political intrigue mixed with fantasy elements such as an acient evil and dragons made for what I felt at the time was the greatest show ever committed to screen, narrowly beating out Breaking Bad.

After the events of season 4, I had to know what happened next, so I purchased the five books available and repeated my binge. The books were more magnificent than I could have imagined, as the story expanded in ways the show couldn’t. New events and characters kept me interested while reading the parts I already watched while the postseason 4 set the stage for many more epic seasons. It felt impossible that they’d burn through it before the next book. That notion is famously wrong, as we still are waiting for the Winds of Winter and A Dream Of Spring is just that - a dream. The show had to continue on without source material.

The decline began in season 6 with moments that felt more like fan service than the continuation of the story fans have so obsessively followed. Jon was brought back from the dead, recklessly tried to take Winterfell back from Ramsey Bolton, and instead of losing despite his hasty attack he was saved by the Knights of the Vale. The next season felt like more of the same, while season 8 has been considered widely disappointing.

It’s clear now a shortened season 8 left the writers with too few episodes to hit every story beat needed to satisfy the watchers. So instead of ending with a bang the storyline fizzled out. Fan favorites are dead, their storylines betrayed. Bran Stark sits on the Iron throne, Sansa Stark is Queen of the North, while after everything Jon is back where he started, on the wall. Breaking Bad is back on top for me in terms of quality endings, though I’m not as upset about the ending of Game of Thrones as many. In the end I got what I expected, which is to say not much. Hopefully the spin-offs will have a more satisfying ending and if this was the ending Martin intended, I can imagine him changing it after the reviews have come in. For now, our watch has ended.

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