What a bittersweet and unexpected ending!
None of those we expected became King/Queen. And no one sits on the Iron Throne, because Drogon melted the Iron Throne.
In the end, it wasn’t Arya who killed Dany — Jon did it himself. (Which I suspected he would do when he declared his allegiance and started kissing her, because those are always prime moments to betray someone.) And he did it only halfway through the episode.
Drogon mourning Dany like a faithful dog was sad (and scary). I wanted to see if Jon can really survive Drogon’s wrath, since Dany can survive being burnt, but I suddenly remember Viserys didn’t. And apparently George R. R. Martin said before that Targaryens are not immune to fire, so I guess Jon would have died. Lucky for him that dragons seem genetically programmed not to harm Targaryens, even when one of them kills their master. Poor Drogon! He’s the last of his kind, and his mistress is gone. ?
(Bran says he can try to find him, but what for? Having an uncontrollable dragon around is dangerous — see the previous episode.)
The scene of Dany in the hall is supposed to be a throwback to her vision in Season 2 right? Though I never understood what it meant (and judging by the comments section, neither did anyone else. I still don’t, by the way.)
Jon’s journey has come full circle. He volunteered for the Night’s Watch in the first episode, and he was banished to the Night’s Watch in the last episode.
(And I knew it: Episode 4 wasn’t the last time we would see Tormund and Ghost! Take that, people who complained that Jon didn’t say goodbye to Ghost properly! Though I wonder how Tormund knew Jon would come back.)
Tyrion survived the entire series after all, which at the beginning of this episode, didn’t look possible. I thought Dany would burn him to death immediately, after he flung away his position as Hand of the Queen. (His grief when discovering the bodies of Jaime and Cersei was heartbreaking, because he tried so hard to save Jaime but still failed.)
But when he proposed the lords and ladies to choose a new King or Queen, I thought he was mad, because isn’t having a King/Queen the cause of trouble in the first place? (Sam suggested democracy, but the lords and ladies aren’t ready for that radical concept yet. And judging from the failure of certain countries, I’m beginning to think we aren’t too.) I completely expected everyone to start drawing swords and fighting for the throne immediately. But amazingly, it all worked out, and the Lords and Ladies actually agreed to his harebrained scheme. And Bran is crowned King? Who could have thought that would be the outcome? Isn’t being Three Eyed Raven enough work for him to do?
Bran then names Tyrion Hand of the King, which Grey Worm was displeased with of course, but for some reason lets it go in the end.
And the Small Council is now made of several of our favourite people — Tyrion, Ser Davos, Bronn, Brienne and Maester Sam. They’ll actually be good for the Kingdom this time.
Brienne stoically writes Jaime’s history in the book of Knights while blinking back tears for the love of her life.
Even Grey Worm got a peaceful ending. He may not have been able to do it with Missandei, but he retired to Naath with the remaining Unsullied.
Sansa got crowned Queen of the North as is her due.
Arya sails off to discover unknown lands.
Jon escorts the Wildlings North of the Wall. The End.
A TON of people hated this final season, and want HBO to remake it. (HBO obviously isn’t going to do that, but fans can always dream.)
I’m not one of them though. While it isn’t the way I expected things to turn out, or wished that it had turned out, I can accept it. Because a truly crappy ending to me is someone like Ramsay Bolton, or Euron Greyjoy, or even that spoilt brat Robin Arryn ending up on the Iron Throne. You should thank the stars that nothing like that happened!
Of course, if it were up to me, I would certainly have chosen the conventional way — Jon ends up on the Iron Throne and is a wise and benevolent ruler, the end. Or: Dany didn’t burn the city down and both of them would have gotten married and ruled wisely and benevolently, balancing each other out, the end. Or even better yet: Ned Stark isn’t beheaded in Season 1 and the Starks all survive till the end of the series, the end.
(This is why I’m not a writer. You can thank the stars for that.)
