Game of Thrones - Game Over [Well this show anyway]

This final season of Game of Thrones has been a wild ride. I have female and male friends at work—real serious series fans—who have been on highs of euphoria and lows of melancholy. The divisive nature of the final season has left me in reflection. I watched before “Iron Throne” the finales of The Big Bang Theory and House, both I felt were good enough, certainly leaving me with a smile on my face if nothing else. “Iron Throne”, I wasn’t outraged or equipped with an explosive rage. I wasn’t shaking my fists to the sky shouting the names of Benioff and Weiss in all caps. I read an article just this morning where Kit Harrington told those (mainly the disgruntled fans who signed the petition to “revamp” the entire 8^th season over again!) not satisfied with the final season to go fuck themselves. Sophie, speaking for the staff, crew, and cast who worked their asses off, regardless of the results that might have pleased you or pissed you off, defiantly proposed that if you vocally oppose their work on the screen…tough. It is quite a polarizing issue, to be critical or not towards a phenomenon. Did I feel like it finished at warp speed? Yes. But besides a few issues when Messendei stood in chains (to chains she lived and at her end she died the same; this is as tragic as anything else in the series, for me personally) at top the castle right next to Cersei, knowing she would die and didn’t decide to just take the Queen with her in a martyred jump and Cersei failing not to use her archers to destroy Tyrion, her main foe (Dany) and a few officers with them during their “meet to negotiate terms of surrender”, I wasn’t so moved to sound and fury that I needed to go to Twitter or voice my outcry even on this blahg. I vented a moment the next day to my female work friends and that was that. The day after that it wasn’t even as stationary on my mind, not lingering all that long to even consider the issues , as I expected it might be. And I’m altogether proud of that. I don’t have the toxic, cancerous pall…no albatross of dismay that the season didn’t work out as I had hoped. I have verbally worked to nurse the ache of friends who question why Jaime would die as he does with Cersei, why Cersei was allowed that death, how Dany could go Hitler in one huff-and-puff overlooking King’s Landing, or even why Brienne spent her final moments on screen (before her small council gathering with Tyrion’s select) writing out a positive historical overview of Jaime’s life as a knight. Am I dumbfounded that Bran (the Broken) was selected as King of the Seven Six Kingdoms by the series end? Or that Tyrion, despite treason, remained alive, throwing away the Hand badge only to be given it back by another “leader”? Or that Grey Worm would ever allow Jon Snow to live much less be allowed to have any say in what the Westerosi leaders decided during their “parliament”? Sure. Were Cersei and Jaime the victim of standing in the wrong position when they could have just moved over a few paces and been okay? The evidence is there. Were their bodies showing visible signs of the wreckage of a brick dump on top of them? Did Tyrion have an easy enough path to find them? Did he even have to work that hard to sort through the rubble? I can imagine that such nitpicking really sets up in the craw of every person who put the series finale together or the episodes that came before it. Dany and her dragon wings early on before her speech, the Targaryen Red Dragon flag draped over a what is left of a structure seemingly recalling the Hitler Swastika, her officers of Unsullied and Dothraki (after the war with the wights you’d not think this many would still be alive) in attendance and quite proud of their Queen; it is a visceral vision that could be Westeros and for her grander vision, the world. Drogon carrying off his “mother” to parts unknown (or up for debate) and deciding to spare her killer, Jon, in an incredible visual effects sequence (the face of Drogon debating is nothing short of marvelous). So much good stuff to point at and say, but look there! That is awesome, isn’t it?! I have seen every conceivable critique, both good and bad, on sites such as Reddit, Facebook, and numerous news reviews. It is quite fascinating to pour through all of the comments, on how this or that can either be or not justified in every single written decision made in the final season. Some will say, go back here and you will see that Dany was heading towards her eventual fate. Some will say, but Bran was destined for this the entire time and here is why…look here in so-and-so season. In the end, we all feel one way or another.