[WARNING: THE FOLLOWING CONTAINS SPOILERS FROM "GAME OF THRONES"]
In the last episode, titled, "The Iron Throne," viewers spotted a plastic water bottle behind the legs one of the characters Samwell Tarly, played by John Bradley.
The scene came around the 46-minute mark of the episode.
The mistake followed another blunder earlier in the season, in which fans spotted a clearly out-of-place modern coffee cup on a table next to the character Daenerys Targaryen. HBO eventually admitted the blunder — saying it was a latte from the set’s craft services.
The HBO fantasy series ended Sunday night after eight seasons and six final episodes and now Westeros finally has a new leader: Brandon Stark.
As the series ended, Brandon now calls himself King of the Andals and the First Men, Lord of the Six Kingdoms and Protector of the Realm. The North was declared its own kingdom per his sister Sansa Stark's demand.
While technically Brandon did not sit upon the throne made of swords, as Daenerys Targaryen's dragon melted it with his flames, he was nonetheless named ruler after Jon Snow murdered Daenerys after her fire-breathing dragon rampage through King's Landing.
Fox News' Jessica Napoli contributed to this report.
Warning: contains spoilers about the final episode of series 8.
One day, a prestige HBO drama will likely be made out of the momentous fall-out from last week’s penultimate Game of Thrones episode. After fans expressed growing discontent with the show, the decision to have Daenerys torch the whole of King’s Landing and its citizens with dragon fire finally blew the roof off the whole enterprise for many – only for others to fire back that these grumblers were wilful killjoys who should accept what was, in their eyes, a perfectly reasonable plot twist. Since last Sunday, the argument on social media has not let up.
For what it’s worth, I think the events of last week were ruinous, in more ways than one – and it’s also worth emphasising that most of us who moaned about Daenerys’ wholesale transformation into the Mad Queen never thought of her as ‘good’ or expected her to be an upstanding ruler of the Seven Kingdoms – far from it. It’s just that pushing her into committing unprompted mass genocide seemed both a touch extreme and rather too obvious – a clunking privileging of plot over character. But I accept that there is a point at which one’s grievance also becomes excessive, even as a critic.
Which is why, in reviewing this week’s finale, I have vowed to try and be as even-handed as possible. To swallow my objections, take what has happened as read, and see if the ending can satisfy on the terms the creators have now set out. And, largely, it does – beginning with a remarkable, wordless opening sequence in which Tyrion wanders through the ashen remains of the citadel, surveying the wreckage, and the charred bodies. Saturated in grey, the scene eerily evokes a nuclear holocaust – and it is a terrible and powerful irony, of course, that after eight series of fear around the Night King bringing winter to Westeros, in the end, with ash falling like snow, it is human misdeed that should create that seasonal effect in the hitherto sunny King’s Landing.
It seemed likely that, for all the committed cynicism of the show’s worldview, in the final reckoning it would not allow the instigator of such a cataclysm to go unpunished – and so it proves. In a Nuremberg rally-like address to her armies, our self-righteous tyrant Dany suggests her whiffy ‘liberating’ mission is far from over, while kitted out in a fetching but distinctly fascistic black leather ensemble. Then she gets what’s coming to her.
Are we expected to believe that dragons have a finely-tuned appreciation of the symbols of autocratic power?
Amid what remains of the Great Hall, her nephew-cum-lover-cum-dopey-wingman Jon Snow stabs her through the heart, while snogging her and declaring her “my queen now and always”. The scene, thankfully, really lands – fuelled, perhaps, by the sheer torturedness of their predicament, Kit Harington and Emilia Clarke suddenly find a chemistry that has been notably absent between them up to this point. It is a moment only slightly diminished by the clunking absurdity of what follows, when Drogon makes an appearance. Clearly more than peeved at the death of his mum, he nevertheless refrains from flaming her traitorous boyfriend and instead decides to melt the Iron Throne. Which works well to hammer home the show’s central message about the inherent corruption of monarchical rule, but does beg the question: are we expected to believe that dragons have a finely-tuned appreciation of the symbols of autocratic power?
People’s vote?
Thankfully, the story recovers its footing in the next scene, when a committee featuring all the show’s surviving lead characters convenes to decide on the fate of the Seven Kingdoms, now that it’s lost two queens in quick succession. I’m particularly glad that, for all that the show has condemned despotic rule, it does not succumb to the pat option of having the characters happily establish a democracy in its place. Indeed, when Samwell Tarly (with a stray water bottle next to his leg, another continuity clanger that has already had the internet frothing) suggests that they might consider having the people vote for their king or queen in future, he is laughed down by his comrades – a knowing upending of expectations, which somehow expresses exactly what has made the series, at its best, so refreshing.
Instead, what we get is a compromise, both on the part of the characters trying to fashion a secure future for Westeros and the show’s creators David Benioff and DB Weiss, looking for a way to end the story that is neither fancifully idealistic nor impossibly bleak. A new head of state is appointed, but one who has little interest in power for its own sake, and cannot bear children, thus paving the way for a new system of non-hereditary rule, with leaders chosen by an oligarchy. That leader, not entirely unpredictably, is Bran, the seer Stark who finally has something useful to do after many series of slightly superfluous and obscure visions.
He’s a choice that makes narrative sense, though it has to be said that there is something quite humorous about Tyrion’s justification for picking him being that he has the greatest “story” – given that, for many viewers at least, his storyline has been quite the dreariest. In any case, true to the show’s sense of realpolitik, it’s very much only a contingently happy ending: when Jon asks Tyrion if he did the right thing in killing Daenerys, he simply replies: “ask me again in ten years”.
In fact, though, not one but two new rules are established. Those of us who have found ourselves cheering on an ever-more-emboldened Sansa Stark – one of the few characters with a truly well-constructed character arc – can rejoice in seeing her declare the North independent of the other six kingdoms, and crowned as its queen. In other plot tie-ups, Jon is packed off back to The Night’s Watch, as a way to appease Daenerys’ followers while saving him from a death sentence, while, ever the lone ranger, Arya vows to continue her adventuring by travelling West of Westeros into the great unknown. A final scene cuts between the three of them taking up their new destinies, and provides an efficient, if disappointingly uncontroversial, ending.
I think the complaints about the show over the past couple of series have been mostly justified. It’s easy to sneer at Game of Thrones’ so-called ‘entitled’ fans, as some critics have done, particularly when they sign petitions asking for its final season to be remade – but, at the same time, it seems to me perfectly reasonable to be upset at seeing something you have invested so much time in being debased by pure-and-simple bad writing.
However, it is also true that a sprawling epic like this, with chaos built into its very narrative DNA, was always likely to have faults. In fact, that in-built imperfection seems to be wryly referenced in one of the closing scenes, where George RR Martin proxy Samwell reveals he is in possession of a book detailing the history of everything we have seen over the last eight series. And its title? ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’ – the same one, of course, as for Martin’s series of novels. However when Tyrion asks about how he is portrayed in it, he discovers, humiliatingly, that he doesn’t even get a mention. In the end, similarly, some characters were served better than others by Benioff and Weiss – spare a thought for example, for poor Brienne of Tarth, that one time vanquisher of gender norms whose character, in the end, was sacrificed to a gratuitous romantic plotline.
But, finally, let us remember the good times the show gave us – the shocks it provided, the gasps it induced, the caustic quippery it revelled in (Olenna Tyrell 4 Eva), and the sheer amount of conversation it inspired, something which in itself is proof of its cultural power. And hopefully see you back here in the next year or two, to pore over the affairs of Westeros once more, when the upcoming Games of Thrones prequel series begins.
★★★★☆
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So that was definitely an episode of television. I don't know where to start. Let's break it up by sections.
The opening of this episode was strong. We had Dany turn up with an absolutely show stopping entrance...
And after a bit of discussion and a walk through the carnage, Tyrion Lannister gave up his brooch. He didn't wanna be the Hand/sheriff no more.
Then there was a lengthy, but also pretty well acted scene where Tyrion Lannister and Jon Snow reasoned out the pros and cons of absolutely stabbing Daenerys Targaryen in the back for her insane war crimes.
Jon Snow did the same tortured "what should I do with this moral quandary" face he's been doing for eight long seasons, and then he did what he always does: the right thing. In this case murder by loving knife in the belly.
That was bad enough, the stabbing I mean. Then the worst part: Drogon's mourning period. Which involved a lot of fire and a complete melting of the Iron Throne.
Drogon is mourning. I am mourning. I'm a mess! Drogon said if my mother can't sit on it, no one can. F*ck all yall. #GameOfThronesFinale
At this point, things seemed good. Good episode, decent-ish writing, good performances. This was the high point of the episode. The Dany death scene was great, Drogon's reaction was great. Sweet, we're getting the Jon Snow ending, right?
Wrong.
This is the point where things went off the rails.
Bran Stark -- perhaps the most irritating character in the show's long history was now the owner of a completely melted Iron Throne. He got the throne by everyone just sort of agreeing he should be king in one of the weirdest scenes in Game of Thrones history.
As you might expect, people were upset.
And from that point on we were in epilogue mode. Jon Snow was back in the newly established Night's Watch. Arya decided to go on high seas adventures. The North became its own Kingdom, meaning Sansa gets to be Queen in the North. Sure, whatever. That makes sense.
Perhaps the one high point: Jon Snow got united with Ghost and people were happy for a while.
But as the credits rolled, there was an empty sense of disappointment. That's it, the shows over. Are we going to get a spin-off with Arya Stark being an Assassin on the high seas, on Jon Snow adventuring in the North? Probably, but this wasn't the ending we were expecting. It all feels a bit strange.
Warning: spoilers ahead for Game of Thrones’ finale, “The Iron Throne.”
Game of Thrones’ finale left us with a lot to talk about. Like the rest of the eighth and final season, it moved startlingly quickly, skipping ahead weeks at a time and blitzing past some major plot points. At the same time, it finally took a deep, slow breath to linger on some key conversations, and it spent more time resolving the story for ancillary characters than some fans thought it was going to. Right after the finale, we paused to hash out our immediate reactions.
Tasha: Chaim, you’ve already addressed the main plot questions Game of Thrones left behind, but you didn’t address the one that most haunts me: how smart are dragons on this show, anyway? The series finale has Drogon apparently instantly knowing when Daenerys Targaryen dies, and flying up to check on her. But even though Jon Snow helpfully leaves the murder weapon in her chest, Drogon doesn’t seem to realize Jon killed her. And yet he does realize the Iron Throne is symbolically important and was the thing that she most wanted and will now never have, so he slags it with his fire-breath. At least that’s how I took the scene. This whole series has been about who will take the Iron Throne, and the answer “No one!” seems appropriately nihilistic. But like so much of this season, the way it plays out doesn’t entirely make sense either. What did you make of it?
Chaim: I’m honestly pretty satisfied. I agree that Drogon’s oddly specific firestorm was a bit convenient, but given where Daenerys ended up last episode, there wasn’t really a question in my mind that she wouldn’t be surviving the show and keeping the Iron Throne. In the end, she and her dragons did sort of break the wheel, in the metaphorical sense where “the wheel” is a metal chair made of melted swords, anyway.
Plus, having her dragon break the symbol of ultimate authority was poetic enough to work for me — certainly more so than Jon just taking the throne due to murder and a technicality of birth, which would have been an easy way out that I’m very glad the show didn’t take.
Tasha: I’m with you. I’ve spent most of this season frustrated at the quick plot turns and complete lack of nuance — the feeling that we were seeing plot points that would have been brilliant and heartbreaking if stretched out over a season, but that just whizzed bafflingly by when played out over the course of a scene or two. (I’m thinking of things like Varys’ betrayal of Dany and his execution, which barely had time to register before he was dead.) So I was mostly deeply impressed with the finale, in part because the pacing finally slowed down and gave the audience a little time to sit with our emotions, and the characters some time to sit with theirs.
A particular highlight for me: Tyrion’s slow procession through the city and the Red Keep, looking for signs that Jaime did find Cersei and smuggle her to safety. We know what he’s going to find, but the episode gives him a long, slow sequence to find their bodies and process their deaths. Tyrion mourning over his beloved brother and hated sister was one of the season’s most powerful moments, not just because it’s been so long coming, but because it doesn’t blitz by. and because Peter Dinklage’s performance is so strong.
Chaim: I was shocked by how long the episode took to really let us stew in the aftermath. And after glossing over Tyrion’s role for most of the past two seasons, it was really nice to give Dinklage one last chance to shine. Between the scene of him sobbing over his siblings, his heart-to-heart with Jon Snow, and the broken man at the pivotal election who just wants to set things right, it was a great reminder of the calibre of show Game of Thrones could reach when it isn’t just going full “OMG DRAGONZ” on us.
Looking back, it took the show more than a third of the episode to get to the big turn of Jon stabbing Daenerys, which is a remarkable level of restraint on the creative team’s part, letting us stew in Dany’s “victory” for so long. On that note, I’m curious how that ending for Dany sat by you?
Tasha: I’m still not buying Dany’s spontaneous leap from “obsessed with freeing slaves and protecting the innocent” to “fervently believes murdering children is helping them.” That plot point has been hashed out a billion times online over the past week, though, including at least 1.4 million times in our own comment sections, so I’ll just reiterate that the problem isn’t her massive change in behavior, it’s that it was executed in an abrupt, slapdash way. So I was impressed with this episode giving her time to savor having conquered Westeros. It feels like a vote of respect for a character who’s been so important to the show since season 1. I’m glad the showrunners let her briefly experience the triumph she fought so hard for and suffered so much for.
And at the same time, she gets time to prove she really doesn’t see or care about the human cost. Her claim that she “liberated” the people of King’s Landing and will now “liberate” the rest of the world is authentically chilling, because she’s promising more massacres, making it clear she thinks she did everything right here. Her argument with Jon about her actions made it pretty clear that there’s no good ending that has her sitting on the throne. But where you apparently thought the show spent a long time leading up to her death, I thought it disposed with it pretty early in the episode, and I found that a relief. Jon killing her was a foreordained conclusion, so I’m glad the episode didn’t draw it out for an hour and leave us less time to see what the world becomes next.
Chaim: Did… anyone survive in King’s Landing? It occurs to me we didn’t see any civilians left standing at all this episode.
Tasha: That’s not true. There’s Nearly Naked Covered In Burns Guy, and Weeping Alley Soldier, and probably one or two other people. Plenty to build a new population with. And if that’s not enough, there are probably still dozens of other people left alive around Westeros somewhere. Hot Pie can cook for them.
Chaim: Right, right, and The Five Lannister Soldiers That Grey Worm Executes On Daenerys’ Orders And Definitely Not Because He’s Still Angry About Missandei.Totally forgot about those guys.
As for Dany, I feel like the showrunners tried to defend the transition for her with Tyrion’s speech in his cell about her faith that her cause is just. But while he convinced Jon, he didn’t convince me. The argument, “She killed a lot of bad people, which led her to kill a lot of not-bad people” just didn’t work for me. But at least the writers were aware that, like Jon, viewers were going to need some convincing to accept her sudden change in heart.
That plotline in particular feels like it would have benefited from a longer season to grow a bit more, but given the way the season shook out time-wise, it feels like they did the best they could with it. Besides, Drogon did escape with Dany’s body, and if Game of Thrones has taught us one thing, its that no one is ever really dead so long as you can find the right priest.
Tasha: Oh boy, let’s not even go there. Pretty sure he’s either going to eat her out of respect or cremate her out of respect, and we can just leave it at that.
We’re probably always going to be debating Dany’s leap to the dark side, and evidence so far suggests we aren’t going to get anywhere with that debate. So let’s talk about the rest of this episode. Some major high points for me: the cinematography was fantastic. Deserted city or not, it looked amazing covered in falling ash/snow. That shot of a snow-covered Drogon waking up to inspect Jon and deciding he passed muster and could go up for his audience with Dany was particularly lovely and memorable. I loved the slow, sad female-vocal version of the theme song as Daenerys finally sees her goal, the Iron Throne — in a room she shattered to get to it.
We’ll have to talk separately about the actual result of the lords’ summit, but I was impressed that they brought all these characters back. (Someone finally found Edmure Tully! And he has the balls to try to stand up and take the throne, and Sansa gently, rightly, slaps him right back down again!) It would have been so easy to lose the politics entirely in this final episode, and completely forget the show’s roots, but here, we see the first hints of Westerosi traditional society returning. Someone actually thought about who’s left of the great Houses, and who would represent them. They even dusted Robin Arryn off for this meeting! It’s laughable, in a way, that these pale, subdued people are what’s left of Westeros’ leadership, but they’re still arrogant enough to look down on their own people, and laugh at them having any say in their own rule. But I was glad to see Game of Thrones acknowledging its roots, and thinking seriously about who would be in charge of putting the country back together.
Chaim: The Game of Thrones score has always been a highlight for me. Ramin Djawadi, the show’s composer, has been an unsung hero for years, and he just swung for the fences with the music in the finale across the board. I also have to shout out the fantastic shot of Dany, framed triumphant in the Red Keep, Drogon behind her to provide the wings for the Dragon Queen ascendant in the ruins of ash and snow. Oh, and Ghost finally got a pat from Jon, because he is a Good Boy.
I’ll admit, it took me a second to even remember who Edmure Tully was (thank you, costume designers, for including some fish on his lapels), although I’m going to have to disagree on Sansa’s putdown there — there was nothing gentle about it. Dude just tried to walk in after contributing nothing for eight seasons, other than losing Riverrun to the Lannisters and the Freys, and getting the Blackfish killed? And then he tries to take the Seven Six Kingdoms? Nope and nope. Sit down and shut up, Ed. As for Robin Arryn: definitely the Game of Thrones winner of the Neville Longbottom Award for Best Glow-Up over the course of a series.
Which brings us to Bran, or should I say, King Bran the Broken (which, kind of rude title there, Tyrion?), Ruler of the Six Kingdoms, and all the other bits and bobs attached to his name. He’s certainly not the most exciting choice for ruler, but the more I think on it, the more it makes sense to me. He’s practically omnipotent: even if he can’t see the future (and I’m pretty sure he can), he has perfect knowledge of all the mistakes of the past. His weird Three-Eyed Raven zen state means that he doesn’t bear any particular allegiance to anyone or anything that could influence his decisions unfairly. And the ability he possesses to enter the minds of ravens and get nearly instantaneous knowledge of events around the realm seems like a wildly useful thing for a monarch to have, especially in a world where most messages take days or weeks to convey.
Tasha: Yeah, but. While this is all useful and sensible data, in actuality, this is the guy who sat blankly in a frozen courtyard for weeks on end, staring blandly through his sister Sansa when she hugs him hello after not seeing him for years, and barely talking to people except to deliver cryptic information in a creepy monotone. It’s great that he’s a king without ego or desire, but I question how useful his ability to foretell the future is when he so clearly doesn’t act on it, except in the broadest cases. The Battle of Winterfell could have gone very differently, with a lot less loss of life, if he’d shared what he knew, or if there was any evidence he cared about the soldiers falling in battle, and not just the ultimate outcome of the war. And he didn’t even try to warn anyone about the King’s Landing massacre of tens of thousands of innocents?
Being a good, just, and wise ruler isn’t just about power, especially not the power to disappear into a raven’s head to gather intel. It’s about caring about the people and making decisions based on their best interests. It requires empathy, and Bran has none. It requires a desire for justice and peace and balance, and Bran says he’s no longer capable of desiring anything. And in Westeros, it requires being a politician, and Bran is not that.
But he’s still going to make a better king than Jon “I obey the orders of anyone who tells me I’m doing a principled thing” Snow. Throughout the series, Jon makes a lot of strong, risky moral choices — supporting the Wildlings, becoming King in the North, abdicating to follow Dany, killing Dany. It’s always someone else with the idea, though, talking him into it, and pressuring him until he caves. He’s sad-eyed and soft and suffering and people love him, but boy would he have made a weak king.
Chaim: Thing is, I’m not sure who’s left who would have made a better king. Sansa is the only candidate who even comes close to qualifying, and she seems pretty focused on running the North and getting as far away from the Six Kingdoms as possible, not integrating it back in and ruling over the rest of them.
As for the rest: Tyrion, a clear no for the reasons he gives in the episode; Jon, who, as you correctly point out is just completely unsuited for leadership; Edmure Tully, who is just the worst; Sam, who would clearly rather be reading a book; Gendry, who was just legitimized as a heir a few weeks ago by the now-dead queen who razed the city; Yara Greyjoy, who previously razed Winterfell; and the Fresh Prince of Dorne, who is not even a character with a name. Not the best pool of leaders. Will Bran be a good king? I don’t know. I certainly like the North’s chances under Queen Sansa a whole lot better. But I don’t think he’ll be an outright bad one. And after the Mad King Aerys, the drunk King Robert, the cruel King Joffery, the timid and easily manipulated King Tommen, the power-hungry Queen Cersei, and whatever adjective best describes Queen Daenerys’ short-lived but fiery reign, maybe a “good enough” king is good enough for Westeros.
Besides, Bran does have one thing going for him: his Master of Coin, the finally rewarded Ser Bronn of the Blackwater, Lord of Highgarden and Lord Paramount of the Reach. It only took eight seasons, but I have to hand it to Tyrion: a Lannister does (eventually) pay his debts. Good on Bronn!
Tasha: And I’ll add: good on Brienne, still my favorite character, who survived without being killed off for cheap pathos, and survived her annoying weepy episode over Jaime, and who takes the time to memorialize him properly. I found the scene where she writes out his deeds in the big book of Kingsguard Knights pretty touching. She saw that he got his proper legacy. She honored him in an honorable way.
So what are your low points from the episode? I was so pleased with the stately tone and beautiful visuals, and with the amount of time we spent with the weight of Jon’s decision, and his conversation with Tyrion about it, that it took me hugely by surprise when we get the big, awkward time-jump. We have no idea why Jon and Tyrion aren’t dead. Grey Worm made it clear just a little earlier in the episode that he doesn't take prisoners — and these two conspired to murder his beloved queen. We don’t know where the Dothraki went, or why they similarly didn’t run amuck. There’s just a sort of, “Well, weeks have passed, and here we are” statement. Given how rarely Game of Thrones’ last few seasons have even acknowledged the passage of time, I guess good on them for getting “weeks” into the dialogue so we knew, but… a lot of really important things happened during those weeks, and the show ignoring them is much more typical of the way this season went.
And what are we meant to do with the episode’s goofy humor, around Tyrion arranging chairs around the Small Council table, and Davos and Bronn and Brienne bantering about brothels? Yes, we needed a “life goes on” moment, and a sense for the new normal, but nothing about the gags here really landed for me.
Chaim: The time-jumps were also weird — did winter pass so quickly? I know Westerosi weather is weird, but the impression I had was that they were facing a pretty long and pretty bad winter as part of the natural weather cycles. But I guess not, given how nice and sunny things were in King’s Landing at the end. I guess it was all fine. And given the recent season’s tendency to compress travel times, and the fact that our only real indication of how long its been was Jon and Tyrion — who already looked pretty scraggly before the time-jump — it was honestly hard for me to get any idea of how that gap really was.
But the biggest issue for me was Arya. Don’t get me wrong, her setting sail on a new adventure was a fine ending. But the rest of the episode just underscored how underutilized she’s been since killing the Night King. As she says herself, she came to King’s Landing to kill Cersei, got there too late, and then… just kind of hangs around for the rest of the episode. There’s no Faceless Man magic, or attempts to assassinate Dany, or to free Jon from his prison. It just felt like the showrunners had no idea what to do with her.
Finally, there’s a small part of me that’s a bit bitter that Sam got a finished copy of A Song of Ice and Fire, whereas I still have to wait for the however many years it will take George R.R. Martin to finish his version. But I can’t really blame the show for that.
Tasha: It’s fine. The finished version of the book on the show doesn’t even include Tyrion, arguably the show’s most valuable and humanistic character. How good could it possibly be?
I’m fine with Arya’s arc essentially ending when she killed the Night King — it would have been too over-the-top, too traditional-fantasy, too only-one-hero-in-this-story to have her get Cersei or Daenerys as well. And I’m glad to see her setting out on her own adventures, though it’s weird that she never really uses Faceless Man magic again after doffing her Walder Frey suit. Maybe there’s room for her in one of the upcoming spin-off series. Unlikely, since they’re reportedly all prequels, with no familiar characters in them. But hey, when you’re dealing with a girl who’s no one, who can look like anyone, you can always pretend she’s the secret protagonist of any story.
In an effort to explain why Game of Thrones chose not to show an emotional farewell between Jon and his beloved pet, the episode’s director, David Nutter, attempted to explain that the goodbye scene played out the way it did because the show’s production team was restricted by the fact that Ghost is, in part, a CGI creation. But this explanation, predictably, only made fans angrier, with many of them responding with numerous examples of all the ways the show could have made Jon petting Ghost work.
For all these fans, the series finale delivered a lovely note of triumph. The final episode saw Jon ironically being exiled back to the (now non-existent) Night’s Watch in order to satisfy the Unsullied’s demand for punishment after Jon killed Daenerys. So Jon wound up right back where he started. And who was there to welcome him, but his faithful longtime companion?
The moment was exactly as sweet as fans had hoped:
Game of Thrones fans on social media were overjoyed.
I mean, Jon finally petting Ghost was all we really wanted. #GoT
— Isabelle Khurshudyan (@ikhurshudyan) May 20, 2019
Some, including Tasha Robinson of Vox sister site The Verge, noted that given how long ago the season finished production, the Game of Thrones production team had surely been eye-rolling all the hoopla over the fourth episode. After all, they would have known Jon and Ghost would be reunited shortly:
David Benioff and D.B. Weiss must have been laughing to themselves so hard when we freaked out a couple weeks ago about Jon Snow not petting Ghost goodbye when leaving the north. There has to have been some "Oh, just wait for it, you whiners" in there somewhere. #GameOfThronespic.twitter.com/On6O3AatbJ
Hilariously, though, others speculated that the scene had been hastily added after the fact, in direct response to the fan outrage.
It’s highly doubtful that the scene was added in response to the uproar, but either way, it made many fans happy. And while many other aspects of “The Iron Throne” left fans scratching their heads, in reuniting Jon with his faithful companion, Game of Thrones reminded us that it did have at least two characters’ interests at heart.
First it was a coffee cup, now it’s a bottle of water. Poor Game of Thrones just can’t catch a break.
Just a couple of weeks after some eagle-eyed fans discovered a forgotten coffee cup in a Game of Thrones scene, a couple of misplaced water bottles have appeared. The bottles, seen in screenshots below, pop up a few times over the course of several minutes. The first time is at 46:19 on HBO Now, and then a few minutes later. One is tucked just behind Samwell Tarly’s foot in the photo below.
Another water bottle can be seen just behind Ser Davos’ chair, in-between him and Gendry.
It’s understandable that long, strenuous meetings about the future of Westeros would leave anyone a little parched, but people clearly forgot to throw the bottles off camera once the director yelled “action!” Although it’s not as glaring as the abandoned coffee cup, one would imagine Game of Thrones’ editing team going through the finale with a fine comb. Game of Thrones is the most scrutinized show on television. Its fans are known for finding these things, and they’re already on to this goof.
HBO responded to criticism the last time this happened by joking along. “The latte that appeared in the episode was a mistake,” a statement from HBO read. “Daenerys had ordered an herbal tea.” The company also went in to digitally remove the cup following dozens of articles and thousands of fans tweeting about it. Bernie Caulfield, an executive producer on Game of Thrones, remarked in an NPR interview that these things happen, adding “if that’s the worst thing they’re finding, then we’re in good shape.”
Ah, foreshadowing! Apparently the worst thing people could discover is Westeros’ most powerful lords and ladies not being entirely eco-friendly, and relying on bottles instead of tap water. Or, perhaps well water considering the time period? Don’t feel too bad, HBO — you’re not the only one who has forgotten about water bottles.
The Verge has reached out to HBO about whether the water bottles will also be removed.
Following the penultimate episode of the massively popular HBO series 'Game of Thrones,' a Change.org petition has surfaced urging the network to 'remake 'Game of Thrones' Season 8 with competent writers.' The petition has already gained more than 350,000 signatures from disgruntled viewers who were upset with Daenerys Targaryen's big twist in the penultimate episode, where the mother of dragons burned Kings Landing to the ground.
'Game of Thrones' fans wanting to try their luck are flooding to betting sites to clock in their guesses on who will live, who will die and who will take the Iron Throne in the last-ever episode of the popular series.
Among the top contenders to take the Iron Throne are Bran Stark, closely followed by his sister Sansa and the character they thought was their brother until recently, Jon Snow. Curiously, Daenerys Targaryen, who has been primed to take the coveted seat throughout the duration of the show, is tied for fourth place with the best odds of taking the crown, with the same score of +1500 as Samwell Tarly.
Most betting sites have skipped over the possibility of Daenerysdying and have calculated the odds of how she will die and at the hands of whom. The odds are best that Jon Snow, her former lover and also nephew, will be the one to end her life, according to CNet.
By a long shot, most have bet that she will die from an attack with a sword or dagger — as most characters in the show tend to perish, stats obtained by Philly Voice show. Some, however, have bet that the Khaleesi will survive.
Most people also believe that Jon Snow will survive the final episode, which is probably a fair estimate given that he's already died once before on the show and was brought back to life. Additionally, many have bet that Tyrion Lannister, Hand of the Queen, will also survive the final episode.
There are also betting odds on who will speak the last word of the final episode of the last season, with the vast majority of fans predicting that it will be Samwell Tarly. Tarly, whose reputation has been founded on his strong research, reading and writing skills, could certainly have chronicled the events to preserve them for future generations, and if that's the case, giving him the last word would be prudent.
Last week's episode saw a number of major characters leave the show, including Cersei and Jamie Lannister, Sandor Clegane (also known as "The Hound") and his brother Gregor Clegane ("The Mountain"). Also among those who perished were Lord Varys, at the hands of Daenerys Targaryen, and Euron Greyjoy.
Many fans have expressed their disappointment about the final season, arguing that it has tried to tie up plotlines and character developments too quickly. Some fans were so irate that they developed a petition to urge the show to oust "incompetent" writers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss and remake the season, which has garnered more than half a million signatures.
With few remaining characters left to pick up the pieces of Daenerys' destruction of King's Landing and its inhabitants, and all of her battles finally fought, the question remains: Who will take the Iron Throne?
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