GAME OF THRONES: THE FINAL EPISODE. Monday 20th May. Spoilers after 2am.

[OneInAMillionYou]

It's here.

Eight seasons of love, hate, family, battles, history, mystery, myth and legend.

After laying waste to Kings' Landing, what next for Daenerys? Does destiny feel good when you kill thousands of innocents to reach it?

I will really miss these characters and their stories. Epic, must-watch television is rare. Will we ever see its like again?

And now our watch is ended.

How come Sam was allowed to leave and have children?

Sam as a maester and Bronn as master of coin made less than no sense. Fan service in the extreme.

I just wiped that scene from my mind.

I ended up feeling so dissatisfied with this. But off the top of my head I gleaned a few things:

Sam inventing democracy and being laughed at was the highlight of the episode.

It was Drogon who broke the wheel.

Jon likes his girls insane.

My main issue with the episode is that it felt a bit heartless. I only got a little tear and I've already forgotten when!

I'm trying to imagine how Spielberg would have directed the same episode, but getting so much more out of the characters and their emotions.

Just watched it again and yeah, still love it. Peter Dinklage is incredible. As was Drogon. Him nudging her body really got me. I just saw this tweet which tickled me.

I’m still a bit bleh about Sansa declaring independence unchallenged and none of the others doing it too. Why has she got more right than Yara would to declare the Iron Islands independent?

Have you all seen the water bottle under Sam’s chair? Half the internet is hating the ending, the other half is shared between those talking about the water bottle or how great the bit with Ghost was and a few people liked it. WELL I LIKED IT.

Hmm trying to attach tweet pic again.

How do people spot these things? I've just googled "water bottle" and it takes me to GOT!

I know! I never spot things either! And clearly the editors didn’t 😁

So Jon Snow was a Targaryen... for no fucking reason. Brann became the 3 eyed raven... For no fucking reason. Danny did amazing things for 8 seasons... For no fucking reason. Prince who was promised... No fucking reason. Everyone you wanted to team up for 8 seasons teams up... For no fucking reason. Everyone you wanted to die died.. For no fucking reason. Fucking Brandon Stark thr character no one gives a shit about for 8 season, is king.. why? For no fucking reason thats why. Ive watched Game of Thrones since 2011... For no fucking reason

Just seen this on social media and sums up perfectly how I feel.

Is Dario Naharis still babysitting Meereen? I wonder how that’s going?!

At least after this finale/this season I don't feel as upset about GoT being over anymore. If you'd asked me a few years ago I'd have thought I'd be devastated. Now I just don't mind really. Plenty of better shows out there to watch anyway!

Oh and I liked Tyrion going and finding Jaime and Cersei. He walked through some relatively untouched bits of the building before finding them, so if you were so inclined his upset could in part be due to the knowledge that he advised them to go down there and if they hadn’t, they might still be alive....VALONQAR!

I don't agree with the lack of reasons, actually.

But, didn't some people criticise developments to fit a particular ending?

I don't think Dany would have gone crazy on the innocents if Jon was just "King in the North".

Why has she got more right than Yara would to declare the Iron Islands independent?

Well, she doesn't. Not inherently. But she had the audacity to demand (well, more like: state in the most matter of factly manner possible) and the political savvy to pull it off.

Realistically, the Seven Six Kingdoms is currently a consensus based union anyway. When Aegon conquered and forcibly united them, he did so by overwhelming force. That's not really an option any longer. Firstly, because the armies of Westeros have been decimated this season and secondly, even if this weren't the case, because the new king isn't a Southern lord and hence doesn't even have his own bannermen to raise his army.

In a nutshell: Bran is in a pretty crap position to enforce his claim in the absence of consent.

This is going to sound like a joke but I actually got more emotional watching the last Avengers film than I did watching this 😂

what was the point of Jon dying, or him being revealed as a Targaryen

Dying wasn't the point. That just happened. The LoL then brought him back so he could go on a kill Dany.

Being revealed as a Targ was to add to Dany's state of mind and anger/frustration at finding she was not welcomed with open arms. He acted as a counterpoint to her so as to make her realise that Westeros was never going to love her and would choose Jon (if they could). That only left her the option of ruling by fear. In short, his presence meant she chose fear and thus brought about her own downfall.

Though, in hindsight, it does make telling people the ultimate power play from Bran as it led to him being named king...

Why has she got more right than Yara would to declare the Iron Islands independent?

It might be less about right and more about ability to maintain independence. The North can defend itself. The Iron Islands, not so much. They need the greater might of the six kingdoms.

Thanks @takenforslanted and @missbattenburg, those points do make sense.

All the people complaining - you do know that GRRM made it a condition
Yes, however knowing this piece of information didn't make the episode any better for me.

If Bran wasn't a robot it would have made sense he was King, but all he ever says now a days is that he doesn't feel and that's he's not Bran Stark, I can't wrap my head around why that makes for a good King. And I wish Tyrion's reason had been something other than 'You have a good story.' Esp when sitting at a meeting with lots of people with good stories.

Up until Dani died I thought it was fantastic.

Realistically, this was always going to be an anti-climactic ending. GRRM’s endings are fairly well-know for being ambiguous, depressing and anti-climactic.

His entire writing style as a ‘gardener’ means that he plants seeds and sees what grows. Some storylines just go nowhere and he abandons them. The books are literally full of examples.

This is going to sound horrible, but I think some people are too over invested in the story. This show has been going on for about 85 hours now and it really was time to draw it to a close.

I suspect it will make a lot more sense in the book, if it ever gets written. I liked book Bran. I've not been greatly taken with TV Bran, at least not since series 1.

I saw some tweets about GRRM last week that said writers come in two main varieties, plotters and pantsers. Dave and Dan are plotters, i.e. plot comes first and everything else fits in to that, and GRRM is a pantser, i.e. he thinks up a setting and a set of characters and his plots are developed by just letting the characters loose and flying by the seat of his pants, following the characters as they do whatever he thinks they would in the situations they find themselves in.

I thought that was quite an interesting approach.

He walked through some relatively untouched bits of the building before finding them

in particular the map room!

Although, the lack of rubble in some places was hard to explain: Throne room? Why was the Iron Throne all cleared?

GabrielleNelson exactly, but that writing style is not good for tying up a satisfactory story with an ending. It’s a bit like Philip K Dick - most endings end up being very ambiguous.

This is why GRRM is struggling to contract and wind up the story. His universe just gets bigger and bigger all the time.

I'm in the minority in that I loved that. I thought it was a really fitting end for the al the main characters.

Most of downsides are about the practicalities too. How did they tidy up so quickly? Where did they get new clothes from. How did Grey Worm materialise at the top of the stairs by Dany before Jon got there when Jon just passed him killing people.

Sansa was my favourite in this I think.

Esp when sitting at a meeting with lots of people with good stories.

Indeed. Such as ...

1. started out as an illiterate smuggler, became hand of the king not once but twice and turned into a confirmed grammar nazi
2. was born to be a high-born lady, failed to meet any of the expectations that tend to come with that job, became a kick arse fighter and the first Westerosi woman to be knighted instead
3. was born to be a high-born lady and fitted every stereotype. Was tortured and abused by a series of horrible men and by Cersei, did not shrink but watched, learned and became a political powerhouse
4. was the unwanted and shunned coward son of a major lord. Was basically scared from his first scene onward. Somehow managed to overcome his fear at the critical moment and became the first human to kill a white walker - also, the first to cure grey scale. And to figure out Jon's parentage (without supernatural help)
5. miraculously grew into his unfortunate looks and survived having Lysa as his mum