Why The Game Of Thrones Finale Was Never Going To Satisfy

A series ripe for criticism has now finished. Try not to over analyze it.

Jamie Mah @grahammah

We forget TV show finales are hard to pull off.

Personally, due to this understanding, I’ve come to accept that endings are never going to fully satisfy. For me, Mad Men came close. Breaking Bad even more so. But for Game of Thrones, a show with so many characters and storylines, from a book series still yet to be completed, getting an ending that was to please the masses seemed almost unthinkable. This is why I never expected it to give me one.

We invest so much of our time and energy into TV shows like Game of Thrones, that when it comes to finalizing their journey we’re often left angry, frustrated or plain just confused as to the ending the showrunners have chosen. This is due in large part because the ending is something we have zero say in. As a show runs, we can debate its direction. But an ending, that’s it and it’s in this finality where we often lose our minds. Many popular series of the past have suffered from this fate. Lost and The Sopranos are two which spring to mind.

Nevertheless, Game of Thrones gave us an ending with Bran as the new King of Westeros. Like myself, I bet you didn’t see that coming? If there was ever a way to have an unsatisfying ending to a show, giving the title reigns to its most boring character is one way to do it. As much as I’d like digress in this decision, in the end, does it really even matter?

Part of me wanted Jon to win since he’d come to embody the heart of the show as he’d become its most traditional hero. Another part of me wanted Tyrion to take the throne since his antics made me laugh and…well…he loves to drink wine, which in itself is kind of what a ruler does most of the time don’t you think?

Another part of me wanted carnage with Daenerys taking the title as it would have been funny to see her win and kill everyone. I could do this dance over and over in my head with dozens of ways this show could have ended. Again, this is what happens when you watch a show for eight years, these types of thoughts soon begin to envelope your mind. You become invested. You debate, and as episodes, events and seasons pile up on top of one another, the narrative of what you desire the show to be becomes the reality of what you think it should be rather than what it actually is.

This is the dilemma popular shows face.

Furthermore, I read on Facebook and Twitter this morning numerous people calling out the showrunners for leaving everyone wanting more. “That’s it?” led mosts rants. More deaths and more surprises soon took hold of what we wanted GOT to be. A finale kills all of that. You can’t win in a world like this.

In the end, Bran is the King. So what? Again, does it really matter?

The ending of Game of Thrones was never what the show was truly about anyways. Seeing the Starks grow up into noble leaders and great warriors was what made this show great. Watching Jamie change was another. The heart rested in the characters and their struggles with life and the bonds they forged. I’ll miss that. I’m sure you will too. That’s what we should be lauding. We were given eight years of impressive TV storytelling. Till its finale, we were all invested. That says something.

Game of Thrones showrunners DB Weiss and David Benioff may not have stuck the landing as we might have wanted but they did give a show to root for. Savour that because that’s all you can still do.