The finale lacked the punch we were hoping for. Yes, there were twists and turns but something was missing. The pacing felt so slow compared to the rest of this season which has seen events taking place at breakneck speed.
WARNING: The night is dark and full of spoilers! This article contains major spoilers from Game of Thrones season 8
The purported leaks which surfaced on social media a couple of weeks didn’t help the finale either after they turned out to be accurate.
Everything was wrapped up but none of it felt right. The series had so much wasted potential and season eight could have taken the story in so many different directions.
Jon Snow (played by Kit Harington), who had a wonderful story arc throughout the course of the show, ended up back where he started: at the Wall. It didn’t seem to make sense that such as an epic reveal fell so flat with the secret of Rhaegar Targaryen (Wilf Scolding) and Lyanna Stark (Aisling Franciosi) coming to nothing at the end,
There seemed something so woefully unfair about Aegon Targaryen unable to assume his title and sit on the Iron Throne. Yes, Jon’s return to the Wall was cyclic and dovetailed with season one but he would have made a strong ruler.
GAME OF THRONES SEASON 8 ENDING EXPLAINED
Game of Thrones season 8, episode 6 has a bittersweet feel (Image: SKY)
Game of Thrones season 8, episode 6 has a bittersweet feel (Image: SKY)
Then there was the matter of who ended up on the Iron Throne. Bran the Broken (Isaac Hempstead-Wright) was named the new ruler of the now Six Kingdoms.
Bran spends most of his time warging and flitting between the past, present and future making his leadership skills questionable at best. While there is a case to be made about his wisdom as the Three-Eyed Raven, Jon could have been a better king - at least he would be sentient for his meetings with his council.
Game of Thrones has been building towards one person taking the Iron Throne, so to have that taken out of the equation and replaced with democracy was vanilla and felt like an anachronistic move.
Even Samwell Tarly’s (John Bradley) suggestion of democracy felt awkward but it got stranger still when the characters acquiesced to a voting system.
GAME OF THRONES SEASON 8 EPISODE LENGTHS
