Any spin-off set in the future will probably have a Lannister that is the love child of Jamie & Brienne. King Bran will legitimize the child as a Lannister instead of a bastard.

I got my hopes up for this.

Man that was 100% the worst ending to a TV show I have ever seen. Lost ending is Citizen Kane in comparison.

The wheel is unbreakable is some nihilistic ****.

Bran's ultimate heel turn (if cleverly written into history) has potential.

lol @ sticking around for the end of lost. i bailed after the first smoke monster appearance

I get Lost and Survivor mixed up.

All the Bran heel turn theories are a good example of my contention that whatever people suggest to "fix" the ending is radically worse than the actual ending. Most of them are a literal deus ex machina where actual God Bran gets dropped onto the story as a means of "explaining" the events. Often this is accomplished via stripping other characters of their agency. It would be the actual worst ending ever put on screen. They also universally never have any suggestion as to how all that is to be communicated to the audience. An extended flashback montage set to "Memories" from Cats, with Bran's smiling face superimposed on the corner?

The raw materials were not there to do a good ending. They had three seasons to set up Dany's heel turn when they KNEW it was coming and they did nothing until like episode 2 this season. (Well, I guess they had her burn the Tarlys, which was supposed to be evil or something, even though every conqueror ever executes people who don't bend the knee.) Endings have to be earned. Making something up and tacking it on always sucks.

Other times they set up things which had no point. What the **** was the point of the "Sansa is the smartest person evar" stuff?

well she was the only one smart enough to ask for independence

I don’t think anyone really thinks Bran manipulating everything would have been an actual great ending. Maybe I’m wrong, but it felt like a joke based in how bad this ending was executed.

But the writers easily could have made the existing storyline an order of magnitude better with more episodes and actual character/plot development.

As a reader of the ASOIAF subreddit I can tell you you are 1000% wrong about this.

Here for the lol thrones

How did Brienne not write in the book about Jamie "Father of Brienne's unborn child"

That Bran ending would have been better than garbage they used. Not great but better.

Greyworm insta-lopping off Tyrion's head the second time he spoke would have been better than that drivel.

Why does Bran need a master of whispers when he can see everything?

When Bran says he’s going to see if he can find Drogon, why? The only person that can ride the dragon is now in the night’s watch.

A wandering rogue dragon probably represents the biggest remaining threat to the realm. Bran either has to warg the dragon to bring it under his control, or have it killed.

Cogman wrote some of the best episodes of the series. Also he was really dialed in on several characters and their arcs...notably Jamie/Brienne etc.

The thing that sucks about the ending of the series is that is was a self inflicted wound. D&D obviously wanted to be done with the show and rushed things, forcing themselves into a 13 episode box against the objections and advice of everyone else. Maybe it still would have been bad with 20 episodes or an extra season or two but odds are they would have taken more time and things would at least be fleshed out a bit more.

In the end it was an amazing show that crashed hard on the landing due to D&D, but still managed to have some great sequences and epic TV spectacle along the way.

I wish I had stopped watching at the end of the 3rd episode this season...would have been a lot more satisfied.

While the story and plot end of LOST was way worse, I found it much more satisfying as an ending for the characters. Whereas with GoT both the story and character endings seemed awful.

1. I thought that the voting for Bran thing was a little silly, but I guess if it's unanimous, then it doesn't really matter if some houses get multiple votes. We can imagine that if there were a couple of objections then someone would start questioning the voter eligibility requirements.

2. Drogon not killing Jon doesn't make any sense. Jon is a Targ, so what? He is still the dude who killed his mom. At least so far (which I realize according to the writers means nothing), Drogon is portrayed as someone who is impulsive, has a temper. Do we really think that if Viserys was some how still alive and killed Dany, Drogon is just gonna let it slide because he's a Targ? Sure he actually likes Jon and Viserys was an enormous douchebag, but Jon did just kill his mom.

Even if Jon is immune to fire like Dany, he's still got no chance. Drogon's got teeth, talons, or could just fly Jon up really high and drop him.

3. Also can't believe that Dany got got like that. No guards (except for half-asleep Drogon).? Also, she doesn't suspect anything? Really? She's getting betrayed left and right by everyone but Grey Worm. She knows Jon is clearly not down with incinerating a ton of innocents. Dany did some dumb stuff, but this was too much even for her.

Jon killing Dany is fine, but they could have done it much better.

4. Bran? Not much more to add here. I think everyone else has pretty much covered it.

This is quite possibly the smartest dragon in the world, as it inherently understood that it was the corrupting power of the Iron Throne that led to Dany’s downfall, and not Jon Snow.

Or it’s the stupidest dragon in the world, as it saw a knife in Dany and assumed it was the evil chair made of knives who stabbed her, and then had its revenge. TAKE THAT, KNIFEY CHAIR. MY QUEEN, YOU HAVE BEEN AVENGED.

That was really bad.

A Bran-narrated clip episode with the Dany/Jon scene tacked on the end would have been a better ending.

Curious why you thought the character endings were awful (as opposed to the execution of those endings, which I agree was awful). The only ending I really hated of the major characters was Jaime's. Tyrion's was pretty bland too, I guess.

awesome

Drogo melting the throne was a decent idea but the execution was definitely awkward.

I would have been less annoyed if they gave control of drogo to john who after having killed dany, made him melt the throne and fly away on the dragon carrying dany never to be seen again.
The dragon on his own melting the throne was a decent visual but made little sense.

i thought that whole scene was the best part of the episode, solid snow actin and even the dialogue was good. like you kinda could see it coming but whatever the reaction was nice by the drag..

I also enjoyed the scene, I just like that joke.

I was mostly disappointed by the season and share a lot of the criticism itt but I feel like Jon's fate was perfect. He's in a place where they don't care if you're a Targaryen or a Lannister or a Stark etc. He gets to live a free life away from kings, queens, thrones and grand responsibility, just chilling with his dog and wildling friends drinking, hunting and ****ing.

If the North secedes the king of Westeros is no longer the king of the first men.