I could have easily written this post yesterday, when it would have been more relevant. However, rather than striking while the iron of this topic is hot, I’ve opted to give it another day to make sure that most people got around to watching it before I accidentally spoil it. There’s really nothing more infuriating than dedicating so much time to a series, waiting so long for the ending, to have some keyboard warriors spoil it all for you. I’d want to punch that writer in the face. Especially when they do things like say “You Wouldn’t Believe who Died” only to post the picture of the character who died. It’s that reason that I stopped watching “Orange is the New Black”. I don’t forgive so easily. (That being said… there are spoilers. So don’t read if you didn’t watch.)

“Game of Thrones” fans waited so long to get their conclusion. Fans of the book series are still waiting for the next book, the supposed second to last book of the series. Feel sorry for us, not the television show fans. We’ve waited longer, so we have every right to feel disappointed in the show right now. When you really think about it, they had 2 years to put out something great. Something memorable. (And not just for the many blunders, like coffee cups and water bottles. Seriously, 2 years and their editing team couldn’t catch those things?) They shortened the season but promised longer episodes. The hype train for GoT was real. And I was all aboard, ready to go, counting down the days to get what I felt would be the only conclusion that book readers would get at this rate. I have resigned myself to the fact that the only closure for the nearly decade I have dedicated to this book series would come from the television show. I was Team Targaryen all the way, whether that came from Dany or Jon. My husband, he is Team Stark. He spent more of the series upset than I was. Understandable; the Starks got screwed the entire series up to this point.

Spoilers, incoming. You’ve been warned.

Last season wasn’t great, but it was watchable. This season? I would put it more in the “passable” category. It became more of a means to an end rather than enjoyment. The story was rushed. The writing was inconsistent, as if they just focused on Tyrion’s impact and tossed a bunch of other words to the rest of the cast and hoping for the best. Tyrion was still flawless in his speeches. Did I mention that the story was rushed? I would have rather them give us the usual sized season with the 50 minute episodes than 1hr and 20 minutes of a rushed story. Did we even get real closure on the situation? Sansa is the Queen of the North and Tyrion is the Hand of the King, again. Nothing shocking there. Arya has decided to become Christopher Columbus. Makes sense, but it seems out of the blue. In the books, she seemed to idolize Nymeria Targaryen, who traveled and was a warrior princess. But in the show, this was never really mentioned other than that was what she named her direwolf.

And Jon? He didn’t get the throne, nor did he ever really want it. He did save the world more than a few times, only to be thanked by being sent back to the Wall as a punishment for doing the right thing. Does he abandon his duty to become the “King Beyond the Wall”? That seems both out of character and a reasonable conclusion, depending on which version of Jon you’re going with. The dutiful Stark raised by Ned wouldn’t break his oath. But a Jon with nothing to live for, who has nothing left, just might. Or was he just making sure the wildlings got settled in nicely? I would have loved an answer either way. And Bran becoming King Bran the Broken? It wasn’t a shocking twist. It was odd how he seemed like he didn’t want it and then all of a sudden it seemed that he planned that turn of events.

In the end, the Starks were the real winners after an entire series of losing. I’m happy the Starks ultimately won the “Game of Thrones”. The ending isn’t my issue: it’s how we got there. That episode was the best episode of the season, and if the rest of the episodes were as good, the season wouldn’t have been terrible. My hope, as a reader of the book series, is that we get more answers than the barely-there cliff notes version that we actually received.