The final scene between Arya and the Hound - it was exactly how I wanted them to part.
I believe we will see a lot of Sansa next week.
would this have happened if Jon would have loved her back how she wanted? I wonder how much guilt he feels.
I definitely don’t think Jon feels guilty for loving her “wrong” - he’ll feel guilty for not seeing what was so obvious and right in front of him! In his gut he knew what she was capable of, but he gave his word that she was his queen.
But make no mistake - this isn’t Jon’s fault or anyone else’s- it falls squarely on the shoulders of Dany.
“USA Today” gave the episode a scathing review. Vulture.com was kinder.
demthrones on Twitter is pretty interesting too. Most people are upset with the rushed resolution of this, and the years of character development and prophecies that are being tossed out.
The show has been true to the prophesies - the ones that have been in the show (as opposed to the books). For example, in the show, no prophesy about Cersei being strangled by a younger sibling (Valonqar) has ever been mentioned.
I don’t feel the character development has been rushed. It’s all been there. The latest Vulture dot com recap sums it up perfectly, IMO.
And who knows maybe Jamie does strangle Cersei under the rubble!
janieWalker - thank you for that vulture dot com reference. I think they looked at it from all sides. I’ve been sort of consumed with GOT this last month and the vulture site is good. glad you shared.
@bgbg4us - yes, I enjoy the vulture recaps too. And my entire family has also been obsessed/consumed with GoT this month.
(And you’re welcome - but to give credit where credit is due, MaineLonghorn first mentioned the vulture site a couple posts before mine). 
I’ll have to check out the vulture site… I’ve been reading a lot of fan theories on reddit r/gameofthrones (when the season started there they gave people the choice of who they thought would win the throne and there are subreddits for each of them. I went with Jon Snow at the time although I’ve also subbed to several of the others.
I thought last night’s episode was fantastic. I wonder if the people who hated it really want a clear ‘good vs evil’ winner and loser rather than seeing that we are all capable of evil. Or all flawed in some ways… Jon has a good heart but has made a couple of wrong decisions, same with Tyrion. Sansa is one of my absolute favorite characters but she started out very naive and her initial choice in season 1 to lie about Joffrey led to some bad consequences.
My oldest is graduating from college next Sunday afternoon. She’s the one who got me hooked on GoT in the first place but none of the rest of the family watches. We have to figure out how to ditch them after dinner to watch the finale on her little laptop ;-).
We’re going to a concert Sunday night and won’t get home until late. I informed DH that I would be staying up to watch GoT. To my surprise, he said, “Well, of course! Me, too!”
The Dany crazy angle was so evident I almost hoped it was purposefully misleading the audience for a different outcome. I have to admit the episode for me was hard to watch. I’m a true fan. Read the books years ago, haven’t missed an episode in all these years. I don’t know where it will end up except that Kit Harrington said the ending would be bittersweet. Jon killing Dany-too obvious, the exact same set up again-seems possible…I don’t think the ending is remotely evident and will be the antidote for the predictable episode 5.
After all this, being a Targaryen is basically a disqualification for kingship. I suspect Dany will put Jon out of his misery, then Arya will kill Dany, steal her face, fool the dragon and fly away, never to return. Tyrion and Sansa will rule the realm.
This episode was utter rubbish. The writers failed utterly in showing how and why Daenerys would slaughter thousands of innocent citizens after she has already easily won the battle. They also had Jamie revert right back to his superficial season one character and his and Cersi’s deaths were incredibly cheap and unworthy of their whole story arc.
No, that’s not it at all. If they want me to believe that Dany has just turned crazy Targaryen, they need to have put the work in over all the prior seasons instead of having her being dedicated to freeing slaves and killing tyrants and generally bringing justice and freedom to the ordinary people. She even chained up her beloved dragons in a dark dungeon after finding out that they had killed a child. She never freed them herself; Tyrion did. When she made a mistake, she tried to correct course and felt remorse. Worst of all, they seem to want us to believe that Jon Snow’s romantic rejection was the catalyst for her madness which is one of the most lame rationales for any female character’s turn to evil destruction I’ve ever seen. I didn’t buy it at all.
I can’t remember ever seeing the end of a series that was so interesting and complex, collapse so catastrophically. It’s as if the writers just got tired of the whole thing and decided to ignore all the character development of the past 7 seasons. I’m sure I’ll still watch next Sunday but at this point, there’s not much they can do that would be satisfying to me. I hate that they’ve made me feel like the whole series was a waste of time.
I feel completely the opposite. Dany’s arch has always been there. Her first impulse at any perceived wrongdoing has always been to burn things to the ground/slaughter/crucify. She said she wanted to burn entire cites to the ground (including innocents) in Meereen when the masters came back for their slaves, but Tyrion talked her out of it. She has always seen things in black and white, she has always spoken in grandiose terms about herself, always presented herself as a savior of the people (in giant narcissistic terms), and has never before been put in a situation where she isn’t the only worshipped leader among her followers. She has never shown any signs of being able to share power, and any just decision has been the result of her advisors (Tyrion, Jorah) convincing her to do something other than what she wanted to do.
Yes, she chained two of her dragons. In a place where she saw everyone as a slave that needed to be taken care of. In King’s Landing, she did not see the people that way. She saw them as people who have been following her enemies without rebellion. As people who wouldn’t love her anyway - she knew word would eventually reach everyone about Jon’s heritage, and they’d turn to him instead.
She didn’t turn mad because Jon rejected her. She just lost nearly everything - Missandae, her dragon, at least half her armies, Jorah…and the birthright to the throne in the first place. Mix that with the coldness to her of the northerners and her genetics and her well documented bad first impulses throughout the past seven years, and what she did is not out of character at all. If Tyrion had been right there by her side maybe he could have talked her out of it. Again.
Fascinating how people see the show so differently!
Janie - I completely agree. Dany had a coldness and undercurrent of mania to her throughout the series. And as much as I loved Jamie ( how rooted for him!) and wanted him to “stay good” - this was a man who tried to murder a child. Murdered his own cousin. Was in love with his sister. Yes, we saw a softer side to him many times, but he was always struggling. He simply could never overcome his obsession for Cersei.
And I know many took issue with Cersei’s death, but this is where I think the writer’s can’t win. Death by Arya or dragon fire or Jamie’s hand? Too predictable we all would say.
I would have had the Hound run her through with his sword as she passed on the stairs. Quick and unexpected .
Also agree. Daeny’s reason for living was to sit on the Iron Throne. She has lost everything along the way - her family early on, Khal Drogo, Jorah, Missandae, most of the Dothraki and now Jon. And she is realizing that the seven kingdoms may not embrace her, especially, when they find out about Jon’s real parentage. I agree that the writers could have made that clearer, but the signs have been there for a long time.
I think Cersei’s death was fine. Arya kiling her would almost be too much. Being crushed to death is not a great way to go. I was not surprised that Jaime went back to her - he wanted to save the world from the Night King but that didn’t mean he stopped loving her.
I liked the parallelism of having Jamie and Cersei together in S1E1 and again at the end.
While like many I hated that Jamie reverted to his dark side, what he did in the very first episode was unconscionable and he never paid for it. He had closure with Bran (sort of!) and I think he may also have had some idea that he could protect Cersei from her worst impulses. I really liked that they were killed by any one person, though obviously Dany is the most proximate cause of their death. At this point Arya disposing of Dany seems like the most like end. I really hope that throne is melted to nothing and no one ends up back on it and also that the dragons go - they give one person too much power. We’ve seen throughout the show that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. I also think that the seeds for Dany to go too far have always been there.