One Last Time

All good things must come to an end. April 17, 2011. That was the day Game of Thrones premiered on HBO. I had never read the books, but I read about them and the show prior to watching, and honestly I wasn’t sure what to expect.

There were wolves, and rumors of ice zombies. There was a king and castles, family drama and some incest. Even back then I was reviewing the pilots of new shows I’d seen. I gave the pilot a C-. It was hard to imagine then what this show would become — both in terms of popular culture and in terms of my affinity for it. And yet, here we are nine-plus years later and we’ve reached the end of the journey. Tomorrow night the finale is here.

In the run up to Season Eight there was a lot of excitement. Much of it was pinned on our hopes and dreams for the series. As the episodes have played out, we’ve been forced to mourn the loss of what might have been to accept what is. For some, that has been easier than for others.

I get the complaints. I was a little sad at some of the choices made in the most recent episode, “The Bells,” too. But it’s time to step back and consider where we should be as the show nears its end.

First, this is the end of a great journey. It’s time to put aside all of what might have been, our theories and what we want to happen and enjoy the ride. After tomorrow there will never be another new episode of Game of Thrones. That means something. And it’s something worth celebrating, come what may.

Second, the pronunciations about this season are premature. You can’t fully judge a story until you’ve seen it all. The finale might be a let down for some, as finales of other great shows have been in the past. But it’s unfair, based on seeing 5/6 of something, to decide we know what we think of it in total. I have watched this show for nine years and I’m going to take a few moments Sunday to appreciate its final airing.

And now, about what we might see.

All right, then. Let it be fear.

We’ve seen all the warning signs, and we’ve seen the show pointing in this direction all season. But because we’ve always enjoyed Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) as a character, we wanted to believe that it wouldn’t go this way. I always had a feeling she wouldn’t survive the season, but I had hoped she might fall fighting The Night King, a more noble ending. But that’s not the story we got.

Daenerys has always ridden the line between benevolent and tyrannical. Even in the first season, we saw glimpses. But this final two seasons, she’s been dealt blow after blow. And in the past few episodes, seeing her closest advisors perish, the death of two of her children and the rejection of Jon (Kit Harrington) pushed her to the point of no return.

After winning the battle, and receiving surrender, she heard the bells and decided to destroy the city anyway. She said she didn’t come to be Queen of the Ashes, and yet that’s what she now is. And it’s clear the endgame is about who will rule the throne between Daenerys and Jon.

We watched as Jon saw her wrath. It made a serious impact on him, on Tyrion (Peter Dinklage), on Davos (Liam Cunningham) and on Arya (Maisie Williams) as she made her way out of the city. None of it was good. I’ve read many theories trying to justify her actions, or explain them away. And that, too, is understandable. We want to think there is a reason, but that’s not the show we’re watching. Last week was Dany’s breaking point, and this week will most surely be a reckoning.

And I believe we will — and have to — get a conflict between Jon and Daenerys. Only one can survive. And as it has been since before the season started, my money is on Jon. George R.R. Martin’s epic is called A Song of Ice and Fire. Jon, the progeny of Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyana Stark, is literally the embodiment of Ice and Fire. It has always been about him, whether we realized it or not. It is time for House Stargaryen to rise in the end.

The War to Come

Many of the predictions I made pre-season have either come and gone, or failed to materialize. But here’s some of what I hope we see in the final episode.

• I hope it is Jon, not Arya, that steps up to end Dany’s reign. We were denied the fitting end to the arc between Cersei (Lena Headey) and Jamie ( Nikolaj Coster-Waldau). I hope the same doesn’t happen here.
• I hope we see Sansa (Sophie Turner) and Brienne (Gwendoline Christie) again in the finale, and I suspect we will. I also hope we learn more about Bran’s (Isaac Hempstead Wright) gift and what it all means.
• I hope for a happy ending for Sam (John Bradley) and Gilly (Hannah Murray).
• Mostly I hope it is a breath-taking 80 minutes as we bid farewell to this epic fantasy series.