REVIEW-Game of Thrones (Season 8) SPOILER WARNING

(Source: Telegraph.co.uk)

Alright guys, we did it! We made it to the end of this roller coaster of an 8-year run. From Starbuck's coffee cups being left on set, to our favorite characters massively disappointing us in the home stretch, it's all over and it's time to talk about it!

Where to even start? To put it lightly, the fans aren't very happy with how the season and the series as a whole has ended. People in the show we've invested the better part of a decade in acted completely out of character, some of the most important ones even becoming villains at the end. Plot lines have either been abandoned or hastily brought to unsatisfying ends. And worst of all, it seems the only goal of the creators was to get this show finished as quickly as possible so they could move on to other projects.

The depressing part is this used to be THE show that people would point to and say how it was pushing the medium forward, that nothing like this has been put on the small screen to this effect. To a certain extent this is still true with the huge battle scenes and amount of money invested, but the quality of the show has dropped in the past few years, drastically hurting its reputation.

I'll put it this way, think of Game of Thrones as a marathon runner in a race. Roughly the first half of his race was fantastic, one of the best races we'd ever seen. Great pace, no signs of wearing and he's just getting started! But as he went on, he'd stumble occasionally, run out of breath,  seem unmotivated at points. But occasionally, just when you were losing interest in him, he'd do a dead on sprint and remind us why we were so excited to be watching him! Then came the last mile, finally the home stretch. We see our boy gloriously come over the top of the final hill - he's going to crush this last mile, no problem at all. And then he throws up. And poops his pants. Then falls to his knees. Now we have to watch him crawl, inch by painful inch across the finish line. It's disappointing, but half of us are just relieved it's over. The other half are angry for all the time they've invested.

This about sums it up - how I feel at least. And unfortunately, with the threats of Game of Thrones spin-offs and prequels looming ahead, it feels like the same runner is telling the crowd, "Hey! So I've got some 5Ks coming up! Would love it if you guys could come and watch!" All while being rolled away on a stretcher. The damage is done with this finale, it's going to be a tough sell going forward.

But for the in-depth review, instead of breaking this season down episode by episode, I thought I'd give my thoughts on how I feel about where the larger characters in the show were left off in the final season. I'm giving ratings of Strong Like, Like, Neutral, Dislike, and Strong Dislike:

Sansa Stark (Like) - I'll start with a positive. Even though she started the show as a spoiled brat, the harshness of the world trained her into becoming an effective leader. So leaving her as the Queen of the North made sense and was well earned. Good job Sansa!

Arya Stark (Neutral) - So I'm not crazy about how her character or how her abilities were used this season. Or how she was the one to bring down The Night King, or how she got sooooo close to killing Cersei and backed out at the last second. She's a frustrating character and it's always felt (like many of the characters) that the writers could never figure out quite what to do with her. But the idea with her as a traveling assassin is a cool idea. Out of all the spin offs that are planned, I feel like that would be one of the better ideas for one.

Sandor Clegane (The Hound) (Like) - I felt that The Hound's end was pretty well handled. The fan theory that he would fight The Mountain in the end was a cool idea that I was happy to see put on screen. It even proved to be one of the few great moments in the last episodes. But as good as the scene was, I just wish they had come up with a different way to handle his last scene with Arya. Its emotional, but are we really waiting until Arya's main target is 3 feet away before we talk her out of it? Anyway, the fight with his brother was awesome and it was a cool end to their characters.

Cersei Lannister (Dislike)- Yeah I'm not happy about this one. Words cannot describe how disappointed I am with how this hateful human being went out. Countless people massacred, thousands of lives destroyed, kingdoms put to war, all because of Cersei and her massive ego. You mean to tell me that after everything she's done, what takes her out is a few bricks to the head??? Unbelievable.

Jaime Lannister (Dislike)- Tough look for the Lannisters so far. But damn Jaime, what a disappointment. We started in a pretty low place with him, what with pushing a child out of a window, moments after having sex with his sister. But little by little throughout the series, after some taking some massive hits from the world, he changed our minds and proved himself to be every bit of the knight he was meant to be. Then he threw it all away to be with his heinous sister again. No real motivation for this, he just decided this on a whim. The writer's screwed him over big time.

Brienne (Like)- The season started off well for Brienne, not only was she knighted by Jaime, but she was able to sleep with him after years of build up between them. Personally, I think their relationship reached its peak with Jaime knighting her, but sleeping with him was an added bonus. Unfortunately, things took a turn for the worst when Jaime abruptly decided to ride off into the night to be with Cersei. I don't understand the logic behind this decision, and still feel bad for Brienne. But they ended the show with her as a member of the royal king's guard. So I guess it works out?

Tyrion Lannister (Neutral)- I honestly have no idea what happened to Tyrion as the show went on. He was amazing in the first few seasons. He showed that his wit could get him out of any situation, even if his small stature couldn't. But somewhere along the way he was reduced to a nearly useless character, making a never ending string of bad decisions. In the end, I thought that Tyrion accepting the job as Hand of the King (for the third time) was strange. You'd think that after years of dealing with this insanity, he'd want to retire to an island somewhere and live the rest of his life in peace. But it is what he's good at, so hopefully he'll find his footing again.

Bran Stark (Strong Dislike)- I honestly hate his ending. The kid that did nothing but sit around with a blank expression on his face is the king now? His powers were never even fully explained. Mostly he's just an extremely bland character who didn't do much of anything the entire show. The bricks that landed on Cersei have more personality than this guy.

Jon Snow (Strong Dislike)- This poor bastard deserved a happy ending more than anyone else, but unfortunately he didn't get it. I imagined that he would go back to the North when it was all over, but I never imagined he'd be banished to whatever remained of the Night's watch until the end of his days. He saved the kingdom by stopping Daenerys, but was punished for it. He went through it all: losing his dad and brothers, watching his girlfriend die in front of him, being killed by people he trusted, brought back to life only to almost die again in several battles, finding out his identity was a lie and finally, to top it all off,  having to kill another of his girlfriends because she went crazy. I don't know where you are now, Jon, I just hope you find some peace.

Daenerys Targaryen (Strong Dislike)- Sorry to the people that named your kids after her! Her ending is beyond insane. After all we've seen Daenerys go through, she decides to abruptly snap and burn everybody in King's Landing to the ground. This character deserved better than this. Or at the very least, make her turn to the dark side convincing. But for her to go lip smackingly insane in the last two episodes of the series is hard to take. I'm not sure if she even blinked in her final scene with Jon! I'm honestly surprised that nobody in the production period pumped the breaks on this. What a disaster.

Ghost (Strong Like)- Jon not petting his direwolf goodbye was an absolute tragedy. But at the end, the goodest boy in all of Westeros finally received a pat on the head from his human. Excellent ending for Ghost.

Having said all that, I'll always have a soft spot for this show. It came out right when I finished high school, and I happily dove head first into this world and fell in love with many of its characters. (And hated others with a burning passion.) This show has literally seen me into adulthood. Whether I watched it between classes in college, thought about it at work, talked about it at parties, or asked friends what they thought would happen next, its been on my mind for the better part of a decade and there's something special about that.

So yeah, this show has been frustrating and has driven me nuts, but ultimately, I'm glad I got to experience it as it went and be a part of the community around it. And luckily? The books haven't finished yet, so fans have something to look forward to if they ever come out. But now my watch has ended, and I need to find some new shows.