Game of Thrones is over and I'm... pretty happy, actually

Game of Thrones was a pretty good TV show. It wasn't ever as great as people tried to make out: even the early seasons had uneven and sloppy moments. Hardly surprising, considering that Gerge R R Martin's books were uneven and had sloppy moments (apart from A Dance with Dragons, which was pretty much all bad all the time with repetitive diction and incoherent plotting, and Dany actually being out of character). Now it's over, and I really do mean that. George R R Martin will never, ever finish his books. I'd put significant money on that. I would be fairly surprised if he ever finishes the mythical sixth book. Let's not forget he's managed to write other books and screenplays while not writing The Winds of Winter. I doubt he has any idea how to end it or much inclination to do so. In all probability, until he dies and another author is recruited to finish it, the end of the show is the end.

And I think they did a pretty good job in the end. The last season was uneven, but then they all were. The Long Night was a terrible episode, granted. Daenerys was never particularly fit to be a civilian ruler. She's an absolutist: in season one she told her new followers that people who defied her would die screaming (and then set a witch on fire as if to prove the point). In season two she told the rulers of Qarth that she would take what was hers is blood and fire. Season three she mass-murdered the masters, season four she crucified hundreds over Barristan's objections. Even then, as Barristan the Bold looked a bit unnerved, Dany was starting to look a bit dodge. She always picked on people we didn't like, but how long would it be before her perception of who the bad guys were shifted to encompass a population? So it was absolutely right to have her do what she did. The internet is sobbing about a sudden personality change, but there's been no such thing: we've seen her from the point of view of the people being Dracarysed. She applied the same absolutist mentality to her war with Cersei.

This, of course, leads us to the real problem. The show had potentially written itself into a corner with the early dismissal of the Night King, the climate-change embodying scariest of old white men. There was suddenly a villain void which only the half-guessed at Dany heel turn could fill. Which meant that they'd backed themselves into a corner where their two antagonists were women and only a dour white man could save the world. We live in an age of resurgent misogyny, with the screaming hellbaby in the White House and attempts to confiscate women's rights popping up all over. It was a little cringy that a manly man was going to be the answer.

Quick aside: this didn't mean that the women in question didn't do a great job. Emilia Clarke's scenery chewing has been beautiful in the last two episodes, and Lena Headey was the MVP of episode 5. I'm not a massive fan of 'rocks fell and people died', but actually, Headey pulled off Cersei's fall perfectly. Her arrogance and superiority are chipped away systemically until she's a broken, cowering husk. There's a great moment as she crosses the maproom where some rubble falls beside her and the look of total terror she pulls off is stunning. After all she had done and been, Cersei Lannister died cowering, helpless and afraid, unnoticed by the younger and more beautiful one who had come to take her place and who was ultimately responsible for her death. She died begging to live, knowing that she wouldn't, knowing that House Lannister would die with her. She who controlled and judged so many lives couldn't, in the end, control her own fate. The prophecy about her little brother killing her came true twice over: Tyrion's plan to let her flee and Jaime's attempt to execute it led her to that dead end. It was a wretched, squalid end for a thoroughly unpleasant individual.

Back on topic. Entering the last episode, I did worry. Dany pretty much had to go, but Jon Snow's ascension made me uneasy. Partially because of the tacit endorsement of misogyny it could imply, partly because inherited wealth and position have given us some of the worst people imaginable. Jon being the 'true heir' made me feel a bit off.

They pulled it off pretty well. Dany makes pretty much the same speeches she always has, motivated by the same goals she always has, but now we're seeing it from the other side. Jon accepts the reality of what he has to do and does the deed. Kit Harington and Emilia Clarke have never had amazing on-screen chemistry, and it felt a little by-th-numbers, but it was the right result. Drogon's symbolic destruction of the Iron Throne and flying off into the mist never to be seen again was pretty spot on.

Then we get on to a bit of kinging. I liked this sequence a lot. The High Lords of Westeros just not being sure what to do. I liked that they laughed Samwell down... and then ironically moved in the direction he was proposing. An electoral monarchy is a step towards a Republic, which in itself is the forerunner of representative democracy. They weren't breaking the wheel, but maybe they were reinventing it to be less of a bastard. The choice of Bran did take me by surprise, but I liked it. Logical, distant, not who you'd expect and averting the wince-worthy stereotypical handsome-man action hero. Bran will be a good king because he's seen all this rubbish before. The closing sequence with Tyrion and the Small Council gave me a chuckle. It was a nice way to see off a group of beloved characters, an odd assortment of misfits and rascals. And that the Seven that we got to see Brienne again, majestic and powerful after that ghastly scene with Jaime at Winterfell.

And then the actual end. I'll tell you what I loved about this: everything. It was all Starks (counting Jon here, he's informed more by Ned Stark than by his blood) and that's as it should be. The Starks were the good guys we all routed for at some stage. They were torn to bits in seasons 2-4, and the narrative says that in the end, they had to emerge remade even stronger. Sansa becomes queen at last - not the way she expected to be all those years ago as a dreaming girl, but queen nonetheless. Arya does what Arya does - something nobody else would think of. I think she's the biggest winner of the entire show, honestly. She sails off into the blue yonder to adventures unknown. I hope we hear from her in the Land of Sequels, but if we don't, she was the hero we needed.

And then it's down to Jon, leaving the Wall behind with Giantsbane and Ghost. Let's be honest now, sending him to 'take the black' when the wall's broken and the Night King is slowly defrosting in a million shards was just a way to key Grey Worm happy. Sansa and the others knew he was off to the true North, the only place in the whole show where he seemed that happy. And in the closing shots, with a sprig of symbolic green showing, the show comes full circle, with men riding out beyond the wall.

It wasn't perfect. But you know what, it was fine. I felt happy at the end. I liked that seeing Ghost made Jon smile and laugh a bit. I liked that the Starks ended up ruling Westeros and that most people seem to have emerged largely alright. I'm very happy that Bronn and Davos made it out alive. In a show which seemed to want to spend years making us miserable because of faux-realism, I'm glad it went out on a fairly high note. None of the ridiculous internet conspiracies came true, and that's a relief. Stop for a moment and think about how utterly ridiculous it would have been to explain that the Night King was Bran or that there were suddenly a clutch of baby dragons or any of the other nonsense peddled online.

That was the end of an unevenly written show based on very undisciplined books. I for one am glad that I walked away with a smile, even if it's a slightly dumb one.