My Review of 'Game of Thrones': Season 8, Episode 6

In the last episode, we saw the fall of King's Landing by Daenerys on top of her dragon with her army of Unsullied and Dothraki. It was epic and it had been brooding for a a long time.

All the craziness that was episode five had me anticipating what would happen in the final episode. It seemed that all that needed to be done was done. Cersei had died and Daenerys now ruled the Seven Kingdoms.

All of the little side stories have kind of been resolved. There's not much more to explore other than the fact that Daenerys went all crazy and destroyed the city.

So we enter this final episode trying to determine what's going to happen to Daenerys. It was kind of obvious from the get go that she's not going to survive the last episode and someone else will have to be the new ruler. All predictions were pointing to Jon Snow as the new ruler.

This final episode is pretty much more of an epilogue of the events from episode five than anything else. The pace is much slower paced. It has everyone contemplating the actions of Daenerys and who the new ruler should be.

It starts off with Tyrion walking through Kings Landing. This is one of the longest, slowest walks I can remember. At one point I thought, is this it? He's just surveying the city? This is the final episode? We already know that this place was burnt to a crisp.

He finally gets to the Red Keep and looks for his brother Jaime. He finds the golden hand and starts to dig deeper. He finds his brother and sister dead and buried under a pile of rocks embracing each other. He obviously grieves over them and gets back to Daenerys's inauguration.

Jon Snow also walks through King's Landing and he's contemplating the destruction that Daenerys had brought as well. He tries to stop Grey Worm from killing the surrendered Lannister army. Grey Worm argues that they are traitors that need to be eliminated as requested by his queen Daenerys.

They continue the fast pacing of the scenes and jump to Daenerys's inauguration where Tyrion, Jon Snow, and Grey Worm stand beside Daenerys.

This is a really awkward scene because you'd think that Daenerys would be more pissed or at least a little crazy. Nope, she's calm and collected. She knew exactly what she was doing in the last episode. It was no mistake.

In addition to this, she doesn't seem to be pissed off at Jon or Tyrion. Well, that is until Tyrion pulls off his Hand pin and throws it away in front of her at the inauguration. He is totally against the killing of all the innocents of episode five.

Bold move from Tyrion, but that's what we kind of expect from him by now. He was going to die anyways because he released Jaime in the last episode. So they take him to prison. I thought they'd kill him right there and then! I was really hoping that Daenerys would try to burn him alive there, but to no effect because he is actually Targaryen as well. Oh well, you can't have all your theories come true...

So they imprison him. I didn't think that was very characteristic of Daenerys, especially after the last two seasons where she would burn people at the spot for betraying her. Especially if it was her Hand.

Anyways, Jon Snow visits Tyrion in prison. Tyrion explains to Jon that what she did was wrong and Jon knows this too. They discuss her motivations behind the mass destruction. Tyrion basically tells Jon that it was a long time coming. He goes on to say that she justified all her previous destructive behavior because what she thought she was doing was right. She will continue to do this to the whole world.

Obviously, Tyrion got into Jon's head. Jon meets with Daenerys and the two talk lovingly. At this point, I thought whoa the two will just live happily ever after together. The two embrace and share a kiss, and Jon stabs her with a dagger. Daenerys dies not too long after. I had a discussion with my brother about this part because I was hoping for a more grand death. He's noticed that only those that are supposed to be heroic are to get grand deaths in the series. The bad guys always get more subtle deaths, except for maybe Ramsey. I don't know about this, I'll have to look back again.

So Daenerys's dragon notices this and instead of killing Jon, it melts the Iron Throne. What the heck? Then it picks up Daenerys's body and flies away, never to be seen again. That was anti-climatic as hell. No more dragons and no death sentence for the guy that killed the queen.

Instead, Jon goes to prison. What the heck is happening? The scenes of him getting caught and going to prison are all lost because it snaps to the future where Tyrion is just getting out of prison to get his sentence.

There's no more ruler for the Seven Kingdoms so they have this council of elder statesmen. There's barely anymore kingdoms left. They're mostly all from the North.

There's a bit of comedy trying to make light of the fact that Sam tries to bring in democracy to the Seven Kingdoms. This really felt out of place and kind of felt like they're trying to push today's agendas into Game of Thrones.

Instead, what happens is utterly ridiculous. Tyrion, the prisoner, tells them all to make Bran the new ruler of the Seven Kingdoms because he's got no agenda with anyone in the Seven Kingdoms. He also has all the knowledge in the world, and doesn't want to be the ruler. They all agree! What the heck is going on here? Sansa quickly adds that the North will not be part of this and will be a sovereign nation.

Bran agrees to become the ruler of the Six Kingdoms, only if Tyrion is his hand. Oh my gosh, what the heck is happening? The prisoner is now the Hand of the Six Kingdoms? Grey Worm just sits idly while this is all happening... I guess he has to because he's a good soldier again.

They all decide that Jon Snow needs to be sentenced to life at the Night's Watch. This is coming full circle, as he originally left to join the Night's Watch at the very beginning of the series.

So they fast forward again. I have to say, the pacing from scene to scene has been really awkward in the eighth season. Everyone seems to be living out their dreams and happily ever after.

Bran is the new ruler of the Six Kingdoms. Sansa becomes the Queen of the North. Tyrion is the Hand of the Six Kingdoms with Sam as maester, Bronn as master of coin, Davos as master of ships, and Brienne as the head of the King's Guard. They've got to get a master of war and a master of whisperer. Podrick has become a knight.

It's pretty much everything that they all could have wanted.

Arya sails west because nothing's been mapped after a certain area of the West. I thought this was funny because there could be a good argument that the Seven Kingdoms exists on a flat Earth. Maybe it actually leads to nowhere.

Jon heads to the Night's Watch, but only to leave with Tormund and Ghost to live with the Wildlings and that's how the series ends.

Overall, it's a very anti-climatic ending. I realize it's an epilogue and nothing crazy is supposed to happen, but at least give us one big surprise. It was a real disappointment for me, but I understand ending an epic series like Game of Thrones is a daunting task. They tied a lot of loose ends, but they also left some things left open. I'll have to give this final episode a five out of 10.