May 21

Having read ALL THE TAKES on the series finale of Game of Thrones I have just a few thoughts. First and foremost is the question of whether the broad strokes comport with Martin's final vision for his own work. If they do, then what people are complaining about is a failure of TV to capture the fine details. 

Of course, *had* Martin finished his series we would know the answer, but to some degree, that he has not may end up ginning up more interest in his final two books. Readers (and some show viewers who became readers after the show started) are now even more incentivized to buy those books so all the unanswered questions (and those specific, point of view details) can be filled in. 

My second thought is that a show that came into the home stretch teasing us that its main character would break the wheel ended up being ground down by it. In an alternate universe, if the show ended with the season six finale The Winds of Winter (for all the criticism of seasons 7 and 8, this episode also exists after the end of Martin's book runway, so give Benioff and Weiss some credit) leaving to viewers (and Martin) the opportunity to wrap up the story some time in the future. I would have been fine with that ambiguity. 

Instead, the wheel breaker adopted the tactics of the wheel spinners and ended up being snuffed out because of it. Dany ended up ignoring the advice of some ("be a dragon" said Lady Oleanna) and continually stepped on the rakes laid out by others (most notably, her closest advisor Tyrion). When she rebelled against all of it because two of her dragons and two of her closest friends both died, and nuked the world she wished to inherit, she gets a blade in the chest for it. Ultimately, the wheel simply continues to spin, with some old people and some new people filling the seats deciding how to build sewers, replenish fleets, and all the rest. 

Finally, it is important to remember that this is all fleeting. Even writing less than 48 hours after the series finale feels dated. By next week, it will be forgotten. For as intense as all of the publicity seems in the moment, its half-life is vanishingly short once the story ends.

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