THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR "A DANCE WITH DRAGONS" AND SEASON EIGHT OF "GAME OF THRONES."
"Game of Thrones" is over. After eight seasons, 71 episodes, and countless hours, one of the most popular TV shows in the world has come to an end.
And people can't stop talking about it.
The entire final season of "Game of Thrones" is controversial, but the last episode, in particular, has caused a divide between invested viewers. The whole season had fans agreeing that while the acting and special effects were nothing less than amazing (as usual), the writing fell absolutely flat. Many have made arguments that the showrunners D.B. Weiss and David Benioff were trying to wrap us the show that skyrocketed them to fame quickly so they could move onto bigger projects coming their way.
In addition, fans are also upset that show executives didn't take advantage of the extra money and seasons HBO was willing to give them, saying this means there was no way they needed to end the series the way they did.
People are so disappointed with how season eight turned out that there's a petition to remake the whole thing, and it has been signed by over 1,000,000 people. I myself am happy with some aspects of the ending and thoroughly disappointed in others. For example, there was something nice to me about Jon Snow's story coming full circle, but Bran becoming king felt like a cop-out. To me, it was the easy way to not have to explain why neither Jon nor Daenerys sat on the iron throne.
But, the saga doesn't have to end that way. George R.R. Martin still has two left in"A Song of Ice and Fire," the book series "Game of Thrones" was based on. The most recent book in the series, "A Dance with Dragons," came out the same year the show did, 2011. The Night King isn't even a character in Martin's story (at least not yet) and "A Dance with Dragons" ended with Jon Snow being left for dead.
This tells us right off the bat, the show's story surpassed what has been written in the books so far by quite a lot. We don't really know how Martin will play out Jon's story (will he come back to life as he did in the show?) or when even when the Night King will make his appearance.
What we do know is that the story will more than likely feel far less rushed than it did on television and that Martin will not succumb to lazy writing with the epic he's spent 23 years on.
So if you were less than thrilled with the way "Game of Thrones" turned out, or if you just want more of the story you weren't ready to see end, catch up with the five substantial books that make up "A Song of Ice and Fire," buckle down for an incredible journey, and wait patiently for the real ending.
