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By Daniel Arkin
This article contains major spoilers about the series finale of “Game of Thrones.” If you’re still catching up on the season or haven’t watched the final episode yet, bookmark this page and come back another time. You’ve been warned!
“Game of Thrones,” the 73-episode fantasy saga that has swallowed up more cultural oxygen than just about any other modern television series, bid farewell Sunday night. The final 80-minute installment threw a few narrative curveballs, wrapped up some loose ends, killed off one final pivotal character and — surprise, surprise! — divided the internet into warring camps.
Here’s a look at the early reaction.
WE HAVE A WINNER
The oddsmakers were right.
In the end, Bran Stark (Isaac Hempstead-Wright) was named ruler of Westeros, just as the Las Vegas gambling world predicted. But since Bran is the all-seeing Three-Eyed Raven, it’s probably safe to assume he called this one, too.
The dark horse pick made sense to some long-time viewers, including Vox television critic Todd VanDerWerff, who argued that the ending was foreshadowed in George R.R. Martin’s books and fit into the HBO adaptation’s obsession with the “impossibility of just leadership.”
But some on Twitter jeered Bran’s ascent to power, poking fun at the character’s ethereal aloofness and the narrative left-turns that took him to the top.
DAGGER TO THE HEART
Jon Snow (Kit Harrington) may know nothing, but he’s certainly crafty with a blade.
In a dramatic moment that some fans saw coming from a mile away, Jon fatally stabbed Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke), the Mother of Dragons, the Unburnt, the Breaker of Chains, the Mad Queen. Twitter mourned the loss of one of the show’s most recognizable characters
ICE CREAM THRONE
It’s technically incorrect to say Bran claimed the Iron Throne because, well … the Iron Throne doesn’t exist anymore. The fire-breathing dragon Drogon, devastated over the death of Daenerys, melted the royal seat.
The symbolism was not lost on the internet, and some mocked what they saw as a heavy-handed storytelling device.