The game of thrones is over, just as Game of Thrones is over.
All six of the final episodes of HBO’s blockbuster fantasy epic Game of Thrones have aired, and we now know how it all ends. It’s safe to say this outcome is not what most people were expecting.
Vox’s Todd VanDerWerff says that “anticlimactic” might be the best way to describe the series finale: “It dutifully trudges through Game of Thrones’ remaining plot points, arriving at an ending that is just fine, until you start to think about it for a couple of minutes.”
On the one hand, the new ruler of Westeros is arguably someone whom many fans least expected. But on the other, given Game of Thrones’ often contentious politics, what happened in the final episode, “The Iron Throne,” was completely predictable, writes Vox’s Aja Romano.
Dig into our coverage of the show’s final season, from how Game of Thrones uses costume design to show power to an explainer on the next book in the Song of Ice and Fire series, The Winds of Winter.