It has been over a year since the final season of Game of Thrones hit our TV screens. Being condensed down to an ambitious 6 episodes from the usual 10, it is certainly easy to see why fans felt the final season was somewhat rushed. After years of anticipation, Season 8 of Game of Thrones was met with a mixed reception from fans and critics alike.
So where did it all go wrong? Well, the show ultimately ended up surpassing the source material from Season 6 onwards, leaving a lot of subplots and threads still open by the final scene.
These are 10 questions that we still have after the final season of Game of Thrones. Perhaps someday they will be answered. Spoilers to follow!
1) What happened with the Faceless Men?
This plot was sort of wrapped up at the end of season 6, but a lot of fans hoped that Jaqen H’ghar would make another appearance before the finale’s credits. Jaqen himself has a lot of unanswered questions, such as why was he in the cell in the first place when we first met him back at the start of the series? This will be a common theme by the way! On the same note, why did Arya not use the abilities she learnt here after her revenge on the Freys?
2) What happened with the rest of the Reed family?
You remember Meera Reed? She basically gave up everything for Bran, losing her brother Jojen in the process just to be dumped at the end. She has not been seen since dropping Bran off at Winterfell. As for her father Howland, he was a good friend of Ned Stark, yet he never made a TV appearance outside of any flashback scenes. This is perhaps just the show tying up loose ends to have one main plot, but there is nothing even suggesting what happened. Let us just give some appreciation to Meera though!
3) What happened when Tyrion brought a honeycomb and a jackass into a brothel?
This is semi-serious, but what happened?! The start of the joke has been told three times throughout the course of the show, but Tyrion would always get the punchline cut off. You just wish that Tyrion could have finally had his shining comedic moment. It seems it wasn’t meant to be.
4) Where did Drogon take Daenerys’ body?
Admittedly, this one has been sort of answered outside of the show. The show itself implies Drogon takes Dany to Valyria. But even then, it left a lot of fans scratching their heads as to why there was no shot showing Valyria or what Drogon did once he took Daenerys there. It ended up being a ‘disappearing into the sunset’ type of sentiment.
5) What happened with Varys?
A lot of Varys’ past remained mysterious and unanswered right until the end. Remember Kinvara, the other red priestess? She knew a lot about Varys and the voice he heard in the flames. Whose voice? Although these may be minor points, they were still included for a reason and left curious and inquisitive fans wondering what it meant. Varys is an unusual character, but it is easy to see fan’s frustrations to be teased with the script, only for it to never be mentioned again. It seems Varys’ secrets died with him.
6) What was Bran doing during the Battle of Winterfell?
For real though, what was Bran doing that entire time? He spent essentially the entire battle warging, but where to? There was never any indication or sign to what he was doing that entire time. Explanations have been given that Bran was scouting as ravens, but this is not explicitly said or hinted at in the episode. Understandably, this left many fans confused.
7) Why was the Night King determined to reach Bran?
Speaking of which, there has been a recurring thread of the Night King’s seeming fascination with Bran ever since he became the three eyed raven, but this is also never really given an explanation. This subplot falls completely flat as there is no hint as to what the Night King even wants with the three eyed raven. Fans had finally hoped for some clue during the Long Night throughout the tense final half of the episode, but it seems any reasoning died with the Night King. It can be argued that not everything needs answering, but in this case it leaves the White Walkers to be without any motivation.
8) Who was the Night King?
Much like the previous point, the Night King’s identity or hardly anything about this strange and mysterious character is ever revealed. Although mysterious characters can work charms in some cases, take The Joker as an example, the Night King ended up not having much complexity and unclear motivations. For all we know, the White Walkers wanted to just eliminate the threat and live in peace. Why were they heading north anyway? There was so much wiggle room to create a well written and possibly tragic character in the Night King.
9) What happened with the Maggy the Frog prophecy?
The theme of prophecies have travelled with the characters of Game of Thrones since the start of the show. This one is in a way answered, but it is still rather ambiguous. If you recall, young Cersei was given a prophecy essentially saying she would die at the hands of her little brother. Obviously, this does not transpire in the show at all. But that is why it is unanswered. How come the prophecy did not play out? Some have suggested that she did die IN the hands of her younger brother, Jaime, but this seems like a bit of a cheap twist.
10) Who was Azor Ahai?
From one prophecy to another, there is none quite as versed as Azor Ahai. To recap, Azor Ahai was a legendary warrior who wielded a flame sword called Lightbringer to vanquish the dark. Cool, right? However, this subplot turned to ash.
Just imagine how awesome it would have been for Jon Snow to pull the now burning sword out after stabbing Dany. However, no such thing happened and it was just a word tossed around for the last two seasons by Melisandre. After such a long-running and intriguing subplot, it’s sad it went out in a puff of smoke.
For those still wanting the Game of Thrones shaped hole to be filled, check out our House Of The Dragon update.
