Phew !.....Well, the most followed T.V series perhaps of all-time has come to an end, kind of sad really for the many followers that have stayed glued to their screens season after season over the past 8 years.
At the end of series 7, the army of the dead led by the all-powerful Night-King have broken through The Wall and head toward Winterfell seemingly with little chance of being stopped.
However, Jon Snow (Kit Harrington) along with mother-of-dragons Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) with her two remaining dragons and her vast army generalled by Grey Worm (Jacob Anderson) will align themselves with Sansa Stark (Sophie Turner) sister Arya ( Maisie Williams ) and crippled brother Bran (Isaac Hempstead Wright) and their forces to make what appears a last-stand against the oncoming hordes.
They will be joined by many brave souls including Jamie Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau ) who despite his sister Cersei (Lena Headey) betraying her promise to join the fight feels as a matter of honour that he must.
The battle which took 55 nights to film is an intense affair and will see many of the well-known characters of the series fall.
Not forgetting the Night-King can raise the dead to fight for him, even the Winterfell allies that have perished.
After the battle concludes there is still the matter of the Iron-Throne and Kings Landing to deal with.
Will the calculating and evil Cersei prevail and hold on to her power, not very likely, her brother Daenerys's hand Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) who despite the treatment he'd suffered by her actions toward him down the years will try to persuade her to surrender saving the many that could perish and indeed herself, however she'll obviously not do so.
What follows will leave you gasping for breath in disbelief, though the series conclusion episode is because of events at King's Landing a little predictable perhaps, although an unexpected twist will surface.
Who if anyone will sit on the Iron-Throne and rule the seven kingdoms? - Daenerys, Jon Snow, Cersei or?
It is of little surprise that the budget was blown apart, having now watched the lavish detail of the battles and of course the dragon imagery.
I myself managed to avoid spoilers, recorded the series and watched it over the past few evenings.
I, of course, have pre-ordered completing what will always remain a treasured collection.
Footnote - There will be at least three spin-off series to look forward to, prequels I believe.
My personal response - To series 8 reactions -
The final-series has certainly caused much in the way of diverse views, some loving it, others hugely disappointed.
Truth is, for those that have loyally followed it from the beginning, each drew their own conclusions to how the series should end, each having preferences of who should claim the Iron Throne, should it have been Mother-of-Dragons Daenerys (must admit that was who I wanted to see claim it) or after the revelation in the final episode in series seven, has Jon Snow the rightful claim ? or indeed would the manipulating Cersei be able to hold out against the odds ? or as was seemingly possible could, with his hordes of the dead The Night King claim it ?
We all had our likely outcomes in mind..
As for the much-criticised battle for Winterfell, it was always going to be a battle fought at night in my view, the truth is this was one of the longest battle sequences ever filmed, it was an intense affair.
Other than floodlighting the action, not really sure how else it could have been screened, the fact is that the battle featured all the involved characters that had played key roles in the series play their part in the battle, many falling, many not.
Obviously also including the role of the dragons in proceedings
Although I like many felt the conclusion of the battle a little rushed, the expense involved in proceedings more than stretched the budget of that one episode...
Overall I feel expectations of many were perhaps too high?
How things turned out in the final part also appears to have been a disappointment to many, however, in my opinion, I did feel it had a sense of justice about it despite the twist in the tail.
How would Author George R.R Martin of concluded the series, probably very differently no doubt, however as all the books had not yet been concluded or indeed released, the spectacular series had to continue, and indeed conclude.
After all, we were all hooked-up from the off?

Awful series. Dont waste your money on It.

This season had the potential to leave a legacy and benchmark for all other shows to try and attain.
Unfortunately, it was akin to Parliament trying to deliver Brexit. Notwithstanding this season does have some brilliant moments, but the ending seems appears to have been written in half an hour . Google "worst writers" and look at top result.

So much was promised and nothing was delivered.

There is literally nothing at all good to say about this
None of it makes any sense and the steady drop in quality of the writing plumbs the absolute pits of incompetence
None of the characters behave in a logical way and the rushed silly ending just topped it off

Dreadful shambles ...

TL;DR, Season 8 (for me) made it difficult to rewatch this series knowing how it now ends there is little enjoyment in the final season. I know it had a lot to live up to and I was never expecting it to be perfect but what we got felt insulting not just to us but to the actors. If you're looking to complete your collection get this, if you don't really care about that then I suggest just buying the CD's because at least the music is worth it.

Reasons I enjoyed season 8:

1. The music - Just buy the CD if that's all your interested in, Ramin Djawadi did a fantastic job and "The Night King" song is easily my top 5 for GOT musical scores.

2. The Visuals - I mean it's GOT so, of course, the visuals are stunning, but this season they have been stepped up again, (when you can see them that is because this season is visually dark).

3. The acting - I do believe some actors have greatly improved over the seasons, the actors made the best of a bad situation.

Reasons that Season 8 disappointed me:

1. The story / Writing - There is a lot that does not make sense or at least wasn't set up better, who ends up on the Iron Throne does make some sort of sense in the context of the books but in the TV show that storyline was more or less ignored and so it seems a little random that, that is who ended up sitting on the throne.

2. Pacing - It's awful, Season 7 was bad but this season it asks you to suspend your disbelief a little too much, I know in a show about zombies and dragons that sounds stupid but there are things that just don't make sense.

3. Dropped storylines - even as late as season 7 storylines were being set up and those storylines were more or less dropped. If you rewatch seasons you will start to notice just how many plots were dropped for little to no reason.

4. Character development or lack of it - Characters are dumbed down shells of their former selves what made me fall in love with the characters over the seasons has been eroded away leaving us with these pale imitations which are a shame because the actors really do give a good performance.

5. What could have been - with stories coming out about how things "could have gone" it makes me wish that the showrunners spent more time on this season. HBO offered them more and they refused it, big ideas were pushed aside and it really feels like the showrunners just wanted to get this season over and done with.

6. The Night King - yeah it was badass at the moment but then I sat back and realised no that's not right, it the end it felt as if the Night King and the Army of the dead didn't really matter which is a shame because they could have been interesting but nope, in the end, it didn't have a huge impact on the overall story.

7. The ending - Yeah I could see (in the context of the books) how certain characters got the right endings but mostly I found the ending bland.

Tell the truth now! We are saw this coming! When it was announced that the final two seasons of Game of Thrones were only going to be thirteen episodes in total most of use feared the worse. How could they wrap up all of the storylines and character arcs in thirteen episodes? Season 7 was not great and all of the fast travel did not help, and it was a wasted opportunity the finish minor storylines and leave season 8 to focus on the real battle of the series the living verses the dead. But alas it did not which of course leads us on to this train wreck. I cannot remember another season of television that has left me so disappointed, I do not need to break it down, the internet has done that. All I can say is that this season is first and foremost a failure of writing then an issue of ego. The writing in this season is awful. Some of the best and intelligent characters are dumbed down and even worse outright betrayed just to fit the plot the writers wanted no matter how stupid their ideas were, armies that appeared to be wiped out in one episode are then back to full fighting force in another. Weapons that kill on sight in one moment and cannot minutes later, the list could go on. Then issue of ego, it is now clear the show runners(they who shall not be named) wanted to be done with this show, better offers on the table?, and would not let others who still cared about the show at that point take over. Like children saying "this is mine" and refusing to let go. All they wanted to do in this final season was to shock fans with " I bet you didn't see that coming" moments. So well done boys in trying to shock us you wrote THE WORSE SEASON OF TELEVISION EVER and what shocked us was HOW AWFUL it was and how pointless watching the previous seven seasons has now become. So Thank you.

No words can ever do justice to the what transpired in the final season of game of thrones, especially the finale.
To say it was an insult to the fans of the show and especially the book readers would be a gross understatement.

All logic, reasoning and common sense is dead. The great world building and deep lore, defiled and replaced with feces.

No way to justify it, only accept that our expectation where truly "Subverted" and the greatest show died a sad horrible death at the hands of two [Insert any insult you wish, it will be an understatement].

I only purchased the season due to my OCD as i have the other seasons. Plus the actors where mostly spectacular, not there fault they had nothing intelligent to work with. Dialogue we had been waiting years for was cut out, replaced with cheap cuts and events unfolding at the exact moment good writing was required.

Truly sorry for the actors who had their characters completely annihilated, especially the fantastic Emilia Clarke. She and Daenerys deserved so much better. George is our only hope now, lets hope he finishes the books because anything will be better than this.

OLD REVIEW BEFORE FINALE:
Disappointing Final Season so far and will likely to continue based on the leaks which have been accurate thus far.

All style with very little substance, to sum it up in one word = "Subversion".
will update review once finale airs but if leaks come true this will go down in history as one of the worst ending in TV so far.

Too many rushed plot points and illogical character twists with illogical decisions being made for shock value and cater to the lowest common denominator. Writers cant remember the worlds lore and are phoning it in at this point.
Its entertaining to watch i give it that, but as soon as you give it any though it all crumbles in the stupidity of it all.

The actors are fantastic and are superb in there roles, too bad they aren't given much to work with. Same goes for behind the scenes crew who create the sets, effects etc. all top notch work, to bad the great story telling is no longer present. Its a pity to see my favorite show go out like this.

I hope i am wrong and the final 2 episodes are miraculously masterpieces which wrap up the story in a befitting manner.

Who ever rates this higher than 2 stars is smoking some of the good stuff. This is the worst series ending ever it had no clever points to make and was in the end a disappointing. The characters where flat didn't use abilities learnt and went against who they where changing the outcome from start to end. Do yourself a favour and read the books