LIFE & CULTURE

It’s Been One Year Since The ‘Game of Thrones’ Finale, And Fans Are Still Mad

Twitter is resurfacing that old anger

Warning, this article contains spoilers.

As if times weren’t dark enough, fans of Game of Thrones have decided to reminisce on the finale one year after its airing. It’s been a year of ups and downs (to say the least), and with nothing else to do in isolation the world’s most dedicated fan base is dredging up old feelings for that final episode. 

The landmark finale featured Daenerys Targaryen being stabbed by nephew-lover, Jon Snow; Sansa Stark became Queen in the North, delivering the line of the series to Edmure Tulley with “Uncle, please sit”; and Bran Stark was named king. The Night King also turned out to have absolutely nothing to do with anything…

At the time, viewers were so passionately outraged by the episode that more than a million signed a petition to redo the series with “competent writers” (ouch!). Stars of the mega-hit, including Sophie Turner (Sansa Stark) and Isaac Hempstead Wright (Bran Stark), called out fans who were disappointed. 

RELATED: There’s A New Deleted Scene From ‘Game of Thrones’ Season 8

David Benioff and Dan Weiss, the writers and showrunners, even admitted that they weren’t equipped to handle the responsibility – which, understandably, outraged fans even further. 

Given all that history, it’s rather unsurprising that on the one year anniversary Twitter users have resurfaced their complaints. As Vulture‘s Nate Jones put it, “With 12 months of hindsight, is the episode really as terrible as it seemed back in 2019? Yes.”

See what people are saying below: 

https://twitter.com/galenbacharier/status/1262760950177755136?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1262760950177755136%7Ctwgr%5E&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.harpersbazaar.com%2Fculture%2Ffilm-tv%2Fa32600339%2Fgame-of-thrones-finale-one-year-later%2F
https://twitter.com/Eric_Bolkart/status/1262859742634008576
https://twitter.com/HalabiYoumna/status/1262809902688370693
https://twitter.com/gotsdaily/status/1262666521605701632?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1262666521605701632%7Ctwgr%5E&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.harpersbazaar.com%2Fculture%2Ffilm-tv%2Fa32600339%2Fgame-of-thrones-finale-one-year-later%2F

After the ending aired, actor Kristofer Hivju, who played the giant red-headed wildling Tormund Giantsbane, let it slip that the cast had actually filmed a different set of final scenes. 

“Well, we shot an alternative ending,” he told Metro.co.uk. “That was mostly for fun but I don’t know if I’m allowed to tell you about that.”

From there he got tight-lipped, in case he accidentally revealed which characters survived in the secret version.

“I won’t tell you!” he said. “But it was fun.”

While this “fun” alternate ending may never see the light of day, there is some hope for GoT fans still desperate for their next fix. HBO is working on a House Targaryen prequel show called House of the Dragon.

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