Still Pondering the End of ‘Game of Thrones’? Here’s What to Read About It

“So justice prevailed — but what kind of justice? The new king is Bran: crippled, all-knowing, who wants nothing — with the evocation of the insipid wisdom that the best rulers are those who do not want power. A dismissive laughter that ensues when one of the new elite proposes a more democratic selection of the king tells it all. And one cannot help but note that those faithful to Daenerys to the end are more diverse — her military commander is black — while the new rulers are clearly white Nordic. The radical queen who wanted more freedom for everyone irrespective of their social standing and race is eliminated, things are brought back to normal.”

‘Daenerys was right: King’s Landing had to burn’ [Vox]

“The elective monarchy is a recipe not only for weak governance while the monarch is on the throne, but for rounds of civil war, foreign intervention, and possible secession in the period immediately before and after the monarch’s death. ‘Game of Thrones’’s new world order is going to lead, in the long term, to much more killing than a proper Targaryen Restoration featuring a healthy dose of law and order and centralized control.”

‘Evil or Incompetent: The Bran Stark Edition’ [The Ringer]

“‘Why do you think I came all this way?’ Bran said when Tyrion asked whether he wanted to be king. It seems like Bran knew this was going to happen all along. That makes him more Simba than symbol, and it also raises a strange question: If Bran knew that thousands of people would die for him to become king, is he, like Tickle Me Elmo, secretly evil? Or is he just blisteringly incompetent?”

‘“Game of Thrones,” “Lost,” and the Problem with Knee-jerk Finale Rage’ [Vulture]

“Everyone wants stories they enjoy to solidly land all their wheels on the runway and glide to a satisfying stop. But the last moment is not the only one that matters. If you enjoyed most of ‘Game of Thrones’ up until this past season, then you didn’t waste eight years of your life watching it. It just didn’t end the way you wanted it to. Frankly, that is not a TV show’s job. A TV show’s job is to move you and transport you and make you believe in the world and characters it has built. ‘Game of Thrones’ definitely struggled on that last front in its eighth season, but that shouldn’t negate what it accomplished and how enthralling it was for so many years.”

‘What Survives After the “Game of Thrones” Finale’ [The New Yorker]

“Get ready for the zombie horde: a deluge of high-priced epics, spinoffs, and rip-offs — serialized narratives in the ‘Thrones’ tradition, duly larded with sexposition and gravitas, fur vests and exotic weapons, each of them aiming to hit the demographic sweet spot. Most of these shows will miss, but something will hit. The real Iron Throne may be the sort of appointment TV that ‘Game of Thrones’ represented, something that I do think will survive. Technology alters television, but credulous, passionate, argumentative fanhood adjusts. You can’t melt that with a dragon.”