…Come to Play

"Sometimes the best way to baffle them is to make moves that have no purpose or even seem to work against you. Remember that...when you come to play the game." Petyr Baelish, "A Storm of Swords"

The time has come at last to name a victor of the "Game of Thrones." There are plenty of opinions out there regarding who will or should take the Iron Throne, but today I'm going to keep mine to myself...or at least try to.

Instead, I'm going to focus on all that "Game of Thrones" has given us over the last eight seasons. It has been a wild ride with ups, downs, twists, turns, and a few seemingly pointless detours, but we always ended up where we needed to be.

I will admit, there were a few moments when I questioned why I kept watching. I still go into the fetal position when I think about Khal Drogo's super-extra takedown of Viserys Targaryen. It was spectacularly savage. The sound of his gold-glazed skull hitting the ground haunts me.

It's those shocking moments and the involuntary, visceral reactions that made the show such a challenge and also so satisfying. Half the fun of watching was to see if the characters you loved to hate received a death worthy of their crimes.

If you think that all sounds a bit macabre, well then I'd like to welcome you to "Game of Thrones." Tell me you didn't tune in for over three seasons primarily to see how Joffrey would eventually meet his maker, and I will call you a liar.

Of course, just like there are many motivations for playing the Game there are also plenty of reasons for why we all stuck it out this long, and not all of them involved murder.

There are the short-lived romances. We've learned time and again that if you're not related and genuinely in love, one or both of you are not long for this world. There is one notable exception, and I'm still rooting for you, Sam and Gilly.

There is the wildlife, like the direwolves and Cersei's no-show elephants. Okay, fine, there are dragons too. It's all about the dragons, but what have they really done aside from taking out entire fleets and decimating the local livestock population? Direwolves are fiercely loyal and most importantly, fluffy and cuddly. #TeamDirewolf
Of course, what keeps us all coming back are the complex and complicated characters (and the direwolves). Honestly, I have emotional whiplash from the number of times I had to adjust my feelings towards characters. It was a sadistic rollercoaster ride through all the feels, and I'm not sure I'm ready for it to end, but end it must.

Fellow Throners (I'm just going to declare this a thing), try to remember that even if the series doesn't end how you think it should, that doesn't make it wrong. Sometimes it's nice to be surprised. Isn't that why we watch shows? If we knew how it was going to end, what would be the point? Anyways, it's been real. Here's hoping for an epic finale, and I'll see you on the other side.

...just for fun:

Because you cannot watch this too many times...and Chris Martin knows nothing...