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I Wish I Were Surprised That Game of Thrones’ Finale Was Just Men Talking at Each Other

By May 20th, 2019, 3:05 pm

Closeup of Daenerys Targaryen in HBO's Game of Thrones.

Do you know what I love in my shows? Men talking at me. And that’s what the finale of Game of Thrones essentially delivered. I can’t say that I’m necessarily surprised, but at the same time, I’m just so angry but unable formulate why, exactly, until a man tweeted at me, comparing me to Daenerys Targaryen just because I wanted Sansa to rule Westeros.

My problem with a male-dominated show, written by men, where the entire final episode was a bunch of men talking is that women, both the characters in the show and those who watch it, are often then dismissed. Maybe that’s why I wanted Sansa to rule. Instead, she’s the queen of the North, and … fine, but what if she ruled Westeros from Winterfell? Did literally anyone think of that?

The end of the episode is simple enough: Bran is the ruler of Westeros because, you know, that makes sense, and then all the Starks kind of go their own separate ways. Look, I don’t really know what happened, because I started to tune out all the men talking, which means I probably missed 90% of the not-real plot.

Seriously, if men weren’t talking, men were killing women, so maybe it’s a good thing we had a lot of talking? The whole thing was just so many men that Brienne of Tarth, who would have gone back to Winterfell with Sansa, had to stay in King’s Landing, because otherwise, the entire council would have been men, instead of just most of it. Because there were no women left.

I truly wish I could watch the finale objectively, but it just makes me so angry that it has been diminished to tearing down female characters and raising up male characters who were not redeemable in the first place. Looking at you, Tyrion Lannister, with your killing spree of Shae and your dad.

What’s great, though, is that fans on Twitter haven’t let this go unnoticed.

I wish that Game of Thrones was better, and I wish the ending didn’t make me see red, but here we are.

(image: HBO)

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Rachel Leishman (She/Her) is an Assistant Editor at the Mary Sue. A writer her whole life but professionally starting back in 2016 who loves all things movies, TV, and classic rock. Resident Spider-Man expert, official Leslie Knope, actually Yelena Belova. Wanda Maximoff has never done anything wrong in her life. Star Wars makes her very happy. New York writer with a passion for all things nerdy. Yes, she has a Pedro Pascal podcast. And also a Harrison Ford one.