Off its 'Game'
'Throne' for a loss with last-gaffe effort: fans
And now their watch has ended — and left them fuming.
Many fans of HBO’s “Game of Thrones” were livid following what they saw as a lackluster ending to the hit series Sunday night — one that included another gaffe.
Just two weeks after a coffee cup was left on-screen, viewers spotted not one but two plastic water bottles in a scene of the mustwatch final episode.
“Imagine waiting 2 years then we get a s--tty season, the worst finale, 2 water bottles and a coffee cup left on scene wow. The fans don’t deserve this type of disrespect,” tweeted the account @AllthingzTV.
Another viewer posted an image of the character Cersei Lannister saying “That’s disappointing.”
But the disappointment was just beginning. Many fans were maddened by Mother of Dragons Daenerys Targaryen’s demise — she was killed by her nephew and sometimes-lover, Jon Snow — and by hero Snow’s banishment back to Castle Black.
“Create a character everyone loves, growth the expectation that he deserves to rule, then show that he is the rightful heir to the throne and finally when he saved the kingdom from a mad tyrant reward him with the f---ing North Pole,” wrote @aliceinhardrlnd. Celebrities joined in on the hate. Comedian Dane Cook tweeted a meme that said, “I held the f--ing door for this? - Hodor,” referencing one of the show’s most memorable moments.
But Kit Harington, who portrays Jon Snow, was blunt about the naysayers.
“Whatever critic spends half an hour writing about this season and makes their judgement on it, in my head they can go f--k themselves,” he told Esquire. “Because I know how much work was put into this.”
Meanwhile, Sophie Turner, whose character, Sansa Stark, ends up ruling the North, wasn’t surprised by the vitriol.
“People always have an idea in their heads of how they want a show to finish, and so when it doesn’t go to their liking, they start to speak up about it and rebel,” she told The New York Times by phone Monday.
Still, the series finale left at least one entity with a smile: It was a ratings boon for HBO.
The episode also scored the mostwatched single telecast record for HBO ever, with 13.6 million people tuning in when it aired and nearly 20 million total watching the finale across all of the network’s platforms.
Season Eight averaged 44.2 million viewers through Sunday, an unheard-of number for HBO, the company said.