Warning: Major, heartbreaking spoilers for Game of Thrones below!
Do you think my insurance will allow me to bill Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss directly for all of the therapy I'm inevitably going to need after watching season eight? Because, now that the groundbreaking fantasy series is officially at an end, I'm about this close to losing it. Over the final six episodes, the HBO hit managed to kill off everyone from brave and badass defenders of the North, to a certain evil queen, to yet another dragon. If you're curious about how each character exited the series, or you just need a reason to cry today, keep reading.
If you've been a long-suffering member of #TeamDany, then we have some bad news: the Dragon Queen is no more. What's worse? She's murdered by her nephew/boyfriend, Jon Snow.
In the aftermath of her fiery reign of terror in King's Landing, Daenerys orders her men to kill all the remaining Lannister soldiers in the city, regardless of if they've surrendered or not. While Jon and Tyrion oppose this tyrannical course of action, Grey Worm eagerly carries out her orders. Dany later makes a speech boasting about how she's freed the people of King's Landing, and now intends to free those imprisoned throughout the rest of the world so she can further "break the wheel." And then, because all bets are off, she tosses Tyrion in prison for treason (for helping Jaime escape). Kind of ironic when you consider he just did the same to Varys, but we digress.
Seeing the ruthless extent of Dany's power now that she's claimed the Iron Throne — and knowing that he and his family will always be in danger because he threatens her legitimacy — Jon decides to visit his former boo while she's exploring the throne room all by her lonesome and set her straight . . . and by that, of course, we mean he straight-up stabs her after he begs her to end the madness and she refuses. Needless to say, it's an extremely disappointing end to Daenerys Targaryen. The fact that Dany, one of the show's few female characters (and also one of its most badass characters in general), goes out in such a lame, anticlimactic fashion at the hands of a man (who claimed to love her, FYI) is just . . . well, lame.
Drogon saunters over and proceeds to melt the Iron Throne, then carries Dany's lifeless body away with him. Where does he take her? Well, it's unclear. Bran does mention later on in the episode that he'll "find" Drogon, so we assume that he'll keep an eye on the creature in case he decides to start munching on the good people of Westeros in retaliation for his mother's murder.
He catches her by the neck, but in a shocking twist, she's able to drop her blade into her free hand and stab him in the stomach. The Night King then shatters into a billion little ice chunks, and every other wight and White Walker does the same.