Game of Thrones finale: the answer to the biggest question in TV

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This was published 4 years ago

Opinion

Game of Thrones finale: the answer to the biggest question in TV

By Charles Purcell

On Monday we watch the final-ever episode of Game Of Thrones. We find out the answer to the biggest question in television: who will sit on the Iron Throne?

It is the question audiences have been asking for close to a decade, belonging alongside other such TV brainscratchers such as "Who shot J.R.?" and "Who killed Laura Palmer?", asked and answered by previous generations.

Game of Thrones has more Emmy award nominations than any other show.

Game of Thrones has more Emmy award nominations than any other show.Credit: HBO

Whether you're a fan of HBO's blockbuster series – based on George R.R. Martin’s book series, A Song of Ice and Fire – it is worth marking this moment in history.

There has never been a bigger show in my lifetime, and perhaps even yours.

It is the show that launched a 1000 pirate ships (the record for the most pirated show in history being just one of its Guinness World Records). It is the show that won dozens of Emmys.

Many of us have spent hundreds of hours watching GOT. Not just the official 73-odd hours of the entire eight-season arc, but rewatching the series again and again, looking for hidden clues. Perhaps, as some have suggested, it's not a TV show, but a 73-hour-long movie.

Jon Snow ... the seventh season of Game of Thrones was illegally downloaded or streamed more than a billion times.

Jon Snow ... the seventh season of Game of Thrones was illegally downloaded or streamed more than a billion times.Credit: HBO

And the discussions. Oh, the discussions! Fans have spent hour upon pleasurable hour discussing Game Of Thrones theories. Who is the Prince Who Was Promised? What's the deal with the Three-Eyed Raven? Why does Hodor only ever have one line? Will Jon Snow rise from the dead? Well, der!

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I think we should study the source books at school. I think George R.R. Martin is the Shakespeare of our age, his works belonging on the syllabus just as Lord Of The Rings and The Hobbit did in my youth. (Let’s hope Martin finishes the final GOT books.)

Maybe you're not a fan. Maybe you think GOT is a show about "tits and dragons", as screen star Ian McShane dared to suggest. (McShane is allowed to get away with it: his show Deadwood rivals GOT for its excellence.)

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Maybe you're tired of being asked if you watch GOT. Maybe you’re even a fan of the books and think the final season has been rushed and the quality has gone downhill ever since they ran out of original source material from the books. Maybe you've signed the petition going around asking the producers to rewrite and remake the entire final season.

Yet for the rest of us – and there are squillions of us – there will now be a dragon-shaped hole in our hearts. As the final episode screens at 11am on Monday, we shall raise a toast, Queen Cersei-style, to the show, knowing that we may never see its like again.

For now, our watch has ended.

Charles Purcell is a freelance writer.

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