Game of Thrones: my love-hate relationship with The Winds of Winter

Oh My God. The season finale of Game of Thrones was incredibly tense and satisfying filled with epic moments and long-awaited events. Containing my excitement was harder than usual and even though there was a lot to purely love or hate this episode, there were a lot of things to love and hate at the same time. Let’s see - for the last time this year - the most loved and hated characters of Game of Thrones!

I loved…

• Loras - he was so broken in that scene, confessing to all those stupid crimes The Faith blamed him for.
  

• It was so good to see Margaery loosing her cool and cursing in the High Sparrow’s face. And I hated that her and Loras died. She was such an interesting character, I would have loved to see more of her. I understand she couldn’t have had much of a role in the endgame - winter is here after all - but I’m still going to miss her.
  

• When I saw the first glimpse of wildfire, I got way too excited. And it may sound terrible but I admit that I found that scene pretty satisfying. I hated The Faith with such passion, I loved that basically none of them survived this episode. Lancel finding the wildfire was also something I liked a lot - beside the High Sparrow he was the biggest hypocrite.
  

• I loved Cersei. She is definitely a horrible person - I might be one, too - but I was actually happy she succeeded. I just loved everything about her in that first 25 minutes. The amount of control she had - over herself and everyone else - was equally incredible and terrifying. Oh and her scene with the nun - one of the bests of the finale! Again, this episode did not fail to satisfy. I also have to mention Lena Headey’s acting because Cersei would be nothing without her.
  

• I don’t know how to feel about Tommen’s suicide but I don’t mind him being dead at all. Cersei’s prophecy just proved to be true.
  

• Jaime’s sass is back! He became such a loveable guy, I hope he’s not going to die soon.
  

• Sam is easily the most awkward character of the show. Also, I want that library!
  

• Jon and Sansa had some pretty good scenes this season and they’ve both come a long way, I loved to see them at home together.
  

• This is not the first time I say this, but seriously, Lady Tyrell is the best! I really wasn’t happy to see the Sand Snakes back again but the way she handled them made up for it. I do not know how to feel about this alliance - and Varys - though.
  

• Daario being romantic was really sweet and I felt bad for him, especially when Daenerys told Tyrion how much she just wanted to get it over with. Which takes us to Dany - who is not making it easy to love her but she was finally interesting in this episode. I loved her scene with Tyrion though - he is finally getting some recognition! And my prediction was right about them not arriving in Westeros just yet.
  

• I did not expect to see Arya with a different face but I loved it! And Walder Frey is finally dead.
  

• Bran’s vision was another one of the best scenes - we finally saw what happened at the Tower of Joy and R+L=J is basically confirmed! What more could we wish for?
  

• Lyanna Mormont being her badass self and declaring Jon as the King in the North. It’s going to be epic when his parentage gets out next season. I’m not sure Jon wants to be a king though. But he must be happy about the recognition and he deserves it.
  

I hated…

• The High Sparrow and all his little sparrows obviously.
  

• I did not expect Qyburn’s little birds to be murderous. Even though I’m happy those people are dead, I’m not really okay with the fact that children killed them.
  

• Walder Frey is (was) one of the most disgusting men on this show.
  

• Melisandre had to be held responsible for the shit she’s done. That scene also made me love Ser Davos even more.
  

• Not Ellaria and the Sand Snakes again! The whole Dorne storyline was terrible so far, I really don’t want to see more of them. Not even with their new, interesting allies.
  

• Littlefinger is another disgusting man. His wish to marry Sansa wasn’t really surprising but he finally said his true desire to rule out loud. I loved Sansa’s reaction - but I was a bit concerned about that look at the end. She seemed happy about people kneeling before his brother - who is not really his brother - but what did her fading smile mean when he looked at Littlefinger? Is she just worried about him trying to hurt them or does she want power for herself as well?
  

• I felt conflicted about Cersei sitting on the Iron Throne. As I said I was happy about her getting revenge but I don’t really like the fact that she’s done everything for this moment. I mean, I liked to think her family is more important to her than power. I can’t wait for the battle of the Queens!
  

Although this season had quite a lot of filler episodes, I think the finale did not fail the audience. Almost every moment of this episode was extremely satisfying. They not only gave a lot of people what they deserved - good or bad - but also confirmed at least half of the biggest fan theory and Cersei’s prophecy. We got a really nice setup for the endgame - it’s going to be a really long wait. Until then “Winter is here”.