To be honest I don't see any way that finale alone could have won many people back over; it had to conclude the controversial plot that previous episodes had started on, and it had to put the final stamp on a saga so huge that the original creator has found it unfinishable.
Well, it won me back over. It was unrealistic to expect a complete 180° turn, but given where the story was, I think they ended in the best possible and realistic way, giving closure to many characters.
Some random thought:
- Wonderful scene of the aftermath of the carnage with Tyrion walking in King's Landing's ruins.
- Speaking of Tyrion, they finally redeemed his character by giving him awesome moments: his witnessing of the destruction, the finding of his siblings, him tossing away the Hand pin like a boss, the wonderful speech to Jon, and of course proposing Bran for king.
- More on those two final points: the "Everywhere she went, she killed evil men and we cheered her for it" was awesome. With a more detailed, paced out, and nuanced story, it would have been a very poignant moment, to make us all reflect on which kind of character we were all rooting for all these years. Too bad it was made too simple, "she loses a dragon and Missandei in one episode, she sees the Red Keep and snaps for reasons, didn't you hear the voicover at the beginning with all that stuff about the coin flipped and the crazy Targaryen blah blah blah".
- I like the choice of Bran, in a simplicistic, "Well, what the hell do we have to lose anyway at this point" kind of way. Really, everyone died, the capital's destroyed, good luck finding a proper claimant to the throne, might as well start over and change the system - break the wheel as Dany wanted.
- Jon totally pulled a Ramsay on Dany, "Let me hug you so I can kill you". Roose Bolton sends his regards.
- Drogon calling for mommy.... AWWWWWW
"If mommy doesn't get the chair, no one will", good job in melting the Iron Throne and it was poetic that he flies away with mommy. Poor Dany, she didn't even place her butt on the throne, you're there, try it out at least once girl!
- LOL at the final council with the actors brought out just to play one more time a non talking Robin and a sadly talking Edmure.... Sansa shutting him up was funny
and random tanned dude in a golden robe just to prove that Dorne was still there somehow?
- Epic closure for the Stark siblings. The scenes of all of them meeting their final fates was glorious and as nice as it could get.
What to make of this finale? it was not perfect, for example it's unbelieavable that Jon wasn't dismembered on the spot after he killed Dany, and his Targaryen heritage meant nothing whatsover - he could have been just Ned Stark's bastard for real, and his story would have been exactly the same. The small council is made up of fan favorite characters who get a sitcom ending of "Well, life goes back to normal", maybe that was a bit too much on the nose. And I'm sure people can point out many other things that make no sense, and I'm equally sure I'll eventually agree with them.
Still, as RuRoRol said, it was one hell of a complex ending that they had to achieve, and overall I think they managed to do justice to the story. Many characters got closure and we have a sense of the main story ending. The incredibly rushed season could have not been saved by the finale, but it was a good finale, it made overall sense and as I said gave closure, and it leaves a nice taste in the mouth, it's no Dexter as a lumberjack, not at all. I'm satisfied with it and I can look forward to an eventual rewatch, after the heat of the delusion for some of the choices will have cooled down, knowing that the ending is nice and coherent and gives a sense of conclusion.
Oh, and what's "West of Westeros"? I decide that west of Westeros you find East of Middle Earth. Arya will eventually reach the lands east of Mordor and will make her way to Gondor and hang out with Aragorn and will eventually go around Middle Earth and visit the Hobbits in the Shire, AND NO ONE WILL EVER CONVINCE ME OF THE CONTRARY