'Now our watch is ended': History-making 'Game of Thrones' wraps up

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After eight epic years, 47 Emmys, oodles of hanky-panky and two dead dragons, "Game of Thrones" said an emotional goodbye Sunday to devotees worldwide of one of the most popular shows in television history.

The blood-spattered tale of noble families vying for the Iron Throne wrapped up with the 73rd and final episode of a ratings juggernaut that has demolished audience records worldwide and redefined weekly "event TV" for the instant-gratification Netflix generation.

While millions watched at home - some nursing a bittersweet goblet of Dornish wine, one would hope - thousands celebrated and mourned the show's denouement in bars, banqueting halls and back yards from Alaska to Armenia.

Paul Tudor Jones, dressed as Jon Snow from "Game of Thrones," during the Robin Hood Benefit 2019 at Jacob Javitz Center in New York City, May 13, 2019. /VCG Photo

"It was even more intense than a football finale," said Ewald Klautky, 52, one of around 200 fans gathered in Brennan's Irish bar in west Los Angeles, where guests were enjoying a blue whisky cocktail called "The Night King."

"I'll watch the episode again when I'm quiet at home," said 28-year-old manufacturing engineer Shobhana Chetri, who found the episode a disappointment on first viewing.

Hacked, burned, flayed

The scriptwriters have depicted many brutal scenes and had their characters hacked, stabbed, flayed, poisoned, decapitated, burned alive, eye-gouged and eviscerated - all in glorious close-up.

Even principal character Jon Snow (Kit Harington), whose fellow Night's Watch troops would chant "And now his watch is ended" at comrades' funerals, suffered the indignity of being briefly dead after a particularly violent quarrel.

(L-R) Maisie Williams, Kit Harington, Sophie Turner and Isaac Hempstead Wright attend "Game of Thrones" Season 8 premiere screening at the Waterfront Hall in Belfast, Northern Ireland, April 12, 2019. /VCG Photo

The adult themes have not deterred fans, however, nor the industry awards circuit, making the HBO show the most decorated fictional series in history.

Airing in 170 countries under its portentous tagline, "Winter is Coming," the show is also the most expensive ever, with a budget of 15 million U.S. dollars per episode.

The season seven finale set an all-time U.S. record for premium cable TV, with 16.5 million people watching live or streaming on the day of transmission and 15 million more tuning in later.

Season six was the first to move beyond the source material, George R.R. Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" novels, and carve its own path.

The cast of "Game of Thrones" attend "Game of Thrones" Season 8 premiere screening at Waterfront Hall in Belfast, Northern Ireland, April 12, 2019. /VCG Photo

Critics said it marked a return to form, with the narrative allowing female characters to demonstrate complexity and moral agency lacking in some of the earlier seasons.

The shortened final two seasons have been more of a mixed bag, with many fans furious over what they consider poor writing and a rushed conclusion of the various plot strands.

Controversies and more (spoilers follow)

Chief among the controversies has been the rapid descent into mass-murdering madness of Emilia Clarke's Daenerys Targaryen, arguably the lead character in an enormous ensemble that has called on the talents of such luminaries as Charles Dance, Sean Bean, Jim Broadbent and Diana Rigg.

The biggest question of all - who would be sitting on the Iron Throne when the show ended? - was answered... sort of.

In many ways the mystery turned out to be a red herring. Suffice to say the new ruler of Westeros had to bring his own chair.

The episode itself, poignantly entitled "The Iron Throne," proved to be as divisive as the rest of season eight.

Actress Sophie Turner attends "Game of Thrones" Season 8 premiere screening at Waterfront Hall, Belfast, Northern Ireland, April 12, 2019. /VCG Photo

There was the usual death and bloodletting but, perhaps unsurprisingly, a lot more talking than in some of the more action-driven episodes.

One principal character had the temerity to invent democracy, and was quickly shouted down, while another came up with colonialism, and was seen sailing into the sunset - and possibly off the edge of the world, for all we know.

"It was hacky; it was cliched. Every character left standing received a saccharine coda," said Kelly Lawler of U.S.A. Today.

"It was all too simple, too clean, even with a major death and a surprise contender for the Iron Throne."

Actor Kit Harington attends "Game of Thrones" Season 8 premiere screening at Waterfront Hall, Belfast, Northern Ireland, April 12, 2019. /VCG Photo

It was all too much for Clarke, the actress who inhabited a character with possibly the longest title in television history: Daenerys Stormborn of the House Targaryen, the First of Her Name, The Unburnt, Queen of the Andals, the Rhoynar and the First Men, Queen of Meereen, Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea, Protector of the Realm, Lady Regent of the Seven Kingdoms, Breaker of Chains and Mother of Dragons.

"The Mother of Dragons chapter has taken up the whole of my adult life. This woman has taken up the whole of my heart," the 32-year-old said in a heartfelt Instagram message to the "magical fans" that had made her a star.

"I've sweated in the blaze of dragon fire, shed many tears at those who left our family early, and wrung my brain dry trying to do Khaleesi and the masterful words, actions (and names) I was given, justice."

(Cover: The cast of "Game of Thrones" attend season finale premiere screening at the Waterfront Hall in Belfast, Northern Ireland, April 12, 2019. /VCG Photo)

Source(s): AFP