[Chiefspants]

They didn't cheat the ending - despite how angry so many fans are about Dany's resolution.

Cheating the ending would be Bran going back in time to prevent the war of the Five Kings, the whole show being a dream, fading to black (ala the Sopranos) and then changing your mind about what the significance of the fade was, even Breaking Bad is starting to worry me in this regard with more cast members and writers saying that Walt survived the finale.

They worked to give pretty definite endings to all of the main storylines. I didn't hate King Bran (I had been spoiled about this) as much as I thought I would when I realized it was actually King Tyrion.

With a world class writing room, I do think the story could have had a satisfying conclusion in 75 hours. I actually dislike Season 7 so much more than I used to (and actually prefer 8 to it by quite a lot). Ultimately, Season 7 missed the opportunity for key character development that could have helped the main beats in Season 8 "land" more than they did. Overall, I was satisfied with how it wrapped up for the survivors. But, this ending could have felt as impacting as the previous seasons, but because of the build-up, it fell short. It takes a show I had thought might be my favorite of all time and transformed it into one that I thought was "top 10". Still great, but it could have been more.