HBO’s Game of Thrones ended with one of television’s most hated series finales, but even a possible season 9 sequel wouldn’t be able to fix where its ending went wrong. Games of Thrones, based on the A Song of Ice and Fire novels by George R.R. Martin, enjoyed eight seasons documenting the story arcs of noble families in the fictional continent of Westeros, including their power struggles and dynamics while vying for the Iron Throne. Once the series reached its fourth season, it surpassed what had been released in the beloved books, leaving the showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss to explore the characters on their own terms.

As one of the most popular television series of all time, Game of Thrones had extremely high expectations for its series finale and how it would wrap up the stories for its revered characters. In the end, the Stark siblings (aside from the deceased Robb and Rickon) went their separate ways: Jon Snow abandoned his Targaryen claim to venture Beyond the Wall, Sansa became Queen of Winterfell, Arya went off to explore beyond Westeros, and Bran (controversially) became the King of Westeros. Additionally, for the Lannisters, Tyrion became Hand of the King while Cersei and Jaime died in the Red Keep’s collapse. The most divisive part of the finale occurred when Daenerys, Mother of Dragons and Targaryen heir, was killed by Jon after destroying King’s Landing.

Related: Every Major House That Went Extinct In Game of Thrones

After Game of Thrones’ series finale aired in May 2019, fans all over the globe petitioned for HBO to entirely remake season 8. While some fans had no issue with the ending, others believed GOT destroyed eight seasons' worth of character development and rushed too many of the outcomes. There's currently no sight of a season 8 remake with Game of Thrones focusing on developing prequel series like House of the Dragon instead. The next option would be to make a sequel series following some of the beloved characters from Game of Thrones’ timeline in an attempt to amend fans’ tainted perceptions of the show. Unfortunately, not even a sequel could fix how Game of Thrones perceivably ruined many of the characters’ stories since so many of them were killed off - there’s nowhere to go with characters like Daenerys and Jaime unless the eighth season was retconned.

Game of Thrones Finale Jon Kills Daenerys

Some reboots to series with notably hated finales like Dexter are exciting for fans because the show can give a more satisfying ending. Similar to Game of Thrones’ open-ended finale for the Starks, Dexter’s ending was ambiguous, giving the series room to come back and fix where it went wrong. The problem for Game of Thrones is that, unlike Dexter, it can’t just bring back one central character to fix the entire show’s ending. With an ensemble cast, Game of Thrones would need to recruit most of the surviving major characters’ actors for a reboot, which would be nearly impossible with their busy schedules. Even if a Game of Thrones sequel focused on just one of the characters like Jon or Sansa that was enjoyable, it wouldn’t be enough to change how the majority of the original show’s resolution is viewed.

Game of Thrones left the Starks with endings that were ambiguous enough to possibly garner solo sequels, but the issue is that the Starks weren’t the most controversial part of the show’s finale. Aside from Bran’s election as King, many fans agreed that it felt right for Sansa to independently rule Winterfell, Arya to go off exploring, and Jon to leave with the wildlings after killing Daenerys. The stories that Game of Thrones would need to fix are the ones that it can’t - Daenerys turning into the Mad Queen can’t be reformed because she was killed off and Jaime can’t fulfill his character arc because he was crushed in rubble protecting Cersei. Maybe if Game of Thrones waits another decade to return to the series’ characters the bad taste of the ending will be removed, but it still may not be enough to save the finale’s legacy.

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