Game of Thrones is one of the most widely acclaimed TV series currently airing on television, and the new season is no exception to this trend. The final episode of the seventh season, which aired on August 27th, 2017, received the most viewings of the series so far, with 12 million viewing it on HBO and another 4 million viewing it using various streaming methods. As far as the season went quality wise, it was definitely a step up from previous seasons I’ve viewed. Fair warning, there are spoilers ahead, so if you haven’t watched the new episodes or want to watch the show, turn around. As the season opened, I had high hopes for it.

For clarification, Jon Snow is the King in the North, and Daenerys Targaryen is the supposed rightful heir of the Iron Throne. In this season, there was a chance for them to meet finally for the first time in the entire series so far. As it so happens, that exact scenario occurred before too long in the new season, and it was a truly amazing scene. When Daenerys Targaryen is introduced to Jon Snow by her adviser Missandei, every single title she has received in the series was spoken, taking more than thirty seconds, and Jon Snow’s adviser Ser Davos failed to introduce the King in the North, adding some humor to a dramatic scene that some fans have waited six and a half years for. As the season progressed there were some inconsistencies, but none that distracted from the sheer volume of plots being tied into this single seven-episode season. As far as the inconsistencies went, they were fairly minor, with characters going across the continent in minutes where in previous seasons it took several hours to accomplish the same task. This was, again, easily overlooked with the characters coming face-to-face with the looming threat of the army of the dead and the death of the long hated character Petyr Baelish (Littlefinger) at the hands of the Stark girls, Arya and Sansa and their brother Brandon. Years of plot building finally came together with Daenerys crossing the Narrow Sea to return to and conquer her home land, the threat of the White Walkers and their army proven to the skeptics of the series, and Cersei Lannister, the tyrant queen of Westeros being put in her place by the superior armies of the rightful queen.

The scene that stood out the most in all of the season up to the penultimate episode was a big one, with the leader of the un-dead White Walkers killing one of the three dragons belonging to Daenerys, and turning it from a fire-breather, into an ice-breather. Almost all of the previously mentioned plot points were dwarfed by three scenes in the final episode. The large cast had been set up to meet, again, for several years, and in the final episode it happened. Every main character of the series except for Arya and Sansa Stark met in the capital, Kings Landing, to finally see the threat of the undead for themselves, with Jon Snow bringing a wight (a corpse turned undead) to the capital. As the characters looked on, this finally proved to the world that the undead army was real, leading to an armistice between the three armies, one in the North, one in the South, and the one belonging to Daenerys (supposedly, but with a typical Cersei twist). The second scene was the destruction of the wall that keeps the undead from the rest of the world at the hands of the undead dragon. This scene was, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful scenes in the whole series, as the dragon breathed blue fire at the wall of ice, destroying it. The largest scene was another plot point that had been built up throughout the series. In a previous season it was revealed that Jon Snow was not Ned Stark’s son as everyone believed for a long time, but in fact the son of his sister Lyanna and of Daenerys’s older brother Rhaegar Targaryen. In the closing minutes of the final episode it was revealed that he was not the product of rape but in fact the product of a loving secret marriage between Lyanna and Rhaegar, which made Jon Snow not just a Targaryen and not a bastard, but the rightful heir to the Iron Throne, a claim even better than his aunt Daenerys’s claim. As the season came to a close with Jon Snow’s true name revealed to be Aegon Targaryen, after the great conqueror of Westeros, and with him unwittingly having sex with his aunt Daenerys.

Taking into account the culmination of many plots in the series, the fantastic visuals, and the bringing together of almost all of the main characters, the season was better than I had expected, and had me on the edge of my seat almost constantly. It was a season that was true to the show’s roots as a dark fantasy series, and an exciting treatment of the characters that have been favorites for the entire series. The revelations from the final episode didn’t quite come out of left field, but they were satisfying and exciting nonetheless. Watching this season was completely worth the wait that is inherent with watching any TV series. As a longtime viewer of this amazing (if somewhat hard to follow) show, I can only wait with anticipation as the final season of only three episodes come to a close. And if it is anything like the newest season, it will definitely be worth the watch.