Note: Spoilers will be found throughout

Over 12 million viewers tuned in to the “Game of Thrones” season 7 finale on Sunday night. The finale of the penultimate season broke the record not only for being the most watched episode ever, but also for being the longest episode in the series to date. Recently, some disappointing news broke saying we may have to wait until 2019 for the 8th and final season of the beloved fantasy show. So, with maybe two years before we get new episodes, let’s take a look back at the 7th season of the hit series and reflect on what we loved, what we hated and what made us scratch our heads in confusion.

Less episodes

The most notable, and frustrating, thing about season 7 is that the episode count has been condensed from ten to seven. When I first heard they were going this route, I was actually intrigued. There have been countless shows that have overstayed their welcome and, in turn, run out of compelling material. So, to hear that the creators of the “Game of Thrones” television series, D.B. Weiss and David Benioff, were choosing to end the show themselves and were giving the last two seasons shortened episode counts, I was excited. This meant that the amount of filler plotlines were most likely going to be diminished and that we would most likely see a lot more action. However, the final product was not what I expected.

There is so much story here that is blown through way too quickly because of the low episode count. Some episodes feature plots that would normally take a full season to unfold, but instead, only take up one hour of screen time. For example, Jon Snow’s expedition north of The Wall in “Beyond The Wall” sounds like an incredibly engaging plot point that could have lasted for multiple seasons. Instead, we get an incredible cast of characters and one awesome action scene before almost everyone is returned safely back to the other side of The Wall.

The problem with this breakneck action is that we never get a moment to reflect on what we just witnessed, because it is already being overshadowed by the next big thing. For example, Benjen coming in to rescue Jon and sacrificing his life would have been a huge moment in any other season, but here, it was sandwiched right between the death of Viserion, the dragon, and his resurrection. There are other similar moments that I completely forgot about, like the fact that Cersei may be pregnant. That revelation is a game changer, but not one that got ample time to react to because attention was immediately diverted away from it and back to the next action set piece.

Unnecessary plotlines

With the speed of this season, one would expect the majority of unnecessary subplots to be all but removed. However, we are still stuck with at least one unnecessary plotline. Nearly every main character has been busy furthering the main plot, but we’re still stuck with three episodes of Arya, Sansa and Littlefinger playing each other in Winterfell. The conflict here felt very forced and overall I just really did not care. Other than Littlefinger’s fantastic death scene, there was almost nothing to like about this story.

It’s also annoying that with only a handful of episodes left they spend time on filler stories while there is still so much viewers are aching to see. How are they possibly going to fit revelations like Jon Snow’s parentage coming to the public, The Prince Who Was Promised, The Night King’s backstory and other mysteries into the final season? Perhaps next season will just be alternating between huge twists and epic action scenes.

Not the game we knew

The other main gripe I have about this season is that it just does not feel as much like “Game of Thrones” as past seasons have. Tonally, it is a bit different. Maybe it is just the speed at which they’re going or where the story has progressed to, but it makes me miss the early seasons more.

“Game of Thrones” used to feature sprawling narratives with many different characters that can be killed off at any moment no matter how essential to the plot they were. This is the reason I initially got into the show, I mean, what kind of show is bold enough to kill its main protagonist off after just nine episodes? Every season brought us at least one devastating tragedy whether it was The Red Wedding, the mind-numbing death of Hodor, or the destruction of the Great Sept of Baelor. We so often got these edge-of-your-seat moments in the earlier seasons, so I was expecting a major body count this year. However, it was mostly just the now irrelevant characters who ended up biting the dust, like the Martells, and the rest of House Tyrell, although Olenna’s death was an utterly fantastic scene.

I remember watching Jon Snow take on a white walker in the season five episode “Hardhome.” The entire sequence had me shaking in my seat, wondering if my favorite character was finally going to meet his end, but as of season 7, I am rarely at the edge of my seat. “Beyond The Wall” featured seven fan favorite characters take on the entire army of the dead and all live to tell about it, save for Thoros, arguably the most expendable of the seven. We’re at the point where there are no more characters being introduced and so few left that the majority of the living characters are essential to the plot and therefore cannot die. It’s a shame, but it is something I think will change as we head into the final season.

A better budget

While the condensed episodes were mainly an annoyance, they did make way for a much larger budget, a budget they used to great extent. There were quite a few times I had to remind myself that I was watching a TV show and not a big-budget blockbuster movie. This was most apparent in the final moments of the best episode of the season, “The Spoils of War.”

“The Spoils of War” featured the most epic and large scale battle we have seen on the show to date. With a much larger budget, we were finally able to watch Daenerys unleash Drogon and witness the power we have heard so much of throughout the series. Watching Bronn fire a giant crossbow at Daenerys while riding an airplane sized dragon will forever be up there as one of the most exhilarating scenes in the show’s history.

While serving as a bit problematic as far as pacing issues go, the action set pieces were downright stunning. One thing “Game of Thrones” has always done well is diversifying action scenes and battles. Watching thousands of soldiers slam into each other over-and-over can get boring. Luckily, this season spiced it up with dragons, white walkers and an eerie standoff in the middle of a frozen lake. It will be interesting to see how the final season shakes up the battles now that it is mostly just the dead versus the living.

Almost as entertaining as the battle sequences was the unexpected interactions between characters who had finally just met, and characters who had not seen each other in seasons. Uniting all the characters, essentially on the same side, meant there were a lot of hatchets to be buried. Surprisingly, Jon and Daenerys’ long awaited meeting was not the stand out. It was fun to watch, even if it was a bit predictable, but hands-down the best reunion of the season was Tyrion and Cersei in the finale.

These two characters have such a complex relationship that hasn’t been touched upon since season four. Cersei shows how she is just like her father in that nothing is more important than her family, however she blames Tyrion for the death of most of their family. She struggles with how she should approach her estranged brother, while Tyrion loses his cool, as he rarely does. Their back and forth was so emotional, in that we have seen so much history between the two and their relationship that we understand what each one feels.

The Finale

Many of these character reunions appeared in the finale, but ultimately “The Dragon and the Wolf” fell a bit flat as a setup for the finale season. I still have no idea how the next season is going to play out and it almost feels as if the writers are unsure as well.

The finale featured nearly every main character that was still living confront each other in King’s Landing, and yet it didn’t feel as epic as it should have. Sure, the small interactions between supporting characters were great, but Jon’s reunion with Cersei was nothing special, and the two most powerful women in Westeros’ long awaited meeting only featured a few lines of polite dialogue.

The finale was almost entirely salvaged by its final few minutes as Jon and Daenerys finally got together just as we got confirmation that not only is Jon the son of Lyanna Stark and Rhaegar Targaryen, but he is a legitimate son and not a bastard. This is such an interesting development and makes me extremely excited for the dynamic between Jon and Daenerys after this.

The final moments of the season featured the inevitable fall of The Wall, or at least a section of it. Honestly, this moment was not as hard hitting as I thought it would be, maybe it’s because we all saw it coming. Of course, it was pretty cool to see The Night King flying an undead dragon. But the assumed off-screen deaths of Tormund Giantsbane and Beric Dondarrion were disappointing, especially because they could have had much more deserved deaths while they were beyond The Wall. There is a chance that they are still alive though.

All in all, season 7 of “Game of Thrones” was another strong chapter in an amazing show, even if it wasn’t the strongest. I still cannot wait to see how the final six episodes wrap up so many epic storylines, even if we may have to wait two more years.