Eight years is a long time to be invested in a TV show — you could've done a PhD, gone for an MBA and popped out two kids, and not even concurrently.
Australia is now onto our fifth (though not our sixth) prime minister since Game of Thrones first went on air.
When Game of Thrones fans embarked on this journey nearly a decade ago, how many people could've predicted, with 82 minutes to go, that this would be the state of play?
It's an entirely silly notion but all those aggrieved fans are not without something of a point. We're not entitled to a do-over (do you have any idea of how expensive this show is to make, and at its worst, it's still entertaining) but fans are entitled to be annoyed with the direction or the execution of the show.
"Jon Snow the reasonable man" replacing "Daenerys the mad woman" would be a disappointing end to a compelling show. Photo / HBO
To that end - and this is the end - if Game of Thrones ends its 73-episode saga with a simplistic "Jon Snow the reasonable man" replacing "Daenerys the mad woman", then that is a betrayal of one of the series' most compelling characters.
There are many fans dismayed at the abrupt turn of Daenerys' characterisation in the penultimate episode when she burnt down a city and killed thousands of civilians as they were fleeing.
While the series has been slowly seeding in Daenerys' propensity for fire and blood, that Targaryen wrath has always been aimed at her enemies, never bystanders.
In the fourth season, when a goatherd brought the burnt remains of his three-year-old daughter to Dany, accusing Drogon of the act, the Breaker of Chains was mortified.
She caged Rhaegar and Viserion so her babies couldn't cause any more collateral damage.
That was one child. One accidental victim was all that it took to move her to action.
Daenerys chained up two of her dragons to avoid more collateral damage in an earlier season. What changed? Photo / HBO
And we're to believe that the same character would willingly slaughter thousands because, what, a couple of her friends died, and her boyfriend dumped her? Maybe she was on her period too.
It's not implausible that Dany would eventually become a mad Targaryen monarch but the show that spent seven seasons building her up as some great saviour, albeit a flawed one, tore her down in the space of four-and-a-half episodes (and what was probably about a month in the timeline of the show).
It was such a poorly executed move — unless we're supposed to believe that some kind of genetic mental illness just kicked in, which is problematic in other ways.
Now, I get the writers ran out of time and plot but they crammed in three seasons' worth of character development in three episodes and it stings. Or should that be burns?
Three years ago, at the end of season six, I wrote a piece that Game of Thrones had finally done justice to its female characters.
At that point in the story, Dany was on her way to Westeros in alliance with three houses lead by women (Olenna, Yara and Ellaria). Sansa had just saved Jon's arse at the Battle of the Bastards, Cersei had climbed up to that cold Iron Throne and Arya Stark had just reclaimed her name.
Also, we'd just met Lyanna Mormont, who was so magnificent.
Where are we now? Half of those women are dead and one of them has just set the world on fire for no real reason.
The final season of Game of Thrones has mishandled many of its female characters. Photo / HBO
And then there's that very awkward proclamation from Sansa that being brutally raped and manipulated made her strong. OK, then.
Two episodes ago, when Tyrion and Varys sat down to talk about power and who's entitled to rule, they set up the binary of Jon being even-tempered and Dany being very not. It's such a tired gender trope.
Now, with only the finale to go, that tete-a-tete feels like some sort of cringeworthy justification of what's to come.
s this what Game of Thrones is going to resort to? Because that would be a boring and predictable ending, the worst thing they could do.
Yes, the show may be set in an era where gender relations aren't as "progressive" or "enlightened" as now, but it's a fantasy series with dragons and magic fire so there's no real historical fidelity it has to adhere to. And it's still being made in modern times for a modern audience.
Who knows. Maybe the writers will surprise us and go with an ending that reflects the earlier complexity of its story and its characters, including Dany.
Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) has taken a drastic turn in the final season of Game of Thrones. Photo / HBO
Maybe Dany will still be dispatched (because her actions are irredeemable) but hopefully it won't be as simple as Jon Snow takes the literal seat of power, end of story. In 2019, the idea of concentrated power feels particularly insidious.
So here's hoping the Game of Thrones writers deliver one last surprise, one that is earnt and not a slap in the face to all the fans that have given them eight years of loyalty.
The Game of Thrones finale airs today at 1pm on Sky SoHo and will be available on Neon.
