By its final season, Game of Thrones had sacrificed careful characterization and mythology-building for slapdash plotting as the show hurtled to a controversial ending.

In it, Jon (Kit Harington) is revealed to be half Targaryen, half Stark, and a true heir to the throne, but it’s Dany (Emilia Clarke) who becomes a tyrannical queen of Westeros after going mad with rage and razing King’s Landing in dragonfire.

Meanwhile, Cersei (Lena Headey) and the Night King (Vladimir Furdik) die in anticlimactic demises, Missandei (Nathalie Emmanuel) and Varys (Conleth Hill) die too abruptly, and Bran (Isaac Hempstead-Wright) is named king in the last head-scratching decision in a season full of them.

Perhaps the worst offense of all? Coffeegate, when, yes, the biggest, most anticipated, most expensive show in the world left modern craft services items in frame during big scenes that became showstoppers for all the wrong reasons.

Martin may be sad that he didn’t beat the TV show to his story’s finish line, but he can console himself with the prospect of almost certainly delivering a more satisfying ending whenever (if ever?) he gets it done.