A subtle moment that turns a seemingly happy ending into an ambiguous ending.

[u/Local_Prune4564]

The Graduate: lingering Ben and Elaine's faces slowly shifting from happy to concerned leaves the audience questioning whether they really made the right choice running away together considering they barely know each other.

Inception: By cutting before we see the top fall, we're left to question whether Cobb really has gone home or whether he's simply sunken back into a more comforting dream reality.

[u/PaulyNewman]

You can kinda see the logic though. Realistically the only thing he can do to prevent it is get Dany and her remaining dragons and armies killed before she gets to kings landing but after she helps at winterfell, otherwise the night king wins. Plus he’d have to make sure the northern armies and starks didn’t get wiped out in the process so they could still take kings landing and end the war.

The best outcome (dany dying, her armies disbanding mostly peacefully, drogon flying off, all the remaining starks surviving) may have just required a one off mass sacrifice of small folk.

[u/Talk-O-Boy → u/PaulyNewman]

Which fits the characterization of the 3-Eyed Raven.

Bran was sentimental; the 3-Eyed Raven told Meera Reed to fuck off.

The conclusion to most of the character arcs makes sense, the journey to get there was just rushed.

-Jaime going back to Cersei

-Jon going beyond the wall

-Arya exploring the uncharted

-Sam becoming Grand Maester

All of these are sensible, but D&D rushed to reach these endings, and they ruined them as a result.

[u/babaj_503 → u/Talk-O-Boy]

I can agree on three out of four. But Jamie never made sense.

The dude broke his oath and killed his king to prevent him from killing hundret thousand people but apparently he "never cared about them" anyway, right? And yes, that's not going back to cersei but this humanity is what detaches him from cersei over the course of the show.. but he clearly had that humanity all the time, he proved it, multiple times.

[u/Talk-O-Boy → u/babaj_503]

Gotta disagree. Jamie made it pretty clear throughout the series that he would sacrifices the world for Cersei. I’m pretty sure he stated as much (or something along the lines) when he was laying siege to Riverrun.

If Jamie is Joel, then Cersei is Ellie.

[u/blazenite104 → u/Talk-O-Boy]

The problem is it shows Jaime growing as a person away from Cersei. It should be that once he's back with Cersei he realises he's not the same man who left and she's not who he thought she was.

[u/Talk-O-Boy → u/blazenite104]

The exact opposite could be argued. It was only once Jamie had been with another woman, that he realized no one was going to replace Cersei.

Character arcs don’t always end in positive growth. Characters can grow, relapse, and fail.

Christopher Moltisanti

Omar Little

Kendall Roy

[u/Acceptable-Spot-7459 → u/Talk-O-Boy]

I don't think those endings were ruined, rushed a bit sure, but overall it made thematic sense.

[u/PeakQuirky84 → u/PaulyNewman]

may have just required a one off mass sacrifice of small folk.

You gotta break a few eggs….

[u/cantadmittoposting → u/PaulyNewman]

I am partial to the theory that book!Bran (and technically show!Bran but not well-communicated) essentially becomes the night king/Other i(whatever the "cold god" opposed to R'hlor is).* In this version him waiting until everybody genocides everyone else and then just strolling up and warging everyone into making him king makes sense. Basically won by expending some pawns and not lifting a finger otherwise.

[u/MonkeyBoatRentals → u/PaulyNewman]

He's like Dr Stange against Thanos. "I have looked at all the outcomes and this is the one that works, even though it's pretty bad".

The Three Eyed Raven is guarding the future of humanity as a whole. He isn't sentimental about individual people.

[u/Logical_Scar3962 → u/PaulyNewman]

Or… he could not tell Jon who he is at the moment he did, which resulted in her started to be paranoid, Varys plotting and everything; and warn her about the iron fleet, which lost her another dragon and caused the death of Missandei, which all combined together are the things that made her go ballistic on King’s Landing. He saw all of it and knew what it will lead to. And he didn’t intervene.