So. It’s finally over. Finito. Done.

Game of Thrones ended last night and depending on which of my friends you follow on social media, it either ended with a bang or a fizzle.

I’m sort-of between the two camps. Parts of the finale were tremendously satisfying –  I won’t spoil it for those of you who haven’t watched yet by going into detail – but the new ruler of Westeros was a complete surprise and a good one.

And yes, we lost some fabulous characters, but those that remained will no doubt remake the world. There were also characters in that mix that will cause a good bit of friction, so my mind – like any good readers mind – plays those scenarios into the future.

Really  – what more could any author ask?

Did the series end the way we all wanted it to end? Hell no. I’d venture to guess that it didn’t even necessarily end the way George R. R. Martin wanted it to end. Of course, we’ll never know that for sure because even though I love GRRM,  I do believe we will never see those final books in print. He’s got too much going on now, no time to write beyond the spin-offs he’s already committed to, and he’s built his writer’s block over the initial project into a writer’s wall 700 feet high that will stand for a thousand years.

What we got was a great story. And stories are more than books (as we were reminded last night). Stories don’t end. They go on in the minds of readers, in the talk around the water cooler at the office, over a beer at a bar, around gaming table, in a Reddit forum, across a dinner table – punctuated by a waving fork and heated discourse. And of course the memes. We’ll always have the memes.

Thanks George –  it’s been a wild ride.