'Game of Thrones' finale flies high, but can't quite stick the landing

"When you play the Game of Thrones, you win or you die." After eight seasons, 73 episodes and a much-debated flurry of plot developments, that signature first-season line proved the key to unraveling the "Game of Thrones" finale, which, after a season that was at various times exhilarating, exhausting and aggravating, came as something of a relief. Given the passions ignited (somewhat literally, given all that dragon fire) by the penultimate chapter, the finale couldn't possibly please everyone. While there was validity in many of the criticisms, a degree of silliness crept into the discussion, starting with those who actually signed a petition petulantly demanding some kind of cosmic do-over. In the final analysis, the first half of the last episode -- both written and directed by showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss -- was strong, logical and satisfying. Overall, it wasn't a one-for-the-ages finale, held up against the best examples of them and the abundant hype, but it wasn't an unworthy one either. Inevitably, Jon Snow (Kit Harington) was forced to choose between love and morality, realizing that the warlike tendencies of his queen and lover, Daenerys (Emilia Clarke), wouldn't be slaked by her demolition of Kings Landing. Yet the key moment came prior to that, when Tyrion (Peter Dinklage, superb as always) first grieved over his fallen brother, then led Jon through a recitation of Daenerys' ruthlessness. It was, albeit belatedly, a reminder of all the terrible -- or at least merciless -- things she had done, which made her vengeful destruction of the city less out of character than a demonstration of her quest to win the Iron Throne.