Spoiler alert! The following contains details from the “Game of Thrones” series finale, Season 8 Episode 6, "The Iron Throne." Read our recap of Season 8, Episode 5 here.

This isn't what we signed up for.

When "Game of Thrones" premiered eight years ago, it was instantly clear that the series was something different. It was a story that broke the conventions of the fantasy genre, not one that was a slave to them. Yes, the "Thrones" books and the series were inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings," but they also subverted that trilogy. Ned Stark lost his head. The Red Wedding killed Robb and Catelyn. The Mountain killed the Viper. Tragedy and injustice were as baked into the series' identity as dragons and battles.

But that's not the show that aired its finale Sunday night. In the final episode, "The Iron Throne," the show was unrecognizable. It was hacky; it was cliched. Every character left standing received a saccharine coda. Closure is one thing, but pandering is entirely another.

Listen to this week's episode of USA TODAY's podcast, The Mothership, to hear our Film and TV Critic rate the "Game of Thrones" series finale.

"The Iron Throne" would have been a fine ending for a different kind of TV show. It would have been a satisfying landing for a series that had long warmed hearts. But over the years, "Thrones" has been a story in which the good guys didn't win and the bad guys didn't get their comeuppance. The world the writers built wasn't fair, and good people suffered for no reason. It wasn't a particularly rosy theme, but it was one of the reasons the series became such a massive hit; why it felt relatable in spite of its otherworldy setting. It was never a fairy tale. It was as messy and broken our world is now.

"Iron Throne" is an episode that will go down as one of the most controversial series finales of all time. For many fans, it is likely enough. Everybody who was good got their reward. Dany got her recompense. And there's even an argument to be made that by going for a happy-ever-after, "Thrones" subverted the expectations of everyone waiting for a bloodbath.

But that's not what "Iron Throne" did. It didn't gracefully swerve into another lane, it careened off a cliff. And looking back at the series will never be the same.

More: 'Game of Thrones' fan reactions: Fire and fury go beyond King's Landing

All hail Daenerys Stormborn

"Iron Throne" picked up where last week's "The Bells" left off: In the ruins of King's Landing as Dany's allies reckon with what their queen has done. Tyrion, as you might imagine, is particularly devastated.

Jon is not happy either, as he surveys the corpses of the civilians and their children that his aunt/lover killed. He and Davos come upon Grey Worm and the Unsullied about to execute a group of Lannister soldiers, even though they've surrendered. Grey Worm is still in rage mode and says he's simply acting on Dany's orders to kill everyone who served Cersei. The two almost come to blows before Davos intervenes; Grey Worm executes the prisoners anyway.

Dany, completely chill after her mass murder, is holding court for her soldiers, shouting about all they've conquered, and all the lands they will soon "liberate." Emilia Clarke gives her last Dany speech with gusto, and there's a legitimately stunning shot where Drogon takes off behind Dany and she momentarily looks like she has black wings.

Tyrion is not impressed, ripping off his Hand of the Queen badge when Dany confronts him about releasing Jaime. Dany has the Unsullied take him away.

The shield that guards the realms of men

Jon goes to see Tyrion in his makeshift cell, and Tyrion uses what he thinks to be the last few moments of his life trying to convince Jon to murder Dany. He says Dany has killed more people than Tywin and Cersei combined, that she's all fire and blood. He quotes the Night's Watch oath, reminding Jon that he's always tried to save people, and killing Dany could save many.

Tyrion also admits what most fans had theorized since the infamous boat scene in Season 7: That he's in love with Dany. Jon remembers something Maester Aemon said all the way back in Season 1: "Love is the death of duty." Tyrion responds: "Sometimes duty is the death of love."

I love you, you're perfect, now die

Jon confronts Dany, who is on the verge of finally sitting on the magically intact Iron Throne when he barges in. She's giddy and tries to reminisce about her childhood dreams of what the Iron Throne might look like, but he moves the conversation squarely into the realm of dead children and burned cities.

He's looking for remorse or reasoning – anything to convince him to keep following her. Instead, Dany babbles about some kind of utopia she'll create before begging him to take her back and love her again. (Of all the betrayals of Dany's character this season, her angry ex-girlfriend mood is the worst.) He says she'll always be his queen, kisses her and then stabs her.

Drogon immediately knows something has happened. He climbs into the throne room and nudges her body, trying to wake her, in the most genuinely emotional moment of the whole episode. When he realizes she's dead, he roars, and for a moment it looks like he may burn Jon alive. Instead, he directs his fire toward … the Iron Throne, melting it.

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The Iron Throne is definitely a symbol of what killed Drogon's mama, but the man who actually killed her was standing right there. The dragon's rage fire felt like one more instance where the writers wanted something to happen and didn't know how to get it done. The Iron Throne has to go? Well, a dragon can melt it. Or something.

And although Jon was an obvious choice to kill Dany, the series spent substantial time last week setting up Arya for the honor. (Sometimes a white horse is just a white horse, apparently.) Her big job in this episode is to say: "I know a killer when I see one." Pretty obvious, since Dany killed all of King's Landing.

Jon's move does probably explain, for those of us keeping track, why the Lord of Light brought him back from the dead in Season 6. (But it might have been easier if the Lord of Light had done something about Dany's access to dragon fire in the first place.)

Much like Cersei's death last week, Dany's demise felt like a dull, anticlimactic end for such a heavily invested character. Daenerys Targaryen came into the world with a storm, and she went out with a thud.

Congrats on inventing the Electoral College

"Iron Throne" skips over all the messy parts (How does Jon try to explain what happened? What are the Unsullied eating? How long does it take the news of the massacre to spread? Oh, and seriously, what are the people eating? Weren't we all really worried about winter?) and jumps a few weeks into the future.

What remains of the great families of Westeros (Sansa, Arya, Bran, Yara, Sam, Brienne, Gendry, Royce, Robin Arryn, Edmure Tully, a random Dornish guy and other nameless men) have gathered to figure out what's next.

Grey Worm and the Unsullied want Tyrion's and Jon's heads, but there's the messy question of who has the authority to order their executions.

Tyrion suggests that the assembled lords and ladies just pick someone to rule. There's a wonderful and awkward moment where Edmure starts to make a pitch for himself before Sansa shushes him. Sam suggests democracy but is immediately laughed off. Eventually, everyone turns back to Tyrion, and he makes a big speech before suggesting Bran.

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Yes, that Bran – the one who hasn't had a personality since Season 6 and is the least-helpful all-seeing magical raven ever. Tyrion goes on about Bran's story, calling him "Bran the Broken," and Bran is all too happy to accept. Everyone agrees to this, including Sansa, but only after Bran gives her the North as an independent kingdom.

There are so many problems with this scene. It's a muddle of messaging and themes for the series to go out on. Sam invents democracy (good job, Sam) and the high lords (even Sansa a little) laugh at the idea of the common people voting, but Gendry and Davos were born in Flea Bottom and sit among them. And hey, didn't "Thrones" spend most of the last episode making us care about those common people?

It makes sense that the Westerosi nobility weren't going to back full democracy, sure, but Tyrion's suggestion (a glorified electoral college) doesn't feel all that groundbreaking for a series that talked about "breaking the wheel."

How will some pandering noble all the other nobles choose be better than the son of whoever they picked last time? Is the moral that you should only try to correct injustice a little, in this case by splashing some oligarchy into an autocracy?

Even accepting this as a solution, why Bran? Tyrion talks about how great his story is, but Arya and Sansa both have pretty good journeys. Bran's story wasn't even worth including in Season 5.

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Bran's Three-Eyed-Raven identity remains incredibly sketchy. After surviving a mad king, a drunk king, a cruel king, a naïve king, a murderous queen and a second murderous queen, Tyrion thinks Westeros needs a robot king?

When offered the crown, Bran responded, “Why do you think I came all this way?" Did he arrange events so that he would get a crown? He may be just as bad as Dany and the rest in the end.

Bran is such a bewildering choice for king that it feels like an eleventh-hour reach for the kind of shock and awe the series once had, and a lame rebuttal to all those fan theories. Like most other plot developments in Seasons 7 and 8, it is mostly nonsensical. If it's where George R.R. Martin is taking the books, one can only hope he'll take more time and care to get there.

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There and back again

There might as well be a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage in Westeros.

Jon gets his perfect ending in the compromise between the Unsullied and Sansa and Arya, and heads back to the Night's Watch. (Who knows what they're guarding against these days?) Sansa goes north to claim her crown. Arya decides to go find out what's west of Westeros. Grey Worm leads the Unsullied to Naath.

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Bran is the king and makes Tyrion be his Hand to fix everything he broke. Also filling out that small council chamber are: Sam, now Grand Maester; Brienne, the new lord commander of the Kingsguard; Bronn, lord of Highgarden and master of coin; and Davos, master of ships. Just what they've always wanted! Even perennial squire Podrick Payne gets knighted and selected for the Kingsguard.

At a small council meeting, Sam waltzes in with a big tome, the Archmaester's official history of the wars that followed the death of King Robert Baratheon. The title of the book? "A Song of Ice and Fire." Even Frodo Baggins would shake his head at that line.

The series ends with a montage that intercuts: Sansa is being crowned Queen in the North; Arya is setting sail; Jon, whose hair has returned to its Season 1 glory, meets Tormund, Ghost and the wildlings at Castle Black and goes beyond the wall with them, seemingly abandoning the watch to live with the free folk.

It was probably too much to hope for after two bad seasons, but it would have been nice to watch a finale that felt like it was part of the same story we started with in 2011. Finding happiness and self-actualization may be the proper ending for a Hallmark movie, but not for "Game of Thrones."

Also of note...

Thanks for reading my recaps this year (and for the last four years, if you've been with me since Season 5). It may not have ended the way I had hoped, but I did love this show for a long while there. And I loved writing about it for you.

And now my watch is ended.

Say goodbye to the 'Throne':