“Game of Thrones” final season was the most hyped of the decade. Now that Season 8 is nearly over, HBO’s cult hit can pat itself on the back for one big achievement: ABC’s “Lost” will no longer be the go-to example of an iconic show that blew it.

Since the finale hasn’t aired yet, this proclamation might seem premature, but its missteps are too glaring. In acting and production value, its quality remained stellar. But its writing essentially punished viewers for caring about these characters.

Did you enjoy following Jaime Lannister’s (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) redemption arc, where he started as a dick, then revealed that he’s secretly a hero for an act everyone misunderstands, then worked on becoming better thanks to Brienne (Gwendoline Christie)?

Screw you for caring and investing time in this! He’s inexplicably rushing off to die with Cersei (Lena Headey) despite knowing she put a hit on him — because the plot decided he should.

This was never a story bound for happy endings, as the show itself has said. It’s fine for Jaime to relapse from his better path and die tragically. It’s not what many wanted, but disliking something doesn’t make it bad. The writing not putting in the work to have it make sense, however, does.

Shows shouldn’t spoon feed their audiences, but the flip side of that is true too — shows shouldn’t demand that you fill in giant gaps in logic yourself just to make sense of it. And Season 8 was all gaps.

Were you a fan of Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) and her journey to overcome hardships and ascend? Joke’s on you, she’s a mass murderer! Like Jaime, her turn to the dark side is a demoralizing message about the futility of trying to be better than the past, but it’s not inherently implausible or bad. It could have worked if it was threaded thoughtfully instead of rushed, but so little care was put into it.

Are you a fan of Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) or Varys (Conleth Hill) for their scheming? Screw you, they’re suddenly idiots, openly committing treason where previously they had the smarts for stealth, because the plot needs it. Did you want to see Cersei wreak havoc, either because you love her or you love hating her? Screw you, she’s doing nothing but staring out a window before being squished by a building. This season spent more time on a fight between minor characters (the Cleganes) than an arc for Cersei, a lead.

No matter which character in this ensemble is your favorite, Season 8 found a way to make you regret it (save for maybe Sansa and Arya). George R.R. Martin once said that’s his fear, “What if I f–k it up at the end? What if I do a ‘Lost?'”

Congratulations, you didn’t. You did worse.

The fatal flaw in “Lost” was prioritizing character over plot, resulting in the latter leaving many fans unsatisfied. If only that was the problem with “Game of Thrones.” It’s done the opposite in its final stretch, prioritizing spectacle and half-baked twists, reducing once-complex characters into pieces on a chessboard — regardless of whether the moves track in logic and emotion for them.

Characters don’t need happy endings, but they do need to not betray the personalities we’ve come to know. Otherwise why even follow their journeys for years?

Nearly everyone developed amnesia. Tyrion forgot he’s smart, Jaime forgot saving innocents is a central part of him, Dany forgot she doesn’t want to be queen of the ashes, Cersei forgot she always has a plan (remember the Cersei who was ready to poison her own kids before her enemies could arrive in “Blackwater,” circa Season 2?)

In one of his “inside the episode” segments, co-creator David Benioff used that as an explanation for Dany losing a dragon to Euron (Pilou Asbaek) — “she kind of forgot” about his fleet, he said. It was so absurd an explanation that it became a meme online. When your story relies on characters having sudden memory issues, that’s soap opera level writing.

Season 8 was a middle finger to fans who invested in these characters’ journeys. No wonder some are so mad they made a petition to remake it. The idea is silly and entitled (and wrong, don’t do this!) but the underlying sentiment is somewhat understandable: it’s upsetting when it feels like the creators of a story spent less time thinking about it than you do.

The issue isn’t that events happened that fans didn’t want, or that beloved characters died or turned dark. The issue also isn’t that it’s impossible to please a huge fan base — “Avengers: Endgame” is a similar juggernaut, and that was well received. The issue is that so little care was put into the writing.

The formidable actors did a fantastic job elevating such thankless material, but facial expressions alone can’t convey why someone’s taking a wild turn that should unfold over several episodes instead of mere minutes. Character-driven drama, which this show used to excel at, was sacrificed for hollow “surprise!” moments.

Other TV finales that sparked massive fan backlash — such as cult fave “Lost” — at least had something to say. There’s no question that at least “Lost” honored its own characters.

It’s become a cultural joke to say something “was really the friends we made along the way.” But comically — for a show that used to be a gritty story teeming with philosophy — it turns out that’s its only impact. “Game of Thrones” was not this sloppy mess of a finish that insults those who’ve cared about it. It was the co-workers you discussed it with, the cab drivers and bartenders and Twitter followers. Its legacy is giving us a common pop culture language, as the biggest show in the world.

That, and being a bigger disaster, in the end, than “Lost.”