The cruel off-script line that Jaime said to Brienne wasn’t included in the
scene, but it was revealed in the episode’s DVD commentary: “I don’t love
you. No one loves you.”

JACOB ANDERSON (Grey Worm): There came a point for Grey Worm
where he was like, “Enough is enough.” That’s why he left. Everybody
dear to him was dead, and he had only just learned how to have people
dear to him. This was a violent place, and I don’t think he wanted that
to be his existence anymore. He’s keeping his promise to Missandei,
and he’s sitting on the beach drinking piña coladas and protecting
everyone.

LIAM CUNNINGHAM (Davos Seaworth): The last day of shooting was the
scene where Jacob was going to kill the King’s Landing guards. It was
incredibly difficult because, coldheartedly, it was another filming day.
Jacob, Kit, and I, during shooting breaks, we were just looking at the
fucking ground. Whenever we caught each other’s eyes we couldn’t
prolong the gaze because we knew how momentous the moment was.
We knew David and Dan would be there at the end of the day
presenting us with shit. It was really weird, trying to be professional
while at the same time wanting to bawl your eyes out.

We knew David and Dan would be there at the end of the day
presenting us with shit.

The Iron Throne is the Westeros version of the One
Ring in The Lord of the Rings; it is a quest item many seek for reasons good
or ill, but even those with the best intentions are eventually corrupted by its
power. The Iron Throne and the One Ring also shared the same fate—each
destroyed by the mythical fire that forged it. That’s why Daenerys was
wrong for the throne—she wanted it too much—and why the Three-Eyed
Raven might be right for it, even if the choice feels unsatisfying.

ISAAC HEMPSTEAD WRIGHT (Bran Stark): I can’t imagine his government
is a barrel of laughs. It might be quite serious. And I guess for all
intents and purposes, Westeros is now a surveillance state, as Bran
knows everything everybody’s doing. Perhaps there will be something
missing in having a real emotive leader, which is a useful quality in a
king or queen as well. At the same time you can’t really argue with
him. He’s like, “No, I know everything.”

DAVID BENIOFF: It’s a fruition of Varys’s hopes all along. Who’s going to
think about what’s best for the realm? In order to be that disinterested
in self and family, it almost takes somebody who isn’t human. Because
we all have those flaws and weaknesses.

BRYAN COGMAN: In the pilot, Sansa’s main function was informing
members of her family and the audience that the only thing she wanted
was to get out of Winterfell and go live in the big city and become
queen—except a very different kind of queen than the one she ended
up being. So Sansa’s storyline was always meant to have a note of
triumph at the end, especially after all that she went through in the
middle of the series. It was appropriate that she came full circle at the
end. She was the only Stark left in Winterfell and leads the North into
this new chapter. She’s the best hope for the North’s future.

Arya Stark, on the eve of the Battle of Winterfell, shared a night with her
former traveling companion and friend Gendry, much to his surprise.
MAISIE WILLIAMS (Arya Stark): I thought the script was a prank.

In several ways, Arya had been on a path similar
to Daenerys. They were both heroic young women who were victims of
terrible tragedies who then became increasingly skilled at survival, yet also
murderous and apathetic. When Arya poisoned a feast at House Frey in
revenge for the Red Wedding at the opening of season seven, it was not
unlike Daenerys’s crucifying the masters—they’re evil as a group, yes, but
what about as individuals? Did everybody at the banquet deserve the same
fate? Arya halted a servant girl from drinking her poisoned wine, but what
if she hadn’t been right next to her?

BRYAN COGMAN: Both of the Stark girls were taken to the edge, where
humanity can get lost. They come right up to that cliff and then come
back. The final season for Arya was deconstructing this darker persona
she’s had to acquire and rediscovering a bit of her lost humanity.

Arya had her final conversation with the Hound. After witnessing so
much horror and devastation, she changed her mind about going after
Cersei. She made the opposite choice from Daenerys—to embrace life over
death—at almost the exact same moment in the series.

The Hollywood
Reporter’s Tim Goodman declared that the show, “ended just about as well
as one unwieldy, sprawling, complicated epic could end,” and io9’s Rob
Bricken wrote, “The story was the ‘best’ ending people could have hoped
for … things worked out shockingly well for everyone but Daenerys and
Jon—and that was exactly what Game of Thrones needed to get right.”

CAROLYN STRAUSS (former programming president at HBO; executive
producer): No matter what you do in the Twitter age, you’re going to get
killed. There’s always going to be somebody in their comfy chair who
has the better ending. It’s a very tricky balancing act, and there were a
lot of practical and storytelling factors that were never considered by
someone doing a theoretical finale. If other people have a better idea,
well, they can go do it themselves.

DAVID BENIOFF: There definitely are things [over the course of the show]
we would do differently. I don’t know if there’s anything I would want
to discuss publicly.

DAVID WEISS: Prince once said something about how any record you
listen to that you think is terrible, somebody worked themselves to the
bone to make it. So many people work so hard on any aspect of a thing.
So when you say something critical it can sound like you’re blaming
somebody else. And really the only people who are to blame are us—
and I sure as hell don’t want to blame us.

CHRISTOPHER NEWMAN (producer): I have no regrets about the last
season. I thought it was the best work we had ever done. Once
everybody gets over the anger of the Internet, they will see they wrote
some fantastic stuff. The criticism doesn’t seem to fairly consider what
an extraordinary achievement the whole thing was. When people say,
“I wasn’t happy with the ending,” I think, “If you wrote the ending you
wanted, I bet nobody would have been happy with your ending either!”

DAVID BENIOFF: After the final wrap party, the cast came back to the
house that Dan and I had rented. We were there until sunup. There was
a really steep hill in the back going down toward the water and all
these young actors were drunkenly rolling down the hill. I just
remember sitting there, watching them at sunrise, and thinking, “This
was a good job.”

And really the only people who are to blame are us—
and I sure as hell don’t want to blame us.

They did it very physical—“hold the door” with Hodor’s strength. In the book, Hodor has stolen one of the old swords from the crypt. Bran has been warging into Hodor and practicing with his body, because Bran had been trained in swordplay. So telling Hodor to “hold the door” is more like “hold this pass”—defend it when enemies are coming—and Hodor is fighting and killing them. A little different, but same idea.