I’m gonna contend that this was the greatest Game of Thrones finale I have seen. The way they wrapped up all the plot threads and the characters is absolutely beautiful and almost poetic.

We have three main players set up for the coming seasons. Cersei, Daenerys, and Jon Snow.

Cersei is a wicked monster and is nothing short of the tyrant the Mad King himself was. Her last few scenes of nuking the Septon and incinerating her son’s body clearly show she’ll burn down any resistance she encounters. Jon Snow is on the other side of the spectrum, and his exile of Melissandre symbolically and quite literally sets himself up as the ice counterpart to Cersei’s fire, carrying the nobility and morality of the Stark’s name and the entire show at this point.

Daenerys straddles in between. Even her last few scenes establish this as well. Her separation with Daario and not feeling anything but impatience could balance her towards the Cersei end, as well as her obvious use of dragons and burning shit down. Yet she clearly retains a human element to her; we see that she is still disturbed at giving up love for the throne when talking with Tyrion, in addition to her past crusade against slavery.

So at the end of season 6, we have three main players on different places of this spectrum of ice and fire, and the next two seasons are going to wage an epic three-way showdown between some of the greatest characters set up in American television. I am beyond thrilled to see the final wars in Westeros play out; I’ve never been this excited after a Game of Thrones episode.