content: 
  ===Audience response===
  ''People'' magazine's Aurelie Corinthios said, "Despite the major plot developments, viewers were left wanting more from a series that has spent the last eight seasons meticulously building up complex characters." She added that "others defended the episode, arguing that while the action was definitely 'rushed,' the main elements still made sense. Plus, didn't we always know we wouldn't get a happy ending?" Lauren Hill of ''Chicago Tribune'' relayed that the episode "had fans very divided. Some are upset by the character arcs of certain fan favorites while others saw this coming for quite some time."
  Reviewers made note of the negative fan reactions, especially to Daenerys's arc. Estelle Tang of ''Elle'' stated that many "commented how unbelievable it was for Dany to turn into a violent vengeance-seeker this far into the show's run." ''Esquire'''s Gabrielle Bruney said viewers felt that the writers threw out her character development. ''The Hollywood Reporter'' staff stated that "many ''Game of Thrones'' viewers see Daenerys' acts as nothing short of a character assassination, laying blame for the treatment of the Dragon Queen, Cersei and the series' other powerful women at the feet of creators David Benioff and Dan Weiss." Mehera Bonner of ''Cosmopolitan'' wrote that "fans are absolutely devastated" by the episode and that they bemoaned "how the show has been completely ruined by sloppy writing and terrible decisions." She said, "While you could argue that we should have seen a lot of this coming, many fans were... I don't know... just hoping for better? Better than Daenerys becoming a Mad Queen just because it's in her family history and better than Jaime reverting to his season 1 personality just because it’s the easy way out."
  A petition to HBO for a remake of the eighth season of ''Game of Thrones'' "that makes sense" was started on Change.org after the fourth episode "The Last of the Starks" aired, but went viral after the fifth episode "The Bells" aired. The petition described showrunners David Benioff and D. B. Weiss as "woefully incompetent writers". As of May 18, 2019 (i.e., the evening before the series finale), it has amassed over 1 million signatures. The petition was labelled as "ridiculous" by actor Isaac Hempstead Wright (who plays Bran Stark), and "rude" by actor Jacob Anderson (who plays Grey Worm). Sophie Turner (who plays Sansa) said that "there's always been crazy twists and turns" on ''Game of Thrones'' and "so Daenerys becoming something of the Mad Queen — it shouldn't be such a negative thing for fans. It's a shock for sure, but I think it's just because it hasn't gone their way." She argued, "All of these petitions and things like that — I think it's disrespectful to the crew, and the writers, and the filmmakers who have worked tirelessly over 10 years, and for 11 months shooting the last season."