How Avengers: Endgame Delivered A Satisfying Ending (But Game Of Thrones Failed)

How Endgame Delivered: While there are a lot of characters in Endgame - and that's a massive understatement - the movie is about six characters of all others: Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanoff, Clint Barton, Bruce Banner and Thor. They were the original six Avengers, the characters we've followed the longest, and they all get satisfying closure.

Tony Stark's arc was closed masterfully when he sacrificed himself to snap Thanos and his army out of existence; despite what Steve Rogers said in the very first Avengers, Tony was the one to make the sacrifice play. He had been since that movie, and there was no better way for his story to end.

Steve Rogers had grown into the present, but he's always been a man of the past, so him getting to go back in time to live with the love of his life was an emotional and fitting end for him.

Natasha finally got to wipe out the red in her ledger when she sacrificed herself for the soul stone, Clint got to reunite with his family, Bruce made peace with his Hulk form when he figured out how to bring the two together as Professor Hulk, and Thor finally figured out how to be himself, rather than who he's expected to be. Thor may not be going away just yet, but his arc is definitively closed.

And while they weren't the focus, Nebula, Scott, and Rocket also got great moments and satisfying characterization, even though it's not the end for them.

How Thrones Failed: Some characters had pretty satisfying arcs - like Sansa, the Hound and Theon - but season 8 failed more characters than it did good.

Varys was unceremoniously betrayed and executed. Jon had a fitting end, but he was surprisingly sidelined for much of the season, and as we've already covered, the reveal of his parentage meant nothing in the end. Arya got screwed over in the last three episodes as her journey to King's Landing was completely wasted. Seriously, she was told by Sandor not to kill Cersei and be consumed by vengeance, except her journey since season 1 ended has been defined by vengeance, so this made absolutely no sense.

Brienne's arc was finished before the Battle of Winterfell, but she lived just to be heartbroken by Jaime. And speaking of Jaime, he had his redemption arc betrayed by going back for Cersei after just hooking up with Brienne, and he says he never cared for the innocents of King's Landing. Apparently, Jaime kind of forgot about how he killed the Mad King to save the innocents of King's Landing.

But no character was screwed over worse than Daenerys. Her transformation into the Mad Queen had potential, but it was executed poorly, and then she dies in the immediate aftermath of her actions. Just...come on.