This post contains spoilers.
Congratulations! You survived eight seasons of Game of Thrones! Every good fantasy narrative needs someone alive at the end to tell the next generation exactly what went down — the wars, the incest, a sword named Needle, and the way Cersei’s hair never grew — and for much of Game of Thrones, it seemed like that person would be Samwell Tarly. Not quite! On the series finale Sunday night, Sam presents the newly appointed hand of the king Tyrion Lannister with a hefty book, titled A Song of Ice and Fire. According to Sam, the definitive text of everything that went down since Robert Baratheon’s death was written by Archmaester Ebrose. Also known as: Jim Broadbent’s character.
“What’s this?†Tyrion asks, examining the book. “Archmaester Ebrose’s history of the wars following the death of King Robert. I helped him with the title,†Sam replies. Tyrion mumbles something about how he’s in for some heavy criticism, but Archmaester Ebrose has one more trick up his sleeve: Tyrion isn’t even mentioned! That’s okay, bud, you’re definitely like top 12 in our book.