With Game of Thrones coming to an end in its eighth season, it feels like the end of an era. Based on the novel series, A Song of Ice and Fire, by George R.R. Martin, the mature fantasy saga is one of HBO's biggest hits, adored by critics and audiences alike. Season Seven's ratings hit an all-time, record-breaking high of 30 million viewers per episode; an extraordinary achievement for a cable channel and in an age where traditional television is facing fierce competition from streaming services. After seven seasons of would-be monarchs, ice zombies and dragon babies — plus some of the most surprising twists in TV history — the stakes are high for the show to go on out a bang bigger than an explosion of wildfire.

The stakes also couldn't be higher for the pieces left on the board who have survived all of the bloodshed and backstabbing. But as well as all of the legitimate claims on the throne to consider, we've also been casting our minds back to some of the other unresolved story strands that the final season will probably — annoyingly — leave unanswered. Whether these inconsistencies have been caused by adaptational changes between the book and TV show, or stretching the plot beyond all sense and reason, these questions are going to bug us long after Game of Thrones wraps up.

TIME IS A CHANGIN'

when Game of Thrones characters would spend entire seasons trudging through mud, clambering up and down hills, and sailing choppy waters to get from A to B? Though it tested our patience at times, it was also solid world-building.

This all went out the window in later seasons when same-day arrivals were magically possible when crossing from one side of Westeros to the other. The producers have even itted to extraditing continuity for the sake of advancing the plot quicker.

A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE

One of Season Seven's biggest gasp-inducing moments — and there were a lot to choose from — was when Daenerys' favorite dragon son, Viserion was slain during her daring rescue of Jon and co. from a horde of wights north of the Wall.

However, Viserion soon lived to fight another day... under the Night King's command. Using his new icy blue fire, he ruptured a hole in the Wall. Whether this would be possible with that kind of firepower is debatable. Even more debatable is how Viserion cracked the Wall's magical barrier...

THE (IM)PERFECT CRIME

All the drama of Game of Thrones was incited by one moment: Bran's fall from a Winterfell tower. The young Stark boy made the near-fatal error of peering through the window right while the visiting Lannister twins were, well, doing the one thing siblings should never do.

Egged on by Cersei, Jaime pushes Bran out in the hopes that their secret will be taken to the poor kid's grave. This, of course, proved ineffective. But why didn't the Kingslayer do the obvious thing and take care of Bran with his own two hands and then stage the "accidental" fall?

ACCENTUATE THE DIFFERENCE

As is custom for a medieval-esque fantasy, regional British dialects are everywhere. Much like the U.K, the northern regions of Westeros are dominated by northern English accents; the flagship one being Sean Bean's natural Yorkshire cadence.

The rest of the Stark family, however, are a mixed bag. Specifically, Sansa, Arya, and Bran whose posher-sounding, southern English accents stick out from their other siblings. Are the younger kids just putting on airs and graces, or do they just take after their mother more?

A RASH DECISION

Ser "Forever-Alone" Jorah Mormont has been Daenerys Targaryen's number one fan from the very beginning, so when the already exiled knight was banished from her side for betraying her trust, it was a pretty tragic moment for a pretty tragic character.

Though Jorah did make his way back into her good books, fans questioned Dany's decision-making abilities. Why get rid of such a useful and skilled ally when a demotion would have been punishment enough? And who's to say someone couldn't have extracted crucial information about her from him?

SIBLING RIVALRY

The long-awaited reunion between the two Stark sisters in Season Seven was a sweet moment, but it was soon undercut by a sour uneasiness. Of course, viewers' suspicions that Sansa and Arya were faking it all to fool Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish thankfully turned out to be correct.

As fun as this plot twist was to watch, it did leave one glaring hole. Sansa and Arya staged their tension for Lord Baelish's spying eyes. However, who was the audience for that tense bedroom scene in which Arya practically threatened Sansa's life? If the answer is us, the viewers, this doesn't make much sense story-wise.

THE HISTORY BOY

As the Three-Eyed Raven, Bran is quietly one of the most powerful people in Westeros. His main party trick is seeing through time, but there's a lot left up to interpretation about whether Bran can change the course of history or remain a ive observer.

Isaac Hempstead Wright, who plays Bran, thinks his character can "access" the past, but still has a long way to go in of navigating that access. It's not even clear if Bran is physically present in these excursions, as while he's invisible to most, the Night King has been able to sense his presence.

PROTECT YA NECK

We had quite a shock in Season Six when Melisandre suddenly showed us her birthday suit. Her real birthday suit. It turns out that the Red Woman has been lying about her age by about, oh, several hundreds of years; a reveal that seemed to be triggered by the removal of her necklace.

The flaw in this idea is that we've seen the priestess take this piece of jewelry off before in the Season Four episode "Mockingbird" without the illusion dropping. It could be that the necklace is merely a conduit for the spell's magic rather than the source, but this has yet to be confirmed.

CREMATION FRUSTRATION

Hardly any Game of Thrones' fans believed that Jon Snow's fatal stabbing at the hands of his own men during Season Five's Mutiny at Castle Black would be permanent and, sure enough, the prodigal bastard was alive and well again come Season Six.

Obviously, all resurrections are plot contrivances, but Jon's revival was even more unlikely when you that the Night's Watch have a strict cremation policy to protect themselves against wights. So, why was Jon's body abandoned in the open?

WRITTEN IN THE STARS

Season Six saw Samwell Tarly follow his dream of becoming a Maester by travelling to the Citadel of Oldtown for training. His short time there bore a lot of important fruit for the show but, for all the answers we got, Sam's trip left us with a burning question.

What's with that astrolabe? The spinning orb takes a prominent place as soon as Sam enters the Citadel's library and viewers were excited to recognize the instrument from the show's opening credits. Unfortunately, by the time Sam left, we were none the wiser about why it was there.