Let’s be real about this for a second. Winter has pretty much been coming for six seasons. Dany has basically been trying to get to Westeros for six seasons. Bran has more or less been trying to journey from “boy who fell out of window” to “boy who can see the past and future” for six seasons.

What I’m saying is, last night felt like the end of a lot of things on “Game of Thrones.” But more importantly, it felt like the beginning.

It’s tricky, making a television show. You have to be entertaining and compelling every week while also leading people to believe that there is an important reason to stick around. And once you finally reach the point that answers the question “why did I stick around?” it’s really easy to piss people off (see: “Lost”). So yeah, part of me was watching last night’s “Game of Thrones” season six finale and thinking, what the hell? I watched all this, and now the show’s gonna start telling the story its wanted to tell this entire time?

But listen up, other half of my brain, that’s dumb and shortsighted of you. Because with “Thrones,” the journey really was half the fun. Sure, looking back, a lot of the jostling for the Iron Throne, battles for random northern territories, and weird slavery discussions in Mereen seem trivial and pointless. But it was fun while it lasted. And now the important stuff can really start happening. Dany is coming with her army. Jon is King of the North. Cersei is in power at King’s Landing. And the White Walkers aren’t far off.

So, yeah. Let’s start “Game of Thrones” now.

Winter is here.

Some thoughts (I have to put them somewhere, since Bryan somehow doesn’t watch the most important show on TV):

• The first 20 minutes of the finale definitely felt like someone in HBO’s editing department accidentally put music from “The Leftovers” into a “Game of Thrones” episode. Then, they heard it and were like “eh, that works. Just leave it.” Damn, that opening 20 or so was great, though. RIP, Queen Margaery. She was savvier than she ever got credit for. Cersei was just more ruthless.
• Last season’s ending was so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so dark and depressing that the quote-unquote fan-servicey stuff was very welcome to me. If you don’t show me good/positive stuff in this world once in a while, why should I care about its preservation?
• Varys pretty much traveled to Dorne in back in the time it took Cersei to say “Wildfire.” But really, who cares?
• Is it bad that I stood up cheering for Arya when she killed Walder Frey? Should I be more worried about her than I am?
• I wish every show was this popular. There’s something really awesome about having to completely avoid the Internet and Twitter and Snapchat and Instagram and going outside whenever “Game of Thrones” episodes are on.
• Lady Mormont is a freaking baller.