Bran Stark, the stoic “Three-Eyed Raven” of Game of Thrones, became the primary emotional driver in the series finale, according to AI-based analysis by Canvs. Despite his famously expressionless demeanor, Bran generated 10.9% of the 578,059 emotional reactions on Twitter for the episode. Among these, 58.5% expressed enjoyment, 10.1% dislike, and 8.6% reacted with “crazy” largely in response to his sudden rise to the throne after the climactic battle between Cersei Lannister and Daenerys Targaryen.
Tyrion and Jon Spark Mixed Emotions While Arya Dominates Social Media Reactions
Tyrion Lannister, who assumed a key advisory role under Bran, was the second most emotionally discussed character, with 10.1% of tweets. He garnered the highest “enjoy” sentiment at 63.2%. Jon Snow, on the other hand, evoked more polarized feelings. Though third in emotional impact, 17.3% of tweets were positive (“love”), but 20.4% expressed dislike, primarily due to Jon’s controversial decision to kill Daenerys.
Emilia Clarke as Daenerys Targaryen and Kit Harington as Jon Snow (Game of Thrones/HBO Entertainment)Across the entirety of Season 8, Arya Stark and Jon Snow were the most discussed characters in terms of emotional reactions on social media. The finale itself was a major event, driving nearly 2 million tweets, a 78.9% increase from the penultimate episode. Over 350,000 unique users shared their reactions, making it the most emotionally engaged primetime series that week.
Mixed Reactions to Finale Highlight Love, Hate, and Key Emotional Moments
Reactions to the series finale’s ending were mixed but leaned positive. While the term “ending” accounted for 20.1% of all “hate” reactions, “love” remained the dominant sentiment at 24.9%. Other prominent reactions included “enjoy” at 15.5% and “crazy” at 10%. Key moments eliciting strong emotions included the shocking beginning, Jon killing Daenerys, and Jon’s reunion with his direwolf, Ghost.
The finale drew 19.3 million viewers across HBO platforms, marking a series high. Canvs, which tracks emotional reactions for major networks and streaming platforms like NBCUniversal, CBS, Fox, and Netflix, uses semantic analysis to understand viewers’ feelings and the underlying reasons. Critics noted that the show’s emotional impact extended beyond simple entertainment, prompting strong reflections even on contentious creative choices.
