• Warning: Major spoilers ahead for HBO’s “Game of Thrones” season eight, episode five, “The Bells.”
  • Cersei Lannister finally met her end on Sunday’s climactic episode, crushed in the collapsing tunnels underneath King’s Landing.
  • Many expected the villainous character’s death to have some kind of poetic justice, and fans predicted she’d be killed by a main character.
  • Her actual fate was unexpected and, some say, anticlimactic.
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Although HBO’s “Game of Thrones” built a reputation for abruptly killing off major characters, many fans expected Cersei Lannister to die on Sunday’s episode – and yet, it still caught many off guard.

Cersei finally met her end on the final season’s climactic fifth episode, titled “The Bells,” in the tunnels underneath King’s Landing. She and her twin brother, Jaime Lannister, were crushed as they tried to escape the collapsing city together.

Read more: ‘Game of Thrones’ just upended a deadly book-only prophecy, but another key piece of foreshadowing came true

“Please don’t let me die. I don’t want to die,” Cersei tells Jaime in her final moments. “Not like this.”

Cersei Lannister Jaime Helen Sloan HBO season eight episode five The Bells

Foto: Cersei and Jaime in their final moments together on "Game of Thrones."sourceHelen Sloan/HBO

Cersei was arguably the show's most devious, hated villain throughout all eight seasons, and so many viewers expected her death to carry some kind of poetic justice. Plenty of fan theories posited she would be killed by another main character, like her longtime lover and twin brother Jaime or the master assassin Arya Stark.

Even Lena Headey hoped her own character would die at the hands of Arya, or one of Cersei's own brothers.

Cersei's actual fate was somewhat anticlimactic. We weren't given a final showdown or one of Headey's masterful monologues. Instead, the murderous queen was killed by falling building rubble.

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Many fans thought Cersei's death was just one example of disappointing payoffs and confusing character developments in the show's final season.

https://twitter.com/TSM_THump/status/1127764062778081280?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Others, however, are just pleased that she's gone. Some thought her death was fitting simply because it was unexpected.

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