Helen Sloan/HBO
Both Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Elizabeth Warren were rooting for Sansa Stark to take the crown in the Game of Thrones finale.
- (Brace Yourself: "Game of Thrones" spoilers are coming.)
- Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez commiserated over the disappointing ending of the HBO mega-hit "Game of Thrones" in a video released Tuesday.
- Warren and Ocasio-Cortez, both Democrats, were upset that Sansa Stark did not end up taking control of the fictional kingdom of Westeros.
- The pair also decried the show's treatment of women, a criticism often leveled during the show's run.
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Like much of the viewing public, critics, and a good chunk of the internet, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez were disappointed in Sunday's series finale of "Game of Thrones."
(Brace Yourself: "Game of Thrones" spoilers are coming.)
In a video released Tuesday, the pair of Democratic lawmakers expressed the letdown from the end of the show's nearly ten-year run and criticized the handling of the major female characters in the series.
Ocasio-Cortez, a freshman lawmaker who has quickly become one of the national faces of the Democratic Party's progressive wing, said she was "sad" and "disappointed" by the "'Game of Thrones' ending." Warren offered a one-word review: "Meh."
Both Ocasio-Cortez and Warren also felt that the show failed to do right by its significant female characters and said that the writer's room could have used more influence from women.
As context, at the end of the show Bran Stark - a member of the powerful Stark family with mystical abilities to see into the past - was named King of the Six Kingdoms of Westeros, the fictional continent where much of "Game of Thrones" action was set. While Bran's older sister Sansa Stark established an independent kingdom in the North and became its Queen.
The void at the top of the fictional kingdoms' political structure came after Daenerys Targaryen, originally set to become Queen of all Seven Kingdoms, was murdered by Jon Snow - her nephew, lover, and technically the rightful heir to Westeros' seat of power: the Iron Throne.
(Got it? Hope so.)
Ocasio-Cortez and Warren felt that Daenerys' relatively sudden change into the show's final villain (a major source of consternation among viewers) was unfortunate and felt that Sansa should have taken over the entire Seven Kingdoms, instead of simply settling for the North.
"I feel like we were getting so close to having this ending with just women running the world and then the last two episodes it's like, 'Oh, they're too emotional,'" Ocasio-Cortez said. "It's like, ugh this was written by men!"
Read more: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez just called out Democratic leaders for not moving to impeach Trump
"So I was even willing at the end to make a quick allegiance shift, when Dany went nuts. So I was over to Sansa, I was like Team Sansa. I will re-do my shirt, the whole thing," Warren said in the video, with Ocasio-Cortez agreeing. "And yet Sansa, who already is Queen of the North, thank you very much. She walks away saying: 'And I'll still be Queen of the North.'"
"Ugh I know, I was so disappointed," Ocasio-Cortez replied.
"Come on Sansa, go for the big one!" Warren, who is running for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, said.
"I was disappointed, we need to get some feminist analysis up in HBO," Ocasio-Cortez concluded, referencing the show's network home.
The treatment of women on "Game of Thrones" was a long-running point of controversy for the show, a criticism that only picked up steam in the fantasy epic's final run.
Watch the full back and forth here:
It's been over 24 hours. No more spoiler alerts. Here's why @AOC and I are officially on #TeamSansa now. pic.twitter.com/WKKHDbFz1M
- Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) May 21, 2019