I think the night king not being the ultimate bad guy in the series is very fitting to the game of thrones.
If you look at other fantasy books the big bad is killed and everything lives happily ever after. In this story the Night King goes down and the political battle between the humans just wages on.
The world didn’t band together to fight the Night King, the smart people sat out.
If GoT wants to finish its subversion of the Genre Cersei should win the iron throne because she acted in solid self interest and preserved her troops instead of throwing them away against the night king. The Dany/North alliance should fracture either with John leaving with Dany and Sansa controlling the North and the Vale or with Dany killing John to eliminate a rival claim to the throne.
The message of leaving the night king without motivation and finishing it early is that people are the real source of evil and horror in this world and magic or ideals doesn’t protect you from them
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