Fantasy as a genre is experiencing both its heyday and a slump right now. Game of Thrones transformed the fantasy landscape, encouraging networks and streaming services to spend millions of dollars on original epic fantasy series. Meanwhile, the normalization of typical nerd culture in the last 20 years has meant that fantasy blockbusters are really just blockbusters. However, many of these projects don't reach the heights of the media that they are clearly trying to emulate.

Many fantasy TV shows are canceled far too soon, as the streaming era has fallen into a pattern of investing too much money in shows executives then can't justify continuing, while any of them might have become a bigger if they had been given time to grow. Fantasy shows that have a proper, planned ending are rare nowadays, but there are still some relatively modern offerings that tell a complete story.

7 A Discovery Of Witches (2018-2022)

Sky Studios | 3 Seasons

A Discovery of Witches is based on a trilogy of books and got three seasons, one per novel. It was not canceled but came to its planned, natural conclusion that aligns with the source material. A Discovery of Witches features underrated actors Teresa Palmer as witch Diana Bishop and Matthew Goode as vampire Matthew Clairmont. Inspired by author Deborah Harkness' background as a scholar in the history of science, A Discovery of Witches is far more academic than your average vampire romance.

Diana and Matthew have a fantasy romance while delving into the science of magic and traveling through time, allowing the show to highlight settings from modern Oxford University to Elizabethan London. The show is well-structured, with each chapter going into the next. A Discovery of Witches season 2's ending effectively sets up the finale, which then comes to its satisfying conclusion.

6 Arcane (2021-2024)

Riot Games & Netflix | 2 Seasons

Arcane's ending is somewhat open, as it was written to set up any of the possible Arcane spinoffs. However, it is clear that this was intended to be the end of this show, and it wraps up the flagship series' storylines of fraught interpersonal relationships while resolving this era of political conflict, with more stories left to tell. Vi and Jinx's arc together comes to a clear end, the threat Ambessa immediately poses is eliminated, and Piltover and Zaun come together for the final battle.

The quiet final scene of Arcane embodies exactly what this ending is trying to accomplish, with a simple reaffirmation of a relationship, no matter what is to come. On the other hand, Arcane is doubtlessly one of the best fantasy TV shows there is and a strong contender for the best animated fantasy TV show of all time. Everyone should watch it to experience the stunning animation, the deep political themes, and the gut-wrenching emotional arcs.

5 Game Of Thrones (2011-2019)

HBO | 8 Seasons

Game of Thrones is still a divisive topic; it was the biggest thing in the world for almost a decade until it shockingly managed to undo this status with its contested final season. However, Game of Thrones was so acclaimed for the first seven seasons for a reason and still deserves recognition for its influence on the cultural zeitgeist. New viewers will still find complex political intrigue mixed with subtle fantasy that captivated so many before them.

As far as the finale goes, some things are good in Game of Thrones season 8. Some viewers might find it engaging to analyze how Daenerys was always supposed to become the "Mad Queen," while the Stark girls have powerful, satisfying conclusions to their arcs. Of course, in this economy, we can't discount the fact that this was planned as the final season, and across the board, Game of Thrones wraps up storylines in ways that clearly signal the show is at a close, but not that the characters' lives have stopped.

4 Amphibia (2019-2022)

Disney | 3 Seasons

Amphibia is one of the legacy shows that clearly came from the rise of Gravity Falls, and uniquely has a trilogy format. The Owl House, was essentially canceled. Amphibia tells a neat, three-season story that has a beginning, middle, and end, with a deeply creative world and some fantastic humor always on display.

13-year-old Anne is accidentally transported to a world of humanoid amphibian creatures and is taken in by a frog family until she can find her way home, and becomes best friends with frog-child Sprig. As wild as the premise is, it strangely works, and Anne and Sprig's adventures and the eventual conclusion are heartwarming and tear-jerking. Amphibia navigated what was not the most friendly landscape for a series of its kind, and delivered an awesome, full story.

3 The Sandman (2022-2025)

Netflix | 2 Seasons

ittedly, The Sandman is not over yet, and its decision to end with its sophomore season when it perhaps has the source material for more was likely for a variety of reasons, one of which may have been the uncertainty of another renewal. However, knowing that this would be the last, the writers can draw upon the comics to create a different but strong ending for The Sandman season 2 with the appropriate finality.

The Sandman season 1 is brooding and mysterious, featuring unique takes on gods and abstract concepts such as death and dreams, and delves into powerful themes of grief, love, and humanity. The performances are incredible, as many actors are challenged with playing inhuman characters in a human way, and they all excel at it. Now is the time to catch up on The Sandman, and come July, audiences will have a brief but poignant saga in full.

2 Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008-2020)

Cartoon Network & Disney | 7 Seasons

Star Wars: The Clone Wars had an okay ending, but then it was revived in the 2020s and delivered a truly extraordinary one that has a powerful effect on the whole of Star Wars. As The Clone Wars is heavily anthologized, finding a perfect ending for it was complicated because there were few linear storylines to bring to a culmination. However, the central story all along was the war itself, and the fate of Anakin's Padawan, who was created for the series.

The last episode of The Clone Wars shows the war finally coming to an end, ushering in the regime of the Empire, and how this affects Ashoka and the surviving Clones. The final scenes capture the tragedy of the people who fought in the Clone Wars, both those who had a choice and those who were bred for it. The Clone Wars looks at the complexities of this era of Star Wars from many different angles across its seven seasons, and won't disappoint before this spectacular finale.

1 His Dark Materials (2019-2022)

HBO | 3 Seasons

His Dark Materials came onto the scene in the trepidatious, immediately post-Game of Thrones period, and proved the potential of rebooting old fantasy adaptations as TV shows. It also had HBO backing it, a network that knows how to build big-scale fantasy worlds. After eight seasons of Westeros, they knew they could handle three seasons of a new story, one for each book.

His Dark Materials unravels an enigmatic fantasy world that is memorable because of the parallels to our own (which also makes an appearance in this series' multiversal-setting). Veterans such as James McAvoy and Ruth Wilson wow in their respective roles, but Dafne Keen and Amir Wilson really drive this show as the young leading pair. His Dark Materials is a fantasy show that perhaps could have been canceled under different circumstances, and we are lucky to have a strong ending that is faithful to the books.