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NO.
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I’M NOT DOING IT.
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SERIOUSLY, FUCK OFF. I’M DONE WITH THIS SITE.
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WHY THE HELL WOULD ANYONE CARE ABOUT MY TAKE ON GAME OF THRONES AT THIS POINT?
YEAH, I KNOW THEY DON’T TOO BUT…
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THEY SAID WHAT?
WHAT DO THEY MEAN “NOT ‘WOKE’ ENOUGH?
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THAT’S STUP…
THE ENDING DIDN’T MAKE SENSE?
IT MADE PERFECT SENSE.
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OK. THESE TAKES ARE GARBAGE.
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WHAT DO YOU MEAN, “WHAT AM I GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?”
SHIT, I’M BLOGGING AGAIN, AREN’T I?
Hey, it’s your [checks notes] 1,234,567,402,204th favorite blogger back from suicide watch to once again, for like the billionth time, to talk about a popular, dumb TV show he likes for what is hopefully the last time.
This almost just feels like an opportunity to vent against some of the garbage takes I’ve read/seen/heard over the past few weeks because boy howdy have I seen some stinkers. Ranging from your standard “The show isn’t woke enough” we’ve been dealing with since day one to relatively new “A thing that I wanted to happen didn’t happen, let’s start a petition.” I’m going to try to avoid that because honestly it feels derivative and I could probably dedicate/waste pages upon pages of digital ink on why I am right and another person is wrong which really serves nothing.
Instead I’m going to try and summarize my general thoughts on this final season, particularly the finale, along with some personal highlights. I’m not going to go line-by-line or episode-by-episode because frankly I just don’t want to and cannot be bothered (this fucking depression thing is literally killing me, you guys) so apologies for that but there are better writers and sites you can go out and search for if that’s more of your bag.
A lot of complaints I read amount to, “This show doesn’t make sense anymore ’cause the writing so bad.” And subjectively that can 100% be true. You are well within your right to think anything is bad but I think that statement sort of bypasses and possibly misses the reason how and why we got to this point.
This show has felt…different now for the better part of 3 seasons, at least too me and I think that boils down to how George R.R. Martin (the author of the Song of Fire and Ice novels) plots versus how David Weiss and David Benioff (the showrunners for the television show, Game of Thrones, who will be referred to as D&D from here on out) plot stories. Throwing up a big ol’ speculation warning up here given I am in no way involved with either party. I’m just a nerd with way too much fucking time on his hands.
Martin treats his stories like a gardner gardens. He plants character seeds and lets them grow and flourish for as long as he needs to therefore he has an easier time because he generates the plot by asking what this fully-realized person would do or think next in the dramatic situation he’s dropped them in. There can be a detriment to this however. Given he’s discovering the story as he writes it (or appears to be, given his infamous periods of length between books), he risks meandering plots and a struggle to bring everything together in a satisfying way.
D&D however seem to plan in a manner that requires having the ENTIRE endgame from the jump. Given they have the whole story in mind, they can deliver a tighter story, with less meandering with better endings, however this could come at the cost of their characters feeling stiff and more like plot devices.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with either of these approaches, however I (and I believe a lot of you too) fell in love one kind of the show and it’s one that represents a happy marriage between Martin and D&D’s approach to story-telling. I initially thought the shift to favoring the latter’s approach dealt largely with the showrunners no longer having Martin’s words to pull from anymore (this occurred most extensively in Season 6). It seems however, at this point, they opted to attempt to land this behemoth of a story within 2 SHORTENED seasons. They gave themselves a fixed endpoint with 13 episodes to get there. They wanted to deliver an ultimately satisfying experience. So with only two seasons to work with, they started asking themselves what was left to do. What could they build with the pieces left in the box? What big moments did they want to deliver? What did they think we, the audience, wanted to see on screen before the show came to an end? They complied a “Game of Thrones bucket list” if you will.
And once they put that list together, it was time to connect the dots, maneuvering the characters into the emotional and literal places they needed to be with the pacing that had been such a tool beforehand cast aside. And that’s a huge reason (in my opinion) this show feels so much different now. It started as a show about the weight and ghosts of our past and ended as a show about the spectacle of the present. Characters, with agency and depth, became cogs in a machine. They are forced to take uncharacteristic actions and make uncharacteristically bad decisions so the necessary plot points. What once felt like organic developments are now rush. In short, the characters are no longer in charge. The ending is.
This isn’t bad per se (people calling this “terrible” and “the worst turn for a show ever” need to calm the fuck down), it’s just not what a lot of us signed up for or expected. It’s kind of why the first two episodes this season (the one a lot of people maligned for being “boring” because “nothing happened”) were a welcome return to form in my opinion. They slowed things back down and just let the characters be characters again. The most appealing thing about this show (and any show really) are its characters and those characters interacting. The first two episodes gave us that in spades, building to an actual tension for episode 3 and the Battle of Winterfell.
Color me not that surprised however when it turns out those two episodes ended up costing time for the season’s other big development: Mad Queen Dany.
Between these last 6 episodes, there are two potentially really really good seasons of television. The Night King and Dany deserved full seasons to fully flesh out their villainy but instead were granted six hour to an hour and half episodes, leaving their arcs (if you can call whatever the Night King had an arc) ending on lackluster or anticlimactic beats.
Let’s focus on Daenerys’ arc for a minute because I think, without a doubt, it’s the one that could have benefited the most from more fleshing out given, you know, she was an actual character on the show as opposed to the Night King, who flat out ended up just being a plot out without explicit character motivation.
It’s clear the writers knew the story they wanted to tell with Dany now that we all have the gift of hindsight. It’s the story of the girl who grew up believing that her family had been completely wronged, and that it was now her responsibility to right said wrong. It then became the story of a woman who learned how to become a leader through a series of hard choices (walking through a literal desert at one point), which hardened her to the incongruences of justice and mercy. It then ended with a woman who arrived at her destination with a fundamental misunderstanding of what liberation looked like, truly believing that the only way to fix Westeros was to burn that motherfucker to the ground.
And describing that journey at a broad scope, it works, but something about this last chapter for her felt…off? Hearing Tryion relate it to Jon, it still works without a doubt but it still doesn’t feel right and I think that once again falls on the accelerated pace that’s dictated these past 2 seasons. Her turn lacked pathos and the punch it truly needed.
[The writing/pace also really failed the supernatural elements of the show, i.e. the Lord of Light, prophecies and whatever else. That stuff was never my favorite but it seems all but forgotten after being so prominent for a majority of the series. Like, who was the Prince Who Was Promised ultimately?]
This hasn’t been Game Of Thrones’ finest season by any measure (it peaked back in Season 4 if you ask…but why would you?), yet it’s far from the disaster some make it out to be. Everything that’s happened (within the narrative) largely makes sense. Bran ruling over Westeros is a logical conclusion in my opinion. Why not sit the guy who knows the past and its mistakes (and ways by which we can learn from those mistakes) at the head of the table? In selecting Bran, the lords and ladies of Westeros (who all scoff at the very notion of democracy or should I say, “DUMB-ocracy?”) are choosing to value stories and memories above whatever other qualities might make a good ruler, and more specifically put an end to the caveats of heritage that have allowed entire bloodlines to wreak havoc on good rulerships of these (now six) kingdoms. It allows them to embrace the best/idealistic core concept of Daenerys’ vision shared all those episodes ago – breaking the wheel – while still retaining the aristocratic tendencies that shape their current existence. Progress is never all at once, and given Martin’s bleak view of our cultural evolution, enlightened elitism may be the best Westeros can aspire for, at least for now.
And I think the series finale benefited the most out of any this episode season by simply being free of all the breakneck set-up that’s been plaguing the story up to this point, leading to a mad sprint to get to the damn finish line.
It simply needed to conclude the story of Daenerys Targaryen and the Stark family’s adventures in Westeros. It didn’t stretch all that much in attempting to wrap everything up in a pretty little bow, but instead focused narrowly on two moments: The aftermath of Daenerys raining hellfire last week, and a meeting of the remaining rulers of the lands to determine a best course of action, i.e. put Bran and Tyrion in charge. (Fucking A+ callback to one of the funniest scenes in the entire show with Tyrion adjusting the Small Council’s chairs btw) The simplicity of its scope was refreshing, admittedly an ironic statement on my part given this was literally about deciding the fate of Westeros moving forward.
I think Jon being the one to kill Dany was actually the least interesting option here, but the symbolic weight of the truest believer finishing her off made complete sense. (This debate about “things not making sense” really got to me if you can’t tell.) Was I at all moved by the sweeping romantic moment right before he stabs her? No, but I’ve never been moved by their relationship (their romance was YET AGAIN the victim of poor pacing as well as a lack of chemistry between the actual actors) but in the end, Jon leaves the show as a Queenslayer, like Jaime before him, committed treason in the best interest of the realm. That’s some nice, sweet thematic continuity if you ask me.
It’s a core concept of Martin’s writing (and by extension, the show’s), the idea that wannabe saviors lead to the greatest calamities. If the person is just, then any disagreement must de facto be unjust. “You’re either with me or you’re against me” became Dany’s mission statement (one we’ve seen grow and grow throughout the past 8 seasons), and those against her were determined solely by her whims.
Jon ain’t lying when he tells Dany she will always be his queen, right before sticking a knife in her heart. He swore obedience, and sees himself as a traitor when he commits the deed. He already knew (even before his heart-to-heart with Tyrion) the right thing to do—he just can’t accept that such actions, no matter how justified, can be forgiven. The look exchanged by the two after Tyrion tosses his Hand brooch down the steps in a public refusal of her rule conveys all too well that both know where this path leads.
I also really enjoyed the inversion of the two jail scenes between the two, the second with Tyrion being the one to visit his comrade who is in chains. Whereas their first conversation was about rejecting fate and embracing the individual choice to do good, the second time around the discussion is the flip side of the coin: accepting the fate delivered by your actions, and finding the good in your position, even when it’s been taken out of your own hands. It’s fitting that Jon, the “true” heir to the now-melted Iron Throne finds himself back among his self-chosen people in the end. And his final act—leaving the Watch to accompany Tormund (he got a hot red head in the end everyone!) and the Wildlings back into the woods North of the wall. He’s off to find a new story. And in the end, this was not a story about breaking the wheel. It was more about reimagining it.
In the wake of petty fan petitions angry that the writers didn’t deliver exactly what they wanted, the finale felt like it was checking off what anyone attached to these characters would have wanted for them, right down to Brienne and Podrick Payne making it to the King’s Guard. I mean just look at the quietly wonderful Small Council scene. It’s fan service no doubt but it also creates such a clear sense of a future that I’d love to spend time in with the characters therein. In that one brief scene, we can imagine the arguments/conversations that will be had at that table, and there’s something warm and affecting about that. It’s not the most powerful of emotional catharsis, but it was affecting nonetheless.
If you want to discuss feelings (not like I’m lacking those lately), I did feel legitimately moved when Brienne wrote in Jaime’s pages in the White Book (or the Book of Brothers), the history of the Kingsguard. It was such a nice payoff not only to their relationship but Jaime’s arc as a whole (another A+ callback too).
I’d also be remiss if I didn’t at least mention Sandor “The Hound” Clegane (i.e. my favorite character) and his arc this last season, which honestly had more time dedicated to it than I could have ever hoped for.
Plenty of people arguing “CleganeBowl” was stupid and a disservice to the character. I contend there wasn’t much wiggle room for anything else however. Sure, I would have loved to see Sandor join Arya on her westward adventure to discover America, but his arc (in the show) has always been a story of revenge, with Sandor living his life in search of retribution for his brother’s cruelty. Their fight was suitably gruesome and reaches a thematically appropriate end with Sandor tackling Gregor into the fire that came to define his life after his brother’s attack on him as a child. It all makes for a very clean ending to the Hound’s journey in the story.
Better still, all that time spent with him and Arya in Season 4 (which remains the narrative highpoint of this entire series) pays off, as he finally warns the youngest Stark off her single-minded devotion to her kill list. Rather than heading up to kill Cersei, he brings Arya up short with a blunt question: “Do you want to be like me?” I think to have him abandon his quest to face his brother to join Arya (which some people are seriously suggesting would have been better) would have been a betrayal of his character. In this moment, he reminds her of everything she still has that he doesn’t: namely a purpose beyond murderous retribution and pushes her to realize she still has reason to live. It’s also in keeping with her character too: Arya has always been the one to learn lessons where others might stubbornly plunge ahead. So Clegane gives her one last gift: Cersei is going to die regardless at this point. No reason Arya should die too.
In the end, yeah, I’m satisfied with how Sandor’s story came to an close ultimately.
So where do I fall on the spectrum of this finale, you may (but probably don’t) ask? I say it ranked between serviceable and fine. It ended on a higher note than I would have ever predicted but I’m not complaining. If anything, I’d like to hear from those that thought it was terrible and why. Factor out the pacing issues preceding it and tell me why you thought this was a bad finale. A lot of what I’m seeing (again) equates to, “I wanted other things to happen” and that sort of boils back down to my impatience with certain fans. The kind of entitled fans that think they can demand a network go back and redo a show because what they were given didn’t satisfy them. Even when art is disappointing or infuriating, you don’t get to bend it to your will. Accepting that art is going to be disappointing/frustrating is kind of the key element of having a healthy relationship with art in the first place.
I’ve seen some bad television (I’m someone who voluntarily watches Riverdale so if you want to talk about nonsensical writing…) and I’d say GoT doesn’t even fall on that spectrum. I’d say it’s mostly uneven given the good greatly outweighs the bad and even a good portion of the bad was fun. Maybe my opinion will change as the years go on, but on the whole I’m happy to have gone on this journey. I’m way more invested in how the books end (if they ever end) and will be interested to see how they stack up side-by-side when all is said and done. But until that point, I’ve enjoyed the ride and I’m ready to obsess about the next big show. Thanks for the memories, GoT. It’s been a pleasure praising/complaining/meming about you these past 8 seasons but it’s time to move on. [pulls out chair]
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WAIT. HBO IS DOING HOW MANY PREQUELS?!?!!
Sharks with Laserbeams 