beer_good_foamy (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
beer_good_foamy) wrote2019-05-06 08:40 am
beer_good_foamy) wrote2019-05-06 08:40 am
Entry tags:
Game of Thrones 8.04
Aaaand once again, the whole thing comes down to Jon Snow utterly failing at NOT being a dumbass.
Jon: They are my family, we can live together.
Dany: We can. I. Just. Told. You. How.
Jon is the luckiest person in Winterfell. Not the smartest, certainly not the best commander, just the luckiest. I'm just not sure that makes him prime kinging material.
OK, it's not JUST him that's being a bit of a dumbass here. Once again everyone disagrees, but nobody discusses any alternatives. When Arya rides off to kill Cersei, it's not as part of any plan, or with any backup or diversions or anything. Hell, Tolkien's characters were smarter than this, and that's saying something. Maybe all those giant crossbows are there to shoot down eagles?
None of this means this isn't a good episode, because it very much is, taking its time to pick over what the battle has revealed and seems to build the long game... before suddenly detonating in the last ten minutes. RIP Rhaegal, RIP Missandei ("Dracarys!"), RIP any long shot at a peaceful solution and at Daenerys listening to anyone's advice ever again.
A few notes:
- Tormund, Sam, Gilly (who IS pregnant!) and Ghost get written out, apparently for good. Which begs the question why they didn't take the chance to kill at least a couple of them off last week, it's not like the writers have come up with a single other use for Ghost for the last four seasons, but hey. And Jon isn't a Stark anymore, so a direwolf doesn't really suit him. BUT AT LEAST PET HIM, YOU MONSTER. SCRITCH HISEARS EAR.
- They're going to march alllll the way down south just hours after winning a huge battle in the North. Harold Godwinson must be spinning with frustration in his grave.
- Wouldn't it be neat if the last two episodes had the battle of Kings' Landing take place entirely in the background while the main plot focused on Drunk!Tormund? "Vomiting isn't celebrating." "...Yes it is?!" "Which one of you cowards shit in my pants?"
- The Sers finally get it on, but it's not enough to hold Jaime when he finds out that Kings' Landing is about to burn. Does he go off to join Cersei, or to kill her? Does he even know himself? :(
- The way they systematically isolate Daenerys here is very well done and makes perfect sense. Jon is of The North and all heart and no brains, Tyrion is possibly entering the first stages of alcohol-induced dementia, Sansa hates her, Varys was never loyal to her, and Missandei, well. That look on her face at the end...
- And Varys, again, is a voice of reason. Perhaps not THE voice of reason, but at least one who's practical about it. "It's no longer a secret, it's information." I've been waiting for him to do something all season, and that was a classic Varys scene, but Tyrion is no Littlefinger these days. (But who are all these Lords whom Dany supposedly can't impress without a cock? Can't you count the number of Lords left in Westeros on the fingers of Jaime's right hand by now? And isn't it a tiny bit hypocritical of the show to suddenly champion the common man after we haven't seen a single one of them on screen since The Hound robbed that farmer?) ETA: There's more than a bit of "I don't mind female politicians, just not NOW, and not this one who's so emotional" about all this, isn't there?
- Loved the scene with Sansa and the Hound, even if it continues the slightly iffy theme established by Bran: "Without Ramsay, Littlefinger and the rest, I would have stayed a little bird all my life." And the Hound and Arya go off to murder people, because that's who they are - one who cares more than he used to, and one who kills better than she used to. The real Game of Thrones is thefriends enemies we made along the way.
- Poor Gendry. There's a metaphor here about how getting what you deserve means giving up what you want. Still not sure that was the smartest move by Dany, but it's not like she's got allies to spare.
- So Bronn can just... waltz into the inner sanctum of Winterfell without anyone noticing? Is there any reason this show didn't end with a few well-placed assassinations three seasons ago?
- So the Big Bad is... Qyburn? Are we setting up a last-minute medieval vs early industrial theme here? And is Urine Greyjoy even luckier than Ramsay Bolton?
- There's no way that was enough pyres to burn all the dead we saw last episode.
- But at least there's a Starbucks in Winterfell now.
Damnit, Missandei.
Jon: They are my family, we can live together.
Dany: We can. I. Just. Told. You. How.
Jon is the luckiest person in Winterfell. Not the smartest, certainly not the best commander, just the luckiest. I'm just not sure that makes him prime kinging material.
OK, it's not JUST him that's being a bit of a dumbass here. Once again everyone disagrees, but nobody discusses any alternatives. When Arya rides off to kill Cersei, it's not as part of any plan, or with any backup or diversions or anything. Hell, Tolkien's characters were smarter than this, and that's saying something. Maybe all those giant crossbows are there to shoot down eagles?
None of this means this isn't a good episode, because it very much is, taking its time to pick over what the battle has revealed and seems to build the long game... before suddenly detonating in the last ten minutes. RIP Rhaegal, RIP Missandei ("Dracarys!"), RIP any long shot at a peaceful solution and at Daenerys listening to anyone's advice ever again.
A few notes:
- Tormund, Sam, Gilly (who IS pregnant!) and Ghost get written out, apparently for good. Which begs the question why they didn't take the chance to kill at least a couple of them off last week, it's not like the writers have come up with a single other use for Ghost for the last four seasons, but hey. And Jon isn't a Stark anymore, so a direwolf doesn't really suit him. BUT AT LEAST PET HIM, YOU MONSTER. SCRITCH HIS
- They're going to march alllll the way down south just hours after winning a huge battle in the North. Harold Godwinson must be spinning with frustration in his grave.
- Wouldn't it be neat if the last two episodes had the battle of Kings' Landing take place entirely in the background while the main plot focused on Drunk!Tormund? "Vomiting isn't celebrating." "...Yes it is?!" "Which one of you cowards shit in my pants?"
- The Sers finally get it on, but it's not enough to hold Jaime when he finds out that Kings' Landing is about to burn. Does he go off to join Cersei, or to kill her? Does he even know himself? :(
- The way they systematically isolate Daenerys here is very well done and makes perfect sense. Jon is of The North and all heart and no brains, Tyrion is possibly entering the first stages of alcohol-induced dementia, Sansa hates her, Varys was never loyal to her, and Missandei, well. That look on her face at the end...
- And Varys, again, is a voice of reason. Perhaps not THE voice of reason, but at least one who's practical about it. "It's no longer a secret, it's information." I've been waiting for him to do something all season, and that was a classic Varys scene, but Tyrion is no Littlefinger these days. (But who are all these Lords whom Dany supposedly can't impress without a cock? Can't you count the number of Lords left in Westeros on the fingers of Jaime's right hand by now? And isn't it a tiny bit hypocritical of the show to suddenly champion the common man after we haven't seen a single one of them on screen since The Hound robbed that farmer?) ETA: There's more than a bit of "I don't mind female politicians, just not NOW, and not this one who's so emotional" about all this, isn't there?
- Loved the scene with Sansa and the Hound, even if it continues the slightly iffy theme established by Bran: "Without Ramsay, Littlefinger and the rest, I would have stayed a little bird all my life." And the Hound and Arya go off to murder people, because that's who they are - one who cares more than he used to, and one who kills better than she used to. The real Game of Thrones is the
- Poor Gendry. There's a metaphor here about how getting what you deserve means giving up what you want. Still not sure that was the smartest move by Dany, but it's not like she's got allies to spare.
- So Bronn can just... waltz into the inner sanctum of Winterfell without anyone noticing? Is there any reason this show didn't end with a few well-placed assassinations three seasons ago?
- So the Big Bad is... Qyburn? Are we setting up a last-minute medieval vs early industrial theme here? And is Urine Greyjoy even luckier than Ramsay Bolton?
- There's no way that was enough pyres to burn all the dead we saw last episode.
- But at least there's a Starbucks in Winterfell now.
Damnit, Missandei.
no subject
Yeah, the more I think about this episode, the more there are some pretty icky things in it. It builds logically on the ideas that Bran has been selling all season, but... I'm still not convinced Bran isn't just another teenager who thinks he's figured it all out because he spends all his time reading paranormal Reddit, so I don't know why she would listen to him.
Same with Varys, really; both he and Bran are being sold as infallible wise know-it-alls when they're anything but. Varys has, from the very beginning, pledged allegiance to The Realm. Which is fine, and all, but it's also meant that he's never had to stand for anything - he's the typical idealist who abandons any ruler as soon as their goals differ from his. I do think he has at least part of a point, especially now that the narrative has become hellbent on painting Dany into a corner; she's not going to give this all up now, especially not after Missandei got fridged, and anyone in Kings' Landing not wearing full-body asbestos suits should think hard about a vacation. But I don't see how Jon is the better alternative - unless he means that Jon can be easily controlled by clever advisers, which doesn't seem very likely either after this episode.
Eh. As formerly Team White Walker, I'm leaning towards Team Burn Them All. They seem to be heading towards a full reset ending where everything's the same as it was before the show started anyway.
no subject
The north would be way more eager to help if their king became the king and Daenerys will have to marry anyway, because she needs to offer a future line.
The mild dislike of incest is manageable compared to a fight between them.
And yeah, Daenerys is going to burn everything down, but that's probably best.
Hope Uncle Urin dies soon.