Game of Thrones 8.05
May. 13th, 2019 10:24 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beer_good_foamySo it's the last battle of the last war, and I guess it's about time to wrap up everyone's story arcs. So let's look at what people have learned or not learned over the course of eight seasons.
Write as if David Benioff and DB Weiss will get to finish your story if you don’t.
— matt tobey (@mtobey) 9 maj 2019
Daenerys has learned that being feared is better than being respected. This, of course, is forced upon her by everyone immediately deciding that her essentially giving up her series-long quest to help defeat the Army of Darkness just isn't enough reason to trust her. She's learned that getting cut off from your entire arc of breaking the wheel etc, once you've crossed the Narrow Sea and had all your trusted advisors either killed or succumbed to plot-related stupidity, leaves you with nothing but eMoTiOnS and your genetic destiny, as determined by a metaphorical coinflip. And so, yep, burn them all. "Bitches be crazy" - Benioff and Weiss, probably. (That said, Emilia Clarke is really working hard to sell it.)
Varys never learned when to leave well enough alone. He also never learned that not wanting the crown isn't, in and of itself, the one criterion that makes a great king. Or that doublecrossing people will probably force them to do the very thing you've been trying to get them to not do.
Tyrion has learned that all those seasons he spent being smarter and more loquacious than anyone else were pointless. Just give Cersei one more chance to listen to reason and say "please" and "forgive me" a lot, that'll do it, I'm sure. What happened to the guy who could talk his way out of anything? Again, all that wine can't have been good for him. (Yes, the scene between Tyrion and Jaime is nice, if overly TV-y.)
Jaime has learned that being incognito is stupid and that walking quickly so you don't miss the gate closing is for suckers. Also, that all those seasons of character development really aren't anything compared to the glory of dying at his sister's side. No plan, no hard decisions, just cling to Cersei like nothing else happened.
Cersei has learned... fuck knows. She was barely even in this season before she got to die helplessly. She deserved a better exit than this - not a more merciful one, but a more active one. Her reunion with Jaime in the map room was nice, though. ETA: Chuck Wendig suggests they should have leapt to their deaths from a window, like Bran, like Tommen, and damnit, now I wanted to see that. Still wouldn't have excused the lead-up, but at least give us that moment...
Urine Greyjoy did learn how to aim a ballista last week, he just forgot it again, so it's possible he just knows whatever he needs to know for whatever villainous shenanigans he needs to get up to in any one episode. (Granted, his pattern indicates two-dimensional thinking, and I'm just surprised the show didn't take the chance to overdub a Stuka scream to that dive-bombing mission.) Urine has also learned the art of contrived coincidences when he shows up at the beach, but hasn't learned that regulars (unlike soldier extras) take more than one stab to kill.
The Lannister army has learned to not follow orders and die pointlessly. Too bad Daenerys hasn't learned (or been genetically programmed) to accept victory.
Grey Worm has learned not to accept any leader but Daenerys. Which makes sense, after last week if nothing else, and the scene of him burning Missandei's collar had a point, but it's still slightly iffy to have the one remaining black character lead the charge against people whose only crime is NOT rebelling enough (for whatever reason they didn't).
The innocent citizens of Kings' Landing learn the hard way not to trust foreigners and women rulers. Or maybe they always knew this. Who can tell since they've never had a voice in the show before they needed to be killed off horribly. They, along with everyone else, have also learned not to comment on random wildfire going off all over the place with no apparent reason or plan. (It is a stunning piece of television, though.)
Jon Snow, as per usual, knows nothing. He hasn't learned to stand up to Daenerys, or to try to reason with her, or do anything except stand around looking sad. He still hasn't learned to lead troops in battle, instead he just stands around looking sad until things get out of hand and by the time he tries to stop it it's obviously too late. This will, with 99% certainty, win him a small lump of molten battered metal formerly known as the Iron Throne on which he can sit and look sad. For some reason.
Drogon has learned to demolish buildings with a single lick of flame. What's the Red Keep made of, porcelain? Wasn't this thing built by Targaryens? You'd think they'd have some sort of dragonproofing...
The Kingsguard hasn't learned to fight. This surprises no one.
Qyburn hasn't learned that Frankenstein's monster always turns upon Dr Frankenstein. Or rather, I guess he did learn that for half a second.
Sandor Clegane has learned how to take down a zombie. That was satisfactory, even if it did look a bit like a video game fight scene. He's also learned to care about Arya. That also.
The only one still learning something appears to be Arya. What colour are Daenerys' eyes, again? Are they really betting everything on people having forgotten how Hunger Games ended?
I looked and there before me was a pale horse. Its rider was named Death, and Hell was following close behind ...
Dontcha just love clever, innovative symbolism?
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Date: 2019-05-13 12:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-05-13 12:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-05-13 09:00 pm (UTC)That is brilliant! :D
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Date: 2019-05-13 02:15 pm (UTC)It made no sense for Daenerys to act like that whatsoever. Also to decide mid victory to go off script like that after being the perfect model precise air strike that every leader always promises and never delivers.
To go and torch the red keep in person, ok. But to take an extra detour to burn the whole city? Why? Like Cersei cared? Because that was her Dad's big dream?
And the thing is, I think you can get the character to this point writing-wise. Just not like that! There is the groundwork for this in the books. The people of King's Landing, who now seem to be basically all sobbing women and children, were last in staring in book chapters like the riot scene, where, if I remember correctly, they rape to death some noble girl with Downs.
Daenerys delusions about people in Westeros secretly sewing Targaryan banners. Feeling enough loss and feeling betrayed by the people of Westeros would get her there. I guess when GRRM writes this, Missandei is more likely to get stoned to death in the streets by a cheering crowd or something.
But the way they wrote it here it is completely un ambiguous. Whatever was done to Dany was done by Cersei. Up to the belltower moment she acted completely sane, also in executing Varys.
That no one got to kill Cersei was a bit of a let down.
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Date: 2019-05-13 03:10 pm (UTC)Exactly! Dany snapping here was really just the same thing as Jaime suddenly jumping out of Ser Brienne's bed to go be with Cersei last episode. A season's worth of introspection, choices and character development shoved into not just one single episode, but one single scene for plot's sake. I've been waiting for years for Dany to go even darker than she has before - but going directly from winning the battle of Winterfell (and getting ostracized by everyone for no reason whatsoever) to going full Guernica on Kings' Landing is just ridiculous.
Everyone's been reccing this twitter thread on the differences between GRRM's and D&D's writing, and for good reason. Nothing very revelatory, and a bit oversimplified, but makes some very good points on how D&D aren't finishing what GRRM started. Which is fine. But that they're not even doing their ending well just pisses me off. It's like they don't even want the characters they've helped build - they just want their archetypes. The Mad Queen, the Reluctant Prince, the Noble Villain, the Helpless Advisor, etc etc etc. Eight years of character development should make them more multifaceted, not less.
That no one got to kill Cersei was a bit of a let down.
Yeah, that, and that she did bloody NOTHING about it. Cersei used to be the biggest manipulative bitch in the seven kingdoms, daughter of Tywin Lannister, desperate for power, the person who named the fucking series in the first place.
Here's what she's done with that power since D&D put her on the throne: Jailed a Dornian, lied about sending an army, banged a drunk Dane, whined about elephants, and executed a prisoner. That's it. (OK, that and having Qyburn build a lot of ballistas, which were suddenly downgraded from awesome to useless from one episode to the next.) Even in her final episode, she just stood there until a man came to save her. TWICE. You could have replaced her with the actual crown jewels and it wouldn't have made a lick of a difference. Again: spontaneous character combustion pretty much fits, yeah.
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Date: 2019-05-13 03:47 pm (UTC)I figure the books will lead up to the same outcome, but the characters will be way better motivated.
banged a drunk Dane So Swedish of you to write that!
Jamie and Cersei's ending as individual characters was terrible. The whole Brienne fling was Los! Stop! Schade! and yeah Cersei is just standing around waiting for things to unfold, then Jaime comes and stands around with her.
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Date: 2019-05-13 04:33 pm (UTC)Pretty much. And then they tried to cover it up with big set pieces. I feel a bit sorry for the directors, editors, actors and music folk they brought on, because they're for the most part doing a great job trying to polish this turd. This episode looked fantastic, from Drogon looming out of the dark to toast Varys, to the ash raining down.
So Swedish of you to write that!
DANSKJÄVLAR!!!
The whole Brienne fling was Los! Stop! Schade!
Five seasons of build-up, only to have the whole thing play out so quickly that people who had to go to the bathroom missed the whole relationship.
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Date: 2019-05-14 02:49 pm (UTC)Which, yeah, I believe that he believes that. Great storytelling is just about stuff happening for random reasons.
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Date: 2019-05-14 01:53 am (UTC)This! It wasn't earned. It would not have been that hard to earn Dany's madness. And it wouldn't have taken that long, but they rushed it. Also, the Jamie/Brienne and Jamie/Cersie moments felt rushed as well. Jamie going back to Cersei all of a sudden, made no sense.
It was hard to care.
Although, to be fair to D&D, I read the books and GRRM was stuck at the end of book five. He'd gotten tired of the characters...and didn't know where to go with them. Cersei was doing really dumb things in the books (she's actually smarter in the series), and Dany was stuck in Mereen. He honestly did not know how to get Tyrion and Dany together.
So I'd say that both GRRM and D&D fell down on the job, in part because they bit off more than they could chew at the outset. A thousand characters and a thousand points of view is a difficult undertaking to pull off. Even Tolkien didn't attempt that. In addition D&D screwed up by starting out hyper-realistic, with real time, and showing how long it would take to get from Westeros to Kings Landing, then they got tired and suddenly that's thrown out the window. And Jamie appears at Kings Landing in the blink of an eye?
The logistics became well immaterial all of a sudden (as of S7 actually). That's a problem. You can get away with that if you start out that way, but not in the final two seasons.
It went from hyper-realism to well melodramatic fantasy.
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Date: 2019-05-14 01:42 am (UTC)What would have made sense -- would have been for Dany to fly straight at the castle and burn it down to kill smug Cersei and her aids. And accidentally set off the dragon fire buried beneath, which she may not have realized or known was there? Although Tyrion should have known and told her? That would have made sense and not put her own army and people in danger, along with all of the innocent lives. Instead of deliberately doing it -- it would have been accidental and that would have driven her over the edge.
But the writers took the easy shocking route -- and had her aimlessly just fly around the city, burning it, and taking her time getting to the tower, intermittently setting off the dragon fire in her wake. (That was the green explosions, the dragon fire bottled up beneath.)
So much wrong in this...I found it hard to care what happened to anyone.
But I do agree there were a few lovely cinematic moments, which isolated from the whole, work on their own -- Ayra and the pale horse at the end, riding out, lovely. And Tyrion/Jamie (although how Jamie got there made no sense). And the Dragon lifting it's head to take out Varys...how Tyrion survived, I still don't understand. The Hound/Mountain falling into the fire --- which, well, why the Hound bothered to go and do that isn't clear, the Mountain would have died anyhow. Also he was past all of that by then. But it was a nice image.
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Date: 2019-05-14 05:28 am (UTC)It IS the BSG thing all over again. "This happens because God wills it, stop asking questions."
And accidentally set off the dragon fire buried beneath, which she may not have realized or known was there? Although Tyrion should have known and told her?
I'm guessing it's the wildfire buried by Dany's dad to "burn them all" before Jaime killed him. But it was weird how it kept going off and nobody even commented on it. It felt like they only came up with the idea in post-production. But yeah, that would have made more sense.
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Date: 2019-05-14 12:21 pm (UTC)It IS the BSG thing all over again. "This happens because God wills it, stop asking questions."
Lost also comes to mind. I think God got tired and decided to phone it in.
I'm guessing it's the wildfire buried by Dany's dad to "burn them all" before Jaime killed him. But it was weird how it kept going off and nobody even commented on it. It felt like they only came up with the idea indw_null@dreamwidth.org> wrote:
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Date: 2019-05-14 02:47 pm (UTC)"Themes are for eighth-grade book reports" - David Benioff
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Date: 2019-05-14 04:02 pm (UTC)And yet, that's all he seemed to care about in his conversation in "Inside Game of Thrones". LOL!
I'll be skipping whatever they do next.
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Date: 2019-05-14 06:00 pm (UTC)Yes, seriously.
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Date: 2019-05-14 07:46 pm (UTC)Oh god. They couldn't have hired the guys who did the Avengers? Guessing they may be rethinking that choice after S8 GoT.
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Date: 2019-05-14 07:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-05-15 12:50 am (UTC)Also the Lost writers and BSG kept going.
My difficulty with D&D was they were very good in the beginning. The show was well written for a while...and I even enjoyed S7 and up to episode 3 of S8, but after that point, it's been plagued by increasingly sloppy mistakes.
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Date: 2019-05-15 12:27 pm (UTC)There's a really good podcast "cast of kings" which explains why the episode doesn't work, but it also is a really interesting discussion about how we discuss cultural items on the internet.
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Date: 2019-05-16 04:55 pm (UTC)Except when Ser Gregor fly-swatted Qyburn to death. That was quite funny.
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Date: 2019-05-16 09:10 pm (UTC)Qyburn's death and Tyrion trying to speak Valyrian were high points, I thought.
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Date: 2019-05-17 07:16 am (UTC)