Game of Thrones (HBO) TV Show • Page 518

"And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and her name that sat on him was Death, and hell followed with her."

Seen that on twitter about Arya and fuck yeah why not.

 

Arya better cut a bitch next time

 

She always showed signs of an inability to control her rage and her impulses. In the past she was just more likely to listen to her advisors who counseled against it. But now she’s in a desperate position and has nobody left she trusts to talk her down. And she said it in this episode: fear is all she has to keep power. So she snapped and decided to use it.

 

Y’all gonna be so mad when Stannis comes back next ep I can already tell

 

I think my issues with this episode, and now what seems like potentially the season as a whole, have to do with what’s being dramatized, and what’s being said.


Jamie dies, telling Cersei they’re the only thing that matters. Dany commits war crimes on top of war crimes. Jon and Arya (and Davos) seem like the only decent human beings on the battlefield, who seem to think what’s going on isn’t quite morally okay.

What does all that say? Jamie regresses to fundamentally the same person he was at the start of the series, but it’s not dramatized why that matters or what it says. Can no one escape their genetics? It seems Dany can’t, as she murders close to a million people tonight. And it seems like Jon and Arya didn’t, as they (and the Starks) seem to be the only mostly good people in this world (at least, from notable, powerful houses). I fundamentally disagree with that premise and think that, intentionally or not, that’s what the show is telling us, more or less.

And that doesn’t even touch on the basic tenants of drama and storytelling. Dang lost a dragon last episode to the iron fleet. How did that experience change her approach this week? She dove directly at that same fleet that just killed her dragon, except this time, it works. And Cersei? She hasn’t been around much at all this season and now we watch her stand there in denial until she finally has to try and run away and then she’s reduced to her most base “I don’t want to die” state. The most powerful person in the show, one of the most cunning and cutthroat characters in the show, and this is her end? Just standing there watching as everything around her is destroyed? Dying in Jamie’s arms? What does that say? What does it mean for her arc? Because I honestly am not sure what the takeaway is. She has no dramatized psychology about this battle going into it. Just that she wants to stay on the throne and honestly believes she can win the battle because, why wouldn’t she? Dandy’s army is weakened and they took out one of her dragons. Except they’re easily overmatched and lose quickly and again, all we get are those simple lines of denial. She’s not planning ahead, she’s not recognizing the power shift like her character has always been acutely predicting and planning around. So... what does all this mean?

I don’t think there’s really an answer until we see the end of next week’s episode, but I can’t say I have a lot of faith that it’ll be earned and resonant.

I don’t want to be all negative. While I think Jon and Dany have the best dramatized psychologies on the show of the main core characters, in that their attitudes and behaviors are supported by what they go through and experience and learn from what happens to them. I think they’re strongly characterized and the show hasn’t skipped over earning their big decisions like it has with other characters. So I commend that. That being said, I was always hoping we wouldn’t get the Mad Queen. It seems so nihilistic and tied to genetic determinism and if she goes crazy and Jon remains moral, it’s about the most boring route the story can go. Oh, the only moral ruler in the game is Jon Snow? I’ve read the Once and Future King. That premise isn’t adding much to established thematic fantasy canon.

The other reason the Mad Queen route disappointed me was that there was no game. The “game of thrones” was decided (at least in this episode, I know there will be fallout) by brute force and recklessness. By indulging the most destructive impulse. That sucks. It’s not saying anything interesting and when looking back at all the careful politicking from the first few seasons, it pales in comparison. I would have loved to see Dany really try to rise above her despair and isolation and reconnect, through the execution of Missandei, what it meant to rule. She freed Missandei and Mereen, to see her die should remind her who she’s trying to serve and protect. Instead we watched her kill all the poorest, most vulnerable and oppressed people in the world. I get why she did, but man almost any other route would have been more interesting to me.

Lastly, fuck Euron. Not even in a “I’m glad he’s dead” way, just in a “this character really sucked” way.

 

Mountain was declared the winner but after checking the tape, Hound's feet clearly touched the ground first.

 

I kind of think that was the point but i dont want to give them too much credit at this point.

 

Yep and it stays that way for the entire ep so might as well save your time and turn it off now

 

I get that, and I get there were always flashes of rage, but I still think it's been pretty clumsy handling. Especially knowing they could have gotten 7 more episodes towards the end here

 

The memes are slow to come this week. I think people are in shock.

 

I need to censor any post that has the word “earned” in it.

 

(SHE DOESNT HAVE GREEN EYES IN THE BOOK BUT YOLO ITS THE SHOW BABY)

Chances D&D give Arya the fucking triple double?

 

The way this is unfolding I would not be slightly surprised if we never see the D&D Star Wars movies.

 

Man everyone is going to be so pissed when the books end the exact same way as this lol

 

*Tom Hanks “earn this” gif here*

 

If this is what it takes to stop Confederate from happening then so be it

 

I'm hoping that the last episode pulls a Naruto type scenario where Dany unzips her skin to reveal that she is actually Aerys and needs to be defeated by two unlikely allies.

 

Honestly this should have been the first red flag.

 

Seriously lol


This episode was great until the weird horse ending i gotta get out of this thread for good.

 

I was definitely in the “he’s really leaving to kill Cersei” camp too. But what happened still made sense to me. I would have liked for him to kill her. But it’s also like when you hear someone gets clean off drugs for a while but are sad to hear later on that they relapsed and OD’d. Dark comparison but it happens.

 

Tbh the actual events arent as much of a problem as how rushed the season is.

 

I think I’m head of the committee that says Dany has been awful since at least S2, and even I don’t think the way they showed it was justified. They spent too many years painting her selfish and violent decisions as totally cool and heroic and worthy to suddenly do a 180 and say she’s crazy and evil and burns children.

 

It was MaloMyotismon the whole time!

(Honestly I Hope no one else gets this reverence because I’m still embarrassed I watched the show I’m referencing lol)