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shadowkat[ETA: sigh, I need a fricking editor.]
So, I saw The Avengers: Endgame on Saturday, watched three episodes of Lucifer on Sunday, and Game of Thrones penultimate episode...which basically proved ...who needs an army, when they have a dragon? Heck you don't even need three, one is more than enough. Which to give him credit, Bronn figured out right off the bat.
Hands down, Avengers: Endgame tromped Game of Thrones plotting and ate it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. While I was emotionally moved by Endgame (I laughed, I cried, my jaw dropped in awe at the tricky and well executed combination of plot, metaphor and emotional character arcs coming to a satisfying and more importantly well-earned conclusion) -- I was...largely ambivalent about Game of Thrones, and slightly bored. This series still has serious pacing issues, even though they are rushing the action in ways that bring to mind daytime soap opera logisitics and plotting. Also none of the character moments felt earned. There were some nifty isolated moments or canapes, but none of them felt connected and some felt rather contrived and out of character or a devolution of character, so as a result, I found it hard to care all that much. In other words, yes, there are some brilliant isolated sequences in here that if you separate them from the piece as a whole are rather wonderful, like canapes, but taken as a whole or in the entire episode? Not so much.
I've read a lot of reviews from professional critics today on it, and determined that if you were or are fannish about certain characters -- then it may have worked for you? Or if you loved the whole over-arcing theme about vengeance never works and war is hell and destroys everything...than maybe? Although I felt this was be clunky in how it was rendered. And far better done in well The Avenger's : Endgame with Tony Stark and others arcs. Mileage Varies, I suppose.
It's not fair to compare the two. So I'll try really hard to stop there, and just explain what did and didn't work in last night's episode.
As an aside? I'm wondering if we shouldn't call this episode -- "why you should never under-estimate a pissed off lady on a dragon. Or "Let Loose the Dragon!"
One of the problems Game of Thrones has is somewhere around S6, the writers apparently got tired of writing the series and wanted to wrap it up and move on to something, anything else. I'm guessing they weren't alone in this -- so did the cast and crew. HBO would have been fine with 15 seasons.
But, unfortunately for the writers and cast, up to that point they'd been going the hyper-realism approach. Where it took a season of at least 10-13 episodes for a character to make it from point A to point B, and often they'd never get there or get there far too late for it to matter. Sometimes it took two seasons. (I remember thinking, okay, don't bother even trying, you will NEVER get there in time. Remember how Ayra kept trying to get to Jon as did Sansa at one point?)
Also, up until that point, people sort of orchestrated their own downfall. And often what we expected to happen, didn't, instead the opposite, due to the realities of the world. The rules were firm, we knew how long it took to get somewhere. That there were hidden dangers along the way. This was firmly established for six seasons.
Then...suddenly, we stopped being in that world. Now a character could go from Westeros to Kings Landing in the blink of an eye. We didn't see the journey any longer. No talking around the campfire or plotting in cabins of ships, or fighting storms at sea, or fretting over what to feed a hungry dragon. It was no longer about how we got there, it was getting there, the destination. The writers didn't want to take any more time to build their story then they'd done to date -- it was a rush to the finish line. They were bored of the story they'd been telling for six seasons and it showed.
As a result of this -- we have Jamie Lannister who left at the end of the last episode, magically appearing King's Landing, with no injury. Not only that he gets captured because he forgot to cover his hand. His motive for coming back -- doesn't quite make sense either, but most of what he's done since fighting the White Walkers has made no sense. Why the writer's didn't just kill him off up there -- which would have made sense, I'm not sure? To have those two emotion packed scenes with Tyrion and Cersei? But both scenes go against what the show had started out to be -- we didn't get any of that previously, why now? And they don't really feel earned. Jamie doesn't work that hard to get to King's Landing, and we're not told why he suddenly changed his mind to go -- outside of an overheard conversation in the prior episode between Sansa and Brienne?
Handwaving for a moment all of that...Jamie is freed by Tyrion, only to stumble aimlessly and visibly into the crowd. Remember Cersei had ordered him killed on sight. Apparently no one noticed him? Then he not only makes it through a castle being flame broiled by an angry dragon, but to a dingy behind it. And..handwaving that, he runs into Euron Greyjoy who seems to conveniently appear out of a portal - no the water, sorry, and madly attacks Jamie. Stabbing him multiple times. They have a horrible fight. Jamie is bleeding. At one point, Euron rolls his eyes when Jamie gets up and fights him some more. Until a critically wounded Jamie guts Euron with a sword, once and he's dead, well not before he declares he killed Jamie Lannister. And I'm thinking no, the Dragon and Castle are going to kill Jamie. But good try.
SuperJamie manages to make -- bleeding -- through a burning and crumbling castle to Cersei who is standing in the middle of the map room. He takes her down to the cellars with all of the dragon bones (which while ironically fitting and great pictorial moment -- is well, hard to swallow), and hunts for a way out. Doesn't and they die in the rubble. Lovely moment, except it makes no sense. Cersei saw him as betraying her. Jamie had long left her behind, fed up. And honestly, he should have keeled over long before he reached the map room.
Then we have Ayra Stark and The Hound who wander undetected and undisquised through Kings Landing, knowing full well that there are two armies at stand-off and an angry dragon on the horizon. Ayra of the many faces, doesn't take one. There's no subterfuge. And they make it to the center of the map room and have this touching and critical moment -- where the Hound tells Ayra that if she comes with him she'll die and look what a life built purely on revenge has done to him. Does she want that for herself? She agrees and decides to flee the castle. And I'm thinking, you couldn't have had the conversation somewhere between Winterfell and King's Landing? No, you wait until now? Really? And honestly, Hound, you certainly haven't been acting like your life was all about revenge, and this conversation has happened multiple times already. Also wouldn't it have made more sense to wait until the armies fought, before invading the castle? Might have saved yourselves some agony.
Their choices defy logic and are sort of out of character. I can handwave the Hound, but Arya made no sense. She's a master of subterfuge. Also when has she listened to the Hound? Did they have this conversation all the way there?
I get why the writers wanted her there -- but I remember thinking, you know Ayra in the Faceless Men's land would have used a little subterfuge, planned it out, and waited. This is as if she didn't do any of that.
Ayra's journey through the castle and mounting the pale horse are as moving as her scenes in Episode 3, the Long Night, but they are difficult to truly enjoy due to all the handwaving and cheapened due to the fact that they are not true to the character. It's such a beautifully shot sequence, and the actress is amazing, but the writing lets her down. It's not the end, it's how you get there.
Moving on to Jon Snow who I've dubbed the "Wet Noodle" in my head -- he basically wanders through this episode, lost and clearly out of his depth. And to be honest that's been Jon Snow all season long. "Your new lover is your Aunt." What should I do, oh I know I'll tell people. Then when they approach me with their concerns, I'll tell Dany, knowing full well she'll burn them to death with a dragon. And when the woman, that I allegedly fell in love (or was that lust) with -- and no longer feel it because hello Aunt (going with lust here), is suffering multiple losses -- losses worse than I've had, and has an insane burden on her shoulders -- what do I do, I reject her and wander off to attend to my needs. The man is a wet noodle. He doesn't really take much of a stand on anything unless he's pushed kicking and screaming. I mean you really have to shove his face into it -- to get him to take action. And here, when the dragon let's loose, he can't control the army at all. He declares fall back long after he should have. I thought? Now you do it? And when the other army surrenders, instead of taking control -- he just sort of goes, oh.
Then, we have Dany, who I'd come to respect and like up until this season, when all of sudden she starts doing dumb things that make no sense. Such as in the last episode, not having Jon ride one of the dragons or even having a plan. And in this one, deciding to aimlessly burn the city, instead of flying directly up to Cersei, after taking out the weapons on the ramparts. (By the way --- why wasn't anyone able to take a shot? Did they all conveniently lose any idea how to operate the weapons? Think of the epic battle of Kings Landing in Season 2? This one does not work. It's TOO easy. Particularly after all that build up. Now, Dany with just one dragon is able to take it all out? Really? But handwaving that for a moment, when the bells ring, when they surrender, Dany decides to go for the kill. But does this woman who put her dragons in a prison to protect people and fought to save children and women, go directly for Cersei, seemingly safe in her castle? No. Instead for reasons that defy all logic -- she flies aimlessly through the streets in a zig-zag pattern killing people -- like the dragon has no rider or anyone behind the wheel. It was a bit like watching a drunken dragon rider lay waste to a city. It was ...well silly.
I thought, really?
I didn't care. I knew they were going to do it -- because that was the temptation. Let's throw our characterization out of the window, let's through the arc out, and go with theme, and sacrifice our characters to it. Let's make her the Mad Queen! They could have accomplished the same ends, with more complexity, and far better --
by having her go straight to the tower and burn down the castle -- and in doing that, accidentally set off all the dragon fire stored underneath which would take out the rest. It was there -- it was set-up, and it would have beautifully ironic.
And allowed the character to stay in character. Instead they had her do something that made no sense to the character. Just like Ayra, Jamie, and the Hound -- the writers sacrificed character growth for fanservice and theme and plot. It was contrived and make the actions seem silly and hollow. I was frankly bored. If they'd gone the way I thought, which many of co-workers were certain of -- it would have been more rewarding and it would have made sense. Have Dany give in to the temptation to take out Cersei, and accidentally set off the chain reaction and be horrified by it -- and that drive her over the edge. That would have served the theme that they were going for. (I know what they were going for, because I chose to watch the Inside Thrones bit after, and listened to them explain it. And I thought - but you did it all wrong, you idiots. It was so easy to fix, if you just thought it through -- it was obvious!)
Now let's jump over to Tyrion, whose actions since he left Winterfell make no sense. He finds out about Jon Snow and immediately tells Varys. Why would he think Jon would make a good leader? Yes, it's a great scene, but it makes no sense he'd confide it to the Whisperer of Secrets, who has betrayed him in the past. Then, when it comes out, who does Dany kill? Varys. Not Varys and Tyrion. Honestly, if I were Dany, I'd kill them both. Leaving Jon for after the battle, when he's no longer needed. Play that one by ear -- Jon is such a wet noodle, he's rather easy to get rid of. Tyrion then goes off to free Jamie and arrange for Jamie to ring the bells and get Cersie out. Really Tyrion? We thought you were brighter than this? Yes, we have this touching scene between Jamie and Tyrion but it's not really earned and it is NOT needed. It's fanservice. It's soap opera. I loved it -- taken by itself, as a canape, but it doesn't work in the story being told. It makes no sense that Jamie is even there, less that Tyrion would want to save his crazy-ass sister, and even less that he thinks Jamie can do anything in the state he's in. It's an act of desperation sure -- but it makes no sense, from someone who allegedly believes in Dany. He should have been surprised by Dany's actions, if he truly believed?
Varys -- why in the hell did he burn the note only to put out the flame by covering it in the dish? Wouldn't it make more sense to burn it in the grate? And why take such a huge risk by telling Jon Snow aka Wet Noodle, who of course would have told Dany -- because as everyone knows, Jon can't keep a secret to save his life. Why do people tell Jon things? There's honesty and stupidity. I've no idea how he's survived this long -- oh that's right the Red Woman brought him back.
Pacing issues. The writers decide to wait fifteen minutes, okay maybe ten, before doing anything. They just want us to look at everyone and take in the moment. I'm thinking -- get on with if already. I've already decided if you follow your pattern to date of absurd gratitutious violence that even puts the books to shame (and considering how violent the books were that is saying something -- although the books never felt gratitutious or exploitive or for shock value), that you're going to have Dany manage to burn the entire city to the ground -- with little to no effort. Despite the fact that they easily killed one of her dragons and wounded the other or that they took Missandre prisoner. But hey, it serves the plot, and it's shocking, so we will do it.
Now, don't get me wrong -- I thought it was filmed, acted, and directed well. The writing was horrible. The plot didn't work. The characterization was well...let's just say I remember thinking when Cersei said -- one of our weapons will take it out. Sorry, Cersei, you're dead. The writers have killed you. Was it an earned death? No not really, just sort of romantically sweet -- and it made no sense.
For it to have worked, Jamie should have gotten there sooner and not had the fight with Euron Greyjoy. They should have just had the dragon kill Euron. Anything else is fanservice.
The Mountain/Hound -- eh, I thought, nice imagery, and yes, I knew you were going there, so predictable, and it works beautifully on a metaphorical level. I read a review today that spelled that out and I agree -- The Mountain is a metaphor for the corruption of Kings Landing which ultimately dooms it. But it would have worked better if he just got trapped and died with Cersei and her aid, Qyburn. The melodrama wasn't required and seemed out of place in this series.
And therein lies the problem here -- the drama while operatic at times, was never really needlessly melodramatic. It didn't fall into sentimentality. Or managed not to, until now. And the moments were earned. Here...they felt cheap and rushed.
I wasn't moved by the episode. My jaw didn't drop. I knew what would happen about fifteen to twenty minutes prior, possibly more. It felt long. It was boring in places. And I didn't care who lived or died any longer. I knew Ayra, Tyrion, Dany and Jon and the Dragon would. I also knew Davos would -- because he's unkillable. I'm glad they killed off Euron Greyjoy, who got on my every last nerve -- the actor chose to portray him as if he'd taken a bit too much speed or was just insane. And very glad to see the end of Cersei, Qyburn, and The Mountain.
I wish they'd killed Jamie in the battle at Winterfell. It would have worked better for me. Instead they went with the pat/neat ending for him, character arcs be damned. And I wish they'd killed Jon up there as well, although it's pretty clear this has been a coming of age tale for the Stark kids and perhaps that was always the problem?
The problem really is that the writers lost track of the journey and just had eyes on the ending. GRR Martin wrote the end, but he had no clue how to get there after Book 5 and neither did anyone else, apparently. It reminds me of reading one of those fanfic works in progress when you realize, wait, the writer is stuck and this is never going to have an end. Going back to the Avengers -- it succeeds in part because it doesn't really try for the neat landing or ending, but just an ending to certain characters arcs and certain battles within the story. It's not about someone gaining a throne, but a group of people fighting a long series of battles until they are simply done. Long-running serials often work best when they only try to wrap up a handful of character arcs, not over a thousand, and are more focused. Game of Thrones both on page and screen suffers from trying to do too much in too short a time...and losing interest halfway through.
Overall rating? C- (I'd give it a D, but I liked various cinematic moments in there, Ayra riding out of the city on a pale blue horse is beautiful, with ash falling around her. I'm guessing she'll kill Dany, probably pretend to be Jon or Greyworm or Tyrion...except, Dany has purple eyes, not green, not blue, and not brown. Or at least she did in the books.)
So, I saw The Avengers: Endgame on Saturday, watched three episodes of Lucifer on Sunday, and Game of Thrones penultimate episode...which basically proved ...who needs an army, when they have a dragon? Heck you don't even need three, one is more than enough. Which to give him credit, Bronn figured out right off the bat.
Hands down, Avengers: Endgame tromped Game of Thrones plotting and ate it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. While I was emotionally moved by Endgame (I laughed, I cried, my jaw dropped in awe at the tricky and well executed combination of plot, metaphor and emotional character arcs coming to a satisfying and more importantly well-earned conclusion) -- I was...largely ambivalent about Game of Thrones, and slightly bored. This series still has serious pacing issues, even though they are rushing the action in ways that bring to mind daytime soap opera logisitics and plotting. Also none of the character moments felt earned. There were some nifty isolated moments or canapes, but none of them felt connected and some felt rather contrived and out of character or a devolution of character, so as a result, I found it hard to care all that much. In other words, yes, there are some brilliant isolated sequences in here that if you separate them from the piece as a whole are rather wonderful, like canapes, but taken as a whole or in the entire episode? Not so much.
I've read a lot of reviews from professional critics today on it, and determined that if you were or are fannish about certain characters -- then it may have worked for you? Or if you loved the whole over-arcing theme about vengeance never works and war is hell and destroys everything...than maybe? Although I felt this was be clunky in how it was rendered. And far better done in well The Avenger's : Endgame with Tony Stark and others arcs. Mileage Varies, I suppose.
It's not fair to compare the two. So I'll try really hard to stop there, and just explain what did and didn't work in last night's episode.
As an aside? I'm wondering if we shouldn't call this episode -- "why you should never under-estimate a pissed off lady on a dragon. Or "Let Loose the Dragon!"
One of the problems Game of Thrones has is somewhere around S6, the writers apparently got tired of writing the series and wanted to wrap it up and move on to something, anything else. I'm guessing they weren't alone in this -- so did the cast and crew. HBO would have been fine with 15 seasons.
But, unfortunately for the writers and cast, up to that point they'd been going the hyper-realism approach. Where it took a season of at least 10-13 episodes for a character to make it from point A to point B, and often they'd never get there or get there far too late for it to matter. Sometimes it took two seasons. (I remember thinking, okay, don't bother even trying, you will NEVER get there in time. Remember how Ayra kept trying to get to Jon as did Sansa at one point?)
Also, up until that point, people sort of orchestrated their own downfall. And often what we expected to happen, didn't, instead the opposite, due to the realities of the world. The rules were firm, we knew how long it took to get somewhere. That there were hidden dangers along the way. This was firmly established for six seasons.
Then...suddenly, we stopped being in that world. Now a character could go from Westeros to Kings Landing in the blink of an eye. We didn't see the journey any longer. No talking around the campfire or plotting in cabins of ships, or fighting storms at sea, or fretting over what to feed a hungry dragon. It was no longer about how we got there, it was getting there, the destination. The writers didn't want to take any more time to build their story then they'd done to date -- it was a rush to the finish line. They were bored of the story they'd been telling for six seasons and it showed.
As a result of this -- we have Jamie Lannister who left at the end of the last episode, magically appearing King's Landing, with no injury. Not only that he gets captured because he forgot to cover his hand. His motive for coming back -- doesn't quite make sense either, but most of what he's done since fighting the White Walkers has made no sense. Why the writer's didn't just kill him off up there -- which would have made sense, I'm not sure? To have those two emotion packed scenes with Tyrion and Cersei? But both scenes go against what the show had started out to be -- we didn't get any of that previously, why now? And they don't really feel earned. Jamie doesn't work that hard to get to King's Landing, and we're not told why he suddenly changed his mind to go -- outside of an overheard conversation in the prior episode between Sansa and Brienne?
Handwaving for a moment all of that...Jamie is freed by Tyrion, only to stumble aimlessly and visibly into the crowd. Remember Cersei had ordered him killed on sight. Apparently no one noticed him? Then he not only makes it through a castle being flame broiled by an angry dragon, but to a dingy behind it. And..handwaving that, he runs into Euron Greyjoy who seems to conveniently appear out of a portal - no the water, sorry, and madly attacks Jamie. Stabbing him multiple times. They have a horrible fight. Jamie is bleeding. At one point, Euron rolls his eyes when Jamie gets up and fights him some more. Until a critically wounded Jamie guts Euron with a sword, once and he's dead, well not before he declares he killed Jamie Lannister. And I'm thinking no, the Dragon and Castle are going to kill Jamie. But good try.
Then we have Ayra Stark and The Hound who wander undetected and undisquised through Kings Landing, knowing full well that there are two armies at stand-off and an angry dragon on the horizon. Ayra of the many faces, doesn't take one. There's no subterfuge. And they make it to the center of the map room and have this touching and critical moment -- where the Hound tells Ayra that if she comes with him she'll die and look what a life built purely on revenge has done to him. Does she want that for herself? She agrees and decides to flee the castle. And I'm thinking, you couldn't have had the conversation somewhere between Winterfell and King's Landing? No, you wait until now? Really? And honestly, Hound, you certainly haven't been acting like your life was all about revenge, and this conversation has happened multiple times already. Also wouldn't it have made more sense to wait until the armies fought, before invading the castle? Might have saved yourselves some agony.
Their choices defy logic and are sort of out of character. I can handwave the Hound, but Arya made no sense. She's a master of subterfuge. Also when has she listened to the Hound? Did they have this conversation all the way there?
I get why the writers wanted her there -- but I remember thinking, you know Ayra in the Faceless Men's land would have used a little subterfuge, planned it out, and waited. This is as if she didn't do any of that.
Ayra's journey through the castle and mounting the pale horse are as moving as her scenes in Episode 3, the Long Night, but they are difficult to truly enjoy due to all the handwaving and cheapened due to the fact that they are not true to the character. It's such a beautifully shot sequence, and the actress is amazing, but the writing lets her down. It's not the end, it's how you get there.
Moving on to Jon Snow who I've dubbed the "Wet Noodle" in my head -- he basically wanders through this episode, lost and clearly out of his depth. And to be honest that's been Jon Snow all season long. "Your new lover is your Aunt." What should I do, oh I know I'll tell people. Then when they approach me with their concerns, I'll tell Dany, knowing full well she'll burn them to death with a dragon. And when the woman, that I allegedly fell in love (or was that lust) with -- and no longer feel it because hello Aunt (going with lust here), is suffering multiple losses -- losses worse than I've had, and has an insane burden on her shoulders -- what do I do, I reject her and wander off to attend to my needs. The man is a wet noodle. He doesn't really take much of a stand on anything unless he's pushed kicking and screaming. I mean you really have to shove his face into it -- to get him to take action. And here, when the dragon let's loose, he can't control the army at all. He declares fall back long after he should have. I thought? Now you do it? And when the other army surrenders, instead of taking control -- he just sort of goes, oh.
Then, we have Dany, who I'd come to respect and like up until this season, when all of sudden she starts doing dumb things that make no sense. Such as in the last episode, not having Jon ride one of the dragons or even having a plan. And in this one, deciding to aimlessly burn the city, instead of flying directly up to Cersei, after taking out the weapons on the ramparts. (By the way --- why wasn't anyone able to take a shot? Did they all conveniently lose any idea how to operate the weapons? Think of the epic battle of Kings Landing in Season 2? This one does not work. It's TOO easy. Particularly after all that build up. Now, Dany with just one dragon is able to take it all out? Really? But handwaving that for a moment, when the bells ring, when they surrender, Dany decides to go for the kill. But does this woman who put her dragons in a prison to protect people and fought to save children and women, go directly for Cersei, seemingly safe in her castle? No. Instead for reasons that defy all logic -- she flies aimlessly through the streets in a zig-zag pattern killing people -- like the dragon has no rider or anyone behind the wheel. It was a bit like watching a drunken dragon rider lay waste to a city. It was ...well silly.
I thought, really?
I didn't care. I knew they were going to do it -- because that was the temptation. Let's throw our characterization out of the window, let's through the arc out, and go with theme, and sacrifice our characters to it. Let's make her the Mad Queen! They could have accomplished the same ends, with more complexity, and far better --
by having her go straight to the tower and burn down the castle -- and in doing that, accidentally set off all the dragon fire stored underneath which would take out the rest. It was there -- it was set-up, and it would have beautifully ironic.
And allowed the character to stay in character. Instead they had her do something that made no sense to the character. Just like Ayra, Jamie, and the Hound -- the writers sacrificed character growth for fanservice and theme and plot. It was contrived and make the actions seem silly and hollow. I was frankly bored. If they'd gone the way I thought, which many of co-workers were certain of -- it would have been more rewarding and it would have made sense. Have Dany give in to the temptation to take out Cersei, and accidentally set off the chain reaction and be horrified by it -- and that drive her over the edge. That would have served the theme that they were going for. (I know what they were going for, because I chose to watch the Inside Thrones bit after, and listened to them explain it. And I thought - but you did it all wrong, you idiots. It was so easy to fix, if you just thought it through -- it was obvious!)
Now let's jump over to Tyrion, whose actions since he left Winterfell make no sense. He finds out about Jon Snow and immediately tells Varys. Why would he think Jon would make a good leader? Yes, it's a great scene, but it makes no sense he'd confide it to the Whisperer of Secrets, who has betrayed him in the past. Then, when it comes out, who does Dany kill? Varys. Not Varys and Tyrion. Honestly, if I were Dany, I'd kill them both. Leaving Jon for after the battle, when he's no longer needed. Play that one by ear -- Jon is such a wet noodle, he's rather easy to get rid of. Tyrion then goes off to free Jamie and arrange for Jamie to ring the bells and get Cersie out. Really Tyrion? We thought you were brighter than this? Yes, we have this touching scene between Jamie and Tyrion but it's not really earned and it is NOT needed. It's fanservice. It's soap opera. I loved it -- taken by itself, as a canape, but it doesn't work in the story being told. It makes no sense that Jamie is even there, less that Tyrion would want to save his crazy-ass sister, and even less that he thinks Jamie can do anything in the state he's in. It's an act of desperation sure -- but it makes no sense, from someone who allegedly believes in Dany. He should have been surprised by Dany's actions, if he truly believed?
Varys -- why in the hell did he burn the note only to put out the flame by covering it in the dish? Wouldn't it make more sense to burn it in the grate? And why take such a huge risk by telling Jon Snow aka Wet Noodle, who of course would have told Dany -- because as everyone knows, Jon can't keep a secret to save his life. Why do people tell Jon things? There's honesty and stupidity. I've no idea how he's survived this long -- oh that's right the Red Woman brought him back.
Pacing issues. The writers decide to wait fifteen minutes, okay maybe ten, before doing anything. They just want us to look at everyone and take in the moment. I'm thinking -- get on with if already. I've already decided if you follow your pattern to date of absurd gratitutious violence that even puts the books to shame (and considering how violent the books were that is saying something -- although the books never felt gratitutious or exploitive or for shock value), that you're going to have Dany manage to burn the entire city to the ground -- with little to no effort. Despite the fact that they easily killed one of her dragons and wounded the other or that they took Missandre prisoner. But hey, it serves the plot, and it's shocking, so we will do it.
Now, don't get me wrong -- I thought it was filmed, acted, and directed well. The writing was horrible. The plot didn't work. The characterization was well...let's just say I remember thinking when Cersei said -- one of our weapons will take it out. Sorry, Cersei, you're dead. The writers have killed you. Was it an earned death? No not really, just sort of romantically sweet -- and it made no sense.
For it to have worked, Jamie should have gotten there sooner and not had the fight with Euron Greyjoy. They should have just had the dragon kill Euron. Anything else is fanservice.
The Mountain/Hound -- eh, I thought, nice imagery, and yes, I knew you were going there, so predictable, and it works beautifully on a metaphorical level. I read a review today that spelled that out and I agree -- The Mountain is a metaphor for the corruption of Kings Landing which ultimately dooms it. But it would have worked better if he just got trapped and died with Cersei and her aid, Qyburn. The melodrama wasn't required and seemed out of place in this series.
And therein lies the problem here -- the drama while operatic at times, was never really needlessly melodramatic. It didn't fall into sentimentality. Or managed not to, until now. And the moments were earned. Here...they felt cheap and rushed.
I wasn't moved by the episode. My jaw didn't drop. I knew what would happen about fifteen to twenty minutes prior, possibly more. It felt long. It was boring in places. And I didn't care who lived or died any longer. I knew Ayra, Tyrion, Dany and Jon and the Dragon would. I also knew Davos would -- because he's unkillable. I'm glad they killed off Euron Greyjoy, who got on my every last nerve -- the actor chose to portray him as if he'd taken a bit too much speed or was just insane. And very glad to see the end of Cersei, Qyburn, and The Mountain.
I wish they'd killed Jamie in the battle at Winterfell. It would have worked better for me. Instead they went with the pat/neat ending for him, character arcs be damned. And I wish they'd killed Jon up there as well, although it's pretty clear this has been a coming of age tale for the Stark kids and perhaps that was always the problem?
The problem really is that the writers lost track of the journey and just had eyes on the ending. GRR Martin wrote the end, but he had no clue how to get there after Book 5 and neither did anyone else, apparently. It reminds me of reading one of those fanfic works in progress when you realize, wait, the writer is stuck and this is never going to have an end. Going back to the Avengers -- it succeeds in part because it doesn't really try for the neat landing or ending, but just an ending to certain characters arcs and certain battles within the story. It's not about someone gaining a throne, but a group of people fighting a long series of battles until they are simply done. Long-running serials often work best when they only try to wrap up a handful of character arcs, not over a thousand, and are more focused. Game of Thrones both on page and screen suffers from trying to do too much in too short a time...and losing interest halfway through.
Overall rating? C- (I'd give it a D, but I liked various cinematic moments in there, Ayra riding out of the city on a pale blue horse is beautiful, with ash falling around her. I'm guessing she'll kill Dany, probably pretend to be Jon or Greyworm or Tyrion...except, Dany has purple eyes, not green, not blue, and not brown. Or at least she did in the books.)
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Date: 2019-05-14 02:20 pm (UTC)Also, as mentioned in the post above? I think the series only worked for people who were fans or shipped specific characters -- if you are an Ayra fan and that's all you cared about? You'd have loved it. If you were a fan of the Hound or Jon Snow or Davos ...yeah it works beautifully. But it doesn't if you aren't or don't care, and were interested in the story as a whole. Or if the characters you cared about and found interesting weren't those four characters. That's the pattern I've seen in the reviews and responses. Fans of those four characters? Don't understand why the last two episodes do not work at all.
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Date: 2019-05-14 02:35 pm (UTC)And that's ok. We all see the characters differently; nothing wrong with that. It's just bound to affect how we ultimately evaluate a show.
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Date: 2019-05-14 03:59 pm (UTC)If you remember correctly, I had similar issues with Chosen and the entirety of S7 and S6 Buffy. The only character arc that I felt worked was Spikes, and I was a Spike fan -- but the seasons as whole didn't stand up. That said, they were still better plotted than this has been. And the big battles? I did not think were that good. You can't see most of episode 3's battle, and episode 4 and 5 are just ludicrous.
Yeah, I can see if all you care about is Ayra -- it's a great show. (Except for how easily she got to Kings Landing and conviently in time...but handwaving that? Yeah, if all you care about was Ayra, you'd love this, just as if all you cared about was Spike, you'd love it.)
And no, it had nothing to do with head-canon, since I had no clue how I wanted it to play out. I just needed it to hold true to where it started and not jump the shark, which it did with full colors blazing. LOL!