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GoT: What I Think Thus Far

2/5/2019

2 Comments

 
Good morning, Readers!
Picture
I have been watching Game of Thrones this season.  I started because I had watched the series previously, and felt the need to finish it.  I was, previous to this season, suffering for Game of Thrones fatigue and, honestly, did not care all that much about the show.  The same, incidentally, is true of the book series.  I just didn't care.

That has gone this season.  I am invested.  I thought I would go over what I've loved (and not) about this season thus far.

WARNING: There are spoilers ahead. Duh.

Unlike many internet commentators, I really enjoyed the first two episodes of this final season.  I did not mind that there wasn't any action.  These two first episodes were fantastic for establishing and re-establishing relationships and setting all the players in their position for the major clash with the series' secondary villain.  I adored the reunions - of special note, Arya and Jon, and Sansa and Theon (I may have teared up with how Theon asked to fight for Winterfell).  I loved the establishing of a fraught relationship between Dany and Sansa, how Arya sided with Sansa against Jon, and how the show has made it that Sansa is now the most clever person in the series.

Boy has Sansa grown.

I really loved Brienne's knighting.  I may have cried.  My god, that smile...  And as much as I hate to say it, I like Jaimey.  He's come a long way since he lost his fighting hand.

Also, unlike nearly every guy (and it's all guys) I've spoken to, I loved that Arya and Gendry got together.  Get it, girl!  You deserve a night with someone you like.  Granted, I was a little disappointed, as Arya was largely, and perhaps unconsciously on the part of the writers, asexual throughout the series, and I was hoping for some representation there.  Alas, no.  Still, if she wasn't to be asexual, I'm glad that she owned her sexuality and her sexual attraction, and was assertive and sure when she decided to go for it.  She deserved it.  Weirdly, all the guys (yes, men specifically) I know hated that scene.  I'd love to deep dive into why that is one day.  Not today.

As far as the first two episodes went, they were necessary and enjoyable for their wonderful character moments.  Episode three, however, was basically a movie-length battle scene.  It was fantastic.  Overall, I loved it.

First, some things I didn't really like, or things that made my smack my forehead in frustration:

There were also some really stupid moves by the defenders.  I think the council who set up the battle strategy were idiots.

You're fighting a battle against the dead, whose leader can raise the dead, and you send everyone who cannot fight into the crypts.  The crypts.  What. The. Actual. Fuck.  You pack of bloody morons.  I mean, it might be safest from the bulk of the forces marching against Winterfell, but there are dead things down there.  Maybe put in a fighter or two or four, just in case.  Christ almighty.

Also, way to decimate your cavalry, wasting them on a frontal assault, when it would have been much smarter to have them hidden on the sides, ready to circle around the back.  The army of the dead is mindless.  They're dead.  They're going to be running forward mindlessly for the enemy they can see.  Circling around and attacking from behind would do a lot more in reducing numbers of the attackers, even if it would have absolutely decimate the cavalry.  They wouldn't have winked out quite so fast, and would have done a great deal more damage.  But hell, what do I know?

Idiots.

Also, the dead outside the walls were screaming and grunting and being loud.  Once they entered the library, however, they suddenly obeyed the library rules and were quiet as mice.  What?

This doesn't count as a thing I didn't like so much as a thing that confused the crap out of me, but what the hell was Bran doing when he warged?  Was he just keeping an eye out?  Watching the scene?  What was he doing and why did he do it?  I expect that there might be answers to this forthcoming, as the show often makes pundits eat some humble pie, but I was confused as hell.  I want to know what he hoped to achieve, and why he bothered.  I NEED TO KNOW.

Right, onto the things I liked.

This episode did tension so damned well.  From the beginning, when the enemy could not be seen, all the way through to the jeopardy that characters were in  mid-battle, to Arya in the library (I know I mocked the wights being suddenly quiet once inside the library, but it worked wonders for the tension), to Jon fighting to get to Bran, I was genuinely on the edge of my seat, gripping the hand rests hard enough it turned my knuckles white.  It was so wonderfully tense, and I was so drawn in.  It was a beautiful piece of film-making when it comes to mood.

As for character interactions, I adored the interaction between Sansa and Tyrion in the crypts, and the genuine affection those characters seem to have for one another.  When he kissed her hand, I might have gone 'aww!'  I loved how Missandei put Sansa in her place, also in the crypts, with the blunt truth that without Dany, everyone would be dead already.  She's not wrong.

Seeing Jaimey, Brienne and Podrick fight together made me smile in that 'they're utterly fucked' bittersweet kind of way.  Jaimey saved Brienne, Brienne saved Jaimey, they're together, fighting at the end of all things.  I love them.

Unlike many internet commentators I've read, I also loved that Sam made it through.  He's not a fighter in the way that we might understand, but he fought all the same.  I also really loved the image of him sitting in a pile of bodies, weeping.  I know it means that the hordes ignored him, which makes little sense, but as far as character and imagery, it's beautiful and true.  Also, I just want to run and give Sam the biggest of hugs.  I'm glad he made it.  Fight me.

As for the deaths of Lady Lyanna Mormont, that mighty little bear, and Theon, both were tragic and brave and so deserved.  Lyanna deserved to die taking out a wight giant in the ultimate David and Golliath scenario, and Theon, last man standing between the Night King and Bran, deserved to die fighting.  Granted, the Night King made short work of him, but it was a brave and noble death.

As to the twist, I absolutely loved it!  I loved that it was Arya.  I loved that the knife that had been used to try and kill Bran ended up being the weapon that saved him.  I punched the air and hollered when it happened.

I understand that a lot of people were expecting it to be Jon, but that poor bastard was trapped, facing off against an undead dragon.  He couldn't have made it.

Granted, I do wish Jon could have been involved.  I imagine a scene where he and the Night King are fighting, and Jon is almost struck down, but Arya comes in the last minute pretty much as she did in the actual episode, saving both brothers (well, her brother and her cousin (spoilers!)).  That would have been amazing.

Still, I'm not sad about how it all went down.  It was unexpected and thrilling and felt pretty much right.

Arya is my GIRL!

I'm looking forward to the remaining three episodes.  It's unlikely that I'll be talking anything Game of Thrones again until the series is done, unless something as spectacular as the ending to episode three happens again... which, I mean, it might.

What about you?  Did you watch it?  If so, how do you feel about it all right now?  Let me know in the comments!

I'm off to do work.

Ciao!
2 Comments
Alyssa
3/5/2019 12:45:09 am

I have to say I had mixed feelings about the episode. The series is the Song of Ice and Fire, so I am truly on the bandwagon that facing off with the night king should have been the final battle. He is supposed to be relatively intelligent. So why would he attack a fortress full of people who are prepared to fight him and who have two dragons? Nah. He’s smarter than that. He should have snuck past winterfell during that dark night and continued to move south, swelling his troops and fighting easy targets, as well as bringing winter with him. As the Starks always said... Winter is Coming. But that’s not how the writers went... fine. Sigh.

I agree I love Sansa’s Character arc and her moments with Theon and Tyrion. Couldn’t agree more.

Dany was a disappointment this episode. Her sobbing on the battlefield, unable to properly hold or wield a sword? WTF. Honestly how many years have you been travelling with the Unsullied and a knight and you never bothered to get them to teach you how to fight??? Did you expect to take the iron throne while riding your dragon? No, of course you should expect to fight the usurper hand-to-Hand at the final part of the battle when you go to take the throne. I fear for what will come of the Dragon Queen these next 3 episodes.

The deaths in this episode were lovely and well deserved. But apart from Theon... these were fairly dispensable characters... on a scale of extras to Jon/Dany anyway. In true George RR Martin style someone should have died who we were really invested in and rooting for. Which to me was the appeal of the show - the surprise, horror, disappointment and frustration like watching a train-wreck and not being able to look away. These show writers are much more crowd pleasing.

I am ok with Sam surviving, but I think he should have been one of the fighters in the crypt. I mean they sent him off to start Maester school and learn all this stuff to help them prepare, not to be cannon fodder. If Tyrion got to stay below for his brain, Sam should have as well.

I agree with you about Bran’s warging... what was the point? I liked that Arya got the surprise kill at the end but I have two problems with it. (1) she just magically jumped out of nowhere, didn’t even take on a dead face. (2) I always believed she would be the one to kill Cersei (by taking dead Jamie’s face and getting close to her and finding some very personal way to kill her.) Arguably Arya has the highest ratio of skill:motive to get the job done. Plus for her it was such a personal revenge kill... sigh. So now I am just a bit sad that it’s unlikely they will give Arya another big kill... or maybe they will? But it seems unlikely. So overall my problem with the final scene was that I don’t think either Arya or Bran were used to their full “magical potential” I am hoping the writers explain more in the coming episodes, but I doubt it will live up to my expectations....

In my one fan fiction version Bran uses one of his Wargs to see the knife falling and is able to grab it and make the kill ... making him more than just the bait... oh the possibilities are endless.... but their abilities should have been used to their greater potentials!


I am sure there is more, but this is all my ranting for now...

Reply
S.M. Carrière link
3/5/2019 09:03:07 am

I like this rant. This is a good rant.

I always figured the Ice and Fire bit referred to Jon and Dany, he being the ice and she being the fire, or a north and south thing, but I see what you mean.

I would disagree about the deaths. For a long time now in both the books and the show, the deaths were losing their impact, and it started to feel like they were happening just for the shock value. It wasn't really an appeal of the show for me, and I'm glad the major players all made it through this time.

Any fighters in the crypt should have happened, and Sam might have been useful down there, but I also liked that, despite his relative lack of skill, he wasn't about to abandon his friends to the fight. He showed a lot of courage, and I'm glad he was able to be given that moment.

I honestly thing that Jaimey will be the one to kill Cersei (as we prophesised, her younger brother (by a few minutes) shall kill her) in a duplicate moment of him murdering the mad king. I don't think he'll survive long afterwards. It'll be his last act, I think. You're right. I don't think Arya will get another big kill moment.

Honestly, I just want Bran's actions explained. That's all. I'm okay with him being bait. Just explain what he was doing while he was sitting there.

Le sigh. Well, we'll see, or not, in the next few episodes.

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    S.M. Carrière, a Celtic Studies enthusiast, writes fiction.  And this blog.

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