Frewns (S8E6 SPOILERS)

Well, I guess the third Holy Shit was Jon killing Dany – though we’d all predicted that, more or less. The lone wolf dies but the pack survives (so all the Starks go their own way).

The tone of the first segment was great, actually; but I was waiting for more, well, story. So and so ends up in such and such a situation – so much of the episode was literally like reading bullet-point style spoilers. The Nuremberg rally was well done, as was the fact it was not in the Common Tongue (and Jon doesn’t speak Valyrian – I guess the Dothraki must?). Only nit was that shot of Dany with Drogon’s wings – just incredibly hackneyed and unnecessary, the kind of thing you’d get a first-year film student putting in.

“Who wouldn’t [kill tons of people] if they thought they’d get paradise” – such a heavy-handed line which really jarred to me. The paralells with today’s world and some of the big challenges in it are just there, they don’t need spelling out. We’re not five years old.

Did Drogon realise Jon killed Dany? Was fully expecting him to get singed. Does the Iron Throne have significance to Drogon? Why would he melt that and do nothing else? Once Dany was dead, everything just fell into nice-enough places. I’d expect harsher consequences – for sure the prompt deaths of Jon and Tyrion.

Delighted that Ghost got a cuddle – well, a neck rub anyway. Fitting that Grey Worm ended up going to Naath to protect the butterfly people (though technically he’s a war criminal and should be on trial in the Hague; and as Tyrion might have pointed out, lacking a cock means starting his own House was probably a bit of a non-starter anyway).

Mystifying that Bran’s powers did not pull some final rabbit out of the hat (I did hold out hopes that he’d be the final final Big Bad, or at least have had some other awful effect on the past, but nope). Obvious that Arya would end up Doing Just That. Sansa as QueenInDaNorf makes sense, at least; and I hope she escapes marriage to Sweetrobin. Why, though, would the other kingdoms not also wish to secede? Would be nice to give Meera a gig as Queen of the Six Kingdoms (that would be the kind of fan-service I could get behind).

Sam’s suggestion of democracy was clearly through the fourth wall and really jarred for that reason (though why Yara was so amused confuses me as the Kingsmoot is surely a version of that). Bronn is going to be corrupt and incompetent – how will they deal with that? What would Gendry actually know about ruling? So obvious Brienne would write Jaime’s entry but still a nice scene when she did. Edmure appears just to remind us that he’s a bit of a t**t. Way ahead of you, bro.

All of which feels like notes to a linear set of things which happened. I feel like there’s the soul of a story missing – not to jump on any bandwagons but that episode alone could have been fully half a season, fleshed out and with nuance and intrigue and so on, and in earlier seasons it would have been (probably with some gratuitous breasts thrown in, to be fair).

So the short version: nice to know how it ends up but desperately in need of an actual story to get us there. Please, George, write the damn books already.

Posted By: Old Man, May 20, 09:50:39