Game of Thrones, Season 8, Episode 5: The Bells
You know... it really hurts me deep inside to criticize this episode. I went and looked at the "behind the scenes" feature on how they did the special effects on this episode, and it's clear that the production and special effects team poured their all into this episode. And for what it's worth... it's an amazing visual spectacle. I have absolutely no complaints about this episode from a visual standpoint. But the writing part?
Like, I'm not angry that Game of Thrones didn't end in a happy-fun-times bit where everyone sits around a campfire and sings kumbaya. I'm not. Game of Thrones can only end in a tragic and/or bittersweet ending, and I approve of that sentiment, if not the execution. I also agree with some people's defense of this episode that the characters (bar Jaime) reaching what they are in this episode is... it's logical, and you can do essays on why Daenerys has always been showcased as being pretty trigger-happy, or that Jon was always naive, or whatever. Like, show me a cliff's notes summary of season eight (including what's happened in the previous episodes) and I would probably raise my eyebrows and go "cool, that makes sense, it's going to be interesting to see how we reach this point."
Except we never see that. We just see the end of a non-existent character arc, and that's going to be jarring no matter how many foreshadowing you place in previous seasons. The fact that she basically embraces all of her vices practically overnight is honestly pretty poor writing.
We just have Daenerys doing a huge 180 from being harsh but reasonable to just going completely nutso and unleashing firebombs on all of King's Landing, not the keep. And honestly, I don't think the show's earned this twist. I'm not sure what could've helped. An episode between the previous one and this one? Move Missandei and/or Rhaegal's death to happen after the bells, making Daenerys's hideous war crime be a crime of emotion instead of a temper tantrum? Again, I have no problem with the whole "Mad Queen" storyline, it's just that the execution of how we got to this point is honestly pretty crappy.
An even worse offender from the writing department is Jaime going back just to die with Cersei, and while I could buy season one Jaime doing some shit like this -- hell, I'd probably buy season six Jaime doing this -- you can't just give a character this whole story arc in season seven and then suddenly jerk the car to the other side for no good reason. That makes the whole Brienne/Jaime storyline in the previous episode look utterly shit and becomes even more irredeemable in my eyes. Jaime's sudden heel-face-turn is just handwaved with him wanting to be with his sister and that's... that's kind of nonsensical particularly after the character development Jaime's been through.
Again, I don't mind the idea that Jaime finally ends up choosing Cersei over honour or whatever, but the haphazard and completely slipshod way that they executed said choice is just so poorly done and apropos of any real huge character moment that I genuinely kept thinking "man, they did not explain Jaime's thought process very well". And considering a good 60% of Jaime's screentime in this episode is just him running around in the crowd, we really could've had more insight, be it his scene with Tyrion earlier in the episode or his final meeting with Cersei at the end.
This episode isn't anywhere as bad as the previous one, but the events in what's otherwise an okay, solid action episode is marred by the completely shit buildup throughout the past couple of episodes. And I honestly am not sure how to fix it. Adding a couple more episode to flesh out Daenerys, Jon, Cersei and Jaime would've worked wonders, sure, but I honestly don't know. Even while I intellectually do like the fact that we're shown some classic old Game of Thrones "realities of war" and "war is hell" and bitter ending or whatever, things have been so haphazardly handled on the pacing and writing front that I really don't feel much out of this episode but just a very hollow sense of catharsis.(Except for Cleganebowl, because Cleganebowl was awesome).
The episode starts off on a bit of a dud as Tyrion, Varys and Jon basically resolve their little conflict with what amounts to a conversation, before Daenerys sentences Varys to die by dragonfire when she realizes what's going on. It honestly felt pretty rushed -- we just learn of the confirmation that Varys is planning to swap Dany out for Jon in what's basically the final scene of the previous episode, and now he's just killed off like that? Again, I don't necessarily mind the story idea of Varys's advice to Daenerys falling on deaf ears, and then his minimal-effort coup ended up in his death. But the lack of any sort of substance to this story -- just the barest minimum of setup, before the conclusion -- ends up being how I feel about a good chunk of other character developments, or rather, lack thereof, in this season in general. At least the scene between Tyrion and Varys before the latter is roasted is well-acted.
We then have Tyrion meeting Jaime, who off-screen was apprehended by Daenerys's people and captured while riding south from Winterfell... which, again, makes me wonder why the fuck that whole Brienne/Jaime sequence was necessary at all. Have the sex scene, have Jaime leave with the group going to King's Landing, and have him get an epiphany while seeing Rhaegal fall or some shit. That whole sequence in episode four honestly just makes me angrier the more I think about it.
Despite Daenerys warning Tyrion that she will not tolerate any more failures (Tyrion's been full of failures since he became Dany's hand, admittedly), Tyrion then basically tells Jaime to bugger off and talk Cersei down, and have the two of them escape somewhere in a boat that Tyrion's got Davos to prepare in some random cove.
Meanwhile, Daenerys continues her tumble into madness. Again, I stress that I don't mind this character arc necessarily -- some of the best antagonists in fiction are ones that start off as heroes and who we've followed the journeys of throughout the series. And, intellectually, I know that Daenerys has lost two of her three dragon children, lost her two most loyal advisers, and has been met with treachery and doubt everywhere she goes in Westeros. The episode and its predecessors, though... they don't really show a lot of these complex emotions, and kudos for Emilia Clarke in using her expressions and inflections in dialogue to show any sort of hints at all, because god damn the pacing and the writing for Daenerys is utter shit this season and only the actress's acting chops made the scenes even work at all.
It is very unfortunate, too, that the straw that broke the camel's back isn't her being angry that Jon Snow betrayed her by telling the whole Aegon thing to Sansa, or Missandei's death, or her being forced to execute Varys. No, the thing that ended up causing her to go full "fear it is, then" is... Jon refusing to have sex with her? Really? That's fucking stupid, the romance between Jon and Daenerys is always been a contentious plot tumour at best, and the fact that out of all of the reasons that the show writers could've used to signal Daenerys's "fuck this, I'm going to burn the city to the ground" mentality ended up being... Jon refusing to "love" her? It's just dumb, and honestly quite a fair bit sexist as well.
Again, I intellectually understand what the show writers are trying to say about Daenerys as a character, something that the episode itself barely touches. Dany is a person whose first instinct to any sort of conflict is to burn her enemies down in her crusade to free Mereen, Astapor and all those cities in Essos, and she's viewed herself with such a jaded "child of destiny" lens that there's more than a bit of entitlement going on, and when things just simply don't go her way in Westeros, her tunnel vision and the trauma of losing her loyal advisers causes her to resort to drastic schemes (schemes that Jorah or Missandei would've talked her down from in the past) and justify it with a whole "it's a mercy to kill thousands now to prevent another tyrant from rising again" speech.
I intellectually understand it... but the show definitely doesn't earn this twist. It's the equivalent of going from season two Theon Greyjoy, the cowardly opportunist, and after a couple of scenes that the handwave as "development", we're presented with the badass final stand from earlier this season. It does not work without the legwork. And whether it be adding one or two more episodes this season, or to have this development show up a bit earlier in the previous seasons, they really could've made Daenerys's sudden turn to tyranny in a lot more logical manner.
Of course, we then cut to one of the most awesome action scenes in this series, and I will give credit where credit's due. After the somewhat-confusing Battle of Winterfell, the straight-up spectacle they gave us as Drogon dive-bombs Euron's stupid Iron Fleet and firebombs multiple ships at once as the Greyjoy sailors try their best to reload the Scorpion ballista-crossbow things is badass as all hell.
It is also woefully inconsistent with the portrayal of both the dragons and the crossbows in the previous episode. Where's the accuracy that the sailors showed when they were able to hit Rhaegal in vital spots? Where's all this firebombing ability that Drogon should really at least attempted in the previous episode? Again, I don't expect some slavish adherence to, oh, D&D rules or something, but it really made the whole sequence of the dragons fighting the Iron Fleet last episode feel even worse. Either play up the element of surprise last episode, or give an explanation to either Drogon's increased competence or the Scorpions' incompetence this episode. It just feels bizarre.
It is, however, awesome to see the Iron Fleet's ship explode, and the scorpion crossbows mounted on top of King's Landing's castle walls erupt and get completely destroyed. Say what you want about the quality of the writing, the visual effects of this episode is nothing short of spectacular.
Also awesome is the visual effect of the two armies facing off against each other, with Harry and the Golden Company being unnerved as they hear explosions ringing out in the distance... and then the gate itself erupts in an amazing explosion from the inside as Drogon flies out. That is amazing. We then have a bit of a "fuck yea" moment as the Golden Company gets absolutely massacred by Grey Worm leading a gigantic horde of the Unsullied and Dothraki (apparently they aren't wiped out in episode 3) as they quite literally wipe out the Golden Company.
Meanwhile, Cersei is standing in the Red Keep, with a face full of composed confidence while Qyburn informs her that, hey, the walls are fallen, Daenerys's troops are in the city, the Iron Fleet's burning, and Daenerys is still on top of a dragon. We get a scene of Jon, Grey Worm and Davos leading the bulk of their forces as they face off against an army of soldiers (King's Landing guards, or the Lannister men? I'm not sure), and the standoff is utterly tense before the King's Landing guards eventually give in and toss down their swords. Something that Tyrion has been begging and planning throughout the first half of the episode -- a peaceful surrender, and the ringing of the bells -- is finally achieved. All that is left to do is to arrest and execute Cersei, right? And all that's lost are the pretty villainous Iron Fleet and the here-for-money Golden Company.
But then Daenerys goes full-on crazy, and, as I mentioned before... it's really not earned. She just hears the bells, makes a very angry face, and then... burns a random street. It's one thing if she makes a beeline for the Red Keep and attacks it to get to Cersei, something that I feel would completely be in-character for her, because even in her worst Daenerys never really hurt civilians. But no, she takes a good 15-20 minutes just having Drogon firebombing random soldiers and civilians while leaving the Red Keep intact, and I feel like, again, this supposed "twist" isn't earned.
Meanwhile, Arya and the Hound, who last episode rode off to kill Cersei and the Mountain, finally end up making their way (mostly offscreen) into the Red Keep just in time as the world's going to shit while Drogon is setting off an apocalypse right throughout the city. The Hound manages to convince Arya that a life lived fully for revenge is not something that he wants for Arya, and Arya ends up leaving the Red Keep and thanking the Hound for everything. It's... it's a moment of character change from "killing is who I am" to deciding to abandon revenge, but it's not as bad as the utter tripe of the writing that they did for Dany and Jaime. Again, ever since Arya's left the House of Black and White, she's always been on the fence on whether she wants to commit to the whole soulless-assassin bit or embrace the girl that was Arya Stark with family and friends, and while it is annoying that the flip-flop happened so abruptly within three episodes, it's at least keeping in-character.
And then we just get a bunch of repetitive scenes. Again, all of these scenes are genuinely well-shot and well-directed, and are a visual spectacle to behold... but considering how one of my biggest complaint in this season has been not enough time to develop characters, all of these artsy scenes showing Jaime shoving his way through crowds or wanton scenes of violence and murder and Arya just going through the crowd and escaping destruction and Jon being horrified at the murder and rape... they're all redundant to the actual story, aren't they? They're like... they're honestly like action scenes in a Michael Bay Transformers movie. A visual spectacle, costs a lot of money to make, and I enjoy them for what they are, but completely irrelevant to the story and could be removed without making much of a difference. The difference is that in a Transformers movie, the action scenes are what you're here for, whereas Game of Thrones is supposed to be about character development.
While all of this is going on, there are two actual conflicts where characters are involved, and it's not just a pretty, expensive montage -- Jaime fighting Euron, and the Hound fighting the Mountain. Jaime fighting Euron is... it's just sort of there, I guess? Euron has been such a bland one-dimensional character that has survived this long because of plot armour, and the fact that he washed up onto that very cove that Jaime is planning to enter the Red Keep from is utterly ridiculously convenient contrivance, and the fact that Jaime and Euron really doesn't have a whole ton of actual character connection doesn't help either. Euron gets a couple of stabs in before Jaime finally kills him, and the scene's shot well, don't get me wrong, but at this point with the poorly-written where-are-they-taking-your-character Jaime and the always one-dimensional Euron, I really couldn't care less about the two of them.
Cleganebowl, on the other hand... Sure, the Mountain's essentially a zombie at this point and not so much a character but a plot device, but the sheer atmospheric badassness of the scene as the Hound walks up to Cersei, Mountain and Qyburn while this amazing circular staircase collapses into rubble all around them... it's nothing short of spectacular, and the scene of the ceiling of the building being destroyed while the Hound looks up at the Mountain while Drogon flies around in the background... it's nothing short of cinematic.
The Mountain himself, again, is more zombie than man, but he gains enough composure to ignore Cersei and Qyburn's orders, and even kills poor, faithful Qyburn in a pretty shocking and brutal manner, splattering the poor man's brain all over the staircase. Cersei is left alone and buggers off while the two Clegane brothers fight each other on the bridge.
And it's... it's an amazing action scene, and if we're being honest, the only one that I have any sort of emotional investment in. Because as neat as Jon and Arya helping random civilians go to safety, as well-choreographed as the Gray Worm spear-dancing is, as gruesomely detailed the makeup and the destruction are... they're, again, sort of surplus to requirements of a good story.
The Hound and the Mountain's fight is brutal, with the Mountain being slow but unstoppable, and genuine kudos to the make-up team for making such a horrifying set of prosthetics to sell the FrankenMountain look. As much as I feel like the "Arya running through rubble" scene was way too long, the sequence where her falling down to the ground is inter-cut to the Hound feeling similar injuries is well-done. We very nearly get a horrifying moment where the Mountain is about to pull another "squish the skull" like what he did to Oberyn Martell, but the Hound manages to stab the Mountain straight in his stupid zombie face.
But eventually, the fight ends in a Game of Thrones-esque bittersweet ending, of the Hound charging this indestructible monster, the creature that has traumatized him since his youth, and falling out of the crumbling tower into the sea of flames below. It's an end to the Cleganebowl that many fans were disappointed with, but I'm actually very okay with how this ended. After all, Hound was telling Arya about how destructive fighting for revenge would be. That was an amazing end to the Cleganebowl, and it's everything I hoped it would be.
Significantly less amazing is Cersei and Jaime meeting in the dragon room underneath the Red Keep, and... yeah, it's sort of heartwarming, I guess, that these two fucked-up people can only find solace in each other's arms, and that they enter the world at the same time and exit the world at the same time. But on the other hand... they really jump through a fuck-ton of hoops to get Jaime to where he is now, and Cersei effectively just spends the entirety of season 7 and 8 just standing around looking mean with a smug smile, rendering her almost as one-dimensional than Euron. Cersei is absolutely scared and she doesn't want to die, but the two of them are trapped underneath a keep. I keep expecting Drogon or Arya or someone to jump in and kill them... but nope, they die because of rocks. That's more hilarious than poetic, honestly.
What else? The rest of the episode is honestly a lot of scenes of Jon and Arya trying their best to help people in the chaos, which, as I mentioned, went on for way too long and ended up just being repetitive... even if they are pretty well-shot. The final scene is a weird bit as Arya picks herself up from rubble, failing to save a little girl and her mother from being Drogon-style flambe, before she sees a horse and rides off into the distance... to kill Daenerys? Maybe?
Again, this episode has... has a solid theme. That anyone who tries to conquer is in itself a tyrant. That vengeance will only end in you and the other person falling into flames. And mostly, that this show really needed more episodes to justify the build-up of many major characters. Because this episode feels less like the resolution of the character arcs of many major characters, but just a random jump from point A to Z without going through B through Y.
We've also got a hefty set of casualties. Cersei, Jaime, Varys, the Hound, the Mountain, Qyburn and Euron, really trimming out a lot of the cast members. With one final episode that seems like it's setting up Jon, Arya and Tyrion united against Mad Queen Daenerys, I'm curious to see how this is going to pan out. Again, the lack of proper, significant build-up to Daenerys's heel-face-turn will always ruin a good chunk of what's going to happen next week, but I'm at least curious to see how this will all end. If nothing else, this was a gorgeous episode to watch from a purely visual and visceral standpoint. From the standpoint of someone who's always been invested in the character development, and someone who admittedly has kept an open mind about the whole Mad Queen storyline... it's nothing short of a lukewarm disappointment.
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