Game of Thrones, Season 8, Episode 6: The Iron Throne
Ending a series is hard. Sure, nowadays with the thought of marketing things and shared universes and spin-offs and tie-in media and the simple power of nostalgia, no franchise is ever truly dead, and with what's rumoured to be five different sequel/prequel/spin-off series pitched to HBO, Game of Thrones is far from being dead, but... but this is the end. Whether the two remaining books George R. R. Martin has yet to write will have a similar conclusion, and however you feel about this extremely divisive final season... this final episode of Game of Thrones is the end.
And honestly? It could've been much, much worse. I've been on record multiple times in my reviews -- particularly of the preceding two episodes -- that the eighth season of Game of Thrones is a bit of a trainwreck. Yes, sure, the cinematography is absolutely on-point and beautiful, and all of the actors bring their A-game into the show, and so on and so forth. But it took me quite a while to write this final episode review because I sort of have to sleep on it for a while, and at this point I'm pretty sure that while I don't begrudge this episode itself since it's a pretty fine epilogue, the sheer mishandling of the show's final season pretty much makes gives this final season a very, very odd and bitter taste in my mouth.
Which, honestly, has to do with the speed and sheer apathy for pacing or organic character development. I've said multiple times that the character arc of Daenerys eventually succumbing to her own hype and deciding that she must be right all the time makes sense. From what we've seen in the past seven seasons, it makes sense that she ends up becoming a villain. It makes sense, the events that happened are enough to drive anyone mad... but the way it's shown in these past couple of episodes and the exact moment where Daenerys goes nuts and carpet-bombs King's Landing is pretty poorly done. And the same goes with the characterizations for Jaime, and to a lesser extent Jon. For a show that's been driven by the characters, this final season has been absolutely poor at handling character development. And I really, really don't like criticizing this show I love, but when doing a review, I will not make excuses for something that I genuinely think is done poorly.
Throw in a sheer amount of vitriol on both sides of the camp -- the ones that decry this final season as utter garbage (that's hyperbole) and the ones that defend this season as being the most satisfying conclusion ever (that's absolutely untrue) and it's frankly hard to try and maintain an attitude of neutral commentary. The fact that the previous episodes were so poorly paced doesn't help, either. Where characters are clamouring for a couple of extra scenes to make their character turns more meaningful and believable, we get self-indulgent "give the director an Emmy" shots like the completely gratuitous long-shots of Arya running through the streets and chaos of King's Landing, or the whole silliness with the horse. I'm not saying these shots are well done, because hell yes they are, but the fact that the season's really gasping for air for more screentime to properly pace out its stories, poor decisions like this end up hurting it more than anything.
And despite my complaints... I did pretty much enjoy this episode. It's cleanly divided into two halves, with the first half basically dealing with Daenerys basically becoming the biggest mass-murderer in Westerosian history, and the remaining heroes dealing with it. The second half is more of an epilogue than anything. And the episode does both pretty competently! I have very little problems with this episode, if we're being honest, or even the events that happened, and my problems stem from the sheer mismanagement of the season as a whole.
The episode starts off somber, with Jon, Tyrion and Davos sort of taking in the sheer destruction left in the wake of King's Landing, and we get a short, brief scene of Tyrion finding the corpses of Jaime and Cersei and crying over their deaths. We get Jon and Davos trying to stop Grey Worm from killing the surviving Lannister men, because Grey Worm is essentially in full evil Punisher mode at this point, but is honestly unable to legally stop Grey Worm since they're under Daenerys's orders. And then we get that huge, very dictator-esque speech from Daenerys Targaryen, and... as evil as that was, it's a perfectly executed speech and an amazing shot with Drogon spreading his wings behind Daenerys. (Memes notwithstanding, it is a pretty shot). Daenerys goes on this long, long speech about how she's going to 'liberate' and 'free' everyone in the world, basically so wrapped up in her own hype that she's the only legitimate ruler in the world.
And, again, it's... she makes for such a cool villain, but I really would've really loved a proper, logical and emotional character twist that makes this change of heart believable beyond "the story demands it, she's ga-ga crazy now". Even the Star Wars prequels try and attempt to really show Anakin's descent to madness and paranoia, y'know what I'm saying?
Tyrion ends up confronting Daenerys, who, in turn, is so focused on Tyrion's betrayal of her that she doesn't even really about Tyrion's condemnation of her slaughter of the city. Tyrion throws his symbol of the Hand away, enraging Daenerys who immediately orders Tyrion's arrest. While all of this is going on, Arya confronts Jon, basically telling him a brief talk about how she "knows a killer when she sees one". It's... it's pretty disappointing, really, that all of the scenes focusing on Arya in the previous episode ends up being genuinely pointless since Arya sorts of exit the plot, stage left, in this sequence. No token attempt to try and kill Daenerys herself, no face-swapping Faceless Man Assassin's Creed sequence, no galvanized attempt to stop the tyrant who would unleash so much horror... no nothing. And, again, as much as I do think that from a visual and cinematic standpoint the Arya sequences in episode 5 were fantastic... ended up to be a whole load of nothing, which, considering how so many other character turns and plot turns in this season could've used more time... it's kinda poorly thought-out.
Jon then meets Tyrion in prison, leading to one of the best conversations between characters in this season. And this scene frankly really should've happened in a previous episode, in a different context. Probably from Daenerys's viewpoint, and with Daenerys's own words. It's a huge "tell, don't show" segment as Tyrion and Jon play internet commentator argument, with Tyrion pointing out how so much worse their legal 'queen' is than any of the Lannisters or any other tyrant Westeros has seen before, and that the sympathetic excuses (losing Missandei, Jorah and Rhaegal) is no excuse for snapping and burning a city full of civilians. Tyrion then goes over how Daenerys has been killing other evil men throughout the past seven seasons and everyone supported her for it, and she becomes more and more convinced of her rightness... but, again, I really wished we could've seen more of this from Daenerys's viewpoint. Maybe more push-back when she burned the less-evil nobles in Mereen, or more push-back when she kills the Tarlys, or something. I dunno. It's nice that the show at least gives us a little Tyrion speech to properly lay out everything, but it's like getting the cliffs notes version of the complex character development I would've rather seen on-screen, you know what I mean?
Jon trying to make up excuses to not kill Dany, and Tyrion appealing to his sense of duty, and later on to the sense of preserving the lives of his sisters... those are genuinely well-done, and both Harrington and Dinklage get some of their best material in this scene. In Harrington's case, I'd argue that this scene is the first real good material he's gotten all season long.
And as Jon walks up the Red Keep, we get this completely gratuitous but amazingly awesome scene of Drogon rising up from the pile of ashes, having previously been camouflaged. That was completely pointless, but god damn that's the special effects people flexing their muscles.
Then the confrontation between Jon and Daenerys, this final confrontation is the best Jon/Dany material we've ever had. And it's such a shame, because the two actors do have great chemistry, but I have never for a second over in the past two seasons really bought into their romance. I wonder how different I would've felt about the two if we had been given a couple of extra seasons to really flesh out their romance beyond boat-sex and the How To Train Your Dragon scene? Regardless, though, Daenerys refuses to really acknowledge Jon's anger at children being killed in the wake of the slaughter, deflects the request to release Tyrion from jail, and she's just so convinced that she can't let mercy be her weakness anymore, and that the other people who "think" they are good don't get to choose. So after an anguished Jon declares that Daenerys is his queen now and forever... they kiss and Jon stabs Daenerys in the heart, forced to kill the woman he loves for the greater good.
What a dick, Dany didn't even get to sit on the throne!
And... again, I really have no problems with Daenerys becoming a villain in the last part of her arc. Not every wannabe hero ends up becoming heroic to the end, after all... but the sheer wasted potential and the genuinely abrupt turn that we got honestly leaves a sour taste. The Jon/Dany scene is admittedly a nice one, and I could think of a thousand worse ways to have Jon stab Daenerys... but it could also have been better.
The next scene is genuinely touching, with Drogon arriving and like the huge, huge dog that he is, he ends up just nudging Daenerys with his chin and looks so fucking lost and I am so sad for this dragon. I'm not quite sure why he suddenly unleashes flame to blow up the Iron Throne, though, since I'm pretty sure Drogon doesn't quite understand symbolism. Drogon then picks up Daenerys's corpse and flies away to the East in grief, leaving Westeros forever.
Smash cut to a brief time-skip later, and... apparently, somehow during this time skip, Jon gets captured by the Unsullied and other Dany supporters and... doesn't get killed by a vengeful and no-longer-honourable Grey Worm? The dude was killing surrendering soldiers left and right before, and he doesn't kill the person who presumably admitted to killing his beloved queen? Yeah, I don't buy that.
But whatever the case, Grey Worm escorts Tyrion from the prison to the dragon-pit from season seven, where all of the leaders in the nation are assembled. And, well, side-characters we care about. We get Sansa, Bran, Arya, Brienne, Davos, Sam, Gendry and Yara... as well as a bunch of others we haven't seen in a while. Robin Arryn and Yohn Royce from the Eyrie are here, Edmure Tully is here, and... and I'm not sure who the nicely-dressed Dornish prince is, and apparently no one does since the GOT wiki just lists him as "Martell". And... it's basically an argument about what to do with Jon Snow, because the Dany-loyalists want him dead, while the Stark-loyal Northmen are ready to fight to the death for him. And... and this went a bit too fast, with Grey Worm immediately refusing to take Davos's proposed deal of the Unsullied setting up their own great house or whatever in the Reach, but Grey Worm doesn't really give a shit -- he and the Unsullied (and presumably the Dothraki?) want justice.
Somehow, this conversation sort of inelegantly leads to "we need a new king or queen", and after a hilarious comedic gag with Edmure Tully trying to give his little speech and being told by Sansa to sit down... and then we get an even more hilarious sequence as Sam's idea of democracy is straight-up just laughed at by the other royals. "Maybe I should let my horse vote!" Because, after all, this is the medieval times and there's no way that a proper democracy's ever going to be accepted by these lords.
Tyrion then gives this long, long speech about how stories unite people, which is... kind of interesting? It's certainly a valid and well-done speech, even if it is a bit too meta for me, but then Tyrion talks about how the person with the best story is "Bran the Broken", who was crippled after a fall but became the Three-Eyed Raven. So at least we do get a conclusion to Bran's honestly sorta-pointless bit of becoming the Raven. I really wished we had gotten more out of it, considering how after the whole Raven thing all Bran really did was reveal Jon's heritage (which ended up being completely worthless and mostly-ignored outside of the Dany drama) and be bait for the Night King. It is, though, a wee bit sudden, and I really wished Bran has displayed a bit more of his Three-Eyed Raven powers to other characters to properly show just how the sheer extent of his storytelling.
Tyrion also points out that they're setting up a new system of having the nobles elect one of their own instead of having a bloodline successor, remembering how vain and cruel some "sons of kings" like Joffrey are. It's... it's a bit bizarre that everyone present just votes "aye", particularly since half of the people there probably have never really met Bran before, and, yeah, this is yet another scene that probably would've been more epic with some proper buildup. Also, the weird transition from Bran being this detached walking oracle earlier in this season to snarking about "why did you think I came all the way here" is genuinely bizarre and off, and I really wish we had seen more with Bran, oh, I dunno, struggling to regain his identity after being transformed to the collective sum of human history? Or something? It's another thing that I don't have a problem with -- Bran being the king is unexpected, but I can live with that -- but it's so sudden and Bran's always been shown to be all "I have no desires" until like, this episode.
Also seemingly a bit off is Sansa demanding for independence, making Bran Stark the king of the Six Kingdoms instead of Seven. It's totally in-character for Sansa to do that, and after all the shit the North has had to put up with after the past rulers in the Iron Throne, it's logical... but the fact that no one else objects to this, or offer an Independence request of their own is bizarre. Particularly Yara.
But hey, Bran then makes Tyrion into his Hand, noting that this will be Tyrion's atonement, and we quickly brush away Grey Worm's objections. We then cut to more Tyrion/Jon stuff, with Tyrion delivering the sentence that to placate everyone, the compromise is that Jon needed to be punished but not executed or jailed up... so he gets exiled to the Night's Watch. Which... I'm going to assume that people like Grey Worm and Yara just don't know that the Night's Watch doesn't exist anymore? It's clearly the Stark-loyalists and sneaky people like Tyrion pulling the wool over the Dany-loyalists' eyes, but it's a hilarious, if ironic, punishment.
We cut away to Jon leaving King's Landing, and... and apparently the time-skip between Daenerys's death and the meeting in the dragon-pit was longer than I thought, or the time between the meeting and Jon's release was longer than I thought, because King's Landing is already half-rebuilt. We get Grey Worm and the Unsullied leaving for the isle of Naath, and... exit Grey Worm. Kind of a "shrug" ending, honestly. It's not a bad ending, and I don't know what I would've written otherwise, but I dunno. I sort of expected kind of... more? But I'm not complaining too much.
The Stark siblings have one final meeting, with Sansa and Jon getting a nice, emotional forgiving embrace. Arya also states what she's planning to do, basically explore the world, particularly whatever is "west of Westeros". Jon and Arya have another hug, and then Jon kneels down before Bran, and that's... that's a sweet ending. Also kind of a sweet ending is Brienne going through the Kingsguard book, implied to apparently been promoted to the leader of the Kingsguard off-screen, and writes the record for Jaime Lannister, closing it off with "died protecting his queen."
You could argue that Brienne writing Jaime's story, or Arya wanting to go West to carve her own destiny on her own terms, or the super-meta "A Song of Ice and Fire" record of the recent conflict that the Arch-Maester Ebrose has written all thematically tie in to the whole "stories unite people" thing, but... I dunno. It's not portrayed as well as it could've been, I guess.
We get a pretty fun scene with the new Small Council, with Tyrion straightening chairs and we see the new Small Council -- Sam as the Grand Maester, Brienne as head of Kingsguard, Bronn as the Master of Coin and Davos as the Master of Ships. Bran notes that they have no more Master of Whisperers or War, which, of course, is a bit indicative of the priorities of the Six Kingdoms. After the whole gag about the "Song of Ice and Fire" book, and a brief talk about how Drogon was last spotted "flying east", we get a relatively productive meeting where Bronn's happy to use his new title as Lord of Highgarden to provide food supplies, Tyrion and the others discuss about improving the health of the city with sewer systems, and Bronn argues with a couple of the others about building brothels. God bless Bronn, he's hilarious.
Oh, also, Podrick Payne is a knight of the Kingsguard and apparently is the official wheelchair-pusher of King Bran.
And then we get Jon Snow finally arriving at the ruins of Castle Black, met by like two Night's Watch people and a whole bunch of Wildlings, including Tormund... AND HE MEETS GHOST AND PETS HIM WHAT A GOOD BOY GHOST. I'm sorry. I know it's a bit of a meme, but I genuinely loved this scene. It's so nice that after all the shit Jon has been through in the past couple of seasons, he at least ends up happy with Ghost, and, honestly, I don't think he minds exploring beyond the Wall and helping the Wildlings carve their own destiny and reclaim the lands in the North.
We get a pretty fun little cut-around of the three main Stark children as they basically embrace their final roles in the show, set to a majestic remix of the opening theme. Jon and the Wildlings going outside of Castle Black as plants seem to sprout a bit from underneath the snow ("spring is coming!"), Sansa being crowned Queen in the North, and Arya going off on a ship towards uncertain lands. The final shot of the episode is Jon and the Wildlings entering a massive snowy forest, in a nice mirror of the first sene of the series.
And... and it's satisfying enough, I suppose. Again, I still complain about the season's lack of properly showcasing character development and being lost in essentially crafting cool shots and special effects instead of showing us what's going on. And while the actual events that happened is... it's logical, I suppose, and a direction that I wouldn't begrudge, the fact that the series was built so much on character and it sort of dropped the ball on that front is genuinely disappointing... particularly considering they split the original "final season" into season 7 and season 8. And my complaints about all of those still stands -- only the actors' fantastic performance really salvages what would otherwise be a nothing-but-pretty-shots season. But honestly, it's nowhere as poorly-done as the season's detractors make it out to be. It's a nice enough ending to the massive saga, and it's far from perfect, but I am happy enough with what we got.
What's next? I'm happy to take a long, long break from reviewing Game of Thrones, because this season was so exhausting to go through. I had thought of rewatching the series, but I'm going to give myself a year or so to breathe... I currently have reviews of season 6 through 8 in this blog, so maybe sometime in the future, when I rewatch the series, I'll do episodic reviews of seasons 1 through 5? I'm not sure how I will feel about that "Bloodmoon" prequel, or whether I'll watch it as it airs. We'll see, will we? But for now... my watch has ended.
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