It's been three days since Season 8 Episode 5 of GOT and folks are hella salty. I've decided to wait for more articles and criticism to come out before I wrote my response/opinion on some of the points made for the last episode. Warning: You don't need to agree with me, and I don't care if you don't, but hold your opinions until you've read everything. K.
*SPOILERS, duh*
I will start by saying:
1. No, I do not think this episode was a top 5 for me of the series
2. No, I do not think this episode was as terrible as everyone makes it out to be
3. The cinematography for this episode was amazing, and they will be nominated for awards for next year.
4. If you thought you were going to get what YOU wanted and that this last season was going to be some sort of fan service, you clearly forgot what show you're watching.
5. I have never been #TeamDaeny; I like to call her #TeamWhiteSavior
6. Using the Light of the Seven music at the end was soooo poetic.
So, let's start with what I have seen the most on Twitter.
"THE WRITERS THREW AWAY AMAZING CHARACTER ARCS"
le sigh.
This issue came up particularly (what I've seen on the interwebs) with Jaime, Arya, and Daeny. An article that I found useful and that I think best gives a context and background for folks who maybe aren't really into film and screenwriting is here. This article breaks down the three common character arcs we see on film/tv and how they are typically used. It is my opinion that people were disappointed with characters, especially Jaime because they were applying the wrong character arc (the arc they were hoping for) to this character.
Starting with Jaime, I find it interesting how many people expected him to kill Cersei. I also thought it was interesting that people felt he completely changed this season. I will admit that I thought he was going to try to stop the fight or convince Cersei to back down and that he said those "mean" things to Brienne to stop her from trying to follow him. However, I did not think that he was actually going to kill her because that is too predictable and if you know anything about this show you know that whatever you think is going to happen, is not going to happen. People talk about nuance and multi-dimensional characters all the time and conveniently forget about this when it comes to GOT. I get that it is the last season and everyone wants to see their version of Justice, but that's not fun, and that's not good TV. It is possible that Jaime that does have goodness in him and got to experience some of that this season AND he has a very strong tie to the woman that he loves and unfortunately his 'goodness' is not strong enough to pull him away from Cersei. The storyline with Brienne was not a waste of time because it contributes to building his character. He left Cersei to fight the dead because that was the promise he made, he never promised to permanently stay in the North and he may have stayed there if he hadn't heard what Cersei did to Daeny's dragon and her army.
Arya. People really wanted to her to kill herself seeking revenge. Everyone is like "she's this bad ass assassin and all it took was a few words from the Hound to get her to change her mind." Which is inaccurate. First and foremost, she is a human being with feelings and an attachment to her own survival. Second, she is not an assassin the reason she left the faceless people was because she did not want to No One, she wanted to be Arya Stark. Arya Stark is a girl with a family and deep loyalty towards the survival of her family.
"BUT SHE KILLED THE NIGHT KING!"
To which I respond, "BECAUSE THE SURVIVAL OF THE WORLD DEPENDED ON IT." Cersei is just one person who MAYBE stands a threat to the world but really, not that much. She's just a bitch, and ya'll don't like it. What the hell was Arya's assassin skills gone do against falling rock and a damn dragon!? Seriously yall. Come on. Arya has only had one revenge kill this whole season and that was with the Frey's, every other kill Arya has had was for her own survival.
Okay, on to Daeny. The tweet I've seen retweeted the most is "DAENY SAVED INNOCENTS FOR 7 SEASONS, AND NOW SHE FLIPS AND CHANGES IT." To which I say, Daeny saved innocents who expressed GRATITUDE towards her. Everyone was okay with her, killing people every season because they were bad people. It is important to highlight the difference between the slaves she "liberated" and the free people of Kings Landing and the North. The Unsullied and everyone else she liberated were slaves who saw Daeny and her dragons as way to be free, therefore they were grateful to her and showed her the love that she was expecting and craving. The people in the North and in King's Landing are not looking for any sort of liberation. No, things aren't great under Queen Cersei. Yes, she's a tyrant. AND they are not slaves, and they don't see Daeny as someone coming to make the world a better place they see her as a threat. Daeny never proved herself to the people in North or the people in King's Landing; she just showed up and was yelling at everyone to "bend the knee." Her respect was earned in every other place, and she just expected to get it when it showed up there.
All of that is to say, Daeny was expecting to be carried on a sea of people like she was before and she didn't get that. No one trusts her anymore, her status is being threatened by Jon, Cersei killed one of her kids (dragons), and she's been avoiding food for days because Varys is trying to poison her. She is alone in a foreign land and she doesn't know what to do. Feeling isolated and having a ridiculous amount of power is very dangerous. *Also, it is not necessary that we really understand her motives and all agree on what the tipping point was for her madness then it wouldn't be madness! It wouldn't be insanity if we all understood it!*
Sidenote: I did not agree with Varys being torched and Daeny pretty much threatening Sansa to Jon. Varys could have been exiled or sent to the wall to be in the Night's Watch.
When Daeny and Drogon land on that stoop, *I BELIEVE* she may have been expecting the citizens to ring the bells and come out and cheer her on or be excited for her "liberating" them. That did not happen; the citizens wanted the ring the bell because they were afraid of her, and they did not want to die. This reinforces Daeny's belief that she will have to rule out of fear because she believes she will never have love in the north. Sooooo then she loses her damn mind and torches everything. I did not and do not agree with this choice, but if you see her character arc as a Fall arc and not a Change arc, then it makes sense.
ALSO, they had her on that Thanos shit talmbout, "the generations to come will appreciate and love me for liberating them because they won't know how we got here."
I think this show is really a larger commentary on war and the continuation of cycles and systems no matter how hard people try to change them. Daeny said she wanted to "break the wheel," but she didn't really understand the wheel and fell into the trap of the wheel. It became increasingly clear that she can not take the throne and MAINTAIN the throne without evoking enough fear for people to never attempt to overthrow her. King Robert spoke to this in the first season. She is doing exactly what Cersei had to do, be ruthless, and flex every opportunity you get so that you can maintain the power you want. I think this is why Cersei's death was justified to me.
On that note, we'll switch gears from character arcs and move to the next large area of criticism I saw online.
"CERSEI SHOULD HAVE DIED A BETTER WAY! YA'LL LET HER GO OUT WITH A ROCK!"
I will say I never hated Cersei. I saw her as someone who was doing what she needed to do to be a woman ruling the Seven Kingdoms. I didn't agree with all of the choices she made, and she definitely did some terrible shit. I also believe she got what she deserved. She lost all of her children. She's been forced to be in relationships and sleep with men she didn't want to. She had her walk of atonement. She was raped. She's been underestimated. Having to go out admitting defeat, cowering in fear, realizing you are alone and you were wrong, is the best way for Cersei to go out. Chopping off her head, having Arya steal Qyburns face and stab her, would give a quick satisfaction but it doesn't do her character justice. I also have a theory that people who wanted Cersei to die a horrible death instead of just dying at all may be supporters of the death penalty or are "eye for an eye" kind of people. Just a thought.
Someone on the internet said Cersei is like Walter White and it's interesting to think about why we cheer for Walt and hate Cersei. I'd love to hear people's thoughts on that. Agree? Disagree? Why?
So, with all of that being said. I will give a quick note about people being upset about Tyrion and Varys.
People say "they've been so smart for 7 seasons and NOW they're stupid." I agree with this to some degree. The reason it makes sense to me that they aren't as calculated and measured this season is because they see the real threat that Daeny poses and they are afraid of her. I think we underestimated Daeny and the fear that everyone has for her and maybe there could have been more done to highlight this throughout the season.
Final Thoughts
There is only so much you can do with 6 episodes and a clear ending that you decided on years in advance. Why they decided to only have 6? I have no idea. I don't agree with that decision, and I am not sure what was going on in TV world that added to this (actors wanting to move on? budget of the show? No idea.) I think a standard 10 episode season would have been able to tell the story better, but we got what we got and you have to evaluate what you have not what you could have had. I think it would be great to have some sort of explanation behind this decision-making from D&D and have alternative ideas explained by other writers of great shows. We'll see how it all ends this weekend.
Comment your thoughts? Are there other points of contention? Things that still don't make sense? Let me know why you hated or loved this episode.