Game of Thrones: A Retrospective (Part II)

Around one year ago, the blockbuster TV show Game of Thrones concluded its eighth and final season, and after all the anticipation the show built up…it was a bit of a disappointment. In this two-part retrospective, I wanted to tackle some of the things I felt were severely mishandled in this season. In the first part, I covered the buildup to the eighth season as well as the first three episodes. This part will deal with the final three episodes, as well as a deep dive into one of the most frustrating choices I’ve ever seen in any television show. Let’s get started, shall we?

And Now The Rains Weep O'er Their Halls: House Lannister's Downfall

Game of Thrones has always been a show that rejected the usual fantasy tropes, and perhaps the most significant one that it strayed far from is the idea that there are 'good' guys and 'bad' guys in a fantasy story. Instead, they fixated on the fact that nobody is wholly good' or 'bad' - they were all just people who sometimes did good things, and sometimes did terrible things. Ned Stark, for all his nobility and honour, told the world that he cheated on his wife and that he was raising a son that was definitely not his own. Robb's quest to avenge his father's death was a courageous one, but he broke a pact he made with another lord, and he, along with his mother, wife, and unborn child paid the price. However, the character that embodies this most is none other than the Kingslayer himself, Jamie Lannister.

Ever since we first saw this flamboyant and arrogant knight in shining armor take the screen, most of us didn't like him, and for good reason too - pushing a ten year old boy through a window and having....well, fun with his sister certainly didn't help his case. We saw him as only a villain for the majority of the first half of the series - he was a Lannister; therefore, he had to be the enemy. However, as the seasons went on, Jamie began to undergo something many of us didn't expect: a redemption arc.

Redemption arcs are unique because they thoroughly dissect a character down to their core identity and build them back up in a completely different way. They are challenging to get right, but when all the pieces come together, its one of the most satisfying things one can see on a television screen.

One of my favorite redemption arcs in fiction is Zuko's, from Avatar: The Last Airbender (spoilers for a cartoon that ended more than a decade ago). It was methodically set up from the beginning of the second season of the show and continued into the third season to create a hugely satisfying end to the character's story.

In Thrones, the redemption arc for Jamie started in season 3 when his right hand got chopped off, and along with it, his pride at being one of the best swordsmen in Westeros. Soon after this incident, we got one of the best scenes in the show: when Jamie talks to Brienne in the baths and he tells her what happened between him and the Mad King during Robert's Rebellion. He recounts in painstaking detail about how he had the choice to either stand by and let thousands of men, women, and children be burnt alive, or betray the sacred oath he swore to obey the command of his king and end his life. For me and many others, this scene marked the turning point in how we saw Jamie. We saw him in a different light - not the honourless, suave, swashbuckling warrior the earlier seasons portrayed him as, but as a man just trying to do the right thing in complicated circumstances.

And this theme continued throughout the rest of the show.

He saved Brienne from fighting a bear when he didn't have to and later asked her to find Sansa and Arya to uphold her oath to Catelyn Stark. He gently told Myrcella that he was her father and was overjoyed when she accepted it without any qualms. He talked Cersei out of giving Olenna a violent death and instead gave her a potion that peacefully ended her life. All of his actions culminated in season seven when he voluntarily left Cersei to fight for the living, finally stepping out of his 'Kingslayer' role and being open and honest about wanting to protect people. Right before the battle of Winterfell, he knighted Brienne, and I, for one, was ecstatic that we would get to see a whole new dynamic between him, Dany, and the rest of the Starks now that he was fighting for the innocent.

But then, episodes 4 and 5 happened, and it all went down the drain in a matter of minutes.

At the end of episode 4, ‘The Last of the Starks’, Jamie learns that Daenerys plans to march (fly?) towards King's Landing soon. Despite thinking that the Iron Fleet will win Cersei the war, he acknowledges that there is a possibility that the use of Daenerys’ dragons would eliminate Cersei for good. So what does he do?

He leaves. He LEAVES to go BACK TO CERSEI!

Just to make this clear: he leaves the woman who has been there for him, stood up for him, and supported him for the longest time. He gets on a horse to ride back to Cersei - the woman who not only belittled him and insulted him multiple times when he lost his hand, but also hired Bronn to travel to Winterfell to KILL him! (On a side note, this is never addressed or talked about after the fact? What was the point of the scene?) Oh, and here’s the kicker: his justification for going back to Cersei is that she's hateful, and so is he.

Now, when this first happened, I, like many others, thought that he was doing this to covertly get to Cersei and kill her before the war even started to protect everyone's lives in King's Landing. It would have been the best way to end his arc, if you ask me – it would finally set him free of the toxic cycle he’s been in for the longest time. But then, when Tyrion visits him and appeals to Jamie’s sense of loyalty towards the people he once swore to protect after he gets captured by Dany’s forces, he says THIS line:

This is the SAME GUY who said this in an earlier season:

“Tell me, if your precious Renly commanded you to kill your own father and stand by while thousands of men, women, and children burned alive, would you have done it? Would you have kept your oath then?”

To this day, thinking about this makes me physically angry; not only did Jamie go back to the woman who, at that point, tried to have him killed, but he also said something that goes against the VERY CORE of his entire character. The reason he got branded with the title of 'Kingslayer' is that he chose to SAVE INNOCENT LIVES instead of letting them die. And here, we're supposed to believe that he 'never really cared for them'?! No. No, no, no - sorry, not buying it. This is the same guy who came to Winterfell to fight against an army of the undead to protect the lives of those who could not fight for themselves - isn't that why he left Cersei in the first place?!

D&D, you completely ruined one of the greatest redemption arcs in the history of television. I have nothing else to say except this: I’m sorry, Nikolaj-Coster Waldeau. You deserved better for the character you played masterfully for nearly a decade. D&D, I will always hate you for this.

Speaking of characters that were utterly destroyed by this season, Cersei didn’t do much except stand around and drink wine. She was only in a handful of scenes, and even when she was there, she barely said anything. During the final battle of King’s Landing, she just stared at her city with a dazed expression and saw her defenses being decimated. She didn't even have a backup plan when she saw Daenerys razing the city to the ground. Honestly, there's not much I can complain about Cersei's role in this season because she didn't have one. Lena Headey portrayed this character so well for so long, and to have the culmination of her arc be this….it’s truly disheartening.

Not to mention, the way that both Jamie and Cersei died: being crushed by falling rocks. Two of the centerpieces of the entire story, characters that we have seen since the VERY FIRST episode of the show, characters that we’ve spent hours upon hours rooting for at different points in the show, are killed by bricks. Now, I’m all for subverting expectations, but this….this wasn’t subverting expectations to make the story better. This was subverting expectations because the show wanted to be ‘unpredictable’ and ‘random’, and that was never the point of shocking moments in Thrones – all of the other moments that were similar to this served to further the plot. This did nothing except close the book on two of the first characters we ever saw in the show – not with a bang, but with the meekest of whimpers. D&D, I will always hate you for this too.

This brings me to the last character of the Lannister trio: Tyrion.

When the show was in its early days, Tyrion was by far one of my favourite characters. His quick wit, charming dialogue and overall demeanor made for one of the most compelling characters to ever exist on the television screen. Peter Dinklage did such an excellent job that it's hard to express how good he was without dissolving into tautology. However, in seasons seven and eight, it was made painfully clear that nearly all of Tyrion's appeal came from clever writing. Without it, Tyrion became one of the most forgettable characters in the show.

The person who was once the smartest man in Westeros was reduced to a character that spouted whatever was needed to be said to further the plot. He believed Cersei when she said that she would fight for them, despite knowing that his sister is a liar and would do anything to maintain her power. His initial strategy in season 7, as Danerys so eloquently put it, lost them Dorne, the Iron Islands, and the Reach. In this season, he played right into Sansa's hands when he told Varys the truth about Jon's parentage. Again, this is the same man who was primarily responsible for defending King’s Landing against Stannis Baratheon, and the same man who ran the kingdom in one of its most turbulent periods when Joffrey was king.

Although I will say this: the scene where Tyrion finds the broken bodies of Cersei and Jamie was well done, primarily due to Peter Dinklage’s mastery and, once again, the haunting melody provided by Ramin Djawadi. The Lannister trio were among the most compelling characters’ in Game of Thrones – they all played off each other and the rest of the cast so well, and it’s a shame that things ended the way they did. It is by far one of the most irritating things to come out of this season. However, let’s move on to the biggest offender.

How to Assassinate a Character: Daenerys Targaryen

Before I jump into this section, I feel like I have to preface it with this: I have no issue with Daenerys turning into the ‘Mad Queen’ and burning down King’s Landing. I have no problem that she was killed before she could realize her dream of ‘breaking the wheel’ and ruling the Seven Kingdoms. When I first started watching Thrones, I wanted to see an ending where Daenerys came to Westeros to become its ruler, but in the process of taking it over, gradually become just like the other tyrants that sat on the Iron Throne before her.

This is the ending we got, of sorts – but how we got here was a complete mess.

You can attempt to justify it by saying that ‘it was foreshadowed’, citing that she had certain ‘moments’ where ruthlessness showed itself, such as when she looked at her brother dying or the crucifixion of the masters in Mereen. Still, there is absolutely no way you can say that Daenerys burning down nearly all of King’s Landing was something that the show adequately built up. In just one moment, she went against the VERY CORE of the character that D&D built up until that point. She said multiple times that she did not come to Westeros to burn it down – and again, her invalidating this statement makes sense if it was built up accordingly through various instance; losing people close to her does not serve as a justification for massacring tens of thousands of innocent lives by razing the city to the ground. To put it simply,

FORESHADOWING DOES NOT EQUAL CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT.

We see Daenerys go from a ruler who proclaimed that she didn’t want to be ‘queen of the ashes’ and from someone who wants to liberate the people from a corrupt system that has made them suffer for far too long, to a completely unhinged abuser of power with delusions of grandeur in about two episodes. That was not nearly enough time to show her descent into madness. Sure, the deaths of Rhaegal and Missandei were essential tipping points, but those might have worked if, in ‘The Bells’, Cersei never chose to surrender and kept fighting, and despite all of Daenerys' efforts to resolve the war as quickly as possible, the fact that Cersei was so stubborn plus the fact that she was responsible for needless deaths finally pushed her over the edge.

But the thing is, the enemy SURRENDERED.

If D&D were going to show us Daenerys burning down the city despite the enemy army surrendering, they needed to adequately justify her descent into madness, which meant there needed to be MORE that showed us, the audience, that she had a proper reason for doing what she did. What we got felt like the creators had already decided on this ending, and were trying to write the rest of the story to reach it in the quickest way possible. It's a complete and utter betrayal of one of the main characters of the show.

D&D, I will hate you forever for this as well. Thanks a bunch.

This, of course, means that the ending for Daenerys’ character was ill-timed as well. Although, there is a silver lining amongst the chaos that is the final stretch of the show: I quite liked the way that they chose to play out her death. Having Jon kill her was the obvious choice, but it wasn’t overdramatised or elongated anymore than necessary (unlike the rest of the episode). The credit for this has to go to Kit Harrington and Emilia Clarke - they portrayed their characters and the ideologies they represented to near perfection. You could see that Daenerys truly believed that she was going to make the world a better place, and Jon was extremely distraught at the thought of killing the woman he loved and watching her die in his arms. Drogon melting the Iron Throne was also well done, as it symbolised that it while Jon may have ended Daenerys' life, but it was the Iron Throne itself that corrupted her and made her seek more power to exert her will on others (but then again, who knows if that’s what they intended).

A Song of Weird Choices and Unsatisfying Endings

Given how the previous two episodes had gone, I wasn’t expecting anything significant out of the final episode of the season. After all, what was left to show? Daenerys won the war, with both Jamie and Cersei almost certainly dead, but since she destroyed virtually all of King’s Landing, Jon would have to do something about it. There would probably be a choice for who the next king would be, Jon’s identity would come up, and the show would proceed to muck around a bit before ultimately finishing. Sounds reasonable, right? At least, as reasonable as it could be given the train wrecks of episodes that came before it.

Oh no, it managed to be EVEN WORSE somehow.

For starters, THIS HAPPENED.

Just….why? WHY does BRAN of all people deserve to be king?! Tyrion (who is being put on trial for betraying Dany when this decision is made, but can still speak uninterrupted for a long time to sway the opinions of everyone present at the meeting, but whatever) says that he has the best story among the people gathered there. Except he doesn’t – literally EVERY major character there has a better story than Bran, not to mention the fact that Bran accepting the title of king contradicts what he said earlier. Another infuriating point is that in the process of making Bran king, NOBODY at the council mentions that the true heir to the Iron Throne (and the one that is probably the most capable) is sitting in a dungeon cell because of his absolutely horrendous crime of killing someone who burned down the entire city. Apparently, since the Unsullied want him there, that’s where he’s going to be, and NO ONE can say anything otherwise.

D&D…just….(sigh). What was the point in making so much of a fuss about Jon’s true parentage if you’re NEVER GOING TO USE IT?!

Speaking of Jon, the final episode also finally closes the book on his story by sending him to the Wall to live out the rest of his days. This is done to appease the Unsullied because he murdered Daenerys. This wouldn’t be that bad, actually, except for the fact that the Unsullied themselves are going to Naath. So…what’s to stop Jon from just not going to the Wall once they’ve disappeared from Westeros? If they’re leaving, why send Jon up there in the first place? He killed the person who roasted the entirety of King’s Landing – surely, someone has to recognize that he did something for the benefit of the country, right?

Honestly, the way that Jon was handled this season was downright abysmal. All traces of the commanding personality we saw back when he was in command at Castle Black made way for him merely saying, ‘I don’t want it’ or ‘you are my queen’ over and over and over again. When the soldiers begin to pillage King’s Landing, he stands there in absolute shock for a good couple of minutes instead of trying to get them to stop attacking. I feel for Kit Harrington – to get this kind of script to work with must have been a disastrous experience after putting so much time and effort into portraying a character for ten years.

There are so many instances of bad writing in this season that covering them would merit a separate article – D&D’s interviews have become comedic gold because of what they’ve said and how much of it doesn’t make ANY semblance of sense.

When the end credits rolled, I felt an immense sense of disbelief at the fact that what was mere weeks ago, one of the most anticipated events of the summer was now one of the most irritating and forgettable seasons of television I had ever witnessed. Think of the scenario today: due to the coronavirus pandemic that has swept the world, most of us are staying inside to avoid contracting the virus, and nobody has even THOUGHT of re-watching Game of Thrones because everyone knows how everything ends. It’s a damn shame that the magnum opus of television was reduced to such a pitiful state.

Perhaps the most infuriating part of all of this is that HBO offered D&D more seasons to complete the show, but they refused because…(shrug). We can only speculate; I guess that they wanted to move on to another project after working on this one for so long, which is completely fair – but if they didn’t feel passionate enough about the project to continue it, why keep trudging through it half-heartedly? They could have easily given the project to someone else for the last season – hell, maybe if they had we wouldn’t have had one final season, we might have gotten at least 2 or 3.

The day before the final episode aired in India, I wrote a post on my blog about Game of Thrones and how it still stands tall despite the numerous missteps and questionable calls made in the final two seasons. Even now, after the conclusion of the last season, I stand by that statement. The show is still leagues above anything else on TV in terms of visual style, and the earlier seasons of the show showcase some of the very best characters, narrative structure, and plot progression in television history. It has some of the most iconic episodes to be shown on TV, and it also has one of the most memorable soundtracks of all time, due to the brilliance of Ramin Djawadi.

While I find it difficult to digest that the show I loved ended on such a low note, I am nevertheless thankful to D&D for bringing the world of Westeros to life, even if they didn’t quite stick the landing as well as I hoped….and even if they kind of missed the mark completely. Game of Thrones is still a phenomenal show that will live on in infamy for both its amazing first half and completely befuddling second half. Maybe in time, when George R.R. Martin finishes the books, and we get to see the true ending in all its glory, we can look back at the TV show and see what the writers tried to do but failed. Until that day, I think its safe to say that our watch has ended.