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'Game of Thrones': What Is Characterization?

What did I just watch?

By SamPublished 5 years ago Updated 11 months ago 6 min read
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Was this episode visually stunning in places? Yes. Did we get Clegane Bowl? Yes. Was the music fantastic? Of course, as always.

Were these the same characters we’d been with for years? Um… I’m not sure. The Starks were all pretty much on brand in this episode. Jon is always the good guy, and Arya is just the most lovable character on the show. They were fine. That’s not my issue. I’m looking at you, Dany and Jaime. More specifically, I’m looking at you, writers who seem to have no idea what they’re doing.

Let me start with Daenerys. This is the one that will anger the most people. Obviously, given last week, she’s pissed off. All her closest advisors and friends are dead. She lost another one of her children, and she sees that people clearly love Jon—who has a better claim to the throne—more than they love her. Sure, I can see her anger. However, what they made her do in this episode was not justified in any way, shape, or form. As angry as she is, I simply can’t believe the Breaker of Chains would decimate a whole city and kill millions of innocents just because of an episode’s worth of anger. If there had been more buildup, I would have been fine. I wouldn’t be happy seeing her do it, but I would understand. Tonight, things were not adding up.

In short summary, Daenerys’ forces win the war easily. The Lannister army throws down their weapons and all of Cersei’s ships are destroyed. The bell in the city rings, signaling that they have given up. It’s over, Daenerys has won. But no. No, that’s apparently not good enough. For some reason, the flashes of anger we’ve seen in the previous episode turns into a full-fledged homicidal rage. Daenerys stares at the Red Keep where Cersei is and clearly looks ready to kill. Had she gone straight for Cersei, I would understand. No, that’s also not good enough. Daenerys takes flight on her dragon and literally burns the city to the ground. Innocent people are burned alive in the streets. I will say that though this show has been violent, this felt absolutely gratuitous. I get that we want to show the horror being caused, but this was really a lot to take in. It felt unearned, and left me wanting to look away from the TV.

What bothers me so much about this scene is that we’ve gone through seven seasons of Daenerys wanting to liberate people and make the world a better place. Sure, she’s always mentioned getting a bit of revenge, but that was never her objective. Every city she took, she freed people and tried to rule justly. She wanted to do the right thing at every step of the way. There haven’t been any red flags prior to last week to show that she was capable of this. This felt like I was watching a different character who I’d never met before. I always think back to the scene in season three when she frees one of the cities across the Narrow Sea. The people reach out to her and call her Mhysa (mother). They carry her around, and she smiles and holds hands. This is the Daenerys I know. I’m sorry, but killing Missandei would not cause this kind of rage in her. I don’t know where it came from. Because Jon wouldn’t kiss her, she decided she would have to rule by fear instead of love. What is that? It's such a shame because Emilia Clarke sells things so well. She's done a great job showing on her face and mannerisms how Dany feels. I believe her, I just don't believe in how we got there.

The worst part is that this damage can’t be undone by next week’s finale, even if they try. Dany will always be remembered as the Mad Queen who was just like her father. They won’t know her for anything she’s done in the previous seven seasons of this show. This would be heartbreaking and effective if it were earned. If I didn’t feel like they did a complete character change in one and a half episodes, I would really feel the emotional impact of such an ending. Instead, it feels like a betrayal of her character and the character we’ve been with for a decade. So yes, Dany was betrayed, as she says in the episode. She was betrayed by the writers.

Now, let me talk about Jaime. This one is a particular sore spot for me. Jaime is one of my trash favorites. What I mean by that is that I know he’s not a great person, but I still love him anyway. This is because his character development throughout the show has been awesome. He went from total asshole to a likable character who has a chance to be one of the heroes of the story. Over the course of the back half of the series, he was learning that Cersei wasn’t a great person and he ended up even leaving her to fight for the rest of the good guys against the White Walkers.

The last episode also signaled a dramatic change in character for Jaime. Suddenly, Jaime has given up everything he’s worked for and changed for, and goes right back to die with Cersei. He’s always loved Cersei, but his relationship with Brienne was such a turning point for him. Why he decided to up and leave as if he was back in season two, I’ll never know. He stumbled around King’s Landing, got stabbed by Euron Greyjoy, of all people, and died a pitiful death.

That death is another thing I wanted to mention, because it wronged Cersei as well as Jaime. The two embracing as they are crushed by falling rocks is wrong on so many levels. First, there’s of course the matter of Jaime reverting back to his old self without two minutes worth of explanation. He’s got so much to live for, the mantra he tells Cersei, “Nothing else matters,” rings false. A lot of things matter to him, from his brother to Brienne. I was so disappointed seeing him die like that after coming so far. I wanted something more for him, not crushed by debris of all things.

Cersei also deserved a better death. This woman is one of the best villains on TV. She was cruel, but understandable. You just wanted to punch her every time she screwed someone over. Cersei’s death deserved to be more of a personal thing. She deserved something more of a stab, or having her throat cut. Something close-up was what we needed. Having her be a blubbering mess as Jaime comforts her seemed so far out of character. It felt like a weak and anticlimactic end to the Lannister twins.

Overall, I’m more than a little worried for the final episode. Of course, I want Ghost back, that goes without saying. I probably won’t get that. Instead, we’ll probably get one of the Starks killing Daenerys and taking the throne. I love the Starks more than anything, so this won’t exactly be the worst ending in the world. Hopefully it isn’t Jon, because that man is totally useless. I honestly don’t know what’s about to happen, and I’m still in a little bit of shock from the episode.

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Sam

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