Watching the End of Game of Thrones

Note:  Spoilers Abound

Around the summer of 2004 I was browsing a bookstore in the Atlanta area for something new to read.  I wasn’t looking for anything in particular.  After scanning the shelves for a half-hour or so I came across a thick paperback entitled A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin.  I was familiar with Martin’s work (mostly short stories I read in the early 1980’s) but did not own anything by him.

Long-time readers know I am a huge fan of J.R.R. Tolkien.  I have read other science-fiction and fantasy works such as the Earth-Sea Trilogy, the Dragonriders of Pern, the Night’s Dawn Trilogy, and the Otherland series.  But I never felt that these works were as gripping as Tolkien’s Middle-Earth.  They were fun reads but nothing worthy of much consideration after reading.  They felt like unsatisfying imitations or wannabes of Tolkien’s immense literary creation.

Thumbing through the novel I noticed that each chapter was written from a different character’s point-of-view, a technique I have always found entertaining.  A closer look revealed other appealing characteristics.  The characters’ internal thoughts were always written in italics to help distinguish the reader’s direct access to their minds as opposed to the interactions and events of the narrative.  The novel was written to reflect the rough and crude nature of medieval life, with a modernist twist for language, sex, and violence.  This was all grittier than Tolkien, and offered spectacular attention to detail.  All of these seem distinctive so I decided to buy it.

The writing was engaging.  The characters featured tremendous depth and sophistication.  The situation was complicated and conflicted.  I read the novel quickly being truly shocked several times by how events played out.  One major character’s back was broken when he (a child) was abruptly pushed from a window.  In an even more of a “wow” moment, Martin had the narrative’s main character beheaded before the novel ended.  I was hooked.  Not only were the characters and their world worthy of investing myself in, the intensity and authenticity of much that happened made this a distinctive work of fiction.

I quickly went on to the second and third volume, also available in paperback at the time.  Both A Clash of Kings and A Storm of Swords were outstanding successors to the first novel.  I was particularly impressed with the third novel.  Storm is definitely the best fantasy novel I have ever read outside of Tolkien’s work.  I knew more books were yet to be published and I felt I had gotten in on the ground floor of an exciting new series of literature.

What I didn’t know at the time, of course, was that these novels would be picked up by HBO for a television series that started about 7 years later.  By that time A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons were published, though I did not read these until they came out in paperback and the television series reached the point in the series more or less matching the first three novels – at the end of Season 4.  As most anyone familiar with this series knows, the TV show ended up outrunning Martin’s novels (collectively referred to as A Song of Fire and Ice) due to the author’s interminably slow pace of expanding the number of characters and finishing the series.

Seasons 1 and 2 pretty much match up with the first two novels.  Seasons 3 and 4 were mostly based upon the magnificent third novel with a sprinkling of stuff for the fourth and fifth novels.  By the time we got to Season 5 a significant divergence became manifest between the narrative as told in the novels and as told in the TV series.  Part of this was due to the expansive nature of the novels.  Martin kept adding more and more characters to the story in a manner that would have been almost incomprehensible if it had been translated verbatim from the novels.  Also, as with most novel-to-screen adaptations, several aspects of the narrative had to be cut or reshuffled to make sense in a visual medium.

I had no problem with any of this.  It is the nature of the beast, especially when the beast is this sprawling literary epic.  Some events that happened to one character in the novel were assigned to another character in the TV series, for example.  Either way, the story was compelling to me.  In fact, after the first three novels, I actually began to prefer the TV series to the original source material.

Now the series has concluded.  Since it ran beyond the source material, there is no way – or even any point – to compare the two mediums.  Instead, I simply want to share some thoughts on the final season of HBO’s Game of Thrones.  First, it should be pointed out that this series is one of the most popular and highly-acclaimed TV shows of all-time.  It was nominated for dozens of Golden Globe and Emmy awards, winning in many categories through the last 8 years.  This is with good reason.  The show is well-written, acted, and directed.  It has featured some incredible special effects and some of the best battle sequences I have ever seen on television.

In recent seasons, fans developed some quibbles about such things as the passage of time on the show.  Characters crossed great geographical distances of Westeros in an impossibly short amount of time.  There were some plot loopholes and inconsistencies that bothered many detailed-oriented fans.  These were minor annoyances to me.  It is a fantasy and it is TV, so I gave the show a break.  The narrative itself remained compelling and well-told.

From early on my two favorite characters were Daenerys “Stormborn” Targaryen, an apparent heir to the Iron Throne who gets along well with dragons, and Lord Tyrion Lannister, a dwarf from a royal family who begins the series as a self-proclaimed “whore-monger” but ends up a greatly changed man.  He is also the most intelligent character in the story, although, like most every character, he makes a lot of mistakes and bad choices along the way.  Martin has been quoted as saying his fantasy is about characters who make a lot of bad choices.

This is one of many things I find really compelling about this series.  While there are heroic moments, virtually all the characters are flawed in some way, anti-heroic, troubled in a sense that relates to our own experiences with modernity.  This makes the narrative immensely relatable even though it has a historically arcane fantastic setting – just like Tolkien did for post-World War One and Two society, I might add.

Anyway, little did I know that these two characters, who began the series literally worlds apart and without personal knowledge of one another, would end up becoming key allies working together to bring Dany to sit as Queen on the Iron Throne and rule the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros.  I was well-pleased with this occurrence, which was in no way predictable when I read the first three novels, their meeting doesn’t occur until book four.

There were 10 episodes for each of seasons 1 – 6.  Seasons 7 & 8, working well beyond the novels but with Martin’s input as Executive Producer, split a total of 13 episodes, seven and six respectively.  In retrospect this could have easily been condensed into one 10-episode season.  But, I suppose the economics of television (more so than the narrative itself) drove this decision.  It’s all about the money, right?! 

Let’s look at Season 8’s episodes one-by-one.  I am assuming the reader watches the series and knows the characters.  Therefore, there are spoilers for those who are unfamiliar.

Episode 0801 “Winterfell”.  With the Night King and the Army of the Dead having broken through the incredible Wall, all of Westeros is in danger as the decades-long winter season begins.  Jon Snow and Daenerys have brought armies and dragons to reinforce northern Westeros.  A shaky alliance is formed because, despite the fact that many of our main character’s distrust and even hate each other, their differences are petty compared with the end of the world the Night King promises.  The most significant event in this episode occurs when Samwell and Brandon Stark confirm that Jon is, in fact, Aegon Targaryen, the true son of the “Mad King” and actual heir to the Iron Throne.  This, of course, is a huge complication for Jon and Dany, who are passionately in love and sleeping together.  It makes Dany Jon’s aunt.   Naughty naughty.  The audience already knew this from previous seasons but seeing the characters deal with this fact is wonderful to watch.

Episode 0802 “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms”.  This was an excellent episode featuring almost all of the major characters in the series appearing together in one place for the first time in 8 seasons.  They have set aside their many competing interests and differences to make ready to battle with the Army of the Dead at Winterfell.  The highlight here occurs when several of them sit around a fireplace as the winter winds howl outside, getting drunk on wine and awaiting their seemingly imminent death.  Ser Jamie Lannister breaks with traditional and bestows knighthood upon Lady Brienne of Tarth.  It is a powerful moment and one of the finest scenes in the entire series.  Fortunately, you can watch it here and you really don’t have to be a fan of the show or even know what is going on to find the scene powerful and moving – definitely the show at its finest.

Episode 0803 “The Long Night”.  Another well-produced, highly realistic (aside from the dragons, of course) battle sequence.  Although this was not just a sequence, it was essentially the entire episode.  Once started, the action and tension did not let up. While several characters die, all the “top-tier” major ones survive.  The biggest surprise (and disappointment) of this episode is that Arya kills the Night King, which, in turn, causes the vast Army of the Dead to almost instantly disintegrate.  After several seasons of building up to this moment, it all dissolves without triumph, but a whimper.  It left me feeling empty and unsatisfied, making the Night King just an enormous red herring, really. 

I went into this episode thinking that the battle was too obvious and something we weren’t expecting would happen.  But this time the show did the obvious and what had become the major plot point for me (I thought the Night King’s fate would be decided in the series finale) ended.  I felt the remaining three episodes would unfortunately be anticlimactic.  Although some fans felt the episode was too darkly lighted, I felt that added to the gut-wrenching confusion.  Every single character was fighting for their very lives.  The cinematography of the episode was brilliant, the battle, overall, was another great moment of television.  It was marred in my mind by the rather stupid way the battle was actually fought, however.

Episode 0804 “The Last of the Starks”.  This was a very “Shakespearean” type episode with all the remaining major characters jockeying for position within the power vacuum created by the demise of the Night King and the Army of the Dead.  Everyone begins to revert back their previous selves, dealing with their previous issues, plotting and whispering secrets.  While the fan base turned out in millions to watch the episode there was dissension among them and they rated this episode as the worst in the history of the series.  While I thought the episode was decent but not great, I was puzzled over why the writers took this route.  A final battle with Cersei Lannister for the Iron Throne is set up and I am left scratching my head.  Seems the momentum of the show is lost.

Episode 0805 “The Bells”.  Hell hath no fury like a woman’s scorn.  The series takes the most direct (and disquieting) possible route toward its conclusion.  There are no surprising plot twists anymore, just every character is behaving in the most predictable way possible.  This is not what made the series great.  So much is spectacularly pointless in this episode as several major and minor characters die.  Jamie and Cersei meet a fitting, if unlikely, end.  Varys is needlessly put to death.  Arya makes a bold journey to King’s Landing, only to be routed by the destruction of the city.  Tyrion makes yet another major miscalculation.  Jon cannot stop his own army from the carnage as Daenerys turns into full dragon bitch mode and destroys not only Cersei’s army and fleet but virtually the entire city with all its tens of thousands of innocent civilians.  The combination of losing her romantic relationship with Jon, the prior deaths of Ser Jorah Mormont and Missandei and the demise of two of her three dragons (her "children") bares wicked fruit as Dany is transformed into “the Mad Queen.” I feel the show could have done a better job with this transition, which felt as forced as the Night King’s demise previously this season.

This episode renders pointless so much that previously made the series great.  For example, consider Cersei’s pregnancy.  What was the point of it except for perhaps allowing her to more effectively mislead her brother Tyrion?  The pregnancy had no plot significance in the end.  Things would have turned out as they did with or without it.  Similarly, what was the point of Jamie’s sexual relations with Brienne a couple of episodes ago?  Yet another unnecessary and unsatisfying narrative dead end.  Too many aspects of the plot were set up only to be dealt with carelessly.

Still, the episode wasn’t a complete misfire.  The actual burning of King's Landing is the very definition of spectacle, albeit horrific it is nevertheless awesome of behold.  The Hound and the Mountain have an incredible final duel, with both dying.  Tyrion’s good-bye scenes with, first, Varys and then with his brother Jamie are both heart-wrenching and superbly well-acted.  Throughout there are a number of beautifully composed shots that could qualify as oil paintings.  As usual, the actual special effects are spectacular, if more incomprehensible than awe-inspiring.

National Review said: “There was no justice, only genocide.” The episode felt like a “betrayal” of the audience according to Vanity Fair.  The Guardian called it “the most violent – and most frustrating – episode ever.”  Meanwhile, Forbes said it was “incredible” and “bound to be one of the most controversial episodes ever.”  The Atlantic couldn’t believe how it all played out, offering in all caps: “ARE YOU SERIOUS?”  USA Today said that “series has burned itself to the ground.”  The series was enjoying its highest viewership ever, with more or less 12 million viewers tuning in each week (US only, the world-wide audience is much larger).  Millions of Game of Thrones fans were in turmoil after this grand spectacle of death and destruction.  This was a horrific episode, almost beyond belief.  Any hope for a “happy” ending to this series was squelched.  The series will ultimately be a tragedy and a lot of fans can't stand the nature of the tragedy.

Episode 0806: “The Iron Throne”. 1,000,000 (!) Game of Thrones fans signed a petition to “re-make” the entire season.  The fan base was passionately divided.  A majority still loved the show and were enjoying it.  But a huge and vocal minority, including most of the press, held opinions ranging from “this wasn’t well-written” to “this should be rewritten.”  So, it was a testy audience who tuned in to the series finale.  This episode gave the discontented little to change their mind.  Although it was inevitable that the finale had to (attempt to) tie up a lot of loose ends and go down the checklist of this character ended up like this, that character ended up like that, it felt more like a filler episode than a climatic conclusion.  Much of the fan base was again up in arms about how the whole Daenerys and Jon Snow thing turned out.  In the end, Jon didn't do anything of great significance during the entire season except kill his "queen" as he kissed her passionately.  Dany's death was a private affair.  She died almost without protest for the sin of burning all of King's Landing.

This does nothing to resolve the chaos of leadership in Westeros, of course.  A Council is held by the country's tattered royalty.  Samwell has the audacity to suggest a democratic idea where "everybody gets to choose what's best for everybody."  This is met, of course, with scornful laughter by the entire Council.  Hey Sam, democracy won't be around a couple of hundred more years yet - get real!  Tyrion, imprisoned for releasing his prisoner-brother Jamie, ends up rather ridiculously running the show while still in chains.  Unable to reach a consensus itself, prisoner Tyrion ends up choosing Bran the Broken of all people to become King of the Six Kingdoms (Lady Sansa Stark refuses to relinquish control of the North, and everybody seems just fine with that all of a sudden).  Tyrion wields a lot of power for a little person in chains and ends up as the Hand of King Bran, more or less running the banal day to day workings of the kingdom.  

And Jon Snow, the one everyone likely wanted to be King or at least a player in the new world order of Westeros, is banished to the Night's Watch - again.  While I am pleased that Tyrion survives it all and ends up basically running the kingdom, and while I also feel Dany got what she deserved given mass burning of innocent women and children, the series finale, like most of Season 8, left me feeling more empty than anything.  There was so much complexity woven into the series at the end of Season 7, and most of that complexity was resolved in the most crude and shallow manner considering how carefully constructed it all was to begin with.  If the episode proved unsatisfying, it wasn't because of the acting.  Everyone did a marvelous job, especially Peter Dinklage as Tyrion.  

Despite the loud criticism, over 19 million people watched the final episode, the largest audience in HBO history.  Simply put, Game of Thrones was at the height of its popularity at the same time many viewers were completely trashing it.  So the Showrunners must have done something right.

It is very difficult to end a complex, long-running series in a satisfying way.  Witness what happened to the popular series Lost, for example, among several others.  My fundamental issue with this final season of Game of Thrones is that the show has always surprised us with clever plot twists we didn’t see coming.  The biggest surprise here was there there was no cleverness in Season 8.  It was more of a crude gut-punch than a surprise.  I have no problem with the show ending in ultimate tragedy for the characters most viewers held most dear.  That part actually feels authentic.  But the road the series took to get to the end, while often spectacular and emotional, nevertheless felt rushed, often unnecessary or poorly developed, and did not leave me feeling strongly about the story one way or the other.  I was not wanting more...as I always am when I finish reading Tolkien.  

As a whole, I would classify Game of Thrones as an entertaining epic, mostly well-told, that ultimately could not handle the rich depth and breadth of its own tapestry.  As such, for me, it goes the way of the other fantasy and sci-fi series' I have given a try in my life.  Interesting but inadequate or, to quote Buzz Aldrin describing the Moon, GoT turned out to be a "magnificent desolation."  For my money, Tolkien still rules them all.  Nice try though.