Game of thrones season –what season are we at again?- seven – a review.

Well I can’t get enough of stuffing feathers up in Game of Thrones’s cap. They deserve it. It truly is the one great shows on television nowadays. And that is quite the feat when you consider what other diamonds are on.

But nobody is without faults. So, for this review, I decided to begin by having a little look back to seasons previous and just quickly (In one very easily skippable paragraph) sum up the things I disliked ‘til now. The show is in the final stretch anyway.

The sour before the sweet as it were.

I'm starting to enjoy googling the exact names of the characters of the show for these reviews. Tyrion will alway -to me- be good Lannister simply because I keep on forgetting how to spell his name.

What I disliked in seasons previous:

The violence
That’s one I mentioned earlier. In season two Stannis scalped a man with one quick swift from his sword. And after that things became more and more brutal in Westeros. With, of course, the gruesome Viper versus Mountain fight as the pinnacle of grossness (with extra points because we liked the character).

Now, I don’t mind a little bit of blood every now and then (I’m still watching the Walking Dead for some reason – probably because of Carol or Tara). But I do always fear that ‘showing violence creates a want for even better violence’.
The prime example is of course Quentin Tarrantino whose movies become more and more explicit as time goes on.

I, for a short time, feared that Game of thrones would go the same route. But for now the show has been a sweetheart in the latest seasons so what am I complaining?

The sand-snakes
It is rather annoying when a storyline doesn’t work. The sand-snakes are the prime example. You can actually pinpoint it down to one singular scene: the fight scene between the sand-snakes and Bron/Jamie. Because that scene didn’t work the rest of their storyline went down like a house of cards.

Now there are three ways of dealing with such a problem: ignore, redo or scrap. The showrunners chose for the latter. Which meant a quick ‘bye-bye’ for some of my preferred actors. Only getting back to some of the characters in minimal fashion and eventually killing them all: leaving the best snake (due to her awesome conversation with Bronn seasons previous) alive for only one additional episode.

Master Qyburn
He got dropped into the Game of Thrones universe rather slyly (like he is). But, when you start to think about it he is tremendously one-dimensional. He’s like the Igor from old Frankenstein movies.
I think this has to do (for me) with the way old grand master Pycelle was disposed off (killed by kids). In a deleted scene from season four (I believe) he is shown showing his true face to Tywin Lannister. In it he was a fit man who managed to play his apparent weakness as a strength. This scene was deleted, so not part of the cannon. I hated that. I wanted Pycelle on the same playing-level of Littlefinger or Varys.

Alas, I wasn’t allowed that ‘happy’ moment in the end of things. But I still have that deleted scene- and I can pretend it was included in the show.


Anyway, this disregard for Pycelle made me under appreciate Qyburn.

Accidental coincidences
I loathe accidental coincidences in movies or television shows. World War Z is littered with those.
In Game of thrones they often get away with it. Brienne was looking for Ayra and actually found her (in the whole of Westoros –while Ayra and the Hound were hiding), which lead to the Brienne versus Hound battle. I could live with that. There was enough story to make me believe that the two groups might actually meet.

But Jorah stumbling over Tyrian in a tavern. With the Spider nowhere to be found as well. Again this is season six, something really weird was going on back then.

Poor Sansa
And then there’s Sansa. She went through hell and back only for, when you think it’s all over, to be handed over to Ramsay Bolton. This felt like a cheat to me. It destroyed –to me- the progress she had made over the years. Which I thought was proven when she lied at the Eyrie and made her black dress.

Now, the end result is the same. She’s still the one in power in Winterfell. But to me the showrunners should have ‘either’ kept out this empowerment moment of her dress. Or they should have scrapped the whole Bolton marriage. Give it to another character to undergo it (as –I believe- in the books).
‘Feelings of being cheated’ are always subjective (actual cheating I might be cool about). So maybe this was the card the showrunners were playing. Like Robb’s death, my trust in a happy future for Sansa crushed.

The actual review
But that’s enough of me huffing and puffing like one of Daenerys’s bastard dragons (the fourth dragon: I call him Donnie). There’s lots to like this season. The main reason being: all the storylines are getting wrapped up in lightning-speed fashion with some cool battles to boot.
And to wrap up those storylines, characters who haven’t seen each other for ages finally get to have a conversation again. Like the Stark children.

The Starks.
Well that’s fun to have them all back again. Sansa has grown out of her ‘I’m better than you’ notion and actually asks Arya to be honest to her. Ayra, on her behalf, is pretty (bloodthirsty) messed up in the head. And then there’s Bran who…well I sincerely hope he didn’t die in that cave as Meera stated. But am I rooting for Arya to slap some emotions into the boy. Too bad that dear Meera had to suffer through his coldness on her way out.

He was more into her brother anyway.

I do hope I get to see her again though. I don’t like her going away without any kind of reward. Not marriage or a love story or anything. But at least give her a purpose for after the war. If she survives it at least.

The deaths.
What would Game of Thrones be without a requiem of deaths. The Sand-snakes were quickly dispatched off. The queen of thorns took famous last words to a whole new level by verbally ‘b*tchslapping’ Jamie.

And, knowing full well that Jamie and Cersei are up for their retribution each scene the gold-handed knight is in is gut-wrenchingly tense. He might go any moment. There’s no more need to have the character around.

But the biggest death is of course that of dear old Littlefinger. Why oh why didn´t he think off the possibility that Sansa might mistrust him? Why oh why didn´t he leave Winterfell the minute Bran started quoting him his own words? And why of why wasn´t Varys involved in his death?

Anyway it is what it is. The slyest player of the game of thrones has been found lacking. I could write a whole article about Littlefinger’s mindset when he pleaded to Sansa (did he actually believe she would warm up to him?) and I’m certain the books will have another fate in store for him. But, alas, that’s the way he went out in the show and, to be honest, quite fitting.

Speedy Gonzales.
We are moving at lightning speed. Ravens fly left and right, Deux ex Bronns or Dragons appear out of nowhere. It’s not polished, perhaps, but at least Game of thrones knows when it’s time to go.

Something I wish Dexter learned at the end of season 4.

With only a handful of episodes left GOT is combining characters, killing off some and whatnot. This does make the overall story simpler. Now it truly is down to baddies versus goodies. But also a bit less compelling.

I think all I want is a shot of the camera following one of the ravens from one far out place to the other. Just so the audience knows the distances and speed these birds can travel.

Game of Thrones now relies on the character development from seasons previous to adorn the woodwork as it were. No more Littlefinger having a lengthy monologue over a lesbian tryout.
It’s like an old diesel engine getting started. It might start slowly but by now it’s firing all cylinders and raging across the road.

Filler and Fan-service
This speed does, however, cause some of the fans of the show to accuse the series of ´filler´ and ´fan-service´.
These are two terms that usually don’t have anything to do with each other but, in the context of Game of Thrones, do.

This season was a bit more all out when it came to special effects. I’ll give you that. But at the same time it was pretty mild on overall set dressing.
There were no lavish decors. There were no crowd scene. And there certainly wasn’t (thank god) another shame sequence that required both.

I never liked the ‘shame scene’. This because I can’t see a reason why the woman had to be naked. So when the actress (Lena Headey) refused to be naked again the producers spent numerous dollars on a body-double and some CGI-techniques to make the head fit the body. Money thrown away in my opinion.

Crafting ´deadites´ isn’t cheap. Dragons are even more expensive. So by throwing the audience a bone or two the creators of Game of Thrones misdirected the audience to focus on the cheaper bits. They are saving money for the next season as it were.

I certainly remember poor Tyrion getting hit unconscious in one of the earlier episodes before he went to fight a war. A simple trick that allowed the producers to save some money by not showing the carnage.

This whole season, to me, felt like a building up to the final –expensive- fight. Friends get together. Foes make their amends. All the various storylines are getting connected.
But this also creates: fan-service. Or, (putting it bluntly) what does the general public want to see?

So Arya being all cool with her sword. Sansa being (even) cooler when she condemns Littlefinger. Jon and Dany having (incestuous – mind you) sex.

Near the end of a tale all the little hints an author dropped are remembered and reimbursed. When you read a book about a quarrelling couple you can bet your bottom dollar that –in the end- they end up together.
Fan-service, in this sense, is the logical conclusion for logical thinking minds. The reader/watcher expects it to happen and then it happens. The fact that you can save a buck or two by doing so is a bonus.

Speculation
Which brings us to the fun part of this review: speculation. What is going to happen in the final season? My guess is as good as any.

And I’m always wrong. Neither the lackbuster Lost-finale or the great fun (but slightly unbelievable) Breaking Bad-finale did I see coming completely.

Well, Cersei is going to remain the big player next season of course. Not only has (probably) she sent ravens to the citadel to see if there is any way to control the white walkers.

Her Maester creepy-hand must have, by now, informed her of the benefits of an dead army and its knack for contracting new personnel.

But second I wouldn’t put it past Cersei to be contended to be the ruler of six kingdoms instead of seven. If I recall correctly The twins are a natural border between the north and south. So why doesn’t she uses her Bravos’s sells words to lock the northern army in and build a new wall?

Bran. I do hope he grows out of his rather autistic persona –but I don’t think he will. I agree with Meera that he really died in that cave (having said that I do want Meera to have a proper farewell/reward).

Now, people have speculated for years that Bran is at one time going to warg into a dragon. But now that we have an Ice-dragon on the table why not that one?

It’s something Bran (in my fantasy) isn’t going to survive (but it would destroy said dragon). Or, if he is, he’s going to end up as the original three eyed raven stuck in a tree in the north.

The other theory, though, is that Bran is the Night King. Even though that’s is rather unlikely since we saw the Night King’s birth a season ago. But it does give food for thought.
You see, the theory is this: how did the Night King know that he was going to get a dragon to break down the wall?
All this tracking through the snow is fun and all but if you can’t break the wall you are still in a pickle.

In a behind the scenes interview last years the show creators said that the author disclosed three things to them that blew their mind. The first one was the truth behind ‘Hodor’ –what are the other two going to be I wonder. This could be one of them.

So if Bran is all seeing and he has a link between him and the Night King (happened in the Door-episode). Wouldn’t it be interesting to believe that this link is a bit stronger than might have been suspected.

That this link told the Night King that a dragon would be coming? That the reason John Snow and (most of his) comrades are still alive is because Bran allowed it.

E.g. he needs Cersei and Dany to be present at the final battle so the dead can destroy them and rule the world.

That Bran is now working for the dark-side?
This would be interesting because now the Starks have a danger amongst their midst. Somebody who is plotting against them. This would be a fun move for the show to end on. To realize that Jamie’s choice to throw Bran from the window (almost) destroys the world.

Butterfly wings causing storms.

Conclusion
So there you have my musing on this season of Game of Thrones. As always it has been miraculously/impeccably shot.

I think the only bad production moment in the entire show was that sudden hard-rock song when Jamie lost his hand.

So there isn’t a lot to talk about.
I argue that this season was a ‘build up’ for the next. The final season in which the showrunners are going to go all out over seven episodes.
During which time I do wish for the show to please (please) give Tyrion a free night at a brothel. The poor chap needs it.