Game of Thrones season 8 – a review

We are at the endgame now. We’ve got numerous major characters and two major battles to fight; one against the undead and one against the mad-queen. Not everyone is going to survive ‘till the end; this much we know, it’s Game of Thrones after all.

As the series is reaching its end this season also has half the episodes it used to have. Less episodes means a bigger budget one could surmise from a meta-perspective. But, from a narrative perspective one should also acknowledge that most of the storylines of the major characters are done. Theon has, pretty much, reformed himself. Arya and Sansa have found each other again. Sansa is (finally) the dark queen we wanted her to be. And Bran, well, I don’t really know about him yet.

I’m writing this post as a sort of diary as I watch the show weekly.

First things, first
In good Game of Thrones fashion the first episode is all about advancing some character-plots forwards. Not too much, just enough to get the chess pieces in place.
This time ‘round, however, there is an urgency behind it all (in the form of an undead army coming to visit Winterfell). So the episode quickly addresses the matters that are left on the table like some people getting reacquainted (Arya and Jon) or Jon’s heritage- a question that is tackled with suitable attire (I love Sam and Gilly deeply).

From the first episode on there is a build-up to episode three, aptly called: ‘The long night’. All those side-remarks from old Nan in the past are now coming true. -As is visually depicted by that tableaux the Night King left at Last Hearth for Tormund and troupe to find. But still there’s an episode to go before we get to this first big battle of two.

The calm before the storm
The second episode felt a bit like the penultimate episode of Lost: A very separate (‘bottle’) episode to what we’ve known. As this episode focuses all its attention on characters and their motivations for aligning themselves on the ‘living side’.

This episode is a goodbye to the characters. Like a well-made World War I movie likes to invest in characters for one last time before they go over the ledge. After this episode there truly is a feeling that all has been said that should’ve been said. Now there’s only battle left.
This  makes this episode the last episode to have characters fix the final strands of storyline lingering; like Arya’s list, or Jamie’s honour.

On a side-note: The Arya sex scene. Can I just say that I enjoyed the shock that went through the internet when we all found out that the actress has become a grown woman. This always happens when a (former) child actress does a lewd scene as they've grow up (Natalie Portman in Black Swan, anybody?). Please don’t ever change; online-people! I think it is healthy to be a bit shocked about this.

Let’s start the fight
And there it is! The first big fight! The one massive ‘kill-your-darlings’ showdown the show has been teasing since the very first shot of the very first episode.
The battle of Winterfell is the dark half of the Battle of the Bastard. Apart from the shift between day and night;I mean that where Ramsay Bolton was clearly insane he also had some warped feelings about justice. The Nightking, however, has no feelings. The night king is pure apathy who only seem to enjoy smirking when he cheats (by raising a new dead army).

The biggest critique I have about this episode (apart from the Deuce-Ex-Arya and the lighting) is probably the lack of budget. No money in the world could’ve made this episode live up to (my) the expectations the show built towards it.

Even though this episode showed what a good storyteller can do with a constrained budget (the Dothraki lights-scene was a stroke of brilliance).

Whilst, at the same time, it has to tell a story of a limited number of men against an unlimited supply of enemy; and the episode wasn't afraid to show the world the way World War Z should've been.

Still, calming down from my initial (irrational) disappointment, it is amazingly good episode. The episode obviously didn’t do what I wanted it to do

like Bran warging into the ice-dragon or Lady Mormont doing some kick-ass battle (or simply glaring a ice-zombie to death).

I guess a zombie giant has to do.

of course it doesn’t –and I don’t want it to; ‘surprise me’. And surprise me this episode did! Whilst, at the same time, using a clever narrative/visual structure of  the Halloween-(horror-movie)-spacing technique.

Meaning: you start out grand in wide open spaces and as the tension grows and things become more dire for the characters you care about you make those spaces they inhabit smaller. This same 'trick' was more recently used in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.

That with the Game of Thrones technique of adding ‘little’ mini-battles within the grand siege makes the episode quite enthralling. As is Game of Thrones (or any anthology series) this episode lets you skip from one character to the next so you don’t bother if you are stuck for a minute or two with a character you don’t like.

At the same time a good fight for honour and valour can make the most unlikable, weak, character (=Theon) earn his way back into your respect. In fact, now that he’s gone I actually miss his storyline even if it included an entire season of torture.

One choice that did cloud the episode a bit was the chaos near the end. This a definite choice made by the showmakers; basically telling the audience: “The plan is shoot everybody is now out for survival.”

Chaos, however, doesn’t make enthralling visual storytelling because the final goal is gone. It works of course on a character level but in visuals the ‘time spent in chaos’ should be kept at a minimum. Subplots should be introduced (like Jon reclaiming his Valerian sword) that lead up to the final goal.

In the battle for Winterfell these little subplots were only glanced over at the end and the main focus stayed on the survival of the characters. Which bloated the episode a bit with unnecessities.

Licking our wounds
The next episode, then, is yet another build-up to the next battle. The armies of the living (good) have diminished quite considerably. Yet, the army of the evil queen is strong as ever. What’s more, there is a slow growing feud between aunt and nephew on who will sit on the iron throne when all is said and done.

It is, however, a good time to turn another leaf. As I said above most of the lingering story strands have been solved in episode two; so now it is time to focus on some of the consequences in combination with the survival of the characters. And this is exactly what this episode does.

Let me talk a bit about ‘houses’. By now, most of the houses of Westeros are dead:

The Bolton’s, the Mormont’s, the Frey’s, the Baratheon’s (apart from a bastard son), the Tyrell’s.

 The ‘united nations’ has never been so bloody.

This, episode is, therefore the perfect moment to re-introduce the storyline of Bronn –the man without a ‘house’ (and without honour, as he said it –though we all know he has: he honours a good person; in this sense he’s like an ‘angel’-character).

Like Cersei, Bronn is underplayed this season. But when he gets his moment to shine he does. And with his sudden appearance the lays out the theme of the episode: ‘You might have won for the side of good. But the Game of Thrones is still being played and getting bloodier by the minute. How bloody are you willing to get?’

Hells bells and buckets of blood
After the long night comes the shimmer of summer. New lines are drawn in the sand for the final stretch. People who used to be good turn unhinged. People who used to be smart make foolish choices. And people who used to be merciless become kind.

Like the later episodes of every completed television show it is in the final stretch that some characters have to be ‘gotten rid off’ rather quickly and thus without a lot of pump and circumstance. That is why Varys made the ill-gotten move of openly discussing his idea for treason to Tyrion. And for that same reason it was Melisandre who (from a sea of people) managed to get herself caught –and recognized for who she was- by the pirate king.

Like the famous submarine-episode in Lost this method of clearing the board is rather sloppy -but in that perticular show it (I figure) was the only way. One could argue, however, with Game of Thrones why the show-runners didn’t just opt to up the casualty count of the previous episode by including these characters? Everybody was dying back then, it was war; thus, much more believable than these coincidental coincidences or sudden character flaws.

But after this episode of reshuffling the card and setting some pieces back on the board it is finally time for the penultimate episode which, in the world of Game of Thrones, means: get ready to get your heart broken in a million pieces. And it certainly did for a LOT of online people.

One thing I can tell you: a lot of people are going to politicize the show after this episode.

Set in the (not so wintery yet: Is winter here yet or still coming?) city of King’s Landing. This episode could aptly be called the slaughter instead of 'Bells'. Daenerys has finally lost her bells marbles

Again, I think this could’ve worked better if she lost everybody she cared about (plus one of her children) in the long night.

Call it PTSD or Shellshock (as George Carlin would have it).

But then again, there would be no need for her to project all her anger at Cersei.

and is running with it. ‘Running with scissors’ would be a more accurate description (“somebody is going to get hurt”).

Basically all of King’s Landing are now her enemy and she wants her baby to feast. I can only guess what she could’ve done with three dragons?

Using three (reasonably) ‘good’ characters as a leitmotif first it is up to Tyrion ‘the God of tits and wine’ to plead for mercy. As is the case with ‘Bacchus’ (or Dionysus) –the ‘original’ God of tits and wine- he enters the battlegrounds after the battle and sees the slaughter that those who do not follow his believes have brought.

Then, the viewer, looks through the eyes of Jon Snow, the battle-hardened general who always manages to get his peoples’ support in the end (even if it kills him). This, because, his main flaw (and positive) is the fact that he always sees the goodness in somebody’s heart. The game of thrones in King’s Landing –if the, then, boy travelled with Sansa and Arya to the capital instead of the wall- would’ve eaten him alive.
Now he is shocked to see that those who learned to love (Grey Worm) and those who follow orders are death incarnate when commanded by a mad queen.

Finally there’s Arya who, this season, constantly shifted between psycho-girl who baked human pies and loving sister. She’s loving once more, and just in time because The Hound gives her the age old lesson about revenge: ‘always be prepared to dig two graves’.

As she officially scraps him of the list and makes her way through the crumbling city the camera smartly uses her petite size as a method of emphasizing the destruction going on around her.
As her young body gets slammed around from wall to wall, covered in scratches, blood and dust, the audience feels the pain with her. The final shot of the majestic white horse and Arya in the Pompeii-like rubble is unworldly because neither shouldn’t have survived. That’s how much focussing on the character made me-the audience- aware of the destruction going on around her. And entire city got levelled.

Still, the most epic fight scene throughout this episode has to be ‘Cleganbowl’. There is is! After five seasons of memes it has finally arrived –and it is a doozy.
Everything about this fight sequence works. And even though it is a tad predictable (especially how it ends) it is a lovely scene with some beautiful shots.

At times this episode reminded me of a short passage from The gentlemen bastards series by Scott Lynch (to paraphrase):

‘When the wizards were done with the castle only the floor and an empty throne remained’.

Quite the striking image for a fallen kingdom.

After this episode it is rather clear how everything is going to turn out. There’s just the question of whether Jon Snow is going to survive it all or if the end will be bittersweet.

Then, of course, there are my pet peeves (Bran? Who still has his cart clamped in Winterfell.) And only one episode left to finish the bloody televised tale of Westeros.

Fly, sail and ride towards the horizon
The final episode. After a long winter week of ranting people online (and even a petition)

The same happened with Lost and numerous highly popular shows before and after.

There will always be an overtone of critique rather than praise (whether justified or not).

There are only a few  ‘hyped shows  out there’ that actually managed to go out without a barrel of muck poured out over it by online people.

the end is finally there. The episode comes without many surprises. Jon does what he needs to do and the rebuilding can begin. Some old faces are re-imported from previous story-strands - I love seeing Edmure Tullymaking an a** of himself (a small, fun part, to play). And jolly molly did suckling-little bird grow up; still mad as a hatter I’m certain.- and then it’s all so long and farewells.

Like the Grey haven-scene in The Lord of the Rings I never really care for these kinds of goodbye scenes. It really is the dot after the sentence. The brewing, plotting and planning is over. Still, the few glimpses we get of Westeros after goodbye makes for a laugh or two (the council meeting is hilarious). Then the main Stark children start their new adventures with a good, heartfelt goodbye to the king the world of Westeros didn’t deserve: Aegon Targaryen.

Conclusion
What to make of this season? Was it a bit rushed? Yes it was. Like last season Game of Thrones has a bit of a problem with incorporating time-jumps. Where in the first season it took several episodes to get from Winterfell to King’s Landing now people arrive in a blink of the eye.

Then there are those nasty coincidental coincidences that I always dislike with a vengeance (e.g. a surprise army fleet with pinpoint accuracy). But, to be honest, that happens all the time in visual fiction be it computer-games, television shows or movies; so I might complain, but it is never going to go away.

Finally there are my pet peeves. Me being an avid fan of the more supernatural storylines would’ve preferred The Nightking battle to take place at King’s Landing. Or, in the same vein, I would’ve loved to see Bran do some real three-eyed-raven mumbo-jumbo because the kid is powerful like that.

I didn’t get what I wanted! And like I said above, maybe that’s a good thing; it kept me guessing long enough and it showed me one way of how the story ends that still, to me, was satisfying enough.

Game of Thrones didn’t overstay its welcome. It ended its story firmly and decisively. And with the smaller amount of episodes the scope of things could increase. What, to me, truly stood out this final season was the visual style of it all. The battle of the Clegane brothers, Jon staring down a dragon, the destroyed throne-room; visually Game of Thrones is as strong as it ever was before.

But, one must argue, back in season one the show pulled a smart trick of knocking Tyrion Lanister out just before a battle just so the show didn’t need to show said (expensive) battle. Then they filled the rest of the episode with cleverly written dialogue and pitting characters against each other.

The final season, therefore, feels like visuals against the words from seasons previous: fire against ice.

But in the grand scheme of things this final season of Game of Thrones serves as many of us wanted it to be: the end to a magical tale about good versus evil (with some grey mixed into it). A political minefield in a world where dragons roam.
And to craft such a mighty tale, regardless of the critiques, is a fantastic feat!

My watch has ended - Sorry I had to do this one.