Well,
that was an unexpected mess. But you know what? MY. GIRL. ARYA. I was so ready
to end this episode in tears because I had convinced myself that she was a
goner. I had also convinced myself that this was still an early season of the
show when it had teeth and would occasionally kill a prominent character. But
this show is not that show. This is a straight up fantasy show that hates the
fantasy aspects of itself now and that is ultimately the biggest weakness of Game of Thrones.
This
episode put on display Game of Thrones
biggest flaws and especially those since the story has moved beyond their
source material. Front and center is the fact that the series began aa a
subversive interesting take on high fantasy. This show is not that anymore.
There were no heroes; almost everyone operated in shades of gray. Those that
didn’t, like Ned and Robb, were punished for it and died gruesome deaths. There
are only heroes and villains now. The Night King and Cersei are the villains.
Jon, Arya, Sansa, Jaime, and the rest of the Scooby Gang are the heroes. The
only character with any sort of question is Daenerys. She is a hero with
dictatorial tendencies. And the show has firmly established that those are bad
qualities. Either the climax of the show will feature her full heel turn or
she’ll be forgiven for all she has done.
And that
is at the heart of the biggest problem the show has now: The writing isn’t that
good. It is very forward and on the nose. It isn’t as complex as it once was.
There is a reason many of Game of Thrones
most famous lines and monologues were lifted from George R.R. Martin’s books
wholesale. Dialogue is one of his biggest strengths. It is always dense and
rich, filled with several layers of meaning. The show just isn’t that and hasn’t
been for some years.
That wouldn’t that big a deal if
the action here was in any way satisfying, but it isn’t. There are a ton of
cool visuals in this episode like when the Dothraki charge into the night with
flaming swords and all the troops can see are moving lights like fireflies. And
then they are instantaneously snuffed out. There are other moments, but overall
the action is lackluster and fails to make coherent sense. For one, most of the
fight is a little too dark to have a clear understanding of the events transpiring.
I’m sure this is supposed to make the viewer feel confused and like one of the
soldiers in battle. Instead I was just confused and taken out of the episode. The
dragon vs. dragon fight was dull. Turns out dragons fight each other like puppies
at play but in the sky. Not cool. Characters sometimes seem to teleport from location
to location while others are very carefully shown to be in close proximity to each
other through establishing shots. If they had picked either one, few would have
noticed.
 |
| This is dope though. |
There weren’t any stakes in this
fight either. The only semi-important character to even be grievously injured
was Jorah Mormont who died protecting his queen, the most obvious way. It wasn’t
even shocking; he just got scratched one too many times. The head of his house,
Lyanna, also perished, but she was never a character. Lyanna was always a meme
with a commanding actress in the role. Edd and Beric also bit it protecting the
characters with plot armor. Several characters (Brienne and Sam especially)
were covered in wights only to rescued at the last second by a friend. If
literally one of them had died, there would have felt like real stakes. The
only time I felt one of them might die was the very end when the Night King had
his hand around Arya’s throat. And that’s only because I had convinced myself she
would die.
And Arya throughout this episode was
a confounding character. She had never participated in open large-scale combat.
So for her to be scared is not shocking, but for arguably the most capable
fighter on the show to be running around like a scared child for 45 minutes is
disappointing. She regressed to season two Arya always hiding and just barely
staying alive. She did have a brief moment where her custom lance helped her
kill some of the undead. That was pretty cool. She eventually has to be saved
by Clegane overcoming his fear of fire and death to help her (cool for him,
less for her). He literally carries her away from battle. This is while Beric
sacrifices himself (Although, why didn’t they go around him?). Arya was covered
in zombies but is fine because her plot armor protected her. The Hound drops
her next to Melisandre and easily the best scene in the episode follows. Melisandre
reminds Arya about her prediction from their last meeting: Arya would kill
those with brown, green, and blue eyes. Emphasis on blue. Arya’s mind begins thinking,
but she doesn’t realize what she must do until the following exchange:
Melisandre: What do we say to the God
of Death?
Arya: Not today.
Arya then disappears for a half hour
so that she can show up as a surprise. But the Night King plucks her out of
midair like nothing. He grabs her by the throat and I thought for sure my girl
was a goner. But she pulls THE MOST clutch move off by dropping her knife,
catching it with the other hand and stabbing the Night King and killing him and
the army of undead soldiers.
And thus, we reach the truly
disappointing aspect of not just this episode or season, but of the show as a
whole. Because Game of Thrones has
never been comfortable with the magical aspects of its story. Bran was
sidelined for a literal season. The walkers and wights are mostly ignored
unless required. The dragons are fine, but basically rechargeable H-bombs. We
know that Bran is the Three-Eyed Raven, but what does that mean? The previous
episode had a throwaway line about him being the history of humanity, but what
does that mean and how does it connect to his powers? What exactly are his
powers? Who the Night King? What does he want? Why is he such a show off? Why did
he spare Jon multiple times? What about Azor Ahai and the Prince That Was Promised?
Or the story of the Last Hero? There are even more and bigger questions, but
they don’t matter. The show is almost assuredly through with magic outside of the
dragons. And it may never be answered because I have no clue if Martin will
finish the books.
Oh! And it turns out the crypts are
not the safest place to hide from an army of the undead. Who’d a thunk?
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