I’m a little late to this party – I couldn’t watch it Monday night, so I had to endure a day at work dodging spoilers before finally catching up!
Life is not a song, sweetling. I couldn’t help but think of Petyr’s words to Sansa when reading through the backlash to this episode, because this episode really did prove the truth in those words. There was never going to be a happy ending to this story. That’s kind of the whole point, of the books and the series. It was always going to be brutal, and costly, and unjust for some, too kind to others.
For me, Dany’s turn wasn’t unexpected, but I think that whole arc really suffered from being compressed into a shortened season. If these last two seasons had had the standard ten episodes each, I think that would have allowed a little more breathing room to develop this. As it is, though, I still bought into Dany’s motivations. It’s been said earlier in the thread, but she essentially came to Westeros with an idea in her mind that she’d be received as this benevolent Queen there to free the people from the oppression of the Usurper and his allies, and when faced with the reality that, no matter what she did, she was viewed as an outsider, a threat, and someone to be feared rather than loved, she eventually just embraced it. There were shades of this possibility in everything she has done to this point. Meereen, Vaes Dothrak, the Tarlys, and many stops in between. It was an escalation that ended with her razing to the ground a city and population that she felt should have simply bowed to her and handed her Cersei on a platter. She said she’d take it with fire and blood…
I would have thought Varys was smarter than that. He’s survived the fall of many monarchs before Dany, I don’t see why he’d be so meek about it this time around.
I like that Arya finally embraced life over death. It came a bit suddenly, as everything has seemed to this season, but that’s not an unwelcome character development. Interested to see what her role will be next episode.
Jon and Tyrion. What a pair. I don’t know that Tyrion has necessarily suddenly become stupid, but he seems unwilling to admit his mistakes. He’s always thought he was the smartest person in the room, and often he was, but as a result he finds it hard to admit when he’s made the wrong decision. Jon, on the other hand, is just a bit dim, bless his heart. I’d assume the pair of them have now, somewhat explosively, had their minds changed on the Dany problem, though.
Jaime and Cersei. Well, it certainly was an ending. Cersei defiant almost to the end, or perhaps more accurately in denial until it was no longer possible to be. I also don’t think this ending necessarily invalidates Jaime’s redemption arc. He’s a complex character who has done terrible things, and he has done heroic things, and in the end he came down somewhere in the middle – trying to save someone he’d never stopped loving, even if she was mostly a vile harpy.
Cleganebowl. Loved it. Would never have thought, first reading aGoT close to twenty years ago, that the Hound would become someone I actively cheered for.
I still think that they got the order of the battles wrong. I feel like this battle, coming where it did, should have been more impressive than the Battle of Winterfell, and maybe it was if only because I could see what was happening. But it still feels odd that they had the literal battle between life and death as just a warm up for a battle to decide which of two tyrants gets to sit on a throne for a brief period, until the next usurper rolls up. I think the battle against the Night King should have been the ultimate battle.
Had the thought this morning, and no way would it happen, but what if the series ends with evil Queen Dany on the throne and one of the many spin-offs in the works is sequel set five or ten years in the future, focusing on a rebellion against her! I would totally watch that show...
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