The 30th Week: GoT Season 8 Review
I usually start preparing new posts for Casa du Duchess around 3 weeks in advance. So if you’re reading this post as soon as it’s live, I shall apologise ahead for the somewhat delayed (and also irrelevant) outburst that you are about to read.
Yes, you didn’t read the title wrongly. Instead of talking about progressions today, I’m steering off from food topics and into my dissatisfaction with the last 2 seasons of GoT. Hey, it’s my blog after all – it’s not like there are thousands of you waiting for a new recipe this week. (gosh, if you are here for that, THANK YOU AND I LOVE YOU!)
I suppose this is required, so: WARNING – SPOILERS AHEAD! *
GAME OF THRONES SEASON FINALE SUCKS.
Let’s start with each character.
Dany – downright emotionally unstable
I actually LOVE Dany’s character progression the most. She turned from a liberator of slaves to the slayer of innocents, making her the new Mad Queen in reflection of Aerys II Targaryen. She was overfilled by power as her closest allies started turning their backs and betraying her (bad move, guys). They pushed her into the inevitable madness and for that, she lost the throne, her loved ones and her own life.
A good show usually subsists a good plot twist (though in this case it was somewhat expected). Think about it: if she’s just all kind and nice, then wins over King’s Landing by Cersei’s surrender… I don’t know about you, but that sounds pretty silly to me.
The only complaint I have on this character is the way she was murdered. True, it’s only appropriate that she dies in the arms of Jon, but her reaction to it or the background music etc just didn’t have enough… OOMPH! The impact was definitely too anti-climatic.
Cersei – who appeared 25/430 mins?
I love that I hate Cersei, it just shows how great of an actress she is and how pivotal her role was in the past seasons. However, they’ve made her into such a minor character in the season finale that she became no different to Lyanna Mormont’s importance. What a waste to a very respectable and significant character.
For crying out loud, everyone wanted to see a face-off between the queens and / or a ruthless death for Cersei. For all the cruel things she has done, all the significant developments in her character, she deserves a much worse death (whether in the arms of Jaime or not). Considering how we’ve seen killings from being fed to dogs or made into a pie, getting crushed by bricks while weeping is completely unjustified boring.
Jon Snow – who knows nothing until the end
This is another character who had SO MUCH DEVELOPMENT in the first 6 seasons. However, in season 8 they made him into such a useless and absolutely pathetic piece of burden. So much that I feel sorry for his resurrection from the Lord of Light – I’d rather he die a king than survive as a wimp. Talk about “Living in vain”.
Nevertheless, it was definitely appropriate for this version of Jon to not have a seat on the throne. They made him a foolish man and if he did take the throne, I would have flipped my coffee table. Sorry Jon, apparently no one cares whether you’re a Targaryen or not after all.
Drogon – brawn and brains apparently
Ok, say what? You can postulate that Dany told bedtime stories to her baby dragons about the throne, whatever, but don’t tell me that a large reptile can tell the significance of the throne the first time it sees it. *slams big red button* BEEP! I call bullshit on this crap.
Bran – not the builder, not the Night king, just Bran
Ughhh, where do I even begin. I do admit my own fault for falling too deep into the GoT theories and building mind-blowing hypotheses. Given if I had lowered my expectations that none of the theories would be proven true, then I no longer see the necessity to protect him and sacrifice so many more lives in the Long Night. Geez, Bran. Quite a selfish person, aren’t ya? The third eye raven essentially just becomes an ability to see the past, the current and the future. Honestly, you did nothing to help. Thanks for breathing in oxygen as the rest were fighting for their lives.
(Please, I’d appreciate more comments on this, because I really can’t comprehend Bran’s existence anymore.)
However, with that being said, if Bran was really meant to be a useless burden and he was secretly trying to win the throne too, then I must say that the ending is appropriate. He was broken, but he made everyone admire him and serve him. He has manipulated the situation because he had the ultimate upper hand. Bran Stark is truly the winner of the Game of Thrones.
Samwell Tarly – survivor of the Long Night
… … come on! Are we not killing him because we are being counter-stereotypical?
In conclusion, I do favour a few highlights in the last season. Short and sweet – Dany goes mad, Jon is banished again, Arya is a badass, Bran the builder gets the (melted) throne. The problem is, short can not be sweet after all when it comes to GoT. There definitely lacked many important character developments from being “rushed”, which has created this weird progression leading to the end.
Despite everything that I have just said, Game of Thrones is no doubt one of my favourite TV series ever. Being a person who likes to feel nostalgia, I know that I will definitely re-watch the whole series again. Maybe this time, I will stop at season 6 and live in castles in the air. For the reason that – yes, fictional stories widely affect me very much.
