Season 8-Episode 05

Episode 72: The Bells

“I hope I deserve this. Truly I do. I hope I’m wrong. Goodbye old friend.”

Major Plot Points: Daenerys breaks bad.  Jaime and Cersei reunite. Cleganebowl. Jon is sad. I am sad.

Observations from a Book Reader:

1. One of the main reasons Aerys was known as the Mad King, was due to the way he would imagine enemies at every corner.  He always suspected people of treason, even his own son Rhaegar.  Daenerys shows these symptons as well when she begins interrogating Tyrion about who betrayed her.  She assumes everyone is now against her.
2. Varys has spent his whole life planning to put Aegon on the throne (book only character from Essos).  He never was a Daenerys supporter.  He likes Aegon for the same reasons he likes Jon in the show, he sees him as someone born to rule, with the right temperament to make hard decisions.
3. When Aerys was convinced to open the gates of King’s Landing to Tywin Lannister, the city was completely wrecked.  Known as the Sack of King’s Landing, thousands of innocent people were killed and raped by Lannister and Northern forces.  At the end of it, when Ned saw Tywin present to Robert the bloody corpses of Rhaegar’s infant children, he was so disgusted by the whole ordeal that he stormed out, and did not talk to Robert again until 6 years later during the Greyjoy Rebellion.
4. This ending is supposedly in line with GRRM’s.  In the books, through Dany’s POV it becomes much easier to see this happening.  She was always absolutely hellbent on the throne and came off as very head strong the entire time.  While in the desert with Drogon after flying from the Fighting Pits, she even begins hallucinating, an event that helped book readers begin theorizing about a new Mad Queen of Westeros.
5. Cersei always believed Tyrion would kill her, due to the prophecy she heard as a child that said “When your tears have drowned you, the valonqar  (means little brother) shall wrap his hands about your pale white throat and choke the life from you.”  Jaime was also her younger brother, so fans believed this meant he would kill her.  But in the end, he did wrap his hands around her throat as they both died.  Prophecies are always a bit fucky.

Other Points to Notice

1. Varys asks his child spy about Daenerys, specifically if she’s been eating yet.  It is very possible he is using this girl, who works in the kitchens, to attempt to poison her.  This is reinforced by the way he says “The greater the risk, the greater the reward.”  It was a tough sell to get Jon in on his treason though.  If he really knew Jon, he would know this attempt was futile.
2. It does seem abrupt that Daenerys has gone this far into “madness”. With a few more episodes to show the transition, it would have made more sense.  But the pieces were there for us to pick up on.  In interviews, Emilia Clarke explained that in Dany’s head, all of the people who actually cared about her were dead, and the ones remaining had done nothing but hurt her cause. She lost Jorah, Missandei, her 2 dragons, and her relationship with Jon.  She had nothing to lose, and no reason to show any mercy to anyone.  She brings up this lack of love with Jon. Fear is all she has.
3. When I first saw Tyrion letting Jaime go, I was pretty upset at what I thought was an idiotic move.  But then he began telling Jaime his real reason for it, and it all made sense.  Tyrion knew he would be killed for it, but he also knew he had to save the one person in the entire world who ever actually loved him.  I am positive that he knew Jaime would not be able to get Cersei to stand down, but he did it anyway.  It was an touching moment between the two brothers, and the last one they’d ever share.
4. I have no qualms with how easily Drogon destroyed the scorpions, or the Iron Fleet.  He is a fucking dragon.  But it does make it really dumb how easily they were able to kill Rhaegal with pinpoint accuracy.  How much better would it be if the Iron Fleet killed Rhaegal through some sort of trickery, and not an ludicrous snipe shot. 
5. Daeneyrs wins the battle easily.  As she hears the bells, she looks at the Red Keep, and there she is reminded of all the things Cersei, and this city in general, have done to her and her family.  It was not enough for her to just win, she wanted to annihilate everyone there. 
6. When looking back through the series, this brutality from Daenerys is something that was always there, hidden beneath the surface.  In S1, she calmly watched as her brother’s skull melted, and her dragons only hatched after she burned a woman alive.  In S2, she tells the masters of Qaarth she will one day burn cities to the ground.  S3 shows her completely burn alive all the masters of Yunkai, and her Unsullied massacre even more.  S4 she crucifies 100 other people, some who did nothing against her.  S6 she burns all the Dothraki Khals alive.  Generally in later seasons, she always wanted to take the path of violence, but was talked down from it by her advisors and close friends who kept her grounded.  She never outright murdered innocent people, but to her the people of King’s Landing were not innocent. Obviously, this is no excuse for her actions, but it does help explain this horrible turn of events.  As an audience we always rooted for her when she killed groups of people, and now that it happens to a city we are invested in, we see just how terrible it can be when a dragon is led into battle by someone trying to conquer.
7. Jon does not do much this episode, except watch in horror as his men attacked civilians.  Grey Worm however, seems to lose all empathy for his fellow men. He burned Missandei’s collar, and with that lost the rest of his humanity.
8. The Jaime and Euron scene served no purpose at all.  Jaime died with Cersei anyway.  Euron should have died on the boat. Waste of time
9. The show did an incredible job with making the Cleganebowl an actual meaningful battle.  The Hound was able to convince Arya that the path of vengeance is a disease, something he learned from his late Septon friend in Season 6.  Arya then departs the Red Keep, trying to help everyone she can, but not before she thanks Sandor and even calls him by his real name.  I believe she is finally ready to move on.  And the fight between the Hound and the Mountain is perfect. I liked how the Mountain was shown to still have some of his old self inside, since he became hyper-focused on killing his brother. 
10. It’s a bit strange that Arya is in King’s Landing at all, but her journey through the streets is filmed so well that I didn’t even care.  Through her eyes we see the actual devastation of the battle, and she tries to save a mother and child even as she is terrified.  The white horse she finds could also symbolize her taking the righteous path, by leaving her anger and revenge behind her as she gallops out of the city. But who knows, she may kill Dany next episode.
11. Jaime was on a path of redemption from Season 3 onwards.  But in the end, even though he did grow immensely as a person, he chose to be with Cersei in her last moments.  Some wanted Cersei to be killed by Jaime, but that act of violence would have been a rough ending to a character we saw grow into a better person throughout the series.  Jaime’s story ends in truly tragic fashion, he was so close to finally shedding his past. It doesn’t negate the good things he did though, especially his choice to fight the Night King’s army.

Stray Observations:

1. I loved how calm Varys was about his execution. He burned the evidence and removed his rings.  He was ready for this moment his entire life.
2. The shot of Drogon emerging from the shadows was one of my favorites.
3. If Jon just made out with Dany a little harder, many people would have lived.
4. This season is the best acting Emilia Clarke has ever done. She kills every single scene.
5. We absolutely did not need the slapstick comedy scene where Tyrion tried speaking Valyrian to the Unsullied.
6. Lmfao at the Golden Company.
7. Some were surprised the “honorable” northern soldiers engaged in rape, but way back in season 2 northern soldiers attempted to rape Brienne.  They were just as violent as the Lannister Soldiers.
8. The shot of the Mountain looking down at the Hound as a dragon flies over. Are you kidding me?  I need that poster yesterday.
9. Cersei was one of the best villains in tv/movie history, and Lena Headey deserves unlimited praise for it.
10. The sad rendition of the Rains of Castamere playing as Jaime and Cersei died was a stroke of brilliance by the show’s composer, Ramin Djawadi

RIP: Varys. Homeless Harry Strickland.  Ser Jaime Lannister, the Kingslayer.  Queen Cersei Lannister.  Euron Greyjoy.  Gregor Clegane.  Sandor Clegane.  Qyburn.