Season 8-Episode 06

Episode 73: The Iron Throne

“What unites people? Army? Gold? Flags? Stories. There’s nothing in the world more powerful than a good story. Nothing can stop it. No enemy can defeat it.”

Major Plot Points: Daenerys finally achieves her goal.  Jon sacrifices love for duty.  Tyrion gets a new job.  Bran wins.  Sansa gets her kingdom. Arya sails to discover the West Indies.

Observations from a Book Reader:

1. GRRM claims that the show’s ending will closely mirror his own book ending.  With that said, there will still be significant differences, and I am sure he will get us to the end in a way that feels more natural. 
2. Daenerys never saw a vision of the Iron Throne in a destroyed castle.  This was a show-only addition to her visions in the House of the Undying, and she re-enacted it this episode as she approached the the throne.
3. The Grand Maester is known as the personal Maester to the King, and is also regarded as the wisest and most senior of all the Maesters.  Obviously, Sam gets the job, but it really seems like he cut the line a bit. While he does have experiences that no other Maester  could dream of, I still don’t know if I can believe that the Arch-Maesters in the Citadel would allow this to happen.
4. Westeros wass always called “The Seven Kingdoms” but at this point, it’s more like 9.  The Iron Islands and the Riverlands used to be 1 kingdom (The Kingdom of the Isles and Rivers), and an additional region, the Crownlands, was added by Aegon Targaryen when he conquered Westeros.  So with the North gone, it would technically be the 8 Kingdoms.
5. Dorne was the last kingdom to kneel to the Targaryens.  If the North were to secede, then it is likely the Dornish would not be far behind.  So much distance separates these 2 kingdoms from King’s Landing, that being included in the Seven Kingdoms was really only a formality. 

Other Points to Notice

1. While it may seem a bit unrealistic that Tyrion was able to find his sibling’s bodies in the rubble, I am going to give the writers some artistic license, just for the fact that we get to see Tyrion really understand what his actions in following Dany have led to.  It did seem like the whole basement collapsed last episode though.
2. In her heart, Dany truly believed that she was liberating the common people from the Lannisters.  The men and women in King’s Landing were not innocent to her, and she saw it as a necessary evil in killing them.  In her last scene with Jon, we see that she hasn’t changed into an evil madwoman overnight. Disturbingly, she still seems pretty much the same.  She even tells Jon that the two of them know what is right, and they don’t have to worry about other people’s opinions on the matter. It was at that moment that Jon knew she would never see reason.
3. Jon being a Targaryen ended up being a major contributor to his tragic downfall.  It drove a wedge in between him and Daenerys, and it gave Sansa the perfect weapon to destroy Dany’s inner circle.  Because of his honest nature, this secret that Ned spent his entire life trying to keep, ended up pushing Daenerys over the edge.  Jealous of his claim, and worried about her advisors betraying her, she was driven to using fear as her primary method of leadership.  I believe that if Jon never knew about his true parents, or at the very least, never told Sansa/Dany, King’s Landing would not have burned.  Jon also had to pay for his honesty, by spending the rest of his life as an exile.
4. Tyrion’s speech to Jon was by far my favorite part of the episode  “Everywhere she goes, evil men die, and we cheer her for it. And she grows more powerful and more sure that she is good and right. She believes her destiny is to build a better world for everyone. If you believed that, truly believed it, wouldn’t you kill whoever stood between you and paradise?”  In a way, Tyrion is both talking to Jon, and the viewers of the show.  Looking back it does put Dany’s story in a different perspective.  But it wasn’t until Tyrion brought up Jon’s sisters, that Jon actually realized what he had to do.
5. Drogon choosing not to kill Jon may be simply due to Jon being a Targaryen.  It was always stated how the Targaryens were the only ones who could calm dragons.  And while it was a bit campy that Drogon destroyed the throne, I did appreciate the symbolism.  It was the throne, and the desire for power that killed Daenerys, just as much as Jon.  A better writer than me once proposed that the Iron Throne was nothing more than GRRM’s version of the One Ring of Power from Lord of the Rings, and it’s impossible to dispute that fact now.
6. Bran as King makes sense, since he really would be the wisest and least biased person to rule.  But I really wish we saw more examples of him using his powers for constructive purposes before this sudden change.  Even in the small council scene (worst scene of the episode BY FAR) he merely smirks and rolls off before we can see his judgement in any real matters.  Also, the idea of a council picking a new ruler whenever an old one dies seems like it could have a really bad ending. 
7. Brienne writing Jaime’s entry in the White Book of the Kingsguard is a nice cap to his story.  In season 4 we saw Joffrey ridicule him for his entry only talking about killing the Mad King.  At least now he leaves behind some sort of a legacy.  Also I guess this means that Brienne is the Lord of the Kingsguard now?
8. In season 6, when Arya was under the care of the actress, Lady Crane, she tells Crane that her dream is to one day sail west of Westeros.  At least she is consistent. 
9. I assume that the new Night’s Watch is basically just the new Westerosi prison.  They obviously have no wildlings or White Walkers to look out for now, so I cant imagine they have much to do.  Thankfully we got to see Jon reunite with Ghost and actually pet him this time.  Some believe that Jon becomes King-Beyond-the-Wall, but I don’t think he would ever want that.  I think he spends the rest of his life exploring the north, and enjoying his rest.  With the Night King and Dany dead, he really has nothing left to fight for.  He was the Frodo of this story, sacrificing his own happiness and a normal life, to save the kingdom. 
10. I really wish we got to see Yara react to her brother’s death. Also are we supposed to assume the Iron Islands are going to be cool with the “no reaving/pillaging” policy Dany once made them swear?

Stray Observations:

1. With Jaime and Cersei dead, I guess that means Tyrion is the Lord of Casterly Rock?
2. Grey Worm really acts like a dick. (get it?)
3. Loved the shot of Daenerys with dragon wings behind her.
4. This is the first time in years we hear Tyrion speak about killing Shae.
5. Tyrion clearly read my blog, he brought up the same points I did about Dany killing mass groups of people.
6. Every woman that Jon has ever slept with, ends up dead in his arms.
7. Dany says she imagined a throne too high to climb.  That pretty much describes what the throne looks like in the books.
8. Eagle eyed viewers believe that the man sitting next to Edmure Tully, is none other than Howland Reed, Meera and Jojen’s father.
9. Classic dumb Edmure.  I really could have done without all the fucking gags this episode.  Edmure stubbing his toe, everyone laughing at Sam’s democracy pitch, and the brothel gag in the small council room really deflated the mood.
10. We still never hear the end of Tyrion’s jackass and honeycomb joke. Third time was not the charm

RIP: Queen Daenerys Targaryen; Stormborn; Breaker of Chains; The Unburnt; Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea; Mother of Dragons; Queen of Meereen; Queen of the Seven Kingdoms; Protector of the Realm; Queen of the Andals, the Rhoynar and the First Men; Lady of Dragonstone.

Things I Liked:  Jaime and Theon had great resolutions to their arcs, even though Jaime’s was super rushed at the end.  I also like how Jon did not end up sitting on the throne, it wouldn’t have made sense for him.  Sansa as Queen in the North is also a nice touch, but it seems the Starks really came out as the ultimate winners in the end.

Things I Did Not Like: The Long Night had too many death fake-out moments for my taste.  I understand that the Night King had to lose at that point, but there really should have been more consequences for it.  Daenerys also was painted in a worse light than she deserved.  Her burning King’s Landing may have been inevitable, but we could have gotten there in a more natural way with more time. Everything with Euron sucked.  Really my biggest complaint about this season is insane, and uneven pacing.  Almost every narrative mistake happened because the writers had to bounce characters around with no regard for realism, and had to rush arcs that we barely had time to digest.  And why was Sam not in the crypts the whole time?

It’s finally over.  After a decade of watching, reading, and arguing on Reddit, Game of Thrones is finally done.  This last season was certainly divisive, but I think in the end I did like the broad plot points, just not really how we got to them.  The writers seemed to acknowledge this problem in the series finale, and used Tyrion and Dany as mouthpieces to speak to the audience on why things were happening the way they were. Both Tyrion telling us why we should have known Dany would kill all those people, and Dany explaining to Jon how through her judgement alone without any other voices, the world could be unified, seemed to be spoken directly to viewers.  I suspect in years from now people will enjoy these last few episodes more, but for now the rushed nature of it all skews things in an unfavorable light. I’ll see you all next year when I restart this blog to cover the spinoffs