TV, BOOKS & CULTURE

Stick The (King’s) Landing: How Game Of Thrones Did What The Sopranos, Lost, And Dexter Couldn’t Do

The ultimate guide to GOT’s final episode

[WARNING: SPOILERS]

Three years have passed since the devastation, but a new day has dawned. George R.R. Martin’s prequel, The House of the Dragon, has risen again, bringing new perspectives on the show that seemed to die a fiery death. Prepare for a shock. I’m about to defend the guys I dumped on since the beginning of Season 7.

While the burning of King’s Landing was horrific, the true crime against humanity was what show runners Benioff and Weiss did to the last two seasons.

I was so mad I wrote GOT song parodies, fan fiction, and a scene where Samuel L. Jackson gave them a Pulp Fiction-style lesson in screenwriting basics.

But somehow, GOT’s final episode gave us just enough suspense, pathos and fan service to save the show’s legacy.

Given the way “The Double-D Patrol” messed up those last two seasons, the series finale had the same chance as this prayer hoisted up by Kawhi Leonard during the 2019 NBA Playoffs.

And yet the ending of this all-time great TV show was good enough to give me something I haven’t been able to do for three years — it allowed me to suspend my disbelief.

And so I stand before you, a lone voice in the wilderness beyond the Wall, ready to swear before the Weirwood trees:

“I am the shield that guards the realms of TV, and I will not let the last two shitty seasons spoil my appreciation for the ending of an all-time great TV show!”

Who dares come with me?

Now, close your eyes and imagine with me…

Imagine a world where big-ass cross bows can’t break the laws of physics.

Imagine a world where sailing ships are not equipped with teleportation devices.

Imagine a world where each character’s journey is an arc, not a hairpin turn.

That’s how you would feel if you watched the first six seasons of Game of Thrones plus the Season 7 opener, and then skipped forward to the series finale.

Yes, you’d still have all kinds of questions about the Night King and all the prophecies. And you would ask what the hell turned Grey Worm into an SS death squad captain. But you would see that B & D nailed it at King’s Landing.

In all the reactions I saw to the final episode, the best comment came from this tweet-length review:

“Episode 73 would have made for the perfect Episode 80.” — Danny Heifetz, The Ringer.com

I’ll never understand their decision to throw away two seasons to make an extra buck on the next Star Wars trilogy.

But they came to their senses at the end, and we should be grateful for small mercies. Let’s examine why “The Iron Throne” was a great episode.

How well did the series finale deliver on the promise of the first six seasons?

There were five major parts to the episode: finishing the journeys of Jon, Daenerys and Tyrion)¹, the new world order, and the show’s final farewell.

I used a 100 point scale, with up to 25 points for each major character’s ending, 15 points for the new world order, and 10 points for the final farewell.

Remember: imagine how you would feel if you saw this episode after watching Season 7 Episode 1.

Let me know in the comments if you have reasons for me to change my final grades.

Part 1: Daenerys and the Targaryen coin flip

THE SETUP.

The opening of Episode 6 follows Tyrion as he surveys the carnage in King’s Landing. This is a long, painful scene that forces Tyrion and the audience to witness the damage caused by Daenerys.

One detail — the sight of a charred wooden horse — reminds us of the horrors caused by another form of madness: the human sacrifice of Stannis’ daughter to the Red God.

As the fires burn and ashes fall, the ground is white.

Winter has engulfed King’s Landing, and the death filling the streets is no less horrible than if the Night King had conquered Westeros.

THE GUT PUNCH.

But it’s not enough that Daenerys slaughtered thousands of innocents. Jon meets Grey Worm as he is about to execute a number of kneeling Lannister prisoners. Jon says the war is over, but Grey Worm says his orders are to kill all Lannisters by the Queen’s order. Grey Worm has given in completely to the dark side, following Daenerys’ example. There is a confrontation. Jon pulls back to avoid a battle with the Unsullied and goes to find his queen. Grey Worm slits the throat of the first prisoner as the scene dissolves.

We rejoiced when Grey Worm executed the two slave masters at the end of Season 6, but the war crimes committed in Daenerys’ name now sicken us.

FINAL CONFIRMATION.

Was there a more beautiful and symbolic scene than when Dany walks toward the platform to address her army and Drogon spread his wings behind her?

No longer the Mother of Dragons, Daenerys has become a dragon in human form with the destructive power of a medieval nuclear weapon. A none of the restraints of human morality.

Dany’s speech confirms that she has gone mad, because she couldn’t stop after winning the iron throne — she planned to “liberate” the entire world through blood and fire.

From the beginning, we could see that Daenerys carried the seed of the Mad King.

• Her response to her brother’s gruesome death was to say “he was no dragon.”
• The massacre at Astapor and crucifixions at Meereen
• The executions of Mossador, the Tarlys, and Varys, and the inferno at Vaes Dothrak.

Even a hardass like Stannis didn’t execute Davos.

Yes, she did things that were heroic and laudable, but Daenerys’ threats against the city of Qarth (Season 2, Episode 4) hint at her future.

“Thirteen, when my dragons are grown, we will take back that which was stolen from me, and destroy those who have wronged me. We will lay waste to armies and burn cities to the ground. Turn us away, and we will burn you first.”

According to the GOT Wiki, “House Targaryen carries the trait for insanity in its bloodline… foreshadowed from the beginning.”

In episode 5, Varys urges Jon to take the crown for himself, saying:

“Every time a Targaryen is born the gods toss a coin in the air and the world holds its breath to see how it will land. I still don’t know how her coin has landed, but I’m quite certain about yours.”

Of the Mad King’s children, we learned that Rhaegar was the gentle soul who loved music and fathered Jon Snow and Viserys was an evil little shit who abused his young sister and would do anything for power.

Daenerys was heroic but completely rigid in her thinking about her destiny and her sense of justice. But the show made us wait eight seasons to finally reveal which side the coin landed for Daenerys.

Remember Daenerys’ Season 2 vision in the House of the Undead? She walked across a white floor in the destroyed throne room of the Red Keep. At the time, we thought it symbolized snow and the approach of the Night King. In the end, we saw that vision come to life, but composed of ashes, not snow.

No matter how poorly D&D handled Daenerys’ turn to the dark side, all that foreshadowing and symbolism pointed to her descent into madness.

And isn’t that exactly the kind of trope-smashing moral ambivalence that made GOT a world-wide phenomenon?

Daenerys’ madness allowed us to view the destruction of King’s Landing, one of the most incredible visuals sequences in the history of the show.

After her death, Drogon reduced the iron throne to a mass of molten metal, a final act that symbolized the breaking of the wheel.

This was the perfect ending for Daenerys’ story arc.

Grade: 25/25

Part 2: Jon Snow and the choice between love and duty

In a gripping scene with Tyrion, Jon reminds us of an impossible moral dilemma when he repeats the words of his great-grand uncle, Maester Aemon Targaryen: “Love is the death of duty.”

In season 1, Jon responded that his father would do the right thing, and Maester Aemon replied that if that were true, Lord Stark was one man in ten thousand. Aemon was proved to be correct, as Ned failed to uphold his honor and duty twice. The first time was to protect Jon’s identity; the second time was to lie about Joffrey’s claim to the throne to protect his daughters.

“What is honor compared to a woman’s love? What is duty against the feel of a newborn son in your arms… or a brother’s smile?” — Maester Aemon

Not one GOT character put duty before love. Only Brienne never betrayed her honor, but she was never forced to choose between love and duty.

As a member of the Night’s Watch, Jon failed to put duty before love three times: he left the Night’s Watch to avenge Ned’s death but his friends brought him back; he couldn’t kill Ygritte to protect the location of Qhorin Halfhand’s scouting expedition; and, he allowed the Wildlings to come through the wall.

But at the end of his character arc, Jon made the ultimate sacrifice and killed the woman that he loved to stop her from setting the entire world on fire.

In doing so Jon became the last hero, fulfilling the prophecy and stopping a different kind of “Long Night.”

Some may say Jon was stupid or weak because he needed Tyrion to convince him to stop the Mad Queen, and continued to wonder if he did he right thing.

I say that the horror of choosing between duty and love would be so soul crushing you might never be sure of anything again.

“You know nothing, Jon Snow” — Ygritte

Westeros was truly lucky that Jon never ended up on the throne, as he was the most clueless player in the GOT universe. His mistakes cost thousands of unnecessary lives in battle, while he was magically shielded from sure death in too many situations to count. After Jon’s resurrection, one could argue his decision-making abilities were further compromised by a death wish.

On top of his tactical errors, his inability to lie cost him the possible aid of Cersei, and allowed Sansa to betray his true lineage to Tyrion, which accelerated Daenerys’ descent into madness.

But Jon made the choice ten thousand others had else failed to make. As the product of ice (Lyanna Stark) and fire (Rheagar Targaryen) and savior of the world, there is no doubt that Jon turned out to be the Prince Who Was Promised.

In the GRRM universe, what could be more normal than ignoring Jon’s lineage and great sacrifice to save the world?

Instead of being hailed as the greatest hero in the realm, Jon joined Jaime Lannister, disgraced in the eyes of the ignorant population and betrayed by those closest to him. (Yes, Sansa, I’m looking at you. You used your knowledge of Jon’s lineage solely to help you win at the Game of Thrones.)

Given Jon’s role in the story, sending Jon back to the Night’s Watch was the perfect punishment as he would have to suffer over his choices (why didn’t he stay in that cave with Ygritte forever?) for the rest of his life.

Besides, who else would pick up Ghost’s direwolf droppings?

Grade: 25/25

Part 3: Tyrion transforms Westeros with his tongue.

Laugh if you like at the idea of a condemned man talking his way out of an impossible situation and changing the world around him.

If you think it couldn’t happen, you haven’t been paying attention.

Tyrion has always used his wits to get what he wants. Remember this classic scene where his sense of humor and ability to appeal to people’s desires saves his life?

And he did the same thing when the slavers outside Mereen wanted to killed him so they could sell his penis as an aphrodisiac.

To every fan and critic who thought the great counsel scene at the Dragon Pit was impossible, what were you thinking each time Jon or Arya² were in situations where they had zero chance to survive?

It’s called plot armor, and you have to suspend your disbelief to enjoy the story. We need heroes to experience what is happening and give us their perspective. Kill the witness and you kill the story.

How is it any different for Tyrion, except that he uses words instead of swords?

GRRM loves Tyrion more than any other character as evidenced by the fact that he plays a role in almost every important character and event in the story.

• He helped Bran regain some hope after his accident by sharing the design of a saddle that would let him ride again. Tyrion’s tender spot for “cripples, bastards and broken things” foreshadowed the future bond between King Bran the Broken and his Hand.
• Tyrion saved Jon’s life at the wall, when Grenn was about to slit Jon’s throat. Then he taught Jon lessons about leadership which completely changed Jon’s journey.
• Tyrion proved his valor to Bronn by saving Catelyn’s life during a bandit attack, then convinces the sellsword to defend his life in a trial by combat. Their relationship raised Bronn’s stature and connection to the Lannisters.
• Tyrion ferreted out snitches, murderers and traitors as the hand at King’s Landing, using only words.
• Tyrion’s speech during the battle of Blackwater Bay restored the men’s morale and held the city until reinforcements showed up.
• Tyrion defended Sansa many times when Joffrey was ready to kill or torture her.
• Tyrion destroyed any illusions Jon continued to hold about Daenerys. Their dialogue in Tyrion’s cell was brilliant, voicing the author’s views on how power corrupts, our instinct to justify the violence done to evil men, and the moral dilemma of love and duty. Eventually, he forced Jon to see that Daenerys was a threat his sisters — the one line Jon would not cross. And that sets Jon’s final sacrifice into motion.

For the first six seasons of Game of Thrones, Tyrion was the cleverest man in the entire GRRM universe, even though he started out as a self-centered whoring drunk.

Only Jon and Tyrion had to power to save so many people. That had to earn him even more plot armor for the ending.

At the end of his character arc, Tyrion risks death three times in the last two episodes to serve the realm: 1. discussing Jon’s true identity with Varys; 2) releasing Jaime in the hopes he could convince Cersei to leave King’s Landing before Daenerys arrived with her dragon; and, 3) throwing away his position as Hand of the Queen in protest after witnessing the horrific slaughter of thousands of innocent men, women and children.

If we ignore his time as the Hand of Daenerys, where he became a complete idiot, the idea of Tyrion cheating death once again with his wits seems like a certainty.

After eight seasons of GOT, we know what makes a good king. Tyrion’s choice of Bran is the only one that makes sense.

1. A good ruler must NOT want the throne.
2. Tywin taught Tommen that “a wise king knows what he knows and what he doesn’t” and heeds the advice of his counselors. Guess who knows everything about everything in the Seven Kingdoms?
3. A good king must carry scars in some form, as their wound helps them know how it feels to suffer. Without suffering, there is no compassion. Without compassion, there is no real justice, and a king can become a tyrant.
4. If a ruler can’t have children, there can be unworthy heirs, or civil wars started by jealous siblings. This allows for a new system to select the next king, breaking the wheel once and for all.
5. GOT’s central notion is that “power resides where men believe it resides” and Tyrion argues that “stories can not be defeated by armies.” Bran is the ultimate keeper of stories. His knowledge will bind the people of the kingdom to him just as much as they bound the audience to the TV show.

Tyrion’s selection as the Hand is a call back to all the good he did while acting as Joffrey’s Hand. He gave wise counsel, ran the country, and had the courage to slap some sense into his nephew when Joffrey got out of control.

Seeing Tyrion restored to his former brilliance was magical and totally consistent with those first six amazing seasons. (And it made me hate what happened in seasons seven and eight that much more.)

However, there was a massive amount of political capital and plot armor required to get back to this point.

Grade: 20/25

Part 4: The new world order

A story as huge as GOT, couldn’t really end, so it showed us new paths for the future, including the Council at the Dragon Pit, the rebuilding of King’s Landing, and some final tributes to fan service that play on the range of our emotions.

The Council at the Dragon Pit accomplished some goals, and fell short on a couple of others:

1. Months had passed, time enough for the remaining Kingdoms to send their representatives.It gave us a last look at Yara, Gendry, and the Prince of Dorne, but none of them did anything of consequence.
2. It gave us one last chance to laugh at the ridiculous and incompetent Edmure Tully.
3. Davos got the chance to make the case for peace, opening the way for Tyrion’s master performance.
4. Samwell introduced the concept of democracy, allowing for a humorous pause as the noblemen laughed down the idea.
5. Sansa made her claim for the North’s independence. This was a huge piece of fan service.³ A lot of people were upset that the two most powerful women in the show — Cersei and Daenerys — turned into monsters. There had to be a least one powerful female character to help mold the new world.

The payoff from the Council at the Dragon Pit is how the combination of Davos, Samwell and Tyrion fulfill Daenerys’ promise to “break the wheel.” If one of the characters established a new royal line that would have betrayed one of the biggest themes foreshadowed in the show.

While I wish we could have had a little more from Gendry, or an appearance by Tormund, the scene does its job. Deduct one point for Sansa punking Bran.

Brienne and the Kingsguard book. A nice way to pay respects to perhaps the greatest character redemption arc in GRRM universe. Jaime went from trying to murder a child to sacrificing himself to save Brienne’s life twice. Sadly, D&D ignored his entire journey, only to have him holding Cersei while the Red Keep fell on top of them.

It was disappointing that Brienne chose not to share her knowledge that Jaime killed the Mad King in order to prevent him from blowing up King’s Landing with wildfire. For someone whose entire life has been about honor, deduct one point for not using her position to tell Jaime’s story after his death.

The New Small Council Meeting. While this was total fan service, it still resonates as one of my favorite parts of the episode.

I don’t care that no one is left in Highgarden or that the Lannisters stole every once of gold and grain from the once rich kingdom. All I care about is Bronn finally getting his castle and becoming master of coin to top it off. His ability to save or manage money is highly dubious, given his desire for instant gratification before and after every battle. It’s ridiculous, but the exchanges that take place over the relative importance of a navy versus a brothel are comedic gold.

A tip of the cap to GRRM with the ASOIAF book was excellent, as was the joke that Maester Ebrose never mentioned Tyrion in the record of the war of the five kings.

However, we have to deduct one point because Tyrion never finished the story about the jackass, the honeycomb, and the brothel.

Total Grade: 12/15

Part 5: The final farewell to the Starks

The only fitting end to Game of Thrones, a show started with the Starks, was to end with a look at the surviving members of the family.

Jon’s reunion with Ghost and Tormund was an awesome final fan service reward. For all dog owners and the majority of GOT fans, we valued direwolves above all other life forms outside of Jon, the Starks, and Tyrion. “Save Ghost!” was the battle cry of Mallory Rubin, the co-host of Binge Mode, perhaps the greatest GOT podcast in all the land.

Sansa becomes Queen of the North. The Weirwood fabric in her dress was awesome, but her crown looked more like a serpent wrapping itself around her head than a pack of direwolves. Was this a little symbolic dig at her being the new Littefinger?

Here is the original crown of the King of the North, as described in a Wiki of Ice and Fire:

The crown of the Kings of Winter was an open circlet of hammered bronze incised with runes of the First Men, surmounted by nine black iron spikes in the shape of longswords.[5]

Sansa looks very self-satisfied to finally take the crown as the Queen of the North. She may have been the only winner in the game of thrones.

But Sansa’s journey was the most complicated of any character in GOT because of what she learned:

• Lying to survive as a prison in Joffrey’s court
• Political strategy from Littlefinger
• Her mother’s ability to work around the edges of a male-dominated world
• Trust no one else to protect her — the one thing she learned from the rape and abuse she suffered at the hands of Ramsey Bolton

The problem is we don’t know who she will become.

Her greatest moments came in manipulating Littlefinger’s love for her to bring the mounted knights of the Vale to help defeat the Boltons, and then attend his own trial and execution.

As much as fans relished seeing Sansa exact her personal revenge upon Ramsey by using his own dogs to rip him to pieces, and then condemn Littlefinger to death for his crimes against the Starks, how are these violent scenes any different from Arya’s deadly list of people to kill? Even Daenerys’ trail of death and destruction had the side benefit of freeing the slaves.

Was it too much to ask for Sansa to have a “Save the Cat” moment in Season 8 to show her path toward redemption and establish her hero/leader credibility?

I wracked my brain trying to remember when Sansa ever showed the courage, compassion or self sacrifice needed to merit becoming the Lord of Winterfell.

The only incident I came up with was at the beginning of Season 2. Sansa risked her own safety to save Ser Dontos, the drunked knight. First, she lied to Joffrey about it being a bad omen to kill someone on his name day, and the Hound backed up her story. Then she praised Joffrey, convincing him that it was his idea to name Dontos as court jester.

That lack of substance made Sansa’s final journey feel more like a move to placate fans than something laid out in the story by GRRM. Deduct three points.

Arya exploring the world west of Westeros. This is a fitting reward for one of the best loved characters in the GOT universe, but not something foreshadowed by the books. Only a single line in her Season 6, Episode 8 conversation with Lady Crane indicated that Arya was interested in exploring. The only thing she ever wanted was to be a soldier. Instead she became a skilled ninja assassin with magical powers to assume others’ identities. Still, it was wonderful to see her continue her journey and survive the carnage of eight seasons of GOT.

This was a fitting climax to the larger story of the Stark family. Many wolves had died during the hardship of winter, but the pack survived.

Grade: 7/10

Final tally and thoughts on the series finale.

As I stated in my premise, GOT’s final episode “The Iron Throne” needs to be seen as the logical leap that would have taken place after Season 7, Episode 1, before D&D completely lost their way.

Did they ignore every literary device for two seasons simply to “subvert” fan expectations?

Or did GRRM give them a great ending and it was just a question of stumbling and bumbling for 10 episodes to find any reason — no matter how lame — to get there?

As one astute reviewer observed, “the first six seasons were like Jordan’s Bulls, winning 6 straight titles, while the last two seasons were like Jordan’s final run with the Wizards.”

It will take a few years and another rewatching of the series to view this episode more objectively.

The reaction to the series finale at the time was so negative, people signed online petitions demanding that HBO redo season 8.

Even Dexter’s series finale (it was supposed to end after season 7, but they added an eighth one that was terrible) had a higher fan rating than Game of Thrones. Seriously?

Other than Breaking Bad and the Wire (universally praised for their endings), can you remember another series with went out with a great ending?

There were obvious flaws in some characters, and areas that could have been better explained, but the series finale may have left me wanting more.

And that, friends, is a magnificent achievement compared to how many other great series have ended in disaster.

Final score 89/100.

Thanks to everyone who played a part in bringing the magic of GRRM’s epic story to life on the small screen, and the wondrous effects it has had on fans around the world.

Now, on to the prequels!

Footnotes:

¹In GRRM’s original outline, the five main characters of the books were Jon, Bran, Arya, Tyrion and Daenerys. Unlike A Song of Ice and Fire, Game of Thrones turned into a show about politics when D&D went astray. The final episode had to center on houses Stark, Lannister and Targaryen contending for the iron throne.

After Bran became the Three Eyed Raven, he could reveal every secret left in the story. So there were no more scenes (or chapters) from his perspective. GRRM said he couldn’t write POV chapters for Varys, Littlefinger, and Howland Reed for this reason.

And if Bran said anything of importance, people would try to either change the future or insure that it happens. In either case, these actions would create disastrous results, as evidenced by everything Cersei did throughout her life to prevent the Valonqar prophecy.

²Arya is one of the greatest female heroes of all times, and certainly the GOAT in GOT.

Even before she learned the skills of the Faceless Men, she risked herself on many occasions, saving Micah the butcher boy, Jaqen Hagar and the criminals in the burning wagon, Gendry, and the Hound.

Arya’s character arc ended when D&D decided to kill the Night King and end the threat of the undead. Her mad dash around King’s Landing was just a tool to let the audience see the slaughter of innocents and the unleashed destructive power of dragons (remember the story of Harrenhall?).

She could have used her Faceless Man magic to try and kill Cersei and/or Daenerys, but they used that gimmick when she wiped out House Frey in Season 7. That scene was amazing, but chilling, as she had become as cold blooded a murderer as Daenerys.

Arya’s only path forward was to regain her humanity, as she did when she rejoined her family in Winterfell, and tasted love with Gendry. There was nothing left for Arya to do in the story except go off into the sunset.

³Sansa was never part of GRRM’s original fabulous five. In the books, Sansa betrayed her family three different times. The first time, it cost her her direwolf. The second time, it cost Ned his chance to prevent Joffrey from taking the throne. And the third time, it cost Ned his head. In the world of ASOIAF, people who betray their family usually ended up dead. For this reason, I view her the same way I view her mother —not exactly a villain, but an agent of chaos.

She really never showed leadership besides advising against the proposed actions (“don’t do what Ramsey wants you to do,” “Don’t go South, Jon,” “Don’t trust Cersei,” “Don’t march the army South, until they can rest,” etc). She did prove to be a good administrator (put leather under the armor, bring wheat to Winterfell, how will we feed Dothraki and Dragons?), so the North has some hope. In the end, Sansa was the only female hero left besides Arya, who is not the governing type.