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Abstract

the world-building that made the early seasons so rich.There literally is nobody else they could use.House Martell gets a brief cameo but no lines (as I recall), continuing the show’s long tradition of disregarding the Dornish.The show overtly addresses democracy through Sam, but the attempt was largely played for awkward laughs, and was halfhearted anyway. If the show really meant to introduce sweeping changes to Westeros, introducing such a concept in the finale is really late, even in a final season marked by a notable haste to reach the end. It’s inclusion here mostly feels like a bone tossed to fans.And, cynically — HBO needs to keep Westeros more or less recognizable for its many spin-offs. It needs kings and queens, lords and ladies and peasants. Feudalism is in, again.But the real joke continues to be the show’s lack of consequences. Game of Thrones is simply no longer the series that killed main characters due to their own poor decisions. Characters can seemingly do as they please, with no fear of reprisal. Consider, just from the finale:<ul><li>Tyrion is somehow not killed immediately for betraying Dany again.</li><li>Jon is somehow not killed immediately for assassinating the Queen.</li><li>Sansa declares the North independent, and nobody complains? Not even the Iron Islands?</li><li>For plot reasons, Tyrion is allowed to address the lord’s council, and in doing, inadvertently win his own freedom.</li><li>Jon is handed over to the Night’s Watch and will go on living. And his brother and his sister both have the power to pardon him at any point. And I guess Grey Worm is okay with that.</li></ul>The show has lost all sense of what it is. To quote Step

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hen King’s The Gunslinger:It has forgotten the face of it’s father.Plot threads resolve simply because they have to, because the show ran out of time, because it tried to cram too much story into too little time.The sad thing is, it didn’t have to be this way.Imagine if the show hadn’t flinched at the Battle of Winterfell and actually killed many of the characters instead of giving us cliched fake-outs again and again.Imagine that lord’s council with only Edmure Tully, Robin Arryn, the Prince of Dorne, Yara Greyjoy, Sansa… and about a dozen empty seats.Imagine Tyrion, newly-installed as Hand of the King, without a council with which to rule.<figure id="8744"><img src="https://cdn-images-1.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:800/1*sNSLnJUtSP8AZV2sD1Ldew.png"><figcaption>Imagine a finale in which we are forced to sit with what was lost. Credit: HBO</figcaption></figure>The finale could’ve hit like a freight train if the series had made the hard choices earlier, and then made us look at the new normal, made us feel what had been lost.Instead, the only thing that ended up lost was what made the show special in the first place.Even despite the missteps of seasons 7 and 8, Game of Thrones remains one of the top 5 shows ever. As an experience, it is the most riveting television I’ve ever seen.But what could’ve been.The Queen is dead. Long live the King.I love interacting with readers! Let me know what you thought of the finale. Check out <a href="https://link.medium.com/P0CwyLT1MW">my profile</a> for other essays on Game of Thrones and Star Wars.</article></body>

And, behold, there came out a woman, and the wind was in her wings. Credit: HBO

Unbowed Unbent Unbroken

Game of Thrones' wheel keeps on turning

In the end, we are essentially back where we started.

A king abdicating rule to his advisers in favor of his own mercurial interests.

A small council that once again includes a rapacious master of coin; a duteous master of ships; an honorably if stuffy lord commander of the Kingsguard; a Grand Maester who seems forever out of his depths; and Tyrion as Hand. Again.

Jon Snow is back at the wall. Guarding… something? I guess the Night’s Watch is officially Westeros’ version of community service now.

The Unsullied, who have somehow swelled in size in consecutive episodes — despite their missing appendages — return east.

For all Dany’s talk of breaking wheels, in the end it was all empty rhetoric, like so many real life politicians. Drogon reducing the Iron Throne to slag is a terrifying if rather on the nose metaphor, one that also turned out to be empty.

The Iron Throne was literally traded for a chair on wheels.

There have been a lot of places where this season’s rush to the finale have been felt, but perhaps none more so than that ridiculous council of lords.

Are we to believe these people are the most powerful in the realm? Brienne of Tarth, Ser Davos, Samwell Tarly, Arya and Bran Stark — none of them have any real business being there. They are convenient if necessary stand-ins because the show hasn’t kept up with the world-building that made the early seasons so rich.

There literally is nobody else they could use.

House Martell gets a brief cameo but no lines (as I recall), continuing the show’s long tradition of disregarding the Dornish.

The show overtly addresses democracy through Sam, but the attempt was largely played for awkward laughs, and was halfhearted anyway. If the show really meant to introduce sweeping changes to Westeros, introducing such a concept in the finale is really late, even in a final season marked by a notable haste to reach the end. It’s inclusion here mostly feels like a bone tossed to fans.

And, cynically — HBO needs to keep Westeros more or less recognizable for its many spin-offs. It needs kings and queens, lords and ladies and peasants. Feudalism is in, again.

But the real joke continues to be the show’s lack of consequences. Game of Thrones is simply no longer the series that killed main characters due to their own poor decisions. Characters can seemingly do as they please, with no fear of reprisal. Consider, just from the finale:

Tyrion is somehow not killed immediately for betraying Dany again.
Jon is somehow not killed immediately for assassinating the Queen.
Sansa declares the North independent, and nobody complains? Not even the Iron Islands?
For plot reasons, Tyrion is allowed to address the lord’s council, and in doing, inadvertently win his own freedom.
Jon is handed over to the Night’s Watch and will go on living. And his brother and his sister both have the power to pardon him at any point. And I guess Grey Worm is okay with that.

The show has lost all sense of what it is. To quote Stephen King’s The Gunslinger:

It has forgotten the face of it’s father.

Plot threads resolve simply because they have to, because the show ran out of time, because it tried to cram too much story into too little time.

The sad thing is, it didn’t have to be this way.

Imagine if the show hadn’t flinched at the Battle of Winterfell and actually killed many of the characters instead of giving us cliched fake-outs again and again.

Imagine that lord’s council with only Edmure Tully, Robin Arryn, the Prince of Dorne, Yara Greyjoy, Sansa… and about a dozen empty seats.

Imagine Tyrion, newly-installed as Hand of the King, without a council with which to rule.

Imagine a finale in which we are forced to sit with what was lost. Credit: HBO

The finale could’ve hit like a freight train if the series had made the hard choices earlier, and then made us look at the new normal, made us feel what had been lost.

Instead, the only thing that ended up lost was what made the show special in the first place.

Even despite the missteps of seasons 7 and 8, Game of Thrones remains one of the top 5 shows ever. As an experience, it is the most riveting television I’ve ever seen.

But what could’ve been.

The Queen is dead. Long live the King.

I love interacting with readers! Let me know what you thought of the finale. Check out my profile for other essays on Game of Thrones and Star Wars.