Jennifer Melzer's Blog, page 9

Time to Talk About Game of Thrones, I Guess-Part III: The Bells

***This Post May Contain Spoilers! Read At Your Own Risk!!***

I didn’t talk much in the last post about Sansa’s betrayal of Jon’s trust because I’d already watched Episode Five by that point, and I wanted to combine my thoughts on the outcome of that choice, which we get to see immediately in “The Bells”.  In case you’re not entirely sure what I’m talking about, I’m talking about Sansa almost immediately leaving the Godswood and telling the one person she knows will tell just about everyone in Westeros that Jon Snow is actually the true born son of Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark. His claim to the Iron Throne is stronger than Daenerys’, whom Sansa more or less hated before they ever met.

And the one thing we’ve known about Tyrion Lannister since Day One is that he drinks and he knows things, and usually he has few qualms passing on the things he knows when he thinks it’s important. He probably shouldn’t have told Varys about Jon, and you get the sense he regrets ever opening his mouth because deep down he knows Daenerys is not mentally fit to rule. She’s as bad as, if not worse, than Cersei, which we learn rather quickly as she burns yet another person who betrayed her with dragon fire.

Having watched this episode twice, and knowing I could probably watch it at least two or three more times and still not pick up all the little nuances and hints, I was intrigued to notice on my second watch the reference to Maester Aemon’s quote from waaaaaaaay back when: A Targaryen alone in the world is a terrible thing. Hearing this quote again, remembering its significance at the time he said it, put things in slightly better perspective, though I still haven’t entirely forgiven them for making Daenerys a power-hungry lunatic.

And she is alone in the world. Like, really alone. The one person who loved her unfailingly, who only left her side because she sent him away, is dead. Her closest confidant and friend is dead. Grey Worm is loyal, and he will follow her into whatever madness she leads him because that is what a good soldier does, but their relationship is nothing like the one she shared with Missandei or Jora. She wanted that with Jon, too, but her power has always intimidated him. She has nothing but the fear that binds the people around her to her cause. She loves Jon deeply, and he loves her too, but you can see she’s started to question that, worrying perhaps that he tells her what she wants to hear because she IS his queen. Fear has become her only real ally in a kingdom that wants nothing to do with her, and she must lean on it like a crutch if she’s to gain any kind of headway.

I read an interesting article about Varys after this episode, insinuating he’d been poisoning her and that was what the whole scene between him and Martha, the little kitchen girl, actually meant. So when Tyrion tells her she’s been betrayed, it means so much more than Varys trying to tell the world there is a stronger claim to the Iron Throne than Daenerys’s claim. He was trying to kill her quietly because Jon had no intention of taking the throne; he didn’t want it.

The whole scene between Jon and Varys put me off a lot, namely because of the misogyny I mentioned in the last two posts, but also because it really feels like Varys has backed the wrong horse in every instance throughout his career as a behind-the-scenes kingmaker. Varys tells Jon flat out that people will more readily accept him as ruler not because his claim to the throne is stronger, but because he is a man. Her emails, Jon Snow… Her emails. But here’s the thing, Varys, (not that you can hear me because you’re dead, but I want to throw this out there anyway…) Maybe if you’d worked harder to sow seeds of content instead of conspiring against her, maybe if you’d nurtured her and continued to stand behind your advice against the types of things that made her look bad, she might have been slightly less likely to lose her mind. I don’t know, it was probably already too late for that, but lacking support, lack of love are definitely two major factors in her obvious downward spiral.

Looking back through the seasons that came before, many of the major players, the real power players, were women. Cersei Lannister. Olenna Tyrell. Catelyn Stark. Sansa and Arya Stark. Daenerys Targaryen. And yet, not until Cersei took the throne for herself after Tommen’s suicide were any of them really allowed to rule in actual name. Cersei was an obvious power behind the throne during Robert’s reign, but her real power surfaced during Tommen’s reign. And the thing about this that gets under skin, mine included, is that this is not a historical drama, but a high fantasy drama set in another world. Why not treat women more equally? Why fall back on the same tired misogynistic cliches about women’s places being in birthing beds, kitchens, laundry rooms, etc.? Why continue to support the notion that woman are too emotional to rule?

Because here’s the thing: as Daenerys rages across Essos and Westeros liberating the oppressed, she does a lot of the same things male tyrants do to grab power. She conquers with fire and blood, often making sacrifices she deems to be beneficial to the many. She believes her way is the right way, the only way. When men do this, it’s men being men and doing what men do. When she does it, it’s being shamefully interpreted as her being driven by feminine emotions that make her unstable and crazy. She does not forgive–she exterminates all those who would oppose her, and that is why there is no forgiveness for Varys. He keeps painting her as crazy, unhinged. He even tosses out that old saying about Targaryens: Every time a Targaryen is born, the gods flip a coin and the world holds it breath to see how it will land. We watched Viserys descend into madness when things didn’t go his way, a madness visibly fueled by how alone he felt. Sure, he was always unhinged and cruel, but as he watched his sister gain the love and loyalty of the army he sold her to for himself, it pushes him into the abyss. We see the same thing happen with Dany as she witnesses the love everyone has for Jon, as she watches her friends and her children die, and while it’s sort of brilliant, it’s also incredibly sad that she fell prey to the same accursed Targaryen madness. I started wondering about their father, the Mad King. What happened to him that made him feel alone? It made me want to dig deeper into the lore to see what I could find.

Back to Varys, though… It was sad to see him go, but he managed to weave himself through the fabric of the game almost undetected for so long, serving king after king after queen… It was only a matter of time before his machinations got him killed, and she did promise to destroy him if he ever betrayed her.

That is where she stops keeping promises, I guess. As she informs Tyrion his brother Jaime has betrayed her to return to Cersei and warns him that he’ll be next to die if he makes another mistake, Tyrion manages to help his brother escape knowing she will not hesitate to kill him once she finds out. Tyrion is perfectly willing to sacrifice himself not just for his brother, but for the innocent people of Kings Landing. He assures Jaime that the city will fall (because Tyrion knows where all that wildfire is beneath the city, and it won’t take much but a few well-placed dragon breaths to destroy everyone and everything therein,) and convinces him to make Cersei ring the bells of surrender before escaping in a boat planted by Ser Davos.

It sounds like a solid plan, and it will definitely get Tyrion killed once she finds out, but he did make her promise she would draw back if they rang the bells. Once the battle starts, and Daenerys is on a roll, however, she starts breaking promises for what we can only assume she deems to be the ‘greater good’.

The point of views branch off just before the madness began, focusing on Daenerys and Drogon, Jon and Grey Worm, Arya and the Hound, Jaime, Cersei in the Red Keep, and all those innocent people about to pay for Cersei’s sins. But first, Daenerys is going to take out that pesky Iron Fleet because they killed her dragon. And when she’s done with that, she’ll destroy the Golden Company who obviously made a grave error in not bringing those elephants along. (Spoiler alert: I don’t think the elephants would have made much of a difference, Cersei.) She deals with those threats, also taking out the ballistae to keep Drogon safe, but then she lands and surveys the destruction she’s already left in her wake.

As the bells of Kings Landing start ringing, the fire for vengeance inside her is lit. Despite her assurance to Tyrion that she will spare the innocents of Kings Landing, Daenerys starts burning everything, vengefully glaring at The Red Keep every time she flies by and knowing it’s only a matter of time before she can finally destroy the one person who’s been standing between her and the Iron Throne. In the meantime, why not make everyone who ever potentially breathed the same air as Cersei pay? That little girl right there? She’s innocent, but she’s gotta pay. That poor family who was probably starving because of Cersei? Make them pay, too. I wondered how many of her own soldiers she burned because the thing about dragon fire is that it’s not entirely precise, and how can she tell from her vantage point in the sky who’s who down there? For most of the day, she burns Kings Landing to ash while her ground troops ride/march through raping (well, not the Unsullied, but those Dothraki, though), pillaging, and murdering everyone who isn’t them. Tyrion is flabbergasted; Jon is appalled, and rightly so. He’s seen glimpses of her temper and her rage and her insecurity, but nothing so horrifying as her blatant disregard for the innocents of that city.

This is the new age, I guess. Maybe he should have been more assertive after discovering his heritage, but much like Arya, that was never Jon. He had no desire to rule or boss anyone or anything, and every time it was thrust upon him, it ended badly. But seriously, Jon Snow, if you don’t think THIS SHIT is going to end badly, Ygritte was right about just how little you know.

So much of this episode was carnage to the max. Nearly an hour of the 90 minutes was spent watching people scream in the streets before becoming statues of ash and there’s a moment where The Hound convinces Arya to turn back and avoid winding up bitter like him and you almost thing she can get out before it’s too late, but if they didn’t have her running through the streets in horror most of the episode, what kind of episode would it be?

There were a lot of endings in this episode, some of them building up since the very first season. Like The Hound and The Mountain’s final showdown, for example. Established during those early episodes, their rivalry has existed since Sandor Clegane was an innocent boy burned (quite literally) by his heartless older brother. It felt… anticlimactic, I guess, probably because it was pinned between the much more enigmatic destruction of an entire city, and every time they shifted back to their endless fight on the steps of the crumbling Red Keep, I was like, “We don’t have time for this, people! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” I loved The Hound. Out of everyone, he was probably one of the very few people in Westeros who was simply who he was without care or explanation, and though he was an ornery bastard, he was still one of the noblest knights to come out of Kings Landing.

We know Jaime is obviously going to die, and Cersei with him, but throwing Euron Greyjoy back into the mix to slow him down–especially after watching Euron’s ship get blown to bits by dragonfire at the start of Dany’s tirade, felt like a bit much. Or a lot much. I already hated Euron Greyjoy as a character, but to suggest he’s rival enough for Jaime fucking Lannister (imagine I said that in Robert Baratheon’s voice…) on his way to his death? It felt absurd, considering it was going to take much more than chucking Euron in his way to make it hard for him to actually find Cersei so they can die together in that mess and fulfill Jaime’s deathwish of dying in the arms of the woman he loves. I wonder how many fans celebrated their demise, just as I wonder how many people felt sad to see them die? I think that over the years, my compassion for Jaime Lannister grew exponentially while reading the books, and much like The Hound, he became one of my favorite characters. He was an arrogant fool for so long, but underneath it all there was so much more to him, and I loved the man he became. I love that he loved his little brother and protected him while they were growing up. Yeah, I was upset they sunk my ship, the S.S. Brieame (S.S. Tarthister? S.S. Jaimienne?), but it was always going to be Jaime and Cersei together in the end because they came into this world together and they would leave it the same way. Of all the deaths I’d witnessed so far, Jaime’s was one of the ones I was most emotional about because Brienne was right about him, no matter what he says. He was a good man despite all his shortcomings and failures.

As Arya stumbles through the aftermath, coming upon that white horse, the internet explodes and starts reading into the symbolism of the whole thing, but I’d personally given up trying to predict or even make sense of intended symbolism in this final season because it didn’t seem to add up. I’m still struggling with how rushed it all felt, and how I didn’t want George to be right, but they totally could have drawn this out for at the very least a few more episodes, if not a couple freaking seasons. I sat there at the end of that episode trying to figure out how they were going to wrap up all that insanity in 79 minutes the following Sunday, and I couldn’t even begin to imagine it, much less believe it would feel satisfying. But… I suppose that is for the next post, when I’ll talk about the finale. It might be a few days, maybe even a week because I definitely want to watch the episode one more time before I start talking about out loud. It’s a lot to process. Every time I write one of these posts, I feel like I’m missing everything and failing miserably at articulating my thoughts.

The thing is, I’ve loved this series for more than a decade, and while I’m definitely getting that closure I talked about back in my first endgame post, maybe I’m feeling a little sad it’s over. I am definitely upset by how poorly the female characters have been treated in a time we definitely need to display through media and entertainment that empowering women is a good thing. I am absolutely distraught over how rushed this season felt, and that isn’t me being butt hurt because my favorite show is ending and I greedily want more more more. I really believe they could have handled a lot of these things more gracefully if they’d expended more time and effort. Sure, we would have had to wait a little longer, but the longer the wait, the greater the reward.

At time of this writing, I have already watched the finale, so I know how it ends, but as I said above I still need more time to process what I’ve seen so a second watching is definitely in order. I’d love to hear your thoughts on the final season, so feel free to drop them in the comments section below and check back for my thoughts on the finale because much like winter, they are coming.

 

Time to Talk About Game of Thrones, I Guess…-Part II: The Last of the Starks

***The Following Post May Contain Spoilers! Read at your own Risk!*** 

I came into Season 8, Episode 4 feeling a little jaded in regards to the Battle of Winterfell, but I don’t think I even realized at the time how jaded I was. I accepted a lot of things throughout the course of HBO’s adaptation over the years, but the sinking dread that they were rushing through what should feel like a epic, poignant ending was starting to wear on me. A lot of fans have been climbing toward this ending for more than two decades, many of them knowing they might never get closure otherwise, and expectations have been incredibly high.

I once knew a guy liked to claim he was never disappointed because he had no expectations, but putting that into practice is a lot harder than it sounds. I expected George R.R. Martin to follow through on his claims multiple times when he said “Book Six is coming next year”. Every time he said those words I was disappointed, and after the first two times it was truly my bad for putting my faith in someone who had already fooled me twice. SHAME ON ME! But the thing about the HBO adaptation is until this point I was fairly content with what they were doing. Was it perfect? Of course not. I can’t even begin to count the number of people I know who quit watching when they marched Cersei Lannister through the streets of King’s Landing ringing that bell to mark her shame, but I know that number escalated rather quickly when Sansa was repeatedly raped and brutalized after she was married to Ramsay Bolton, and doubled again when Melisandre convinced Stannis to burn his little girl at the stake for the sake of his rule.

 

Consider me a shameful pragmatist because I kept watching, the greatest part of me hoping their misogyny would at least give these women fuel to rise above the ashes–empowered and unwilling to take it anymore. It was a huge ask, I know that, but along with my pragmatism comes an even more shameful ability to forgive and look for the changes in the world (both fiction and real) that deep down even I fear will never come. For a long time, I didn’t really get it. As a victim of sexual trauma and abuse, I should have been one of the first people to put the book down, turn off the TV, but they were doing such a great job with the other aspects of the story that I was able to overlook it and realistically note that despite relying on these hideous truths to depict a reflection of our own society in high fantasy fiction, the truth of the matter is rape and misogyny ARE a prominent part of our world culture, even in the most seemingly developed countries. As awful as they are to witness, I would be suspicious if they never showed up in fiction, but Game of Thrones tends to glorify even the most hideous aspects of our society, and the glorification of rape is never okay.

The funny thing is, (not funny in the least, actually,) no one was raped in Season 8, Episode 4, but they made a move with Sansa that made me more than a little sick to my stomach. In the aftermath of the Battle of Winterfell, the survivors celebrate their victory and mourn their dead. During this celebration, they methodically pair characters for their farewells as the series is winding down and more people are obviously going to die. Among those farewells was a scene between Sansa Stark and “The Hound”, Sandor Clegane. As The Hound points out that she’s no longer the little bird he once looked after at King’s Landing, he tells her that none of the horrific things she endured would have happened if she’d fled King’s Landing with him, to which Sansa replies that all of her suffering made her stronger. Ramsay’s rape, Littlefinger’s manipulations… they made her the woman she is today, and without them she would have been a little bird all her life. I don’t even know what to say about that because as I’ve tried to imagine what my life might have been had I never been sexually abused as a child and young girl, I have never once thanked my abuser for making me a stronger person. Am I stronger because I endured those things? Maybe I am, but to say I would never have become the empowered person I am without those experience is as shortsighted as it is far too forgiving.

I have struggled for two weeks to put this into words, and in some ways I am sure I will fail to fully articulate exactly how I feel, but our current social climate only serves to enhance the injustice of Game of Thrones’ poor treatment of its female characters. We need strong female role models right now, women in powerful positions who can not only handle that power and the pressure and responsibility that go with it, but who rise to the occasion despite all odds. And yes, Sansa has done that, especially considering everything she’s been through since she left Winterfell with her father to marry Joffrey all those years ago, but glorifying her suffering the way they have has been unforgivable. Hearing her personally claim with a soft smile that she would not be who she is without that suffering doubly so.

So where does that leave her? What is she going to do with this power she’s gained through a ridiculous amount of suffering? Poised to take the throne, more than likely. Her rivalry with Daenerys was firmly established in the first episode of season eight, when she snubbed the Targaryen queen upon arrival at Winterfell. Much like the rest of the choices they’ve made regarding Sansa’s character, I’m not entirely sure how I feel about her hating Daenerys on sight, though on some level I get it. After everything they worked for, Jon being raised to position as King in the North before he went off to treat with the Dragon Queen put Sansa in an incredibly powerful position. Coming back, knee-bent and perfectly happy to turn over his power to Daenerys stripped Sansa of any hopes she might have had of reigning in the North. At every turn, Sansa makes her distaste for Daenerys more than well-known in a petty and antagonistic display reminiscent of the one woman who, in my humble opinion, truly made Sansa who she is: Cersei. What about the North? What happens to the North? And Daenerys cannot stomach the other woman’s refusal to yield, an obvious set up for the true showdown between Ice and Fire, I think. Sansa took everything she learned at King’s Landing, everything she learned from Cersei, and not only implemented it in her life, but surpassed her teacher as she spilled Jon’s secret heritage to the one person she knew would spread it faster than wildfire: Tyrion Lannister.

I could talk about Sansa’s evolution a power-hungry queen-in-training all day, but let’s move on to another interesting choice regarding an incredibly powerful female character: Brienne of Tarth. I am not going to lie to you. From the moment Brienne and Jaime set out together on their journey to recover the Stark girls in the books, I’ve been rooting for both of them. Not even so much that they got together (but yeah, I totally shipped it even though while reading I pretty much denied the probability because of who Jaime Lannister was,) but mostly that the time he spent with her–an honorable knight and woman–would help Jaime recognize his own worth. For a time I think it did. Their journey made them both much stronger characters, but reflective of real life bad decisions while drinking, sleeping together after the Battle of Winterfell weakened them. I will say that as much as Brienne’s reaction to Jaime’s choice to go back to Cersei bothered me, I respected it because despite her tough demeanor Brienne was still a woman. Underneath her armor she was soft; she had heart; she wanted the same thing everyone (not just women) want: to be respected, cherished, loved just as she is. I was bothered at first by her emotional breakdown when Jaime decided to leave and go back to Cersei, maybe because I shipped them so hard in my heart for so long, but in the end I felt like her reaction was well done. She spent this entire story hardened, distrusting, leery, and afraid, and given the way her fellow soldiers and the male population in general treated her, it’s understandable. To see her let her guard down and give in to heart was a beautiful thing, and it played off her emotional failings beautifully. Jaime was never going to change. He gave his heart to Cersei on the day he was born, but it was nice to see what else life might have offered if things were different. My only complaint goes back to the season itself feeling rushed. They could have strengthened that heartbreak by given them more time. Maybe they spent months together, Jaime happy enough with her on the surface that even Brienne is convinced, and when he leaves in the night after very few signs of his unhappiness, BLAMMO! Heartbreak City, yo. But I digress.

In parallel to this, we have the relationship between Gendry and Arya–another ship I’ve been sailing since they were wee little bebbies traveling the King’s Road to the Wall with Yoren. Arya has always been a complicated character, and by far one of the strongest females in the series. Her suffering has been consistently brutal, and considering everything she endured (and the show’s tendency to rape and/or murder female characters,) it’s no small miracle she’s come as far as she has. Much like Brienne and Jaime, I wanted Gendry and Arya to come together, and I was happy to see Arya turn him down when he offered her the traditional women’s role by his side as Lady of Storm’s End. Poor Gendry, fretful that he was never good enough for her despite his kingly paternity, and he’s finally given a leg up so he can be the noble man a woman of Arya’s standing deserves, but THAT WAS NEVER HER! And the fact that despite everything her character has remained consistent has been a beautiful thing. No complaints on that, not even when she rides up to meet The Hound on the road to King’s Landing to take out their enemies and close out their personal revenge lists because honestly, that was always what Arya was going to do, right? Finishing off Cersei Lannister was one of the things that drove her even during the most desperate of times. (I’ll talk more about this next blog post, promise!)

Now, it’s time to talk about the Dragon in the middle of the room. I’ve seen a lot of people complaining about Daenerys this season, claiming her descent into madness seems uncharacteristic, and her obsession with everyone bending the knee has gotten out of hand, but is it really out of character? To this point (we’ll talk about points beyond this episode in the next post,) she has pretty much taken the things she wants with fire and blood, usually preceded by a relatively powerful temper tantrum. Not much has changed, except that she maybe underestimated the people of Westeros before sailing over to rule them.

Her arrival in Westeros did something to her character. From the moment she married Drogo and became Khaleesi, confidence surged through her even under the most horrifying odds. She conquered, claimed, and made an incredibly powerful name for herself in Essos, but crossing the Narrow Sea meant shedding those achievements and starting fresh because no one in Westeros cared what she did in Essos. Sure, she came knocking on the gates with three full-grown dragons, two massive armies, and enough Targaryen confidence to shake the country to its very core, but until this point she has not often heard the word no without swiftly punishing the speaker and either changing their answer to yes or obliterating them entirely. But Westeros has been playing this twisted game since before she was born, and despite the fact that she was born there, most people consider her a foreigner. She’s obviously struggling with this, and the fact that she’s not finding the support she craves is definitely pushing at her already fragile mental state. To make matters worse, she lost one of the three most loyal people in her life during the Battle of Winterfell, and she’s getting real tired of Sansa Stark not falling in line. A lot of viewers are upset that they’ve taken her into the realm of madness, some even claiming it happened all of the sudden, but look back at the history. She’s always been teetering on the brink of madness, and as she stands before the gates of King’s Landing and watches another one of her children die, and another of the loyal few who’s been beside her nearly all the way get her head lobbed off, there’s pretty much no turning back the crazy train about to plow through the city.

I think the problem with Dany’s madness is not that they finally pushed her over the edge, it’s that they’ve been really shitty to all the women on the show, and for a while a lot of people were hoping at least one of those powerful women would come out of this better off than when she started. I don’t think that’s possible for her. Sansa… maybe. But Daenerys has too many people needling through her armor from hidden locations, and eventually the poison on those needles is going to infect her. She can’t trust Jon now that she knows he’s a legitimate rival for the Iron Throne, even though he’s told her a thousand times he doesn’t want her stupid throne. As per usual, Jon knows nothing because want it or not, there are a lot of people who are going to want him on that throne over her, and they’ll use that information to destroy her. I get it, but the extent of her madness doesn’t really

I could obviously go on blathering about all of this for several more thousand words. I feel like I’ve barely begun to scratch the surface on the majority of these things, but I’m going to call it after one final sigh: Jon sent his direwolf… the last Stark direwolf… up north with Tormund and the Wildlings without even saying goodbye, or thanks for saving my life, guarding my dead body that one time I got stabbed a bunch of times, sharing a bond with me unlike any other… etc. This bothered me because Ghost has been an afterthought for several seasons. There were times I wasn’t even sure Ghost was still alive at all, and then he’d show up again for a brief cameo and I’d be like, “Huh, I guess he’s not dead after all, and I was right to question the story continuity rather than my own personal sanity.” His goodbye with Samwell Tarly was only slightly more thoughtful, leaving a gaping hole in a lot of hearts.

It’s just lazy writing, in the end, something that has become more and more apparent throughout the course of Season Eight. It’s like the writers are at the end of their senior year at school, getting ready to graduate, and they’ve already secured their grades/paychecks so they spent these last six episodes fucking off because they’re done so who cares? Guess what, writers? PEOPLE CARE, and many of them are really angry with how lazy so much of the farewell season has felt. Seriously, four more episodes would have allowed for more development on some of this stuff, which once more makes me as a viewer feel like they were just so ready to wash their hands of the show that it didn’t matter to them how it ended so long as they were done.

Next post, I’ll talk about Episode 5: The Bells..

 

Time to Talk About Game of Thrones, I Guess-Part I: The Battle of Winterfell

***The Following Post May Contain Spoilers! Read at your own Risk!***

First of all, could the title for this blog post be any longer? Secondly… there is no secondly. Let’s just get down to business. I’ve been wanting to write these blog posts for a while, but I needed to consume the episodes again (and sometimes again and again) to really wrap my head around things. This has been building up for a long time, you guys. For some, it’s been coming since they dove into the first book and started reading in 1996. For others, it began when the show launched. For others still, like my dear friend John, it started in like March/April of 2019 during a massive binge because he probably got tired of listening to everyone talking about this show he’d never seen.

Sometimes it’s hard to believe it’s been just over eight years since HBO began airing their adaptation of one of my favorite high fantasy novel series. At the time, I’d hoped it’s airing meant a swift kick in the backside to George R.R. Martin and a timely delivery of the final (or at the very least the next) books in “A Song of Ice and Fire”. I was wrong in hoping, I guess, but over time a part of me started to feel grateful that at least I would get some closure on things, even if those things deviated from GRRM’s original plans. He certainly didn’t seem like he was in a big hurry to provide closure, or even continuation, so in time I contented myself with the steadfast reliability of HBO.

I imagine him doing this every time someone cries about his books never getting finished

“Sure,” I said to myself, “it won’t be the closure George intended, but at least I’ll have closure, right?”

Mostly right, yeah. I’m getting my closure, but the quality of that closure has come into question as the final season aired between April and May, rushing through things that could have been more powerfully (and sensibly) developed with even just a few more episodes in this final season. When HBO first announced there would only be six episodes in the final season, I felt a little slighted. After years of ten episodes seasons, it felt like a bit of a ripoff being shorted those four episodes, but then they said each episode would be near movie-length, several of them clocking in at 90+ minutes. Oh, plenty of time to wrap everything up in a neat little bow, right?

Wrong.

Though I’m glad I’ve lived long enough to see this iconic show come to an end, (dying tragically before a show I love reaches its finale is a longstanding irrational fear of mine–ridiculous, I know!) and I’ve enjoyed just about all of it, I do have a lot of issues with this final season. At first, I didn’t really notice them. I was excited my favorite show was back and we were finally going to be getting that coveted closure I keep talking about.

Episode one was mostly a talking episode, and I was all right with that. I tend to enjoy the talking episodes more than the blowing everything up episodes because it helps develop character and strengthen plot. Episode two turned out to be another talking episode, and I enjoyed that as well, but as we rounded the corner on episode three and the Battle of Winterfell, I started to feel a little unhappy with the turn things were taking. Not because I didn’t see these things coming. I knew the Night King was coming with his army, and it was going to be horrifying by the time they were done, but then Arya did her thing, ended that whole massive threat with a well-placed stab, and it was time to get back to the real purpose of this whole show: The Game for the Throne.

Killing The Night King GIF from Killing GIFs

Wait… What?

Winter was coming for years, you guys. And according to Maester Luwin, Old Nan, and Ned Stark, it was going to be a bad one. It would last for five, maybe ten years, and there wouldn’t be enough crops to feed everyone, but even worse was the fact that North of the Wall something horrifying was stirring, and it was coming for everyone. Grumpkins and snarks and–oh yeah–an army of freaking dead wildlings and giants and bears and snow tigers and eventually a dragon… It was a big army, and it swallowed up everything in its path, making itself seemingly impossible to beat. and some important people died, like Lyanna and Jorah Mormont, Dolorous Edd, Barric Dondarion, and Theon Greyjoy, but overall it felt like far too many major players survived.

Grumpkins and snarks, oh my!

I saw Samwell Tarly getting swallowed up by the dead numerous times during that incredibly dark (pun absolutely intended) episode, and then he just got up and went into the great hall after all was said and done and was like, “Welp, I’m ready to go be the only Tarly left on my family’s land.” I watched Brienne of Tarth screaming as the dead dogpiled her, Podrick Payne barely standing while Jaime Lannister managed to beat back the throngs with one hand basically tied behind his back. And I get it… They’re dead. Corpses are pretty easy to fight, but I’ve watched enough zombie movies and shows over the years to know that getting dogpiled by a bunch of gnashing, mindless dead usually means you’re not coming back. But they all did. Jorah fought hard, but he wasn’t strong enough to stand against the repeated attacks against his queen, and poor, sad Dolorous Edd went out saving Samwell Tarly. Little Lyanna Mormont was crushed by a zombie giant, but managed to stab its eye out before she went down. Barric Dondarion died and came back so many times so the Lord of Light could put him in the path of Arya Stark (credit where it’s due, that was a pretty cool plot twist). And Theon? Someone build that guy a massive monument in the courtyard at Winterfell because he basically took out half the Night King’s army by himself, a host of corpses at his feet when he finally charged the Night King in a futile attempt to buy more time.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not discrediting the power of the deaths mentioned above, but when all was said and done it felt like far too many familiar faces survived the greatest battle Winterfell, and possibly the Seven Kingdoms itself, had ever seen. At first I thought my disappointment was the fact that so many predictions went out the window with that episode, but in truth I’m actually a little disconcerted by how easily that giant, massive, millions strong story arc was put to bed. Well done, Arya. All that training and torture and suffering she underwent seriously paid off, but the whole Night King business felt like it needed a bit more to feel truly satisfying. Maybe more important peoples’ deaths? I don’t know. I just know that the ending of that arc left me wanting, and that was the first moment I began to notice my growing dissatisfaction.

You’ve probably noticed I didn’t mention Melisandre above, and that was intentional. She didn’t die at the Battle of Winterfell; it was after and completely unrelated to the battle itself as the Lord of Light completed her contract. Out of everything, her role and her death felt like the most natural thing to me–the quiet surrender to the end of her purpose.

Melisandre Death Game Of Thrones GIF from Melisandredeath GIFs

I’m not going to complain about how dark the episode was, which seemed to be a major sore spot for a lot of viewers. We didn’t seem to have that problem at my house, probably because I turned the brightness up on my TV before it started and everything was perfectly viewable for us. I am going to complain about spending an entire week not sure whether or not Tormund survived because they barely focused on him at all during the battle. I expected to see more of him, as fighting this battle with Jon Snow had sort of become his purpose for his people, so they might return home. And yet, I barely saw him during the Battle of Winterfell. This disappointed me more than I probably have a right to be, but over the course, and even in the books, he was one of my favorite characters, and they’d given him so much screen time. Then again, I’m not sure what I expected because they ended the last season on a massive question mark when Viseron attacked and destroyed the wall, leaving me wondering for like eighteen months if he was still alive.

In the end, it boils down to one simple fact: The Night King’s defeat felt too easy. Okay, two facts: Too many major players in the Game of the Thrones survived that battle.

Obviously it wasn’t enough to deter me from watching the next episode, which I’ll talk about in detail soon because I have issues with that one too, though not nearly as many as I have with episode give.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on The Battle of Winterfell. Whether you loved it or hated it, I want to know about it, and I’d like to know why you feel the way you do so feel free to comment below!

Time to Talk About Game of Thrones, I Guess-Part 1: The Battle of Winterfell

***The Following Post May Contain Spoilers! Read at your own Risk!***

First of all, could the title for this blog post be any longer? Secondly… there is no secondly. Let’s just get down to business. I’ve been wanting to write these blog posts for a while, but I needed to consume the episodes again (and sometimes again and again) to really wrap my head around things. This has been building up for a long time, you guys. For some, it’s been coming since they dove into the first book and started reading in 1996. For others, it began when the show launched. For others still, like my dear friend John, it started in like March/April of 2019 during a massive binge because he probably got tired of listening to everyone talking about this show he’d never seen.

Sometimes it’s hard to believe it’s been just over eight years since HBO began airing their adaptation of one of my favorite high fantasy novel series. At the time, I’d hoped it’s airing meant a swift kick in the backside to George R.R. Martin and a timely delivery of the final (or at the very least the next) books in “A Song of Ice and Fire”. I was wrong in hoping, I guess, but over time a part of me started to feel grateful that at least I would get some closure on things, even if those things deviated from GRRM’s original plans. He certainly didn’t seem like he was in a big hurry to provide closure, or even continuation, so in time I contented myself with the steadfast reliability of HBO.

I imagine him doing this every time someone cries about his books never getting finished

“Sure,” I said to myself, “it won’t be the closure George intended, but at least I’ll have closure, right?”

Mostly right, yeah. I’m getting my closure, but the quality of that closure has come into question as the final season aired between April and May, rushing through things that could have been more powerfully (and sensibly) developed with even just a few more episodes in this final season. When HBO first announced there would only be six episodes in the final season, I felt a little slighted. After years of ten episodes seasons, it felt like a bit of a ripoff being shorted those four episodes, but then they said each episode would be near movie-length, several of them clocking in at 90+ minutes. Oh, plenty of time to wrap everything up in a neat little bow, right?

Wrong.

Though I’m glad I’ve lived long enough to see this iconic show come to an end, (dying tragically before a show I love reaches its finale is a longstanding irrational fear of mine–ridiculous, I know!) and I’ve enjoyed just about all of it, I do have a lot of issues with this final season. At first, I didn’t really notice them. I was excited my favorite show was back and we were finally going to be getting that coveted closure I keep talking about.

Episode one was mostly a talking episode, and I was all right with that. I tend to enjoy the talking episodes more than the blowing everything up episodes because it helps develop character and strengthen plot. Episode two turned out to be another talking episode, and I enjoyed that as well, but as we rounded the corner on episode three and the Battle of Winterfell, I started to feel a little unhappy with the turn things were taking. Not because I didn’t see these things coming. I knew the Night King was coming with his army, and it was going to be horrifying by the time they were done, but then Arya did her thing, ended that whole massive threat with a well-placed stab, and it was time to get back to the real purpose of this whole show: The Game for the Throne.

Killing The Night King GIF from Killing GIFs

Wait… What?

Winter was coming for years, you guys. And according to Maester Luwin, Old Nan, and Ned Stark, it was going to be a bad one. It would last for five, maybe ten years, and there wouldn’t be enough crops to feed everyone, but even worse was the fact that North of the Wall something horrifying was stirring, and it was coming for everyone. Grumpkins and snarks and–oh yeah–an army of freaking dead wildlings and giants and bears and snow tigers and eventually a dragon… It was a big army, and it swallowed up everything in its path, making itself seemingly impossible to beat. and some important people died, like Lyanna and Jorah Mormont, Dolorous Edd, Barric Dondarion, and Theon Greyjoy, but overall it felt like far too many major players survived.

Grumpkins and snarks, oh my!

I saw Samwell Tarly getting swallowed up by the dead numerous times during that incredibly dark (pun absolutely intended) episode, and then he just got up and went into the great hall after all was said and done and was like, “Welp, I’m ready to go be the only Tarly left on my family’s land.” I watched Brienne of Tarth screaming as the dead dogpiled her, Podrick Payne barely standing while Jaime Lannister managed to beat back the throngs with one hand basically tied behind his back. And I get it… They’re dead. Corpses are pretty easy to fight, but I’ve watched enough zombie movies and shows over the years to know that getting dogpiled by a bunch of gnashing, mindless dead usually means you’re not coming back. But they all did. Jorah fought hard, but he wasn’t strong enough to stand against the repeated attacks against his queen, and poor, sad Dolorous Edd went out saving Samwell Tarly. Little Lyanna Mormont was crushed by a zombie giant, but managed to stab its eye out before she went down. Barric Dondarion died and came back so many times so the Lord of Light could put him in the path of Arya Stark (credit where it’s due, that was a pretty cool plot twist). And Theon? Someone build that guy a massive monument in the courtyard at Winterfell because he basically took out half the Night King’s army by himself, a host of corpses at his feet when he finally charged the Night King in a futile attempt to buy more time.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not discrediting the power of the deaths mentioned above, but when all was said and done it felt like far too many familiar faces survived the greatest battle Winterfell, and possibly the Seven Kingdoms itself, had ever seen. At first I thought my disappointment was the fact that so many predictions went out the window with that episode, but in truth I’m actually a little disconcerted by how easily that giant, massive, millions strong story arc was put to bed. Well done, Arya. All that training and torture and suffering she underwent seriously paid off, but the whole Night King business felt like it needed a bit more to feel truly satisfying. Maybe more important peoples’ deaths? I don’t know. I just know that the ending of that arc left me wanting, and that was the first moment I began to notice my growing dissatisfaction.

You’ve probably noticed I didn’t mention Melisandre above, and that was intentional. She didn’t die at the Battle of Winterfell; it was after and completely unrelated to the battle itself as the Lord of Light completed her contract. Out of everything, her role and her death felt like the most natural thing to me–the quiet surrender to the end of her purpose.

Melisandre Death Game Of Thrones GIF from Melisandredeath GIFs

I’m not going to complain about how dark the episode was, which seemed to be a major sore spot for a lot of viewers. We didn’t seem to have that problem at my house, probably because I turned the brightness up on my TV before it started and everything was perfectly viewable for us. I am going to complain about spending an entire week not sure whether or not Tormund survived because they barely focused on him at all during the battle. I expected to see more of him, as fighting this battle with Jon Snow had sort of become his purpose for his people, so they might return home. And yet, I barely saw him during the Battle of Winterfell. This disappointed me more than I probably have a right to be, but over the course, and even in the books, he was one of my favorite characters, and they’d given him so much screen time. Then again, I’m not sure what I expected because they ended the last season on a massive question mark when Viseron attacked and destroyed the wall, leaving me wondering for like eighteen months if he was still alive.

In the end, it boils down to one simple fact: The Night King’s defeat felt too easy. Okay, two facts: Too many major players in the Game of the Thrones survived that battle.

Obviously it wasn’t enough to deter me from watching the next episode, which I’ll talk about in detail soon because I have issues with that one too, though not nearly as many as I have with episode give.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on The Battle of Winterfell. Whether you loved it or hated it, I want to know about it, and I’d like to know why you feel the way you do so feel free to comment below!

Flashy Friday: The Lonely Emperor

One day he would rebuild her, all of her–she whom he lost in order to find himself, but first he needed to remember her face in perfect detail. The tightly pinched lips that once told him: no! don’t! STOP! The wide, terrified eyes that refused to look at him because they saw him, always saw him, for exactly what he was. The dainty nose she turned upward whenever she encountered him in the hallways.

He would remake her… yes… and when he did she would always meet his eyes, look upon him with gentle reverence. She would soften her mouth and, reaching for him, say: yes! please! YES!

Flashy Friday: The Wrong Kinds of Spirits

The wrong kinds of spirits will make sure she’s never free, trust me on this. They thrive on madness, obsession. Someone in her frame of mind should never have been permitted access, and now… because she’s distanced herself from this realm, drawing her back to us will be damn near impossible. Don’t you see? She isn’t Kittra anymore. She’s someone else, something else. No matter what we say or do only that thing will answer. The wisest course would be to lock her away and pray that disconnection from the access portal will force the present spirit out, but I have very little hope we will ever get her back.

Season of Storms by Andrzej Sapkowski

Set before the Witcher Saga and somewhere in between the short stories collected in The Last Wish and Sword of Destiny, Season of Storms finds Geralt completing a contract on a uniquely intelligent monster and then finding himself on the end of a scheme when he heads in to collect the bounty. Refusing to accept the pittance they agree to pay him while they siphon money from the treasury to line their own pockets, his ornery response to their treachery lands him in hot water shortly after he arrives in the city of Kerack. The sorcerers have a problem, and they need a witcher’s help in solving in, but instead of just asking politely it leads to schemes and scams, some time in jail, and a twisted affair with a sorceress named Lytta Nyed (also known as Coral on account of her favorite shade of lipstick).

Exploring the world and politics a little more deeply, I was pleasantly surprised to see there were stones Sapkowski left unturned in the original saga and short stories. The timing and placement of this story isn’t easy to pinpoint, but it obviously falls sometimes prior to short story “The Witcher”, as Geralt’s heading to Temeria near the end to take care of a problem for King Foltest. And yet, his relationship with Yennefer is already heavily bashed upon the rocks, so time has definitely passed since “The Last Wish” and even seemingly even “A Shard of Ice”.

Dandelion is my spirit animal

We got to learn a little more about the family of my favorite character (aside from Geralt, that is). Dandelion’s antics, attitude, and self-righteous indignity are in full swing from the moment he sets foot onto the page, and he provides his usual comedic balance to Geralt’s broodiness.

Overall, I enjoyed the book. I’m always happy to find myself in the Northern Kingdoms trotting a long on Roach with Dandelion by my side telling me to stop feeling sorry for myself because my brooding is distracting him, and while I did like the story, I only rated it three stars because at times it felt like it was missing some of the wow factor of the original short stories and saga. Maybe because I already know that no matter what happens in this book, Geralt will survive, and he and Yen will work things out and have their happy ending. I mean, it took me ages to finish reading this book. Two months with it on my bedside table and before I finally just said: LET’S DO THIS SO I CAN READ SOMETHING ELSE!

Do I want to see more Witcher stories from Sapkowski? Absolutely! Do I recommend the book to Witcher fans? I definitely do, though a part of me thinks it might be an even better read for people just getting started on their Witcher saga journeys. Reading it in place with the others, allowing it to fall properly in the timeline might make a huge difference to the impact it has as a novel.

Flashy Friday: Til Death Do Us Part

“What part of till death do us part did you not understand, Carmella?”

Flashy Friday: From the Wall

He was supposed to be tutoring the boy, teaching him the fundamentals of rulership and government, about the provinces surrounding his kingdom, and the art of managing the crown’s finances because it was important that a ruler never allow someone else to do all the work. It was how mischief was made, how greedy fools sought to take advantage of young kings.


 


Alas, His Majesty was only a boy, and he cared very little for such ‘boring subjects’, as he called them. He ordered Humpty to tell him stories of bloody battles and great wars from his perch on the wall, and the tutor complied. He wove whatever wisdom he could into the tales he told as the child king marched across the courtyard on his wooden pony shouting commands at the shrubberies. Deep down he liked to think that one day those bits of wisdom would return when the king most needed them.

Flashy Friday: Vengeance

He threw her body in the well and thought that was the end of her, of the harm she would have brought him. He would go back to his life, forget his mistake, honor his wife the way he was supposed to. In time, he became an honest man, save for the dark secret he forgot. He lived his life, honored his wife, and the girl who tried to ruin everything was no more. Nine years passed. His wife gave him three sons, and he knew he was blessed, that he’d been forgiven.

But the girl in the well did not forget. She did not forgive. She did not live her life because he took it from her. She vowed vengeance, and it stewed and festered in her every wound. To pass the time she painted all the ways she would destroy him on the stone walls of the well with her own blood and the pus seeping from her wounds.

In time, her body grew bloated and fat, parts of it rotting and falling away away. She thought she would leave the world soon, but then she gave birth to a daughter, his daughter, and she named that child Fukushū.

She spoke the child’s name with her last breath, and then she died, but Fukushū learned quickly of her mother’s vengeance, of all the ways her father tried to hurt them from the pictures on the walls. As the last piece of her mother rotted away, Fukushū promised they would have vengeance, and every year for nine years she gave birth to herself until there was one of her for every lie her father told her mother, for every time the knife plunged into her mother’s belly.

They would avenge their mother by devouring all of their father’s blessings, and he would know he was not forgiven. He would come to understand that vengeance does not forget.