Re: Monthly Chat October 2020
Okay not a lot has happened other than worse corona prognostications (our county is in the high category), so keeping to lockdownn rules here), and of course the onrunning circus of the US general ellection.
On that score, it looks like we have fixed a postal vote which is good, actually it's sort of amusing how much people like my brother and his Fiance want to help my lady with voting against Trump .
I'm afraid though, today I'm in rather pissed off mood, and I'm going to treat everyone to something of a rant, because yesterday I watched the final four episodes of game of thrones season 8.
I'd got to episode 3 which was of course a huge great battle, after which I just wanted to go on, and so, though it involved me being up until 2-Am last night I decided to finish altogether just to be done.
I have not done the audio described audios yet, these were just the episodes on DVD with my remaining vision, plus occasional dips into the game of thrones wiki synopses to get ideas of what is going on.
Also, obviously my opinion here. Also also spoilers spoilers spoilers spoilers spoilers spoilers!
Okay, oddly enough I really liked the first half of the series, everyone getting together for the big battle against the night king and the white walkers, the calm before the storm, seeing characters meet up and enemies combine together, indeed I really wish this had been the end of the series.
what I thought was particularly fantastic was that even characters like Jaime and the hound got involved, indeed some of the hounds plotlines this series (even in the dire second half), were some of the best, with Jaime's redemption arc, something hinted at in eartly season, and actually slowly happening in the books, looked like it was coming to fruition.
Admittedly, bits of character development seemed a little quick, but I honestly couldn't complain at Arya and Gendry wanting one fling together before the battle, or about Theon trying to make up for his past by protecting Bran and whatever Bran had now become.
So then we got the battle itself, and yee gods! best fantasy battle since helms deep. it was grim, it was atmospheric, all hope seemed lost. There were zombie dragons, and zombie giants, and Leana moroment proving that Arya isn't the only awesome young girl in the series, while Jora got to give up his life for his queen.
Even Melisandre got moments of awesome (actually the opening sequence with the duthraki hoard fighting the white walker army with their flaming swords is very much the reason why! I watch these things visually).
And in the end, Theon gives his life, and Arya engages in the most awesome critical hit ever! Furthermore a stabbing prefaced in the series from Bran's vision of the creation of the Night King.
Actually, I'll admit the series used fantasy tropes to freak me out, since I really facepalmed at the moment when Berric dundarian died defending Arya and Melisandre told her that the lord of light had bought him back just to save her, ----- waaaaay over board in main character awesomeness.
And yet, what do we then see? Arya actually is! the thing that changes the battle.
Okay, the idea that slaying the one load bearing boss destroys the entire hoard is really not a good one, and smacks waaaaay too much of convenience for my liking, but I'll give them a pass just on the basis of the shear cathartic grimness of the hole battle, the fact we'd lost several beloved characters (albeit it did seem characters like Tyrian and Sansa had some rather convenient plot armour), as well as a lot of soldiers and civilians, and just how bloody aweful the hole thing was.
So episodes 1-3 get a thumbs up for me and felt like a good finale to the series.
Then however we get to the second half of the series and grrrrrrrrr!
so Tyrian, the supposedly Cleverest man in Westeros backs the wrong horse, Aka Dragon, gets varys barbequed by queen paranoia! Jaime finally gets with Brienne in a rather sweet scene only to abandon her completely and go back to what Mrs. Dark refers to as his "lovey dovey sissy yum yum!"
Regal the dragon dies because the Iron fleet's habbit of rolling critical damage against anything they encounter! (really, these guys have just instakilled so many things in the series).
Misandi's death was really horrible and a gut punch moment, but it was at least the sort of gut punch that GoT does well, (poor grey worm). Actually, I was expecting Circie or Euron Greyjoy to do pretty horrible things to her, so was glad her death was comparatively quick.
Then we get to the end! Tyrian literally pleads with everyone to avoid a slaughter, looks as if he succeeds, and then my god Daenerys! Bloody hell Daenerys!
Okay, Dark danny had been hinted at right back in the start of the series, right from burning alive the woman who killed her husband, to the guy who betrayed her in Qarth, various lsavers, Tyrian even says as much just so the fans realise.
However! there is a huge difference between slaughtering a lot of evil people who have already done horrible things and literally dragon neuking an entire dam city!! After! The enemy surrendered! again, I can only quote Tyrian here, who points out that the corpses piled up by Circie and! tywin together in their entire career wouldn't make a fraction of what Daenerys created!
Oh, and of course, if blasting an entire city to bits wasn't enough, we also had to have her army engaged in rape and slaughter just because everything had gone to hell at that point!
Had she destroyed only the keep, it would have been a shock, after all hundreds of serving staff would've died! and perhaps then there could've been an interesting end to her character, EG she destroys the keep then comes to realise herself that she is unfit to rule, or maybe she destroys the keep and tyrian or John is forced to kill her to prevent more slaughter, but this!
This is the sort of thing that ruins a series! all of those moments now early on, Daenaerys walking out of the fire with her dragons, being acknowledged Mysa by the people of myreen! all of those moments now are rendered pointless!
Indeed, it would've been better for everyone had she burned on that fire, or had the wine merchant's poison succeeded in season 1.
I can't help feeling this was done more for spectacul than arc resolution, and needless to say, I'm not happy.
to add to this turd heep, Lovey Dovey sissy yum ym doesn't get a good end either! there are so many ways Circie could've ended her story, leaving the keep and being torn apart by the people of King's landing, who had finally had enough, losing all of her power and everyone walking away, leaving her a ranting ragged woman on the iron throne! being killed by Jaime who finally realises what a complete psycho his sister is!
But no! she gets a romantic scene with brother dear just as the keep collapses around them.
I did enjoy the resolution of the hound's story with Arya, and indeed the hounds scenes generally, his grufff attempt to be kind to Sansa at winterfell but clearly not having the words to do so was genuinely awesome writing. I also liked the idea of the hound prompting Arya to give up her quest for vengence and not end up like him, a genuinely wise and decent act from a tormented man.
But most other resolutions! Tyrian, almost as responsible for Daenaerys mass slaughter as she was, gets to be hand of the King, while John gets punted off alone to Castle black, and Arya goes off to goodness knows where to explore the world.
Actually, so many of the character resolutions felt just plane scattered. We'd killed so many characters in the series by this point, the small handful we had left just didn't feel they could resolve each other's stories satisfactorily together.
Not "together!" in a romantic sense, (I was actually rather pleased that though Arya and Gendry had a pleasant night together, they didn't go with the trite marriage plot for her), but "together!" in the sense of shared resolution.
For example, what if Arya had actually been knighted as she wanted, and she and Bryene went off together as two wandering knights to make the world a better place, or have Arya take over as the new master of whisperers so she could just interact with the other characters, (who better to handle anonymous spies and rumours than no one).
I didn't mind King Bran, but at this point Sansa (whose story felt very unfinished), is up in the north alone, John is up beyond the wall alone, (, why not create a new position for Sansa on the King's council? mistress of the North, or have Sansa mention to John that she needs an ambassador for the free folk and the north, meaning that he'll be spending time at winterfell.
I didn't mind John not actually being King, indeed it was nice to avoid that, but most of the resolutions here just felt unfinished, and that after the random death of hundreds of thousands of people for no other reason than a queen with a dragon had a sudden fit of peak!
So, while it wasn't entirely a complete right off, in general I have to say I can see why people have been disappointed in the end of the series.
I'll be interested to see what some people have said about it, Martin himself in particular, and I wonder if the books will end the same way.
Indeed, interestingly enough, while I've read a lot of Martin's other fiction (including both of his dream songs story collections), while he does have a thing about grim endings, most of his endings didn't leave me feeling unsatisfied, and not all of his endings are Grim.
Indeed, that is the way I could see ice and fire ending, tragic for some, triumphant for others, but in the end, something that works and doesn't feel like a complete cheat, as unfortunately Daenaerys plotline here did.
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