I’m not happy that Dany survived to suck up more focus. But 8x05 was a better episode because we got more POVs than Dany. The whole burning of KL was from the ground level POV and the Stark POVs were really important in grounding it. I’m glad they executed such that people could really understand how disturbing “burn them all” is. It’s not justified and to make it worse, Cersei and her soldiers surrendered. But she saw how the people below feared her and this move by Cersei only made her look worse when she wanted to see love as she’s used to liberating people and it was a conscious decision to rule through evoking immense fear so no one could stand against her. Dany didn’t go “mad” and although D&D have skewed the balance of this season by primarily focusing on her to others’ detriment and trying to even offer her excuses of grief, when the bells rung she made a choice to do this, to be this.
Jon has been sacrificed this season for a plot twist. But he actually got to express more POV after Dany’s POV was cut off. Strange, isn’t it? His actions before all but confirmed some form of Political/Sacrificial Jon. His answer to Dany was scripted with “my queen” after she threatened Sansa yet again and she even called him out on it. The more times he says it, the more hollow it sounds. That’s how their relationship begun didn’t it? When she asks “Only your queen?” he tries to appease her by making out with her but he can’t go through with it knowing she’s his aunt.
If Jon is so honorable why would he be stand behind Dany as she executed Varys by fire - almost looking nonchalant about it until he got a POV shot? Am I supposed to believe he genuinely wanted to kiss her after she did that when he was horrified by Stannis burning Mance? For all the bad writing, this entire sequence of events has Sansa at the background of it. Jon knew about the burning of the Tarlys and he saw what happened to Varys. He wasn’t very surprised even if he looked scared.
Since 8x04, he’s been taking on a very Grey Worm and Tyrion like stance in terms of body language. It looks so OOC and pointedly so, that with his actual dialogue when you think of it refers to a lot of Jorah. But even before that there was always something undercutting it.
Then there’s that moment when he was trying to get his soldiers to fall back but changed his tune when Greyworm looked at him also hinted more was going on with him. If Jon was so honorable would he not speak his mind? What holds him back from stopping something he knows is clearly wrong? He’s not someone who fears for his life much. It’s Dany’s threats on specifically Sansa after she essentially committed treason in her eyes. He knows Sansa is on thin ice with Dany, even if she is right about Dany being a tyrant. One slip from his end, and not just he but Sansa also suffers. And with the parentage reveal, if Jon whored himself out trying to talk her out of things, he can’t even go through with that anymore knowing his parentage. This relationship is a demand from her and he might’ve played along but it’s just too much for him.
Though I think both of them underestimated how indiscriminately violent Dany can be. There’s a difference between seeing someone’s authoritarian behaviour and actually seeing them conduct violent acts on the level of mass violence.
That doesn’t justify him standing by all this violence and he knows it’s wrong and like Arya, he tries to help the civilians and make his own men fall back. But he’s put in a very difficult position because making himself small is the only way he can make Dany lay off Sansa. He called attention to himself and defied her too much, if people supported him she would see it as him acting against her, being treasonous and again it would call more attention to Sansa. Ned lied half of his life to protect him and I think apart from just caring about her and the Starks, there’s an indebtedness he feels as well.
At this point it’s driven to such a point where he can’t not go up against her because she’s a liability to everyone and there’s only so much compromise of his moral compass in terms of standing by violence that he can allow himself. At this point, if she actually tries to go off on Sansa, that’d be the end of it and that might be her “treason for love”.
The shame of this season is we deserved more of Jon’s POV - on RLJ, on and with the Starks, on critically looking at Dany. We deserved to see this struggle because it would be far more interesting to watch and would enrich the story more in terms of focusing on more than just one character but the implications of history. It would balance out Dany’s rather one-dimensional view of things and also not make him look like a side character at a very crucial point in his story, in the story. A twist can’t match up to it. But I’ve mentally prepared myself to accept how this is Winterhell 2.0 but worse over episodes. Still, I think this is where it’s headed.
I shouldn’t hope for much but since other characters got more POV when Dany’s got cut off as she was flying above, now that she’s established as the final antagonist, maybe just maybe the next episode can be mostly from the Starks’ POV, including Jon. That might make up for her surviving another episode because I can’t take another episode where it’s all about how she feels and trying to romanticise her.
