Hear me out. 08×04 was good.
Ripped our hearts out at points. But life isn’t fair, and GOT was never meant to be fair either.
Yes. Maddening. How could Jon leave Ghost behind?
But guys. That shot of Jon walking away was a shot of Sam and Gilly, Tormund, Ghost, and Winterfell. It was a shot that sums up who Jon has been all his life. It is a metaphor for him walking away and leaving this pasr behind.
With all the behind-the-scenes pressure on Jon (Varys wants him to be King, Sansa conspires for this as well, Arya does not trust his Queen, darker Dany implications), obviously he will have to make some crucial decisions. And I think, he will do what he thinks is right, he will despise the idea of power even further, and will return to the North. Like Ghost, he does not belong to the South. The seemingly careless goodbye is a metaphor of him abandoning who he is, only to return where he truly belongs.
And that’s Jon’s arc now. His war is over, and he will decide who he is. Stark or Targaryen or Snow? Ruler or warrior? Etc.
Heartbreaking. Absolutely heartbreaking. She was good and loyal to the very end and brave and deserved better.
Unfortunately, life does not give us what we deserve and neither does GOT. At this point, it makes sense that Cersei would take someone Dany cares about. It makes sense that she would kill her. It was, truly, awful and painful, but not untrue to the story. And that’s all that is to be said.
I know. When they got together I swear my heart was racing. And when Jaimie left I was like… what the hell.
But it makes sense. Jaimie, as much as we love him, has done some inherently unforgivable things. His fate has always been tied to Cersei. But he isn’t going to save her now. Not this time.
It’s not clear to us yet what his intentions are. Is he going there just because their fates are tied? Is he going there to save her? Is he going there without really knowing why?
Either way, Jaimie now knows what man he wants to be. He’s already left Cersei when he saw who she was. He also knows who he is.
I am firm in my belief that Jaimie will kill Cersei. Yes, I think he will die; he leave the world as he reached it, with Cersei, but finally free of her influence. Not a good man, because he is not. Not a bad man, because he is not that either.
Jaimie’s story has been about freeing himself from Cersei; he does this by fulfilling the valonqar prophecy. Brienne could not have her happy ending with him for this to happen as much as she deserved better. And it makes their stories (Jaimie’s redemption and Brienne’s true love and abolition of black-and-white morals) all the more tragically and heartbreakingly beautiful.
The smart evil queen we love to hate, who knew Dany would go to Dragonstone, took down one of her dragons, and then her entire flee. Because she is smart. This is the strategy GOT was missing in battle.
Ok. I’ve talked about this before. I knew she was going to go dark. And you know what? I love that they are not fucking up her arc by not doing it or by doing it in a black and white sort of way. Doing it like this is an unseen plot twist: a character poised to be the protagonist becoming someone she never wanted to become.
And the best part is you can feel for Dany. She does have a good heart. She is charismatic. As great as Jon, if not better, because not only she inspires love and rides dragons, she birthed them while she had nothing.
And now, no one appreciates this. Nor do they give her enough credit for the battle against the WW. On top of this, the one thing she wants her entire life is threatened by the man she loves. The only one she has left, as well: Dany is left alone, without those who have been with her forever. With 2 dead children, Jorah and Misandei gone.
It is not an excuse per se. But you see where she is coming from. You are tempted to excuse her. You can’t hate her. This is tragic. Because you can see how Misandei’s Dracarys can haunt her. And even if it will mean the death of innocents, I can imagine many good people still saying it, because this is how much they loved and fought.
That is peak GOT. Complex arcs. Tragic arcs. Villains you can understand: villains who were never meant to be or wanted to be villains. Not just “mad”. That would be boring af.
Ok. FINALLY some good dialogue. FINALLY some ethical discussions. Who deserves power? How far should you go to ensure the right person is on the throne? Missed you, Game of Thrones.
(Also. Tyrion. Never wanted power. Always accepted sitting on the sidelines to correct other people’s fuck ups, but always with good itnentions. If Jon doesn’t want the throne, could Tyrion get it? If there’s a throne at the end of this.)
Sansa, caring about her family but playing the game, because this is how she’s learnt to survive.
She has not hesitated to do what she thinks is right to protect her home the same way she did not in the Battle of the Bastards. And if it means playing the game behind Jon’s back… well. This is who she is. A player of the game, who knows all too well what happens if you fight with honour.
Arya turning down being a wife at a castle, because this really is not who she is.
The Hound and Arya marching to KL to finish business. Because Arya is capable of love, but, from the very start, has never been one to settle down. And this has not changed yet. As she said to Ned in s1, that is not her. As she said to Nymeria, that is not her.
Guys. This was an episode loyal to character development. It was not fan service. It was nothing like episode 2/3. And I liked it. Because these arcs make sense, even if they are painful. And we cannot blame GOT for being this show, because we did not love it for bringing our ships together or for being nice to our favs or anything like that. We loved it for being realistic and painful and complex. And that’s what this episode was, and I loved it for it.
