I talked previously that the show was in danger of losing its spark. I think there's a lot of well-done stuff here, but the season is left with no optimism going forward, with one semi-exception. This is very similar to how book 5 ended, with so many cliffhangers at a pace that Martin had not previously indulged in. In the Sopranos/Wire tradition, I like my penultimate episodes to be when everything happens, and my finales to be about tying strings off and hinting at new ones. GoT usually does this, but it mostly avoided this structure this year. The season 1 finale remains the best, old-man see-through calisthenics included. There's nothing as cathartic as baby dragons, or even Arya sailing to Braavos here. Instead, it's a dark end to a dark season.
Braavos: The pompous book-reader in me totally called this a few episodes, though I'm sure thousands of other people did, too. Arya kills Meryn Trant and is blinded as punishment, which is a twist on what happens in the books, though the timeline is shuffled around. As a season-long arc, it mostly works, wherein Arya attempts to lose herself and fails, but the promise of more training as a result next year isn't too promising. There's a presumed two seasons to go, and there isn't a whole lot of time left for Arya to continue in the House of Black and White. Still, an appropriately brutal kill, well-earned and well-shot in the soft light of the brothel. A different shade of acting from Maisie Williams, too, in her panic at Jaqen's presumed death. The overall plotline in Braavos has completely worked for me, with the caveat that I wish it had more forward momentum. Also, more Mace Tyrell please.
Dorne: There's an episode of Walking Dead where nothing character T-Dogg starts opening up for the first time in the series. Of course, he dies shortly after. When killing its characters, I don't think Game of Thrones has resorted to this kind of cheap nonsense previously, but with Myrcella, hoo boy, that was not great. She has a moment with her uncle/father, dies mid-embrace. This is a big deal, but so laborious getting there. It's both too complicated and not complicated enough. They spent all this time getting to this point, only to have Myrcella killed in the simplest way imaginable. Don't send the snake-o-gram, just poison her and be done with it. Or just send the snake-o-gram directly to her room, except it's a real snake. This whole thing was contrived to have one pretty cool beach fight, one bad garden fight, and a leering look at one of the Sand Snakes, who continue to not make an impression. On top of that, everyone involved looks dumb and simple. I can't think of a bigger failure in the show's history on this scale. A whole plotline, wasted.
Winterfell: Prime example of time constraints squeezing plotlines. Myranda never really made sense as a character, and Theon's sudden conversion came out of nowhere. They could've at least had Myranda say something to set him off, but it was a total deus ex Greyjoy. GoT is always going to be in that second-tier of 21st century TV shows for exactly this reason. I always know exactly why someone is doing something in Mad Men. With GoT, there's all this hand-waving and CGI spectacle to cover up character work. For a show I continue to love and anticipate, it's not a fatal flaw, but a crippling one at least.
Stannis is the biggest surprise of the episode. I really though he had some staying power. Like last week, I buy everything that happened, but am still disconcerted by it, possibly because so much of it hinges on Ramsay being hyper-competent, and I don't buy him as that kind of person. Selyse hanging herself was oddly emotional, a succinct but believable end to her character. Stannis going ever-forward fits well with him, too, and his being punished for one of his many sins, if not the most recent, worked well. The show continues to be great at depicting cavalry charges. I'll miss Stannis the grammarian, but Davos and Melisandre live to see another day.
Meereen: Going into the next season, I'm most excited to see where this one goes next. Dany ends up in the same place as she does in the books, and there's been no suggestion of what happens to her next since 2011, to the best of my knowledge. I half expect her to go in the opposite direction, introducing the reader/viewer to Asshai, the HQ of the Lord of Light. Much better CGI work on Drogon. Poor guy.
As much as I want to know what happens to Dany, I love the looming Tyrion-Varys tag team running Meereen. No real sense of where this is going either, but the promise of Tyrion back in charge is tantalizing, bringing him back to his season 2 heights. The Meereen storyline has most closely followed GoT's typical pacing, and for that reason, I think it's my favorite of the year.
King's Landing: The big question leaving King's Landing is where are the Tyrell's? I was hoping they'd be in the welcome party for Cersei, cleaned up and back to normal. Are they still held captive in the Sept? Will they have to confess and make their own walks? They haven't been brought up since the seventh episode. Either way, Cersei's walk is another one of those things where the amount of money thrown at it makes the scene. If you can pay all those extras, your show's going to look good. The camerawork here was particularly effective, putting us in Cersei's head as she's spit on, abused, and had withered dongs are shoved in her face. She's a villain, but if GoT's good at anything, it's at turning the viewer around on people they've previously hated. The intro of Robert Strong promises some interesting results after her eventual trials. I wonder who'll be fighting him in the inevitable trial by combat...
The Wall: Poor, poor Ashli. I read that Kit's already got a haircut. Optimistically, there is a red priest at the Wall and we know they can resurrect people. Also, Jon Snow's got crazy plot armor. Sam's left to become a Maester, so if he's gone and Jon's dead, who are we following at the wall? Will Olly's meteoric rise continue? This was also the last thing to happen at the Wall in book 5, and I've never talked to anyone who thinks Jon stays dead. I was waiting very patiently for Jon's eyes to cloud over into whiteness before the cut to black, but alas. We will likely see that pout and hear that grumble again. The most spectacular stuff happened at the Wall this year, so in a series first, my two favorite plotlines happened with Dany and Jon. As they both have gone through their valleys in previous seasons, only to thoroughly recover, it gives me hope for other areas of the world that suffered from abbreviated motivations and plots. This isn't my least favorite season, but it's in the bottom half. The seams are showing, but with so many plotlines having ended, maybe things tighten back up in 2016.
Braavos: The pompous book-reader in me totally called this a few episodes, though I'm sure thousands of other people did, too. Arya kills Meryn Trant and is blinded as punishment, which is a twist on what happens in the books, though the timeline is shuffled around. As a season-long arc, it mostly works, wherein Arya attempts to lose herself and fails, but the promise of more training as a result next year isn't too promising. There's a presumed two seasons to go, and there isn't a whole lot of time left for Arya to continue in the House of Black and White. Still, an appropriately brutal kill, well-earned and well-shot in the soft light of the brothel. A different shade of acting from Maisie Williams, too, in her panic at Jaqen's presumed death. The overall plotline in Braavos has completely worked for me, with the caveat that I wish it had more forward momentum. Also, more Mace Tyrell please.
Dorne: There's an episode of Walking Dead where nothing character T-Dogg starts opening up for the first time in the series. Of course, he dies shortly after. When killing its characters, I don't think Game of Thrones has resorted to this kind of cheap nonsense previously, but with Myrcella, hoo boy, that was not great. She has a moment with her uncle/father, dies mid-embrace. This is a big deal, but so laborious getting there. It's both too complicated and not complicated enough. They spent all this time getting to this point, only to have Myrcella killed in the simplest way imaginable. Don't send the snake-o-gram, just poison her and be done with it. Or just send the snake-o-gram directly to her room, except it's a real snake. This whole thing was contrived to have one pretty cool beach fight, one bad garden fight, and a leering look at one of the Sand Snakes, who continue to not make an impression. On top of that, everyone involved looks dumb and simple. I can't think of a bigger failure in the show's history on this scale. A whole plotline, wasted.
Winterfell: Prime example of time constraints squeezing plotlines. Myranda never really made sense as a character, and Theon's sudden conversion came out of nowhere. They could've at least had Myranda say something to set him off, but it was a total deus ex Greyjoy. GoT is always going to be in that second-tier of 21st century TV shows for exactly this reason. I always know exactly why someone is doing something in Mad Men. With GoT, there's all this hand-waving and CGI spectacle to cover up character work. For a show I continue to love and anticipate, it's not a fatal flaw, but a crippling one at least.
Stannis is the biggest surprise of the episode. I really though he had some staying power. Like last week, I buy everything that happened, but am still disconcerted by it, possibly because so much of it hinges on Ramsay being hyper-competent, and I don't buy him as that kind of person. Selyse hanging herself was oddly emotional, a succinct but believable end to her character. Stannis going ever-forward fits well with him, too, and his being punished for one of his many sins, if not the most recent, worked well. The show continues to be great at depicting cavalry charges. I'll miss Stannis the grammarian, but Davos and Melisandre live to see another day.
Meereen: Going into the next season, I'm most excited to see where this one goes next. Dany ends up in the same place as she does in the books, and there's been no suggestion of what happens to her next since 2011, to the best of my knowledge. I half expect her to go in the opposite direction, introducing the reader/viewer to Asshai, the HQ of the Lord of Light. Much better CGI work on Drogon. Poor guy.
As much as I want to know what happens to Dany, I love the looming Tyrion-Varys tag team running Meereen. No real sense of where this is going either, but the promise of Tyrion back in charge is tantalizing, bringing him back to his season 2 heights. The Meereen storyline has most closely followed GoT's typical pacing, and for that reason, I think it's my favorite of the year.
King's Landing: The big question leaving King's Landing is where are the Tyrell's? I was hoping they'd be in the welcome party for Cersei, cleaned up and back to normal. Are they still held captive in the Sept? Will they have to confess and make their own walks? They haven't been brought up since the seventh episode. Either way, Cersei's walk is another one of those things where the amount of money thrown at it makes the scene. If you can pay all those extras, your show's going to look good. The camerawork here was particularly effective, putting us in Cersei's head as she's spit on, abused, and had withered dongs are shoved in her face. She's a villain, but if GoT's good at anything, it's at turning the viewer around on people they've previously hated. The intro of Robert Strong promises some interesting results after her eventual trials. I wonder who'll be fighting him in the inevitable trial by combat...
The Wall: Poor, poor Ashli. I read that Kit's already got a haircut. Optimistically, there is a red priest at the Wall and we know they can resurrect people. Also, Jon Snow's got crazy plot armor. Sam's left to become a Maester, so if he's gone and Jon's dead, who are we following at the wall? Will Olly's meteoric rise continue? This was also the last thing to happen at the Wall in book 5, and I've never talked to anyone who thinks Jon stays dead. I was waiting very patiently for Jon's eyes to cloud over into whiteness before the cut to black, but alas. We will likely see that pout and hear that grumble again. The most spectacular stuff happened at the Wall this year, so in a series first, my two favorite plotlines happened with Dany and Jon. As they both have gone through their valleys in previous seasons, only to thoroughly recover, it gives me hope for other areas of the world that suffered from abbreviated motivations and plots. This isn't my least favorite season, but it's in the bottom half. The seams are showing, but with so many plotlines having ended, maybe things tighten back up in 2016.
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