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Game of Thrones 50: Mother's Mercy

6/15/2015

15 Comments

 
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.

15 Comments
Bobby
6/14/2015 05:49:01 pm

I'm in much agreement on things...

I was extremely happy to have Varys back... I would watch a full season of Varys and Tyrion just shootin the shit and running a kingdom. If it can't be Westeros, I'll take Mereen for part of next season. Maybe Tyrion will build a shrine to the god of tits and wine there.

Winterfell was really disappointing for me this week. As Jon mentioned, the sudden flip of Theon was out of no where... sure he had reason to do it, but nothing at the moment considering he's had multiple other chances to flip the switch...with better motivation. Ramsay still lives, which i suppose the need to keep some kind of super villain around until we really dig even further beyond the wall next year.

But what really got me, was the Lifetime movie feel of the candle. Was Brienne waiting there day in and day out since Sansa was told what to do for help? The PERFECT timing of the candle being lit just as Brienne turns her back... this giant flame we can see from WAY OFF... turns out to be a tiny candle, in the middle of daylight. Neat.

Also, Stannis being the absolute last man standing of his army is pretty lame looking. It's been a long tale of logical leaps lately, so.. have another. Are we certain he's dead? We didn't see it happen. I was just telling Bryan that we've seen every death of an important character, right? That's not rhetorical... if somebody recalls one, I'd like to be reminded.

I am glad, however, that Winterfell was early in the episode, so i could forget about it while the better stuff went on... especially going straight to Arya. While we mostly knew what was going to happen, It was still awesome in how it all played out.

I also thought the Walk of Atonement was really well done. A part of me wished it was drawn out more... to make us really feel the length of it, but the views we got from Cersei looking out at the Red Keep were adequate. The Tyrells still have their trials coming as well, right?

Dorne... I don't even want to talk about. I liked the idea of Jaime and Bronn headed there... and it started off well. But they might as well have stayed home, and never even brought the Sand Snakes into the show. Agreed with Kissel... mostly a big waste of time that could have been better spent somewhere else.

Ah... the Wall. It was really the only way this season could end for anybody who's read the books, right? I'm curious as to where they go with Ollie, since he's a show creation, and for the most part... those haven't fared well for long. Thinking about how Melisandre is there for Jon... what did the show do with Baric? I can't recall... was he just forgotten, or was he given a proper exit from the series?

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Jon
6/14/2015 08:43:29 pm

Book 5 is filled with chapters that end with a character that may as well be dead. I think that happens to almost all of the POV characters at one point or another. I didn't like it in the book, and I wouldn't like it in the show. If Stannis isn't dead, that would be ridiculous.

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Bobby
6/14/2015 09:02:03 pm

I meant for the show only... it just seems very inconsistent with how the show has handled every single death of note so far. Why would they start cutting away from it now?

Ridiculous, yes... but that doesn't mean it's not something they'd do!

Sean
6/15/2015 02:12:30 am

In a series built on not leaving the viewer satisfied they didn't want to offer the audience the satisfaction of seeing his death after burning Shireen

Bobby
6/15/2015 05:14:37 am

There were still a lot of people in the pro-Stannis camp.

Also, we weren't robbed of the satisfaction from Jeoffery's demise. I just don't buy that as a reason have have our first major off screen death blow.

Sean
6/14/2015 06:09:58 pm

We didn't see the Hound die, he was left for dead...

FrankenMountain goes by the name Robert Strong? Did they say that or is it book knowledge? Dumb name.

Why not finish a terrible story line with a kickass quote from a Sandsnake they probably borrowed from 70s sexploitation movies.

Agree Theons flip wasn't well executed, everyone knew it would happen eventually but it wasn't earned. I liked how the chick had her bow drawn for several minutes. I think I saw something about Igritte hesitating to shoot Jon and the science for how strong her arm would have to be to hold a drawn bow that long, it was something past both Thor and the Hulk.

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Bobby
6/14/2015 06:15:08 pm

And I don't believe the Hound is dead. But that's book theory. Of course, even if he's alive in the book, as I'm most certain he is, doesn't mean he's a live in the show. So that could be fair exception. It's fine if Stannis is dead, I just wouldn't be overly surprised if Brienne didn't go through with it for whatever reason the show runners decide make up.

Ser Robert Strong is book knowledge... yes.

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Jon
6/14/2015 08:44:41 pm

Did Qyburn not introduce him by name? I just assumed.

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Phil
6/15/2015 05:43:16 am

Game of Thrones has always played the long game well, and that's what this finale felt like. Unlike last year, where we got quite a bit of resolution for several plot lines, we're left this year with almost no resolution this year. This makes it a tough season to grade. It almost feels like this should be season 5A and next year season 5B.

I think anyone who claims to know Jon Snow's fate for certain is a liar, and that includes GRRM. I like my brother's theory here that we don't bother spending two or three episodes in season 3 with a red priest who has been resurrected six times without it eventually being folded into the overarching story. So it seems like Season 6 on The Wall will be spent with Melissandre attempting to resurrect Jon Snow, but who knows how that will go. I need the Ask The Maester column to explain how Warging works again. And let's not forget Bran is still hanging out with the Tree Man, so who knows where that circles back to. (Can Jon's soul go into Bran's body while Bran wargs himself out of his own body? Is that a real sentence an adult male wrote?)

I'm also firmly of the opinion Stannis is alive and well-ish until proven otherwise. Game of Thrones isn't particularly squeemish about showing heads roll, and its forte isn't kicking a character while they're down. Having Stannis cut down at his lowest point seems too conventional for GoT... that being said, I have no idea where he fits in the world now that he doesn't have an army.

Meanwhile, is Cersei now the lesser of two evils? Agreed that there was an obscene money probably thrown at that scene, most probably going right into Lena Headey's proverbial pocket. It felt like GoT was lacking great villains... Kings Landing was sorely lacking any great heroes.

And just like last year, all the best stories are in Essos. Tyrion/Varys is going to be a lot of fun. Arya's story could go any direction at this point, and I have absolutely no clue what happens next there. The Jorah & Daario road trip looks like it's going to be a lot of down time though.

Dorne feels tough to judge. I don't have all this book junk to cloud my judgement of it, but it felt fine to me. The garden fight was really bad though. And yes, the Myrcella stuff was pretty ham-fisted. It makes you wonder now whether or not Jaime and Bronn leave or turn around.

Did the Theon stuff really feel that out of nowhere? He spent the entire 2nd half of the season teetering back and forth prior to finally making the right choice.

Overall, it was a season that had a slow start and just a bonkers finish. It's tough to not put these last three episodes in the pantheon of some of the best episodes of the series.

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Bobby
6/15/2015 06:21:52 am

Bran is a much more powerful warg than Jon... and there's little to no reason to think that Jon can warg another person. BUT, Ghost is at the wall, so it's very possible Jon can occupy Ghost for however long is necessary for Melisandre to do the the thing. But she directly questioned Thoros as to how he brought Baric back so many times.

Bran is likely too far away to assist Jon at the moment, and he's being all greenseered into the trees... of which the closest one to Jon is a decent walk, recalling their hike to take their oaths.

What about warging are you wondering?

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Bobby
6/15/2015 06:26:38 am

More powerful, might not be the correct wording... but more experienced. Jon could be more powerful, as it's been hinted that he has untapped power. I'd guess after he's brought back, he'll be working with Melisandre to really learn more about what he can do and how magic works.

Bobby
6/15/2015 06:28:48 am

Also.. Not really a spoiler, but as explained in the books some that I don't think has been talked about in the show:




"A skinchanger can experience many deaths while in another body. It is only when the person's human body dies that the "true death" occurs. It is possible for the warg to live a type of second life, a much simpler life inside the mind of an animal he controls. In the second life, the skinchanger's memory slowly fades until nothing of the man is left and only the beast remains."

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Phil
6/18/2015 06:14:59 am

Clearly my brother David is thinking way too much about why Jon Snow had to be killed and resurrected. Most of the analysis we've seen pertains to why it's possible in GoT's world. The motivations behind killing him off hadn't really been explored.

GRRM had quite the Catch-22 with Jon - how do you keep him honorable and noble while having him break his vow to The Watch? After all, he passed up love, glory, riches, and pretty much everything else you can pass on in order to keep his vow. Well, here's the NW vow again...

"Night gathers, and now my watch begins. It shall not end until my death. I shall take no wife, hold no lands, father no children. I shall wear no crowns and win no glory. I shall live and die at my post. I am the sword in the darkness. I am the watcher on the walls. I am the fire that burns against the cold, the light that brings the dawn, the horn that wakes the sleepers, the shield that guards the realms of men. I pledge my life and honor to the Night's Watch, for this night and all the nights to come."

I guess a technical loophole to get out of The Night's Watch would be to die, yes? So he gave his life, but nothing is mentioned of another life. There's no mention of a body or soul either. Seems fair enough to me.

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Sean
6/18/2015 06:17:39 am

Grantland's Watch the Thrones pod mentioned that saying "now his watch is over" time to go save the world

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Phil
6/18/2015 10:31:22 am

Good. Jon Snow is too good for The Night's Watch dammit!




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