I am passionate about several things and would consider myself to be more or at least equally passionate about music, my favourite German football team, the "One Piece" Manga, Carlos Ruiz Zafón novels and 2D Super Mario games, than I am passionate about Game of Thrones. And I have read horrible opinions about every single one of them. Opinions by apparent fans that dislike something just for the sake of disliking it. Usually I'd say "yeah, whatever, nobody's shitty views can poison my passion for something" and for all those things I listed up above that would be true. I read many bad reviews/comments about my favourite stuff, where I could not even understand any of their points of criticism, and yet it did not bother me. But for some reason when it happens within GOT, it starts to bother me and at least since the reactions to the penultimate episode of season 7 it starts to make me less excited for the finale. The finale of the season, but also the entire series. I should not let all those, in my opinion, super exaggerated points of criticism take away just the tiniest sliver of my passion for the show, but it does. That is my fault, but it's also not.
I guess a lot of it has to do with Game of Thrones being so much bigger than those other things I love. And so the number of people with opinions that are completely opposite to my ideas, views, theories and opinions are way bigger as well as they could be, let's say, on the topic of 90's Indierock and Posthardcore.
Now, the people that read my Reviews and texts about the past episodes might conquer by saying, that I'm just an apologetic yes-sayer, but that is not true. I just consider myself way more forgiving than so, so many people in this fandom seem to be, tho. Let's not kid ourselves here, GOT will go down in history as the greatest and most epic TV series there has been to date. The fanbase is ginormous although the plot is so complex, something that only Tolkien with the help of Peter Jackson, George Lucas and Roddenberry were able to do before GRRM and the duo of Benioff and Weiss did it. A fantastic universe that has found fans within the absolute mainstream.
Not every fan sees the show like we, who are knee-deep in theories and rumors, leaked plots and behind the scenes gossip, do. For many sunday is the day they watch GOT, thursday they watch Grey's Anatomy and Scandal and on whatever fucking day it's on the watch their favourite version of the faceless NCIS/CSI/L&O-crime-drama they enjoy. GOT to them is just another primetime tv series they like. And those are the people paying for HBO, those are the ones buying the bulk of the blue rays and buy the brand new pressing of all five books in that fancy box set to let it dust in their living room, while we have flea market versions of the books until all seven are out and we buy the one box set that we will read for the rest of our lives and pass down to our children.
We are fucking nerds. The bulk of the viewers is not. I can understand why the creators sometimes take short cuts. Because 99% of viewers don't care. That's absolutely fair, everyone should know their audience and please them with as little as possible. After all this is all about business and nothing else.
The other thing I let influence my evaluations of the show is the super limited medium that a weekly tv series is. It's hard to tell this complex story in ten episodes (or seven) a year and make it still accessible to a wide audience. And under those circumstances Weiss and Benioff make a tremendous job. That alone makes even the worst episode of this series (one of the Dorne ones in season 5) a 6/10, maybe more. So it makes me fucking angry when I read 2/10 reviews of a 45min episode that has more great content than most blockbuster movies have in 100mins. It just infuriates me how little consideration people give to this amazing product we are served every week. What a miracle it is that such an epic book series was even attempted to be put into the format of a tv series. And it fucking works. It works and it's successful beyond belief. That is so, so amazing and to me it feels like heresy to even consider a review score of 2/10 or whatever shit I read the past few days. That's a score you could award an episode of "Two Broke Girls" or one of the better episodes of that fucking MacGyver reboot that's currently on. But an episode of GOT? Even if you consider it a bad one? That's just not being genuine. That's just hating for the sake of hating and no basis for discussion.
Let me explain, what I love about "Game of Thrones" and the ASOIAF books so much. It's obviously it's complexity, the sure size of the universe that the story takes place in. But that's not everything. More omportant for me is the fact that we know a lot about the end of the series. So we can theorize a whole lot what will happen between now and said ending.
Imagine you have a runner that ran from A to B in X hours. We could theorize a hell lot what happened to that runner on his journey. It might not be exciting theorizing about it, but we still could do it. Now imagine it being several dozen runners that you have come to know and love for seven years and more. Characters that have undergone development, characters that you have very manifested opinions on and also characters that you have flip-flopped on when it comes to loving or hating them. And of course a lot of those characters die on the journey to point B. But there is still quite a stretch to go and you know so much about the characters and the way their story is being told that you can predict a whole lot of things that will happen until those of them that are left will finally arrive at point B.
With other fandoms, other TV series, other series of novels we know way less, maybe even nothing about the end and so making theories becomes nearly impossible. In GOT many, many theories have come true over the years, others were still awesome and might even be things we'd rather have seen than the actual events on the show. That, for me, is the fun of being knee deep in this fandom, spending hours in sub-reddits and forums to discuss theories and just read of other people who feel about the show like me.
Well, especially since the start of season 7 that has changed always a bit more to me getting angry at people that appear to just watch the show to be infuriated by it. I should not, but I do get angry, and it steals a bit of my fun when I am "theory hunting".
For example. In this season people have been outraged about the pysical limits of a huge Crossbow that Qyburn invented to have at least some weapon against Dragons. They say it's not logical that such a heavy bolt can fly a straight line for hundreds of feet. To shoot a Dragon (sic!). Do these people even read what they're typing?
That brings us to this latest episode. An episode where people have been making up or at least inflating so many "points of criticism", it's not even funny, like those crossbow dudes were.
So the Night King, the super antagonist of this entire show that only the people in the north (esp the people at the wall and beyond it) knew about is finally here. He's finally made moves, something people have been waiting for for years. Yeah, now he did, but nobody seems to be pleased. They say, Why didn't he attack Jon and his men earlier? and Why didn't he shoot Drogon instead of Viserion?
Well, obviously the Night King knew, Dany would come. It has been confirmed on more than one occasion that he has similar powers to everybody's favourite awkward zen-teenager Bran Stark. He touched Bran who was not really there last season before the undead attacked the cave in which the Three-Eyed Raven and the Children of the Forest lived and he saw Bran again last episode when Bran "warged" into a raven and did some exploration beyond the wall to see what Blueeyes and his cronies are up to. So why should the Night King not be able to see parts of the future? Or maybe just his future as supposed to Bran who can see everything but does not have powers like the Night King when it comes to mindcontrol or Resurrection? He might've forseen that he needs to wait at that frozen lake for two, three days or however long it took for Gendry to run to Eastwatch, for the Raven to reach Dragonstone and the Dragons to get from Dragonstone to said lake. We know how tough the men are that Jon went out with. But they were sleeping, at least a few of them when the Hound threw that rock. So they must've been there... I'd say two days at least before any of them would dare to close an eye while being surrounded by fiftythousand Undeads. We know these characters. We know how Jon and Jorah and Clegane and Berric and Tormund are. Why would any real viewer of the show not see that they would never get some rest in that situation unless they've been there for a long time? This makes me so fucking mad, you have no idea. People who are outraged about the episode and what they call "instant teleportation by ravens and dragons" consider themselves to be fans of the show but think someone like Jorah Mormont would even take a sit on that lake island while they were there for only a few hours? What the fuck, man?
This is the stuff that I'm talking about when I say some people seem to be just watching to be infuriated. It's taking cancerous proportions in this once so fun community.
These claims of the "deus ex machina of unknown proportions being at work" is so, so blown out of proportion, it's unbelievable. People are losing their shit over the fucking chains that the undead pulled Viserion out with. I DON'T GIVE A FUCK ABOUT THOSE CHAINS. Maybe the Night King got them from the giants that he turned into undead as we saw in an earlier episode this season. Maybe the giants used them to have mammoths pull their carriages or move giant trees they have cut down and the undead brought them along b/c the Night King knew he'd need them... whatever it is, it is super irrelevant. It is something that is there because it is needed. These things have happened in this show dozens of times before, they are basically a trademark at this point. Dany was there at the lake right when she needed to be. So was Brienne when she saved Sansa who was fleeing Winterfell. So was Yoyen when he stopped Arya from jumping to her father who was to be executed. So was Drogon when Dany and her people were surrounded in that fighting pit in Mereen. So was the Hound right before Sansa was to be raped during the riot in King's Landing. So was Craster's random daughter/wife that injured Karl just before he could kill Jon during the Mutiny. So were the Wildlings and Jon's friends in the Watch before Thorne and his men could get to Jon's dead body to burn or do whatever to him. Even Howland Reed did it to backstab Ser Arthur Dayne who was about to kill Ned at the Tower of Joy. See, that shit happened even in the past.
If something is needed to ensure the plot-armor is strong enough, it's there. That's how this show works. Why is this suddenly such a horrible thing? Why was it not before? Because it happens more often? That's because the narration gets quicker and quicker towards the story's climax. And also because so many fans were underwhelmed with how little the plot moved during the middle seasons of the series.
See? They're giving the fans what they want and still no one's happy.
Deus Ex Machina my ass, this is epic fantasy story telling within the very limited medium of a weekly TV series. Of course it will have narrative flaws. But those are not the giant plot holes people are claiming that they are. It seems people just need something to be mad about.
Let's go to Winterfell, where fans are so very confused with the fact that two sisters that disliked themselves from episode 1 are still not really fond of one another. But now both are very strong characters, have drifted apart more than any two Stark siblings have, and still people are surprised when these two very stubborn characters (Arya: a trained assassin and Jon's most loyal sibling; Sansa: a very well educated politician and immensly proud leader) have a confrontation? Really?
Of course Arya seems like a psycho, because she kinda is one. She has been for a long time, but when she was fighting for her life 24/7 or murdering Freys it was a very convenient character trait. Now back at home it seems a little bit out of place. Sure, but she's the same character as before just now people don't like that she's still suspicious of everything because it's her sister she's suspicious of and people don't like her method of intimidation, something she has literally done since she threatened Hotpie in King's Landing the day she met Gendry, left for the north and all that shebang. That scene in this current episode is literally the same one as the one with Hotpie and that other kid, but back then it was funny becaus Hotpie is a fat bully and she the little girl, while now she's the awesomely developped character being suspicious of the person that's more different from her than any other person in all of Westeros.
To me this is character development and character continuation in one, this is amazing story-telling and one of the things that makes the show great while the critics of this episode call it inauthentic psycho-bullshit. Welp... Like I said, just watching to be infuriated.
And just as authentic is Sansa, btw. As weird as it seems, Baelish is the one person in Winterfell right now that she can figure out the most. Not saying she has him figured out completely, but she knows how to handle him way better than she knows how to behave around Arya or Bran.
Try to see it from her perspective. She has accepted that there is the Night King and believes reports that there are dragons. She knows about dragons from stories that her dad told her about the throne room of Aerys and the heads that were displayed there. So it's not too hard to believe. And being from the north, knowing the bedtime stories of Old Nan, of course she can accept more than most Westerosi that White Walkers are real as well. But faceless men, wargs, three-eyed ravens, perfectly impersonating someone and all you need is their face... that's pretty weird shit. Of course she is highly suspicious as well. Why would she not be.
Also it's just normal from her to want to get rid of the note that Arya found before any conflicts with the Northern Lords happen (although I think she could talk herself out of it). She's a politician at war trying to hold her army, her people and "her" kingdom together. There's nothing surprising here. Yet many people hate her for going into Arya's stuff, or for demanding answers. Again: What the fuck, man?
They will soon enough figure out what fuckshittery Baelish is playing, they will soon enough realize that they need to work together. Of course, those two are the single most (and best) developed characters in the entire show, even more than Jaimie, and the show-runners won't ruin that by letting them be played by Baelish that easily. But right now both act very authentic in my opinion, because them being suspicious of one another is the very first thing on their minds. I think this is definitely no bad story telling.
I think the entire conflict between all the people in Winterfell will solve itself early next season when the news of Jon bending the knee and the results of that meeting with Cersei get to the north. Propably then Sam and Gilly will also get to Winterfell and Bran will drop some knowledge about Jon and in one big bang one way or the other this entire situation will get a whole lot clearer for all involved.
Okay, speaking of the north. Jon. People are furious about him "playing the hero" and not getting on Drogon and bouncing outta there. Of course he would not do that. That is Jon's entire fucking character. He does not think himself to be important. He thinks he's responsible for going north, for not being able to convince Dany of the threat beyond the wall, but now she saw it. And Winterfell is in Stark-hands. And Bran and Arya are alive. And he still has beef with the Night King from Hardhome. He thinks it's personal and also that his job is done and the Night King can be defeated without him. That's why he decides to buy them time. That's literally the most authentic scene in this entire episode, except for Clegane's reaction to Tormund mentioning Brienne, lul.
And after Viserion dies he blames himself again and wants to stay, wants to take down as many undeads as possible. Also understandable. Stupid, from the viewer's point of view, but still completely in line with his character. He just decides to get out of there when he sees the second ice spear and fears for all his cronies to die. And his Bae Dany. And another dragon that will be needed for killing the undead. So of course he decides that it's better to get out of that place then.
The only thing where I can understand the outrage about this episode is that stuff with Benjen. I know why they decided to do it as they did, why he had to die and why he needed to show his face to Jon shortly and all that, but I think they could have done that way more elegantly.
Imagine this: Dany is standing on that Tower in Eastwatch with Jorah, Jorah says like "even if he got out of that lake there is no living soul between him and the wall, he has no chance" and then the viewer thinks...wait a minute there's the world's most cold uncle and then they cut to Jon being surrounded and frozen half to death and facing certain death for the umpteenth time and then there is Benjen. That would have been way better than him just showing up out of nowhere.
He obviously had to die because this was the last scene we will ever see beyond the wall and Benjen could not pass the wall. So he would have been a loose end forever. I believe the Night King will overcome the wall next week, maybe even destroy parts of it with the help of Viserion, so this was the last chance to get rid of Benjen. But like I said, it could've been done way more elegantly. Which is a shame because the creators were very elegant earlier in this show when it came to similar stuff in a lot of scenes. A bit of a pity, but not the super-dumbass move people make it out to be.
But the funniest about all this outrage about the episode is, that almost no one writes about the good stuff that happened here. First of all cinematically that whole scene on the lake from the arrival of the dragons up to Drogon evading that second ice spear was epic as fuck. As was Danys take-off with her kids from Dragonstone.
And the walk of the group beyond the wall was amazing. The Hound and Gendry, Jon and Jorah, Hound and Tormund, Jon and Berric, this was all tremendous and very important. partially for comedic reasons, but also for character development and relationship development. If the Hound and Tormund had not had that talk, they would not have that epic nod towards eachother when Clegane loaded the undead onto that boat and said his version of a goodbye to Berric.
Also no one seems to mention how fucking epic this meeting with Cersei will be from a sub-plot standpoint. The Hound and Tyrion will meet again, Brienne and Jaimie, Tyrion and Pod, the Hound and Brienne, Bron and Tyrion, and of course Clegane and Clegane. When the Hound joined the Brotherhood to go north, I really thought we'd never get a Clegane Bowl, but now they're at least in the same story arc again. This will be so fucking fun. All of it, no matter what develops from this meeting.
Besides this, another amazing part of this episode was Emilia Clarkes acting. Somewhere between episode two and episode four of this season, she must have learned how to act. Again her facial expressions were as on point as last week when Jon decided to go north or when he touched Drogon or when she had that conflict with Tyrion. This week it was the same. Be it her standoff with Tyrion before she flew north, be it Viserions death, seeing Jon drown, seeing him come back, that entire scene at Jon's bedside... amazing. We don't even mention this from characters like Jon, Sansa, Davos, Tyrion or Jorah because they have given us great acting for so many seasons, but Emilia Clarke who was always one of the weaker points in an otherwise flawless ensemble cast has caught up. In the first two episodes she had a few scenes where her face was as blank as it was so many times in previous seasons, but basically since the episode when Jon arrived in Dragonstone, she was amazing. So either she just got better which is possible or she is just better at acting more human emotions than those of a ruler. That scene at the end of last season where she makes Tyrion Hand of the Queen was another great, great scene, whereas the scene where she is completely queen and asks Varys about his loyalties in this year's season opener she was very bland and not very believable again.
But I guess since there has been more than just political tention between Jon and Dany since his arrival, she can play her character way better.
I guess we have to add her to those characters where we just don't mention their great performances because it should be expected from her now.
So, this was my rant, my review, my answer to most of the points of critique that people keep inflating about this episode. And this was my last long written comment for this series. I'm done with being so knee deep into this fandom, because it makes me angry. And I want to enjoy this show that I still very much like.
So, before all this in my opinion unnecessary criticism, all this talking something bad that isn't bad, all this giving ratings like 2/10 to an episode of what will go down in history as the greatest TV show of all time, before all of this makes me lose more excitement for the show, I will just step away.
