8x06 The Iron Throne

[7.2/10] For what seems like the umpeenth time as Game of Thrones started drawing to a close, I don't know what to do with the episode, or with the ending of the show overall.

On the one hand, I think the idea of Dany becoming the Mad Queen is a sound one, but the show also seemed to rush the transition to that point, so you sort of have to imagine a world where there was more lead-up to Dany becoming the person who would rain fire down on innocents. Tyrion lays out a plausible argument for how things would go that way -- how hard it is to use power and force against evil men and not start to believe that every time you use that power and force, it must be in service of destroying evil. But it doesn't feel like Game of Thrones has fully taken the audience through that transition. There is a fair point to be made about how crusaders for justice start to believe their own hype, and start to see everything that stands in the way of their greater power and triumph as an injustice. I just don't know if Game of Thrones has earned that point.

Still, if you take that progression as a given, I actually really like the first half of this episode. There is something so moving and operatic about the opening forty minutes or so, which block out most of the rest of Game of Thrones's sprawling world and narrow in on Tyrion, Jon, and Dany. The episode is so deliberately paced, giving us time to take in the horror and aftermath of King's Landing slowly and painfully, letting us savor the triumph mixed with pain and regret each of our would be heroes is feeling. The long conversation between Jon and Tyrion, the grand Triumph of the Will speech that Dany gives, the fateful final confrontation between Jon and Dany are all powerful set pieces in their own terms, which take time to lay out and resolve the dilemma that affects all three of them in terms moral, political, philosophical, and personal.

Then it happens, a vision of the future and an intimate moment turn into a murder and betrayal. Jon Snow is forced, once again, to watch a woman he loves die in his arms because it was deemed necessary for "the greater good." Drogon swoops in and melts the Iron Throne, and the whole scene is appropriately mournful, a visual elegy to this whole miserable journey, of noble ambition curdled into grief and fury, of a decent person having to sacrifice another piece of his soul to keep unstoppable death and destruction at bay. It is a sequence full of big moments and big emotions, but they fit with the momentousness of these questions and endings.

But then we have a Kingsmoot, and for reasons that still escape me, the assembled great lords and ladies of Westeros pick friggin' Bran to be their leader. I already wrote about this extensively in my full-blown review of this episode, so I don't want to belabor the point, but that choice is utterly confounding and deeply, deeply disappointing. How this flat affect, charmless weirdo, who offers little more than doublespeak and creepy stares, is the best-suited of any of them to be king, is beyond me. Tyrion's pronouncement that "Bran the Broken" has the best story of any of them is outright laughable, and the show's pitch for why he'd be a good king doesn't pass the smell test.

One of the show's biggest questions from early on has been who would sit on the iron throne at the end of the day, and it utterly donked the endgame there. Bran was useless enough that we spent an entire season without him and no one really minded or even cared. He has been a nearly superfluous presence on the show for a long time, and him being there in the end not only casts a pall over the finale, but makes a lot of what led us to that point seem retroactively bitter in hindsight.

Beyond just that, there are tons of questionable choices about who represents what and why and where, who decides to go and who decides to stay, and how all of the political questions that Game of Thrones has concerned itself with for so long shake out. This series has long asked the question of what a good government over Westeros would look like, when the old ways are jetissoned, and the answer it provides to that question is, at best, unconvincing.

Despite that, I actually really enjoy the goodbyes that the show gives to the other Stark children. Sansa recognizing that the North has come too far to bend the knee to a distant king ever again, and finally taking her rightful place as leader of her people, is a warm culmination of her journey from little bird to smart and savvy operator. Arya having learned all she can in Westeros and ports beyond, fulfilled her destiny, and setting off to find a new one in a new place with fewer bounds and expectations, is a good final note for a young woman who always sought excitement and possibilities beyond what this society could offer her.

And Jon, still haunted by what "the right thing" has forced him to do for these past many years, finally gets to rest. He's returned to where he started, but gets to leave it all behind: the titles, the burdens, the bloodlines, the existential threats, that have impressed this decent, simple man into service for so long. The wars are over; the threats are nullified, and each of the Starks can say farewell to one another, off to be the people they always wanted to be. There's an appropriate combination of warmth and melancholy in these scenes, the joy of where each of them ends up, with the hardship of separation and the memory of all that it took to get there.

So where does that leave us? It leaves us with an end to the Dany/Jon/Tyrion triumvirate that feels right in the moment, that coasts on the emotions of the moment and the talents of the performers and the striking images on the screen, but which also feels built on an inadequate foundation. It leaves us with an answer to the series' central question -- over who should rule and how in the ashes of a corrupt system -- that seems misguided at best and outright stupid at worst. And it closes the show by twisting and bending the plot to account for it, but still ends with some of the show's most important characters in places that feel right. It's a finale that leaves me conflicted, in how it fails at the level of logic but succeeds in making me happy, or at least satisfied, with where many of the protagonists I cared most about ended up.

Like much of these endgame-pointing seasons, Game of Thrones final frame is a mixed bag, one filled with questionable choices and beautiful scenes, with character destinations that both baffle and endear, and with moments that make you smile in joy and make you want to bang your head against a wall. No show could possibly have lived up to the lofty expectations for the finale of a series this big, and Game of Thrones certainly doesn't come close, but there's enough worth saving, worth liking here, to give me pause against calling it a total failure. Like the people of Westeros, this last episode, and this show, contains both the great and terrible, and which side wins out at a given moment depends on what you focus on, and who.

This was probably as good of a ending that could've been had after they decided to dracarys the ending via the penultimate episode..

Most of the problems of the past 2 seasons are the result of Dan & Dave being over Westeros and shortening the season's.. With so many storylines and character's to wrap up, there probably needed to be an additional season, with each of the last 3 being a full 10 episodes..

HBO offered to pay whatever and George asked the showrunner's.. They opted to rush the ending so they can get that Disney money..

That's why the Dany turn was so unearned.. I never liked her and noticed how much she enjoyed killing ppl.. But still, she was killing bad people.. But she was forced to make the jump from burning slavers to women in children quickly because of the writer's have a star wars franchise to milk..

I'm cool with the Dany assassination.. Don't understand why Drogon would destroy the throne but not kill Dany's killer.. If he was so wise to understand Jon did it to prevent Dany from burning down another city, perhaps Drogon would've just not willing burned down King's Landing..

So weird.

I should have felt more after 8 years. Went out with neither a bang or a whimper, it just kinda ended. Not too bad, not too good. Just… Middling. Some good moments but just felt... meh. I never expected a fairy-tale ending, but every character I cared about ended up alone. GRRM said the ending would be bittersweet, so I guess he was right. The series is said to have the same ending in the books, but it seems like D&D lacked the vision on how to get from point a to point b so they rushed it. I expect the books will get us there more satisfactorily.

There were just so many issues with the characterization choices this episode.

• Bran as king? It seems like just a random choice. The only way this makes any sense to me is if Bran was the true villain. Manipulating everyone so he/the Third Eyed Raven could be king. That’s why he told Jon the truth about his parents – to create divide, it drove Daenerys mad knowing that the throne she has been fighting for could be easily snatched away from her. But the show failed at showing how insanely powerful Bran is and wasted his entire character and power set - he’s the Three Eyed Raven, but we never get to see the things he can do. Nothing has been explained about the point of his character change to the Three Eyed Raven or his role until just abruptly being elected for kind, and most of those people at the council had no understanding of who he had become or what he’d gone through. This season he just sat in chair and delivered emotionless dialogue. And they never explained what Bran was doing during the war of winterfell, “I’m going to go now.” GO WHERE?

• I wasn’t happy with Jon going back to the wall. I know he never wanted to rule. He didn’t fit in as a Stark or a Targaryen. It was the wildlings who didn’t care about his background. He rejects both of what his namesakes expect of him, either King of the North or the next Mad King. And it makes sense his character ends the way it did. BUT he should have choose that path himself and gave up the throne, not being forced to, not having someone exiting him to the North.

• The North decides that it will secede from the crown and all the other lords are just… cool with that? Really? That’s one of the most unbelievable things I’ve seen this show try to pull off.

• Sansa literally told Jon last season that she didn’t want to be Queen in The North, which is how Jon became King in The North. But … now she wants to be Queen in The North because…? The northmen won’t bow to Ned Stark’s true male heir? Wouldn’t they be pretty happy to see the Lord of Winterfell become King of the Seven Kingdoms?

• Dothraki suddenly civilised and allow the lords of Westeros into Kings Landing to choose a new king, how kind of them. And did the Unsullied sent ravens around the Seven Kingdoms asking for a council meeting while just kept Jon and Tyrion prisoners? All after seeing their leader killed. Grey Worm would have 100% killed both Jon and Tyrion, but the writers decided they needed a happy ending. Grey Worm said it himself that he controlled the city, they had all the ships etc., but minutes later the Unsullied and Dothraki just packed up and left?

• Tyrion digging out Jamie and Cersei was heartbreaking. But they both looked remarkably unsmooshed under that rubble. Last week they made it look like the crypts were completely collapsing but now they’re just under a small pile of bricks with Jaime’s hand sticking out conveniently for Tyrion to find. In D&D's world, even corpses have plot armor.

• A prisoner, who made mistake after mistake after mistake for half of the series, decided the mode of governance of Westeros. He managed to convince Jon to kill Daenerys in one 10 minute scene, then he managed to convince the lords of Westeros to make Bran their king in another 10 minute scene (all while Grey Worm stands behind him making faces like he’s waiting on line at the bank and the lady in front of him is taking too long).

• Arya straight up gave Jon a speech about how family needs to stick together and then just decided that she wants to go full Columbus.

• From what I understood, Tyrion is really the king. The whole scene when Bran shows at the small council, asks about the dragon and then leaves, was about showing that Bran accepted to be king just to have Tyrion actually rule behind the scenes. You would say he actually won the “game” of Thrones but he wasn’t mentioned in the record, and I guess this is his punishment. He basically is not going to be mentioned in their history at all, yet has to serve as the Hand of the King. And this whole council scene felt like a comedy skit, Bronn master of coin? What the hell?

• My biggest problem with the finale is that the resolution they chose would guarantee more power struggles in Westeros, but the show acts like they just took the first step towards founding a democracy. How has the wheel been broken? There is still a king after all. He’s elected by all the other kingdoms. What exactly is holding the kingdoms together at this point? Why would any lords swear fealty to Bran? Feels like this would lead to an even greater civil war and total abandonment of the concept of a united realm.

A lot of people say that this season too rushed. And I agree, but there were so many scenes that consist of nothing but staring, and nothing happening that furthers the plot. They could have cut a lot of this season out and no one would notice. Even the finale had this issue in several scenes - they couldn’t show how John was arrested, but will show Tyrion adjusting chairs. I'm not saying everything has to be action packed and stuff going on all the time, but at least fill this space with some interesting dialogue that adds to the story.

It's been a journey. The theme I see the creators going for is that the greatest threat isn't the white walkers, it's each other. Issues that I have with the ending of the series was Dany took out ALL the scorpions and the fleet with her one dragon? Like, it wasn't even a contest. And this is already after her army fought the dead. Just seems that things should've been more evenly matched.

Bran swooping in and getting the crown, nice twist, but seems just a little off. Bran has been getting on my nerves. He's like one of those holier than thou guys I try to avoid on Sundays. I wish they kept more of his humanity. Dany's change to mad queen seems it could've been more motivated, maybe they could've injured Drogon or something happened with Jon. And what's up with Drogon burning the throne? The symbolism seemed a bit on the nose.

Greyworm as the loyal servant, a little racialized,

Personally would've wanted more of an arc with the white walkers. Dany going mad, if that was the direction, fine. That should've spanned a few more episodes.

Overall, still entertaining, but I just didn't feel as connected in this last episode to all the characters. Night King, that might've been better as a final boss, I'm still debating.