Game of Thrones Finale

Game of Thrones Season Finale:

The final episode of this season of Game of Thrones was not as eye catching as its predecessor. However, like its predecessors it did a good job of wrapping up the main themes of the season while giving us some momentum going into season three. While not, in my mind, as successful as the finale episodes of seasons 1 and two, the episode did, (taking advantage of the extra ten minutes they were granted) manage to touch briefly on the primary concerns that we’ll be seeing in the next season while once again pointing rather ominously North.

The episode begins with Roose Bolton peering down at the destruction of the last few Stark banner men. Arya, not quite out of the woods yet, gets a view of her headless brother with a wolf sewn on in its place. It’s a nice touch in that it recalls the beheading of Eddard Stark in season one. The Hound saves Arya again, grabbing a banner of the Bolton side to appear harmless.

This part of the episode and show gets interesting. Arya, pretty much psychologically damaged goods at this point, heroine or not, decides to stab an unsuspecting soldier to death after overhearing him claim that he sawed the head off the wolf. The Hound winds up saving her by killing off the other three soldiers. The interesting part is that Arya acquired the knife from the Hound and used it on these random soldiers. Is there hope for her yet? She flips the coin and calls for her friendly assassin, which indicates that she may shortly be taking a trip to Bravos to learn some tricks of the trade before returning as an avenging angel.

It’s clear that she’s going to be one of the heroines, so I’d like to see her start to show a little intelligence and spare the rather good hearted Hound. I think it’s also imperative, and somewhat problematic that the events of the world are turning her into a cold little revenge machine. I for one will not feel the same sense of justice served if Arya loses too much of her humanity in the quest for blood. I think it’s somewhat important that some of the heroes remain, if not unstained or uncomplicated, at least leaning towards good. In fact, it’s these sorts of narratives that we create for ourselves that define us. I don’t want things perfect. The history of the U.S. is instructive in this case, touted as the wonderful deliverers of Europe, enders of the Holocaust, the “Good War” etc, all of which are a lot more complicated when you take into account the dropping of two atom bombs on a civilian population. As asides go, this is pretty tangential, but I’m merely pointing out that I’m not asking for a lessening in complexity, but I am asking for something approaching a good character. It appears that Arya’s family will be comprised of assassins and King’s Guard, I just hope they take good care of her before she comes back to murder everyone in Westeros.

Our other resident “good character” and relatively poor actor, Jon Snow returns to Castle Black in style, dragged on the back of the horse with three arrows sticking out of his body. Well, we’ve all had nights like that lad, said the blind old caretaker. Well, maybe he didn’t. The conclusion of the Jon as wilding arc is concluded, but I’m still interested in the role that the massing wildling army will play.

The episode actually begins on a tender note, with Tyrion and Sansa finding some common ground, plotting how best to take care of the people who mock them. The tender Tyrion, perhaps as Varus suggests when he tries to buy off Shea, the best hope of a good leader in Westeros is making good headway, but is unfortunately truncated when Sansa discovers the death of her brother and mother at the hands of the villainous Walder Frey. No children anytime soon. And besides, Roose Bolton is now the Warden in the North. (Not that that seems like it will last long. He’s got Bran telling stories about treachery and a bunch of pissed of Iron Born sailing upriver to reclaim Theon. As an aside, though we’ve not seen much of the Greyjoy clan, I was delighted to see his sister ready to sail upriver. It was both a mercy, and daring, which continues the theme with Arya and Dany of empowered female leaders).

Tyrion’s bad news continues as his father reminds him again that he’d have liked to have killed him at birth but held himself off for familial reasons. This guy is not going to win world’s best father anytime soon. (His prize scene does come when he sends a chastened Joffry to bed without supper. I’m unclear if the two of them are headed for a showdown at some point or not). Tywin has now consolidated power, but he seems blissfully unaware of the dragons and ice zombies knocking at his gates. The game he has won feels a bit useless.

The Theon story mercifully seems to be coming to  close, though I hope and pray that the name reek doesn’t stick to Theon. I’ve seen enough movies about someone being broken and changing their personality to know that it’s true, but it’s also the point that I’ve seen enough movies. I’m fine with him just being a penis-less Theon. In fact, I’d rather he went by, “Penis-less version of Theon” as opposed to reek, but I haven’t read the books. However, his liberation would continue my pet theory of he and Arya joining forces to wreak pun intended on the new Warden of the North and his rather disturbed son.

Bran has a brief scene, long enough to recount that no host should ever harm his guest before running into a fleeing Sam and Gilly. This tender and much needed scene includes Sam calling Bran his brother before showing him the way to certain death. Okay, not really. I’ve no earthly clue what the three eyed raven holds north of the wall, but I’m hoping that it’s a horde of dragon glass. The revelation that dragon glass, presumably made by dragons is the one hope of defeating white walkers, was the one red herring pointing to a Dany vs. ice zombies conclusion with some Starks thrown in for support. In fact, at this point the show is operating on two levels, King’s Landing machinations vs. supernatural going’s on.

The one person who seems savvy enough to notice this is the Red Woman, who upon hearing of White Walkers clearly saves the life of the lovely Sir Davos. Davos is the voice of reason. And even if he helps Gendry escape certain death, it certainly seemed that he would die in his place. And yet, because of the whims of what the Red Woman saw, or pretended to see in the fire, he lived. Davos is really quite a lovely creation, and his interaction with Gendry, recounting his poor past and how his desire to help his son eventually lead to that son’s death were carried out extremely well. He’s basically the Ned Stark of Stannis’ men, which means he’ll get beheaded sooner or later.

The last major storyline was carried out across the sea at the gates of Yunkai where the slave population swarmed out to surround Dany, calling her Myhsa, meaning mother. Then the whole crowd gathered round chanting her name and touching her like a holy figure, which, outside of movies about Christ, always feels a bit staged and awkward. I think it was enough to have the people chanting her name. I’m not sure I needed the crowd surfing. (it did provide a nice counterpoint to the conversation that Tyrion had with Cersei, in which he asked how long the fighting would go on and she basically said, forever, because they keep creating enemies. Dany is showing a different way by freeing people and fighting with people who love her. Lord only knows where the bit players like the Starks are going to fit into this equation. I also wrote a whole post ignoring the reunion of Cersei and Jaime, which is downplayed because of the incest, but hey, as I've said before, this is the most interesting and complicated family in Westeros). 

My hope for the upcoming season of GOT is that the storylines continue to move at the accelerated pace. I worry that it’s going to take the Iron Islanders eight episodes to get to Theon and just as long for the Wildling army to mass and Bran to find a raven. I also hope the show, maybe even apart from the books, finds a way to continue to pare away story lines and characters in the hope of achieving some continuity. I’ve heard that books four and five are digressive, and I’ll be watching closely, though it’ll be three years from now (shakes fist at time) to see if they keep paying attention to the most memorable characters. All in all, I don’t feel any differently at the end of this season than I did before it started. GOT remains the most exciting show on television. Not the best, but still the most exciting.