We’re nearly the there. The finale of the most popular television show ever made is fast approaching and it’s fair to say we’ve got pretty mixed emotions about it. What will we do with our lives when we can’t hope and pray for the brutal murder of Cersie Lannister.
In the most recent episode we seen the horrific destruction of King’s Landing by Denaerys and Drogon. Who would have predicted such a downfall from grace from the champion of freedom and morality Denaerys Targaryen earlier in the show when she was freeing slaves? In the same episode we seen the long awaited Clegane battle with both plunging to their deaths as well as a fight to the death between Euron and Jaimie with the King Slayer himself emerging victorious after thrusting his sword through the gut of that cocky pr**k. It’s highly likely that both Jaimie and Cerise died while embracing under the red keep. Elsewhere Varys met a gruesome end and Qyburn was also killed by the Mountain. All this squeezed into an hour and 20 minutes. Naturally, this made the episode feel a bit rushed with too many major moments occurring within the one episode. Hence, they sort of lose their shock factor.
The episode is the worst reviewed since the very beginning. I can certainly understand why even though I feel some of the criticism has been harsh. Jaimie’s and Thereon’s moment should have felt more significant. However, it sort of got lost in the context of the episode. That’s not to say we all weren’t a bit moved by their show of brotherly love. Similarity I also found myself fighting back tears with Ayra’s goodbye to The Hound. These were fitting ends to relationships but perhaps would have been better in a less compacted episode. I think it would have been possible to stretch the battle over two episodes and would have made it a more meaningful and less convoluted episode.
We see a sort of circular narrative as the shows reaches it’s end with Gregor and Sandor falling into a blaze of fire. Of course, fire was what Gregor used to brutally burn and scar his younger brother. Jaimie and Cersie also reunite in the red keep while more generally the burning of the city brings us back to Deanery’s fathers attempt to do just that before being stopped by Jaimie. It isn’t exactly a very optimistic episode and is pretty cynical of decent, peaceful leadership. Denaerys was meant to be a different sort of Queen. A Queen that wasn’t as brutal and disregarding for human lives as those before her. The fact that she burns a city of innocent people to the crowd puts her into the same boat as her father. Varys that bald f****r was right. There’s no really going back now either. You know what they say -‘Burning cites to the crowd is not nice’. The final scene featured Ayra and a white horse. I suppose that’s meant to have some deeper meaning or something. Maybe it’s something to do with the gift Deanerys got from Khal Drogo earlier in the show but who knows.
It doesn’t exactly bode well for the next episode. One can only guess that we’ll get some sort of conflict between Denaerys and Jon/Thereon and who knows how that will work out. You would assume that now the threat of Cersie and her army are nullified ‘Khaleesi’ will now likely turn her attention to Jon. For the sake of Westeros, let’s hope it’s John who ends up in the Iron Throne…….or whats left of it.