Game Of Thrones bowed out, like The Night King — snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, just as he had at the climax of all his epic endeavours.
For a while it had been making a decent fist of rescuing a disastrous last season and thereby avoid being remembered as one of those shows that ‘Jumped The Shark.’
(The TV term for irredeemably losing all credibility, named after The Fonz doing it in Happy Days — while water-skiing, over a large, laughably fake, plastic prop.)
‘All hail Bran The Broken’, Arya’s sex scene with Gendry, and Cersei being killed by ROCKS...10 moments that Season Eight ‘jumped the shark’ in Game Of Thrones, by Jim Shelley
At first, the finale was brilliant, even beautiful, then sentimental, just terrible, and well, bonkers mostly.
Not necessarily what fans were looking for, but very GoT.
By the end there were six kingdoms not seven, the Iron Throne had melted, and not a single dragon in it. Drogon had swooped up into the sky and no one had seen him since. Impressively inept considering the size of him!
Bad moments: For a while it had been making a decent fist of rescuing a disastrous last season and thereby avoid being remembered as one of those shows that ‘Jumped The Shark'
To the writers credit it wrapped up the plot quite tidily. (And then didn’t.)
Bran was king, Sansa queen (of the North), and Jon banished to the Knight’s Watch, sentenced to ‘take no wife and father no children.’
Of course his bloodline meant he superseded both Bran and Sansa, in theory anyway. The fact that this had been the core of the storyline for several series had been deemed a minor detail now, apparently.
Daenerys was dead, murdered by her lover/nephew/rival heir.
He stabbed her to thwart her power-crazed blood lust, to spare the lives of more innocent civilians, although he still wasn’t sure if he actually should have.
Happy ever after: By the end there were six kingdoms not seven, the Iron Throne had melted, and not a single dragon in it
‘Was it right – what I did? It doesn’t feel right.’ ‘Ask me in ten years,’ said Tyrion who was back as a ‘Hand.’
He didn’t want the job he’d insisted only to be over-ruled by Bran who hadn’t wanted to wear the crown either. (Not a problem Sansa had.)
Only recently Bran had eschewed the idea of becoming even Lord of Winterfell, pointing out: ‘I live in the past mostly.’
But, perhaps surprisingly, he’d accepted the bigger role, thereby revealing that the moral of the story in Game Of Thrones after all that time was: ‘it’s always the quiet ones you have to watch.’
It was Tyrion who put Bran’s name forward to a council comprised of the Stark sisters, Brienne, Edmure Tully, Robin Arryn, and others.
After all, Daenerys was dead and Jon in prison for the murder, facing demands for his execution from her supporters like Unsullied commander Grey Worm, amongst others.
The charmless Yara Greyjoy pointed out, not unreasonably, that they’d spent the whole series being told (by Tyrion) to endorse and fight for Dany’s candidacy as their rightful queen.
Farewell: Drogon had swooped up into the sky and no one had seen him since. Impressively inept considering the size of him
Not real love: Daenerys was dead, murdered by her lover/nephew/rival heir. He stabbed her to thwart her power-crazed blood lust, to spare the lives of more innocent civilians
It was probably at this meeting where the finale started to unravel.
The opening fifteen minutes were as strong and spectacular as Game Of Thrones had been for some time.
Tyrion’s grief (and Peter Dinklage’s face) as he walked through the charred remains of King’s Landing was genuinely moving.
The entrance by Daenerys, with Drogon’s wings framed behind her, was stunningly cinematic – like something from Wings Of Desire or Kubrick.
The passion/fanaticism of her speech recalled Stalin or Orwell’s 1984.
‘Will you break the wheel with me?’ she cried to the massed ranks of troops who stomped their lances in support.
The way her face lit up when she saw the Iron Throne for the first time was quite something: fascinated, thrilled, and sporting a fantastic new look befitting her accession: a cross between Thierry Mugler and Space 1999.
On the throne: It was Tyrion who put Bran’s name forward to a council comprised of the Stark sisters, Brienne, Edmure Tully, Robin Arryn, and others
Heart-shattering: Tyrion’s grief (and Peter Dinklage’s face) as he walked through the charred remains of King’s Landing was genuinely moving
Jon joined her, begging her to forgive/release Tyrion (who had betrayed her helping Jaime to escape with Cersei) and beseech to recognise she had become a power-crazed genocidal maniac. (Not in so many words, obviously.)
The look of evangelical rapture on her face when she stated there was no place in her regime for ‘hiding behind small mercies’, imploring Jon to join her quest, told us (and him) she was mad.
The thought of claiming the Iron Throne and liberating more enslaved civilians (sometimes by killing them in the necessary battles) clearly made her ecstatic. So turned on in fact, she snogged Jon as feverishly as someone who wasn’t his Auntie at all.
Outrage: As luck would have it Jon had Targaryen blood, which was presumably why Drogon vented his rage by torching the Iron Throne instead of his mother’s killer
That was when he stabbed her: a nifty solution to the problem of how Jon and the Starks could prevail over Daenerys and her massive dragon.
As luck would have it Jon had Targaryen blood, which was presumably why Drogon vented his rage by torching the Iron Throne instead of his mother’s killer.
This was one of several questionable, hasty, shifts in the plot.
Grey Worm suddenly, meekly, accepted that Jon should be neither executed or even keep him in prison, as did Yara Greyjoy.
Arya, superbly, threatened her – ‘say another word about him and I’ll cut your threat’ – but then, sadly, put it behind her.
Even though assassinating Dany was the best thing he had done for some time, Jon continued to be consumed by doubts about it and belief in her.
He had berated Daenerys for ‘burning little children.’
But when Tyrion implored him to act, pointing out she had ‘slaughtered a city’ Jon defended her actions on the grounds ‘she had no choice! She saw her friend (Missandei) beheaded. She saw her dragon shot down from the sky.’
How come? Incredibly, she and Sansa agreed with the decision to send Jon into exile
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However articulate Tyrion’s reason, Jon doggedly stuck to his view ‘she is our queen.’
Luckily, seemingly, he didn’t mean it.
Incredibly, she and Sansa agreed with the decision to send Jon into exile.
‘I wish there’d be another way,’ Sansa told him not particularly convincingly -
