The HBO series Game of Thrones, based the A Song of Fire and Ice novels by George R.R. Martin, comes to an end tonight after eight seasons. Although individual episodes have been controversial, the series as a whole has been a well-received, heavily watched show telling tales of incest, murder, politics, regicide, suicide, war, sex, power, lust, greed, and just about every other sin imaginable.
But the penultimate episode of the final season has Daenerys Targaryen following in the footsteps of her late (murdered) father the Mad King and unleashing massive amounts of dragon fire on her enemies. A significant number of fans were unhappy with that episode, known as “The Bells,” with at least one million of them signing a petition to have new writers come in and redo the end of the series.
Given that the existing episodes cost several million dollars each and the fact that the show is already finished and the actors have all moved on, obviously the show is not getting rewritten at this point.
The fuss over the end of Game of Thrones echoes back to the fuss a decade ago over the end of ABC’s wonderful, mysterious series LOST. While I loved the somewhat ambiguous ending that had the characters trying to learn something about their lives from their time on the island, the series finale is legendary for the fuss it raised. Oddly enough, back in 2011 when LOST came to its conclusion, George R.R. Martin trashed LOST’s showrunner Damon Lindelof:
“We watched [Lost] every week trying to figure it out, and as it got deeper and deeper I kept saying, ‘They better have something good in mind for the end. This better pay off here.’ And then I felt so cheated when we got to the conclusion.” Martin also cites the Lost ending as the type of mistake he fears making with his own show, saying, “I want to give them something terrific. What if I f— it up at the end? What if I do a Lost? Then they’ll come after me with pitchforks and torches.”
Of course, Martin is a legendarily slow writer, and the TV series long ago passed the book series. The most recent title, A Dance With Dragons, was published back in 2011. Since then , there has not been a new title, and the events in the series have been done in consultation with Martin, but are not based directly on his work. So the ending we get tonight is that of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, not Martin.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6a1y1pc-GQ
In case any of you are curious, here are the thoughts I shared last week on Twitter about the penultimate episode. (And by the way, anyone who didn’t think the series would conclude with a showdown between Dany and Jon Snow wasn’t paying attention. What’s the book series called? A Song of Fire and Ice.)
Anyway, here are my thoughts on “The Bells.”
Shorter version – I liked it.
Longer version:
Jon Snow’s first great love told him repeatedly, “You know nothing, Jon Snow.” We have long seen that Snow is hopelessly idealistic and stupid about women, this is not new.
Arya Stark has had a long history of wanting revenge and to kill her way out of problems. But when she started her journey with Sandor Clegane, he was at the top of her list of people to kill. But in their journey she learned to appreciate him as a friend and grew to understand his pain. Arya has been slowly learning the destructiveness of vengeance and that there is more to life than revenge. She also may have reached the end of her road as an assassin when she killed the Night King.
Sandor/The Hound has gradually gained a sense of humanity by traveling with Arya. But his need for revenge on his brother has never wavered. He was always going to die fighting Gergor/The Mountain. The fact that he used his ending to save Arya from herself was a great conclusion.
So let’s talk Dany Targaryen. I have no problem she was terrible at arial combat previously and great at it in “The Bells.” She lost two dragons/children not understanding how to fight in the air. Last night she used the classic WWII technique of flying out of the sun for her attack. Nothing subtle see. All Dany’s enemies were shielding their eyes trying to look at her. And as soon as he was fired at she dove down low. She went from believing her dragons mad her all-powerful to knowing that her drawings were powerful yet vulneable.
Now as for her going all Mad King: The big constatants in Dany’s life are that she has been used an abused by those around her. Arguably the one “pure” relationship she has had is with her dragons/children. Every time Dany gets angry/frustrated, she lashes out with violence. It is her core response. She wants to set the prisoners free. She has a good heart, but at her core she has always been willing to respond with violence, starting with the crucifixion of the slavers.
Dany knows that her power comes from her dragons, and her enemies have gradually been taking them away from her. She also has just realized that Jon (her nephew!) does not love her. So Dany now knows she can only count on her dragon/child for support. The one thing the dragon can do is burn. And so Daenerys snaps, and she embraces her one great power – dragon fire.
I thought “The Bells” was a great episode, well shot and clearly motivated. It was everything I wanted “Battle of Winterfell” to be. (BoW was not a bad episode, just murky.) Could the series have benefited from an 8-episode final season? Of course. But this was still a great episode. The people who want the showrunners fired and a do over on the season are nuts.