Game of Thrones

Game of Thrones S8E3

I love reading reviews of media that I’ve consumed.  I haven’t put too much into why. Perhaps it’s because with no immediate person for me to discuss what I’ve just seen/read, it’s the most convenient way for me to tap into that shared experience.  Maybe part of me wants an outside source to validate my feelings for something. Or maybe it’s a way to hang on to the high of what I’ve just seen, an attempt to keep it fresh in my memory for a little while longer.

In any case, I’ve read tons of reviews and listened to numerous podcasts about this episode in the days since this episode aired.  I doubt if there’s anything new that I can bring to the discourse. But I don’t suppose that’s the point of this, so screw it. My thoughts on The Long Night.

Arya!  (Quick aside: I have no patience for anyone using calling any character a Mary Sue.  If you don’t have a problem with John Wick, shut up.) I love that one of my two favorite Thrones characters saves the day.  She kicks ass with her spear, she’s a master of stealth, and she must have leveled up at least twice with her Night King kill.  “Not today” indeed.

Tyrion and Sansa have some nice moments.  I particularly like how he kisses her hand right before they leave the safety of their cover.  There’s genuine affection there, not just the final act of someone expecting to die. (Of course, what happens afterwards is a total letdown.  They run to the other refugees and...that’s it. I still don’t get how so many people are alive in the crypt at the end of this.)

In fact, I don’t get how so many people are alive at all.  The beginning of the battle shows just how difficult it is to hold off the wight army.  It’s like trying to hold back the crashing tide. So I find it practically impossible Brienne, Jaime, and Podrick survived with their backs to a wall for even more than 3 minutes, let alone however long the battle inside the keep lasted.  Sam? No way he’d last once he got knocked on to the ground. Not saying that I wanted them to die.  Just that if you’re going to have them live, make it more believable.  The Hound encountered fewer walkers and locked himself into a room. Sure, that I buy.  Davos was...presumably cowering somewhere. Works for me.

But Grey Worm fought on the front lines from the get go with no relief.  If the wights didn’t kill him, he’d have dropped from sheer exhaustion hours ago.  No way Theon and his party held off the walkers for so long with bow and arrow. The gap was closed after the first volley, but when we cut back to the action, all the attackers were teleported back out of melee range.   

Yet another example: Beric Dondarrion sacrificed himself to let Arya escape.  Very noble. But then they cut to the Hound and Arya draggin Beric into a room.  Did the walkers politely give them time to withdraw? When did this separation occur?  Storytelling here so bad!!!

Hmm.  Seems like I really can’t get over the discontinuity between the unstoppable wave of the walkers established at the beginning of the battle and the heroes’ ability to somehow stay alive with these things literally at their throats en masse.

Doesn’t help that their plan was shit from the get go.    

I didn’t not need to see Jon and Dany flying blind for however long they did.  The dragon fights were incomprehensible. Dany’s an idiot for letting her dragon get caught on the ground where, you know, ALL THE WIGHTS ARE.

Really, Jon?  You’re going to shout at the ice dragon?  Between you and Dany, the Seven Kingdoms have some top notch candidates to choose from.

The Night King falls prey to posturing.  Any reason why his mobs couldn’t have killed Bran?  He really needed to do everything in slow motion at the end?  He had a dragon. Couldn’t have just flown it over Bran and ice blasted him to death?

Poor Lyanna.  But what a way to go.

Was really hoping for more recognizable Stark zombies.  

Aiight, that’s all I’ve got to say about that.  It really was an amazing weekend for geekdom:

Thursday: Avengers: Endgame

Saturday: Magic: The Gathering War of the Spark prerelease

Sunday: Game of Thrones

And the Warriors beat the Rockets in game 1 of the second round.  Fun times all around.

It’s really the expectation of “Who’s going to die” that fuelled the hype for Avengers and GoT.  That unknown of ‘permanent’ change brought the speculation and energy up to feverish levels that may never be matched again in pop culture history.  At this point, they could still kill off everyone in the final three GoT episodes, but it won’t have the same build up, the same anticipation. Gotta say, it was pretty fun to have experienced it.  At the end of it all, Endgame surpassed my expectations.  Game of Thrones didn’t quite meet them, but I will say that when Arya struck the killing blow, I sat with my arms over my head in victory for duration of the white walker disintegrations.  It was super sweet.

OMG yes!

Game of Thrones

Game of Thrones s8e3

This is my first time writing about GoT.  (Is this a way to delay writing about Akira?  Absolutely.)  I read the first four books before realizing that I was no longer enjoying the experience.  I reached the the point where I wanted to skip any chapter that didn’t star Arya or Tyrion. I give George RR Martin plenty of points of for giving seemingly unredeemable characters sparks (and even full swaths) of personality.  No writer is better than Martin at embodying the maxim, “No one is the villain in their own story.” Cersei, Jaime, the Hound, Tyrion...All people I started out hating, all people for which I never imagined I would develop empathy and even sympathy.  

The skillful writing wasn’t enough to keep my interest, and when the show came out, me curiosity was not piqued.  Been there, done that. (I’ve felt the same for other adaptations, such as Preacher, American Gods, Walking Dead, Deadly Class, Powers...It seems that if it didn’t come from Marvel or DC proper (Vertigo apparently doesn’t count), I have no interest in watching an adaptation on TV.)

So I followed the GoT phenomenon secondhand, chuckling with amusement at people’s stunned reactions to Ned’s death and the Red Wedding.  I’d catch those scenes and others where I wanted to see how the showrunners chose to adapt them for the screen. It let me skip all the boring Dany nonsense, the little shit named Joffrey, those interminable stretches on The Wall, and pretty much anything that didn’t star Arya or Tyrion.

It’s a viewing method that’s served me well.  I’ve watched Arya slaughter House Frey countless times and duel Brienne of Tarth over and over.  What more did I need?

Well, it’s the final season.  The psychic energy of the television pop culture world is building to a level unseen since Breaking Bad or Lost.  And unlike those two shows, I know enough to jump in without needing to catch up.  And this time, I actually care enough to make the effort.

The first episode of the season was pretty good.  A nice setup of all the players, setting them up on the chessboard for what’s to come.  The second episode was excellent. All character moments with multiple rewatchable moments - Arya throwing daggers, Arya getting it on, Jaime knighting Brienne, etc.  

Looks like I’ll get to the actual episode tomorrow.  Whee, putting off Akira for another day! (The more I delay, the fewer number of days I’ll have to write about it.  I’m enjoying it, but there’s only so much I can say about it.)