SPOILERS FOR GAME OF THRONES
We watched the final episode last night, one of millions watching it as it was aired. Something I have not done for other than sport or politics in a long time, perhaps ever.
It was truly terrible. I have always been a hate-watcher of GoT, but this was shameful and disrespectfully poor. Even the cast, by all accounts, agree.
First, the pacing was really terrible. The whole 90 minute episode could have been wrapped up in an hour or less without fewer scenes of literally rearranging chairs and silences.
Second, it was tonally inappropriate and inconsistent. There are two councils that take place: one of lords and one of councillors. Both occur in the aftermath of a city being destroyed and countless innocents killed. Both are a bewildering blend of sombreness, fanservice and dismaying pratfall jokes.
Third, it was racist. GoT has a rather bad record in this matter from the very beginning, but I was frankly appalled by the scene in which the evil white queen leads hordes of black and brown people into a willing slaughter of white people. All the non-white people are committing horrific war crimes. And the only people who watch with moral disgust are white. The showrunners have a deserved reputation for being what we call, these days, ‘bad on race’, but I am amazed no one at HBO forced a change. Then there was Arya going off to explore the west like Christopher Columbus – one can only assume, given the showrunners’ attitudes, carrying her smallpox blankets with her.
Fourth, it maintained the past few seasons’ record of just dropping plotlines or bringing in characters solely for fanservice. For instance, in a previous episode, Sam Tarly says a very definitive farewell to the show. In this, he’s back, inventing democracy, taking his place in the high council and writing the story of the game of thrones. Similarly, Jon Snow’s direwolf goes north in a scene of apparent finality (much criticised because Jon didn’t say goodbye to it properly) and in this episode Jon is reunited with it. In both cases it was transparently because the writers wanted to make viewers think it was all over and then pull rabbits out of hats, apparently for fanservice alone. Similarly the so-funny council scene was pure fanservice rather than honest adherence to the story, and the tonal issues came out of that. The plotline in which Jon is the true heir (and Varys is writing to people to inform them) just evaporated, while Arya’s presence in King’s Landing was entirely unnecessary.
Fifth, it was sexist. The only two female rulers in Westeros turned out to be bad, mad queens with dodgy sex lives. Both were killed, effectively by their lovers. In both cases the lovers were shown to be right and reasonable. Finally the foretold king turns out to be the most useless male in the series.
Sixth, it was badly directed. There was ‘tada!’ scene in which a dragon burned up the Iron Throne. It was long and tedious and pointless in its weighty symbolism. Then there was the much-mocked bit where Jon Snow encounters Grey Worm slitting the throats of captives, leaves him behind (still slitting away in the background), and walks on to the keep where he is greeted by… Greyworm.
Seventh, it was stupid. Jon has been dumb as a brick throughout the series, but it reached an apotheosis in his struggle between loyalty to his queen and her genocidal acts. It was past believing that an honourable man (as we are repeatedly told) would consider this a question at all. He out-Starked Ned Stark in this moment and perhaps this was when his claim to the throne truly dissolved into nothingness. And the conclusion, where Tyrion, a prisoner of war but left alive by the murderous Greyworm for no obvious reason becomes the wise counsellor and counsels that… Bran become king. Because he has the best story, you see, whereas he has the worst of all the stories within a 5 metre space, and besides has as his only qualification the ability to stare for extended periods of time into the middle distance. So all hail Bran the Broken, and when Sansa raises the very logical counter-argument that he can’t father children and thus ensure a stable succession, Tyrion suggests that in future kingship be allotted amongst themselves by a council of nobles. Huzzah! Peace and stability ftw.
I could go on for a long time, but I think that is enough for now, plus there have been some very good analyses of the show over the years. The LA Review of Books remains a personal favourite, to which I add Zeynep Tufekci‘s intelligent analysis of personality-driven vs sociologically-driven storytelling.
A better question for me to mull is why I have been so irritated by this ending. And I think it does come down to how disrespectful it feels, even more than the complete lack of ability on the part of the showrunners. It just reeks of ‘give the fans a spectacle and a bit of fanservice and wrap it all up’. I am, by no means, a fan, though I enjoyed the years of hate-watching it, and I don’t think fans are owed anything special. But an honest effort to make the best product you can is not something special, it is the minimum expectation even for non-fans. In Urdu is the phrase sar se utarna. That’s what the showrunners did; they did the barest minimum required to get it off their heads.