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Game of Thrones “The Bells” Review

My head is still spinning from what I just saw, but I think I can still sum it up in a few words: what. The heck. Just happened? I will tell you what happened. We just saw one of our favorite characters on Game of Thrones cross the line from benevolent ruler into full-on tyrant. We saw an entire city burned to the ground, and a few of the show’s longest running characters die, some of them in a stupid and unsatisfying fashion.

First, though, let’s address the giant, fire-breathing elephant in the room: Daenerys Targaryen. As the show has progressed, she has become one of my favorite characters. We’ve seen her be ruthless towards her enemies, but we’ve also seen how kind she can be to those she calls her friends. She sincerely wanted to give the people she ruled a better life, and inspired genuine loyalty in people.

Ever since she came to Westeros, though, the show seemed determined to break her. She lost her main allies, then she lost Viserion, Jorah, Rhaegal, and Missandei in rapid succession. By the time we see her in this episode, she’s broken and vengeful. Most people would feel like that. But what she does in the climax of this episode makes her cross the line into becoming the very thing she swore she wouldn’t.

Varys spent the last two episodes trying to bring Daenerys to her senses, only for his pleas to fall on deaf ears. So when he learns that Jon’s the true heir to the Iron Throne, he goes behind Dany’s back and tries to back Jon. That leads to the spider’s demise, though, as Daenerys sentences him to death by Drogon. I liked Varys a lot; he was one of the few people on the show who stood up for the little guy. His death also made me think the spoilers I heard about on Reddit were true.

They were only half right in the end. On to the moment we’ve been waiting for: the fall of King’s Landing.

The last episodes made it seem like Daenerys and Cersei were more evenly matched: she lost a lot of her forces fighting the White Walkers, she lost most of her fleet, and then Rhaegal. Cersei, meanwhile, had the Golden Company, the Iron Fleet, and lined the city walls with Scorpions.

This is what said walls looked like after after Dany was done.

Instead of getting another Blackwater, the “Battle of King’s Landing” is more of a total butt-whooping. The Scorpions suddenly become useless as Drogon levels the walls and Daenerys’ armies mow down the Golden Company. The Lannister soldiers are no match against the enemy and just get cut down until they decide to lay down their arms and surrender the city. For a brief moment, it seems like King’s Landing will be spared further bloodshed. But then Daenerys chooses to ignore that and set Drogon on the Red Keep, burning thousands of innocent civilians and prompting her army to sack the city.

Even Grey Worm gets in on it, killing the Lannister soldiers even after they surrendered. All Jon, Tyrion, and Davos can do is watch helplessly. It gets worse, though. Drogon ends up igniting the wildfire caches below the city, setting the city even further ablaze.

Amidst all this, Arya and the Hound make it inside the Red Keep to kill Cersei and the Mountain, despite that almost certainly leading to their deaths. This gave us one of the episode’s better moments as the Hound manages to talk some sense into Arya, telling her revenge isn’t worth what it does to people. It’s something Arya’s needed to hear for a long time, and the fact that its coming from the Hound give it the most impact. Arya decides to abandon her quest for vengeance and return home, but not before calling the Hound by his name, Sandor, for the first and last time. It’s a very touching moment that almost made me cry.

As for Sandor, he finally got to face his brother in the Cleganebowl. And honestly, it was anticlimactic. The duel between Oberyn Martell and the Mountain was cooler than this. As the Red Keep crumbled and burned, the two brothers dueled to the death, though there wasn’t anything left of the Mountain to kill. In the end, the only way Sandor could kill his zombie-brother was by throwing them both out the tower into the fires below.

The worst part of the entire episode, though, was how it ended the stories of Jaime and Cersei Lannister. After throwing away all his character development to go back to Cersei, the two reunite after Jaime kills Euron Greyjoy (who died smiling because he thought he killed the Kingslayer). Instead of killing her like so many wanted to see, they just reaffirm their incestuous love for each other as they try to escape. Instead, though, they end up dying in the crypts as the roof collapses thanks to Drogon and Daenerys.

Ever since I started watching this show, I wanted to see Cersei Lannister die for her crimes, but with the way the show kills her, I feel robbed! Cheated! I wanted to see her face justice for what she wrought, but instead I felt pity for her crying about not wanting to die. It seemed like a lazy, rushed ending to one of the best characters in the show. That’s right, I called Cersei one of the best.

So it looks like nobody wins in the Last War, and everybody loses. King’s Landing’s in ruins, and it will take decades to rebuild the city. Two of the series big story arcs end up stumbling to the finish line, and Daenerys did just what her father would do. I DON’T EVEN KNOW WHO TO ROOT FOR ANYMORE!!

The one glimmer of light was the cinematography in the sack of King’s Landing. The overhead shot as Drogon was burning everything was a pleasure to look at, but the real highlight was the shaky camera moments seen through Arya Stark as she just tries to survive. The people who did that deserve an award.

Arya also manages to survive, and thanks to a Deus Ex Horse, she leaves King’s Landing behind. I want her to go back to Winterfell or just spend her life with Gendry, or find some measure of peace. But if the theories are to be right, she may have had added Daenerys to her list.

Its official: Game of Thrones has jumped the shark. I don’t know if it did it in the last episode or this one, but it has. Thankfully, the show has only one episode left, so we don’t have to worry too much about seeing it post-shark-jump. The downside is that there’s no way they can resolve all the show’s plot threads in that time. It’s impossible. I pray that the show can still end on a high note, but I don’t even know anymore.

There’s only one week left before the series finale which will decide where Game of Thrones will stand in the history books. As of now, though, I’m more looking forward to the series finale of Star vs. The Forces of Evil, which comes on that morning.

I Give “The Bells” a 2/5. Burn it All

Game of Thrones, Season 8, Episode 2 “A Knight of the Seven” Review

The stillness before battle is unbearable. Such a quiet dread.

-Chief Arnook, “The Siege of the North, Part 1”, Avatar: the Last Airbender

I must apologize for the fact that this is coming out just hours before the premiere of episode three. Sometimes, it can take a while to figure out what I want to say. And considering what happened in Episode two, I had a lot to think about.

The above quote comes from the Season One finale to my favorite cartoon as a kid, Avatar: The Last Airbender. All the heroes are preparing for a massive invasion by the oppressive Fire Nation, and one of them remarks on how quiet it gets before battle. It’s that gnawing sensation that sharpens people’s nerves as they prepare to fight, knowing in the back of their minds that they may not live to see another day. That’s what this episode comes down to, in the end.

Tormund, Eddison, and the remaining Free Folk and Night’s Watch get to Winterfell and let everyone know: the Army of the Dead is coming. They have less than a day before they arrive. And so, Winterfell prepares for battle, even though they know that not all hands are on deck.

After showing up at the end of the last episode, Jaime lets everyone know that Cersei hopes they and the White Walkers kill each other, save her the trouble. Daenerys is livid that Tyrion messed up again, but her bigger focus is on Jaime. Despite knowing full well that her father got what he deserved, it seems like she wants to punish Jaime for killing Aerys Targaryen. Not to mention his transgressions against House Stark. The only reason that Sansa doesn’t try and kill him is because Brienne vouches for him and how he saved her from the Bolton’s, twice.

While two of the most powerful women in Winterfell may not be able to forgive Jaime yet, Sansa seems willing to forgive another new arrival: Theon Greyjoy. He took a handful of Ironborn and came to the sight of the worst mistake of his life to fight for the living, and Sansa hugs him for it. They will need all the help they can get.

The Night King’s goal isn’t just to wipe out humanity: he wants to erase all memory of the world and the people in it. That’s why he was hellbent on killing Bran Stark before: as the Three-Eyed Raven, he holds all the world’s history in his head, and is the Night King’s biggest threat. Against his family’s wishes, Bran opts to wait for the Night King in the Godswood as bait. Theon and the Ironborn will guard him, and Jon and Daenerys will use Drogon and Rhaegal to destroy him.

And with that, the rest of the episode is essentially the surviving cast preparing for what’s to come, knowing full well they may not survive. It’s an emotional time, both for the people in the show and for the people watching this on TV. We know, just as the cast does, that not everyone at Winterfell is going to survive what happens next.

The thing about the prospect of imminent death is that it makes people reflect on their lives up to that moment. The entire cast starts talking with each other, swapping stories and bonding over the events that brought them to this moment. And I will be going over them in my list of favorite moments for the episode

The one that may end up having the biggest impact, though, is the meeting between Jon and Daenerys in the Crypts. Daenerys has heard so many good things about Rhaegar from the people who knew him, so the fact that he kidnapped another woman doesn’t make sense to her. Then, Jon tells her the truth: that Lyanna and Rhaegar loved each other, and that he is their son, and thus a Prince by birth.

I think it’s telling that Daenerys is less concerned with the fact that she slept with her nephew, and more about the fact that this makes Jon the King of the Seven Kingdoms by birth. I would freak out, too, if I learned that the dream that I had all my life may not even be mine to begin with. If it weren’t for the fact that Westeros is facing Armageddon, this might be more important an issue. But like I said last week, Jon doesn’t want the Iron Throne. If Daenerys really wants that thing so badly, I don’t think Jon would care.

The only reason I’m brought this scene up here rather than my list (which will be shorter this week) is because I think that only one of these two Targaryens will survive to the end of the show. There’s even an algorithm made by German students that says that Dany has a 1% chance of dying in the final season. I’ll believe it when I see it, and the next two episodes may decide who lives and who dies.

There are only a few hours left before the Battle of Winterfell begins. The Night King is upon Westeros once more, and whatever happens tonight will make TV history. Given the fact that so many people are going to die, I think it was smart for the show to take one final episode to breathe and let us say our goodbyes to everyone. Because tonight, the bodies start dropping

I Give “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” a 5 out of 5.