'Game of Thrones' review: Self-aware finale knew it was risky
They knew a lot of us were going to be angry.
David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, the "Game of Thrones" showrunners credited with both the writing and directing of Sunday's final episode, again use their characters to talk directly to the audience in "The Iron Throne."
• Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage) lectures Jon Snow (Kit Harington) on Daenerys Targaryen's (Emilia Clarke) bloody history to convince him to assassinate her - and lectures the many real-life fans of the Dragon Queen who can't believe she would lay waste to all the innocent people of King's Landing, as she did in last week's "The Bells." The key lines: "Everywhere she goes, evil men die, and we cheer her for it. And she grows more powerful and more sure that she is good and right. She believes her destiny is to build a better world for everyone. If you believed that, truly believed it, wouldn't you kill whoever stood between you and paradise?"
• Tyrion also seems to address the complaints about Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) leaving the promise of stability and redemption with Brienne of Tarth (Gwendoline Christie) for the doomed love of his sister: "Love is more powerful than reason. We all know that. Look at my brother."
• Jon and Daenerys wink to the audience too, just before the man who never wanted the throne kills the woman he loves, the woman to whom he pledged fealty. A conversation about the "good world" that awaits the Seven Kingdoms seems like it could be about the show and its critics: "What about everyone else? All the other people who think they know what's good?" Jon asks, after Dany insists they have realm's best interests in mind. "They don't get to choose," she replies.
• Tyrion seemingly addresses the viewers one more time at the Dragonpit, as the surviving lords and ladies of Westeros convene to decide the realm's next steps after Dany's death. Tyrion's speech here owes much to a passage from J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" in which Samwise Gamgee talks about the "tales that really mattered." The "Thrones" version is a risky, perhaps even hubristic speech, given the displeasure many have with the end of the story, and Tyrion uses it to argue for Bran Stark's (Isaac Hempstead-Wright) ascension to the throne: "What unites people? Army? Gold? Flags? Stories. There's nothing in the world more powerful than a good story. Nothing can stop it. No enemy can defeat it."
The bumpy kingsroad
"Game of Thrones" was a very good story, and a great number of very good stories have difficulty nailing the ending. In the broadstrokes, what happens in "The Iron Throne" makes sense, and some of it is very satisfying indeed. It is safe to assume that George R.R. Martin's unreleased novels, the ones that finish the saga upon which the show is based, will end with Bran on the throne.
But the road to the TV version's finale felt unfinished - the writers wouldn't have to so obviously talk to the audience if that wasn't the case, and many viewers felt that their favorite characters acted out of character.
At this point we can only speculate why Benioff and Weiss wanted to sprint to the finish when HBO would have been very happy to have 20 episodes, not 13, in these last two seasons. The curious thing about that sprint is that it came with an interminable, nearly two-year gap between the seasons. That long wait only put unthinkable pressure on these final six episodes, pressure amplified by expectations of six epic, feature-length episodes that would put most movies to shame - that really only applied to three, in the end, and many complained that the first two episodes were long on talk and short on action. (Funnily enough, those are the episodes likely to be held in the best regard from this season.)
I suspect that the final season of "Game of Thrones" will play much better in the years to come, for viewers who can binge-watch all 73 episodes. Those viewers won't have nearly two years of speculation and expectation. They won't have 18,000 thinkpieces like this one to read in the weeklong gap between each episode. Those viewers may very well see the final six (or 13, if you include Season 7) episodes as one cohesive climax, and find it more satisfying. I suspect binge-watchers will also have less qualms about Dany's heel turn.
Benioff and Weiss seemed to have anticipated this as well, as yet another conversation between Jon and Tyrion works on a metatextual level. After Tyrion successfully argues that Bran the Broken should take the throne, Tyrion tells Jon that he is going back to Castle Black to serve with the Night's Watch, and of the decisions made at the Dragonpit.
"No one is very happy, which means it's a good compromise, I suppose," Tyrion says.
"It doesn't feel right," Jon says.
"Ask me again in ten years," Tyrion replies.
The Children
In the end, "Game of Thrones" was not a story about the Targaryens or the Lannisters, but the Starks.
Their patriarch, Ned Stark (Sean Bean) was the moral (if misguided) center of the story in Season 1, and his execution was the show's defining moment - until Season 3, when his wife Catelyn (Michelle Fairley) and son Robb (Richard Madden) became casualties of the Red Wedding.
Jon Snow was raised as a Stark, and his father's decision to keep his true Targaryen parentage a secret ultimately led to last week's carnage - and Jon's sacrificial act of murder.
Bran Stark was pushed out a window and crippled by Jaime Lannister in the show's first episode. His communion with the Three-Eyed Raven ultimately paved his path to the throne - when asked if he will serve, he says, "Why do you think I came all this way?"
Sansa Stark (Sophie Turner) survived the worst husband imaginable, learned lessons in being a cunning leader from Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey) and Petyr Baelish (Aidan Gillen), and had the clout and conviction to declare at the Dragonpit that The North would become an independent realm - Bran the Broken will have to settle for merely Six Kingdoms.
Arya (Maisie Williams) was the smallest Stark with big aspirations to be a warrior. Her training in Braavos with Jaqen H'ghar (Tom Wlaschiha) allowed her to exact revenge on Walder Frey (David Bradley) for the Red Wedding and slay the Night King (Vladimir Furdik). Her lack of action at King's Landing in "The Bells" aside, Arya is likely to endure as the show's most beloved hero, one that bridges the gap between the Starks' nobility and the Lannisters' skulduggery.
After we glimpse Bran's first meeting with his new small council - Hand of the King Tyrion, Lord Commander of the Kingsguard Brienne of Tarth, Grand Maester Samwell Tarly (John Bradley), Master of Ships Davos Seaworth (Liam Cunningham) and Master of Coin Bronn (Jerome Flynn) - "The Iron Throne" ends with a crosscut montage of Arya, Sansa and Jon taking their first steps in a postwar world.
Composer Ramin Djawadi's music reprises the choral theme from Season 4's finale, "The Children," in which Arya sets sail for Braavos - and we see her setting sail again, ready for new adventures west of Westeros.
Sansa is proclaimed the Queen of the North, and looks not unlike the "good witch" version of Cersei as she wears a crown for the first time.
Jon, banished to serve in a Night's Watch that has no purpose, leaves Castle Black and leads Tormund Giantsbane (Kristofer Hivju) and the freefolk north of the wall - and watches the gate close behind him for what feels like the last time.
As Bran would say, the Stark children are exactly where they should be.
More highlights
• Jonathan Freeman continued the season's staggering cinematography here, particularly in the wreckage of King's Landing. As Jon ascends a grand staircase, Daenerys appears at the top with Drogon's wings perfectly flapping behind her, as if she has become a great beast herself. And "Game of Thrones" has given us few sights more shocking to behold than Drogon melting the Iron Throne after Daenerys' death.
• Peter Dinklage took center stage in the final episode, not only with the pivotal scenes described above, but also in his emotional discovery in the opening scene. Tyrion wept for Cersei and Jaime, crushed by the wreckage below the Red Keep, and in that moment I thought he might take his own life and forever rest with his siblings, his failure complete. But Tyrion was granted the show's ultimate redemption, a development that may owe more to the famous, Emmy-winning actor playing him than to the character's own merits.
• The Dragonpit scene brought back some faces we haven't seen in a while, like Robin Arryn (Lino Facioli) and Yohn Royce (Rupert Vansittart) from the Vale, and a defiant Yara Greyjoy (Gemma Whelan). Edmure Tully (Tobias Menzies), the man who actually got married at the Red Wedding, is there too, and his absurd attempt to nominate himself as king gets shot down by Sansa. The whole gathering shoots down an even more ludicrous idea: democracy, as suggested by Sam. (But hey, I guess a conclave of lords and ladies picking the ruler is a good start.)
• Brienne finishes Jaime's page in the The Book of the Brothers, the official chronicle of the kingsguard. Future generations will read that the man who betrayed and murdered King Aerys Targaryen ultimately "died protecting his queen."
• Podrick Payne (Daniel Portman) crosses the finish line as Ser Podrick, a member of the kingsguard and, seemingly, Bran the Broken's personal squire.
Legacy
HBO is no stranger to divisive finales. When "The Sopranos" ended with a surprise cut to black in 2007, many viewers were angry, and almost all of them were confused. (I remember several friends telling me they thought their cable went out.) At the time, it seemed like a great show's legacy had been tarnished.
Twelve years later, people are still talking and writing about "The Sopranos." Prominent critics Matt Zoller Seitz and Alan Sepinwall released their appreciation of the series, "The Sopranos Sessions," early this year to much hype and acclaim. I know people who have rewatched the whole series multiple times. New fans can be made all the time, thanks to HBO making the show readily available on its streaming services.
Though many are likely angry right now - Daenerys and Jaime fans, for sure - "Game of Thrones" will be reassessed and rewatched. We'll argue about the final season for a long time. We'll talk about what we wished had happened (Arya should have killed Cersei while wearing Jaime's face, come on!), and what we wished hadn't happened (Remember that dumb stretch of Season 7 when they tried to pit Arya and Sansa against each other?). Though public opinion may skew negative, it's very possible that "Game of Thrones" still cleans up at the Emmys, and not just in the technical categories - such is the power of the most-watched TV show in the world.
It became the most-watched TV show in the world because of its indelible characters, its unmatched spectacle, and, yes, the incredible dialogue.
The rushed, awkwardly constructed final seasons can't dull the power of the Red Wedding, the Purple Wedding, the Battle of the Bastards, the siege at Hardhome, the knighting of Brienne of Tarth or the triumph of Arya Stark at Winterfell. Even amid its most disappointing stretches, "Game of Thrones" found ways to dazzle us. I suspect it still will.
I can't be sure, though ... "Ask me again in ten years."
• Follow Sean on Twitter at @SeanStanglandDH.