By: James Southworth
I am not the first person to say this, and I'm sure I won't be the last: I LOVE "Game of Thrones". The first four seasons of this show are nothing short of television masterpieces. Excellent acting, beautiful music, awe-inspiring production values, and meticulous story-telling have been the backbone of what has made this show so cherished by so many people. It's actually impressive to think how well this show worked out. It was quite a risky premise in its initial stages: it was meant to upend fantasy tropes, and then there was the idea that we should be careful about getting attached to characters. We also had to pay close attention to lore and the constant political deceptions and shifting. There is so much I could say about the whole show, but it would take too long for this review. Instead, I've decided to put my focus on what most everyone else is talking about right now: the final season. Before I get into actually talking about this season, I suppose I should briefly discuss my feelings about the other seasons. I love most things about Seasons 1-4. I consider Season 3 to be one of the best pieces of television that I've ever watched. While Seasons 5-7 are a bit weaker due to deviating from George R.R. Martin's source material, it would be wrong of me to call them entirely bad. Sure there are weaker moments in these seasons, but there's also "Battle of the Bastards", "Eastwatch", and "Hardhome". Episodes like that can't be denied. Even though I didn't love Season 7 quite as much as I would've preferred, I was still undeniably excited to see how this show would end. This show had been consistently good from beginning to end. I shouldn't expect anything less out of the finale, right?
Season 8 starts off really well, and I might even debate that the first moments of this season are better than S7. The first episode of 8 is certainly more exciting than the first episode of 7. It was awesome to see so many hard-fought reunions finally come to fruition. Seeing Jon Snow and Arya Stark finally getting to reunite sparked some particularly powerful emotions in me, as I always loved their relationship with one another. There's even some surprisingly funny moments in this episode that came out of nowhere but really worked. Jon riding a dragon ended up being an inspiring moment of television, though on paper it probably sounded cheesy. This episode has pretty much everything one would want out of an opener. There is a feeling of weight that everything is coming to an end, and we are now finally seeing all these characters coming together to face off against the big threat of the White Walkers, who have had all sorts of build-up now. This episode seems to mainly be laying the groundwork for what was to come, and I liked that aspect of it. I could understand some fans being frustrated that not much plot-moving was happening in the first episode of an only six-episode finale, but as of this moment, I would have to disagree. This episode made me incredibly excited to see what was to come.
Episode 2, "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms" is easily the best episode of Season 8. In fact, even considering all the problems I have with this season, I'd still say that this episode may rank among my top 10 favorite episodes of all time from GOT. Yeah, it's that good. This episode is all about intimate character moments, something that I've always loved the most about GOT. Sure, the political intrigue and the huge battles are awesome. But the small moments that depict how characters' personalities are and how they interact with each other is always where this show has shone the brightest. That is almost all this episode consists of, and I love every moment of it. Sure, some of the character interactions could feel a bit like fan service, but that doesn't always have to be a bad thing. I particularly loved the scene where Jamie knighted Brienne, a legitimately tear jerking and beautiful moment. We get to see both of these characters finally get their full arcs. Brienne gets what she's always deserved as debatedly the most noble character on the show: knighthood and a chance to be who she has always wanted. Jamie gets his deserved redemption arc, and I felt at this moment that his knighting of Brienne was his rejection of his old corrupt ways, and instead an embracing of a things that are inherently good. The conversation that many characters have while getting drunk (the likes of which included Tyrion, Jamie, Brienne, Sir Davos, Sir Jorah, Tormund, and Sir Podrick) was thoroughly engrossing. I think I was particularly biased to this scene because it brought out the more clever and snide side of Tyrion that we haven't seen since Season 6. We also get to see some great moments with Arya and The Hound, and Sansa and Theon. There's so much to commend this episode for, and I think it is deserving of endless praise.
Things started shifting a little bit more noticeably with Episode 3, "The Long Night". This isn't necessarily a bad episode, but I also can say that I was left a little underwhelmed. There were some GOT fans who were already infuriated with the final season of this show by this episode, and I can understand why. I wasn't exactly at that point yet, but I did have some problems with this episode, and I have even more now looking back at this season as a whole. I've always liked GOT battle episodes. The battle here is rather good. There is the unavoidable elephant in the room of the incredibly dark cinematography that can make it hard to see what's going on. But that didn't bother me too much; I almost feel like that added to the stressful effect of the battle. It also can't be denied that this battle is intense in every sense of the word, almost to the point where you feel tired since it's an hour and a half of non-stop action. What may work best about this episode, surprisingly, is what they do with Theon. I've always had a hard time with understanding Theon, as he did some despicable things to the Starks, but he also didn't deserve the incessant torture that Ramsay put upon him. I'm glad that he got to redeem himself by protecting Bran from the White Walkers until the very last moment; it was inspiring and actually gave me goosebumps. There was a particularly great moment in this episode where there are so many bodies on the ground and then we see the Night King bring back the bodies of who those were originally the allies- they are now the enemies. It just proved how hopeless the battle seemed. The ending is where this season began to show its true colors about what its writing would be like for its remaining episodes. After the Night King kills Theon mercilessly, it really does seem like this could just be it for all our heroes. But then, out of absolutely nowhere, Arya Stark comes in "deus-ex machina" fashion and stabs the Night King. Because of this, all the rest of the White Walkers die. The heroes win. I was left undeniably shocked by this. I mean, it isn't what you expected. But I don't think this choice worked. It honestly could've made sense for Arya to kill the Night King. She's the girl with many faces. Why didn't she disguise herself? After all, she did this before in Season 7. It just seemed lazy and contrived that the Night King would let someone come up behind him like that, and why would none of his comrades do anything either? The White Walkers have been built up since literally Episode 1 of Season 1, and this is what they do with them. It was a bit insulting, but I supposed I could forgive it due to Cersei being the threat that was cared about all along. I was very naive to think that the writers would give her, or many other wonderful characters, the character arcs they deserved.
I began getting actively feeling angry at this show with Episode 4, "The Last of the Starks". It doesn't start off awfully, giving the many characters that died in Episode 3 a decent enough sendoff. That's actually more than the show has done for characters like Ned Stark or the many that died at the Red Wedding, so I'll give the show credit for giving some gravitas to characters like Jorah and Lyanna. However, most of the things after this are worrisome. This is especially true of what they start doing to Daenerys. I think out of all the character arcs that they messed up, Dany's was the one that made me the most infuriated, and I'll get into why a little bit later. This episode is already showing her beginning to act absolutely irrational. She's considering burning the whole of King's Landing to the ground, including innocent men, women, and children. I just couldn't understand where this was coming from. Some people have argued that Daenerys has always done ruthless acts in the past. I guess you could say that, but she's almost always done these acts against despicable people, and only when she's absolutely needed to. The whole goal of Dany's character has been to "break the wheel" of violence and it doesn't seem like burning down a whole bunch of innocents would be the way to do it. Jon Snow has also unwisely revealed to Daenerys that he is actually a Targaryen, which puts a big fat target on his back. I get that he's supposed to be a noble character, but making him dumb doesn't seem right. Tyrion also continues to be frustratingly trusting of everyone now, including his clearly evil sister Cersei. It amazes me that this once cautious but clever character now seriously thinks that Cersei would be willing to give up the throne to Daenerys for an exchange. Tyrion is still my favorite character of the show as a whole (due mainly to Peter Dinklage's masterful performance), but I really didn't like what they've done to him post Season 6. This has been a problem with his character since season 7, and season 8 makes it worse. What they do with Brienne and Jamie both is nothing short of despicable. It has never been in Brienne's character to turn into a sniveling desperate girlfriend type. She is stoic, noble, and doesn't need to be defined by a relationship to a man. And yet, the writers think this is "character development". Any buildup for Jamie's character arc is almost completely destroyed here. He is going back to King's Landing to supposedly return to Cersei. All one can hope for at this time the writers will backtrack on this clearly illogical writing decision. The episode ends with Missandei turning sadly into just a pawn to move the plot along. Her death is only meant to spark Dany's rage further, and it's obvious.
I actively despised nearly everything about "The Bells". This is far and away the worst episode of GOT in general. I obviously do not have a desire to hate any episode of this show. I wanted it to end well. But this episode erased almost any hope in me that there would be potential for a truly satisfying ending. The one aspect of this episode that works well is what they do with The Hound. I am truly thankful that they didn't end one of my favorite characters off in a horrible fashion, and instead his arc made at least a semblance of sense. The same can't be said for most of the rest of the characters, Daenerys being the most primary among them. Even after it's clear that she's won the battle and that the Cersei's army has no true loyalty to her, she still decides to burn the city to the ground. Sorry, but this decision wasn't earned with the incredibly messy build-up. I think that there could be a way to transform Dany into the Mad Queen. Heck, it could almost be poignant considering that her own father was the Mad King. But, the buildup wasn't there yet. The way the writers built it up was lazy and contrived. Foreshadowing does not equate to good character development. The Red Wedding was indeed shocking, but it didn't happen just because of cryptic foreshadowing. There were specific choices that Robb Stark made that made it clear the Red Wedding was an inevitability. Ned Stark's death was shocking, but it was clearly a commentary that good and noble people don't last long in the GOT world. What does Dany's tranformation truly inform on besides being Hollywoodized shock value? They did her character truly dirty, and I'm not sure if I can forgive the show for that. What they do with Jamie and Cersei could be considered just as bad. Jamie does indeed go back to Cersei. All that beautifully realized character build-up truly was for nothing, and that is objectively bad writing. Poor Lena Heady, who has wonderfully played this despicable character, is given nothing to do here and is instead Cersei is transformed into a weeping mess. The real Cersei wouldn't have done that; she would've faced the dragon and Dany head on. She would've done something, anything. Her dying to a pile of rocks was about as pathetic of a death as I've seen; she deserved a memorable death like Ramsay or Joffrey. Arya also seemed to have an in-penetrable plot armor this episode, as there were several moments where she should've died but didn't. The show also tries to throw in a Biblical allusion at the end of the episode, but it's rather shoehorned in. This is an awful episode of TV that I will never come back to again.
After the anger of episode 5, I couldn't help but feel just sad after seeing "The Iron Throne". Sad because the show was coming to an end, and sad because the show ended like this. Nothing really shocked me in this episode; I was now just actively expecting to be disappointed, and I was. I knew Dany would probably die in the arms of Jon Snow, and it just rang hollow. They have tried to bait us the whole time that Jon wouldn't do this by having him repeatedly saying "She's my queen" (that literally seemed to be half of his lines this season). But it happens. The one legitimately great moment of this episode was Drogon burning down the iron throne, which I now see as a rather clever visual representation of breaking the wheel. The throne is what caused all the violence, and burning it down seemed to be Drogon's way of doing what Dany always wanted to do. It's just sort of sad that everything surrounding this moment doesn't work well. Bran becoming king was an awful decision. Out of all the characters the writers could have chosen, they went with possibly the most boring character on the show. I feel like Bran has been a consensus unpopular character, and I've always felt that what his character was doing just wasn't that interesting. Apparently, Bran knew all along what the outcome was going to be: that he would become king. He didn't have to do anything this season, and still got the reward. It just didn't seem earned, and made Bran look to be unlikable. He let so many people die all in service of his own goal. Tyrion tries to convince us in his speech that Bran would be great for the job, but I don't see how someone who does nothing would be a good leader. Jon Snow is unceremoniously taken back to the Night's Watch, pretty much back where he started. This feels quite insulting, given that he's done more for the GOT world than almost anyone. Arya apparently wants to explore what lies beyond Westeros, which doesn't seem like something she would be particularly interested in doing. Out of all the main Starks, only Sansa gets a satisfying ending in becoming the definitive ruler of the now-independent North. Tyrion becomes Hand of the King, which makes sense, though is a little safe. That's really what this episode feels like as a whole: safe. Giving its main characters their most mediocre ends possible. The show ends with the Wildlings just walking in snow. Not really the most interesting way to end your season finale out, is it?
Now that I've let out all my issues out, I do still have some praises to give out. The writing is what accounts for almost all of the problems this season has, and that is a pretty significant issue. The performances here from the actors are almost all stellar. Emilia Clarke ended up being my favorite this season, despite me loathing what they did with her character. She really gives it her all here, putting her full passion and gravitas into a thankless character arc. I felt that she was thoroughly convincing throughout this season; in fact I would say this is her best performance to date. She was relatively unknown before this series, and it was great to witness her growth over the course of eight seasons. I really hope she gets at least nominated for an Emmy, because she deserves it. Kit Harrington is great as ever as Jon Snow. He has been tailor-made for this role from the first season, and if anything he's only gotten better. Peter Dinklage is, of course, excellent as Tyrion. Even though I don't like where his character went in Season 7 and 8, he still made the character criminally likeable. It was a smart decision to turn him into the sort of protagonist of Season 8, as he has always been a fan favorite. He will remain to be one of my favorite characters ever put to TV. Maisie Williams is great as Arya. She has always been effortlessly good, and it was nice to see what she did with the role this season. Even though Sophie Turner didn't have nearly as much to do as she deserved this season, I still enjoyed seeing her as Sansa. Nikolaj Coster-Waldau gives a bravura performance as Jamie, really trying to give as much weight to this character leaving the show as he can. John Bradley is incessantly likeable as Samwell, Lena Headey tries to put as much menace as she can into the inactive Cersei, Gwendoline Christie is a highly interesting actress as Brienne, and Iaine Glenn is as noble as ever in the role of Jorah. I want to give credit to nearly every performance here, but it would take too long. Ramin Djawidi's score is as inspiring as ever, doing a lot of the heavy lifting in Season 8. The cinematography and set pieces are still as jaw-droppingly excellent as ever.
Do I hate Season 8? I can't quite say that, but I can definitely say that it left me feeling cold and disappointed. It can be tricky to do season finales right; I understand that. But I had a really high confidence that GOT would be one of those shows that did it right. After all, at its absolute worst the show could still be considered at least "great". It just seems that David Beinoff and D.B. Weiss really dropped the ball here for whatever reason. They rushed Season 8 in a matter of only six episodes, when I think that ten would've really done the trick. A show which has prided itself on being specific and meticulous didn't deserve such a half-baked ending that did very few of its beloved characters justice. I feel sorry for the actors as well, many of whom you can tell didn't like where they ended up based on interviews. Despite all this though, I still love Game of Thrones as a whole. Even accounting Season 8 into the equation, this show is still overall a masterwork of television. I don't regret watching it. I am sad with where it ended, and it will be hard to return to the show knowing what happened. But I still can at least appreciate the majority of the journey. Thank you for that, Game of Thrones.
Here's my definitive ranking of all GOT seasons:
1. Season 3
2. Season 4
3. Season 1
4. Season 6
5. Season 2
6. Season 7
7. Season 5
8. Season 8
I now have a bit of an announcement to make. This will be my last review on this website for the foreseeable future. Some of you may be disappointed and wondering why. Well, I have your answer: I'm taking my reviews to YouTube! I have decided that it's time for a change in format. I've wanted to improve the way I verbally talk about media, and I think doing reviews on YouTube will be an interesting new way to do that. I hope many of you will follow along. Thank you for sticking with this review site, and I am excited to see where this new adventure will take me!
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