Game of Thrones 8x05
When Lena Headey was saying NotLikeThis, it was actually an editor's note on the episode's script that she read as her lines by accident
Game of Thrones 8x05
This episode was absolute trash. Absolute garbage. I'm laughing my ass off about how bad it was.
Game of Thrones 8x05
@Gargron no kidding, most of the character decisions made no sense. Why would Arya get all the way into the Red Keep just to turn around? Why would Danerys destroy the whole city *after* they surrendered? Why the hell did Euron attack Jamie? Why would Jamie spend 7 seasons on one of the greatest character arcs in TV history just to go back to Cersei and die with her???????
Game of Thrones 8x05
Game of Thrones 8x05
@eldelacajita Go for it. Pretty much all the explanations around Dany are just saying "they've been hinting at it", but every other time she did or talked about doing crazy tyrannical stuff she felt like she was serving some greater good. Here she just... wasn't. Am I missing something?
Game of Thrones 8x05
@bwhaines For example, Jamie's arc was more like a bumpy ride. A struggle between honor on one side (Brienne) and sick love on the other (Cersei). Along the show, he is constantly improving on the former, but also drowning miserably on the latter. Being stupidly driven by his relationship with Cersei. "The things I do for love", indeed, until the end.
Game of Thrones 8x05
@bwhaines His relationship with Brienne ranges from initial fight to respect and to a kind of honorable love, from knight to knight. But after they, both drunk, mix that relationship with "sensual" love, he discovers he just can't stop being (almost literally) crazy for Cersei. I was more surprised and disappointed by him going to bed with Brienne, honestly. And I expected him to kill Cersei in the end, but dying together, as they were born, kinda makes sense too.
Game of Thrones 8x05
@bwhaines The thing is, characters don't just change in GoT. They change their behavior, but are still tied to their origins and traumas. Look at Arya. From a little Stark girl, she almost truly becomes "no one", risking her own identity for vengeance. But then the Stark in her wins. For the last two seasons she becomes as Stark as can be. A true support for Sansa and the family. And in this last season even becomes again the scared girl she also is.
Game of Thrones 8x05
@bwhaines She is reflected by the Hound, almost becoming like him when she leaves Winterfell. The Hound walks towards self destruction, but in that last conversation he confronts her with her duality, with a choice she actually CAN make, unlike him: the ruthless, lonely killer, or the Stark girl. She sees how everything is falling on top of Cersei and everyone, makes a choice, and then gets deeply submerged into the horrors caused by war and revenge.
Game of Thrones 8x05
@bwhaines As for Daenerys, it's not only they have been "hinting". It's that the character has always been authoritarian, merciless and driven by ONE goal: to claim the throne. It's the only thing she had, along with a constant reminder for "not becoming her father". She believed she could do better, but the truth is her counselors have always been struggling to 'tame' her down.
Game of Thrones 8x05
@bwhaines In the two last seasons, it all falls apart:
1. She discovers that her right to the throne isn't true.
2. She discovers her lover is actually the true heir.
3. She realizes she is not loved by the people in Westeros, while Jon is.
4. Her counselors have died, fallen apart or betrayed her, from her POV.
5. Her most true friends, Missandei and Jorah, are dead.
6. The only love that could tie her to some hope and redemption in Westeros, Jon, can't love her anymore.
Game of Thrones 8x05
@bwhaines Oh, and...
7. She has already lost 2 dragons, her 'sons'.
So her "good" side is almost burned down, but her ruthless side remains the same. Conclusion: if there is no love to save her...
"All right then. Let it be fear."
She just doesn't care about the bells nor the people anymore. They won't love her. They represent her failure in becoming what she expected. She just can't bear with that.
Game of Thrones 8x05
@bwhaines So she ends up sinking back into what she tried to avoid. With no more hope or true purpose left, she becomes her darkest self: her father. She fulfills his "burn them all!" cry, and her dragon fire and her father's wildfire, together, destroy her dream and the city.
Game of Thrones 8x05
@bwhaines As for Euron... yeah, I don't get that one either 😂 That situation seemed too random, even forced.
Still, that fight helps proving Jaime's devotion for Cersei (he only engages when Euron says "I f*cked her"), and Euron dies stupidly as the crazy, reckless, cocky rockstar he is.
Game of Thrones 8x05
@bwhaines I'm not saying I agree with everything they did, and I certainly didn't expect things to go this way. But they couldn't meet everyone's (often wild) reasoning and expectations.
The worst thing to me is that the whole season feels forced, artificially accelerated, like too many things crammed together in too few episodes.
Game of Thrones 8x05
@eldelacajita I definitely agree on this season feeling rushed, and I think that's a large part of my frustrations. If they had given a little more time to show Jamie's slipping back into his old ways and Dany's capacity for going ballistic it would have been much smoother. Clearly they're capable of it, because other character arcs like Sansa and Varys were handled beautifully. They just seemed to jump the gun on a lot of character development.
Game of Thrones 8x05
@bwhaines @eldelacajita
There’s a whole real-world history of revolutionary leaders with just causes that end up soaking their hands in blood. The French Revolution brought an end to monarchy but also led to the Reign of Terror (and Napoleon after). Mao brought on the struggle sessions of the Cultural Revolution. Fidel Castro summarily executed his political opposition. Aung San Suu Kyi became complicit in the genocide of Rohingya.
Game of Thrones 8x05
@NoPunIn10Did It's not that she killed innocent people, it's that she did so seemingly without reason. All of the examples you listed were leaders working to secure or keep their own policial power -- Robespierre overthrowing the monarchy, Mao and Castro squashing anti-Communist movements, etc. But here Dany had already won, the throne was hers, _then_ she began murdering innocent people, ostensibly because she was emotionally devastated from losing so much.
Game of Thrones 8x05
@bwhaines
I think the interpretation that she committed war crimes based on an emotional reaction to loss is incorrect. I think it’s better ascribed to her belief that she must rule by fear. She wanted to make plain that there will be no mercy to those that oppose her, that not even surrendering mid-battle will save you. It’s particularly similar to Robespierre and the Reign of Terror.
Game of Thrones 8x05
@NoPunIn10Did I think that would make sense and it does fit with what she was saying before the battle, but her facial expressions while the bells were ringing don't match that idea. Like Varys, I hope I'm wrong and hope the final episode will touch on her thought process during the massacre.
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Game of Thrones 8x05
@bwhaines Well, first of all, I think GoT is not so much about one-way character arcs, but about people with complex motivations and ambiguous behavior. They drag bright/dark sides of their personality around and rarely get totally rid of either of them.