Just watched the finale. I have some thoughts. Which I will try give without mentioning the books.
Dorne: Let's just get this part out of the way. Nothing makes sense here. Ellaria wants to kill Myrcella to start a war with the Lannisters because Oberyn is dead but also bad blood between those families for a long time. Sort of shaky but ok. So she sneaks into Myrcellas room and steals her necklace and sends it to Cersei with a threatening letter and doesnt just, I don't know, kill her then. Poison her in her sleep? Ok, anyway ... forget it. Not worth it. One stupid plot contrivance after another, terrible writing. The acting might have been terrible, but I can't imagine any actor good enough to deliver that dialogue well. End result is probably important to the plot, but it just felt like a total waste. At least we got a nice scene between Jaime and Myrcella before it went all nose-bleedy. Which just seals the utter pointlessness of this story.
Arya: I like Arya. I think too many people relish her juvenile vigilantism instead of realizing just how tragic of a character she is, but whatever. I like her adventures in Bravos. I just really struggle to see how anything she does has real significance to the plot. I feel this way about the book plot, too, but it's even worse here where we don't get insight into the real influence of the faceless men and the iron bank. Her blinding and really the whole scene at the end was a fun twist, and it'll be nice to see how it plays out in the show new season. I just wish I had the sense of it going somewhere on the grand stage the show is set up for everywhere else. I mean, I get the same feeling with the Dany plot, but at least I know once she's ready to move on to Westeros, her impact will be felt at a massive scale. Oh also Meryn Trant wasn't evil enough before? Now we have to add physical child abuse. Then again, that scene probably would have been more disturbing had he been ready to sexually assault Arya.
Essos: Looks promising going forward. Jorah and Dario will be a fun buddy team. And Tyrion gets to rule with Varys! Wait why did it take so long for Varys to get to Mereen? He didn't get shipwrecked and captured by slavers and forced to fight in pits and also how did he get past security and sidle on up to Tyrion like that and ... actually I don't care. I'll take all the plot contrivance in the world if it means more of those two. And Kelly C runs into some dothraki. I'm sure she'll be invading Westero's any day now.
Cersei: Fantastic scene. Lena Headley is amazing at showing such a powerful range of emotions through the smallest of facial expression changes. Her descent from calm and controlled, to rattled, to a complete break down almost made me pity her. Then I remembered how terrible of a person she is. And once Ser FrankenGregor picked her up, that wasn't the look of a woman who was going to accept her punishment.
Sansa: Total character regression for Sansa all season. I kept hoping they were building something up, but she ends up just being the damsel in distressed yet again. She had absolutely no agency. The most she did was break out of her room and light a candle hoping some unknown force would come save her. Instead, it's reek theon who does. I do really enjoy his arc now that we're done with the torture porn. Maybe it was sansa's words that brought him back, or maybe not. Really hard to tell. But either way, Theon ne Reek wins the MVP. The ending where they jump off the building was odd. They didn't make it clear that there was anyway they could survive such a fall. There's no way they just fall to their deaths. But by not showing them safe outside the walls they deny any real closure that plot line could give. By showing the jump and not the landing, they really are just giving the laziest of cliffhangers.
Stannis: Ok, book talk for one second. I know show stannis and book stannis are really different. But I actually really like the shows portrayal. He's not the mannis, but he is a wonderfully tragic character. A man driven by duty to claim what is rightfully his, sees the power the red woman offers and slowly gives her more control over his actions. He sees the real threat for what it is and his mission only grows more urgent. He needs to win not only for his right, but for the realm. As his situation grows more desperate, he leans more on the red womans magic. Eventually sacrificing his own daughter in the name of the greater good (and perhaps some of his own ambition). But this last act of a desperate man drives his wife to suicide and half his army to desertion. And at this point he knows he's lost. But he has no choice but to continue to trust the prophesy of the red woman, even as she herself abandons him in his lowest point. The unspeakable acts he committed cannot be in vain. Haunted by the dying screams of his only child, he marches towards his death. His army is routed and he finds himself alone. Perhaps thinking of how he had come to this point. Having lost everything, his wife, daughter, army, the red woman herself. And in the end, his life is taken in revenge of his brother's murder, his first betrayal. Wonderfully poetic justice.
Except we get ANOTHER cut to black before the death cliffhanger because one isn't enough. Fuck you, show.
Jon: The scene between Mel and Davos might have been my favorite of the episode, maybe the season. It was short, there was almost no dialogue, but the acting from both of those two was phenomenal. You could hear Davos' heart break. And the look on Mel's face was equally good. Doubt, maybe uncertainty. Those two seconds did more to humanize her than any previous scene. She was nothing but smugness and absolute certainty for 5 years. And now, everything she thought is gone.
And the moment we were all waiting for. Sam leaves for oldtown leaving Jon with very few friends on the wall. And the murders that make up the watch finally got to do what they're best at. I did think it was rushed a bit. Surely word of what happened at Hardhome had spread and people realized the threat they were up against. If, for instance, Jon agreed to send wildlings to help stannis take winterfell, that would have made a great 'final straw.' Yeah wildlings can help us fight the undead, but we are not giving them leave to invade our lands. I am mostly disappointed Alliser was there. He's a dick. He hates Jon. But he understands the threat they are up against, more than most. I actually felt it out of character that he would mutineer. Regardless, we finally get a surefire, no cut to black, death. Until Mel revives him.
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Topic: A Song of Ice and Fire [spoilers version] (Read 179595 times)