SPOILERS AHEAD!! For the love of god if you are not caught up to season 8 episode 3 of the series Game of Thrones do not read any further.
Now that that is out of the way I’m going to talk seriously and honestly about what has happened so far in what might be HBO’s most famous show ever.
I am not going to be differing to what has happened in the books as the correct plot line as the books are now irrelevant to the show. Many things have happened which make both the books and the show massively different.
What I will talk about is what exactly has happened in season 8 so far, now that we are half way to the end.
Season 8, Episode 1 and 2
Essentially, this. Everyone who agrees the white walkers and the dead are a larger threat to humanity than who will eventually sit on the iron throne, have gathered at Winterfell.
This includes Varys, Tyrion, Jamie Lannister, Jon, Daenerys, little Lady Mormont, Ser Jorah, and many more. But anyways, what I’m getting at is all the different perspectives that make up the The Song of Ice and Fire stories have converged for a common goal and they all agree they might be fucked.
The first two episodes consisted of a lot of talking and no doing, which I’m not critical of, it’s just we were promised the most action packed season to date. Whatever, because those two episodes needed to happen for a few reasons.
- People actually had to meet up, air their grievances about each other then agree to put that behind them.
- Jon had to find out that he’s actually a Targaryan, and that had to become known to Daenerys.
Lannisters Bad?
I appreciated the fact that even though Bran knows everything and is the three eyed raven he never told anyone that Jamie pushed him out the window. Saying something to the effect that that wouldn’t unring that bell. So they accept Jamie into their camp.
Essentially as far as I’m concerned Jamie has completely redeemed himself.
Some of you might say, “Hey wait a minute! Jamie damn near caused the war of the five kings by attacking Ned Stark.” Which is true, but he went through a major life changing event when he had his hand cut off and through his relationship with Brienne he has certainly turned a corner.
So I was happy that Jamie has become a ‘good’ guy. What I want for this series is that he should be the one to kill Cersei in the end. It would be consistent with the prophecy that the witch told her way back when she was a kid, and her death is the only thing remaining not to come true yet.
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Be Nice To Dickless
I was also really glad that the Starks have accepted Theon back. I mean common, the guy lost his dick. He has nothing left but to regain some sense of honour. While he always regretted his decision to not join them in the war of the five kings, he suffered profoundly and enough is enough as far as that character is concerned.
The tension between Sansa and Daenerys is understandable but a bit much. I guess she really has no reason to trust the Dragon Queen but at the same time Jon (who she thinks is her brother) is falling for Daenerys so god damn make something easy for him one time in his life.
I say all this knowing full well, that what I like most about this show is that you don’t get what you want as a viewer, you get what you need (e.g. Ned Stark’s death).
Give Me What I Need!
So sure there are characters I identify with and want them to have nice things, but in the end I want the show’s writers to take those things away and give me something else that I didn’t know I needed that is actually much better (e.g. The Red Wedding).
When Jon (or Aegon depending on how you see things) told Daenerys that he is actually the rightful king, I was not surprised whatsoever with her reaction.
She in the end is merciless and wants the throne way more than she cares about Jon. Jon is just a temporary play mate in the grand scheme of things.
So What Happened In Episode 3?
Playing the game of thrones was put on hold for a moment to handle the most serious threat to humanity in Westeros. White walkers…dead people, and a zombie dragon.
To summarize quickly, there was a massive battle that saw humanity win.
I’m a little bit critical of this because we were lead to believe that the white walkers were so incredibly hard to beat that only the reincarnation of Azor Ahai could defeat them.
What happened was that Arya pulled a sneak attack and killed the Night King. I find this problematic because, one, she very clearly is not the prince of light (Azor Ahai) and two, I feel like the show’s writers are pandering to her fan base.
Give Me Death!
If the show held true to its past form, we should have lost way more characters last episode. As it was we only lost peripheral characters including little Lady Mormont (but she went out like a bad ass), Grenn, Theon, and Jorah. As far as Theon going out, I don’t feel it served the plot any.
That’s another great thing about Game of Thrones. Deaths fuel the plot line. Maybe Theon’s sister will come join Jon and Daenerys against Cersei and Euron as a result, but we’ll have to wait and see.
When I was watching the final scene, I was half expecting that Bran would get turned into a white walker (being a warg makes him special to the dead), but nope.
I always expected that Bran would eventually use his warg abilities to control the dragons, but during the battle he pretty much just went and chilled with the ravens. So that storyline has somewhat petered out.
Now What?
Now that the dead and the white walkers are no longer an issue, everyone is going to go back to playing the game of thrones, and this time only Cersei remains in the way.
Jon has bent the knee to Daenerys so at this point, as viewers, we are lead to believe he’s completely loyal to her.
What I’d like to see is them turn on each other and fight it out for the throne, but I don’t think there’s enough time for that in the series.
There was a moment when I thought Daenerys was going to kill him with her dragon but I just leading myself astray.
I do believe Jamie has completely abandoned his sister in exchange for doing the right thing. And that means joining Jon and Daenerys.
One of my favourite characters, Sandor Clegane (the hound), simply must kill his brother (the mountain) before the show is over. But as we saw with what has happened to Bran, the show’s writers are letting things drop as they plow forward.
I’d like to see more full resolutions of certain character arcs.
As it stands, there are still many loose ends that need to be tied up before the show can call it a day.
What I want
So I’m hoping Jamie kills Cersei, and Jon and Daenerys either kill or marry each other.
That is basically my large expectations for what’s coming next in the remaining three episodes. But they have to move fast.
The last three episodes were not so much plot driven but were necessary none the less. It’s just that the show typically uses dialogue and death to drive the story forward. We’re running out of time for that to happen at a quality we expect from the show.
I need people I care about to die, but for their deaths to be impactful to the overall story. As well as there to be some addressing of whether or not the Lord of Light is a real thing or not (Azor Ahai).
I do see a problem with the only people who fully know Jon’s origins being his best friend and his brother. He needs some documentation or something. Then again, he did ride a dragon fine enough.
Final Note
I might have sounded quite critical of the season so far, so let me just say that no matter what I am fully committed to this show. Even if the ending is terrible, I’m just going to make lemonade out of those lemons. Any Game of Thrones is better than none in my books.
If you have any thoughts or feelings about what you’ve seen in the show so far feel free to post them in the comments.