GOT Season 8 Episode 4: Please Finish This

Insert “Big Crossbow” for Rock

Vizzini, ahem Cersei:
Finish her. Finish her, your way.

Euron:
Oh good, my way. Thank you Cersei… which one’s my way?

Cersei:
Pick up one of those [Big Crossbows], get behind a boulder, in a few minutes the [Dragon Queen] will come [flying]around the bend, the minute her head is in view, hit it with the rock... (I mean arrow!)

Euron:
My way’s not very sportsman-like

…

Thank god Rob Reiner, visionary behind This is Spinal Tap, had the sense to know that ending the Princess Bride, a 1980s tongue-in-cheek children’s fantasy romp, with Fezzik smashing in the Man in Blacks head with a rock wouldn’t be terribly interesting nor satisfying.

…GAME OF THRONES ON THE OTHER HAND

Before I have an asthma attack fuming about the science of ever-bigger-crossbows as anti-dragon aerial defense, there was a good episode of Game of Thrones buried in the first act.

Reflecting back to episode two and how old characters interacting in a new fashion can be satisfying new plot-fodder while not extending the world into new ever stranger directions, the Long Night bangover party was immensely satisfying.

Characters got weird, Jon Snow is still a political idiot, Daenerys be cray, and Tormund and the Hound are my beautiful precious story-babies even if they are running out of plot armor to keep them alive and onscreen.

Not every piece of the Winterfell aftermath was perfect (commenting on that Bronn scene is a waste of everyone’s time) but there were a lot of good and interesting nuggets here:

• What is the deal with that R’hllor guy anyways huh Davos? It’s good and in-step with the books to keep the theological mysteries as mysteries. No one knows the will of the gods even when the magical fire of one of them is the only thing keeping the Night King from turning you into bubkis. This is frustrating, but also an important part of the Game of Thrones reality. The night is dark and full of terrors and that in itself keeps it interesting.
• The “what’s next” for Jon Snow was universally good. The bedroom scene with Daenerys was unquestionably the best and most interesting part of the episode. Dany got to showcase her easy willingness to manipulate Jon to reach her ends (my throne), Jon got to showcase that his stubborn goodness will most likely lead to all of their demise. This is setting the table for a final act of betrayal much in line with what I have foreseen for the shows conclusion, and best of all a conclusion that would follow the spirit of the books.
• The “fleshing out” done around this potential conclusion for the viewer was also very good. The showrunners hammered in that when Stark’s go south they die (see Ned, Ned’s Brother and Father, Rob, Catelyn, direwolves, and now we can add Rheagal to the garbage heap). Combining that reminder with touching farewells for Tormund, Ghost and Sam as they head for the greener pastures of the North make for a very clear flashing warning sign for Jon to (not)follow (SOUTH = BAD; North = Tormund (ALL THAT IS GOOD))
• Sansa might have done a smart thing, and we didn’t have to be told by other characters it was a smart thing. Good thing the showrunners reminded us that she is smart for the upteenth thousanth time in the after episode. I was also extremely distressed but not-at-all surprised that one of the showrunners pronounces Cersei wrong (It’s CerSee not CerSay you twat!)
• The Arya and Hound roadshow is back on. In case you needed the reminder, there are two names left on the list: The Mountain and CerSee. I shouldn’t have to glue this together for you, but the CleganeBowl is tentatively still on, probably with a side of Arya making stabby of CerSee as that seems to be the preferred resolution for any prickly plot traps. My worst fear, and because this is my worst fear it is what will most likely happen, is that in the fashion of Bond movies where the obviously less capable arch-villain gives Bond the hardest fight in the movie, CerSee will capture Arya to one up the Night King and give her the Missandei treatment to goad Jon and REALLY RAISE THE STAKES FOR THAT FINALE.
• Jamie and Brienne did a thing! Notice if you re-watch the episode the long shot on one-half of their twin swords being showcased before the bedchamber scene. I did find it strange that the showrunners couldn’t sneak in that, although Brienne is notably a virgin, Jamie has spent a lifetime with his one-and-only partner being his sister Cersei. That’s at least equally strange as being a 40 something-or-so year old virgin no?
• Staying on Brienne, and the nuance that the showrunners constantly whiff on in this final act of the series. If the bit of loyal-subject and fan service that Dany performed by elevating the bastard Gendry to being the new Lord of the Stormlands mattered at all outside of that one scene, that would make Gendry Brienne of Tarth’s new liege lord. Brienne can swear an oath up-and-down to defend Sansa, but as the only heir and future ruler to Tarth, Gendry could just tell her to shove off and go home if he so wished! But it doesn’t because nothing really matters outside of the show’s needs of killing this narrative beast!

Back to killing beasts and the dumpster fire that was the montage after everyone left Winterfell… deep breaths.

I’m going to try to ignore all in-universe tactical stupidity at play even though I have a PHD in Dragon Aerial Attack Maneuvers from The online University of Pheonix.

What makes Game of Thrones good, and to not get too nerdy (lulz), is that the world of Westeros is an intensely fleshed out and deep fictional world, but also that the show itself and your learning of this world is entirely through Diegesis.

What does this mean? Diegesis is the style of fiction that presents the viewer an interior view of a world where details about the world itself and the experiences of its characters are revealed explicitly through narrative.

Sounds easy right and isn’t that how every show works? Once you realize the number of non-diegetic story devices this eschews it gets daunting. This means:

• No Flashbacks
• No Narrator
• No Title Cards
• No Montages
• No insert shots that can show other things happening in the story that are not witnessed by a character as part of the narrative

Note that last one, as that means every part of the story, if the viewer gets to see it, has to be experienced on screen by a character.

Knowing this, you can see how Game of Thrones has bent over backwards to contort itself within these rules.

No mimetic Flashbacks allowed? How about Bran learns how to be a Tree so he can witness the past first hand?

No Title Cards or Locale Subtitles? Let’s craft an effective and intricate opening sequence that can reinforce the myriad of locations the viewer sees in each episode so we don’t have to type on top of the screen and dispel the immersion factor.

No insert shots or montages? How about a magical raven network that can update a character on the happenings on the other side of the world at any moments notice so everyone is always up to date (including the show characters)?

“Following the rules” has become increasingly difficult for the show as it lurches towards the end with it’s limited available screen-time and source material. Everyone has griped about the “teleporters” that must exist off-screen to ferry everyone around so abruptly, but last night might have been the last straw in holding this together somewhat coherently.

Drawing a line between the first half at Winterfell you can see the stark difference between diegesis and whatever they call the gap filled extended-form-montage scene-to-scene editing monstrosity that filled in the bonus thirty minutes of the episode.

What happens is we get the beginning of an introspective and revealing conversation between Varys and Tyrion in a ship hold on the nature of rule and “the realm” that is interrupted by:

• A “It’s just an even more giant crossbow than last seasons” fatal sniper attack on a Dragon
• Being attacked by Pirates, and all important characters surviving
• Swimming to Dragonstone
• Missandei being taken hostage (How did she live? How did they live?How did they know to take her? How is Euron still a thing?)
• Daenerys finding this all out (how?) and ignoring Varys and letting the crazy flag fly

Varys and Tyrion THEN resume the conversation without missing a beat that they were having on the ship after that short unfortunate interruption.

*Pause for Applause*

I personally was happy over the previous seven seasons with Varys finding out by way of raven or his “Little Birds” the goings-on instead of having to suffer through Zombies, ballistae, marathon swims and pirates oh my! And this is what we get forced on us now in lieu of a simple non-diegetic montage, which at least one is respectful of the time of the viewer.

They couldn’t even film a kidnapping right! You always show the person being taken, imagine if they filmed Liam Neeson only talking on the cellphone to his daughter being TAKEN and not the apartment break-in. It would just be an angry man berating a flip-phone!

So what does this matter for the end game, does anything matter anymore? Will CerSee resume standing at adorned windows and balconies looking out at the sea of oh-they-mad-now haters?

I feel like no one wants to be doing this anymore, making another season, writing self indulgent recaps, filming in faraway lands. My lone hope now is that after the Daenerys coup that Jon just abdicates and shuffles off back north to be with Tormund and Ghost, both of whom are very good bois.

Two more.