GOT Season 8 Episode 5: Avert Your Eyes, It’s a Massacre (of One)
The greatest trick the devil(s) ever pulled was letting us think that King Robert of House Baratheon, First of His Name, King of the Andals and the First Men, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms, and Protector of the Realm, wasn’t right all-a-fuckin-long.
I will never doubt you again King Bobby B, thank you for reminding me who the one True King is-and-always-will-be. David Benioff and D.B. Weiss: well played you hacks *tips hat*
I don’t know how else to start this season’s recaps except for the literary equivalent of a long eye roll and sigh. How about we all come together and mourn the loss of Harry Strickland? He was a true knight, a paragon of valor and cut down before his time!… *sniff*
I know, a lot is going to be written about the last hour belly flop Daenerys took. I have always expected that she will behave in such a way that the Lords of Westeros believe she needs to be deposed, whether explicitly her fault or not, so I won’t harangue over the fact that she did a bad.
The grievous thing is that she did a stupid.
No matter the consternation, or set-up or hints, Daenerys has been singular in her pursuits, which are the Iron Throne, her birthright, and to free the weak from enslavement. She has received council, ignored council, forged her own way, done nasty things, done merciful things, but her true north has always been clear.
Burning every-and-all of King’s Landing and it’s people does not get her any of those things. It’s even more perfidious that the showrunners described her as making this decision “in the moment” when she saw the Red Keep and heard the bells.
In case a reminder is needed, Daenerys’ father was killed by Jamie because he gave the same order to burn all of King’s Landing (the green wildfire stores blowing up were evidence of that plan) and Jamie ignored the order and killed the Mad King instead.
…And because Game of Thrones is a land of actions-have-consequences the entire rebellion and King Robert’s rule was undermined by that act. Robert was a Usurper, not a proper ruler. Daenerys was an exiled true-Queen, not just an orphan to a lost dynasty. This bled out into the treatment of other characters as Ned hated Jamie, and likewise the Lannisters hated the Starks, for denying their rebellion legitimacy even as Jamie himself said, part of the reason he killed Aerys was because he witnessed him burn to death Ned’s father and brother.
Daenerys was raised immersed in this history, that her father was bad but was removed in a bad, but understandable, way which is why you, young lady, are supposed to be sitting on a throne of swords.
But Daenerys' verysmartplan is to toss everything about her, and her families' history, when she heard bells ringing. To by-her-own-hand do the exact thing that her Mad King Father simply ordered, and which Jamie, trading that one life for the lives of thousands, still kneecapped and ended Robert’s chance at a fair rule.
Smart.
Now let’s start with that coin-flip analogy…
In the show canon, of the known Targaryen rulers we have:
Aegon “Egg” Targaryen: Seemed alright for a time, but ended up burning himself and his entire family and court to death at the Tragedy at Harrenhall trying to hatch Dragon eggs…
… His son Aerys Targaryen, The Mad King: Intentionally burned a lot of people to death, see above Mad King
And The Mad King’s children, Rhaegar (seemed alright until he abandoned his wife during a war to run off with Lyanna and chase a prophecy leading to Jon Snow), Viserys (definitely not alright), and lastly Daenerys (seemed alright till uh…)
I bring this up because the show parsed out other Targaryen’s in this lineage deliberately (Aegon is technically Aerys Grandfather, there was a boring not insane Targaryen in-between) to make things more clear, but also to set-up Daenerys as being different than what came previously. Let me think of an amusing analogy to use here to describe this, oh yeah THE OTHER SIDE OF THE COIN.
Operating in the grey is the only way you could make Daenerys’ pivot and demise interesting and acceptable given the seven seasons of investment viewers have made. I have said before, I loathe and avoid fan-fiction, but I longed for two solutions once the siege started.
The first is that Daenerys stops at the bells, because hey who wants to rule ashes am I right? And even though she tacitly follows Tyrion’s advice, she erodes any faith in her potential to rule with more mass executions of Tyrion and others (Cersei, Jamie, Jon, Sansa, Arya and on down the line).
Or she burns it all, and by burns it all I mean Jon and the Northmen too. Why pretend you can walk(fly) back from this and still maintain your coalition to rule?
One word, stupid (the show)
Fortunately, this episode still had a lot of satisfying payoffs and character ends.
- The Lannisters went down much in line with their literary spirits. I have read frustrations with Jamie’s pivot and Tyrion being flummoxed by Daenerys but it’s important to look at the Lannister brood as adult children locked in a state of permanent abuse-born dysfunction. Jamie will always be the protector of Cersei and Tyrion, Tyrion will always be the catspaw to Cersei and the head of the Jamie fan club as the sole benefactor of his nobleness. Cersei, is her father’s daughter more than either of his actual sons (for good and bad.) I could watch a whole 90 minute episode of Tyrion crying and holding Jamie. Lannister’s always pay their debts, and the Lannister children only ever owed debts to each other.
- The Mountain and The Hound payoff was as good as could be. I don’t talk enough about the incredible literary vision the show has undertaken in actualizing these characters, but Gregor Clegane is a breathtaking piece of costume and casting, and The Hound is Rory McCann. Qyburn eating dust(brick)and Cersei going “…I think I’ll just call an Uber” was equally fantastic visual storytelling.
- Damn you Daenerys for taking Harry Strickland from me
So where to from here? Is my ending still in play of someone (looking around and not many people are left) killing Daenerys in Jon’s name and Jon refusing to step into the power vacuum?
Tormund and Ghost are waiting for you Jon, it could be such a happy spin-off series…
So who does it? Heads are still on the chopping block (Tyrion), Jon, pointedly and tellingly, showed his willingness to kill an ally to stop a rape, and as they say, Death (Arya) rides a pale horse.
One more my sweet summer children. Winter is coming.