Our Watch Has Ended

I usually do my blogging in my mother tongue (Tamil | தமிழ்), but I thought I’d write this post about Game of Thrones in English to reach a larger audience. I included some memes, hoping they’d reduce the spiciness in my language. I’m not a native speaker of English, so forgive my grammar (at least I don’t do typos anymore). 😉

My thoughts on final season/episode:

Oh gosh, where do I start? Jaime Lannister became wise, kind of redeemed himself in Winterfell, and even had a one knight stand (not a typo) with my gurl Brienne. All that to go back to Cersei and die! The Night King created an army of undead, killed a fucking dragon, destroyed the wall, have a hundred White Walkers, all that to die in a stupid manner in the hands of Arya! The build-up for him in the 7 seasons made absolutely no sense at all. I was able to sense Dany becoming The Mad Queen. It was not totally unexpected.

But, King Bran? Is Bran the Broken more impressive than Arya, the Hero of Winterfell? I’d have liked it if Sansa was given the throne and Bran being The Hand. Especially if she’s already strong enough to seek independence for the North. There’s no more Iron Throne, so why couldn’t Winterfell become the new capital? Jon was consistent from the beginning that he doesn’t want the throne, but this sneaky Bran/Raven was conspiring this all along.

I think that the 3-eyed raven may be the real villain. He made someone as the Night King for no fucking reason, he lured the crippled warg boy beyond the wall made him the next 3-eyed raven (to have a young physical body?), did nothing useful in the whole season, says he doesn’t want anything, and when someone offered the King job he was like, “Why do you think I came all this way?”. What a douchebag! I wasn’t clearly able to distinguish whether it was Bran or the 3-eyed Raven talking.

Sam trying to sneak in democracy, Tyrion being ignored in the book for being an Imp, Edmure Tully being the weird uncle in every family gathering, all are kind of expected, and frankly hilarious when Edume bumbled his sword. Poor Daario Naharis hoping somewhere that Dany’s war is going well and dreaming to smash the queen again. I don’t know if he would’ve made a difference in the final season, which was beyond redemption, but that character was at least good in wars.

Sure I understand the writers cannot fulfill all our dreams, but few things (The Night King plot/symbols) are just stupid, unequivocally. You waste my food; I can cook again. You steal my money; I can earn again (actually, don’t do those things). But, if you waste my time, I can’t get it back! I can go on and write a huge post, but I guess it wouldn’t matter in the end. I have to give credit where it’s due. So here are the few things I liked:

• The goodest boy got the petting he deserved.
• Jon back in the Northest North, where he wants to be.
• The background score (especially in S08E03).
• The casting and costumes (except when they carry Starbucks cups).
• Tyrion, Littlefinger, Varys, Davos portrayals.
• Ser Brienne as Kingsguard (not directly shown, but implied).
• Ser Bronn, a clear winner from the beginning.
• The Cleganes. Sandor and Gregor were consistent with their characters from the beginning.

Questions that need desperate answers:

• What was the big deal about elephants and the Golden Company? No CGI budget?
• The wildlings aren’t hostile, and the Night King is dead. So why there’s a fucking Night Watch?
• Why does Bran need a master of whisperers if he’s the mighty 3-eyed Raven?
• Why Bran doesn’t know what’s west of Westeros? Doesn’t he know all the past and present? Can’t he give a map to Arya?
• Is Bran the promised prince, the Azor Ahai?
• Why Bran didn’t warn Dany about the Scorpion (Dragon Killer)? If he knew she’d turn into evil and purposefully didn’t tell her, then ‘he can’t see into the future’ is total bullshit.
• Why all of a sudden everyone, including Tyrion, forgot that Jon is Aegon Targaryen? Isn’t he the rightful heir to the throne?
• 'Who kills a Khal becomes a Khal’ - so shouldn’t Jon be the Khal now?
• Grey Worm be like, “These men were against our Queen, let’s slit their throats”, and then he was like, “Oh, Jon Snow killed our Queen. Let’s keep him prisoner for weeks and get justice”. What the fucking fuck?
• Is it wrong I wanted to see Gendry have one last goodbye with Arya?
• I’m still confused about which of the following is true:
• Drogon knows Jon is a Targaryen, so he doesn’t wanna kill him.
• Drogon was mind-controlled by Bran (one useful thing from his end) and saved Jon.
• Drogon understood that the lust for the Iron Throne killed Dany and not Jon. So he melted the throne.

A lot of people asked what is the point in signing the petition. I understand it is not going to change anything, I’m not stupid. But, it shows that at least 1.2 million people are upset (some might be just on the bandwagon). Leaving coffee cups and water bottles is a clear indication that screenwriting, editing, preview, everything is rushed.

I’m not a visionary, not certainly qualified to write a screenplay, but the whole point of the TV/movie entertainment is to entertain the audience. The disappointing wave clearly indicates that Game of Thrones failed somewhere miserably, and missed the chance to be the greatest TV show ever. While the series itself has a very good rating, the series finale is the lowest rated episode as per IMDB. That should tell something to HBO.

Even if I stay away from all the posts, articles, and think rationally, there isn’t a second opinion in my mind. The series had suffered in the last season, went beyond redemption, and cannot be fixed in 80 minutes finale. If you understood the direction the season 8 was headed, the final episode actually makes SOME sense. After all, the episodes are aired, books are written, the songs are sung, no one is truly happy. We just have to deal with the cards handed to us.

VERDICT: It was not a bad ending, just a mammoth disappointment!