This season of Game of Thrones has been met
with a lot of criticism from most of its core
audience.
While the first two episodes started off strongly
enough, episode's 3 and 4 wereriddled with
issues that I think are worth discussing.
Episode 3 boasted some pretty impressive numbers.
It's the longest episode in the show's history
with a runtime of 82 minutes, it took 55 night
shoots with 750 cast and crew members to pull
off the largest battle sequence they've ever
done, and the longest battle sequence in cinematic
history.
And while previous epic battles on the show
have typically been ranked as some of the
best episodes of the series, "The Long Night"
has left many fans feeling disappointed.
Why?
Before going any further I think it's worth
pointing out that on a technical level, the
show has never produced a better episode.
Once you've gotten your display settings figured
out, the cinematography is stunning, with
some of the most gorgeous shots that Thrones
has ever seen.
The stunt-work, the visual effects, the production
design, the sound design; everything is firing
on all cylinders and delivering what is inarguably
the most impressive episode in television
history.
There's just never been anything quite like
it before, and for a show that's been raising
the bar for spectacle with each new season
it's saying a lot that this is the biggest
and the best of them.
But it wasn't the spectacle that was the problem,
it was just about everything else.
I'm normally not one to nit-pick, and being
that Game of Thrones is easily my all time
favorite show, I wanted nothing more than
to love this episode with all my heart, but
there are too many severe issues with the
writing and sequencing for me to just brush
off.
Let's start at the beginning.
Battle Tactics
Here at the end of the world we have virtually
every surviving major character coming together
to fight the greatest threat that Westeros
has ever seen.
The greatest minds and the greatest fighters
who have survived every other life-threatening
encounter, all working together and yet, their
plan for battle makes very little sense.
We already know that once defeated in battle,
the Night King can turn any corpse into a
soldier for his army.
So why send every Dothraki screamer into a
losing battle?
The purpose of cavalry on the battlefield
is either to flank maneuver, or to charge
head on breaking the enemy formation.
But this is no regular army, they don't have
a formation.
They don't feel fear.
One of the advantages of a strong cavalry
charge is the intimidation factor, that's
part of why soldiers will break ranks, but
the Army of the Dead doesn't operate like
any other army and these characters know that.
We're even reminded of this in the very same
season.
"Our enemy doesn't tire, doesn't stop, doesn't
feel.
We can't beat them in a straight fight."
Narratively speaking, it serves a great purpose.
The scene with Melisandre gives the audience
hope that maybe they do have a fighting chance,
and that hope is crushed immediately once
the Dothraki charge in.
It sets up a great deal of tension for the
coming fight, but at the expense of any logic
from the characters that are supposed to be
the best and the brightest left alive.
And then we have the trench.
Obviously we know that they're rushing to
get their defenses ready, so I'm not going
to complain about the structural integrity,
or lack-thereof, of the trench itself.
The problem is keeping the Unsullied on the
outside of it, with their backs to the trench.
Why?
There's literally no possible way for them
to retreat once the trench has been lit, so
they're just meant to die?
We know they needed to protect the frontlines
after they've retreated, but why did it have
to be in front of the trench?
Couldn't they have held a line behind the
trench instead?
That way they could still protect the retreat,
they could also do a better job of protecting
the trench when that starts to fail, and they
wouldn't all just get slaughtered almost immediately.
But instead we see both of Dany's forces,
that she has stood by and defended, done everything
to protect since the beginning; thrown into
the meat grinder with no real purpose.
These are her people, who have fought beside
her over the course of several seasons, who
named her their Queen and she just willingly
sends them to the slaughter.
Speaking of Dany.
Why was she, or Jon for that matter, ever
doing anything other than flying overhead
and incinerating every undead soldier that
they could.
We've seen how much damage they can do, but
they spend half of the episode just flying
around.
Presumably looking for the Night King, but
doesn't that go against the entire plan they
had laid out?
They were waiting to lure the Night King into
the Godswood, using Bran as bait, so trying
to dogfight him prematurely doesn't exactly
help to accomplish that, if anything it could
potentially ruin everything by getting the
Night King to just fly away and let the Undead
and the White Walkers finish the job.
Overall, it seems like most of the battle
tactics were contrived narrative devices to
create tension, an ebb and flow to the combat
where the victor isn't always clear.
But sacrificing character logic and strategy
to create this tension just makes the characters
feel stupid when we know for certain that
they're not.
The writers could have easily constructed
a battle plan that from the character's perspective
seemed flawless, but still subverted audience
expectations, by having their defenses overpowered
regardless.
You'd still get the necessary tension to make
for a gripping battle sequence, without making
the characters feel hopelessly incompetent,
which is more or less how they come across.
It's like they completely forget what they're
dealing with here, and approach it like any
other battle despite several conversations
leading up to the battle highlighting how
this Army is unlike any they've ever faced
before.
And so even though they, and we as an audience,
already know what the Night King is capable
of, they put all of the women and children
into the Crypt's?
"Nobody thought of that, he's bringing all
the dead people back to life and they put
the women and children in a crypt, with all
the dead people...so blah.
Tyrion is smart, but I guess not that smart."
It's just sad to see, these characters have
made it this far not out of luck, but by sheer
survival skills.
Whether through combat or intellect they have
bested every opponent in their way to make
it to this moment, here at Winterfell against
death itself.
To have so many of these characters making
so many stupid decisions just feels inconsistent
with the rest of the show.
Which brings us to the next major problem
with this episode.
Plot Armor
For those unfamiliar with the term, essentially
it's when a story defies logic to protect
its main characters.
Think of the Stormtroopers with deadly accuracy
who can't even hit a stationary target if
it's Luke or Han.
Normally this is just par for the course in
fantasy storytelling, but Game of Thrones
has always had a reputation for killing off
any character, regardless of importance, as
long as it follows the natural narrative arc.
For a while now, people have been complaining
of plot armor for its major characters, and
this episode may be the worst example we've
yet seen.
Obviously there are a few notable characters
who met their end at The Battle of Winterfell,
but considering how many notable characters
were present for the fight the number is actually
shockingly low.
And the problem isn't that more main characters
didn't die, there are plenty of high stakes
situations in the show's history with a relatively
low body count.
Very few important characters died at The
Battle of Blackwater Bay, or The Battle of
Castle Black.
More often than not if a major character is
killed off, it's outside of battle, the problem
specifically with this episode is how it's
put together.
We see every character overwhelmed countless
times, often with the camera cutting away
right in the heat of the moment; again, to
create dramatic tension, but it just ends
up feeling cheap.
They're about to be swarmed by Undead, camera
cuts, and when we cut back they're still standing.
Even when they're fatigued from battle after
killing countless enemies, even when they're
backed up against the wall fighting them off
single-handed.
Even when it's a character that has very little
combat experience, like Sam or Dany; despite
the overwhelming and seemingly impossible
odds, they somehow make it through the fight.
I've seen defenders of this episode claim
that the fans are just bloodthirsty and we're
not happy unless the show is killing a ton
of our favorite characters, but I really don't
think that's the issue here.
The issue is that we see the Dothraki, the
Unsullied, the Wildlings, hardened combat
veterans who have faced many enemies in many
battles all getting decimated by the Undead
but Samwell fucking Tarly can lay down in
the middle of battle to have a moment with
his feelings, and somehow doesn't end up dying.
Dany, who's barely ever even held a weapon
in the show's history can fight off dozens
of these things.
Jamie, who we've seen overpowered just fighting
Bronn after losing his good hand, can somehow
tank a horde of them simultaneously?
Podrick who's only just starting to get the
hang of things in combat, outliving soldiers
with years of fighting experience.
It's just ridiculous.
"If any writer's going to write about war,
then I want him to treat war honestly.
It does bring out the beast in men, and anybody
can die.
So it irritates me when I'm watching a movie
and or reading a book, and the hero is going
through incredible dangers, him and his six
buddies and none of them die.
I always like the suspense to be real, you
know?
We've all seen the movies where the hero is
in trouble, he's surrounded by twenty people
but you know he's going to get away because
he's the hero; and you don't feel any real
fear for him-- I want my readers and I want
my viewers to be afraid when my characters
are in danger.
I want them to be afraid to turn the next
page because that next character might not
survive it."
"And you're intercutting with Jon, who's clearly
not going to make it.
And you're intercutting with all of our other
characters and they're just so fucked.
Everybody's fucked.
I mean that was literally, that was the phrase
we kept using say 'let's do the it's fucked
shot', and then everyone would shoot a shot
where it just felt like there's no escape;
everyone's going to die right now.
You know they're not..."
"'Cause he's the hero."
One shot in particular is just insulting,
where we see maybe two or three fighters left
on the side of the living, but every single
one of the major characters still going strong,
for a moment I felt like I was watching The
Avengers.
But in The Avengers, these are actual literal
superheroes, the whole point is that they
can survive insane odds, the characters in
Game of Thrones are real people, made of flesh
and blood who can be killed just as easily
as anyone else, but somehow it's only the
non-important characters who get massacred?
It's the same trick they pulled last season
when the team goes Beyond the Wall.
We barely ever see anyone but our heroes until
it's time for someone to get killed, and that's
literally their only purpose in the scene,
to offer some sort of body count.
Again, similar to the issue with their bad
battle tactics, there's still a way to create
tension without it feeling unrealistic.
You could have more of the army of the living
present in these sequences so it doesn't feel
like it's only our favorite characters left
standing.
You could see them using proper teamwork,
forming something like a defensive circle,
backs toward each other working together to
fend off the Undead, and even then you should
be killing off the characters that aren't
as skilled of fighters, or at the very least
having them run away.
I can believe Grey Worm can hold his own against
the Undead , I can believe Brienne can too,
even Gendry; but Sam?
Podrick?
It's just not believable in the slightest.
Of course, none of these things would have
ruined the episode for me on their own; and
they pale in comparison to the real issues
of this episode.
Shock Over Narrative Integrity
Ever since the very first scene of the very
first episode, the White Walkers were established
as the real threat all along.
Everything else that's happened, the War of
the Five Kings, all of the treason and talks
of succession, the "Game of Thrones" never
mattered.
The entire time every other character has
been fighting for their house, for the throne,
for money or power, the Night King continued
to grow stronger and add more soldiers to
his army.
And the show has taken countless moments to
remind us of this theme.
"You and I and Cersei and everyone else, we're
children playing at a game, screaming that
the rules aren't fair.
The Army of the Dead is real, the White Walkers
are real, the Night King is real, I've seen
them.
If they get past the Wall and we're squabbling
amongst ourselves; we're finished."
"If we don't put aside our enmities and band
together we will die, and then it doesn't
matter whose skeleton sits on the Iron Throne."
The White Walkers are ancient and powerful,
they've lied in wait for thousands of years
to bring about The Long Night.
They are death itself, with the biggest army
that any of our heroes have ever seen, and
after 8 years and 8 seasons, they're finally
here.
"Fear is for the winter, when the snows fall
a hundred feet deep.
Fear is for The Long Night, when the sun hides
for years and children are born and live and
die; all in darkness.
That is the time for fear my little Lord,
when the White Walkers move through the woods.
Thousands of years ago, there came a night
that lasted a generation.
Kings froze to death in their castles same
as the shepherds in their huts, and women
smothered their babies rather than see them
starve; and wept, and felt the tears freeze
on their cheeks.
So is this the sort of story that you'd like?"
Now I'm not part of the crowd that doesn't
belive that Arya could kill him.
We've spent the last 6 seasons watching her
become a veteran assassin.
Skilled in deception and stealth, she studied
under the tutelage of the most trained killers
in the known world for basically two full
seasons.
She was gifted a Valyrian Steel dagger by
The Three Eyed Raven, and even had a prophetic
encounter with Melisandre all the way back
in Season 2.
The problem is that it was all over too quickly.
The biggest threat to the Seven Kingdoms wiped
out in one battle?
Even Stannis didn't go down that easy.
And now what?
Now they're off to fight Cersei?
In what world is she more dangerous than the
Night King and the Army of the Dead?
If we've seen most of our heroes survive The
Battle of Winterfell, how can there be any
shred of a doubt that they'll win in the final
wars to come.
"But still, I need your help?"
"Not to defeat Cersei, you could storm King's
Landing tomorrow and the city would fall.
Hell, we almost took it and we didn't even
have dragons."
They've spent episode after episode, season
after season building towards the idea that
the Iron Throne isn't important, that all
that really matters is the living fighting
together under one banner to defeat the Night
King and his army.
"You've seen the Army of the Dead.
You've seen the Night King.
He's coming for us, for all of us."
"The Night's Watch can't stop them, the Kings
of Westeros and all their armies can't stop
them."
And now it's just right back to the Iron Throne?
Literally moments before the battle begins,
they're still harping on the idea that the
Throne shouldn't matter.
"If it were true, it would make you the last
male heir of House Targaryen, you'd have claim
to the Iron Throne."
Which felt like a great final juxtaposition
that even as Death marches towards them, in
what might be their final moments on Earth,
people like Dany are still focused on the
wrong threat.
Only now it turns out they were right?
That Cersei has been the real threat all along?
It's just ludicrous.
And unless they've got some big surprises
in the episodes to come, it seems like that
is the end of the Night King as we know it.
The Long Night that's been prophecized for
generations, building in tension throughout
each season all just neatly tied up right
before the end?
I know they've been pressed for time and had
to close out the show with this season, but
why not save the Night King for the end?
Why not have them lose The Battle of Winterfell
with some of our favorite characters retreating
south?
Why not have the Army march on King's landing
like we saw prophecized in season 2.
Why not bring the war to Cersei, and let her
see for herself the error of her ways and
join the fight, or continue her stubborn fight
to the end?
Either would be more satisfying than what
we got.
We've been told time and again that "Winter
is Coming", and the whole tagline for season
seven was "Winter is Here".
Finally we were going to see what the Night
King and his Army were capable of, bringing
about The Long Night, a winter that would
last generations, but it was all ended in
a few hours?
Honestly I'm half expecting them to pull out
some twist in the next few episodes, because
I genuinely can't believe they would bring
an end to the Night King that easily, and
I hope that's the case.
I hope I'm wrong, I hope we're all wrong,
and the next few episodes deliver a stunning
conclusion to the series.
But if all is as it seems and the main focus
is now Cersei, I think that is a severe misstep
that will have fundamentally ruined the entire
show.
I don't think we could ever expect to see
every loose end tied up, and frankly, I don't
think we need to.
We'll probably never find out all there is
to know about the origin of the White Walkers,
or the Children of the Forest or the Lord
of Light or The Three Eyed Raven, and I think
most of that is better off left to the imagination.
But I think we should have seen more devastation
at the hands of the Night King, it should
have been a harder fought battle, where the
side of the living suffered heavier losses,
because honestly now the rest of the series
feels pretty pointless.
We were never meant to care about who ended
up ruling the Seven Kingdoms, but now all
of a sudden that's supposed to be the final
act of the series?
There are still two episodes left, running
around the same length as "The Long Night",
so anything is possible.
And if these final few episodes end up turning
things around, I'll be the first to admit
that I got things wrong, and that's what I
desperately hope for but as a fan who's been
around since the first season, but I can't
help but feel that D&D lost sight of what
the show was always about, and without the
guidance of George's books to lead the way
they've been stumbling towards a conclusion
they have no idea how to write; so instead
they concerned themselves more with keeping
the reddit fans on their toes than telling
the story as it should be told.
And it's not to say it's all bad.
I think that the few character deaths we received
were poignant and beautifully done.
Theon's arc in particular came to a tragic
but phenomenal conclusion.
Some moments stand out as truly masterfully
done, and feel on par with the best moments
the show has given us in the past.
The production value of the episode was through
the roof, and the cast and crew deserve all
the praise in the world for pulling off something
that no other TV show could ever hope to achieve.
Generally speaking from a cinematic perspective,
the episode is nearly flawless with some of
the most incredible visuals and action sequences
I've ever seen.
But the visuals and the action used to be
in service of the greater story, and now it
feels like spectacle for spectacle's sake,
where actions no longer have the same consequences
we've come to expect.
Where none of the threats feel real anymore
because we know that most of the characters
are going to survive just like every other
fantasy series.
Where logic is sacrificed to create artificial
moments of tension that can never match the
true moments of tension earned through masterful
storytelling that made the show famous.
Episode four had many of the same problems,
and is now officially the lowest rated episode
of the show as a result.
It started off well enough, but the ambush
at Dragonstone?
How could these ships see Dany and her dragons,
but not the other way around?
How could they all hit their shots perfectly
on Rhaegal, but when Dany and Drogon are flying
straight at them they all miss?
There's zero visual clarity as to how Missandei
somehow got captured when everyone else on
the same ship washed up on shore.
And then there's the meeting.
Why does Cersei, the same woman who destroyed
a historic landmark in King's Landing just
to deal with the High Sparrow and the Tyrell's
suddenly give away a free opportunity to take
out Daenerys, her biggest rival; Grey Worm,
Dany's highest ranking captain; and Tyrion,
the treasonous brother she just hired Bronn
to kill?
Not to mention Drogon who's clearly within
firing range of the ballistas.
Again, it's just more inconsistent writing
that flies in the face of logic to put the
characters where they need to be to tie things
up.
We need to see Cersei as a bigger threat,
so killing a dragon seems like a solid way
to show that, but the way it's presented comes
off as a big "gotcha" moment rather than something
that was properly earned.
Just listen to the writer's justification
for the scene.
"While Dany kind of forgot about the Iron
Fleet and Euron's forces, they certainly haven't
forgotten about her and they're just waiting
for her to come back."
Yet, literally in the very same episode..."And
the Golden Company has arrived in King's Landing
courtesy of the Greyjoy Fleet.
The balance has grown distressingly even."
How can they possibly try and justify that
logic?
This is the sort of thing that has fans feeling
so frustrated, these aren't just small nit-picks
or irritation that our fan theories didn't
prove to be true, this is just objectively
bad writing.
And it's turning what should have been one
of, if not the greatest season of television
into an incoherent and predictable mess.
I'm sure there will still be surprises to
come, but if these four episodes are any indication
of what we can expect, they'll be the equivalent
to a bad jump scare, shock for the sake of
shock with no real substance or logic motivating
it.
I think the real problem is that they were
racing to the finish line.
Why they felt the need to finish with 8 seasons
is something I'll never understand, but this
quickened pace has completely ruined the show.
This was a show that was the epitome of the
slow burn.
With intricately interwoven plotlines covering
thousands of miles and dozens of POV characters,
where time and geography and character motivation
was delicately balanced, and where every choice
created a ripple that reverberated throughout
the entire world of Westeros, sometimes multiple
seasons later.
The Red Wedding for example, arguably the
show's most iconic moment, was being built
towards ever since Ned was imprisoned and
Robb began to march South all the way back
in Season 1.
We spent all of season 2 and most of season
3 following the ongoing war between the Starks
and the Lannisters.
The show took its time with evertying, think
of how long we followed Brienne and Jaime
on their journey South, or Bran going North
to find the Three Eyed Raven, or literally
any other character arc.
But now they've tried to cram not one but
two massive conflicts that involve every remaining
major character, with seven seasons of buildup
into only a handful of episodes.
The frustrating thing is, the big narrative
beats of this season could completely work
within a different context; the fall of the
Night King, the death of Rhaegal, Dany's descent
into madness, but they set a pace for themselves
throughout the first six seasons and kept
faithfully to it, but now it feels like we're
watching the Cliff notes of how the story
should end, where the writers have made countless
sacrifices regarding storytelling and character
development just to make it all fit in time.
Unless these next two episodes miraculously
turn things around, I honestly think this
may go down in history as the most disappointing
season of television ever produced.
So even though literally everyone on the internet
is talking about this already, and I'm sure
I'm not the first one to raise a lot of these
points, I couldn't help myself.
This was without question my favorite show,
and I've been with it since the very beginning,
so seeing it all fall apart in such spectacular
fashion has been arguably the most disappointing
experience I've ever had with entertainment,
and that's coming from a diehard Lord of the
Rings fan who survived The Hobbit trilogy.
I guess all that we can hope for at this point
is for George to feel re-energized.
It wasn't long ago he was feeling pretty frustrated
that the show got to drop some big reveals
that he had been planning for years, but now
with virtually every fan of the show deriding
the choices of D&D, maybe it'll motivate him
to give the fans the ending we deserve.
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