Character Sendoff:
Plot:
Cinematography:
Overall:
Before I begin getting into my review, I just want to give everyone a spoiler warning as I will be talking about details from the last season with heavy focus on the finale. Consider yourselves properly warned.
I had to take some time to process everything before I felt like I could provide an objective review of the entire series. Many people had really low opinions of the season; there is an entire movement trying to create a petition to remake the ending. Currently there are over 1.5 million people who have signed the petition. As if that actually is going to change anything.
I also had several parts I didn’t like in the last couple of episodes which I will discuss in chronological order. First, Jon should absolutely be dead. I know he is the character of the show and is thus granted powers of invincibility, but when Grey Worm finds out Jon killed Dany, he should have killed Jon on the spot. To Grey Worm, Dany is the woman who freed him and his people from oppression and is the closest person in the world to a god. Earlier in the episode he was in a rage killing multitudes of soldiers after they surrendered in King’s Landing and was about to fight Jon when he tried to interfere. Grey Worm had become as unstable as Dany at that point due to Missandei’s death, and imagining him keeping Jon alive in some room while Sansa travelled for weeks to get to the capital is laughable. Benioff and Weiss could still have kept Jon alive but in some way that made more sense like him running off to the North after killing Dany.
Second, Tyrion should be dead as a doornail. He betrayed Dany in the previous episode and denounced her publicly in this finale. Dany already sentenced Tyrion to die, and there is no reason for Grey Worm not to follow through even though Dany was gone. All the contempt he shows Tyrion throughout the new king selection scene forces the question, “why haven’t you just killed Jon and Tyrion by this point”. Maybe losing Drogon and his incineration powers made executing important traitors too boring for the Unsullied and Dothraki.
Also, I really did not like Tyrion’s speech at the deciding of the next King of Westeros scene. Bran has probably the worst story of any character in Game of Thrones. Even Podrick has a better story. The way the Game of Thrones books are split up, various chapters are written through different characters’ points of view. There are lots of different perspectives, and eventually you get to the point where you are a lot more invested in certain storylines and skip the other chapters just to get to the good stuff. I hated whenever I had to read a Bran chapter. Kid seems promising and interesting, then breaks legs and gets pulled around everywhere. On top of that he becomes a nihilistic asshole to people who try to help him. He’s called Bran the Broken. Not exactly an inspiring title. All Tyrion has to say is “we could use someone who can look into the future and in our present to be our king”. I agree, although personally I would make that guy the Master of Whispers or some other advisor to King Jon (or some other king).
I still loved a lot of what happened. I couldn’t help but give a small cheer when Dany got stabbed by Jon. The pain he felt at having to betray someone felt more real than it had in the other episodes where he just parrots “she is my Queen”. I also absolutely loved the entire first 15 minutes of eerie quiet as we take in just how much damage Dany did to the capital and all the inhabitants. At first, I thought it may have been too long, but the overkill was a good call. It hit home exactly why Dany had to be killed, and it was beautifully done.
Another thing I really enjoyed, and am completely unsurprised by, is by the abundance of loose ends the Game of Thrones directors left. I can smell an offshoot from Game of Thrones in the next 10-15 years which can focus on either the Arya, Jon, Bran, or Sansa storylines. I think the Arya storyline has the most promise, but I’d watch any one of those sequels. I guarantee everyone who signed the original petition would watch any sequel too. HBO can’t resist the call of all that money coming in.
I can see why certain people are disappointed that they didn’t get the ending they wanted. There is the solid camp of people who just wanted White Walkers to take over the world. I may have fallen into that camp. However, it is near impossible to wrap up all the loose ends left over in Season 7, take time to further character development, throw in some crazy twists, have some awesome cinematographic scenes, and live up to expectations built up over 8 years. And they only had six hours to accomplish all that. I think this season did a really solid job. However, that won’t stop me from reading fan fiction with some cool alternate endings.