Game of Thrones has ended and I have lots of thoughts coupled with all the emotions. Let's get right into the recap as we rank and review "The Iron Throne". If you want to check out my other reviews, click here.
Recap
Tyrion surveys the damage and destruction Dany has brought down on King's Landing. The trend of using characters' faces to show their emotions and express their points of view rather than creating dialogue for them, continues in this episode, as we watch Tyrion's face look at the wreckage all around him.
He runs into Jon who then almost comes to blows with Grey Worm and the Unsullied over their decision to execute Lannister soldiers in the streets despite the fact that they surrendered last episode. Much like Dany, Grey Worm has seemed to snap after Episode 4 and wants to kill everyone that could be responsible for Missandei's death. A noble gesture, but at this point I feel like him executing all of these soldiers is just like running up the score in basketball game when you already have the game in hand. Yeah you pad your stats, but it's a serious display of un-sportsman like conduct.
Tyrion continues to make his way to the Red Keep, where he then climbs down to Maegor's holdfast and finds the one thing he was hoping he wouldn’t find…Jaime's golden hand. He clears some more rubble to find that his two sibling died in each others arms as they tried to escape Dany's wrath. Peter Dinklage does an amazing job showing the pain and sorrow that Tyrion is going through as he processes the fact that his entire family is dead.
Despite how sad this scene was, I couldn’t help but feel let down as I realized that Jaime and Cersei could have been fine if they just moved 5 to 10 feet to their left. There was plenty of space for them to dodge the falling rock, even though last episode it looked like the entire roof had collapsed on top of them.
I also found it super convenient that Tyrion was able to find them in the rubble. Last episode we were under the impression that Dany destroyed basically the entire Red Keep. Now it looks like she didn’t do too much damage at all.
Back outside the castle, Jon approaches the steps to the Red Keep and he sees the massive hanging banner of the Targaryen sigil. Arya also approaches from the side (without that White Mare may I add) and we see Dany's entire army all lined up waiting for her to deliver their post victory message. Just like in Mereen when Dany liberated the city, everyone will know that it is a Targaryen who caused this destruction.
We then get perhaps the coolest shot in the entire episode. Dany has become the dragon. She is wearing all black as she emerges and Drogon's wings lineup perfectly right behind her to solidify the fact that she is truly a villain now. It was really, really cool to look at. I can't say that enough.
We also find out in this scene that apparently most of the Dothraki are alive and almost her entire Unsullied army is in tact. This is just another example of the many plot holes and logical fallacies committed by the writers during this season.
Dany delivers a Nazi type speech to her army where she tells them that they will liberate the entire world now, not just Westeros. Jon is especially concerned about this message when Dany mentions Winterfell as one of the places she will conquer. Jon is realizing more and more that this is not the same woman he fell in love with. I have to remind everyone at this moment once again; Dany didn’t get to this place by herself. She got here because of bad Tyrion advice, Jon not loving her, her two closest advisors dying, and the writers pushing her story-line through a rushed season.
This issue is once again evident when Tyrion approaches Dany on the steps and she tells him: "you freed your bother. You committed treason".
Tyrion responds by telling her: "and you slaughtered a city".
Yes, she did. Let's not figure though that Tyrion's plan was to literally let all of the people of King's Landing starve to death as they cut off the city's food rations. The conclusion of Tyrion's plan would have also ended with the slaughter of a city due to starvation. He has a right to question Dany's methods, but before he openly critiques her methods, he needs to look himself in the mirror and remember that his idea also ended with the death of thousands.
Finally Jon watches Dany walk away. He turns and is stunned to see Arya standing next to him. After their interaction, Jon feels once again nudged towards the idea that he needs to kill Dany to save everyone.
Arya tells Jon : "I know a killer when I see one". Arya isn't wrong in this instance. Dany has become a killer and Jon, as a threat to Dany's reign, would be number one on her kill list. Another big line I took away from this interaction was when Jon told Arya to "wait for [him] outside the walls". Jon in that moment, made the decision to run away from Dany and not continue to stand by her side. He has decided not to stay by her side. Now he needs a little bit more convincing to take the next step.
The next scene is a classic GOT, spirited debate between two characters and their philosophies towards another off screen character. I just wish a scene like this could have come last episode. Remind us what Dany has done and remind us why we should or shouldn't be on her side. Don't suddenly make us flip on her because she was upset about some bells.
This scene was well written, well acted, and well constructed overall. Jon made a case for why they shouldn’t kill Dany and Tyrion made a case why it was Jon's duty to do so. Tyrion used Jon's Night's Watch oath as a way to remind him that Jon "guards the realm" and Dany is a threat to the entire world if she is not stopped.
There are a few takeaways from this scene that I thought were important.
Everyone in this scene had a good accounting of their actions leading up to this and we were reminded that Jon is probably the only true good person in this show.
Tyrion reminds us that he strangled Shae and he killed his father with his nephew's crossbow. He also betrayed Dany multiple times and gave her plenty of bad advice.
Next, Tyrion used a body count as a justification for why Dany is evil now. I don’t think that's the right way to look at it, but I guess if that's the argument he wants to make then so be it. It's not necessarily how many people were killed, it's about how they were killed. It's also about who she killed. Her body count has been mostly just bad people (obviously until last week): slavers, Dothraki, Sons of the Harpy, etc… Tywin killed Robb and Catelyn at a wedding and Cersei tortured a waif and Ellaria. They have all done terrible things but just simply putting up a body count against another one is a flawed way of arguing in favor of Dany's death.
We also get a big reveal and we understand why Tyrion, despite Dany's character concerns last week, decided to stand by her. He does love her (like all men who follow her do) and that is why he sold out "his best friend" Varys for her.
Finally, the line "love is the death of duty", a classic Master Aemon quote was something I really found touching and important, especially for Jon. His story is so similar to Aemon's in the fact that they both couldn’t save their brothers when they needed them most because - to say it in Tyrion's words - "sometimes duty is the death of love". They both made an oath to the Night's Watch and they knew their vows and loyalty to a purpose bigger than themselves which trumped their familiar ties.
This also parallels nicely to Jon in this scene and the next. He is technically related to Dany by blood, but his entire purpose and duty in life has been to protect everyone no matter what the cost. He may be a Targaryen by blood, but he is more of a Stark than just about anyone in this show. If he was a Targaryen then he'd be "fire and blood too", but he's not. That is why he understands that killing Dany is the right decision, despite the fact that, even when he enters the Throne Room to confront her, he still is not certain whether he can go through with it.
Jon ultimately doesn’t care about himself and his own life. He has already died and came back. He's fine with dying again. Ultimately what matters most to him is keeping everyone else safe. He has the desire to protect Sansa and Arya. He needs to protect Bran all the rest of the people who live in Westeros. This is why finally decides Dany's death is the right move. He leaves Tyrion's makeshift cell and walks toward the Iron Throne.
Jon passes Drogon, who looks cool as hell covered in ash and the scene fades to black as he enters the castle. Out of the fade emerges Dany and she finally comes face to face with the Iron Throne. The goal she has been working towards her entire life is right there in front of her. Just like in the vision at the House of the Undying, the Throne Room is destroyed and she is the only one in it. Unlike her vision though, she actually gets to touch the Throne.
Then Jon comes in and we learn Dany doesn’t know how to count to twenty (or at least she didn't for a long time).
They talk about her dreams and aspirations for the Throne. Dany speaks of a world where everyone can live in peace underneath her in harmony. Jon doesn’t agree because she can't define what is "good". They embrace, we hear both of them breath as we don’t know who stabbed who. We then realize Jon stabbed Dany and she quietly dies in his arms.
I was good with Dany's death in this instance, and it was tragic to see Jon have to finally go through with the thing he'd been dreading to do this whole episode. It was also a weird/fateful twist on the Nissa Nissa prophecy. Jon didn't have to sacrifice Dany to save the realm from the White Walkers, but he did have to do it in order to save the realm from her.
The only thing I wanted when she died was for her to see Drogo and her son as soon as that happened. That would have been, despite her sad end, a happy vision for her to see as she died. It would have been interesting to see them tackle the idea of her seeing an afterlife when Jon never did.
Drogon arrives to check on Dany and when he nudges at her like a good pet, I felt absolutely heart broken for him. Jon braces for Drogon to kill him, and in a surprising act, Drogon takes his flames to the Iron Throne and burns it to the ground. I know that dragons are smarter than men, but I still don’t feel like I fully understand why he knew this was the right move.
However, the symbolism for burning the Throne itself was not lost on me. Like the Ring of Power in Lord of the Rings, the Iron Throne corrupts whoever sits on it. It creates more destruction for whoever wants it and whoever sits on it. Look at Robert Baratheon. He became a lazy, fat king. Joffrey's worst tendencies were amplified by it, Cersei killed everyone in her way as she fought for the Throne. All of them died as a result and Dany is the final victim of the Iron Throne. With Drogon destroying it, the Throne can no longer corrupt and kill. The symbol of power in Westeros is destroyed and it can no longer corrupt anyone anymore. Drogon then flies away with Dany's corpse, never to be seen again.
Time passes and Tyrion is still in chains awaiting his sentence. He is walked to the Dragon Pit (which is like multiple miles away from his holding cell) and a council is awaiting him…and I guess they will decide his punishment and fate? This entire scene has tons of problems overall.
Tyrion leads a backwards trial
It starts off okay with lots of bickering which is always nice. Davis then decides to just give there Unsullied the entire region of the Reach because no one lives there anymore apparently!! What about Sam's mom and sister. His entire house is in that region!! You can't just give that away when there are other houses living there. And if they aren't living there anymore and it is actually empty, then please explain why it is so. No one does that in this scene. That is Problem #1.
Problem #2. I don’t know if this happens with your prisoners, but all of the sudden Tyrion just takes over the meeting and runs the entire thing. Greyworm, who literally told him to shut up 10 seconds before this, is suddenly perfectly okay with him doing this too! He at least starts the debate and discussion around the future of Westeros. This scene is supposed to be the most important scene in the show and it basically becomes a farce. The only positives are Edmure getting dunked on by Sansa and Sam getting laughed out of the room after he proposes democracy. Also Robyn Arryn looks like a snack in this scene. Big come-up for him.
Problem #3. Only like three of the houses gathered here are actually powerful houses. Seaworth was a house made up by Stannis, the Tullys lost the Riverlands, a kid oversees the Vale, Dorne has been irrelevant and powerless for two seasons now, and the Tarlys apparently don’t exist anymore.
Problem #4. How does the best story qualify you to rule and how does Bran have the best story? Arya was separated from her family at like age 9, she journeyed with the Hound across Westeros, she sailed across the Narrow Sea and learned to change faces, and she killed the Night King. Sansa watched her father die in front of her, was a prisoner for multiple years, was married twice, escaped Ramsay Bolton, took back her home, and became the most powerful woman in the north. They both have stories that equal or surpass Bran's story of becoming the Three Eyed Raven. Also Bran the Broken is a name you'd give someone when you roast them for being crippled.
Also what gives him the qualifications to rule? Just because he can see everything doesn’t mean he'd be a just king or that he'd even care about the people he is ruling. He clearly can see the future in his visions and he didn’t use them at all to prevent Dany's massacre at King's Landing. We also never got a real idea of what the Three Eyed Raven does besides save the memories of the world. Does he use them for any purpose? Will his skills translate to being a good ruler? These are all tough political questions I want them to answer and they never do. This decision to make Bran king felt like the cheesy fantasy, everyone lives happily ever after scenario that George R.R. Martin is trying so hard to avoid in his books. It just seems like choosing whoever has the best story as the criterion to pick the ruler of the realm is incredibly simplified and problematic, especially going forward.
Problem #5. "Why do you think I came all this way?" Also who gave Tyrion a vote?? He's literally a prisoner. How did everyone just agree to this so easily?
Problem #6. Sansa's decision to secede from the Seven Kingdoms was a smart decision, but why did no one else actually do that? The Iron Islands literally fought a rebellion to be independent and the Dornish weren't ever formally part of the Seven Kingdoms before this. They should have also asked for their freedom. I feel like it's completely out of character for both of those representatives to not do so.
Having all of Westeros break up and create seven independent, sovereign nations would have truly been breaking the wheel which would have been a nice way to honor Dany's memory by achieving her dram while also giving each Kingdom what they want. Instead, they left the decision making up to Tyrion and now they ended up right back where they started minus a massive ally in the north.
Problem #7. Tyrion's punishment is to…be Hand of the King again?? How is giving him his position back a punishment? Tyrion literally went from being a prisoner to being basically King of Westeros in like 5 seconds. How is everyone okay with this? How is Greyworm okay with this?!?
And that is how a kingdom is built apparently. One guy chooses a candidate and then everyone is just cool with the decision…okay then.
So now we see Jon again and we are reminded that time once again has passed. If only the show could have reminded us of time passing earlier this season when we really needed it. We learn that Jon's punishment is to go to the Night's Watch, which I guess is fine. However, this creates more questions as a result. The Northerners and the Wildlings are allies now? Who will the Night's Watch be protecting the realm from? The Night King is dead so presumably all of the other major threats are as well. Additionally, this punishment for Jon doesn’t seem to fit the crime that he has committed. He literally committed treason and killed his queen. That is a crime that is easily punishable by death. Yet, Jon gets away with it and he gets to return North.
Despite my questions raised by this decision, I do like the poetry of Jon having to once again return North and spend the rest of his life protecting the realm. The only thing I wish would have happened was if this decision to go North was Jon's. Ever since Jon took back Winterfell in Season 6, he has been thrust into the role of king and solider to fight in wars he never wanted to be in. It would have been nice for everyone at the Dragon Pit council to nominate Jon to rule one last time, only to have him finally reject the crown once and for all. However, the final montage at the end of the episode makes me feel a little better about this decision by the show.
Ask me again in ten years.
Tyrion is breaking all of this news to Jon and he ends with a very meta line which kind of speaks to how we should think about the show as a whole. There are a ton of gut reactions to this finale - which is justified. However, it will be interesting to look back on this show 10 years from now and see if we feel the same way then as we do about it now. Will we feel like the show made the right decision about how they decided to end this story? I guess we have to wait and see.
After Jon is freed from prison, he walks through the docks of King's Landing (which looks like its in pretty good shape despite everything that just happened) and we see the Unsullied as they set sail for the island of Naath. (Good luck with that guys, there are literally flesh eating butterflies on Naath). Read the section call History.
And now we get all the Starks together for the final time. Arya is going west of Westeros, Sansa is going to rule the North, Bran will rule the Six Kingdoms and Jon is going to the Wall. Two Starks are in major positions of power now and if I am not an ally of the Starks I really do feel like this family got the best end of this deal.
Then Brienne, in an act of selflessness, and in an attempt to remember Jaime as he was before he left her - finished his pages and gave him the honors her deserved but never received. Also in this scene she is wearing gold which means she is now Commander of the King's Guard. Also if you check out her breastplate you can see that it has the Three Eyed Raven sigil on it.
What happens next is basically that jail scene at the end of Seinfeld. Tyrion sits down to prep for the Small Council meeting with Bronn (Master of Coin and ruler of Highgarden), Sam (as Grand Maester), Davos (as Master of Ships), Bran (king who shows up late), Brienne (Commander of King's Guard), and no master of whispers or war. Although Bran definitely doesn’t need either because he can see everything.
Also the Small Council chamber looked like it was in pretty good shape along with the rest of King's Landing. Did it get rebuilt really quickly? Or did the writers just forget everything was destroyed last episode?
A Song of Ice and Fire.
Sam gave Tyrion the book and the world released a collective sigh as we realized that the cheesy moment we were waiting for actually happened. I do like that Tyrion isn't in the book because it hearkens back to Varys telling Tyrion at the Battle of Blackwater Bay that no one will remember him for his efforts to save the city.
Also speaking of Sam. How did he suddenly become an Archmaester?? He wasn’t even a Maester before and he left the Citadel before his training was complete. Additionally, he had a kid with Gilly which is against the rules of the Citadel. Also what happened to Gilly and the kids? Did Sam pull a Davos and just forget he had a family?
So he did everything he needed to do to not become a Maester but, then he became one anyway. This is just another issue we had this episode because of condensed time. We have to assume a bunch of stuff happened to get Sam here today. We can assume that Bran pardoned him and that maybe he just made a decree to fast-forward Sam past the training stages, but he is still incredibly under-qualified to be a real Maester.
Also I can't believe Bronn is just Master of Coin. He is the most unqualified and corrupt person I can think of to be in that position. The Seven Kingdoms is about to have its books cooked more than Little Finger did and we can expect a massive Enron type collapse to happen to the Crown if there was a Season 9. Also The Iron Bank lent Cersei some massive amounts of money that they expect to be repaid. You really think Bronn is capable of repaying those debts?
Finally, we get the last dialogue in this episode: Tyrion once again tries to tell his go to joke about the donkey and the brothel and then the scene cuts him off. If the episode ended there I would have rioted in the streets forever. Unfortunately it doesn’t and the show ends with one of the best montages ever.
Arya sails west of Westeros, Jon finally pets Ghost(!!!), Sansa is declared Queen of the North, Jon becomes the 1000th Lord Commander of the Nights Watch, and then he leaves with Tormund and the Wildlings as we get a shot of the Wall one last time. Sansa gets the North their independence and becomes Queen. Arya gets to leave forever and become a pirate. Jon is finally able to leave this whole world behind and do what makes him happy. He can go North and be free.
And that's how the show ends. Despite its numerous storytelling mistakes and fumbles this season, You can't deny that the final montage to end the show was one of the best moments in GOT history. You felt the same joy and emotion each of the Starks felt as they finally reached the end of their journeys.
This episode was truly complicated to watch because of the baggage of the episodes before it, especially the two weeks before. In the end, most of this finale was just okay - but the last montage was amazing. The final 5 minutes were probably the best 5 minutes of this entire season and I cannot emphasize enough how happy I was to finally see the story end with the Starks. The story has been about them this whole time. They were meant to be the ones who survived until the very end because they had each other. Never forget: the lone wolf dies but the pack survives.
I know I will continue to process and think about this finale for at least a few more weeks and I know that I will have plenty more to say about it as will the rest of the internet.
Despite the problems with Season 7 and 8, I am so happy to have gone on this journey over the past ten years with this show even though I only started writing about it at the very end. This show has impacted me unlike any other show has and I am happier because of it. I will miss this world and these characters, but I am also excited for what comes next. I think when I look back on this show, I will remember more of the good than the bad. I will think about how Jon scaled the Wall with Ygritte in Season 3. I will think about how Ned Stark's honor led to his downfall. I will remember the Mountain versus the Viper and of course the Red Wedding. I will also remember the resilience and strength of Arya Stark as she rediscovered her Stark identity in Braavos. I will remember the love Dany and Drogo shared in Season 1 along with the love Jorah had for Dany as he protected her until his final breath.
Watching Game of Thrones has been an absolute joy as I watched a story about "cripples, bastards, and broken things" overcome journeys of hardship and tragedy to become who they are today.
The Final Ranking
1. The Long Night
2. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
3. The Iron Throne
4. The Bells
5. Winterfell
6. The Last of the Starks
What comes next?
You're probably wondering that to do now that GOT is over? Do I cancel my subscription? Do I watch another show? The answer to that is to go watch Barry right now. Each episode is only about 30 minutes long and each one is incredibly clever. It is the best show on HBO right now and totally worth your time. It is funny, dark, and incredibly moving.
