The second part of this review will talk about the characters. When writing I focus more on the characters than anything else in my story. If I don't have good characters in my fiction, I won't enjoy it as much.
Season 7 of Game of Thrones did horrible things with its characters and not in the usual way. In other words it wasn't that the characters died horrible deaths but that the writers seemed to have forgotten how to write them. Luckily a good majority of the actors were able to save their performances via their acting abilities.
I am not going to talk about every single character but only those that had the most impact on me. So if I didn't mention your favorites here, feel more than free to comment a question or two about them.
Jorah Mormont is my favorite character on Game of Thrones. The reasons why would be better listed in another post as I don't want to waste time in this review.
Anyways...Jorah was a major character in seasons one through four. He was Daenerys' advisor and so he became important to the plot. He came to Daenerys on her wedding day and swore loyalty to her. At first that loyalty was because he was spying for King Robert Baratheon and later the loyalty was because he truly believed in Daenerys.
During seasons five and six, Jorah was out of the picture for the most part. In Season 5 he wasn't seen much due to him having been exiled by Daenerys Targaryen during the previous season. It wasn't until he captured Tyrion Lannister that he appeared in the picture yet again.
Ah, Tyrion and Jorah as traveling companions. They were an amusing pair with two very different personalities.
In Season 6 Jorah Mormont went with Daario Nahaeris to rescue Daenerys from the Dothraki. During the tearful scene where the Mother of Dragons forgave Jorah, he revealed that he had contracted greyscale. As he was off finding a cure, he couldn't share much screentime with his queen due to searching for a cure.
His biggest thing to do this season was to get cured of greyscale. Now I was really into that subplot as Jorah is my favorite and I want him to live. Everyone else can die on the show but I want him alive. Dammit, I deserve a little bit of happiness!
In the citadel Samwell Tarly finds out that Jorah is the son of Jeor Mormont. This prompts him to disobey orders and try a cure on the exiled knight. That scene was...well...hot because shirtless Jorah finally but also painful. Then the transition at the end nearly made me lose my late night snack. Which included a little sake.
After Jorah is cured he could be replaced with a lamp for how little his presence means. He has a few lines that wouldn't make sense for another character, but mostly he could be replaced by a lamp.
He confessed he loved her in Season 6 and her reaction to that (now that she has had time to digest it) was never discussed. Daenerys never let Jorah know that she doesn't love him and wants someone else to share her bed with. Daenerys never let Jorah know that she loved him as deeply as he did her. At no point is there a discussion that the two have. There isn't even a throwaway line. So my little shipping heart is free to imagine so many possible versions of that discussion as the showrunners have chosen to forget about Jorah's confession.
Besides not knowing Daenerys' reply to Jorah's confession from last season, there is something odd about Jorah not advising her anymore. Yes she has a Hand, but she has regained her trust in her old advisor and should be asking for his guidance. Just feels really odd that Daenerys says she's honored for Jorah to be back and then nothing. It's like he's become a regular guard of hers which is just...why?
The few scenes they share together you can feel the chemistry and it sucks that there weren't more scenes of them together.
There was a lot of emotional and plot relevant stuff they could have gone over. Instead it was like their relationship was forgotten as was Jorah. There was a point where they were going to King's Landing and Jorah was relegated to background character. It's like they couldn't hire extras that day as they needed to save money.
One scene that was missing was after Viserion died. Jorah was there when all three dragons hatched so he's kind of their father. Daenerys should've turned to him after her child's death as he was the only one that could understand her pain. He would be there to comfort her in whatever way she needed. He would also have advice that would reassure his queen.
But nope. We don't get that scene. Instead we get another scene of Jon/Daenerys because...um...Jon needed to bend the knee. Even though Daenerys had said mere seconds before that he didn't have to anymore. But if we didn't have that scene we wouldn't know that Jon and Daenerys were in love even though that's been shoved down our throats all season? Makes perfect sense why an emotional scene between Jorah and Daenerys was scrapped for that piece of fanfiction carp.
It could be fast paced and yet let us know where the two stand with each other. Heck, there could be a brief kiss between the two and they act like nothing happened to relieve the feeling of awkwardness. Then it would be back to tactics and the main plot.
There are other possibilities for short scenes of just the two that wouldn't take up too much time. This so we could get back to the main plot of the series. I would love a long scene between the two but I'm more than willing to compromise.
Petyr Baelish, more commonly referred to as Littlefinger, is a cutie. Just look at that face that you just want to kiss. Besides being adorable, he is deadly. If there is a top player of the Game of Thrones, it's him. He is the one you want to look out for.
From a young age Littlefinger figured out that he wasn't a good fighter. He couldn't win anything through battles or tournaments. Therefore he had to figure out something that was just as deadly and would get him what he wanted.
So he set to learning how to be a manipulator and his hard work paid off by the time the show starts.
One of Littfinger's moves was to set House Stark and House Lannister against each other. He knew that this would cause chaos in Westeros. Chaos he could use.
So who started the rumor?
We know that Littlefinger lusted after Catelyn Stark, a lust that he would later put on one of the woman's daughters, and would be angry after he couldn't have her. Back when Robert's Rebellion broke out, Littlefinger would still be young and not as adapt at manipulation as he would later become.
It could be that starting Robert's Rebellion by spreading a rumor alerted him to how powerful words could be. It would show him how powerful knowing the truth was. It could have given him the strength he needed to cause chaos later in life.
Or it could be Littlefinger starting the rumor that Rhaegar kidnapped Lyanna is all just a crazy fantheory.
At first the two sisters were easily manipulated. Or at least that's how it appeared. As I don't like to talk about deleted scenes as if they were canon, I'll throw out a theory that makes sense. Sasna and Arya weren't the best of friends before, but they are still family. They would know each other better than they seemed to this season. They were only appearing to be manipulated by Littlefinger so that they could take him down.
If you're wondering about the deleted scene: it took Sansa talking to Bran to convince her that Arya didn't want to take over Winterfell.
Bran was needed to see key moments of Littlefinger's endless streams of betrayals. Of course one glaring issue with this is how the Starks were able to convince everyone else of the truth. Just because we know the truth it doesn't mean everyone else does. That's really the big downside of using Bran's magic to prove Littlefinger's guilt.
Another problem of Littlefinger being taken down was how pathetic his death scene was. He was training Sansa and should have been proud of her. That even though he was dying, he had taught her well. He also shouldn't have cried because he's a good villain and shouldn't have showed signs of weakness at his death. He also should've been wise enough to realize begging wouldn't work.
When he started crying I just groaned. It was a horrible way for such an iconic character to go.
When he found out about Ramsay raping Sansa, he was disturbed. He was truly sorry for what he had let happen to the woman he loved.
Now am I mad that Littlefinger and Sansa didn't end up together? No.
The relationship would have been extremely unhealthy and damaging to many people. Sansa included. It is good it never happened in canon. Besides being unhealthy and damaging, not being canon made it possible to show how much Sansa had grown.
It seems that Sansa knew that Littlefinger loved her as she admits that to Arya.
I must admit it would have been interesting to see how Littlefinger would've manipulated the Northern lords once they find out that Jon Snow has given up his title of king.
One of Jaime Lannister's weaknesses has been his sister. Their relationship isn't problematic because they're related. Oh, wait, it is because they're not Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen so the incest is bad now. My bad. But my large Jon/Daenerys rant was discussed in depth last part so...will hold back on that.
Anyways, the problem with Jaime's love for Cersei is that she's not a good person. She blew up the Sept of Baelor at the end of Season 6. She accidentally let the Faith Militant take over as she wanted to get rid of Margaery Tyrell.
Whenever Jaime left his sister's side he became a stronger character. He became a more moral character. But the second he was back by Cersei's side, old habits quickly took hold. Being with Cersei held Jaime back a lot.
In previous seasons he truly loved her with all of his heart. He told Edmure that he would do everything in his power to return to Cersei quickly. Even though some part of him must have known being with his sister wasn't healthy, it wasn't until she blew up the Sept of Baelor that he couldn't hide anymore.
Until the Sept of Baelor he could wave things away but now Cersei had followed in the footsteps of the Mad King.
Now there were some people that didn't like that Jaime stayed so long. I admit that it was a little bit of a stretch of the imagination for the logic to work. However, it does make sense. Not logical sense but, then again, there isn't always logic in something emotional.
On a logical level Jaime knows he shouldn't stay with Cersei. On that level he knows that the woman he loved is gone. The woman he had loved has been replaced by a crazy woman that he couldn't trust. Now Cersei has always been a bad person, but Jaime could stomach her in the past. On an emotional level Jaime is still drawn to his sister and love. He had said before that 'we don't choose who we love' and that holds true now. On an emotional level he can't break away from her as logic doesn't exist there.
So it makes sense that it would take some time for him to finally leave her. With Cersei's lie to Daenerys Targaryen which would kill her too, Jaime decided he couldn't stay at King's Landing anymore.
I also can't wait to see how Bran Stark will react to Jaime. It seems as if the Three-Eyed Raven has lost some of his humanity. So Bran might not want revenge on Jaime for pushing him. Heck, the boy might thank the man for helping him along. I wonder if Jaime will have guilt over what he did to Bran, no matter the boy's reaction.
Season 6 of Game of Thrones ended on a high point for Daenerys Targaryen. After six seasons, the Mother of Dragons was finally going to Westeros. After all the time of waiting we were going to see how the last Targaryen, other than Jon Snow, was going to sit on the Iron Throne.
I admit that scene made me so happy. I was jumping for joy, at least inside my head, and the waiting for the next season...let's just say I am surprised to be alive today. The season ended on such a high note that it made you think that Daenerys would have no problem conquering the Seven Kingdoms. Though that thought lasted only a second as this is Game of Thrones. Where the compelling plots or poor writing makes you cry.
Daenerys' loses, like her 'love' with Jon, seemed rather forced and unwarranted. Tyrion Lannister is supposed to be good at strategy and yet he didn't anticipate how Cersei would turn to Jaime. He also didn't anticipate Jaime's moves. Euron Greyjoy seemed to appear because the plot said so to defeat the fleet that held Ellaria Sand, Yara Greyjoy, Theon Greyjoy, and the Sand Snakes.
I can chalk up Tyrion not anticipating Jaime as him merely wanting to protect his family. But, even then, that is a really big stretch. As it isn't addressed in Season 7, there is nothing in canon about his real reasons for the mistake. So I'll just go with he had a brainfart because the plot said so.
She takes Drogon to burn the Lannister army. I can't get behind saying that the Loot Train Battle is one of the best battles on Game of Thrones as it's more of a massacre. With a dragon and the Dothraki, the Lannisters stood no chance. After the battle, Daenerys chooses to burn Randyll and Dickon Tarly to make the others bend the knee.
While her way of executing the Tarlys can be justified, it isn't too wise to make people remember the Mad King when they look at you. This similarity also causes Tyrion to doubt, or at least seem to question, Daenerys. He is still loyal to her and I don't buy into the theories that he'll betray Daenerys, but he is worried. That worry probably isn't helped when she refuses to talk about succession later in the season.
Daenerys was devastated over the loss of Viserion. Him, Drogon, and Rhaegal were the only children she would ever have. They were dear to her. No matter how big they grew or fearsome they became, they were her children.
Her grief quickly turned to one of vengeance. She wanted to get back at those who had killed her child. In her grief and need for vengeance she decided to help Jon Snow even if he didn't bend the knee. Her gaining the North had suddenly become less important once Viserion had died.
What I am really worried about since they never did a love triangle with Jorah, Daenerys, and Jon that they'll try to shove one in next season. Now if you want to say there was totally a love triangle going on...there was not enough dialogue or physical interactions between the three to pull that off. Our powerful preconceptions helped fill in the gaps to create what wasn't there. I might sound like a broken record but with no one on one scene between Jorah and Daenerys, we don't know where she stands.
It could be she has chosen Jorah in secret with both agreeing to her pursuing Jon or has rejected him for good, in either case there would be no love triangle. At least no love triangle in the classic sense if the first guess is true. There would just be Daenerys pursuing Jon.
So if Season 8 decides to flesh out an actual love triangle, that would be horrible. The first reason is that there is the Army of the Dead and I really don't want to be burdened with a stupid love triangle. Relationships being shown are okay if they don't take up too much screen time. Something like anything involving Jon and Daenerys' relationship would take up a big chunk of time as it was shoved down our throats in Season 7. I highly doubt they would all of a sudden go light on a love triangle if it concerned Jon and Daenerys.
The second reason is I want Jorah to have more screentime but not for a love triangle. I don't want his purpose to be the jealous lover who will have to play into some stupid romantic drama. Jorah is a jealous man but he has always allowed Daenerys to take whoever she wants to bed. This is because he respects her as a person. So having him be part of a love triangle wouldn't make sense as adding to that drama goes against his character. If he were to cause any trouble it would have been done last season. Instead...he knows what Jon and Daenerys are going to do and he didn't have an outburst about it. He merely warned about dangers that his queen might encounter if she doesn't travel on Drogon and then does nothing else.
If Season 7 was well written I wouldn't be worrying about this.
Jon Snow's main drive has been to defeat the Night's King for a long time. It is an obsessive need at this point just like Daenerys Targaryen's need to sit on the Iron Throne. Something he bases his entire life around. Nothing else really matters to him.
So he eventually goes to Dragonstone to get help defeating the Night's King and the Army of the Dead. By going south he plans to get dragonglass and dragons. Both are extremely useful against the undead. Of course he can't casually mention the Army of the Dead without people thinking he's insane.
Even Tyrion Lannister, who is on Jon's side, is uncertain about the Night's King.
Now the above is all speculation as the show never delves into his reasons for refusing to bend the knee. I wish the show had answered that with some certainty but it didn't. The show left it up to us to decide for ourselves why Jon did what he did. In another work of fiction that would be good writing but in Game of Thrones it's just lazy.
I wish that Jon had refused to bend the knee all season but he didn't. Not only did he bend the knee but he did it in one of the most stupid ways possible. Right after Daenerys basically said she didn't care about him bending the knee, he bent the knee. The only logical reason I can find is that he was thinking with his dick. He wanted to have sex with Daenerys so he bent the knee.
It's still a stupid reason but at least there's some logic there.
Another reason I adored this scene was Jon played it smart. He knew Drogon could kill him and decided to use a tactic. He decided to not show fear to the dragon in the hope that Drogon wouldn't kill him. The plan worked.
The final reason I adore this scene is because it is a huge hint at Jon's heritage. While everyone knew he was a Targaryen, the Season 6 finale even had a scene pointing the truth out, this was a better reminder. Of course I'm very biased in favor of dragons. Any scene with a dragon is usually way better than a scene without a dragon.
Some fans have found more than one problem, but I'll only focus on one because it's the one I feel the most anger towards. The one that when said just made me lose my mind. Well...whatever I have that I call a mind, anyways.
That is that Jon's name is revealed to be Aegon Targaryen. This name makes no sense for a few reasons. The first, and most obvious, being that Rhaegar already had a son called Aegon. Why would a guy name two of his sons the same thing? Does he really like the name Aegon? If he had lived would he have named all of his sons Aegon?
Also about there already being an Aegon, the show has gone out of its way to change characters' names to not confuse viewers. Osha was the name of a wildling and her name sounds similar to Asha. For show only viewers, or people who haven't read up on the books, they won't know who Asha is. In the books Asha is Theon Greyjoy's sister. So the show changed Asha to Yara to avoid confusion.
So why would the showrunners not choose a different name for Jon?
The second reason is that Aegon was a conqueror so the name makes no sense on a symbolic level. His real name should've connected to his personality in some way, shape, or form. A name that spoke of honor and someone who doesn't want to conquer.
One of the best moments of this season had to be the very start. That cold opening was killer. Yes, that was an intentional pun.
We pick up after Arya Stark killed Walder Frey and took his face. There she avenges the deaths of her mother, brother, and others that were loyal to House Stark. Viewers knew, at least those that were aware this wasn't a flashback, that Walder was actually Arya which lead to excitement as the scene progressed.
Arya was more than calm giving her speech and watching her enemies die. I think that was an extremely empowering moment for her. For so long she hasn't had any real victories and now she is finally going to make her way across Westeros seeking vengeance.
My favorite part of the scene is when she walks away. The manner in which she does it was just...my little baby has grown up to be a killer!
So when the reunion happened I was sad. I wanted Arya and Nymeria to become pals again. Instead something sad happened, the direwolf decided to continue to live in the wild. Arya understood her direwolf's decision as it mirrored her own way of thinking. Neither could live as they should by being restrained.
I am still holding onto hope that this won't be the last time we'll be seeing Nymeria. It might be a foolish hope but it helps me sleep at night.
Originally Arya plans to go to King's Landing to kill Cersei Lannister. She changes this decision when she finds out that Jon Snow has retaken Winterfell. Instead of wandering Westeros killing people, she has the chance to return home. She has the chance to pick up the pieces. So she takes this chance because Arya cares very much for her family.
While Sansa and Arya were not a perfect pair, there was no reason for Arya to be so cold towards her older sister. The only reason she was that way was so the audience would think there would be a showdown between Arya and Sansa. The people that were fooled by that were the same ones wondering whether or not Bella would get with Edward in the Twilight series.
If you want to take the deleted scene as canon then you have to deal with the fact Sansa was fooled by Littlefinger. You have to deal with the fact that the rivalry between the sisters was so great that the Three-Eyed Raven had to be brought in. As I'm not taking that scene as canon, I can sleep easy knowing Sansa figured things out on her own because she's not stupid.
Okay, with this one I think I need to take a minute to explain the reference I made. This because not everyone has seen the NBC show Hannibal. If you haven't yet seen it, I would highly recommend it as it was one of the best shows out there. As with any of my much beloved canceled shows, I'm waiting for the next season.
If you haven't seen Hannibal and plan on doing so, this is going to be a major spoiler for Season 2.
In Season 2 of Hannibal, Jack Crawford seems like an idiot. This is because he seems to miss very obvious clues that Hannibal Lector is a murderer and a cannibal. Also that Will Graham isn't lying about knowing what Hannibal really is.
Late in the season it's revealed that Jack knew the truth the whole time and was only pretending to be stupid. He figured that to draw the infamous cannibal out, he would need to pretend not to know as much as he did.
The fact that she was still pretending to be fooled when Littlefinger wasn't around could be a sign of her being careful or that Arya felt a little sibling rivalry from before. Not to the extent that she thought Sansa really was trying to take control from Jon, but just enough to lash out from time to time.
The fact that Sansa and Arya weren't going to try and kill each other was obvious. Besides Littlefinger's time running out, it would be bad writing to have the Stark children turn on each other.
Well...worse writing than the season gave us at least.
So, in the end, Sansa bested Littlefinger at his own game. The student became the teacher. Though, to be fair, the Littlefinger Sansa defeated this season wasn't as clever as past seasons. You mean to tell me he didn't plan for Sansa betraying him? You mean to tell me that after giving her so much information he didn't think for one second things could go wrong?
Sansa deserves credit but not too much credit.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Game of Thrones Season 7 Review Table of Contents
fiverr
Patreon
CafePress
Donate
No comments:
Post a Comment