Game of Thrones' Most Shocking Death
MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD!!
Season 8 of Game of Thrones was easily one of the most anticipated events of this year, but so far fans are being left disappointed and confused. The show’s creators, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, have brought about the worst death in Game of Thrones history. The death of the writing.
The first two episodes were nostalgic, but largely uneventful. Beloved characters planned and reminisced on the eve of battle, some of whom viewers had never seen on screen together. It suggested that this final season would be what most viewers had been hoping for: a love letter to the characters that they’ve watched for nearly a decade. However, it quickly became clear that the writers had no intention of creating a satisfying ending to any character’s arc.
Jon Snow’s fall from grace began the moment that he bent the knee to Daenerys in season seven. It was entirely contradictory to everything the writers had built him up to be. They mentioned more than once that he had spent too much time with the Free Folk, as so “he could never be a kneeler again.” All of that went out the window as soon as he met his hot aunt. Sure, he knew that the North needed her dragons to defeat the Night King and his army. But couldn’t he at least have been the one man who didn’t instantly fall in love with Daenerys?
Even the Battle of Winterfell managed to leave a lot to be desired, and only continued Jon’s confusing new arc. Jon and Daenerys spent the majority of the battle doing absolutely nothing. The man who held his ground before a hundred horses in the Battle of the Bastards; the man who rose from the dead, was gone. Instead, he was just some guy who seemed to have forgotten how to swing a sword. And even though it was quite satisfying to see Arya be the one to save all of Westeros, it was a bit surprising. The Night King was implied to be Jon’s fight, ever since he watched as he raised the fallen Free Folk at Hardhome.
Daenerys, ironically, did the opposite of Jon and showed us all that she apparently does know how to swing a sword. At Winterfell, she fought alongside her longtime confidant Jorah until he fell, which in retrospect was the beginning of the end for her character. The episode after the battle began with the haunting burning of all the fallen. It transitioned into the celebration of their victory in Winterfell’s great hall. Daenerys was of course out of place, as she has been since the Northerners’ cold reception of her arrival. Daenerys listened to Jon receive praise, realizing that she never had a chance of holding the North.
This realization, in combination with her knowledge of Jon’s Targaryen blood, is apparently enough to turn the writers’ precious Dany into the Mad Queen who burned King’s Landing down to ashes. Even if you overlook the clear misogyny of painting an ambitious woman as a power hungry tyrant, you can’t deny that it is just bad writing. After Missandei’s death, Daenerys began acting irrationally. She executed Varys for treason, creating a wildly unsatisfying end to one of the show’s smartest characters, despite the fact that Jon and Tyrion had betrayed her more so. And when the bells of surrender rang at King’s Landing, Daenerys suddenly decided that she was perfectly alright with being queen of the ashes. A disturbing choice for the writers to make, considering it likened her to Petyr Baelish, who Varys once said would be happy to rule over the ashes if it still meant he ruled.
Although Jon and Daenerys received the most visible character annihilation, the remaining characters were not spared either. Arya abandoned her chance to kill Cersei, just because the Hound asked her to. Jaime’s redemption arc, which has spanned several seasons at this point, was kicked just in time for him to break Brienne’s heart. And Cersei Lannister, one of the most complex and infallible characters on television was killed by some bricks.
With all of this in mind, whatever happens tonight will could be quite insignificant. Personally, I wouldn’t want any of these people to take the Iron Throne, not with the places this season’s writing has taken them to. Although, Game of Thrones has built itself on surprising twists, so we can still cling to our hopes that something satisfying will happen. All audiences can confidently expect is an end to the destruction of one the best shows ever made.
