Indeed, maybe the overarching statement within GoT is ultimately about father figures. Ned was really the only good one among all the houses. Stannis was the worst.
Very true. The only other ‘good’ one I could come up with was Howland Reed and we really don’t know much about him at all.
There's a scene with Ned and Arya, I think in episode 3, that is very touching and one of my favorites of Season 1. Found it:
Now that I've had a few weeks to really think about the final season in general, I think that there are just a few things that really bother me: -I think that Lena Headey was grossly underused in this last season. She was Joffrey 2.0, and she had, what, like 15 minutes of screen time in the last season? Come on. Even if you were going to have her go out the way she did with Jamie, she still should have had more to do with this last season. -I don't care that Dany went mad; I just wish that it would have been built up more, starting in season 7. Yes, we saw flashes of it from time to time. Flashes are a hell of a lot different than going 'screw it, burn the town and the thousands of innocents!' -I think it's dumb that Jon is banished to the Wall. Just my opinion! -I think it's pretty silly to call the story 'A Song Of Ice and Fire'. Why not also introduce a character called George RR Martin while you're at it? Besides these nitpicks, it's still one of the best shows ever created for TV.
I don't think she was as bad as Joffrey. He was a sicko who took delight in torturing and killing for no reason, in ways that often shocked Cersei. For her part, she could be brutal but the motivation was always to protect her family and herself and to take vengeance on those who compromised their security. Her arc was basically played out when she lost the last of her children and assumed the throne. The only unknown was the extent to which Jamie would return to her or betray her. As I said earlier in the thread, she was destined to live out the dying words of her father, "burn them all!" The clues are all there, starting in season 1. Easy to see in hindsight. In season 2 they even show her walking through the half-destroyed throne room with ashes falling. Of course we don't fully grasp that as a vision of the future, and I always thought the ashes were snowflakes until the final episode. It's supposed to jar you. He's the rightful heir to the throne. He did everything right, made all the tough choices, fought all the bloodiest battles, literally died to be true to his concept of honor. But in the end he was right back where he began. As Clint Eastwood said in Unforgiven, "deserves got nothing to do with it." Actually, you might as well call several characters GRRM, including Sam and Tyrion. It was clear he saw himself in them and their words seemed to come from him in a more heartfelt and personal way than other characters. Indeed. I'm not much of a fantasy/sci fi fan but the production values, writing, acting and directing really elevated GOT.
Jon getting "banished to the wall" was partly their way of duping Grey Worm, since Jon was going north of the wall to live with the free folk. Bittersweet in that he was separated from his half-siblings, but I am not sure what other ending would have made Jon truly happy, since he was by nature not a very happy guy. I am not sure what else they could have done with Cersei in the final scene. The best scenes with her were always the dialogue-driven ones, and unless you want to see her having long talks with Qyburn or Euron, there was no one really left for her talk to that would have been relevant storyline-wise.
I'm not saying that in hindsight you can't see that it's coming. I'm saying that, a few more instances building up to her losing her marbles would have made it seem a little more believable. It's funny that this is the thing that most fans seem to disagree on, for one reason or another. I would have thought they would be more pissed that Bran ended up on the throne!
Jeor Mormont? Mace Tyrell? Doran Martell? They all seem like reasonably decent people who genuinely cared for their children (even if things inevitably went awry).
I wasn't thrilled with that, but I am taking the more macro point of view, which is that the Starks won, and I think that was the fitting and correct ending. It's funny to think that in the pilot, King Robert told Bran that he would end up being a soldier; little did he know that one day Bran would be what he was at the time.
And if anybody has any questions on the final episode, wonder no more... here is an article and a download linkl for the final script, which explains quite a few things (including whether the white particles in the air are ash or snow, and what Drogon was thinking when he burned up the iron throne)... Game of Thrones: Why Drogon melted the Iron Throne
Meh, I’m over it either way. YOU SHALL NOT PASS! I might be in the vast minority, but I’m glad it’s over. Ooooph.
After watching all 73 episodes in a row (for the first time), I came away with two useful quotes from Game of Thrones: "If you think this is going to end happily, you haven't been paying attention." and "What do we say to the God of Death? Not today." I like those a lot.
Ju Thanks!! It looks like the script pdf has gone from this place. Does anyone have it, or an alternate link?
Wow, they done took it down! It was a legal posting: this was all for Emmy consideration. Well, I'm sure it's out there somewhere on the interwebs...