Game of Thrones Season 8 Ep 1
Hello.
I realise I haven't posted in over a month, and that it'd be a bit much to come back, put up a Game of Thrones review and disappear again, so I'll try not to do that last thing. I don't know what's happened to me really. I just have this vast reluctance to post at all, and I don't know why, beyond that feeling like I have nothing interesting to say is a big part of it. :(
Spoilers behind cut.
I re-read my reviews of season 7 before writing this, and so far (though obviously it's too soon to tell), there're are no particularly egregious examples of people/information moving around a vast land with no public transport system at absurd rates of speed.
Well, maybe the raven messages are coming a bit fast (Cersei seems to know what's going on at the Wall very quickly, for instance), but then again, we don't know how many days/weeks have passed since the end of season 7. It must surely have taken Jaime Lannister at least a week to ride from Kingslanding to Winterfell, mustn't it?
As for what happens in the episode, it was mostly scene-setting. Jon returning to Winterfell and meeting Arya and Bran for the first time in years, the Starks meeting Dany for the first time, Tyrion meeting Sansa also for the first time in years (so many years, in fact, that I'd forgotten they used to be married), Arya meeting the Hound and Gendry ('the first time in years' goes without saying), Cersei continuing to live in some sort of dream world, where the events in the north can't touch her while slumming it with Uncle Eurine, Theon rescuing Yara (which looks like tidying up really - Theon will be important going forward, I think, but Yara won't, so she's being tidied off the scene).
Then there were the two big revelations - both of which I'd thought might be saved till later in the series, or might have happened differently than they did.
Firstly, there was Dany and Jorah going to thank Sam for saving Jorah's life, only for Dany to realise he was related to the two men she executed so horribly in what was her worst scene in season 7- definitely one of those scenes - of which there have been quite a few over the course of the series - that make you think twice about Dany being a just and merciful queen. Jorah has always believed she will be one ("You have a gentle heart," he told her, and possibly still thinks), and Tyrion hopes she will be. But there are some worrying signs.
If Dany had apologised to Sam and admitted she was wrong to kill his brother, I might think differently, but she didn't do either. She obviously still feels she was within her rights to do it.
If she had apologised, or at least expressed regret, the other revelation in the episode might not have happened - Bran talking Sam into telling Jon his true parentage. This is about as close to revenge on Dany for his brother's death as Sam will ever get, which is pretty close, though he may not have been thinking in those terms when he did it.
Jon was shocked, needless to say. But Dany's reaction will be more interesting. I suspect Jon may decide not to tell her, and Sam will end up blurting out the truth in front of everyone. But if Jon does tell her - probably because he's baulked at having sex with his aunt again and she insists he tell her why- and she believes him, I don't think she's going to take it well.
Well, you wouldn't, would you, in her place? She's spent years working towards getting her throne back and suffered a lot along the way. But she put her destiny on hold to help save Winterfell from the White Walkers and has lost one of her beloved dragons in the process (don't think she looked quite horrified enough when what has happened to Viserion was revealed). If Jon turns around and says, "Actually, I'm the rightful king, not you," she's not just going to step aside, even if (technically) he has a better claim.
Mind you, she probably won't believe it anyway, despite Jon getting on so well with the dragons. After all, Jon doesn't have white hair, and whether or not he's combustible has yet to be tested.
In fact, when she finds out, she may well be so cross that she sets fire to him just to see what happens.
Maybe the series will end with a big aerial fight between Dany and her dragon and Jon and his, they'll all die, and Cersei will become queen of the entire world.
Or Sansa. She could definitely give Cersei a run for her money.
Trivial stuff (or not that trivial, I suppose):
The dragon flight sequence looked fantastic. No wonder it's taken them two years to make this.
Tormund and the others finding the dead child-lord and him turning into a horrible screaming zombie was very well done and genuinely creepy.
ETA: the gratuitous female nudity scene with Bronn and the three nice young ladies was a little bit different to usual, in that the three girls were so clearly way more interested in discussing outside events than they were in doing their jobs. ;)
This entry was originally posted at https://shapinglight.dreamwidth.org/3788750.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
I realise I haven't posted in over a month, and that it'd be a bit much to come back, put up a Game of Thrones review and disappear again, so I'll try not to do that last thing. I don't know what's happened to me really. I just have this vast reluctance to post at all, and I don't know why, beyond that feeling like I have nothing interesting to say is a big part of it. :(
Spoilers behind cut.
I re-read my reviews of season 7 before writing this, and so far (though obviously it's too soon to tell), there're are no particularly egregious examples of people/information moving around a vast land with no public transport system at absurd rates of speed.
Well, maybe the raven messages are coming a bit fast (Cersei seems to know what's going on at the Wall very quickly, for instance), but then again, we don't know how many days/weeks have passed since the end of season 7. It must surely have taken Jaime Lannister at least a week to ride from Kingslanding to Winterfell, mustn't it?
As for what happens in the episode, it was mostly scene-setting. Jon returning to Winterfell and meeting Arya and Bran for the first time in years, the Starks meeting Dany for the first time, Tyrion meeting Sansa also for the first time in years (so many years, in fact, that I'd forgotten they used to be married), Arya meeting the Hound and Gendry ('the first time in years' goes without saying), Cersei continuing to live in some sort of dream world, where the events in the north can't touch her while slumming it with Uncle Eurine, Theon rescuing Yara (which looks like tidying up really - Theon will be important going forward, I think, but Yara won't, so she's being tidied off the scene).
Then there were the two big revelations - both of which I'd thought might be saved till later in the series, or might have happened differently than they did.
Firstly, there was Dany and Jorah going to thank Sam for saving Jorah's life, only for Dany to realise he was related to the two men she executed so horribly in what was her worst scene in season 7- definitely one of those scenes - of which there have been quite a few over the course of the series - that make you think twice about Dany being a just and merciful queen. Jorah has always believed she will be one ("You have a gentle heart," he told her, and possibly still thinks), and Tyrion hopes she will be. But there are some worrying signs.
If Dany had apologised to Sam and admitted she was wrong to kill his brother, I might think differently, but she didn't do either. She obviously still feels she was within her rights to do it.
If she had apologised, or at least expressed regret, the other revelation in the episode might not have happened - Bran talking Sam into telling Jon his true parentage. This is about as close to revenge on Dany for his brother's death as Sam will ever get, which is pretty close, though he may not have been thinking in those terms when he did it.
Jon was shocked, needless to say. But Dany's reaction will be more interesting. I suspect Jon may decide not to tell her, and Sam will end up blurting out the truth in front of everyone. But if Jon does tell her - probably because he's baulked at having sex with his aunt again and she insists he tell her why- and she believes him, I don't think she's going to take it well.
Well, you wouldn't, would you, in her place? She's spent years working towards getting her throne back and suffered a lot along the way. But she put her destiny on hold to help save Winterfell from the White Walkers and has lost one of her beloved dragons in the process (don't think she looked quite horrified enough when what has happened to Viserion was revealed). If Jon turns around and says, "Actually, I'm the rightful king, not you," she's not just going to step aside, even if (technically) he has a better claim.
Mind you, she probably won't believe it anyway, despite Jon getting on so well with the dragons. After all, Jon doesn't have white hair, and whether or not he's combustible has yet to be tested.
In fact, when she finds out, she may well be so cross that she sets fire to him just to see what happens.
Maybe the series will end with a big aerial fight between Dany and her dragon and Jon and his, they'll all die, and Cersei will become queen of the entire world.
Or Sansa. She could definitely give Cersei a run for her money.
Trivial stuff (or not that trivial, I suppose):
The dragon flight sequence looked fantastic. No wonder it's taken them two years to make this.
Tormund and the others finding the dead child-lord and him turning into a horrible screaming zombie was very well done and genuinely creepy.
ETA: the gratuitous female nudity scene with Bronn and the three nice young ladies was a little bit different to usual, in that the three girls were so clearly way more interested in discussing outside events than they were in doing their jobs. ;)
This entry was originally posted at https://shapinglight.dreamwidth.org/3788750.html. Please comment there using OpenID.