Game of Thrones - final, spoilers

[avrelia]

So the finale of Game of Thrones happened. And all the jokes about “watch has ended” are done. And there is and there will be so many interesting critical materials and reviews. My thoughts are in disarray, and the season 8 managed to kill all my emotional engagement with the story, and I guess, it’s for the good.

I wasn’t really too much into the series to begin with, and I didn’t want to get attached to the characters, but the actors were so good, I couldn’t help myself but care. A dangerous thing in the Game of Thrones.

I know a lot of people called all post-books scripts fanfiction, but to me only the last season felt like fanfics – a lot of it because we got so many characters together, and they were talking, but… the conversations didn't go anywhere for most part. Kind of like “missing scene” fanfics, where you just want characters to interact for the sake of interacting. No plot progression, no character development. Better than “sexposition”, I guess, but not by much.

Personal choices, and actions, and previous development suddenly didn’t matter that much. It was about the will of the Demiurg – Authors’ notion about the story.

There was a lot of conversation about what story it was – about characters, about world, and at the end nothing seemed to matter, anyway. It was about who controls the narrative. Gods in the story for all their involvement didn’t matter not one bit. Prophecies were just cruel jokes. Character didn’t change because of combination of internal and external reasons, but because authors told them to. Or didn’t change. Tyrion told us to pick whoever has the better story and pointed at Bran. Tyrion hasn’t made a good decision in many years, but that one was, I guess, equally inconvenient for everyone, so everyone agreed.

Was I happy with the final episode? NO. But I stopped expecting anything better, and here I guess I can make my own sense, and make the narratives satisfying for me.

Dany’s quest for freedom and power was subverted and crushed by men surrounding her. Men who professed their love and support for her got threatened and got rid of her. Her story is that of short triumphs and underlying tragedy that she didn’t know any other ways to form meaningful connections than that of conquest.

Arya’s story proved that the known world don’t have place for a woman who doesn’t fit into established role. Yes, she could be a lady, an assassin, a ruler, an actress… but just to be herself she had to get out of the known world.

Sidenote: her actions in the last two episodes are pretty meaningless, she hardly has any words, and it’s a shame. I can accept that she, after spending years training to become a magical assassin, and having fought armies of undead, and killing the Night king find herself tired bringing death with her, and after the “nuclear winter” of King’s Landing she might have felt God of Death got enough sacrifice. But somehow it didn’t felt earned emotionally. Just as the final drive of Sandor Clegane toward vengeance and fiery death. It felt like he had to check that from his item list with feeling either emotional or reasonable about it.

Jon’s story ended the way it was supposed to – in manpain and travel back to North. It was pretty meaningless – all his mystery, his struggles to do the right thing, the search for himself… Meaningless. I guess that was it’s real meaning. Everything is meaningless. He is “the good Targaryen” and it means squat.

Bran is a punk.

Stark pack survives, and yet at the end we only see them go their separate ways. Is it a reward, or punishment, or just another meaningless exercise in Demiurg's will?

All the smart men ended up not doing anything smart for the whole season (or more). No smart advice for Dany. They were glorified extras with several random words and no stories.

All the powerful women the series boasted not long ago ended up dead or meaningless.

Sansa did ended up where she wanted – the Queen of the North. And yet, all her family and friends are dead or far away. At least I have hopes for her rule- she was shown to understand how to care about her domain and incite love, and how to negotiate and manipulate to her advantage. I think North will be ok.

Jaime and Brienne. I wasn’t a passionate shipper (I was aware of futility of shipping anyone in GOT), but their was one of most powerful and touching stories. And while no one believed Jaime would survive the final, it still doesn’t feel right. As if his story suddenly didn’t matter at all – even though I believe Cersei would always have a powerful pull on him.

The whole “let’s elect Bran a king” feels not like a true ending, but a reprieve. To be fair, Westeros desperately need one, after years of wars and long winter (cut short) and all the horrors, but as soon as the world is replenished and the horrors forgotten, the game will start anew. The wheel isn’t broken, even if Iron Throne is.