Game of Thrones – 8.05 – The Bells
Maybe
Missandei should have picked something else for her last words! This episode
didn’t deliver the symphony I was hoping would rival Light of the Seven and The
Night King but I mustn’t be greedy, the music over the end credits was great.
We got a number of siblings dying in each other’s arms. Jaime and Cersei’s end
was fitting, though it would have been nice for Cersei to see that even after
everything, Tyrion had a plan to save her (you’re welcome).
Cersei had led
the negotiations with cruelty and that’s what she received back. If not for
last episode’s parlay, everything would have played out as it would up to the
ringing of the bells, all the destruction after that was payback for Missandei.
I can see Daenerys justifying it to herself: yeah these people are innocent, so
was my handmaiden. She sends one of yours to the morgue, you reduce their city
to rubble: that’s the Chicago way and that’s how you get the Throne!
The optics
look really bad for the show at the moment as the creators have essentially let
their art convey that having a woman in charge is the biggest tragedy that
could befall a nation and the only solution is to give leadership to a
constantly failing upwards man. Really quite bad coming from a team of all male
writers and directors! I believe the only end that can paper over this is if
leadership passes over to Sansa. At the beginning of this season, I thought
Sansa’s conflict with Daenerys was going the same way as her clumsy conflict
with Arya last season (a load of unnecessary fuss about nothing where Bran
could have intervened to resolve it any time) but now I see that she was right
all along! She’s a much more capable leader than Jon, I think the wind is
blowing her way. As Sansa has been vindicated, I’d love her to have one more
tense scene with Daenerys.
In the wider
scheme of things, the dragons, in terms of the advantage they give to warfare
are akin to using WMDs. GRRM was a conscientious objector during Vietnam and it
stands to reason that the ethos begat by his opus would carry a similar
anti-weapon philosophy. GRRM has mentioned on many occasions the influence of
Tolkien on this series. In the introduction to Lord of the Rings, JRRT denies
the trilogy as being allegorical to the Second World War, explaining that if he
was trying to parallel WWII, the men of Gondor would never have allowed the
Ring to be destroyed and would use the Ring to defeat Sauron. I think GRRM is
echoing that in this series as a warning: the fairy tale ending to warfare is
that the weapons themselves get destroyed, the realistic and morally wrong
scenario is to deploy your weapons against the enemy. Dany’s Sisqo channelling wreaks
mass destruction and corrupts her. As I’m not a fan of weapons myself, I’m
quite happy if this becomes the message of show and so for this reason, I find Daenerys’
switch from liberator to tyrant makes sense. The series has deepened the
colouring of its villains to make them our heroes, like with Jaime, it’s not
such a surprise that it would do the same with our heroes.
Other than
Grey Worm and Drogon, Daenerys surely has no allies left. She’s committed
unforgivable war crimes, so I am certain she has lost Jon and Tyrion. I’m not
convinced Dorne or the Iron Islands would stick with Dany either, when there’s
a non-war-criming person with a better claim than hers up for grabs, so it
looks like the finale might be a case of Dany, Grey Worm and Drogon vs the rest
of Westeros. I wouldn’t want Drogon to die or have any of our characters kill
him, (although Jon owes us a dragon-slaying) but it would be an apt parallel if
his life is the price for Dany claiming the Throne, much like how Cersei lost
her last living child when she did the same. Both Arya and Dany have
superpowers that have yet to be employed this season. I can’t picture a
scenario where Jon et al would get the opportunity to set Daenerys on fire,
only to quail with shock when she emerges T-1000-like from the blaze, but I can
dream! A more likely scenario would be Arya fighting Grey Worm then wearing his
face to kill Daenerys, but that would negate her growth from this episode about
how revenge shouldn’t rule your life. Arya also has the superpower of being
able to move proficiently when blinded, but I can’t see this ever coming back.
If only Daenerys would agree to stake the Iron Throne on a game of dodgeball
with a blindfolded Ayra, a la White Goodman and Peter LaFleur in Dodgeball!
Possible points of contention
Although the
words are inked on parchment, Varys gains points for mentioning Rhaegar, Lyanna
and the Iron Throne in the opening scene.
As Daenerys
had been imperilled since she last saw him, she and Jon gain points for
encountering each other as lost relatives. This also applies to Jaime
encountering Tyrion, and Cersei encountering Jaime.
Jon
disagrees with Daenerys, refuting her claim that no one loves her in Westeros.
Jon gets
boat points twice, for sailing to and from Dragonstone.
Tyrion and
Jaime disagree with each other in the tent. Tyrion denies that there’s an
innocent life in KL that Jaime doesn’t care for, Jaime denies that Tyrion
wouldn’t have survived his childhood without him.
Tyrion says
the episode title twice to Daenerys, twice for Jaime, and once to Jon.
We do not
see Jon or Davos unsheathing swords so neither of them gain points.
Davos is not
docked any points for killing anyone as he seems to have gone through the whole
battle without getting any blood on his sword.
Daenerys,
Drogon, Jon, Grey Worm, Davos, and even Tyrion gain points for winning the
battle up to when the Lannisters surrender. The Hound, Arya, and Jaime do not
gain points as they do not participate in the fight. Although Tyrion doesn’t
fight either, he gains points for winning as he was responsible for the winning
strategy.
Euron’s
wound looks pretty fatal, so he’s getting docked points for dying, even though
we never actually see him die.
Jaime and
Cersei gain points for encountering two dragon skulls while they are down in
the crypts.
Ser Gregor
seems unaffected by injuries so does not get docked any points for his wounds.
Therefore it is unlikely that the fall alone would not have been the cause of
his death, so I’m attributing his cause of death to dragonfire. However, I
believe the Hound’s death is due to the fall.
I think we
can safely conclude that Ellaria Sand, if she was still being kept in the
dungeons, probably died due to a cave in. As we’ve not seen this in the show, I
will not be docking her points for dying.
Character Scores
Here is a
full list of the characters and their awarded points. If one of your characters
does not appear in the following lists, this is due to their absence from the
episode, for which you shall be deducted five points per character:
Group A
Daenerys
Targaryen – 145 points: appears (+5),
visits Dragonstone (+15), reunites with previously lost blood relative (+30),
has kiss (+15), rides dragon (+20), visits KL (+15), leads army into battle
(+25), 2x kills someone (-10), wins battle (+40)
Jon Snow – 185 points: appears (+5), 2x travels by
boat (+15), visits Dragonstone (+15), reunites with previously lost blood relative
(+30), disagrees with relative (+10), has kiss (+15), visits KL (+15), leads
army into battle (+25), encounters dragon (+20), 2x kills someone (-10), wins
battle (+40)
Group B
Arya Stark –
70 points: appears (+5), 2x rides
horse (+10), visits KL (+15), encounters dragon (+20), gets injured (-5), last
on screen (+15)
Cersei
Lannister – 65 points: appears (+5),
3x encounters dragon (+20), reunites with previously lost blood relative (+30),
dies (-30)
Jaime
Lannister – 125 points: appears (+5),
2x reunites with previously lost blood relative (+30), disagrees with relative
(+10), visits KL (+15), 3x encounters dragon (+20), gets injured (-5), last
line (+10), dies (-30)
Tyrion
Lannister – 150 points: appears (+5),
visits Dragonstone (+15), 5x mentions episode title (+10), travels by boat
(+15), reunites with previously lost blood relative (+30), disagrees with
relative (+10), visits KL (+15), wins battle (+40)
Group C
Ser Davos
Seaworth – 80 points: appears (+5),
visits KL (+15), encounters dragon (+20), wins battle (+40)
Varys – 110 points: appears (+5), first on
screen (+15), mentions Rhaegar (+25), mentions Lyanna (+25), 2x mentions iron
throne (+15), first line (+10), visits Dragonstone (+15), gets killed by dragon
(+15), dies (-30)
Group D
Sandor
Clegane – 35 points: appears (+5),
rides horse (+10), visits KL (+15), encounters dragon (+20), reunites with
previously lost blood relative (+30), unsheafs sword (+10), 2x kills someone
(-10), gets injured (-5), dies (-30)
Group E
Euron
Greyjoy – 25 points: appears (+5),
travels by boat (+15), leads army into battle (+25), encounters dragon (+20), gets
injured (-5), injures (-5), dies (-30)
Grey Worm – 80 points: appears (+5), visits
Dragonstone (+15), visits KL (+15), leads army into battle (+25), 2x kills
someone (-10), wins battle (+40)
Qyburn – -5 points: appears (+5), encounters
dragon (+20), dies (-30)
Ser Gregor
Clegane – 35 points: appears (+5), encounters
dragon (+20), reunites with previously lost blood relative (+30), kills someone
(-10), unsheafs sword (+10), injures (-5), gets killed by dragon (+15), dies
(-30)
Group F
Drogon – 55 points: appears (+5), visits
Dragonstone (+15), 2x kills someone (-10), visits KL (+15), wins battle (+40)
The Leaderboard
Congratulations
to EAA who is our points champion for this week with 1410 points! And JB is
still reigning champ for the third week running.
Going into
the finale, there are only two characters left on my team that are still in the
show, so I’m not holding out much hope! Only JB, CH, LG, TE and BU have been
lucky enough to not have one of their characters die this season so they have
the best odds. Find out who shall claim victory after next week’s episode 8.06,
which I’m guessing may be called “A Dream of Spring”
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