Yup, spoilers ahead so go ahead and jump ship if you're not wanting the series finale events to be spoiled for you.
First up, you couldn't have been that surprised that Daenerys had to go. As I've mentioned in the last episodic post, and as Jon Snow reaffirmed, she gained too much power with her good deeds, too much caution in not seeming weak, that she crossed the line from benevolent queen to warmonger. She outright declared Grey Worm her Master of War. What she clearly planned wasn't unlike a Holocaust, a widespread cleansing and fear campaign weaseled over with words like liberation. Remember in history when kings used words like divine right and explorers used manifest destiny?
I don't think Daenerys 'got what she deserved'. It's nothing so easy as that. It was that childlike dreaminess returning as she tried to appeal to Jon Snow that was dangerous, made it most clear that she no longer understood the terrible weight of her actions. It wasn't clear whether she was being naive or manipulative, but what he saw was that she believed in it.
The suspense mounted most for me where Drogon began piecing it together and every possibility danced through my head excitedly. Would he avenge his Mother's murder? Would he bow to Jon? When he, in wise dragon fashion, turned on the Throne and melted it, I remembered the profound moment where Khal Drogo 'crowned' Viserys, ending the terrible dreams of a tyrant, and was never more sure that Drogon both knew her fate was coming and that this creature was more like Varys, never more sure that the fate of men had to be severed from the Iron Throne. Drogon represented the deeper wishes of the Realm and even of his Mother, who was blindsided by her good intentions and twisted promises of destiny.
Though Samwise's idea of democracy was ridiculed, the Imp came through once more and more sneakily proposed much the same thing. The nobility might not have been ready to openly concede to the people, but he took a more civilized page from the Islanders, proposing a sort of Kingsmoot, where the Houses gathered upon the death of a chosen King to convey the wishes of their people.
The Stark kids each took on a position of royalty. Bran took the South, Sansa took the North and though Jon Snow was consigned to the "Night's Watch" (which if you were paying attention, actually positioned him as more of a King Beyond the Wall), and Arya took on the tongue in cheek position of finding what lay beyond that gaping hole on the map 'west of Westeros'. While not exactly royalty, she is all that her aunt might have been, wild and free, leading others and bound to none.
I think the book fans stomp their feet too hard in discrediting the writers' hasty resolution. Personally, I might have hated the slag of more seasons of catty comeuppance and the element of surprise where this story could go was running its course. That they are accused of taking GRRM's Rubix Cube and painting the sides to close up the intricate plots is completely overstated. The writing itself was starting to show that the more he tried to tie anything up and get to the damn point, the more his mind just wanted to make two knots of every one. The frequency of his book releases suggests he's not exactly eager to keep writing them either. Honestly, I'm not counting on him ever finishing them. Hell, he even released that tedious history of the Targaryen's book. He's not really interested in trying to tie things up. Like Tolkien, he just like the playground.
The show did well enough to snap the lid closed but still leave some room for decent spin-offs that can specifically focus more keenly on certain characters or aspects, but still drives a point I've suspected since early on.
I'll say it again, just as the show had hinted when Cersei asserted that she is Queen and was met with the ever-prevalent quote that permeates fantasy; one who has real power needs never assert it. The minute they feel the need to assert it, they are only admitting their fear of that lie. Just as Varys stoically posited that the will of the Realm was not something any one man would ever grasp. It was never a game to be won. It was a game to be played out. Like every unfinished game of Monopoly I ever played, you play until you get sick of, then you move on to something better.
What disappointed the bulk of fans was that their wash-rinse-repeat wasn't there. The big battles were not strategic enough. Characters acted out of character (which I've also argued before is plausible in the face of traumatic events that they have no gauge for). Characters were killed off, along with whatever beloved theories they held onto for them. Some just wanted another tyrant on the throne. Or some other grimdark wanking fantasy.
As far as I've looked at it, it didn't actually feel that rushed to me. Sure, there were some parts you could pick at, like the rather sudden way the Night King's army came upon them. Yet I appreciated that there wasn't the same tedious and methodical pacing here. It held more of the fuckery and confusion and mistakes inherent with everything I've read on war. I've certainly tired of the all too perfect strategizing that is mostly just boring, drawn out and forgetting that warriors aren't perfect little chess pieces. They piss and shit themselves and cry for their mothers, the brave can turn tail and the weak detach and become bad ass.
It was a good way to go. This is one of the few shows I've been able to keep watching. It never went stale for me. The claims of being too abrupt were too emotionally attached to people's investment in the perpetual longevity of the source material. It ended true to its original namesake: in fire and ice. Neither sappy with hope nor wretched with despair. That, to me, gives it room to still feel like an organic experience rather than a story ended.
I'm crossing my fingers for the proposed Dark Tower series. Yet another one that blows hot and cold with fans. I'd like to see the characters stay true to the source, but I won't be disappointed if they alter or add to it a bit to arrive there. And it could use a better ending.
King, I love your story-telling, but your endings are absolute shit most of the time. And I don't just mean in the plotting sense or even emotional, I mean they seem like they were done by an internal troll who hates stories. I swear he took every method of writing a good ending and thought it was edgy to not do any of that. Or maybe he resents novels, because his short stories don't suffer the same issue.
Even though the Dark Tower movie tanked, I found that the remake of IT was actually pretty damn good. That's another hit or miss of his. It's become somewhat of King's thing to be a bucking horse. Unlike creators like Tim Burton or Danny Elfman who tend to shit gold by sticking to their strengths, I can't hate King for rocking a leaky canoe. If I had a cruise ship sailing alongside, I'd make waves too. Better than beating the dead horse of insisting everyone simply mastering one thing. Diversity is the thing that keeps a creator prolific. Less burn out, more turn out.
Fuck, it's time for me to cut this loose. It stopped being about the topic several paragraphs ago.
GoT--I'm cool with the ending. Peace!
