{"id":27963,"date":"2015-06-15T23:46:26","date_gmt":"2015-06-15T20:46:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ngradio.gr\/?p=27963"},"modified":"2015-06-15T23:46:26","modified_gmt":"2015-06-15T20:46:26","slug":"the-game-of-thrones-season-5-finale-a-bleakness-binge-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ngradio.gr\/en\/news-el\/diafora-en\/the-game-of-thrones-season-5-finale-a-bleakness-binge-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The Game of Thrones Season 5 Finale: A Bleakness Binge"},"content":{"rendered":"

Spencer Kornhaber<\/a>, Christopher Orr<\/a>, and Amy Sullivan<\/a> discuss the latest episode of Game of Thrones<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Orr: [Long pause. Everyone, catch your breath. Maybe a glass of water? Depending on when you\u2019re reading this, you might also want to tour the web for the horrified-reaction videos that will confirm you\u2019re not alone. See? A perfectly normal response to extreme (televisual) trauma. You\u2019re ready.]<\/p>\n

So, yes, that happened. Rest assured, non-book-readers, that the mega-stabbing of Jon Snow was the last Big Terrible Moment that the George-R.-R.-Martinized among us knew was coming. For what it\u2019s worth, pretty much no one believes Jon is going to stay dead. The two predominant theories are that Melisandre will raise him with that Lord-of-Light mojo (which we know is possible thanks to Thoros of Myr\u2019s resurrection of Beric Dondarrion back in season three) or that he somehow wargs into his direwolf, Ghost. Melisandre\u2019s conveniently timed return to Wall\u2014in the books, she never left, staying behind when Stannis marched on Winterfell\u2014is certainly in keeping with theory one.<\/p>\n

That said, non-book-readers, you have to admit that maybe it wasn\u2019t really that great a surprise. After all, the show has been hinting quite heavily in the direction of a Night\u2019s Watch mutiny for weeks. Olly\u2014a non-book character created for the show\u2014has done pretty much everything but wander around Castle Black in a T-shirt that says \u201cDid You Know the Wildlings Ate My Ma and Pa?\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, there\u2019s been a notable difference between the major shocks of previous seasons (the Red Wedding, the Ned beheading, Joffrey\u2019s not-at-all tasty helping of wine and pigeon pie) and those of this one (Sansa\u2019s marital rape, Jon\u2019s Ides-of-March moment, and, to a somewhat lesser degree, the auto-da-fe of Shireen). The former were genuinely unexpected events (however much sense they made in retrospect), but the latter, however shocking, haven\u2019t been nearly so surprising because they\u2019ve been so heavily foreshadowed. I\u2019ve mentioned this before, but despite their strong eye for drama, Benioff and Weiss lack the subtlety of Martin: They tend to go for bigger<\/em>, rather than cleverer<\/em> or more nuanced<\/em>. This finale offered an awful lot of the former and not much of the latter.Before discussing the many, many terrible things that happened this episode, let me get the small number of non-terrible things out of the way. First, Sam let Jon know that he had become unexpectedly sexually active, and that having learned to enjoy breaking his Night\u2019s Watch vows, he\u2019d be well-positioned to break his maester ones. \u201cI\u2019m glad the end of the world is working out well for someone,\u201d cracked Jon. Of course, moments later his last friend at the Wall was gone, and we now know how that turned out.At Winterfell, Theon finally\u2014well, I was about to write \u201cgrew a pair,\u201d but I recognize that as tactless under the circumstances\u2014betrayed Ramsay, and he and Sansa either (hopefully) escaped or (quite possibly) broke their legs jumping from the Winterfell ramparts. So \u2026 good news, mostly. Two quibbles: First, when Sansa purloined that corkscrew a few episodes back, I assumed it was so she could go all Patricia Arquette on James Gandolfini in True Romance<\/em><\/a>, except with Ramsay as the cork getting screwed. Instead, she used it to open a door<\/em>? Supremely disappointing.<\/section>\n
<\/div>\n
Second, even though it turned out well, the scene with bow-happy Myranda represented Game of Thrones<\/em> at its worst. I don\u2019t care who she\u2019s sleeping with, thekennel master\u2019s daughter<\/em> does not publicly threaten a noblewomen with deadly force while graphically describing the sexual mutilations in store for her. It is perhaps worth noting here that a remarkable proportion of the characters that Benioff and Weiss have invented or expanded for the show are sadists (Ramsay, Locke, Myranda, Meryn Trant) or female victims of horrific violence (Ros, Talisa). Seriously, guys. Enough.Which brings us to Meereen, where we finally had a nice moment uncluttered by imminent stabbings or threats of torture. Things started out a little unpromisingly, with the proposal of an awfully dubious ruling triumvirate (Grey Worm, Missandei, and Tyrion) and what looked like a truly mirthless buddy road comedy (Jorah and Daario). But then Varys appeared, and suddenly the Meereenese sun offered warmth as well as heat. \u201cI did miss you,\u201d Tyrion confessed. \u201cI know,\u201d Varys demurred. A moment as full of sly joy as this one could make up for a lot of Thronesian horror. Just not as much as this episode doled out.Begin with Stannis. Just two episodes ago, he was among the most likable characters on the show, and certainly near the top of the more plausible prospects to bring peace and justice to Westeros. Then, last week, in a radical departure from his previously expressed beliefs, he hastily burnt his daughter to death for a red priestess who has now been revealed to be a quack. Tonight, his men abandoned him, and his wife was hanged (or hanged herself? It felt as though they were implying the latter, but given the height and the knot it seemed like an improbable suicide), and he and his shattered army were subsequently slaughtered by Boltons. This arc might have worked\u2014might even have been heartbreaking\u2014if it had been stretched out over, say, four episodes or more. But like several plotlines this season (e.g., the rise of the Faith Militant), it was squeezed to the point where it lost both moral weight and narrative coherence. I\u2019ll miss you tremendously, Stannis; and at the same time, good riddance.<\/section>\n
<\/div>\n
Brienne\u2019s subplot was not a tragedy comparable to the utter collapse of House Baratheon\u2014which is now represented by only two heirs<\/s> one heir utterly devoid of Baratheon blood\u2014but it nonetheless had a dark underside. Yes, Brienne finallygot vengeance for Renly by killing his big brother. But let\u2019s face it, that big brother was already three-quarters dead. And more importantly, she once again<\/em>failed her vow to Lady Catelyn to protect the Stark daughters. Sansa lit her candle and \u2026 no Brienne. Littlefinger\u2019s tavern critique of her usefulness as a bodyguard is ringing truer by the season.Things were hardly any better in Braavos, where the time spent these past two weeks making Meryn Trant an abuser of little girls\u2014a charming tidbit that is not, again, in the books\u2014could have been put to better use doing literally anything at all<\/em>. There was a time when \u201cAll men must die\u201d seemed like the perfect tagline forGame of Thrones<\/em>. But that title has been clearly usurped of late\u2014and not for the better\u2014by Cersei\u2019s last-season comment<\/a> to Oberyn, \u201cEverywhere in the world they hurt little girls.\u201dAbout the only thing worse than making Arya pretend to be underage in order to get close to Trant\u2014as opposed to, say, selling him a poisoned oyster at the docks, or slipping Needle into his back in some alley\u2014was turning her into a Ramsayesque avenging angel, slicing out Trant\u2019s eyes and monologuing like a Bond villain. Again, maybe<\/em> this is an evolution that could have been pulled off over time. But this new psycho version of Arya felt utterly unearned. (Also: foolish and implausible, given that she was dealing with a knight who outweighed her by 100 lbs.) And then she went blind. Good times.Regular readers of the roundtable will know that I\u2019ve long been convinced that nothing of importance was ever going to happen in Dorne. I fear I\u2019ve been proven correct in the most dramatic fashion possible. The whole Jaime-Bronn trip was occasioned by the idea that Ellaria Sand wanted to kill Myrcella to avenge Oberyn and foment war between Dorne and the Lannisters. And now, after an embarrassingly easy infiltration of the Water Gardens, a cellblock striptease, and the utterly absurd pardoning of a clearly unrepentant Ellaria (Prince Doran isobviously not the one tasked with getting red-wine stains out of his rugs), that\u2019s exactly what happened.<\/section>\n
<\/div>\n
My first words when Ellaria went in for that kiss with Myrcella\u2014I have witnesses!\u2014were \u201cpoisoned lipstick?\u201d And the minute Jaime started telling his daughter that she was his daughter, and she said that she knew and was happy about it, I initiated the audible Little Girl Death Countdown. Cue the inevitable nosebleed and subsequent demise. For a moment it appeared that Ellaria might die too, giving her life for her vengeance. But no, not even that. She and the Sand Snakes are the worst<\/em>. I feel obligated to note here that after a lot of preseason buzz about what strong, formidable female characters the Sand Snakes would be, the most prominent among them, Tyene, has so far a) exposed her body in jail to arouse a man; b) played slap games with her sister; and c) uttered the line \u201cYou want the good girl, but you need the bad pussy.\u201dI don\u2019t have much to say about Dany, except that she obviously needs to find a way to inject subcutaneous caffeine into Drogon. Although I suppose he could be forgiven for his doziness given that he had, to all appearances, flown her to Scotland. When that Khalasar of Dothraki riders came down from the hills, I was moderately taken aback by the fact that they weren\u2019t wearing kilts and painting their faces blue. What does this all portend? I have no idea. But it doesn\u2019t look promising.Which brings us to Cersei\u2019s Walk of Atonement\u2014a big scene in the books and one that Benioff and Weiss were perhaps predestined to overplay. As former Atlantic<\/em>roundtabler Ross Douthat noted a few weeks ago<\/a>, \u201cthe image is simply different from the word\u201d\u2014that is, video is a more immediate, visceral medium than print\u2014and this scene seemed like a perfect test case. While it may have seemed bold, the near-constant, full-frontal nudity (and not only Cersei\u2019s) distracted from her shame and horror rather than deepening it. This was an instance in which implication would have been more powerful than direct depiction.<\/p>\n