GOT JOURNAL 8-30-20

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

Introduction

D to the K to the Motherfucking A to the Third Power handed me the entire series of GOT in June 2019. I had only seen the first episode, which I watched with my wife about ten years before and I hated it. Dave made me promise to give it a spin, so I decided to dive in and take notes from a new perspective. Warning. This is 38 pages long in Microsoft Word at eleven point font, and I gook notes as I went, sometimes not noting the action on screen, just reacting to it. Good luck.

Season One, Episode One

I don’t know who’s prettier, Jason Momoa or Emilia Clarke. I did notice it took fifteen minutes of screen time to get a girl with big tits naked on screen and thirty minutes for Emilia Clarke. Other than the clear parallels to Lord of the RIngs, other things I noticed were:

-Sophie Turner, Jean Grey from the X-Men, who I have never been fond of, suddenly appears appealing, which is upsetting because she looks like she’s twelve. 

-Sean Bean old, bloated, fat, can act the pants off just about everybody around him, making the youngins, even Emilia Clarke, look like patented amateurs. 

-Lena Headley has a deadly look and deadly stare, and I’ve been impressed with her performances in films like Dredd, but so far she’s overblown.

-Other than “holy shit, it’s a dwarf,” Peter Dinklage has no presence. But like everything else in this we’ll have to wait it out. 

-The Dothraki Wedding was the only memorable set peice. Everything else looks like it was shot in New Zealand in 1999.

Memorable Lines

-Winter is coming (which of yet has no meaning)

-I’d let 40,000 men and all thier horses fuck you to gain my throne

-Have you bled yet? 

Foreshadowing: Dragon eggs. 

Plot Holes: Who sent the letter? And why can’t they tell the king about a conspiracy? Seems like he would want to know. Disemboweling someone over the privilege of dry humping a girl in leather pants seems, even in a staged environment, a bit far fetched for me. If it’s going to cost you your life, at least achieve penetration.

“There is no word for thank you in Dothraki.” It seems patently absurd not to thank Emilia Clarke for the mind bending nudity she’s performing in this series. It reminded me of the opening of Carrie. We can laugh about it, talk about it, even jerk off to it. But as an actor, this had to be some of the most difficult work she’s ever had to do. I feel bad for her because it seemed so unnecessary. The sunset rape scene was upsetting. The overbearing masculinity and misogyny is upsetting, and that’s coming from a guy. It doesn’t seem to be a commentary on jingoism, it just seems to be “this is how things have always been, and this is how things will always be.” First grade philosophical bullshit disproved by Shakespeare four hundred years ago. 

Season One Episode Two

I understand this is shot and cast in Britain, but sinse this is a fantasy, it seems we are not bound by historical authenticy like, say, the Mary Queen of Scotts movie which was such a fucking catastophe last year. What I’m getting to is… where are all the minorities? All across the Narrow Sea, I take it. In what looks like a poor substitution for Africa which turns out to look like the Steppes. There’s a confusing cross-othering going on, and the dark Mongols are bearing the brunt of a real Asian society: dark, immoral, sexually threatening to the little innocent white girl. We’ve been spending the last forty years in Hollywood trying to get rid of this bullshit. It’s disappointing thinking that it’s alive in well in the UK, where Harry Potter has been struggling against it for eight films. Other than this, the episode is pretty unremarkable. There is the obligatory nude scene with Emilia Clarke, and lots and lots of talking. Sean Bean broods. The cast is already so large it’s hard to keep up with characters. It’s worse than Downton Abbey.

Season One Episode Three

I somehow made it to this in one day. Costume design ticks up since we’re at King’s Landing. Fifteen minutes to tits. Lena Headey really comes out as the villain. The King has a long monologue about his first kill that is boring and pointless. There’s a chance it’ll come up again, but I doubt it. The entire episode I’m wondering why the fuck the Imp is in Castle Black. Or Jon Snow for that matter. Fifty minutes into Episode Three is the first time Jason Momoa speaks. This is directly related to his physical appearance.

Season One Episode Four:

In the most insane plotline yet, Jon Snow chooses to protect a weakling in order to prove his humanity, apparently to no one, since no one significant sides with him. I know this is fantasy, but humanity didn’t really come into play in the medieval world. In fact, humanity doesn’t really come into play now. Just look at our President. Dany slaps her brother in the face with a gold necklace, cutting his cheek. This is significant because he is the king in exile of the Iron Throne and has never been struck before. In one of the most embarrassing edit choices to date, her brother’s reaction is not recorded, destroying the momentum of the scene, or the emotional impact of a woman standing up for herself. He was, effectively, physically abusing a pregnant woman.

Notes

-12.34 to the first nude scene. An early record breaker.

-Foreshadowing: Dragon eggs near the Iron throne!

-Jon Snow is a virgin. Right. And he wants to fuck his sister, Sophie Turner. That's the first thing that's made sense in this show so far.

-It would help the story if after two episodes of describing how expensive the games are and how they are going to break the kingdom’s purse if the games that were shot looking anything as expensive as described. Instead, it looked a quarter of the cost of production value of The Knight’s Tale, a film that came out ten years before this episode. 

-Tyrion is in deep shit, but we all know he’ll get out because this is only episode three and he’s a smart lad. 

Season One: Episode Five:

14 Minutes, 15 seconds to the first nude scene. Despite this, a completely uninteresting episode.

Season One: Episode Six:

There is a very impressive camera move around the Dothraki in which Daenaris’ face is covered in blood. However, she is acting in ecstasy, making me think the blood is a metaphor for a different body fluid. There is a much more impressive gold crowning scene, which, despite the super fast smelting of gold, is somewhat accurate. The Persians did this to the Romans on several occasions. That was pretty cool.

Season One: Episode Seven:

More impressive camera work and uninspiring plot which mimics the Anarchy of the 12th Century of England. By now I’m wondering if there are any black people in the United Kingdom, much less the Seven Kingdoms. It does not bode well for the production as this is a fantasy story. I know that it is shot in Northern Ireland, but if they can fly Sean Bean and Emelia Clarke in, why can’t they fly in a black actor? Ten minutes to the worse lesbian scene I have ever seen. To see it done right, watch either Bound or Blue is the Warmest Color. There was no point in the sex or counter balancing it to the speech. Shocking ending, as Ned Stark is betrayed by his wife’s would-be boyfriend. Unfortunately not enough people died in the coup, and that’s not very realistic. In every conceivable historical circumstance, Cersi’s head would be on a stake.

Season One: Episode Eight:

I spent the entire episode waiting for a battle that never happened. 

Season One: Episode Nine:

-Once again Danny’s face is sprayed with blood. Not cool.

-No one in wardrobe attempts to make her look pregnant, or the director didn’t think of it. Or maybe she’s just not pregnant and it’s all a lie, which is lazy storytelling. If you’re going to lie, let the audience know up front so we’re in on the secret. It makes things tense. 

-A fantastic fight sequence between Iain Glenn and a Dothraki Horse Lord winds up being the highlight of the episode. However, it becomes absurd when you realize there’s not a single other warrior outside the King’s tent. Only women are in the background. Meanwhile, in King’s Landing there's an army inside the palace. 

-Tyrion’s sudden coming-to shot was a direct lift from Gladiator.

-Joffrey’s cold bloodedness is a direct rip off the second season of Rome’s Augustus. However, since he is so young, I’m willing to bet he becomes another Caligula. 

-Killing Lord Stark was a huge political mistake considering the Lannisters were still at war.

Season One: Episode Ten

-For Christ’s sake, I thought Winter was coming ten episodes ago. 

-Ok. Fine. Emelia Clarke, whom I have not really cared for in this series (she’s better in Terminator Part 35 and Solo) has nice tits. I admit it. But that doesn’t mean they should be shoved in my face every other episode. 

-The dragon birth is well shot and executed, and would have more meaning if someone explained to us before now what that meaning was, or how it fucking happened. As it has happened, she might as well have put them in a microwave. 

-Sean Bean’s exit creates an existential crises for the series which I am guessing is going to take the rest of the show’s life to resolve. This will end in imperfect people doing imperfect things to make things right, and that’s fine, but that also means we are going to be gravely disappointed along the way. 

Season Two: Episode One

Caligula is in full throws. The only one with guts to stop him is the Imp. I can see this miles away. Everyone else seems pretty ambivalent. The King’s slut mom had decidedly fewer scruples or brains. That’s not true. Littlefinger, the financial advisor acting as the brothel owner is even dumber. He think’s he’s soooo smart now. But even if it’s the last episode, he’s going to get his. The dragon lady is still not impressive, and the blonde hair is now a needless distraction. When the King said you will never strike me again, that should have been followed by an ass-kicking. 

Season Two: Episode Two

-Lunacy runs amok. The bald Eunuch unzips his fly by letting Tyrion know his secret.

-The debauchery in this episode knows no bounds. I’m not offended by it, it’s just distracting. 

-Tyrion’s ousting of the Night Watchman is a deft move to gain a wise character sympathy. 

-There’s no way the illegitimate bastard of the King story line is going to pay off. I find it frustrating that we have to spend so much time on it. 

-Is there enough incest in this? And let’s just say you knew your brother by site but knew he didn’t know you, would you let him finger your pussy? And Theon’s sister is not exactly… made up.

-For the second time in two seasons, I’m left wondering why the fuck Jon Snow is in a certain place at a certain time. A little logic will be nice. 

-Infanticide is a steep crime, only to be referred to occasionally for dramatic purposes. But GOT does it twice in two episodes. Congratulations, you’ve disgusted me twice. 

-I’ve never, ever, met a woman who didn’t swallow the load in her mouth, or at least spit it out, before she left her sexual partner. I’ve never, ever, met a woman who was so careless as to walk around with a load dripping out of her mouth for someone else to clean up. And I’ve never, ever, met a woman who was okay in sharing that load with an unsuspecting partner. I know this is a whorehouse, but this is ludicrous as much as it is disgusting. If I wanted to see a snowball, I’d just turn on Porn Hub. 

Season Two: Episode Three

Cersei blaming Tyrion for killing her mother in childbirth is the biggest load of shit I’ve ever heard in my life. Citation of a real life circumstance please. This will serve for her motivation for a lot of the rest of the series, and will never make sense. 

-Natalie Dormer is a sight to behold. She is the most famous person to grace this series since Sean Bean. Therefore she must die, and most likely within the next two seasons.

-Tyrion’s vignette in which he tells his plan to three people using three different personages is the most impressive screenwriting yet. But that’s not saying much. He was knocked out so the producers wouldn’t have to pay for a battle scene. 

-So far the two dudes making out is the hottest sex scene so far. 

-The shot of Theon burning the letter is the most awesome so far. His baptism has the best music. It’s a truly touching scene. 

-The ending in which a man killed in battle is taken as the missing heir Gendry was famously used in Snatch, To Be Or Not To Be, and a hundred other comedies. Thus, I laughed my balls off here. 

-the dramatization of the murder of children is difficult to stage and harder to watch, especially when you are a parent. It has no place here. Although it was common in the Middle Ages, this is a fantasy and it is sick. I do not like it. 

Season Two, Episode Four

-I’m finally getting to like Robb Stark. Took long enough. 

-Classic Line: “There’s no cure for being a cunt.” No there is not. 

-Let me get this straight. Lord Bailish, who betrays Ned Stark and becomes the CFO of the Lannister Kingdom, walks into his widow's tent, and then is allowed to walk out? It doesn’t matter what lies he says. He’ll make one good hostage two good hostages (the Kingslayer too) and this better balance for Sansa, who the King does not care for. An idiot can see this, but apparently not a GOT fan. Or Sansa’s mother for fuck’s sake.

-Ned Stark’s daughter Arya, through a turn of events outside her control, winds up in the service of Charles Dance, the Lannister in command. This approaches not just the unlikely but the unbelievable. It’s on par with saying William Wallace fucked the Queen of England.

-The scene in which Tyrion turns an aide of Cersei against her is a rather good scene, but only the second one in the whole series, and not an original one at that. I remember a GI Joe comic in the 80s having the same turn. The only thing that’s original about it is that it’s on HBO and not in a theatre. 

-The birth of the Lord of Light, which is horribly conceived of as a shadow, was brave for the actress to do but still exploitive. 

Season Two Episode Five

-The assassination of Renly by a shadow was a quick, cheap way to not go through a three episode arc to resolve the civil war with Stannis, not to mention avoid a costly battle scene. It was a total cop out. If we don’t see the shadow again it will surprise me and mean it was a cheap thrill to resolve a plot the screenwriters didn’t feel they wanted to finish. Now if anyone is in the witch’s way, I expect her to birth a shadow on the double.

-The double oath between Lady Stark and Sir Brianne is set up to fail. Probably twice. Probably more. 

-For someone who is set up to be so smart and menacing, the Big Bad Lannister seems like he’s getting his ass whipped by a boy who we are constantly being informed is ill matched. This makes no sense. 

-Cersei is an idiot. I can’t believe the audience likes her. 

Season Two Episode Six

-What Theon is willing to do for a little respect is the most interesting story so far. And it’s just as predictable as the rest of the show. 

-What the fuck is Jon Snow doing again? Climbing a mountain to where and why?

-It’s nice to see another redhead on the screen. Unfortunately it comes at the price of making John Snow look like an idiot. Again. 

-For the record, Sophie Turner was 16 when they filmed this would-be gang-rape scene. Think of that what you will. 

-Emelia Clarke’s pacing back and forth in the Quarth courtyard is the worst blocking I have seen in a series that does not know what to do with her. Her movements are awkward and look uninspired. She needs a good director.

Season Two  Episode Seven

-The acting between Masie Williams and Charles Dance is the best professional acting so far. It’s a credit to them both, but mainly to Dance who looks like he truly enjoys working with a child. For her, it’s the opportunity of a lifetime. 

-I am completely uninterested in the dragon mother or her problems. 

-Rose Leslie, who plays Ygritte, is a strikingly beautiful woman who betrays my predilections for redheads. It is even more striking that she speaks like a potty mouth, which is how all guys talk when there are no women around. That’s all fine. Unfortunately her direction and the arc of her story is to demean Jon Snow for being a virgin, and we excuse this because she is his captive (one that he refused to fuck, marry, or kill). Whether this is Martin, or the screenwriters, this story arc sucks, and arcs like this are why incels exist. It’s the glorification of trolls. 

-Sansa’s post traumatic stress of almost being raped elicits the first drop of sympathy I have for any character in the film. And this is season two. 

-Cersei’s only purpose now is to upset the audience. Her character is incapable of anything more complex.

-FYI keeping a Lannister messenger and the Kingslayer in the same cage to exchange notes is the very essence of a bad idea, even in medieval society. We have now entered lazy screenwriting. Everyone who wrote it, who read it, and who put it on screen should be ashamed of themselves. 

-Cersei’s admission that she does not know the difference between strategy and tactics is the most telling line about her character. She plays chess because she knows the moves. But she does not know how to win. 

Season Two Episode Eight 

-This Episode is so boring, I feel it is laborious to write notes. 

-Why do people like Cersei? She’s a fucking idiot for threatening Tyrion’s (Wrong) whore. 

-I completely blanked when Robb is talking to the nurse. Isn’t this just a countdown to nudity? It’s lit like it. Oh look. It was. Isn’t there supposed to be a huge battle coming? We really don’t have time for this. 

Season Two: Episode Nine

-The wildfire attack on Stannis’ fleet was the second time in this show I said ‘that was cool.’  And that’s not good. This is the season finale. 

-Additional scenes of Cersei being a bitch is redundant and boring. 

-This isn’t the most boring battle scene I’ve seen. But it’s close. 

-The Hatchet man watching over the girls is literally the same shot six times. How uninspiring. It’s like watching Batman and Robin go up the steps to City hall episode after episode….

-Tyrion taking charge is the turn of the battle. It’d be nice if it were the turn of the series. 

-If the sewers gave the King’s Guard the way to the beach, why didn’t they give Stannis the way into the castle. It looked big enough to spot since it was big enough to well, sneak an army through. How does the former King’s brother not know of this chicanery?

-Wow. That lord of light really kicked ass. Maybe he should have fought during the day.  

Season Two: Episode Ten

-Oh is this the finale? Doesn’t seem like it. 

-Captain Barbossa’s crew showing up at the end was a real let down. 

Season Three: Episode One

-Behold, Emelia Clarke wearing clothes!

-This Episode is so boring I have nothing else to write. 

Season Three: Episode Two

-The addition of Ciran Hinds will not save this episode or this series. He’s on the way out anyway.

-When did this turn into Lord of the Rings? With Bran as the ring? And why do I get the feeling that if this is indeed a quest for him...that he’s going to wind up on top at the end? I mean, would that not be the only purpose he could possibly have? There is no other motivation.

-I was wondering why Arya didn’t ask Tywin or Joffrey as two of her kills. This seems a huge plot hole and having it addressed helps. But not that much. 

-This is the second boring episode in a row. 

Season Three: Episode Three

-I do not care that Jamie has lost his hand. I find it a fitting punishment, if not death, but the attempt to elicit sympathy for him is absolute bullshit, and I can’t believe that Brianne is falling for it. It’s a horrible development for a quote “strong female character” unquote.

-Sansa is just as stupid as she is beautiful.

-Tywin is the only person who understands his daughter. 

-Although Daenarys taking the Unsullied was the most predictable plot line yet, it played very well until she marched her army out of the city. She should have used the army to secure the city and kingdom as a power base from which to draw taxes and sustain a war effort. But alas, this is a TV show. Effectively I was waiting for this the whole episode, so that’s not good. 

Season Three: Episode Four

-Giving the Hound or the Mountain for that matter a trial by combat is the most idiotic idea I think I’ve seen in this show. No one, on having captured a great warrior like Achilles, would give him trial by combat. That would be like arresting Kasparov and saying he can go if only he can win this simple game of chess. The only reason this was allowed was to keep the House alive, negating the purpose of his capture to begin with.

-The flaming sword was a cool idea, and that’s this whole series. A bunch of cool ideas surrounded by complete idiocy. 

-I saw Ygritte throwing herself at Jon Snow a mile away. In fact, I was waiting for that the moment she showed up last season. That’s sad, isn’t it? The series took a fine actress and dangled her in front of me for a whole season, in your case probably 18 months, with the promise that you would see her naked some day. I’m not saying I didn’t enjoy it, but it is a fucked up way to write a TV show. 

Season Four: Episode Five

I don’t remember anything about this episode. 

Season Five: Episode Six

-I am extremely impressed by the backside of either Gwendoline Christie or most likely, her body double. However, it is still gratuitous. 

-“Winter could last five years?” Is their solar system fucked up or what? Again, no explanation. Remember that scene is Pitch Black when they discover the model of the solar system and how it functions...thus revealing the nature of the environment for the rest of the movie? That should have been done here.

-Jamie Lannister’s “true story” of how he killed the Mad King is interesting, but changes nothing. His actions since that day have only confirmed his true nature. It was only one act in a series of bad decisions. Look at it this way. Even Hitler loved kids. He loved dogs, too. He killed his own pup.

-Maybe it’s not, but I feel the double engagement at the end of this episode of Cersei and Tyrion is the first real “oh shit” surprise I have experienced this far. It also obviously puts Cersei and Tyrion together against their father which I can see a mile away. This reaches a double impact when you realize that Tyrion has to tell Sansa that his lover is Sansa’s handmaiden, and thus he is breaking bad news to two people. This resembles Republican Rome, when Marc Antony married Octavia, the sister of Octavian, to solidify the second triumvirate. This happened despite the well known fact that Antony was also the long time lover of Atia, Octavia’s mother. Ouch.

Season Three: Episode Seven

-The opening theme music is just now starting to catch on. It’s now very catchy. 

-Sansa losing her shit and finding out for the first time that she is just a foolish girl who thinks foolish thoughts is rich. It’s like Chelsea Clinton waking up and realizing her parents are just opportunists who want to take advantage of the American Dream by fleecing America as much as they can. Oh, wait, no, scratch that. But if Chelsea did wake up with a conscience, it would be kind of like Sansa coming to the realization that she is a spoiled little brat. Having said that, Littlefinger would have sold her to sexual slavery without any doubt. Advantage, Chelsea.

-”If you waste time trying to get people to love you, you’ll end up the most popular dead man in town.” Best line in a while. Very Machiavellian. 

-Ygritte’s fake swooning to Jon Snow making fun of girls like Sansa elicited the first form of what you would call laughter in this series. I know this is not a comedy, but that’s not good. 

-For all the bitching and complaining Lady Stark says about her family, she’s not too good at actually caring for them. Least of all Bran who hasn’t seen her in four seasons. 

Season Three: Episode Eight 

-When given the perfect opportunity to marry someone who doesn’t belong on a Paris runway to a Stark uncle, Martin or the screenwriters decide ‘why make a third tertiary character suffer? Give him a hot piece of ass.’

-You mean to tell me Jon Snow, the entire point of Bran’s journey, was less than a hundred meters away from Bran, and not only does his search party choose to not follow him, but to go the absolute opposite direction? This is changing the plot solely for the purpose of creating more plot. It made not sense onscreen.

-Daenarysis’, or however the fuck you spell her name, little boy toy is going to back fire on her. 

-The shocking conclusion of this episode, the murder of Robb Stark and his mother, is so drop jawing it boggles the imagination. The entire scene is a cross between the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre in France and the Manson Murders, complete with a Sharon Tate like execution. Although there were scenes that peaked my interest before, this scene was the only one so far that made me say “wait, what? What the fuck is going on?” And of course I missed all the cues. Robb’s wife nude in bed for five minutes of screen time so you could say “what a pity such a fine young woman is gone,” for one, Bran telling his younger brother out right “IF ANYTHING HAPPENS TO ROBB OR ME, YOU’RE THE HEIR OF WINTERFELL” an unsubtle second, and the red herring of Robb sharing strategy with his mother, the screenwriters knowing they were not to outlive the episode. It was a Kansas City Shuffle, Lucky Number Slevin Style, and was the first fight scene which I thought was shot reasonably well. There are several problems with exterminating the Starks as a force on Game of Thrones: 1) who to fill the power vacuum? Obviously someone will, there are four seasons left. What I mean is, who will take the moral high ground (stop laughing) now that Ned’s closest power keepers are gone? Just because someone is going to fill the vacuum, doesn’t mean they will be as compelling as a story. What I mean to say is, perhaps no one will rise to such a stature as Robb Stark. But then, we thought that of Ned, didn’t we? And knowing that Jon Snow is to die in the future due to the outrageous saturation of WHAT THE FUCK in social media at the time, I know for a fact that Bran and his brother are it. And kinder morder is a favorite pastime on this show. This matters greatly because the moral center gets people outraged and interested, but if there is no payoff, you run risks in alienating your audience. Robb was supposed to avenge Ned, and won’t. Jon, then, is to avenge Robb, but I know he won’t. So who will avenge Jon? Don’t sell me on fucking Bran. And the entire time, the dragon mother is, no pun intended, waiting in the wings, supposedly to take on the Lannisters in the last season, I’m guessing. But that does not avenge all the wrongs done to the Starks. So the moral center of the show is lost. And then there’s the obvious timing of the murder. This isn’t the last episode of the season. It’s the second to last. How the hell are they going to top that? Uhh, never?

Season Three: Episode Nine

-Theon says he wants to die then a scene from Roots plays out in which Ramsay teaches him his new name. If Theon really wanted to die, then he would have not learned his new name. Thus, this scene does not make sense. 

-Theon’s sister is cunt, has always been a cunt, just like her brother, just like her father. All the Greyjoys are cunts, as are all their soldiers. Do not ask me to feel sorry for Theon because another cunt cuts off his cock, or to feel excited when his cunt sister disobeys her cunt father to go save what’s left of him. I do not get excited about cunts cutting each other’s throats. It’s like Saddam vs. Hitler. I hope they top each other off. 

-It’d be nice if Arya grew up to avenge her family. 

-Lifting the Mother of Dragons on the shoulders of the free was a horrible and cheesy ending and in no way topped the Red Wedding. An extreme let down. It was meant to bring a little hope there would be justice to those wronged by the Lannisters. That may be, but the series should have ended on a down note and the cliffhanger of what was going to happen next rather than this shit. The most exciting thing about this episode was learning in the credits that it was shot on Todd-AO.

Season Four: Episode One

-Everyone is so myopic on this show it’s unreal. Just when I think Cersei’s the worst, someone like Sansa tops her. 

-The idea that the Hound can change into a good guy is as laughable as Edward Norton’s turn in American History X. 

-The turn of Arya Stark into a cold blooded murderer was as predictable as Jaime Lannister’s ‘good’ guy turn, only more interesting. 

Season Four: Episode Two

-Seriously, Tywin doesn’t notice his page is missing?

-The Lord of Light business is getting tiresome and the parallels to the use of fire as a purifier in the Middle Ages is uninspiring. The only interesting unfolding plot point on this show is how Stannis is going to stand up to Milisandra, if at all, and it might focus around his daughter. 

-The Five Kingdom dwarf dance was very well done, and the only thing bad about King Joffrey’s death was it was too quick. I was hoping it would have been more like Theon’s fate. 

-But both the poisoning and the blaming of Tyrion could be seen miles away, and Cersei’s reaction was so predictable as to be script joke worthy. The dram of poison is right out of Anglo-Saxon history, as King Harthacanute drank a cup of something, some say poison, at the wedding of one of his Lords, Tovi the Proud, and dropped dead during the reception. This paid the way for Edward the Confessor to reign for close to three decades. Something tells me Cersei’s other kid isn’t going to have that good of a chance. Kind of like the Princes in the Tower.

Season Four: Episode Three

-Cersei is now a ridiculous caricature of herself. 

-Jaime has proven that he has not changed. 

-Completely forgot that Cersei has two sons. Because it was unimportant until now. When he popped up I said “oh, how convenient.” Which is how people think of the Duke of York. 

-Tywin’s recitation of the history of the kings of Westeros is just as interesting as the history of England or Russia or Japan. I could listen to Charles Dance narrate an audio book instead of watching this dreadful series. 

-The sweet redhead I have a thing for lost all my empathy when she shot a boy’s father in the back of his head with an arrow. She’s a cunt and I don’t care who knows it. And if Jon Snow winds up fucking her again this show will suck that much more. Who wants to love a woman who murders children? Any hands? What about fucking one? Anyone masturbating to images of Casey Anthony? No? Then this is absurd.

-When the fuck did “the bastard” turn into “Lord Jon Snow?” And why? And how does that make sense?

-Nice Ziggurat. 

Season Four: Episode Four

-I am completely uninterested in anything Brianne does, especially for the sister raper. 

-Cersei is as blind as she is stupid. 

-By the time the human baby became an ice baby I was literally (not figuratively) falling asleep. 

Season Four: Episode Five

-The only thing interesting that happens in this episode is Jon Snow putting his sword through Crastor’s mouth backwards. The actor who plays Crastor was in Pacific Rim and was one of those guys in the background that made you think “well he got this gig because he was in a TV show” only I didn’t know what show it was. Well, I do now. Captain Brianne is another one of these people. 

-Of course Bran now hides from Jon whom he has been searching for all this time. Because plot. 

-I’d like to think of Sansa as a virgin but somehow I just don’t think so. 

-This episode largely sucks, and must be the bottom five so far.

Season Four: Episode Six

-I simply do not understand the unfolding story. Robert Baratheon was way in debt. He was borrowing money from the Iron Bank, which did not appear until three seasons after his death. Why didn’t he just get money from his wife? Wasn’t she “as rich as a Lannister?” Maybe Tywin wouldn’t give it to him. In which case it begs the question, why did Robert marry Cersei then? Because in the first season, this was generally the point. The story is changing under our feet for the purposes of creating another season. 

-To make it worse, Stannis now has to go to the same Iron Bank, so this makes it look like opportunism. And the idea of trusting anyone who takes a smuggler as his second in command is laughable. What bank would loan money to the rebellion of Princess Leia walked in with Han Solo at her side? She would have the goddamn notion to leave him in the Falcon. 

-Theon’s sister gives a pot boiler of a speech before taking Theon back. She gives more of a shit about her penisless brother when he lost his penis than when he had one. It’s like she laments not getting it. It would serve the story if she had a regret monologue. But instead, we’re led to believe she all of a sudden gives two shits about him, which she never did before. So I don’t believe this story line either. 

-The first thing Theon’s sister should have done is kill the fucking dogs. As a clandestine invasion it only makes sense. So the end of this scene is idiotic. 

-Theon’s tub scene is the most homo erotic scene since the end of The Return of the King. 

Season Four: Episode Seven

-I still do not give a shit about Denarys or however you spell her name. But at least she’s finally getting laid after three seasons. 

-“Will be your champion.” Is perhaps the most corny and over dramatic line yet delivered, complete with the son of Dorne holding a torch. 

-Lysa through the Moon Door was the most predictable event in the series. 

Season Four: Episode Eight 

-Ygritte continues to dodge my sympathy. Just because she refuses to kill an infant doesn’t mean she’s a good person. She’s already done it.

-The Dragon Queen’s most trusted advisor is a spy for Robert Baratheon… the most obvious answer ever as he was the only other person around her since episode one. The real shock was Khaleesi not forgiving him. That’s a personality change on her part. 

-100,000 wildlings is pretty funny considering you only see at most ten warriors. 

-Ramsay’s promotion to a Lord is simply amazing in its cinematic style. It reminded me of The Outlaw King, which is VASTLY better than this pile of shit.

-Lord Baelish is a huge creep. And he gets slimier with every episode. 

-Just a heads up. The overconfidence that starts fights in cinema always lose. Tyrion won’t die though. At least, not yet. 

Season Four: Episode Nine

-I do not care about some girl and her baby walking through the wilderness any more than I care what Ygritte does with Jon Snow when she finally catches up to him. Because I already know what will happen to Jon Snow. 

-Aemon is a Targaryen, and I don’t care about that, either. 

-The Wildlings look like they are about 20 people maybe. I don’t know how they will take Castle Black, even if they only have 20 people themselves. 

-”Promise me you won’t die” is the most stupid line this episode. Maybe this season. 

-Ser Alliser takes a step forward after conversing with Jon Snow. It’s a quick cut but I imagine they filmed an exit and a step back or a shrug. But they chose the step forward for a reason. And I can’t figure it out. But it does convey the large scale of this production and the time pressures this show is on when it comes to coverage and editing choices. The fact that I have to think about that means this episode is a failure. 

-Wooly mammoths? Okay. We have dragons, so why not wooly mammoths. But giants riding the wooly mammoths? Well, okay. We have dark gods birthed from women so ok. I guess.,

-The geography is totally fucked up here. Who is attacking on what side of the wall? It is totally confusing.

-The giant’s ballista is pretty cool. 

-The fight scenes in this episode are pretty good, especially for a fantasy. Ygritte’s bow scenes are reminiscent of Barry Pepper in Saving Private Ryan i.e. the calm and cool intellect under fire. The various fights coordinated and cross cut are very well done. I recently saw The King on Netflix which depicts the Battle of Agincourt. That particular film is more realistic in terms of a real medieval battle. It takes a lot of physical exertion to take another life. It’s exhausting, and you see that in that particular scene. There is none of that in this but the purpose of Game of Thrones is different. Thus this is more fitting.  

-Not collapsing the tunnel was a huge mistake. Very stupid. Even the Brits and the Germans were blowing bridges as they went back and forth over rivers and canals. 

-Absolutely stunning camera move across the fight in the inner keep. Very well done and very cool. Worthy of any similar genre film or scene such as The Outlaw King or what have you. It totally makes the episode worth watching, and conveys that perhaps the problem with Game of Thrones isn’t the story but the story telling. 

-Jon’s fight with the giant was well choreographed and awesome. 

-Ygritte was never going to kill Jon, not that it matters because he was going to die anyway. And the minute the fat one told Olly to fight, I knew she was dead because we couldn’t be mad at a child. I will miss this actress in the show even though I detested her character. Her mentioning the Cave was a rare sentimental moment in the film that shows that amidst all this chaos humans are still humans. 

Season Four: Episode Ten

-Were you surprised when Stannis showed up north? I was. I don’t know why but I was. And why exactly is he here? Riddle me that.

-The confrontation between Cersei and her father ends unresolved. I did not know how it ended. This in storytelling terms is what we call ‘bad writing.’

-I am endlessly tired of seeing Dany in the throne room endlessly talking to endless individuals with seemingly nothing going on. 

-Hodor

-The Pirates of the Caribbean fight in the snow was actually very good until a new character shows up to save Bran like Super Mario throwing fireballs at Koopa Troopers. This Hand of God introduction really saps the purpose of whoever the hell this new girl is or what she is supposed to introduce. 

-If the Hound is indeed dead, then great. If not, then I don’t want to see him again. Enough of the cheesy comebacks. 

-Shae’s betrayal was as hurtful as it was shocking. Tyrion doesn’t deserve most things happening to him, but especially killing someone he loved. 

-I totally did not see Tyrion killing Tywin, although I greatly enjoyed it and thought Charles Dance performed a great service to both the series and the season finale. I was thinking that Jamie betrayed Tyrion for his sister, but that wound up not being the case. I also thought that perhaps Varys would betray Tyrion once he heard the bells, but that also was not the case. There’s so much betrayal going on that it’s hard to find honesty. The only people acting honestly is Tyrion. Even Arya is getting flippant. 

-The ending with Arya sailing off to the theme was emotional and fitting. The end of the episode absolutely turned around a bad start. 

Season Five: Episode One

-I’m halfway through this episode and have nothing interesting to say. 

-I’m done with this episode and I have nothing interesting to say. 

Season Five: Episode Two

-I must say now in retrospect how fucking stupid Brianne of Tarth is to let Arya go. In plot. In person. Littlefinger is right. Brianne is an incompetent failure. 

-Dorne looks like every other place, just darker. The Water Gardens are just the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. This does not interest me at all. 

-Jon Snow becoming the Commander of the Night’s Watch is the worst idea ever. This will end badly. 

Season Five: Episode Three 

-Littlefinger is a character of opportunity. As such he has no real purpose other than to move the plot. There is no discernible reason for him to avenge the Starks.  This is the cable equivalent of unzipping the screenwriter’s fly. 

-It must be terribly difficult for Jon Snow to turn down his father’s position. But then, it doesn’t matter, does it?

-Sansa marrying the son of her father’s murderer is as stupid as it is repulsive. Find another historical circumstance that mirrors this. There isn’t one. It is meant to enrage us and rape her. Completely avoidable circumstance that is essentially emotional blackmail. 

-The copying of European cities in the geography is impressive. Dorne is Florence. King’s Landing as Contanstinople. Wherever the fuck Arya is as Venice mixed with Rhodes (complete with a colossus).

Season Five:Episode Four

-it is stellar to see Jonathan Price in anything. He’s amazing. 

-How does Cersei think that trusting Jihadis is a good idea. It’s never worked out for anyone. That will end badly, like everything else she does. It’s sad that Cersei is playing with her son in such a way. It goes against the entire storyline so far where she is used to putting her children first. 

-I would call this Lord of Light bitch a slut, but I don’t believe in slut shaming and I actually don’t think she’s a slut… in fact, I think she gives sluts a bad name. They just want to fuck, and who can blame them for that. But this bitch is evil. Everything she fucks is marked for death. She should star in Liquid Sky. 

-Snow is an idiot for asking Winterfell for Troops. Bolton will slip in a spy to kill him. And if he doesn’t, the screenwriters are bigger idiots. 

-Now is a late time to say the Sellsword is my favorite character. In fact, he’s the only character I liked. Well, I kind of like the bobbed headed daughter of Dorne, but she’s not long for this world. Because the minute you like something in this show, it’s dead. I think I said the same about Iain Glenn.  

-Wormwood’s fight with Ser Bannister or Ser Barrister or whoever the fuck was really cool. The best since the finale in Castle Black last season. How convenient that he’s dead while Jordan is on his way to Dany with a present. Now that is opportunism. 

Season Five: Episode Five

-Oh, was I supposed to pay attention?

-Snow’s idea to make peace with the Wildlings is a brilliant parallel to the Irish Troubles. As such, he’ll wind up like Yitzak Rabin. 

-This Myranda chick is bad news for Sana’a. 

-Sansa suddenly has cleavage. 

-why is Stannis all of a sudden conveyed as the good guy? And why don’t the Bolton’s just side with him?

-I wish Tyrion would have just drowned. But I knew it was not to be. He and Jon Snow are the only moral centers of the show. So they both have to be either killed or sidelined.

-Greyscale, if you didn’t know, is leprosy. It’s why people shun Stannis’ daughter. 

Season Five: Episode Six

-I started watching this sleeping.

-”We take the Dwarf to see the cock merchant,” is the line of the episode. 

-I truly don’t know what Lord Baelish is up to in telling Cersei he’ll kill Sansa, whom he just married to the killer of her father. This is truly one of the most successful elements of the show. 

-Cersei is pretty good at eliminating her near rivals in the short term but she’s fucking horrible at understanding the End Game. She fucked up being the Regent before. She’ll fuck this up, too. 

-Sansa Stark in the bath is the most alluring thing about this episode.

-The Wedding ceremony looks like it is for execution.

-Sansa’s rape was as unnecessary as it was predictable. Theon’s betrayal of Ramsay would have been the way to take this already dark and sour show. It’s like watching the first four episodes of Battlestar Galactica. It’s all a downward spiral. 

Season Five: Episode Seven

-Sam and Wildling sex is far too much, even for this series.I hope Sam dies.

-The Occupy King’s Landing plot line is boring, idiotic, and disgusting. 

-Cersei’s daughter in Dorne states that her mother sent her to Dorne to be married and it is unfair that now she has to go back. This is in direct contradiction to what we know, which is that Tyrion sent her to be married for alliance and for safety.

-The tit show in the cell with the sellsword was not just gratuitous, but unnecessary. The scene did not add anything to the series, the episode, or the story.

-I thought the gladiator pits were some sacred ritual akin to the importance of Shinto in Sumo. Thus I was expecting a Ridley Scott like ring, or at least a set that was something like the rest of the sets in this episode. Instead, this is a disappointing rally point. 

-I must say Emilia Clarke in the white dress is jaw dropping, much like Carrie Fisher in Star Wars.

-Cersei’s plan is going to backfire bad, very bad, and after her walk of shame I’m sure a dagger awaits. Queens don’t matter. The Hand does not matter. The Regency does not matter. Nothing matters in the face of fatacism or Jihad. This is a simple truth of the world we live in. Cersei’s incarceration is a great fictional conveyance of this real life fact. 

-How Joran and Tyrion are going to help Dany, I’ve no idea.

Season Five: Episode Eight

-Did I mention it was great to see Iain Glenn again? Goodbye, Iain.

-Masie Williams hairstyle is utterly amazing in the seaside scene. 

-It has occured to me that I don't quite understand how Jonathan Pryce got to be the head of the Faith. He dresses in rags and yet he controls the Sept of the city. How did this happen? When we first met him he was washing feet in the fountains of the poor neighborhood. No episode or flashback or story or explanation as to how all of a sudden he is powerful enough to throw a queen and the queen mother (and de facto the Hand of the King) into a horrible jail cell. 

-Belief is the death of reason. The greatest quote of this episode and of this season. Possibly of the century.

-The first scene between Dany and Tyrion is absurd and disgusting.

-Snow crossing whatever he is crossing looks a lot like Washington crossing the Delaware. It’s meant to be. I daresay he’s not a Washington, though. 

-Kit Harrington’s cape is saturated in mud when he gets out of the boat and onto the beach because it has taken ten takes of him doing so. 

-Jon Snow shouts “Nights’ Watch,  with me, let’s go!” Then he disappears and this shot is followed by a shot of the boats retreating out of the water. A poor editing choice. 

-In a real sense, the invasion of the White Stalkers is something that we’ve been waiting for since the final scene of the first episode. Winter is finally here and the stalkers are finally attacking. Unfortunately, it’s too little too late. I’ve been waiting so long for this scene that it now has no value. 

-Ice people can walk through fire? That seems unlikely. 

-The Dragon Glass is perhaps the first thing Jon Snow should have thought of, not the last. Pity the fat idiot who found the huge cache of it didn’t take everything he found. 

-Jon’s sword is Dragon Glass? Did I miss something? How convenient. 

-I knew the minute a great female character showed her face she was dead meat. Because that’s what this show does. It kills women or turns them into whores, or both. Don’t point to Danys and say ‘see’ when she is literally the ONLY example.

-The fearless Knight’s Watch who stares at the mountain of Winter people and says “FUCK THIS!” is my only hero in this very well shot battle. It reminds me of James Woods walking into the reenactment of the Exorcist in Scary Movie and says the same when he sees Legion. 

-The last shot does remind me a lot of the King of Jodenheim. I do appreciate all the Nordic visual queues. It does look like a Viking’s worst nightmare. 

Season Five: Episode Nine

-Bronn and Joran are the only reasons why I continue to watch. 

-Mycroft Homles showing up as the representative of the Iron Bank in Braavos is proof Britain is running out of famous actors to put in this show. James McAvoy will be next. 

-Murdering a child never goes very far with me. It’s nearly always handled wrong, and it’s handled wrong here. Shireen’s mother chooses to care about her daughter on her daughter’s last day on earth? Any motive? None. Move along. 

-The Ridley Scott gladiator fight that I said was lacking in the last episode is here and back for vengeance. Very impressive. Very late. 

-Another great line: “My father would have liked you.”

-The banter between the king-to-be and Tyrion about what is right and why is probably the best exchange written for this show. And I waited five seasons for it. 

-The Spartan jump-kill in the arena is more than just cool. It is actually technically and historically correct. I cite Thucydides. 

-The uprising in the arena was simply amazing to watch. First, there is the tribute to Spartacus when Joran threw his spear into the crowd. Then there was the dire flight into the arena and across the floor. There was a real sense of danger and peril that had not existed before. I really thought maybe Dany wasn’t going to make it out alive. Then the dragon shows up, in the worst cgi shot in the show, flying around the arena. This was coupled with not a minute later with the coolest shot of the show, which was Drogon torching the shit out of the gold masks and watching them toast. So the best and the worst shot in terms of visual effects was in the same scene. 

Season Five: Episode Ten

-I’m very happy that the killing of a child has such horrible consequences.  But I won’t be satisfied until Melisandre is dead too. 

-If you think Masie Williams is a great actor now, wait until you see her in ten years. 

-Line: “You want the good girl, but you need the bad pussy.” This is now the best line of the show.

-How exactly did Dany come down a mountain and miss a valley full of horny men on horseback?

-Cersei’s walk of atonement might be a natural development from the literary point of view. The character is needed for future story and the readers who come to hate her feel gratitude at her debasement. This is natural human schadenfreude and although it is despicable, it is rare to find a human being that doesn’t have it. I saw the walk of atonement out of context when I read a story about the trouble shooting the scene on Dark Horizons then watched it several months later with my wife. I saw nothing before or after. All I could think about was poor Lena Headey who had to endure all of that. It would be one thing if it were a one shot that lasted several minutes and be done with it but as this is an extended sequence of several scenes, I gather it took days for the crew to shoot and thus days for Headey to walk naked and have shit thrown at her over and over and over again take after take. It’s not done bad. In fact, it’s a very well done sequence, and that’s what I have a problem with. I don’t know if Headey has said anything about it, but it doesn’t really matter. This scene is sick and disgusting, and continues the age-long process of castigating powerful women. Cersei is, in fact, the only woman of power in the show, so she must pay. There are several shots of Headey’s vulva, and quite frankly I didn’t see the point. There were other ways to shoot this. There were other ways to ignore it. But the writers and the producers were so entranced by the idea of putting a woman in the gutter, they just couldn’t do it any other way. So forever, Headey will be on pornhub in slow motion. I hope she got paid triple. And I hope her abusers never work again.

-It’ll be interesting to see Jon Snow pull a lazarus out of this bullshit. And bullshit it truly is. Snow represents the only extension of the Starks that’s still standing and fighting for something. Arya and Sansa are tainted. Bran has gone off to dance with unicorns, Robb and his mom are dead. Jon’s death isn’t just the end of the season, it’s one more step of the story getting farther and farther away from a moral center. Because you can’t get away from this show, I know he returns, and I know Dany takes King’s Landing. So no matter what, this show is going to suck, because one by one it took the hope of the Starks away. Not because they deserve to be on the throne, because clearly they are not evil enough (yes, Dany is evil, mark my words she will show her true colors before this show is over) but because they deserve at the very least to survive. And that is as the story takes decency. Decency the writers, nor the producers, nor Martin has.

Season Six: Episode One

-If John Snow rises from the dead, I will be very disappointed in Martin and the screenwriters. 

-Ramsay has overplayed his deviency with Sansa and is now in trouble. In fact, this is not how real life is. The devients get away with murder. If Ramsay is punished for what he did to Sansa, I will be very disappointed in Martin and the screenwriters. 

-Tarth getting knocked off her horse was pretty awesome. I wish someone would kill her. 

-Tarth’s squire against a knight? No contest. 

-So Theon’s entire existence is to save Sansa five seasons later? It makes for good storytelling but it is surrounded by such horrible plots it no longer has meaning. 

-But I bet Sansa feels like an idiot turning Tarth away last season. This Motley Crue will not go far. Or rather, they shouldn’t. 

-King’s Landing gets more impressive with every season. The artwork and the cgi is impressive. 

-So what you’re saying is if Cersei left her daughter in Dorne, she’d be fine? So like everything else in her life, Cersei manages to fuck everything up more horribly than before. She is more in need of her corrupt father and deviant brother than ever before. However, I cannot help but think this is a very convenient way to eliminate a character no one knew about or cared about until midway through the last season. Since there was no investment, and moving her into Cersei’s fateful circle would have been horribly bad for the part and role, she was eliminated early on. We’ll forget about her by the time this episode is over. 

-Jonathan Pryce is a master, and he does nothing but elevate every scene he is in from shit to art.

-Dorne is a great stand in for Palmyra, or Babylon. Obviously the Gardens are a take from it.

-This whole High Valyrian idea is bullshit.

-It seems highly unlikely that Joran would find Dany’s ring in a field of grass. When I was seven I had a tooth knocked right the fuck out of my head by a cousin with a two by four. It went into the grass. Never saw it again. 

-The idiots asking if Dany’s pussy hair is white do not have the two pebbles to think to look at her eyebrows, which are distracting and unnecessary, just like this comment. 

Season Six: Episode Two

-It does not bode well that Kit Harrington’s name is still in the credits. 

-Bran got puberty.

-Don’t ever piss alone.

-Cersei does not act like a mother who loves her only child left. 

-What idiot trusted Ramsay at any time in this series? Oh, the dead ones. The actor who plays Ramsay, however….brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. 

Season Six: Episode Three

-There’s too much going on here to process or to keep up with while writing. For the first time, I’ve had to pause the Blu-Ray player so I can type. That in of itself should tell you how bad a series this is. I should be pausing three or four times an episode. Instead, this is the first and probably the last time. 

-I don’t care how popular Jon Snow is. To bring him back is lazy and opportunistic screenwriting, no matter how ‘well done.’ His resurrection is completely unexplained and inexplicable. It makes no sense unless you remember the horrendous reaction the fanbase had when he was killed. And why was that reaction so? It’s not because Snow is a likeable Kit in a Candy body. It was because he was the last surviving son of Sean who was of age. If Robb had not been killed off so ugily early, we would not give two shits about Snow at all. But because Robb is gone, taking Snow off the Game board so to speak is even more hurtful. This goes back to my original argument, which is they never should have gotten rid of Robb, unless of course you did it midway through the last season and had Sansa take the throne at the last minute. I’m still holding out for that, which is hideously stupid, but we’ll see. 

-Holy shit. Bran must have Hulk Hogan’s testosterone levels. And his voice...wow. 

-The five way two-sword fight was an amazingly well choreographed fight.

-Max Von Sydow pulling Bran out of the dream of the fight to teach him a lesson was a cheap and frustrating way to delay the inevitable revelation simply for the sake of extending the General Hospital like drama that’s going on in this horrid series. By this late in the game, they’re not even trying to hide it. It’s also not couched in reason. For example, when Dumbledore is in a similar situation with Harry Potter in the Half Blood Prince reliving someone else’s memories of Tom Riddle, the memory only stops because they have no more to go on. In this case it stops because it stops. Because the screenwriters need you to see something else for at least twenty minutes. 

-The Small Council walking out on the Bitch and her brother was the smartest thing I’ve seen the Small Council do since Stark was the Hand. Too bad they’re took weak to do anything about it. 

-I think I’ve written this before, but Jonathan Pryce is a master actor who slays all before him on this program. And I’d like to reiterate that the acting in this show is outstanding. It’s the narrative that I just can’t stand. 

-In ten years, Masie Williams is going to win an Oscar for something fantastic. I just hope she doesn’t have to strip for it. 

-The psychopath training Arya deserves her own Red Sparrow like episode, as this storyline is very Patty Hearsty crossed with Black Widow. 

-Leaving Castle Black was the smartest thing Snow has done in this entire series. Since he showed up there it’s been one giant shitshow after another, and quire frankly I think it took him way too fucking long, like five seasons, to figure out that he’s just not cut out for the Black Watch.

Season Six: Episode Four

-Suddenly, Joran, the greatest fighter in Westeros, is now a shitty fighter? I knew he was going to escape the fight with the Khal, so it seemed pointless that he lost. 

-I’ve seen Natalie Dormer in many things, but the scene of Margeary trying to comfort her brother in the Sparrow’s jail shows her amazing talent. 

-Theon Greyjoy, who I recently saw in Jojo Rabbit (Woo-hoo, Captain K!) has shown more chops with Sam Rockwell than in this entire series. 

-I knew Ramsay was going to Kill Rickon’s maid because the camera kept lingering on her staring at the knife. Staring at any object in Ramsay’s presence means you’re next. This is very upsetting because it is, yet again, another dead female. Distressing.

-The burning of the Dosh Khaleen is quite possibly the most stupid scene shot in this series. I don’t mean the purpose, meaning, or direction, but rather how the burning of the room is shot. However, Emilia Clarke emerging nude from the fire was more impressive than her emerging from the rock with the baby dragons. 

Season Six: Episode Five

-Oh, look, here’s a dream from the tree that will delay us one more episode from the truth of the dream.

-Why are the Greyjoys having a mass meeting to choose their king on the edge of a windy and rainy cliff? Was the open hearth booked with a Bat Mitzvah?

-Dany seems to think that Joran has saved her life twice. This is incorrect. The coup of the Khals could have entirely happened without Joran and Dany’s boy toy. 

-What the fuck does Bran eat in this cave? Tree food?

-The Hodor Loop was well done but unfortunately means that for five seasons we’ve been waiting for this one moment, and ultimately he served no other purpose.

-The stage play resembling Shakespeare which recounts the Baratheon family dynasty is a fun and engaging account of the last five seasons. In fact, I’d prefer watching that.

-The finery and spectacle on display at the confrontation at the Sept was a dazzling display that was very reminiscent of the Golden Age of Hollywood Sword and Sandal epics. Well done. Unfortunately, it left a lot of loose ends. 

-Although it is rather weary sitting through everyone’s naming period (King Tommen, First of His Name, etc.etc.), it is not any different than the real nobility of the Middle Ages or even the modern day descendants of that aristocracy. Read the first paragraph of the Magna Carta. It’s effectively all of King John’s name and all of his titles.

-Fuck, that dragon is huge.

Season Six: Episode Six

-Two huge ‘surprises’ in the pre credit sequence. 1) Ian McShane will be joining the show. I’m being sarcastic because if you know Ian McShane, he’s in fucking every show made in Britian the past twenty years, or at least the ones exported to the States. 2) the Hound is alive. I’m being sarcastic because since we did not see him die, then we knew he was coming back. More confounding is why he did not continue his life as a sellsword.

-It’s great to have a Bond Girl tell off Cersei. And the fact that it is true is all the more pleasant. 

-So Jaime is heading north with an army, Snow is heading South, and Ramsay is in between. Can I guess what is going to happen next in terms of big battles? And will Dany come to Westeros with her cross bred army in time? I’m guessing not. I’m guessing with two seasons left, she’s going to go right to King’s Landing like Stannis did. 

-The drawbridge set at Riverrun is really impressive. It is Lord of the Ring-style good. 

-The Hound cleans up good, and the full beard is better than the rats nest of yore.

-If Arya does not bleed out and die, then the series reaches a new low. Do not stab a little girl four times in the gut and then magically save her life. It’s opportunistic. 

-The Hound couldn’t hear the My Lai going on in the valley behind him? Come on. Bullshit.

-Was totally not expecting Ian Shane to get hung. I thought he’d be around at least the rest of the season and then be sacrificed in the finale. So I was finally taken by surprise here.

Season Six: Episode Seven

-Very disappointed that Arya just had a flesh wound. Laughable.They might as well just nicked her on the shoulder. 

-The night camp shoot at River Run was astoundingly well done. The scope of the project was amazing, again like Lord of the Rings or near it. It could be the entire show is upping in production value due to the millions of new HBO subscribers. 

-Jamie and Brianne’s unrequited love is disgusting.

-The naval Siege of Mareen has several shots that calls back to the reimagining of Hollywood Epics of twenty years ago - Films like Troy and Gladiator. Well done.

-Clegane is finally getting a character. After seasons of ‘just kill it’ the Hound’s performance is finally more nuanced and aiming. It’s more preferable. They should have done it years ago.

-I was convinced that Arya’s idiotic survival justified her dying in the next scene. Her flight from her killer further convinced me that her death was justified and I wasn’t going to weep for her. Considering how this series treats Starks, I was prepared for her death, but knew the series would save her. Only Stark Minors survive in this show as if they are special or something. At the same time, I thought her survival was stupid, and as she got to her feet and got her sword, I thought ‘Jesus, really?” And then she cut out the candle and it all became okay. Because the scene was written well, with a clever concept, and shot well, even though i was predisposed to detest her survival, I accepted it, because the narrative was conveyed in a brilliant manner. If the Show had done this from the get-go, I’d be less critical of it. Now onto the drivel.

Season Six: Episode Eight

-In a remarkable turn of the hand, the lifting of the Siege of Mereen was an amazing juggernaut of a sequence that excelled all scenes of an ‘epic’ nature before it. Teamed with great editing and a fantastic score, the scene conveyed for the first time in the series the majesty and power of Dany’s character. Too little, too late for me, but impressive nonetheless. 

-The dramatic difference between Snow’s army and Ramsey’s army is not without representation. Snow represents the almost aboriginal, with Wildlings as stand-ins. Ramsay’s foot soldiers are wearing helmets reminiscent of the Reconquista and the recycled armor used in the Columbian conquest of America. He is a Spanierd, with his own moralistic inquisition. He’s worse than a Sadist. He’s a Fascist, which amounts to much the same thing.

-The battlefield murder of Rickon is as predictable as it is stupid, the outcome of the battle never in doubt.The running speed of the Wildlings across the battlefield is equally idiotic. Caesar's Gallic History if full of half pace and full paced marches, the well-thought out and contemplated in the fog of war type of decision making that had to happen in order for the better general to win a battle. In this act alone, Snow and his idiot officers only show that from the get-go, they should have just listened to Sansa and her warnings about Ramsay. The ignorance of Snow’s decision to not listen to his sister coupled with the previous scene in which Dany and Theon’s sister pary about women making better rulers than men make this a very determined pro-femme episode, that is if you ignore Cersei in total. The slaughter of the battle, horrifyingly real, is so bloody it cannot be contemplated. It is probably more accurate than not. It reminds me of Agincourt in particular, and it has several shot montages that are far superior than any sword and sandal epic and much better than Braveheart in particular, which is laughable now though I once lauded it. The way the dead were piled up and the living were butchering each other on top of the piles, actually happened during several battles in the Ancient World, including the Battle of Cannae in which forty thousand plus Romans were slaughtered on top of their previously fallen comrades. Throughout France and Africa, Caesar and his Imperial descendants had to just light the piles on fire instead of burying them in mass graves because there simply was no way to take care of the bodies. Hattin after 1187 was full of sun bleached bones of dead Christians for years were Birds of Prey and errant farm animals scoured dried flesh for survival. I imagine this battlefield will be much the same.

-The double envelopment using the phalanx was an effective fighting formation during the Greek suppression of the Ancient World. It was so effective Alexander used it to form the Hellanistic world and the Romans had no use against it. 

-When I say the battle was never in doubt, I wasn’t being snarky or optimistic. I meant to say that the arrival of Bailish’s Lakemen was in the offing for several episodes, and once again shows the theme of gender equality the show is trying to establish.I was expecting either the Lake or the River Run to show up like Pompey did on the last hour of the Battle of Brindisi where he at the last minute helped Crassus push Spartacus into history. There are several real accounts like that. The Battle of Waterloo is another example.

-It was upsetting to see Ramsay so brutally murdered in the finale. Although we would like to see that happen and it did good to see Sansa not turn away from the horror but to enjoy it - when she finally turned, she smiled - it does nothing for her character of the now pro-woman arch of the movie to turn her into a Sadist like Ramsay. Sadists rarely meet an end they themselves oppress others with. They usually spend the rest of their lives in prison, or take cyanide pills in bunkers before shooting themselves in the head. Personally, it would have been better to flay Ramsay upside down, or have Sansa visit him once a day and skin just a little piece of him. That I could go with. 

Season Six: Episode Nine

-Cersei’s coup was the smartest thing she did in the entire season. However, you must forget six years of her horrible and detestable decisions in order to get to this one good decision she made. You are also unfortunately asked to forgive her for the coup and even side with her because at the other end is the nastiest representation of religion seen on cable in a while. 

-Likewise Tommen’s suicide was the smartest thing he ever did. 

-I know this is a reach, but perhaps Cersei should reflect on her actions and, I’m just saying, maybe perhaps if she JUST FUCKING DID WHAT STARK SAID, then she would be living a good life in the capital with all her children alive and happy and, most importantly, she would be free to fuck her brother forever. All it would have cost her was living with the fact that her brother-n-law was King. Instead, she dropped the only Game of Thrones line in the entire series and kicked off six years of utter shittiness, especially on herself. She is the most short sighted and least thinking person in this show. She is not a cunning woman. She’s a disgrace to womanhood. 

-One of the coolest things to see in terms of geography so far was the island where Arya studied Faces as a representation of Rhodes and the Colossus that supposedly stood at the entry of its port. Now the Fat Maester of the Black Watch is studying black magic at another port that is another rather awesome representation - that of Alexandria and it’s famous Phaeros. When this series started it relied on the opening credit sequence to convey the land. I’m guessing this was because of the budget restrictions. As the show gained momentum and thus more money from more viewers, it became more epic in scope, which was very good considering the scope of the series only broadened. 

-It’s amazing how the hearth of Winterfell looks EXACTLY like that dead fish place Theon is from. It’s just lit different.

-If Jon Snow marries Dany, I’m going to throw the fuck up.

-Arya’s revenge is sweet and appropriate, and we have been longing for it for three seasons. The series is beginning to turn here, when it is about to end. It has been so bleak for so long that it has colored the perception of what it could be. There has been no hope and no interest for years (even though I have watched this entire series in the span of three months, it feels like years in watching it for sure) and so hope is a very strange thing to come by. I hope it keeps up, but I don’t think so. I think the turn will be on a rocky road and lead to an unsatisfying destination. 

-Lady Mormont has a great point about the Lords who say they follow the Starks and cower in fear. However, her entire speech and the entire point of the show smacks of primogeniture and hereditary blueblood bullshit which I, as a red blooded American, hate with all seventeen hundred and seventy six of my hearts. Fuck the King, and all the Kings, and all the Queens, regardless of how hot they look emerging naked from a sea of fire. 

-With no Sept to crown Cersei, she has the Hand crown her. It’s like Napoleon taking the crown from the Pope and putting on his own head. Now she has what she wants, finally after all these years, and three dead kids to prove how she got there. If she really loved her kids, she would have given up the crown for them. Alas, she loves power more. 

-It just occurred to me that no matter what height he is, Tyrion is always at tit height.

Season Seven: Episode One:

-Arya’s Revenge of the Red Wedding is sweet. That is all.

-Cersei is still an idiot, and her brother is little better.

-Every time we return to the great library of Pharoes, I feel the life getting sucked out of me.

-Don’t tell me the library has a restricted section, like Harry Potter or Doctor Strange? What a highly original idea. Not.

-The only thing worse than a pissboy is a shitboy.

-Is that Ed fucking Sheeran?

-In case you missed it, the farm house that the Hound finds with his rebel band is the same farmhouse he and Arya fucked over two seasons back.

-“There’s no divine justice, you old cunt. If there were, you’d be dead, and that little girl would be alive.” This is evidence of the increasingly smart screenplay that has, like the production value of the show, increased slowly over time. 

-I’m not sure the producers or writers of the show realize how hard it is to actually dig a grave in the middle of winter.

-A bad ass dragon castle on the edge of Westeros, completely abandoned and not claimed by any house after the banishment of the Targaryons? Seems highly unlikely and improbable. Then I realized this was Stannis Baratheon’s castle Dany is occupying. And then it seemed even more unlikely. Go to Europe in the year 1150. Find for me an empty castle, please. Especially one overlooking a port, within striking distance of a capitol. Ludicrous. 

-The music for this episode is epic, and is in the great tradition of Hans Zimmer’s soundtrack to Dark Phoenix. It is easily the best thing about this episode and probably this season. 

Season Seven: Episode Two:

-The opening tit for tat between Dany and Varys was great until Varys starts talking about what a man of the people he is. It was honestly like Trump who talks about how great he is ALL...THE...TIME... 

-I think the ten thousand hour rule is coming into play for Emilia Clarke. I have not ever been a fan of her or her acting for this entire series. It is only now in this episode where I see her professionalism come through. Perhaps it is due to the director and a specific style change, but I don’t think so. After seasons of being a queen, she’s finally acting like one.

-Dany is making a mistake by demanding Snow bend a knee.

-Will someone fucking do something about Cersei’s hair? And I hope Headey got a huge bonus for cutting it, much like doubling Sigourney Weaver’s salary for Alien3 and Portman’s sign on bonus for V for Vendetta. 

-What in the Cosmos’ name is Littlefinger up to? I don’t like it. 

-Snow’s revival only makes his death look more and more stupid in retrospect. 

-One of the strengths of the series is the constant pairing of older and younger actors. Snow and Davos, Arya and the Hound, and a dozen other examples, it is where the series draws a huge strength. 

-I don’t condone violence against women, but I don’t feel sorry about the Dorne girls. They were horrible cunts who killed little girls for fun. 

-It’s never too late to appreciate Mrs. James Bond, Emma Peel herself, in this show. She is a delight and a power to behold on screen. I love all ninety years of her. If you get a chance, see her and Charles Grodin in The Great Muppet Caper. 

Season Seven: Episode Three

-Dany’s opening monologue not only smacks of demagoguery but stinks of arrogance and ambition, everything she has stood against for the past six seasons. Therefore, this is dumb. 

-Why does it seem like John Snow is being obstinate when he could be polite? His retort has no logic. 

-Cersei’s justice to the daughter of the Queen of Dorne is just. It’s probably what I would do. It’s hard to find fault in it. 

-Nice seeing Mycroft Holmes here. 

-I am figuratively sick of Littlefinger’s voice. It’s like suddenly finding a foreign finger on your taint.

-Bran is now a teenager, six seasons later, and is completely creepy. It’s a good thing they didn’t have Instagram back then or he would be a total stalker.

-I would be very interested in watching a documentary on the castles used in this series. 

-Jaime’s march to Theresa Bond’s castle is impressive. It’s right out of Braveheart. 

Season Seven: Episode Four

-Jamie’s reluctant bad guy routine is disgusting. 

-The reunion of the Stark children at Winterfell was a solemn, somber tone as it needed to be. Well done.

-The ever expanding sets in this film are amazing. Dany’s castle is a well designed monster, and all the landscapes in this show are impressive. The matts and CGI go above and beyond. 

-The battle between the Dothracki and the Lannister Army is the third outrageously impressive battle sequence of the series.  The introduction of the dragon in rank and file combat was an extremely impressive tour de force of script, blocking, and cgi. Masterful storytelling. Behind it all are several themes that the series has been building to that are just as impressive. This represents the first combat fight between the East and the West, a thinly veiled reference to the three millenia struggle defining the difference in our modern world. On the face of it, the Dothraki are the mongols, improbably led by a white queen, which is by itself absurd and racist. No Khan would allow that. But the reality of the Mongol invasion in history is what it is: a genocide, pure and simple, of the existing power structure and existing society in one third of the settled world. The Mongols outgrew themselves and their ambition, but the western armies in Russia or the divided bickeries of Europe were no match for them. All that was needed was patience and time, both of which the Mongols ran out of. It was fitting and just to see the Westerosi so boldly and decisively defeated. A Roman army was no match for any eastern equivalent: meaning a Chinese one, and a medieval army would have had its ass handed to him by the Mongols. As the future of our modern world is becoming less and less white, shows that exhibit this and acknowledge the west’s waning dominance over the world are more and more important. So far, this may be the most important third act of any episode. 

-I was expecing Jamie Lannister to die, but since it is only he and Cersei left to be the bad guys, what the fuck are they going to do for the next five episodes if that happens? One or both of them need to stick around for the season finale. 

-The dragon hovering over the arrow and burning it to a crisp was completely badass, and rivaled a similar shot seen in the badly underrated Reign of Fire. 

Season Seven: Episode Five

-The music for this episode is reminiscent of the Dark Phoenix soundtrack, which I dearly love.

-It’s not that I don’t see the White Walkers as dangerous, it’s just that they are supernatural, and thus prone to be used in supernatural ways. I know they will be defeated, just as I know the dragons are being used as pocket providence. They will always win, and the White Walkers will always lose, because that is their purpose in this story. 

-How is it that Iain Glen looks better after six seasons?

Season Seven: Episode Six

-This is perhaps the most stupid episode to date. First, a girl like Arya, who has seen and done more than I am sure more girls her age, and who above all should have a better handle on how politics and fear work in this world, takes a note Sansa wrote seven seasons ago (so take this into account, if Sansa is now 20, this means she was thirteen when it was written) and makes a modern judgement out of it. I don’t believe Arya is that stupid, or that Sansa’s too stupid to reason with her, especially since the confrontation ended on what the element of fear does to people. 

-The second scene is the supposed Lord of the North, with Joran, the Baratheon Blacksmith, the Hound, the Smothers Brothers, and a partridge in a pear tree is taking Sergeant Pepper and the Lonely Hearts Club Band up to meet the Winter Dead Whatever to do what, exactly? At Cersei’s weakest moment to date, Jon is away from his command, and off going where, to do what? And what happens if he succeeds? And what happens if he fails? None of this was explained beforehand. All we have are several long tracking shots of the Fellowship in the Misty Mountains talking about...and I’m not kidding here, the colloquial difference between a dick and a cock, and how most men prefer pussy. I didn’t need seven seasons of GOT to teach me this.

-Third scene, intercut with the second one, is Dany being so fucking stupid, it’s hard to contemplate, it’s like she’s regressed in character from this person who’s conquered a quarter of Westeros to a sixteen year old child sold into sex slavery. 

-Fourth scene, Sansa is discussing the most fragile topic of the Stark Dynasty...with...Littlefinger. This is a woman who has so far no less than three times told him and other people how she does not trust him and now she’s going to confide in him the future of Winterfell? Now we’re not just talking about retrogressing characters, we’re talking about either a) bad screenwriting or b) lazy screenwriting. And the fact that people ooh and ahh over this shit means we have lazy viewers. And then… what does Sansa do… but take… Littlefinger’s… advice. 

-When Jon and the Band corner a group of White Walkers, a fight ensues which looks very desperate until Jon hits the leader with his sword, which I am guessing is coated with dragon glass, and after he is shattered, the entire troops falls dead except one, which they capture. Okay. So we're going Independence Day on this? Or the finale to The Phantom Menace? If so, and if this was the leader, why does a Horde show up out of the blue? And why is there one survivor? Is there a death limit on this video that only kills a certain amount of Dead Walkers when you kill their leader?

-In what has been for the last two seasons an impressive increase in CGI, there is a horribly bad sequence of the Dead Walkers walking into a ring of water surrounding the ice lake. Horribly, this deus ex machina ending becomes a rather stupid stalemate that resemebles a George Romero plot, which I have to say I’d rather watch. The Baratheon Run mimics the Marathon of Phidippides which actually was rather cool. 

-Flaming Swords are cool, regardless if the film sucks. Just watch the Hellboy reboot. 

-Why do Maesters exist? They seem like they are all old pederasts. 

-Sansa sending Brianne away is the dumbest idea she’s had since two scenes ago. 

-I was watching this episode with my wife, and literally said “Dany is going to show up at the last second with three dragons and save the day. And if she’s bringing three dragons, she is probably going to lose one of them to the walkers, and if that happens, they are probably going to use their magical orb to bring it back from the dead.” And it literally fucking happened right before my eyes. 

-And the biggest issue I have with the whole episode, is it’s too fucking bad no one told Dany, just cook that fucking shitface up on the cliff with his four buddies, you’d end the white war right goddamn now. 

-Don’t worry. Jon Snow’s not dead, he’s frozen. And as soon as we thaw out the King of the North, we’ll have what we’ve been waiting seven seasons for. It’s just a good thing he held his breath under the frozen ice until all ten thousand of the dead army was gone. And how long will a man last who is soaked to the bone in Edmonton-like weather? And what is Uncle Benjen doing here? Two deus ex machina in one show. How did he know where Jon was? What was he doing there? And why was the horse so special that he could not take two riders? Bullshit. I’ve seen Butch and Sundance.

-“The world does not just let girls decide what they want to be?” Is this not the most true statement in the history of the show? And does it not accurately reflect the true state and inherent problem with world society? I’m shocked that a line so remarkably accurate in every way is in this show.

-As they pulled the dragon out of its icy grave, my wife says “so glad the winter army had those enormous chains to bring the dragon up.” Which begs the question, which of them went down to the watery depths to put those chains on the dragon?

Season Seven: Episode Seven

-An impressive acting tour de force with many of the primary actors sharing the same screen for the first time in the series. What was more impressive was the truce and alliance happened at the halfway mark when it would have been more impressive to end the episode on it. 

-Why the fuck is Sansa still listening to Littlefinger? Every second she spends with him is a minute I deem this series too fucking stupid to watch. 

-Once again the production design of this show is amazing and award worthy. The Dragonstone Throne room alone is Ken Adam-like impressive. 

-Lord Baelish’s execution was a seven season satisfying release. I take back all the idiotic things I said about Sansa in the previous episode’s notes. It was one of the few plot lines I did not see playing out due to the stupidity of pretty much every other plot line. 

-Jamie Lannister walking away from Cersei alive was completely unexpected. I didn’t see it coming. Twice in one episode. Perhaps this series is getting away from me, or perhaps the screenwriters are departing from the stupidity of the novels. 

-Shouldn’t a dead ice dragon breath ice instead of fire? The breath effect the dragon had on the ice seemed based on sticking a lightsaber into a metal door. 

-Walking dead are only topped by walking dead horses. Then walking dead giants. Then flying dead dragons. 

-Just a question. What was the point of Cersei lying? It changes nothing. 

Season Eight: Episode One

-I understand that this season is the worst and the true fans hate it very much. So perhaps this is when the show will turn and I will start liking it. Or perhaps I’ll hate it worse. 

-The two most interesting arcs in this whole shitfest is 1) the Sellsword’s disgusting rise to power and 2) Theon’s rollercoaster of a life to find himself. 

-How the hell did Joran not know that the fat meister was a Tarly? I mean, I didn’t know but I wasn’t the one who save Joran’s life by cutting his dermis off. 

-Jaime going to Winterfell is most likely a bad idea. Bran’s discovery of Jaime in the courtyard of Winterfell was the greatest ‘oh shit’ cliffhanger of the series, since it calls back to the very first episode. 

Season Eight: Episode Two

-The entire ‘let’s give Jamie Lannister another chance’ scenario is disgusting as it is stupid. This is why Lady Justice is holding scales. Just because he has a few good things, and let’s face it, the most evil people in the world have one or two, it doesn’t mean we should let him anywhere near, well, anyone.

-The council of war has a silent and death tone to it that is very well constructed and paced. I am absolutely sure hundreds of these throughout history were conducted in this exact manner; utter fear. So far, it’s the most realistic scene in this entire show. 

-I don’t like Lady Brienne or the actress who plays her, but I found her knighting scene appropriate and endearing, completely proper in today’s world of gender equality. The first woman knight has yet to be made in England. And the joy it brought her may be the only good thing that happens for several episodes.

-The last half hour of this episode is literally six drunks sitting in a circle waiting for death and the cliffhanger moment. Very frustrating and I don’t really care for it. And who gives a shit if the squire can sing? Not me. 

-If Iain Glen dies in this fucking fight, I am going to be very, very pissed off. Everyone else, including Dany, can buy it. I literally (not figuratively, don’t care).

-What the fuck does a white walker need armor for? Fucking seriously.

Season Eight: Episode Three

The Siege of Winterfell is an amazing set piece that rivals the Siege of Helm’s Deep in terms of well shot brutality modeled after medieval butchery. There are a few things that stand out as idiotic of you don’t think of them too much. Calvary, for one, is a flanking device and except in rare circumstances such as the Battle of Agincourt, was never used for frontal assault. It was for sweeping your enemy after their front was already engaged. Second, why did the calvary just ride off and not keep the enemy closely engaged where the archers could help them? Stupid. Second, why did the trebuchets stop? Third, why were there no trebuchets in the keep? Fourth...I’m guessing Winterfell only has one wall...the one that faces the dead? Fifth, It looks like that the whole plan falls apart almost immediately. Shouldn’t Dany and Jon be roasting the dead until the Night King shows himself? The greatest two weapons they have are not even seen for 90% of the battle. Why have a MOAB if you do not intend to use it? Sixth, in the middle of the fight, Arya finds a silent library to hide in, completely against character, and she seems scared, more against character. She just slaughtered dozens of these things on the keep walls and now all of a sudden she’s afraid. Seventh, can’t she use a dead face and just disappear? Eighth, I call bullshit on the Night King not falling to his death. He’s not already dead, he’s a mythical and mystical creature. Therefore, he’s bound to the same laws ‘humans’ are bound to. And I also call bullshit to a frozen mystical creatures NOT burning to death. He’s made out of ice and fire has been their downfall. This is complete bullshit. I know that sounds like bitching about the speeder chase in the beginning of Attack of the Clones, but come on. If you’re not going to kill him in the fall, just find another way to get him on the ground. 

-The dead rising midway through the battle was an ingenious plot device that I didn't see coming and was really surprised by. Excellent storytelling, really. Especially as it turns the crypt, which was supposed to be a safe place, into a hellish place trap. Brilliant. 

-There is a camera move that follows Snow down a hallway that was brilliantly conceived and even more brilliantly executed. It was one of the highest moments of the episode and probably the series. Simply amazing. And right about this time is when the rest of the episode goes silent, with nary a word being spoken, and I find that really appealing. It could not have been nearly as good without some fantastic music, and the score really helped out. 

-Arya’s killing of the Night King was disappointing. I foresaw Bran rolling his eyes back, becoming the dying Theon, then throwing the dragonglass tipped spear into the Night King’s back. That was bad enough, but Bran had a smug look on his face the entire time because he knew how it was going to play out, and didn't even bother to warn anyone. Arya’s knife drop was a direct lift off of Rey’s move in the Throne Room fight from The Last Jedi. 

-The biggest catastrophe of this episode, which negates all the positives that led to if for almost an hour and a half, was the death of Ser Joran, Iain Glen, the only other character I was interested in for all eight seasons (the other being the sellsword), and no I really don’t feel compelled to follow the rest of the series. This man was a badass, an excellent acting job by an excellent actor. 

-But the most idiotic thing about this whole episode, as impressive as it was, was the totally I called it Independence Day / Phantom Menance ending. All you have to do is kill the lead vampire, you see, and then all the other vampires that vampire turned, will die too. This is the worst kind of storytelling that has taken over the popular consciousness in popular cinema the past thirty years. It is not imaginative in the least. 

-Probably next on the list of improbablity is how the fuck what is left of this ‘army’ is going to take on King’s Landing. 

Season Eight: Episode Four

What a painful, miserable episode. First, Joran is dead, and there is nothing that can interest me going forward. Full stop. Second, Arya Stark is apparently not interested in fucking anymore, and this makes me sad. Third, the awkward kissing between Jaime and Brianne was enough to make me stop watching the show. It was painful and dissuading-ly un-ascetic. It’s like the actors were forced to do it. This show is known for fantastic acting, but that made me want to vomit. That’s figurative, not literal. Fourth, I’m glad Jon Snow is being consistent in wanting to be an honest man and tell his ‘family’ he is not their ‘family’ but is rather the nephew of his fuck buddy the Queen. However, the entire storyline is meant to invoke more tension in an already packed plot in a race to the finish in five episodes. This means they will have to drop other storylines to keep on track. Fifth, after just finishing that sentence, I then learn that Yara has retaken the Iron Islands and yet, we saw nothing of the struggle. Judging by past episodes, this was at least a half episode and if you strung it out, one quarter of two episodes that they decided to skip in favor of the bullshit Jon is the true king storyline. We never saw any of this and It would have been more interesting to see Yara kick ass then Jamie take Brianne’s fifty year old virginity. As all the episodes are over by about twenty minutes, you could either take out this storyline completely and still have a full season, or switch it out with better storylines like Yara’s. Another indicator of the writer’s room having issues. Also, Kit Harrington’s hair always looks like shit, which I don’t understand as there are plenty of other people hanging about whose hair looks fine in the middle of the winter. So, my reasoning is, everyone’s hair should look consistent. Another thing I don’t understand. Why can’t dragons fly in a flanking maneuver? You know, what every army and navy has done for centuries? And another thing that I don’t understand. Dany’s declining decision making abilities seem to take a nosedive every time she loses a dragon. I get that, but when she tells Varys she is there to get rid of tyrants, both Varys and Tyrion fail to tell her she is becoming one herself, despite the very topic of conversation. I have never liked Dany, or her decisions, and I find it increasingly amazing that she keeps failing upward. I guess this show is a reflection of Hollywood. However, the argument against invading King’s Landing, meaning the killing of tens of thousands of innocent people, is a very odd argument for this show in general and the medieval age in particular. When the Crusaders took Jerusalem, they left no Quarter, and instituted a genocide in the country side of all Arabs that is till talked about today. Just 80 years ago, we carpet bombed an entire city in Germany just to get to the rail station. Fuck, our country, the second greatest on earth, nuked 300 thousand innocent people, just to see what it would do. As it happens, it’s a great way to get empires to fall. So using that as a way to dissuade someone is very odd. And...Varys and Tyrion having a treasonous conversation in the throne room of a castle sounds as idiotic as it looks. Try a locked bedroom. Jamie’s reasons for wanting to go to King’s Landing are consistent with his character and anything else would have induced an eyeroll. More surprising is Brianne’s reaction, which is inconsistent with her previous supposedly stalwart demeanor.  

-There are some bright spots. Peter Dinklage is, now that Iain Glen is gone, is by and large the most talented actor on the show. His handling of the briefing describing the assault on King’s Landing is a small moment that shows his brilliance. His rapport with his brother Jaime in several scenes is not just well directed but well acted.  Again, I also give huge props to the costume designer. Sansa Stark is becoming less tolerable, but her outfits are becoming more badass. I could do without the gold ring around her torso, but her battle dress is extremely impressive and looks like it was straight out of the Weta Workshop. Great craftsmanship. 

-The ending of the show, which showcases the execution of Missandre, shows exactly how stupid both Queens are. They both make horrible decisions, and they both rule with reckless abandon. Dany is becoming more like Cersei, neither is becoming capable of anything good. Killing Missandre was a horrible decision. Now the only person in the capital Dany cares about is dead. In fact, the only thing keeping Dany from torching the Red Keep, if not the entire fucking city to the ground, is knowing Missandre is alive, In killing Missandre, Cersei slits her own throat. The fact that she is incapable of seeing this might be consistent with her character, but it is also consistent with a show that does not seem to follow logical motivations from the get-go. Instead, it relies on heat of the moment decision based on emotion, and that’s not how most people behave, much less most nobles in the middle ages of which this is based. 

Season Eight: Episode Five

-Emilia Clarke is a stunningly beautiful woman, and her talent is obvious as you watch her through the seasons learn to become a better actor. The scene where Tyrion informs Dany that Varys has betrayed her is meant to show Dany in a state of distress. Thus, there appears to be no make-up, or at least make up that emphasizes her thin features as opposed to her round ones thus far. All this has done is emphasize the worst trait about what the producers wanted in this show: a brunette posing as a blonde. The difference is striking. If you look at her in Solo, the first film she did after GOT, she looks absolutely different than in this series. As a brunette, her facial features change and the tone of her acting changes with it. In the previously mentioned scene in this episode, she turns to the camera in close up and her brunette eyebrows pop out of the picture, becoming even more prominent than they have in the previous seasons. They have always bothered me, and they have always pushed her performances out of the world she is supposed to be in, which greatly hurts the show as she has probably the most important role across the arc of the series. It does not blend well, and whoever decided to cast her and not die her eyebrows was an idiot. Or perhaps, and I know what this means to GOT fans, perhaps she is miscast - as wonderful an actor as she is. Don’t try to defend the wig decision by saying the wore wigs in the Middle Ages. Aristocrats did not until the 1600’s. Aristocrats also did not dye their hair in between the ancient Egyptians and the Versailles Court.

-Tyrion sacrificing his life for the chance to make a deal with Cersei is the most stupid action he has taken during this entire series. It is right that he might die for it. If he does not, It will be disappointing and yet another point where the screenwriters will not follow through on a threat.

-I am so used to Cersei having a trick up her sleeve that I’m going into the Siege of King’s Landing thinking she has stuffed Greek Fire under the entire city and intends to blow it up like she did the huge Sept in the center of the city. I found it odd that since she destroyed the religious tool of the society she suffered no retaliation. Imagine for instance, if Justinian I had blown up the Hagia Sophia, or if George III decided to blow up St. Pauls? Huge blowback to be sure, but I digress. Back to Cersei, again, I expect her to have a plan. She always does. But as she starts raving about the navy she does not have or the army she does not have, it reads a lot like Hitler in the bunker when he’s surrounded by the Russians. He was in a constant state of denial and was literally issuing orders to Army units that did not exist until he had a mental breakdown in front of his generals and decided to shoot himself. Thus, despite all the stops, I think this might be it. It might be the end for Cersei - this episode, three episodes short of the end. And that’s kind of shocking. I thought for sure we’d push that until the end. At this point, her escaping is almost out of the question, so I’m thinking the last three or four episodes will be about another fucking war between Jon and Dany. As if we need this to go on any longer. And that brewing fight, seen miles away, is not something anyone who is a fan of this show wants to see. After eight seasons of incest and carnage, they want (as my wife says) happy-happy-joy-joy, not more of their favorite characters getting nixed, especially one of the two most popular characters on the show. Dany is the favorite, but as she is turning into Cersei by the episode, I’m thinking it’s she who gets axed. If not, and Snow dies...again...she’ll never keep power and lose the throne she just won. That means Robert Baratheon’s bastard becomes king and all this show...took place… for nothing… because that was Ned Stark’s fucking plan to begin with. I’ll be super pissed if that happens. I push play…

-If I fucking knew that Tyrion’s entire plan hinged on Cersei ringing the bells to signal the surrender of the city, I would have laughed out fucking loud. I suppose that’s why they held it to midway through the siege, so I could laugh then at the fucking absurdity of that moment. This just went from lazy screenwriting to horrible screenwriting. Then you find out very soon that Cersei actually has no say in the ringing of the bells...that it happens without her. And then you think, ‘well then why the fuck did they make a big deal about Cersei giving the command if she’s not even going to have the chance to NOT ring the bells? Very inconsistent.

-And back to lazy when Jamie just picks up a sword out of a basket walking through the streets of the city. Anything else would have been preferable. Picking it up off a dead man would have made sense since the city is full of dead men. Or just now showing it and him suddenly appearing with it. It would have been awkward, but not fucking stupid.

-Dany breaking her promise to not kill innocent civilians was the most short sighted decision she has made in her now I am sure to be-short realm. Now no one will trust her,including her hand. In fact, he might kill her in favor of Jon Snow. And then then Jon will use his trust in the dragon to slay it. And he will be known as the dragonslayer. Jamie and Euron killing each other was not satisfying because it was an asshole killing an asshole, and I didn’t care about either character. I just wish Robb Stark had killed him in Season One, then I would not have hated the series so much thinking ‘what the fuck is this guy doing around for so long? One fucking hand and no one can seem to kill him.’ Stupid.

-You would think I would be ecstatic to see King’s Landing and the Red Keep reduced to rubble after so many seasons. But the fact is it was just as boring as the rest of the series, as brilliantly produced as it was. While the episode was on, I sold books on Amazon and surfed. 

-Was I the only one who thought Ser Gregor looked like Darth Vader with his helmet off?

-I thought and sincerely assumed that Arya Stark was going to kill Cersei. But the way she cowers in fear as she sees the people suffering under the fire of the dragon, I now think she will get revenge by killing Dany. 

-Of course the Mountain was going to face off with the Hound. And of course the Hound was going to die in a fire. We’ve been on that path since the first episode. 

-If Arya dies in the siege, Jon will kill Dany himself. Same play out happens later.

-It is fitting and proper that Jamie died with Cersei. It is not proper that Arya or Jon or Sansa did not get their revenge. This was the writer’s equivalent of the coward’s way out. Cersei at last understanding the circumstance she was in at the last minute is how many famous people in history realize they have lost everything they have spent their lives building in just a few seconds. Saddam Hussein. Benito Mussolini. Endless Chinese Emperors. Every decision she made led to that point, and to watch her not understand that at the end was baffling. How could she not understand that she did this to herself? The fact that her character was that aloof means that she was not that well written to begin with. She was written only to be hated. 

-The circle is now complete. Jamie Lannister sacrificed his reputation and in the end his life to try to save King’s Landing, however horrible of a person he was. And in the end, Dany has done the one thing her father, the Mad King, threatened to do but never actually pulled off, the destruction of the city. So Dany is just as bad as Cersei, or Jamie, or her father. In the grand scheme of the entire series, it is just and right that characters be nuanced and have, as the Dude says, “lots of ins, lots of outs, lots of what have yous.” It definitely mimics real life and certainly mimics the Middle Ages.  It was a barbaric age with barbaric people who did many kind things. Salah-al-Din, the Sultan of the Arab world during the Crusades, was responsible for the butchery of tens of thousands of Arabs as well as Christians, and yet he was known as the most gracious leader the Arabs knew for centuries. He purchased the freedom of Christian families after the fall of Jerusalems so they would not be sold into slavery. To find a western equivalent, Charles II of England was known as one of England’s most reasonable monarchs. He also had dozens of affairs, dozens of bastard children, and had his father’s killers quartered… even if they were already dead. Elizabeth II, known as one of England’s greatest rulers, executed more people on religious grounds than her elder sister “Bloody Mary” ever did and that was what led to her nickname. So for the show to emphasize this aspect of our reality was one of the better things to do. It’s just that the evil deeds tended to tip the scale rather than balance it. Jamie could be forgiven for killing the Mad King due to the King’s plan to destroy the city. And it certainly is not the incest with his sister that makes him utterly disgusting. It’s the fact that he tried to kill a boy over the secret, and really anyone in his way of keeping that secret, which is what makes him irredeemable. As the series goes on you find that many, many people suspect this or know it to be true as a pretty much open secret, and that baffles me given he tried to kill Bran over it. Why bother? The idea that Brianne of Tarth would excuse such behavior and choose him as the man to lose her virginity to is as disgusting as it is illogical and unreasonable for a viewer to accept. Such scripting is why this show sucks. 

Season Eight: Episode Six

-Tyron’s broken heart uncovering his dead sibling would have been more assuaged had Dany stuck to her word before the battle. Now this just has embittered him. Once again, Dinklage shows he is the best actor of the lot. How can he continue as the Hand of the Queen? He must resign and return to Casterly Rock. or help Snow dethrone Dany. 

-The shot of Dany sprouting dragon’s wings was fantastic. There should have been more shots like that in the series. She has arrived cloaked in fascist leather, delivering a speech that sounds suspiciously like that of Hitler in Triumph of the Will. She acts like her brother. This whole episode is beautiful. 

-Dany telling Jon “I know the world will be good because I know what is good” sounds a lot like Goebbels knowing the world will be better without Jews or Trump knowing the world will be better without, well, anyone he wants. 

-I was so happy to see Dany die. I never liked her and thought it was the only logical thing that happened in the series. The throne’s destruction was poetic, and the dragon taking Dany’s body just. But the dragon not killing Snow didn’t make any sense. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t want it to happen. 

-The joke about democracy was an awesome jab from Brits about Brits, and it was altogether fitting and proper, and absolutely funny. The idea of Westeros choosing an Emperor and having that Emperor choosing a replacement is a completely acceptable enterprise. Almost every time the Roman Emperors chose their successor they did better than leaving it to a hereditary heir. In doing this, they fight for a better chance of survival. 

-Jon’s banishment to the Night’s Watch is funny and ironic, and a little absurd. But as no one is happy with the arrangement, it is the best attempt at compromise. This makes a lot of sense until the Unsullied leave on ships. So who the fuck is going to enforce Snow’s exile to the North? This is just as absurd as Casablanca spending two hours talking about these treasured travel papers only to not have anyone check them at the end of the movie. And as far as this joke, ‘what is west of Westeros?’ I don’t think I understand the joke. If you google ‘map of Westeros’ in google it shows you two huge islands. Westeros is actually in the east and west of westeros is an island where the ENTIRE FUCKING FIRST SEVEN SEASONS TOOK PLACE. Therefore, this ‘joke’ and all reasoning to it makes no sense, made no sense, and continues to confuse the audience. 

-Brianne’s lamenting of her recent lay’s death by boldly describing his actions in a book is a sick manipulation of a sick man. Disgusting.

-The Return of the King type ending was not really needed, with the small council not really making any sense, and then ending abruptly. Why the hell did they carry Bran all the way up the tower only to sit for 30 seconds? Stupid. I suppose I should be happy there was no funeral procession for Dany, although it probably would have been badass. Think of Rene Russo’s funeral at the end of Thor: The Dark World.

-The ending shot is totally confusing. They just brokered this deal, which no one can enforce, in which Jon is supposed to stay at Castle Black for the rest of his life, and we last see him leading settlers off to the north. Since there are no White Walkers there, this seems to be fine if you want to only hunt and eat red meat for the rest of your life, but why is Jon leading this group? Isn’t he supposed to stay at Castle Black? 

Conclusion

I want to start this conclusion by confessing how badly I wanted to like this show. I am a trained historian, who appreciates medieval history in general and English history specifically. Though I focused on twentieth century German history, I have taken classes on medieval European history and read dozens of books about the subject. Just for my podcast on the Ridley Scott film Kingdom of Heaven, I read seven books about the Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Sultanate of Salah-al-Din. If ever there was a show that should have suited my tastes and interests, this would have come right after Deutschland ‘83 and Babylon Berlin. Unfortunately, that was not the case.

Let’s start with the positives of the show, of which there are legion. First and foremost, the production and costume design of this show is beyond impressive, and in many circumstances surpass the drop jaw equivalent standard established by Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings production from twenty years ago. As the show progressed, you can see how much more money HBO was continually dumping on the show per episode, and it is very easy to get caught into a money pit-like catastrophe of the highest order. Instead, what you see is an incredibly well produced set piece that showcases the wide and very specialized talent of storytelling. I’m not just talking about the cameramen and focus-pullers, who just by the gloss of the shots you can tell at the top of their game, but the huge army of grips, electricians, wardrobe staff, the thousands of people that must be majority from Northern Ireland, who served as carpenters, plasterers, lighting technicians, painters, masons, all the way down to janitors. In watching a documentary on the final season, we are introduced to hard workers who wake up every day to become location managers, ‘head of snow’ directors, hairdressers, and professional extras. It’s not enough to say that a rail needs to be laid down for a tracking shot to hold a five hundred pound camera that costs half a million dollars. The rail has to be leveled or the shot will shake or worse, move in a direction that is disorienting and not intended by the director. The sheer scope of this production is breathtaking. Every shot on this show must have had at least fifty people on set, with at least a thousand getting to that day to make it right for the lens. In the battle scenes, there must have been a hundred plus people on set, perhaps five hundred with extras, and every single one of them should be proud to have such an accomplishment on their resume. You can tell from the first season to the last season how they upped their game. For instance, there is a battle in the second season that Tyrion misses because he is knocked out, and that you can tell is strictly for convenience. It was cheaper to just not show it, and though they passed it off very well, it is fairly obvious that they just didn’t have the cash to do it. That’s a shame for a production of this size that means so much to it’s fans. The leatherwork on this show alone must have cost a fucking fortune, and to think that such detail went into every single aspect of the show boggles the god damned mind. The only criticism I have of this gargantuan effort was the sense of topography. 

The producers used the opening credit sequence as a tool to explain to the viewers where physical locations were in relation to each other in Westeros. This was extremely helpful, but I am not sure the full effect was pursued all the way. In the first season, there is a hint that it takes months to get from Winterfell to King’s Landing. In the last episode, Snow says it will take his troops ‘a fortnight’ which is roughly two weeks. This lazy screenwriting can be excused but why does it fucking matter when Snow’s army gets there. The battle will start when the battle starts. Little problems like this are emphasized by what I am sure are budget restrictions. The only thing we saw of Winterfell for seven seasons was a courtyard and the main hall. There was no geographical layout of any of the locations, leading to viewer confusion. By the Battle of Winterfell, the castle looked fucking enormous. It was greatly impressive, and I’d have to say it rivaled Helm’s Deep in scope of work, but confused me because I was never shown this large castle, only this tiny courtyard with nary a hint of any towers. I was relying on the opening credit sequence to show me what Winterfell look like on the outside, which we all take as representational and not very accurate. Likewise there was a similar problem with King’s Landing. While you got a sense that it was large and impressive in the first season, in the last two seasons the scale of the place finally came into view and by the last season I had a definite understanding of the geography. A bit too late, if you ask me, and a waste of time for the viewer. A ten second clip in season two with Tyrion going over a map of King’s Landing with Sellsword would have done the job. Instead, I am unfamiliar with a topography that I spend a third of my viewing time at. A lot of the space in between must be filled with imagination. Much like the shark in Jaws, you cannot make everything right all the time, or spend the money on 360 degree sets, etc. In my only complaint about the production, I was just asking for a little more attention to where these places are in relation to one another, and what they look like individually. I never had this issue with Lord of the Rings, and Jackson had forty nine less hours to show that world to me. As the show goes, that’s a pretty light sin, especially if it is the only one, in this grand adventure. Unfortunately, the largest issue with the show is not something that can be solved with a thirty second shot of a piece of paper in the first season, or inserting several shots over the seasons. I know this might sound petty but think about this - the crew spent seven months building the King’s Landing Set and not a second of screen time was spent on audience education. There were some highly impressive shots of King’s Landing in the last two seasons of the show, so I feel this is not too tall an order to ask. But, having stated that (again) that’s an easily rectifiable mistake. No, the series has deeper issues and that is it just doesn’t make any sense.

The initial premise of the show, that a traumatic coup from years past has come back to haunt those who participated in it, is not an original concept. I have found the story of the fall of the House of Targaryen an interesting turn of events much like the fall of several houses of England during the Middle Ages. The Wars of the Roses alone, in which York (Stark?) and Lancaster (Lannister?) fight it out is filled with such stories. I was so familiar with the story of the Mad King and how Jamie saved the city that as the seasons went on I was more familiar with that storyline than I was of any since. I cannot now recall where Arya went, why she went there, or what she did after she fled King’s Landing. This was emblematic of the entire series. People go places to do things that don’t make any sense. Why, exactly, as a bastard child of Ed Stark, was Jon Snow sent to Castle Black? Most bastard children of duchies or earldoms lived lives of complete comfort and even though there is a war going on for most of the series, there wasn’t one when Snow left Winterfell. There are strange decisions being made in between houses that don’t make any sense, at least on screen. Catelyn Stark sells her son’s future for a bridge, as if boats don’t exist, or legs to walk around entire duchies. She does this for an alliance for a house that is hostile and not known for alliances. This sounds petty until you realize she and her son get their throats cut by this same house. The House of Stark would have been stronger by fighting and subjegating the Twins. Can’t think Robb could do that? Then how did he ever plan on beating the Lannisters?  Catelyn wants her son to be King but won’t include him on how to become one. I have spent a dozen pages on how practically every move Cersei makes is guaranteed to backfire on her, excepting the decision to destroy an entire organized religion - though I am convinced if she had not been the victim of a coup via dragon she would have eventually fallen by those dejected believers. We excuse this by saying she is blinded by her love for her children but even when her children are taken from her she continues to make absolutely horrible decisions. She knows her child is in Dorne and allows a Dornish Prince to be murdered in her palace, and in her presence. Then she is shocked in sadness when her child is the subject of an assassination. She allows her eldest child, the King, to act and behave as he wants and then is shocked when he becomes the subject of assassination. She allows her youngest child to be cajoled by zealots and instead of encouraging a love affair that could serve the interest of the court and the dynasty, continue to alienate her second child king until he feels that only suicide is the answer. In every respect that makes sense as a regent and a parent, Cersei’s decisions defy logic. Loving your children is not enough. You have to be a good parent. The fact that Cersei is incapable of these attributes may be cause for a good plot, but believing a person would deliberately act against the self interest of themselves or their family without a drug addiction is a very hard sell, at least to me. Lena Headey is not to blame for these decisions, she is executing the vision of the writer, the screenwriters, and the directors. And it is they that continue this farce, season after season, and I never bought it. 

Is there something more controversial to say in the past ten years than “I was never a fan of Daenerys Targareon?” I was never sold. I found her introduction to be exploitive. I found her existence sad. I knew it was to create sympathy for what she was to become. As the series went on and it seem to become more and more certain that she was to fulfill her destiny (the audience wouldn’t stomach a Lannister at the end, it had to be Dany or a Stark) but at the same time that seemingly inevitable future was approaching, the show established a pattern, beginning with the first season, of denying that which the audience wanted. The audience wanted Ned Stark pardoned, so he had to die. That was not that shocking, being that it was a cliffhanger at the end of the first season, but the continuing pattern began to greatly distress the audience. The Red Wedding and Jon Snow’s murder being the two greatest examples. It became a bit of a joke to guess which major character was going to die midway through the season (The Lady of the Vale), and then in the finale which was guaranteed to be someone huge (Tywin Lannister). The Lannisters we didn’t much care about, so that was an ‘oh my God’ moment but not something jaw dropping like the murder of Robb Stark that really upset many people, or just pissed them right the fuck off with Jon Snow. This pattern was unbroken, right up until the end of the last episode when Snow killed Dany. We knew deaths were coming. We lost Varys in the first episode and Joran in the second. Millesandre had died in the third and the Hound and the Mountain went out together halfway through the sixth. So I don’t know why people were surprised at Dany getting the axe and being all pissed off about it. The likelihood of Snow dying a second time in turns of story pacing was highly unlikely. What all this killing off meant, in terms of those rooting for the show, was a decreasing pool of people that you liked. To the point where when the pool was down to one person and that one person was killed, then the audience reaction was so strong that person was resurrected. There was no satisfying everyone with any one outcome, so the show was consistent, I’ll give it that. But the compromise solution was not the right one, and, like the rest of the series and as I have explained in my commentary on the last episode, did not make any sense. Never did I doubt where Frodo and Sam were on their journey, why they were going, where they were going, or how they got there. There were many circumstances during this entire series that absolutely flabbergasted me, including Catelyn Stark freeing Jamie Lannister, no one in Tywin Lannister’s employ recognizing Arya Stark, Dany’s inability to compromise in the face of ever escalating circumstances, Theon’s betrayal of the Starks, or any number of fairweather decisions. The only consistent character seemed to be the Sellsword, who was the full embodiment of Ayn Rand’s Objectivist philosophy. He only did things for himself, and in pretty much every circumstance, not only did that work out for him, it worked out for the person who paid him. In that aspect, you could call this series reactionary. This is proved by Dany’s turn into a fascist at the end but when she is cut down that reactionary mode is rejected. Even her murder, the most controversial aspect of the show, is treated with disdain by the characters who loved her, blinded by their inconsolable rage to see anything resembling a better place to live. You would think people of pain would get the point, but typically, until the 20th Century, they never have. In that way, the show makes sense. In any other philosophical way, it is inconsistency after inconsistency, hard to follow, and hard to swallow. Despite the hundreds of millions of dollars spent on this show, and the billions that it has made for HBO, and the gratification of it’s audience, the narrative is a complex weave of nonsensical motives that no real person would make in the same circumstances. Because of this, the series fails as a storytelling device. The only thing I got out of it was the wonder at the personal contribution of tens of thousands of varied artists who sacrificed years with their families to make something this monumental. It is a monumental failure to be sure, but it is monumental nonetheless.