Ah, Game of Thrones: it ends tonight!
Though the writing of dialogue has diminished in quality over the last few seasons, and there have been problems with plotting the big incidents — and, perhaps saddest, Tyrion and Varis both became increasingly feckless, their roles almost pointless (so it was perhaps fitting for Varys to expire by Drogon’s fire) — my only real complaint with last Sunday’s episode regards the problem of the seemingly endless dragonflame. I mean, no attempt to explain the never-ending fireworks in terms of the conservation of matter?
At least Heinlein, in his otherwise quite bad Glory Road, bothered to consider the chemistry and physics of the fire-breathing dragon.*
Obviously, my kid’s-view of science persists.
All its many flaws being admitted, the very idea of a fan petition to redo the last season is idiotic:
As Season 8 (and the series itself) comes to a close, a fan petition to remake the season has picked up steam — reflecting some of the criticisms raised among the community.
Some are angry at its perceived disservice to its female characters, while others are upset at its underlit battles. On the flip side, some argue for its twists. The point is, the takes are often as hot as Drogon’s dragonfire. Those have manifested into a Change.org petition that user Dylan D. started a week ago. It started off slow, but by Thursday morning it neared 400,000 signatures.
The petition suggests what is wrong with culture these days: way too much “voice,” not near enough “exit.”
* The opening pages of that book were well done, too. I can admit that.
Men decide where power resides, whether or not they know it.
Varys in The Game of Thrones, best line in the penultimate episode, “The Bells”
UPDATE: Watched the “finale”; was less than impressed. No great revelations, no deep change of perspective, and certainly no epiphany. But boy, did they try to force that latter. With sad, romantic music. Still, a few nice touches:
- Jon kills Dany, because she was homicidally mad, and this was especially tragic, since he loved her, blah blah.
- Drogon melts the Iron Throne, then carries off Dany’s corpse across the sea.
- Sam’s pitch for democracy got a laugh.
- Sansa makes the North independent and becomes the Queen of the North.
But the “winter is coming” theme sort of fizzled. Not much of a winter. I wanted to see snow piled high on the ruins of King’s Landing, but we got just a few flakes.
Wirkman Comment 