So, I’ve discussed my general thoughts and what I would have done differently in Part One, so now I will look at each episode individually before coming to an overall conclusion.
Episode 1: Winterfell
This would actually turn out to be one of my favourite episodes of the series. There are some nice character moments and it is good to see the characters return to Winterfell. I liked the segment where Tormund and Edd see the body of Ned Umber. This is overall a solid episode, my only worry here was, how are we still going to resolve everything in just five more episodes?
Episode 2: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
This was probably one of my favourite episodes of the Series as it has the most character moments and the best dialogue scenes. Jamie’s ‘trial’ was an excellent scene. The humour works really well, particularly with Tormund. Characters like Tyrion and Jamie had good scenes of dialogue with each other which was nice. This episode was excellent build-up to the battle with the Army of the Dead and made me feel excited for the next episode.
Episode 3: The Long Night
This for me is the biggest disappointment of the Series and perhaps of the whole show. The primary problem of the episode being that YOU COULDN’T SEE WHAT WAS HAPPENING. I don’t care what the cinematographer says about having not watching it on the right TV, if you can’t see what’s happening, it’s your mistake and you should have done something about it. In a show with dragons and ice-zombies it is not a reasonable excuse to argue that some artificial light would be unrealistic. AND, there has been a battle at night in Game of Thrones before, The Watchers on the Wall from Series 4 and I could see everything that happened there, so I don’t understand why this should have been a problem.
The problem with this episode is that it is not consequential enough. For Seven Series of build-up it is not enough. We saw a White Walker in the very first scene of the very first episode of Series One and yet there is no explanation of why they’re here or what they want or who the Night King is. Even if all those questions can’t be answered, we needed something to reward us for all the build up. Also, not enough characters died to make the battle have real stakes. Jorah and Theon were the major deaths, who were good characters and it made sense for them to die defending the people they love, but for me a major character should have died to give gravity to the battle and give a reason for the build up in episodes one and two. As I said before, Arya would have been a good choice as she didn’t really do that much in the second half of the series and it would have been a great dramatic moment to have her kill the Night King, only to collapse and die from a wound she received earlier. It gives the battle a bittersweet ending, you win the battle but at a cost.
I should say I didn’t completely hate the episode, there were some things I liked. The moment where the Dothraki run into the dark and their flaming swords all go dark was great and this moment would have been even better if that was the end of the Dothraki, but for some reason they show up again later. The moment where the Night King resurrects those who have died including those in the Winterfell Crypt is also a great moment and as I said before would have been a great end of episode cliffhanger.
Episode 4: The Last of the Starks
There was a lot of backlash and criticism of this episode. For me, I’m a bit more on the fence. The death of Rhaegal was a genuinely surprising moment and the death of Missandei was also a important in showing Daenerys’ development into the Mad Queen. The problem is just as I said before that everything happens too fast and it leads intelligent characters like Tyrion to appear to make stupid choices, like forgetting about Euron’s fleet.
With regards to consequences from the previous episodes, it is also difficult to believe that all the characters that did survive, survived basically unscathed, including Jamie, a man with one hand. You’d think someone would have lost a limb, or would be walking with a limp or have horrible scars, perhaps. And finally with regards to the infamous Starbucks cup, it could have been dealt with, but its not the end of the world really. With the two years they’ve had to make this series, someone should have noticed.
Episode 5: The Bells
I preferred this battle to the The Long Night as you could see it! But it did at times feel a little anti-climactic. Like why was it so easy to defeat Euron’s fleet when previously they had killed a dragon with just a few shots and why did the Dothraki return when it looked like they’d all been killed? Daenerys’ destruction of King’s Landing was visually impressive, but would have been a much better pay-off to more character development over a longer series.
Having said that I did enjoy ‘CleganeBowl’, the battle between the Hound and the Mountain, which was probably my favourite individual moment of the series. This episode was visually fantastic and hats off to everyone involved in stunts and special effects.
Episode 6: The Iron Throne
This episode has been slated a bit too much in my opinion. It does have problems, but it has enough saving graces to warrant a higher score than the 4.3 audience score it has (at time of writing) on IMDb. The events in this episode, make sense to me and it is the right end to the show, we just needed more time to reach this ending and justify why Bran should become king.
There were some good moments, particularly Peter Dinklage’s performance which was excellent and seeing characters like Edmure Tully and Robin Arryn again was nice. The shot of Daenerys stepping forward with the dragon wings behind her was fantastic and one of my favourite individual shots of the season.
Comparison
Before I finish this review, I just want to compare the end of Game of Thrones with the end of two popular franchises: Harry Potter and Avengers: Endgame (while not the complete end of the franchise, felt like the culmination of the Avengers story). In both of these cases, the ending felt really well thought through as if the people behind it knew where it was heading all along. The villain was vanquished and the story was complete, with the world they had lived in changed permanently. I both Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and Avengers: Endgame, we lose major characters we have grown to love and their deaths while sad felt satisfying.
In the case of Game of Thrones, it just doesn’t feel that way and as Jon rode beyond the wall at the end of the episode, I didn’t feel the same sense of satisfaction I felt with the end of the other two franchises.
Conclusion
While Series Eight of Game of Thrones had problems, for me it hasn’t ruined the legacy of the show. It is still my favourite show and I would still highly recommend it to anyone who likes good television with some of the best characters, episodes and individual moments in TV history. Series 4 of Game of Thrones in particular for me, is probably the best series of television I’ve ever seen. Series Eight was not what the fans wanted and the blame for that does lay at the door of the writers, but that doesn’t mean that they are incompetent or that the series should be re-made. Series Eight is what it is: not perfect, with plenty of problems, but it is the end and as an end, it is for me the right ending to the show. Its just a shame that it could have been so much better.
Movie Night 