Complain of Thrones

Here there be Spoilers!

For the last few years, after the season finale of Game of Thrones has aired, I have usually written a post to this blog complaining about the quality of the most recent season (read Surprise! Surprise! Surprise!, When Good Television Goes Mediocre, and Why I’m Done With Game of Thrones (On Television Anyway)), and calling into question whether or not I will watch the next. This post will carry on with part of that tradition, as I am here to complain about some of the flaws of season seven, but I will not pretend that I have any intention to skip over season eight, the series’ last. In this far, I may as well go to the end.

It was never certain that I would watch season seven of Game of Thrones, not as it aired anyway, but I had already subscribed to Sling TV earlier in the year in order to watch Fargo and Better Call Saul, and figured I’d just extend my channel lineup for a couple of months to include HBO. That would also give me chance to check out WestWorld. And more important, it would allow me to again watch Game of Thrones on Sunday nights.

Season seven is probably the worst season of Game of Thrones. It is also, paradoxically, one of the most entertaining. The so-called Loot Train Attack was something of a cinematic masterpiece. But much of the rest of the season seems to have been about checking off boxes. Stark reunion 1. Check. Stark reunion 2. Check. Finish off Dorne story-line. Check. Finish off Tyrell story-line. Check. Stark meets Targaryen. Check. The fate of Littlefinger. Check. Let’s just get all of this shit out of the way so we can focus on the end. The more boxes they routinely checked off, the more muted the impact of each of these resolutions became. Not that it wasn’t satisfying to see Littlefinger get his throat cut, but the drama leading up to it was manipulative and trite, and his end was hardly worthy of his Machiavellian genius.

Other characters didn’t fare much better. Tyrion hasn’t been a fraction as interesting as he was when they were writing scripts from the source material, even if Peter Dinklage continues to put in a great performance. Daenerys alternated between channeling her father, Mad King Aerys, and swooning over Jon Snow, with only brief moments of queenly behavior. And Snow, nothing if not consistent, was as blandly honorable as ever. He also did a lot of stupid things without consequence, at least to himself. Between them, Jon and Daenerys proved very useful to the Night King, delivering the dragon he needed to destroy the Wall.

Of course, it is impossible to ignore the various flaws in the storytelling, Euron Greyjoy’s perfect ambush of Yara’s fleet, the chess game precision of Lannister armies abandoning Casterly Rock and arriving at Highgarden, the supersonic speeds of ravens and dragons and Gendry. The US military rarely delivers air power as absurdly quickly as Dany’s dragons appeared beyond the wall. And then there is the whole Wight Dragon problem. It seems the Night King set a trap, but how did he know Jon Snow would venture beyond the wall, or that Daenerys would mount a rescue mission? How many events did he manipulate to ensure that Dany and her dragons would be in Westeros in order for him to kill and turn one? Did he have any plan to get past the Wall in the event his spear missed its mark? I’m sure the dragon vs. dragon fights in season eight will be spectacular, but I have a feeling that the writers haven’t really thought this through as well as they should have.

I can’t say that I didn’t see this coming, the continued deterioration of what was once an excellent program. I wrote three whole posts about it after all. But I guess the quality of those early seasons keeps me coming back, even in the face of such overwhelming mediocrity. I want to know who will survive, who will die and if anyone in a place as fucked up as Westeros is ever going to get a happy ending.

When Good Television Goes Mediocre

Warning: This Post is Dark and Full of Spoilers

Last year I wrote a blog post about Why I’m Done With Game of Thrones (On Television Anyway). Shortly after explaining my reasons for abandoning the televised adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire saga I went online to cancel my HBO subscription. My cable provider made a counter offer that I decided was too good to pass up, and my HBO subscription remained intact for at least another year. And with that done, I could think of no reason not to watch the new season of Game of Thrones when it premiered in April.

It came as no surprise to me that my original thinking about the quality of the 5th season, based on the quality of the source material (A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons), was correct. A compelling and excellent program has become, at its best moments, merely interesting and good. What has surprised me is how uninspiring and mediocre the deviations from the source material have been. Producers David Benioff and Dan Weiss have definitely made the TV show their own creation, mercifully not forcing us to sit through all of the stagnation offered up in Martin’s last two novels, but equally failing to comprehend the nuances Martin brings to the work as a storyteller. Game of Thrones has always been driven by death and violence, even death and violence against some if its most important characters. But it was never as reckless or gratuitous or pointless as it seems to have become in season five.

Now killing Mance Rayder instead of some doppelganger may have been the best choice. The story in the book is rather convoluted, and possibly would have been difficult to follow on television without a lot of exposition. But killing Barristan Selmy seems like a pointless stunt. As if the writers felt they needed to keep the theater of death that is Game of Thrones going and the dart landed on Ser Barristan. Like the death of Jojen Reed in season four, the character was killed because he was expendable, not to advance the plot. So to it was easier to have Sansa fall into the role originally reserved for Jeyne Poole, since most of Sansa's Eyrie storyline was completed, except that this subjected her to gratuitous acts of violence she did not have to endure in the original story. At this point the producers seem intent on piling on the horribleness just to prove something we already know, life in medieval Westeros sucks.

Jaime Lannister also gets diverted from whatever the hell it was he was doing in the books (I don’t remember) to making Road to Dorne with Ser Bronn of the Blackwater. This storyline is inept, treating Jaime, Bronn and Oberyn Martel’s daughters, The Sand Snakes, like comic relief. I thought the whole Sand Snakes story was a rather pointless diversion in the books, but at least it had some subtlety and didn’t become the simple-minded revenge plot offered by the TV show. The storyline for Brienne of Tarth and Poderick Payne also diverts from the book, with them shadowing Sansa all the way to Winterfell, although Brienne seem no more competent at protecting the Starks now than she ever have been. At least the TV show has not subjected us to new Iron Islanders or contending Targaryens.

The show has been somewhat faithful to the High Sparrow/Faith Militant storyline from the books, although again not one of my favorites. The shift in focus from Margery to Loras has led to the accusation by some that Loras on TV has become a ‘gay cartoon.’ I would argue that it is a little too ‘on the nose’ as a social commentary, but mostly, as with this whole storyline in the book, it seems like padding, preventing the saga from moving toward it’s conclusion. One story from which the padding has been removed is that of Jorah and Tyrion, now delivered to the doorstep of Danerys Targaryen. It may be interesting to see how that plays out, but based on what I’ve seen so far, I doubt even Tyrion and Danerys together can do much to improve the fifth season of Game of Thrones.

Why I’m Done With Game of Thrones (On Television Anyway)

Spoilers Ahead (below video)

There is only one reason that I continue to subscribe to HBO, and it’s not the occasional episode of Real Time with Bill Maher, the opportunity to see movies that have not yet made it to Netflix or the slim hope that there will be another season of The Newsroom. It is to watch Game of Thrones. To watch each episode of each season as soon as they are available. That is the only reason that I have continued to pay for the premium cable network. But now that season four, and the adaptation of the 3rd book in the A Song of Ice and Fire saga, A Storm of Swords, has been completed, I cannot recall a single event in the next two books of the series that I feel an overwhelming need to experience on screen. And even though the producers of the TV series have thrown a few interesting curve balls our way, they’ve thrown enough bad ones to make me question the value of paying $18 a month just to watch three months of GOT in the Spring.

Novel author George R.R. Martin reached the plateau of his story with A Storm of Swords. After the The Red Wedding, the poisoning of Joffrey Baratheon, the second trail by combat for Tyrion Lannister, the Battle for Castle Black and the arrival at The Wall of Stannis Baratheon, and the death of Tywin Lannister, this story was begging for its author to start moving toward the conclusion, something that could have been accomplished within the next two books. Instead, the surviving character we already know get bogged down in story lines that seem to go nowhere. Daenerys remains stuck in Meereen, failing largely to control either the population or her dragons. Stannis and Jon Snow remain stuck at the wall, worrying about Wildings and White Walkers but not really doing anything about either. Sam and Gilly wander through western Westeros. Brienne and Pod wander through eastern Westeros. Tyrion and Jorah Mormont wander through western Essos. Arya has some interesting adventures, but not much else seems to happen for all the other characters we know.

Then there are the new characters, Iron Islanders, the Dornish, even new Targaryens that might have some claim to the Iron Throne. Clearly Martin wanted to expand his saga to cover these new kingdoms and people, but at this point I really just don’t care. Just because you set your story in the seven kingdoms of Westeros doesn’t mean I want to read about all seven kingdoms. And after killing off so many of the characters I was already invested in, what makes you think I would want to get invested in new characters that you will slaughter. Time to start moving toward a conclusion, getting Dany off her throne in Meereen and moving across the Narrow Sea, bringing the White Walkers down from The Land of Always Winter for their big conflict with Dany and her Dragons (assuming that is how the story will end). But I doubt even the next book, The Winds of Winter, will start to significantly resolve these storylines.

I’m not giving up on the story. I’ll continue to read the books as (and if) they are released. But I’m not paying extra for the TV series. I’ll just wait for that distant day when these next few seasons are released on DVD or Blu-ray or finally make their way to Netflix. Because from where I'm sitting, the best parts of this story are behind us, and unless Martin does something truly spectacular with the next book, I have no reason to follow it in more than one medium.