Hey everyone, welcome back to another review for the final season of game of thrones, looking
at Episode 5, the bells.
So where do I start with this, let me just say, I did not like this episode.
In a lot of ways I felt the same as I did for episode 3 The Long Night, because the
visuals were so beautiful, the acting so good, but the story and character choices proved
deeply disappointing.
But I’ll get into all that later, for now let me start with my top 5 moments of the
night.
At number 5, I chose the real life performance of Emilia Clarke as Daenerys Targaryen and
Lena Headey as Cersei Lannister.
The acting in this show has always been excellent, and these two were always standouts, but I
was awed by how good they were in this episode, especially Lena headey as I would have thought
it impossible that she could make me feel bad for Cersei at the end, a character I’ve
hated for so long.
I felt bad for Cersei when she had to do the walk of shame in King’s Landing, but even
then I was only upset about the unnecessary humiliation, I still thought she absolutely
deserved to die.
But in this episode, for a brief moment when they were trapped under the red keep, she
was so sad and vulnerable I found myself hoping against reason, that she would somehow survive
and disappear to Essos with Jaime.
After the scene ended and those feelings subsided, my rational brain returned and realized she
more than deserved to die, but that’s just a further credit to the actress who embodied
this role so perfectly.
Daenerys also had a powerful effect on me this episode, both in the beginning when she
was depressed and isolated on Dragonstone, and at the end when she was looking at the
city enraged, seeming to psych herself up for what she was about to do.
Regardless of the issues with Dany’s choice to burn King’s Landing, within the scene
itself, Emilia Clarke really did look like a conqueror enraptured in battle fever and
about to torch a city.
For the fourth best moment of the night, I chose the untimely death of Qyburn, hand of
the Queen to Cersei Lannister, and one of the best and most loyal servants any monarch
could hope to have.
Now Qyburn obviously was not a great person, but he was an excellent hand, and in my opinion
far superior to Tyrion in just about every way.
Now of course Tyrion is a much better, more moral person, but when it comes to serving
a Queen, Qyburn is the man.
In exchange for becoming his patron and benefactor, not only did Qyburn stay loyal during Cersei’s
arrest but also transformed the mountain to protect her, and ran a spy network to help
maintain her crown.
As Hand, he was her confident and thoughtful advisor, devising a defense system against
the dragons, that unfortunately was not enough in the end, but did take out 1 of the enemy
dragons, and at least gave them a fighting chance against Daenerys.
Then at the end, when battle is lost and Cersei is clearly just waiting to die, rather then
try and escape and look after himself, he stayed with her as the castle crumbled around
them, and died trying to keep the Mountain under her command.
Whereas Tyrion seemed to make the wrong decision at every turn, Qyburn helped Cersei become
a true contender for the Iron Throne, lasting far longer as Queen then she would have without
him.
At number 3, I chose the beginning of the episode and the Victory of Sansa Stark which
resulted in the death of Varys the Spider.
Dany was absolutely right when she said his betrayal was a victory for the Lady of Winterfell,
as telling Tyrion about Jon’s origins allowed the word to be spread causing dissention among
her followers.
Since it looked like Varys got at least some letters out before he was caught, the story
is no doubt spreading across Westeros, and will be a factor in preventing Dany from consolidating
her rule.
After so many years being a pawn in the game of thrones, its really quite impressive to
see Sansa become a high level player wielding serious political power.
For the second best moment of the night, I choose Arya’s walk through the streets of
king’s landing during the attack, as she moved from one horror scene to another.
Although it was tough to watch, it was a great choice to spend to time showing how the common
people were suffering and thea realities of warfare.
The city had already been sacked by Tywin Lannister during Robert’s Rebellion, but
this time, not only did they have to deal with, killings, mutilation and rape but now
there was also a dragon raining fire and collapsing their buildings while pockets of wildfire
erupted across the city.
And of all the people to see this happening around them, Arya seems like a significant
choice.
Even though she abandoned her quest for vengeance against Cersei, she now saw Daenerys committing
an act far worse then anything the Lannisters ever did, and so there’s simply no way she
will let it go.
When she found the white horse, that reminded me of Dany’s horse Silver, given to her
Khal Drogo, it seemed very clear that Arya was riding to kill the dragon queen.
And finally for the best moment of the night, I’m staying with the destruction of King’s
Landing, and specifically the shots of drogon scouring the city with dragonfire, and destroying
the buildings street by street.
Like always this show, in my opinion, is easily the most visually impressive in all of television
as just about every shot was like a work of art.
The destruction of the city also reminded me of one of my favorite stories from the
history of this world, when the Andal King Qarlon the Great of Lorath, openly defied
the dagonlords of ancient Valyria by attacking their daughter city Norvos.
In response they sent dragons to burn their enemy’s capital in the Scouring of Lorath.
I always wondered what it would have looked like seeing those dragons burn the city to
the ground, and now this episode has shown me the answer, and it’s both beautiful and
horrifying.
For the best kill of the night, I went with the long awaited Clegane Bowl.
The fight was cool and the Mountain looked terrifying, but by favorite part was the end,
watching Sandor spear him through a wall to their deaths.
I thought this was a great way to end the battle, as it reminded me of a scene from
the fall of Gondolin in LOTR thousands of years before Frodo and his mission to Mordor,
when an elven city was under attack by the first Dark Lord Morgoth, who sent an army
of monsters against them, including the fearsome Balrogs, the creature that Gandalf fought
in the Misty Mountains during the War of the Ring.
As they fought a Balrog tried attacking a group of civilians fleeing the city, and so
the mighty Elf Hero Glorfindel sacrificed himself by charging against him causing them
both to fall off a nearby cliff to their deaths.
For the best line of the night, I went with Euron’s final words, after his duel with
Jaime Lannister.
Although I had a number of issues with this scene, watching Euron greyjoy die happy, saying
“I’m the man who killed Jaime Lannister,” was an incredibly badass way to go out, and
fitting for a character as violent and twisted as Euron Greyjoy.
Ok so with all that out of the way, let’s now take a look at some of my criticism for
the episode, and unfortunately there are quite a few.
Starting with a small thing from the beginning, and that was when Varys approached Jon just
as he arrived on the island, and discussed overthrowing Daenerys right on the beach in
plain view of everyone.
I know no one could hear what they were saying, but to have such a private conversation in
such a public place, with people like Tyrion watching and knowing exactly what was going
on, it just seemed like a unnecessarily sloppy mistake by Varys.
Then there was the dragon attack on the Iron fleet and city.
My god did I underestimate the power of Dany’s dragon.
I though the city stood a serious chance of defeating her with their scorpions, but turns
out they simply did not.
However what frustrated me was how few shots they got off.
I thought all the ships of the Iron fleet, or at least a bunch of them were armed with
scorpions, but I only saw Euron shooting at the dragon, no one else.
And if the other ships didn’t have scorpions, what was the point of them being there, why
not use the men from those ships to defend the city, and just leave the ships with scorpions
manned to take down Drogon.
Although I mentioned that Euron’s last words as he died were excellent, the scene of him
fighting Jaime, for me definitely was not.
Aside from the silliness of Euron swimming to the exact spot where Jaime was at the exact
time he was there, I also though it ridiculous that Jaime won the fight.
He is fighting with his bad hand against what I thought was one of the best and most ruthless
warriors in the world, and somehow emerged victorious.
I might have accepted it more if Jaime immediately collapsed and died afterwards, but despite
suffering two grievous wounds, he kept going and going, until he found Cersei and died
from a collapsed roof.
So in the end they even ruined Euron’s badass final words, since it wasn’t his work that
killed Jaime.
Speaking of which, although I was deeply moved by Lena Headeys performance as Cersei in her
death scene, dying crushed beneath the crumbling red keep was a very anti-climactic way to
kill two of the shows most interesting characters.
I guess it still technically fulfills the prophecy of the Valonqar, since Cersei was
led to the location she died by her young brother Jaime, on the instructions of her
other younger brother Tyrion.
Which I suppose indirectly makes them responsible for her death.
But in anycase this ending for their character was a real let down.
I do however like that Jaime went back to her, because to me it was clear all along
they were meant to be together.
And I didn’t really want him to end up with Brienne, as I never thought he would love
her the way he loved his sister, and she deserved better than that.
So I was definitely team Tormund.
I also had an issue with Gregor Clegane’s sudden sentience, as they’d never given
any indication he was capable of disobeying his creator.
Although I wanted to see clegane bowl, it just didn’t make sense to me that he would
suddenly turn against them just to fight his brother, it implied a level of intelligence
and personality that I don’t think they adequately indicated was there.
Speaking of a changed personality, how in the world was it so easy to convince Arya
Stark to abandon her mission of revenge.
She went all that way to the red keep just to turn back at the last moment after a one
minute conversation with the hound, this felt totally out of character, and was pretty disappointing.
But now let’s get to the big moment that everyone’s talking about, when Daenerys
went Mad Queen and torched King’s Landing to the ground.
Or did she?
Now a lot of people seemed to hate this scene for many different reasons, with some saying
it was out of character for her.
And honestly I just don’t agree.
Dany has been threatening to destroying cities for years, and was only talked out of it because
of her advisors, most of which are now dead.
She is a cold blooded conqueror and authoritarian monarch, that is what she fights for, that
what the Targaryens are, that is what they’ve always been.
They are a people born of fire and blood.
Dany even spent years hardening her heart by forcing herself to watch gruesome cruelty,
like when she looked at the faces of all the children who were crucified in Slaver’s
bay.
And while Dany is also in many ways merciful and kind, when it comes to ruling, she is
everybit a true queen, for better or worse.
And so I absolutely think she was capable of destroying a city, and I was almost certain
she would in this episode.
As ive said before I think she has the instincts of a conqueror, much like Aegon, the first
king of westeros.
And while Aegon had no qualms about killing innocent people, once his opponents surrendered,
he showed mercy and stopped his attacks.
So why didn’t Daenerys do the same?
In my opinions it’s because she’s alone.
Aegon the Conqueror was not, he had his two sister wives, the brilliant and fearsome Rhaenys
and Visenya targaryen.
Both these women played an enormous role in helping Aegon win his crown and rule the kingdom,
and it was together that they were at their best.
Daenerys has no one to help her, her loyal advisors are dead, her Hand contiuously make
mistakes, the Westerosi show no affection for her no matter how much she sacrifices
to help them and Jon Snow, the man she loves and might have married no longer wants to
be with her, and is a potential rival to the throne.
I don’t think Daenerys is a Mad Queen, I don’t think she attacked KL because she
lost her temper or sanity.
I think, in her mind, she was done playing games and was going to end this war by sending
a message to the Seven Kingdoms, that any further resistance to her rule will in no
way be tolerated.
To me, this was the US dropping nukes over Japan, unnecessary for victory but done anyway
as a clear warning to all those watching.
Afterall Kings Landing is just one city, and in theory there are still plenty of lords
out there who might rally behind another contender for the throne like Jon Snow, so this was
her warning shot, telling everyone to bend the knee or die.
Now, with all that being said, even though I don’t think Dany went mad, I still think
she made a huge mistake.
Although this action will no doubt inspire the fear she desires, after so many years
of fighting the War of Five Kings, the continent was exhausted, and there armies severely depleted.
With Lannisters defeated, there was no one left who could realistically pose a military
threat to Daenerys, and so the scouring of the capital served no use since the people
she is intimidating, do not have the resources to oppose her anyway.
And so instead all she’s done is alienate her allies and inspire hatred amongst those
in her service, exposing her to the threat of assassination, rather than military defeat.
But to me the big problem this scene had, was that they gave her the perfect opportunity
to claim victory without slaughter.
Rarely does a moment like that present itself in the middle of a battle, but she had it,
and could have taken the red keep easily and without issue.
But instead she attacked, which in the moment certainly seemed crazy.
So I think this scene could have been done much better, if the destruction of the city
had been a gradual development throughout the battle, rather than a calculated decision
made when it was practically over.
I think it would have been far more realistic, if the battle had been more even handed, and
Daenerrys lost a lot of people, maybe even watching Grey worm die, with drogon receiving
multiple injuries.
If Dany was on the verge of losing the battle, and saw her army scattering beneath her, I
think it would have been much more believable that she started raining fire down anywhere
she could, and since she would no longer have a big army when the battle ended, it would
make sense that she needs to commit to the idea of sending a message by burning the city,
to prevent a future battle by showing exactly what her dragon can do when unrestrained.
Now even after all of these issues I had with so many important scenes, to me the most disappointing
moment of the entire episode, the thing that broke my heart into a million pieces, was
the complete and total failure of the Golden Company.
The Golden Company, their founding by Bittersteel and associated history with House Blackfyre
and rebellion against the Targaryens, is one of my favorite stories from the history of
this world, and ever since Cersei mentioned bringing them from essos last season, I couldn’t
wait to see them in action, and even hoped I might here one of them say their famous
motto, beneath the gold, the bitter steel.
But we didn’t even get one single scene of them fighting, and they were instead immediately
taken out by the dragon, not even getting one cool moment in the entire episode.
More than what they did with Dany, or Arya or anything else, their causal disregard for
the importance of the Golden Company was a severe blow to my expectations for this episode.
After all that, I find myself having to give this episode the disappointing score of 5
out of 10.
Although I said this episode felt in some ways like the long night because of the visual
beauty and top tier acting, in other ways it was far worse by not invoking the same
level of emotion, as none of the characters I cared about were ever in much danger.
The battle was won so easily that the last half was just a slaughter, and while visually
impressive, it was not enough to make up for the poor storyline.
So those are my thoughts, but what did you guys think, be sure to let me know in the
comments down below, and like always check out the episode recap already out and the
Thrones Effect, available in all formats on amazon.
Only 1 more episode till its over, let hope they saved the best for last.
See you all for the final review and episode recap next week.