Allow me to take you back to the third episode of season 8, back to The Battle of Winterfell,
the episode that finally pitched army of the dead against the army of the living, after
seven and half seasons of build-up.
This was the culminating moment of 11 years of storytelling, the episode that would bring
the story towards its ultimate climax and the one that would undoubtedly payoff several
character arcs among which most notably, Jon Snow’s, until this happened…
In the blink of an eye, the story was subverted, infamously giving the finger to proper storytelling
in favor of a shock surprise amidst a battle in which death could only come to those not
protected by some of the thickest plot armor in TV history.
It’s also one of the reasons why some have been asking how the showrunners intend to
keep things interesting with the big bad out of the way, and what will happen to the characters
whose arcs were just subverted without a proper payoff.
So what went wrong during The Battle of Winterfell, and what does this mean for the story in general
and for my prediction that Jon Snow is destined to fulfill the king’s journey…
So in my last video I argued that Jon Snow has been set up to become either the literal
or the symbolic king because he has followed along its archetypal journey to a tee, moving
from a bastard boy in exile in season 1, to the heir of the Iron Throne and the embodiment
of the king archetype in season 7.
Jon’s story in particular has been directly connected to the existential threat of the
White Walkers since the very beginning, placing him at the center of the most important narrative
of the story.
And it’s exactly because he has been walking on this path for such a long time, that it
would at this stage be almost impossible to subvert the narrative without it ending up
severely detracting from the power of the story as a whole.
But unfortunately, whereas the first two episodes of the season actually follow along the journey
quite nicely, with Jon now finally coming to terms with and moving into his true identity,
and Daenarys being developed further in the archetype of the tyrannical queen, the Battle
of Winterfell confuses the narrative right as we’re about to reach its final payoff.
As I said before, this episode really should’ve been the climax or at least the start of the
climax for Jon’s arc.
This is the moment in which Jon in his embodiment of the redemptive would-be king needed to
face the force that threatens to wipe his realm from existence entirely.
The story needs some degree of a payoff to happen for it to feel emotionally satisfying
and for it resonate with the audience.
Instead what we get in this episode is its near inversion.
Time and again we see Jon trying to face the Night King, but every single time the moment
is taken away from him, ultimately resulting in him giving up entirely in the face of death.
This perhaps would’ve worked in a scenario in which the Night King actually managed to
win the battle, resulting in some sort of a retreat of the survivors of the army of
the living.
Instead what we got is a complete subversion of Jon’s story.
It is revealed that his arc has in a fact always belonged to Arya.
Not only does this random twist rob Jon of a proper payoff to his arc, it also abruptly
puts an end to the most vital narrative of the entire story at the hands of a character
who both doesn’t fit the archetype and who hasn’t even been connected to the Walker
storyline to begin with.
It’s the equivalent to having Legolas surf into Mount Doom at the climax of The Return
of the King and back-flipping the Ring into the fire whilst Frodo and Sam stand by and
watch.
The burden of the Ring has never been central to his arc, and so it wouldn’t make narrative
and emotional sense to randomly rob Frodo and Sam of their arc defining moments.
And in the same manner, Arya killing the Night King without even any sort of help or direction
from Jon, feels anti-climactic and unearned to say the least.
So what reason could the showrunners Dan Weiss and David Benioff possibly have to subvert
the story at this very crucial moment?
Instead of slowly building towards catharsis Dan and Dave have seemingly opted for the
rush of random moments of surprise.
It’s this notion that subverting expectations somehow automatically makes for a good and
original story.
Implying that the short-term thrill of the subversion trumps the long-term emotional
satisfaction of a more traditional narrative.
In a way it’s as if Dan and Dave are now writing the show specifically for a drunken
audience at a bar, always on the lookout for the next big shocking moment, regardless of
how much sense it makes for the narrative as a whole.
And whilst striving to be original and to surprise an audience isn’t inherently a
negative in the slightest, the difference is that a subversion well executed is always
done for a logical and meaningful narrative reason.
It’s rarely if ever subversion for subversion’s sake.
A narrative well told should always be prioritized over random shock surprises that might give
a story an extra short-term thrill.
In my previous video I discussed how Game of Thrones seems to have always worked with
two separate forms of storytelling, the dominant subversive narrative and the underlying traditional
narrative.
Now that the traditional narrative has come front and center it’s almost as if Dan and
Dave were struggling to juggle both of them at the same time.
And what we ended up with is something that pays tribute to neither.
And while having the Night King killed off so suddenly by an unexpected character from
outside of the story line is indeed surprising, it doesn’t make for a good story.
Instead of serving as a satisfying payoff, The Battle of Winterfell outright confuses
and kills the momentum of the narrative, right when it should’ve raised the stakes and
propelled it towards its ultimate conclusion.
And so, the shocking end to the White Walker story will likely come at the cost of the
quality of the narrative as a whole.
The existential threat of the White Walkers has been part of the story since the very
first scene of the show, having gradually moved into the foreground.
The night king and his army are this force of chaos and death from the periphery that’s
been allowed to grow amidst the bickering and fighting between the people of Westeros.
Time and again we’ve been told that this is the real threat to the realm.
The entire point of Game of Thrones seemed to be that in the grand scheme of things all
of this fighting between houses is ultimately pointless and self-destructive.
And so for the characters to overcome this existential flood, only to go back to fighting
a mustache twirling, or in this case wine sipping villain and her pirate boyfriend,
feels both underwhelming but also completely undermines the meaning of the larger narrative.
In the end The Battle of Winterfell has not only robbed us of a long-awaited payoff to
Jon’s arc, but it has also likely detracted from the power of the narrative in general.
It’s a disservice to the original tagline of the show, Winter is Coming, as the Long
Night ended up being just one night.
The victory is unearned, the story has been confused and the realm has been robbed of
its own redemption.
And with only a couple of hours of run time remaining, it is to be seen whether Dan and
Dave will still be able to surprise us and finish the show in a satisfying manner, or
whether they’ll continue to adhere to the god of subversion at the expense of the lasting
enjoyment
of
the story…