Parsing the GRRTH

If you’re looking for a happy ending, you’ve come to the right place! (Commence confetti throwing and balloons dropping on a joyous Bran.) I’m not going to stop the wheelchair…I’m going to BREAK THE WHEELCHAIR. (Breakdance sequence follows) Actual meme on Facebook: W hat do we say to HBO on Monday? Unsubscribe! Well. That sucked. But at least its over. The show of course broke Godwin’s law twice by comparing Dany to Hitler, but I honestlyt think it’s far-fetched. While I accept that her saviour-complex does not bode well for her governing skills, and her ability to mass murder thousands without a thought does not make her particularly desirable, I have the feeling that most of the cities that she wants to liberate are just going to let her liberate them without a fight. Somehow I don’t think that after conquering Slaver’s Bay and reducing King’s Landing to a a smouldering ruin, she’s going to have to kill everyone — which is exactly what the show implies, But when you ...

Because we have been robbed of really satisfying writing for Tyrion and Jon’s characters — the Three Heads of the Story, if not the Dragon — the only tragic hero left from GRRM’s tale is Daenerys, pushed into her position by a trio of betrayals and a rejection from a lover. Jon is just a conventional hero; Tyrion is…well, basically a supporting role. (All this is very hastily sketched out by the writers; the line from plot point A to point B is made of the flimsiest of spider threads at this point: but it is there.) I could dwell on the negative and cry out once again what have these doofuses done to Tyrion, the bitter, raging dwarf who wants to see Westeros burn? The Tyrion of the books might betray Varys to death, who he bitterly resents for making Tyrion a mere piece in his Game of Thrones; but I can’t buy that  show  Tyrion would sell him out so easily, nor simply watch him burn with a bit of regret. “It was me”, says Tyrion. Varys should have looked at hi...

’ve been thinking about the morality of Game of Thrones and how mixed up it all is, presenting the story as a sort of dumb morality play in the last season. Much of the debate from fans that I’ve read have focused on Sansa and Dany and the morality of their actions. So here, with two episodes remaining, I’ve compiled a list of crimes by most of the major players still standing  Game of Thrones , using both books and shows as reference. Typed from memory (and I have not read the main books since 2016), so if you remember something I’ve missed please feel free to let me know (nicely, respectfully.) Note,  gossip, shit distributing, and lies  are not considered as crimes, necessarily, unless they result in deaths and are done towards that end; and for reasons of time, I’ve limited this to major players still living as of Season 8 Episode 5. Some of these are lesser crimes than others of course.And some of them are written with tongue firmly in cheek. Battle d...

Game of Bitches. I watched this episode yesterday morning and wrote a review, then took it down to think about it. I had most of the day off, so I got plenty of time to see what people were saying here and on various parts of Facebook. Mainly the dialogues I saw came down to two different camps: "Sansa’s a real manipulative bitch" camp. And "Dany is crazy bitch" camp. In the meantime I’ve seen a lot of arguments for these positions, all of which make no sense, really. Much like this episode. Let me get this out of the way: I am officially bored. This show is no longer any fun —  not even   fun to make fun of  any more. This makes me sad. Maybe it’s me. Maybe I’ve changed. OK, the basic shape of the plot: the plot points are not bad and it all has a sort of tragic grandeur that has surely come more from the mind of GRRM than the mind of the hacks Benioff and Weiss  they are going for this grand revenge tragedy much like Shakespeare, where everyon...

In Game of Thrones season 6, when we saw the dramatic "Hold the Door" episode in which it was revealed that Hodor's disability had been caused by Bran Stark in some time travelling accident, producers Dooffus and Dweebil said that it was one of three "Holy Shit" moments that were told to them by GRRM when he was telling them how he planned to end his series. The first "holy Shit" moment was Shireen being sacrificed (I still think it will happen differently in the books, but she will burn); the second was "Hold the Door". The third, they said would come right at the end.  With three episodes left in the iconic fantasy series, I have one main prediction as to how the story will go from here. I may be wrong, and if I am, I will come up with another prediction! But I have several possibilities, but the main one that I'm sticking to is this Dany will execute a Stark for treason with fire . The whole season, dramatically, has been all...