Game of Thrones: Season 8 Review

9 / 10. Somewhat rushed, but a fitting and bittersweet end to The Song of Ice and Fire adaptation *SPOILERS*

As Winter finally arrives in Westeros, the eighth and final season of HBO’s Game of Thrones, adapted from George R. R. Martin’s sprawling epic A Song of Ice and Fire book series by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, brings events built up expertly over the previous seven seasons to their conclusion.

Decades old squabbles between Houses are put aside as the Night King’s army of the dead, finally marches past the wall and into Westeros, and Houses Stark and Targaryen among others, make a last stand at Winterfell, in a truly epic battle to rival Helm’s Deep.

Meanwhile, undeterred by the marching dead, despite having actually seen a wight, true ice queen Cersei Lannister remains in King's Landing Hell bent on defeating the silver haired pretender to the throne, and strengthens her battle plans. The Last War for the Iron Throne then begins…

I’ve also read the books, which has affected my feelings towards the final season. This season has gone beyond the so far published books, but incorporates material that George R.R. Martin revealed to the showrunners for how the next books, The Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring, would play out.

Season 8 only had six longer episodes to wrap everything up. It felt rushed in parts, and the tone and dialogue often felt different to previous seasons, but I think everyone concerned did their best, and gave it a satisfying ending. It wasn’t perfect, but how could it be, to so many fans who all hoped to see the ending they envisaged?

I think the massive negative response is a little unfair after the amazing spectacle, fantastical story, acting, characters, costumes and settings that this eight-year saga has brought to our lives.

It was ultimately always going to end this way for Daenerys, the signs have been there since season 1. I think the books may end in a similar way for major characters, but there are different characters and plot lines in the books that aren’t on the show, so we will see…

I’ve never been a massive fan of Emilia Clarke, but she’s played Daenerys well, from meek girl to Queen, and then tyrant. I recently re-watched the show from the start, and the subtle nuances, mainly in her facial expressions have been excellent.  Her fear turning to hardness, her loss of innocence and lessons learned hardening her on the way. I feel empathy for her and her journey. She was told as a child she was the heir to the Iron Throne and the Seven Kingdoms and that was all she had to hold onto for so long. The only family she had growing up was her brother Viserys who sold her to Khal Drogo, for an army so HE could win back the Seven Kingdoms. Then she gained trusted protectors and advisors; Ser Jorah Mormont, Ser Barristan Selmy, Tyrion Lannister, and whilst offering sage advice, were still there to blindly follow her, and became scared of her themselves.

Ser Barristan even offered her warnings about her father, as did Tyrion. She looked on coldly as Viserys was killed by Drogo.  He wasn’t a real dragon, but she was. Once her dragons were born and grew stronger, so did she, she became as magical and untouchable a creature as they were and believed even more so that she was entitled to rule Westeros. She loved Khal Drogo, but he was taken from her, and other betrayals started to shape who she would become. She defeated many enemies and finally returned home, but Westeros didn’t love her as she assumed it would, just because of her birth-right.

 When she finally lost Ser Jorah on the Long Night, witnessed the brutal beheading of Missandei at Cersei’s order, and then was rejected by Jon, she descended into anger fuelled by grief.  While she paused at the edge of King’s Landing upon Drogon, looking at the Red Keep built by her ancestors and in charge of a weapon of mass destruction like she was, I may have done the same thing, overwhelmed with grief.

She destroyed everything in her path to finally walk, surrounded by ash, up to the Iron Throne (as predicted in her visions in the House of the Undying), her face pleading with Jon to join her, and hoping everything she had done mattered in the end, after everything she had lost. Jon remained the only person she truly trusted in the end, it had to be him to kill her, tortured as he was in doing so.

Drogon nudging a still Daenerys was heart-breaking, and apt that he should destroy the Iron Throne. If mama can’t have it, no one can, or did he know that it was her obsession with this that finally killed her? Definitely a bittersweet ending, but expected.

Everything looked beautiful as always, the shot of Drogon rising behind Daenerys at the top of the dilapidated Red Keep steps with his wings on either side of her was amazing, she was truly, a fully grown and powerful dragon.

Episode 3, The Long Night, was amazing, so tense and atmospheric, I watched it three times and was no less gripped. This battle was more effective and exciting than the battle at King’s Landing in episode 5, in the same way that in The Lord of the Rings, the battle of Helm’s Deep was so good, it overshadowed the final battle in Return of the King. 

Cersei and Jamie’s death were a bit muted, but they were together, buried under the Red Keep she so desperately wanted to maintain control of. Cersei was so deliciously evil and played fantastically by Lena Headey, I couldn’t help but admire her strength and self-preservation skills. Her chapters in the books made me warm to her more as well.

I had started to think, that after Clyburn brought back the Mountain as a ‘zombie’ and was positively gleeful at the sight of the wight they brought to kings landing, that he was concocting a way to create them. Then when Cersei let the residents of King’s Landing all into the keep and locked the door, that he was going to release some to turn them all, and a new dead army would arise for the final battle. I also thought that Bran’s vision of a dragon flying over King’s Landing, might have been the Night King riding an ice Viserion to take Cersei as his Night Queen. 

I was happy to see Jon reunited with Tormund and Ghost, after that terrible goodbye after the Long Night. Relieved to see Tyrion, Brienne, Sam, Ser Davos and Podrick made it to the end, and with everyone in important posts to help rebuild the Realm. I was rooting for the hound, but it was a heroic end for the redeemed Sandor, in fire though, unfortunately for him.

The election seemed a bit trite, but this was the best move away from tyranny, to decide together on a ruler, to prevent the past repeating himself. Cryptic cretin Bran was the best choice, he is the memory of Westeros and a calm and measured ruler he would be. Varys would’ve been proud.

I love the growth of Sansa’s character, Sophie Turner’s acting has been fantastic this season, a full transformation from a silly naive girl to Queen of the North. The Starks as a family suffered terribly and now a Stark rules in King’s Landing, the North and beyond the wall, and the Targaryen line dies with Jon.

I wanted to see more about why the Night King wanted Bran, I thought there was more to it than Bran being the Three Eyed Raven, and the ‘memory’ of Westeros.  I though Arya should have had the opportunity to use her faceless assassin skills more this season, but I was overjoyed with her MVP status as Night Kingslayer.

All in all, I’ll take that ending, and look forward to the Winds of Winter book to fill in the gaps, once published …