The Downfall of Game of Thrones

Good morning, evening, and afternoon. I am Reveream, critical commentator of pop culture content. Also, before I begin this review, I would like to thank The Dragon Demands for a lot of this information. He is the site moderator for the A Song Of Ice And Fire Wiki, and he is a far better analyst of Game of Thrones than I could ever be. If you’re a Game of Thrones fan, I think it’s a necessity to check out his channel. He truly is the best Game of Thrones commentator on Youtube. Thanks so much, dude.

Medieval fantasy has been one of the most enduring fictional genres of human history. From the timeless tales of King Arthur and Robin Hood, to contemporary classics like J.J.R. Tolkien 's Middle Earth saga, audiences from many generations by stories of knights and princesses, magic and dragons, kingdoms and castles, and the nobility of medieval chivalry

But one author sought to change this status quo. George R.R. Martin sought to recreate a new fantasy world, not based on idealistic chivalry, but rather the actual brutality of the Middle Ages. Martin's long running A Song Of Ice And Fire novel series took the literature world by storm. Despite the sometimes year-long wait between releases, the fan base remained loyal due to the vast world of Westeros being able to provide discussion content for years.

In 2013, HBO was chosen to adapt A Song Of Ice And Fire into a television series, Game Of Thrones. The show was a massive hit due to it's large ensemble cast of charismatic characters, deep world building, amazing acting, gorgeous cinematography, and most notably it's massive subversion of the medieval fantasy genre. When Ned Stark, who seemed to be the protagonist, was unexpectedly killed in Season 1, it geared audiences up for a wild and tense ride where nobody was safe. For years, Game Of Thrones was considered the pinnacle of television, and many would have called it the greatest television show ever.

But now, here we are in 2018, and as we wait for Game of Thrones 8th and Final Season in 2019, there seems to be less a feeling of excitement and more a feeling of disappointment. Starting in Season 5, when the show surpassed its book material, the writing decisions have become more and more questionable, culminating in the absolutely awful Season 7. Multiple mainstream reviewers have taken more of the show's descent of quality, with even Adult Swim making a joke of the shows current mediocrity. With fans becoming increasingly underwhelmed and exciting series conclusion, one must wonder, what the fuck happened to Game of Thrones?

Seasons 1 through 4: The Most Epic Show On Television

 From it’s 2013 premiere, Game of Thrones was a immediately a juggernaut of television. The series followed the families of several kingdoms and their attempts to overthrow each other, all the while unaware of an impending zombie apocalypse. The show’s production value was the hugest TV had ever seen, with beautiful cinematography of the snowy mountains of the North, the verdant city of Kings Landing, and the deserts of Essos. The show’s large cast and complex plotlines led to dozens of fan favorites and fan theories, and because of the shocking death of Ned Stark and the infamously brutal Red Wedding , there was always tense fear for characters lives every second they were onscreen. Battle sequences, such as The Battle of The Blackwater and The Battle of Castle Black, were cinematic in their scope and choreography. It was truly a show unlike anything television had ever seen before.

Season 5: Running Out Of Book Material

In , Season 5 premiered. For the first 4 seasons, everything had run smoothly, primarily because the showrunner Benioff and Weiss had stuck fairly close to the book series. But now with Season 5, there was a problem. There was no more books. George R.R. Martin is infamous for the time it takes him to release his novels, and it appeared he was not going to have a new book out anytime soon. What to do? It is reported that at this stage in the game, George R.R. Martin told them the broad summary of how he planned to conclude the series, and left them to their own devices. However, it was here, in Season 5, that the show’s first signs of decay would begin to show

Dorne

Without a doubt, the most infamous part of Game Of Thrones Season 5 is it’s ridiculous and unnecessary Dorne subplot. Initially, Benioff and Weiss had no intention of featuring Dorne at all, but their opinion changed when they met Indira Varima . Benioff and Weiss specifically rewrote the script to include Dorne just so they could include her in the show after Oberyn’s death. This will not be the only time they make foolish storyline decisions because of actors. (Dammit Indira Varima! Stop inadvertently ruining shit. You inadvertently ruined Human Target, and now Game of Thrones. Stop it)

Perhaps if they were clever writers they could get away with this, but instead they stuck her with a nonsensical revenge plot that went entirely against her character. Even worse was the hiring of Alexander Siddig, one of the most awesome actors you could have, to play Prince Doran Martell, a character who in the books in a crafty manipulator working on his own secret power plays. Now this would seem like the perfect marriage of actor and role, and Alexander Siddig was hyped and ready for some great material. Unfortunately, he was working with the amateurs Benioff and Weiss, they completely wasted and killed off his character within less than a full season.

Not only that, but these fucking idiots, Benioff and Weiss, decided to film in a UNESCO site! Yes, a site surrounded by artifacts protected by the UN. That means limited filming locations, limited choreography, and limited props.  The result is the incredibly cheap looking Dorne set that we saw in Season 5, and some of the worst fight scenes ever shown on television.

But it gets worse. See, In books, Dorne is an egalitarian society built on the struggle and resourcefulness of survival.  However Benioff and Weiss decided, fuck that, they’re going to base Dorne off their spring break in Brazil. As a result, the Sand Snakes were not fierce female warriors, but instead wannabe femme fatales with probably the worst line in the entire series: “You want a good girl, but need the bad pussy”

Slavewife Sansa: How to not progress a character

From Seasons 1 to 3, we watch Sansa go from naïve princess into hardened survivor, as she is held captive in Kings Landing and psychologically victimized by King Joffrey and Cersei. However, in Season 4, her fate seems to be looking up, as Littlefinger poisons Joffrey and helps Sansa escape Kings Landing. Throughout Season 4, we watch Sansa and Littlefinger manipulate the Vale, and it seems as though her trauma is going to pay off by making her a strong and strategic queen.

Unfortunately, Season 5 pulls this character progression out from under the rug. Whereas in the books Sansa stays in the Vale, in show, for no discernable reason, Littlefinger decides to marry off Sansa to the Boltons, the family that slaughtered her family. The sadistic Ramsay immediately starts victimizing her, and it is now a complete repeat of her marriage to Joffrey. Most disturbingly, because her character regression back into a victim is obviously unnecessary, that makes her rape scene gratuitously disgusting.

While she does eventually escape with Theon at the end of the season,  Sansa’s unnecessary character regression and gratuitous victimization was the epitome of terrible character writing.

Stannis:

When we first meet Stannis, he is easily the most dedicated player of the Game of Thrones. Viewing the throne as his birthright and all other claimants to it as usurpers, Stannis viewed it as his destiny to be the undisputed king of Westeros. In the single-minded pursuit of his conquest, he would do anything, invade cities, kill his disloyal brother, and sacrifice his enemies, or those with “kingsblood”, in fires for blood magic. Despite his ruthlessness, he was always aided by his good friend Davos, his devoted wife, and innocent daughter Shireen.  After failing to invade Kings Landing in the Blackwater Battle, it seemed as though Stannis was destined to go North, defeat the Boltons, and even aid Jon Snow against the White Walker invasion, which is what his character is currently doing in the novels.

Instead what happened was far more grim and far more contrived. While preparing his forces to lay siege to Winterfell and take it back of the Boltons, Seal Team Ramsay and His 20 Good Ninjas, somehow snuck into Stannis’ camp during a snowstorm, sabotaged and stole all of Stannis’ army’s resources, and then left without a single trace. Now desperate for resources, Stannis agrees to let Melisandre sacrifice his own daughter, Shireen, for her kingsblood, an act which disgusts most of Stannis army to the point of abandoning him and drives Selyse to suicide. Stannis and his remaining soldiers are easily slaughtered by the Bolton forces, and Stannis is given his personal deathblow by a vengeful Brienne.

While Stannis death is brutally tragic, many fans found it contrived and out of character, refusing to believe that Stannis would stoop so low as to sacrifice his own daughter, especially considering that his book incarnation seems to want her to inherit the throne after his death. It seems as though Benioff and Weiss rewrote Stannis character arc purely because they wanted to see how many dramatic reactions they could get out of Stephen Dillane, completely ignoring any actual characterization. Dillane himself has stated that he doesn’t know why Stannis killed his own daughter, and when your actor doesn’t know why their character does what they do, that means that there is a massive problem with the writing.

Hardhome

Okay, let’s not even bullshit. The Hardhome sequence was by far the best part of Season 5, and a very strong contender for the best sequence in the entire series, as well as one of the best sequences in the history of television. The sequence shows the suspenseful evacuation of Wildlings from Hardhome as it is swarmed by White Walkers, a kind of attack that was constantly foreshadowed but never before seen on the show. The White Walkers were an unstoppable juggernaut of nature, with even Yun Yun the giant being nearly overwhelmed. Audiences were on the edge of their seats as Jon and the other survivors fled for their lives, and stared in awe and horror as the Night King resurrected all of his victims, showing Jon just how powerless he is against the army of the dead. The sequence was a thrill ride that can put the Walking Dead and possibly even George A Romero himself to shame, and may be one of the most iconic moments in history of television, up there with Rust Cohle’s escape from the Fremont Projects in True Detective. After such a sub par season, it was the perfect thing to keep audiences hooked for events to come, and fans were more hyped than ever to the inevitable White Walker battle that the series has been leading to. 

The Nights Watch: Worlds Biggest Idiots

While Hardhome may have been one of the most amazing moments of television history, the result lead to some truly terrible plot contrivances. Now lets talk about Jon Snow’s death. While in both the book and the television series, Jon Snow is killed by the Nights Watch, and on the TV show at least he’s been resurrected, the circumstances of Jon Snow’s death differ massively. In the book, Jon Snow’s death is arguably justified, as the Night’s Watch kill him out of fear that he will involve them in a war with Ramsay, getting them all flayed.  In the television show, the Night’s Watch kill him because of their xenophobia towards the wildlings, a discrimination that makes no sense for various reasons:

A)     At this point, it is absolutely clear that the White Walkers are coming. There had to have been Nights Watch members who witnessed the massive snow zombie invasion at Hardhome

B)      If the Night’s Watch distrust Jon and the Wildlings that much, they could simply denied the wildings passage through the Wall

C)      Because the Nights Watch did let Jon and the Wildlings pass the Wall, that means that Castle Black is now filled with wildlings who massively outnumber the Night’s Watch, and yet the Night’s Watch want to kill the one guy who has diplomatic relations with the wildlings? And you don’t think the wildlings will detect the bullshit and fight back?

Yeah, all you guys deserve to get hung.

Season 6: Lets Wing It

Despite the lack of book material, Season 6 was a massive improvement of Season 5. Virtually all of the plotlines were enjoyable, from the Lannister’s battle against the High Sparrow, to Jon’s Battle with Ramsay. Characters were united, such as Danerys and Tyrion, or reunited, such as Jon and Sansa. Because Jon Snow’s resurrection was so obvious, the writers wasted no time with it, resurrecting him right at the start of the season instead of stretching it out numerous episodes. The episode showing Hodor’s origin was one of the series most shocking and heartbreaking. The climatic Battle of The Bastards was one of the shows most cinematic setpieces, and the brutal death of Ramsay was intensely gratifying for both Sansa and the audience. The season ended on multiple exciting cliffhangers, with Cersei using wildfire to blow up the entire Sept, the North united, and Danerys setting sail for Westeros. Virtually the entire season was enjoyable, except for one particular plotline….

Arya Stark: The Mary Sue Assassin

For many season, Arya Stark was one of the most enjoyable characters on Game of Thrones .  Under the tutelage of various memorable characters such as Syrio Forel, Jaqen Hgar, and The Hound, Arya evolved from a rebellious young girl into a ruthless survivor. However, in Season 5, as she reached Essos, her plot began getting muddled. She meets Jaqen Hgar, who mentors her on the ways of the Faceless assassins, until her own personal desires for identity and revenge cause her to be, resulting in her heading back to Westeros.  Now this plotline could have definitely been exciting in theory, but unfortunately, it’s execution was heavily muddled by confusing characterization and blatant plot contrivances.

 In the books, Arya reaches Essos as well and goes to the House of the Undying, but she does not meet Jaqen Hgar, as Jaqen Hgar no longer exists due to the Faceless’ Men’s ideology of being, well, Faceless.

Also, in the books, The Faceless Men get their faces by poisoning passerbys, killing them, and flaying their face off. In the show however, the faces are shown to just be masks that can be made. There are even faces for people who are still alive, most notably Arya herself. Between Jaqen Hgar’s lack of anonymity and the fact that Faceless people’s faces are just masks,

Now in both the books and show, Arya trains with the Faceless assassins, and undergoes a temporary test of blindness as punishment for an unauthorized killing. However, whereas in the book, Arya kills Dareon, a Night’s Watch deserter, in a rather morally questionable killing, in the show, Arya kills Meryn Trant, former Kingsguard of Joffrey. While Arya’s reasoning for killing Trant seems obvious enough, the show unnecessarily tries to make his death more justified by showcasing him to be a sadistic pedophile, a scene that some viewers found to be excessively gratuitous.

After her brief test of blindness, Arya is given her sight back, but this is where the novels and television show separate entirely. Whereas in the novels, Arya is still training with the Faceless Assassins, the show at this point had surpassed the book’s storyline, and thus Arya had to make it back to Winterfell. In order to do this, Benioff and Weiss ended up creating a contrived sequence of events that confuses many fans.

After her conscience causes her to fail the assassination of an actress, Arya is targeted for death by fellow Faceless assassin The Waif, causing Arya to hole up in a cellar with her sword, Needle. The Waif is given permission by Jaqen to kill Arya, but only under the condition that Arya dies painlessly. We then see, what looks like Arya trying to barter her way back to Westeros, when she is ambushed by the Waif and repeatedly stabbed painfully in the gut, left to bleed on the ground. Now because this version of Arya didn’t have Needle with her, and had mannerisms very similar to Jaqen Hgar, it seemed to many fans as though the Waif actually stabbed a Faceless assassin disguised Arya, testing the Waif’s promise to kill Arya painfully. Because the Waif failed this test, many fans assumed Arya would then be tasked by Jaqen with killing the Waif, leading to a climatic fight scene. This is clearly the implication that the writing of the scene wants the audience to go with.

However, due to either a rewritten script, poor editing, or just incomprehensibly bad writing, these implications ended up being entirely misleading. It turned out that the Arya who was stabbed WAS the real Arya. Arya somehow doesn’t bleed out from her repeat gut wound, and makes her way back to the actress, who treats her wound and gives her a place to sleep. However, when Arya wakes up, she finds that the actress has been killed by the Waif

Now, despite having been stabbed repeatedly in the gut less than a day earlier, Arya jumps from the balcony and is now engaged in an Ethan Hunt level footchase from the Waif throughout the streets of Braavos. Reportedly, Benioff and Weiss wanted the chase to be even more unrealistic, with Arya doing acrobatic and parkour stunts WITH A GUT WOUND, like she’s Jason Bourne, and Maisie Williams herself had to convince them to tone it down because it was so obviously unbelievable. Anyways Arya is able to lure the Waif into dark cellar and uses her blindness skills to kill the Waif . Jaqen then shows up, seems to tell Arya that everything is cool, and…that’s it. Arya heads back to Westeros, now with her Girl Scout Trained Assassin badge. In the books, her time with the Faceless Men is meant to be an extreme challenge to her character, as she must choose whether or not to give up her identity, even causing her to question what her identity is. In the show, it’s essentially just an extended training montage so she can be an uber assassin. And then Jaqen just forgives her for defying his teachings. No consequences!

Back in Westeros, Arya becomes the Punisher on crack. She manages to infiltrate the Frey’s castle and somehow poisons the entire Frey family using pies. Don’t worry about the moral complexity though, she didn’t poison the servants, so she’s still a good person, and she still deserves to jam with Ed Sheeran.

I’ll admit with all honesty, while I have heard of Ed Sherran, I had no idea what he looked like, and so when I first saw Season 7 episode 1 and saw Arya surrounded by a bunch of Lannister soldiers, I didn’t think they were going to get into a sing along. I thought they were going to attempt to gangrape her and she would brutally slaughter them. It was only after I went online to talk about what I thought was a suspenseful scene, that I realized that it was in fact a ridiculous celebrity cameo, and yes, I know that other celebrities have guest starred in the past, such as Coldplay during the Blackwater Battle, but the cameos were never this blatant, or this annoying.

After her campfire sing along, Arya makes it back to Winterfell and reunites with her sister at Castle Black, but more importantly, she manages to beat Brienne of fucking Tarth in a swordfight. Brienne of Tarth, probably the most skilled swordfighter in the Game of Thrones, who beat he Hound. If Brienne can beat the Hound, and Arya can beat Brienne, well, shit, does that now mean that Arya is the best ranked fighter of Game of Thrones? Why didn’t Jon take Arya with him beyond the wall? She could have killed the entire White Walker horde by herself.

To summarize, Arya’s terrible characterization was the lowpoint of the otherwise excellent Season 6, and audiences couldn’t wait to see what exciting twists Season 7 would take.

Season 7: Everything Is Shit Now

Yep, Season 7, the Season of Shit. Right from the beginning, it was clear that the writing had taken a nosedive. Arya went on a ridiculous killing spree of the entire Frey family with no consequences and then sang campfire songs with Ed Sherran. Uggh.

Then, Daenerys and Jon meet, and Daenerys acts like a complete jerk to him, browbeating him with all of her struggles and accomplishments before he has the chance to say anything. Like seriously? I mean the only reason Daenerys is queen is because she has fire-proof dragon-controlling blood, and her daddy’s last name. Jon Snow, on the other hand, has extensive experience in combat, diplomacy, and strategy, and is so honorable that he sacrificed his life for his integrity and was resurrected. Daenerys was made leader because of stupid dragon eggs, and a supposed monarchial birthright. Jon Snow was made leader, based on his meritocratic talents, because he’s the best damn leader in Westeros. So yeah Daenerys, shut the fuck up

Shit gets even worse with Tyrion and Varys. 2 characters who used to be prominent players of the game, now relegated to sitting in the background giving terrible advice. Tyrion spends the whole season telling Daenerys not to just use her dragons to flame grill Cersei, saying that diplomacy with Kings Landing is what they need. Why does Tyrion give a fuck? Isn’t Tyrion the same guy who looked the entirety of Kings Landing in the face and said that he wished Stannis could have massacred all of them? The same guy who defended Kings Landing from Stannis, only to be betrayed by his father, sister, lover, and the entire city and sentenced to death for a crime he clearly didn’t commit? Why is he talking about being merciful to Kings Landing, or Cersei? I can only suspect that he’s trying to protect Jamie, but at no point does he indicate that as his reasoning. As such, it just seems like he’s keeping Cersei alive because the writers want her alive.

Speaking of Cersei, I guess she’s just Queen now. That’s how shit works. You nuke the capital, you become the queen. That would be like if Osama Bin Laden nuked the White House, and was just like “Okay, I’m the new President!” I mean, I understand that the point of the show is how bad monarchial systems are, but jeez, there’s no bureaucracy here. It’s just Necromonger rules. You keep what you kill. I mean, didn’t the High Sparrow have the entire population of Kings Landing devoted to his religion? Did nobody want to avenge him? I mean I know Zombie Gregor is a scary dude, but did Zombie Gregor seriously punk EVERYBODY in King’s Landing into being Cersei’s bitch?

And then’s Euron Greyjoy, an extremely annoying Jack Sparrow wannabe who seems to only exist because Ramsay is dead and the show needs to fill it’s sadistic douchebag quota. Never mind the fact that in the books he is a badass cult leader with Dragon summoning horn. In the show, he’s just a Jack Sparrow wannabe. Whateva’

And then of course, there are the jarring time and geography jumps that plagued the season, with characters seemingly teleporting across continents. In the first episode, when Jon left Winterfell to go to Dragonstone, I first thought the journey would take a couple of episodes. Instead, it took a couple of seconds, because it just cut to Jon arriving at Dragonstone. Even more jarring was his lack of a reaction to the environment. Be aware, this is Jon Snow’s first time in Southern Westeros. His first time in an environment that is not covered in snow, and yet he has no reaction to it. He just walks around, not marveling at the landscape or anything. He even keeps on his gigantic fucking fur coat. Why the fuck do you still have that thing on? I mean, I get that you gotta represent the North, but jeez. You’re not in blizzard conditions anymore. Aren’t you sweating?

Despite this undeniable dip in writing quality, Season 7 was still somewhat enjoyable. The reunion of various characters was heartwarming to watch. Olenna Tyrell was given a very clever death fitting of her character. The highlight setpiece of the season, The Loot Train Battle, in which Daenerys, Drogon, and the Dothraki fought against Jaime, Bronn, and the Lannister forces, was an absolute spectacle to watch. It was only a question of whether the season could have a strong finish…

Beyond The Wall: The Episode That Jumped The Shark

This is the episode that broke a lot of fans suspension of disbelief. This was the episode where all of the flaws of the show manifested themselves in the ultimate spectacle of stupidity. This was the episode that ruined Game of Thrones.

Before we get into the stupidity of this episode, we must discuss the stupidity of the last episode. Jon, Danerys, Tyrion, and Jorah are discussing how to prove to Cersei that the White Walker threat is real. Now before we continue, if Tyrion is as smart as he says he is, then he should know his sister well enough to know that her crazy petulant self-destructive ass is not going to give a fuck about white walkers. Also, I don’t know if he knows or not, but Cersei has a zombie bodyguard, so not sure what you’re trying to prove.  Anyways, dumbass Tyrion decides that the best plan is for Jon and an elite team to go over the wall, capture a white walker, and then bring it down to Kings Landing to show Cersei.  Of course, in the books, people in the North have been capturing and studying White Walkers for ages, but, nah, fuck that, we need our badass Magnicent Westeros Seven!

So everybody decides that this is the plan. Davos and Tyrion teleport to Kings Landing  to tell Jaime, and end up recruiting special guest star Gendry, while Jon and Jorah go up North and end up recruiting Tormund, Beric Dondarrion, Thoros, and Sandor Clegane. The episode ends with Jon, Gendry, Sandor, Tormund, Jorah, Beric, and Thoros all preparing to beyond the wall on what is sure to be stupid, but badass, but mostly stupid suicide mission to capture a White Walker.

And now we get to Beyond The Wall. From the start, we know that we’re in for some bullshit because now those 7 men have turned into a whole caravan. Apparently between this episode and the last one, redshirts decided to join the expedition, because nothing says tension like obvious redshirts who clearly going to die instead of the protagonists.

After withstanding an attack from a zombie bear that happens just because zombie bears are supposed to be cool (I mean yeah it was cool when Alex Garland did it in Annihilation, but Benioff and Weiss ain’t even close to Alex Garland), the group somehow manage to find a lone white walker stumbling around. Wow, how luckily contrived. They bag the white walker and prepare to go, but uh oh, The Night King and his army have spotted them. They run to an icebank for refuge, but don’t worry, they wont be trapped, because they send Gendry all the way back to the wall, to write to a letter, to send a raven to Daenerys, who is all the way on the other side of the continent, so that she can she fly all the way back, over the wall, to save Jon. Are you fucking kidding me? Based on the logistics of the earlier seasons, travelling from one side of Westeros to the other can take a matter of weeks. Even with a dragon, it would still take at least half a week. Yet somehow, the raven reaches Daenerys in what seems like a matter of hours. Can this raven teleport? What the fuck? And how long are Jon and his team trapped on that icebank? It would have to have been at least a day. Wouldn't they have to eat, drink, sleep, or defecate? How did they survive that long? 

So anyways, while, they’re waiting for Danerys and her Uber Dragon, The Hound gets bored and throws a rock at one of the zombies. The rock falls, revealing that the water surrounding Team Jon has frozen, allowing the white walkers to start swarming them. Whelp. RIP Everybody. As we clearly saw in Hardhome, it is impossible to survive a white walker horde, and you guys don’t have anywhere to run, so that means everybody’s dead right? Nope. It is here that the plot armor kicks in at levels unseen before on this show.  Somehow, Jon and his allies manage to hold off the entire horde, with the only casualties being the aforementioned nameless redshirts. In perhaps the ridiculous instance, Tormund gets dogpiled and dragged halfway underwater by zombies, and yet somehow doesn’t get disemboweled.

Now Danerys and her dragons show up, and it’s time for the group to skedaddle, but uh oh, the Night King has a secret weapon. While Danerys and Drogon are parked on the ground,  the Night King pulls out a magical spear, aims it, and tosses it at…Viserion, the other dragon that’s flying in the background. Seriously? The Night King could have killed everybody right there. He pulls out a second spear, but this time Danerys and Drogon are ready to go. But for no reason, Jon decides to get off the massive armor plated dragon, so that he can protect it from zombies that cant possibly hurt it. As such, his dumbass ends up getting submerged under the ice and left. I mean Drogon could have just flame grilled the Night King right there, but nope. They gotta go.  Jon somehow doesn’t die of frostbite and makes out out from under the ice, but now he’s surrounded by zombies. But what? Uncle Benjin comes from literally out of nowhere, quickly gives Jon his deus ex machina horse, and sacrifices himself to the zombies so Jon can get away.

So that’s Thoros, Uncle Benjin, some nameless redshirts, and a fucking dragon, all lost, so that Jon could retrieve a white walker so that he could have a diplomatic talk with Cersei which, as we see in the next episode, was ultimately a pointless endeavor to begin with.

Beyond The Wall Part 2: Stark Sister Stupidity

So while Jon and his crew engage in their idiotic plan beyond the wall, Sansa and Arya are up to their own stupidity in Winterfell. Now Arya has already shown an alarming amount of stupidity this season, showing that she has no sense of diplomacy as she questioned why Sansa didn’t simply execute any Northerners who disagreed with her. However, near the end of the season, her stupidity seems to reach record levels.

 In the prior episode to Beyond The Wall, Arya seems to fall for one of Littlefinger’s manipulations, as Littlefinger plants a note from Sansa’s captivity in Kings Landing where she was forced to agree with her father’s murder, knowing that Arya will find it. The result of this is one of the stupidest scenes in the show’s history.

Arya confronts Sansa about the note. Sansa tries to rationally explain that she was coerced into writing it, but Arya seems to believe that Sansa is a traitor to her family and threatens to expose the letter to the Northerner council.  At the end of the episode, Sansa finds Arya’s face collection, and Arya seemingly threatens to kill Sansa and flay off her face. Arya’s irrational logic, combined with her psychopathic threats towards her own sister whom she was just reunited with, baffled many viewers, who were left wondering why Arya, who had always been one of the show’s most level headed characters, had for some reason turned into a crazy maniac.

After having to watch the unbelievable stupidity of both Arya and Jon, viewers were unsure of what to expect in the season finale, with many hoping that it could provide a satisfying conclusion that could rectify the season’s many problems

Season 7 Finale: Idiocy Takes Over

The finale of Season 7 culminated all of the season’s stupidity into one large lump sum. The attempted negotiation with Cersei goes exactly as expected, with her lying that she will help with the white walker invasion because of her pregnancy, and Tyrion, despite supposedly being one of the smartest guys in Westeros, actually believes her bullshit. Cersei later reveals to Jaime that her true intention is to align with Euron Greyjoy to conquer Essos while the White Walkers kill the Northerners, a deception so self-destructive that it causes Jamie to finally abandon her. Danerys starts to head North to fight. Jon and Danerys finally copulate, only for it to be revealed to the audience that Danerys is Jon’s biological aunt, so, yeah, incest, because as we’ve seen with Joffrey, incest always works out well in this universe. The episode ends with the Night King, his army, and his newly resurrected ice dragon attacking the wall. Never mind the fact that, unless this dragon has Mr. Freeze breath, there’s no reason why a bunch of ice zombies would want a fire breathing dragon around them, the Night King has a zombie ice dragon now because, it looks cool, and that’s about it. The Dragon uses, maybe fire, maybe ice, maybe a mix, I dunno, to destroy the wall, and Tormund, again, seems to survive this certain death situation. We are once again left on some cliffhangers, but this time around, the plot has become so contrived that it’s hard to care what happens next. But along with all of this, something else happened, something that may have literally been the death of the Game of Thrones.

Littlefinger's Death: The Scene That Killed The Show

Perhaps the worst event of season 7, and possibly the worst event in the history of the series, was the contrived, confusing, and pathetic death of Petyr “Littlefinger” Baelish in the season finale. Now to talk about Littlefinger’s death, we need to talk about Littlefinger’s life, and the themes of Game of Thrones. It is no exaggeration to say that Littlefinger is the main human villain of Game Of Thrones, having instigated two of the most impactful events in the series, the deaths of Ned Stark and Joffrey Baratheon, as well as killing and manipulating various others in his pursuit of power. Littlefinger’s philosophy is famously summarized as “chaos is a ladder”. He destabilizes governments so that he can exploit the various factions, with absolutely no regard for the collateral damage he inflicts. He has a constantly charismatic demeanour that allows him to fool all of his victims into thinking that he’s helping them when he’s truly exploiting them. While villains such as Joffrey, Ramsay, and Cersei may be far more sadistic, it is Littlefinger’s machinations that ultimately determine who is in power. As such, Littlefinger truly is, or rather was, the embodiment of the volatile Game of Thrones. Because of this, I had always suspected that Littlefinger would be the final human villain of Game of Thrones, that he would perhaps make a deal with the Night King similar to Craster, in which he would be allowed dominion over Winterfel, Kings Landing, or some other region while the Night King took over everything else, with Jon, Danerys, Tyrion, and the other heroes having to fight Littlefinger and the frightened population under his control before taking on the final White Walker threat. However, my predictions would turn out be wildly inaccurate.

Unfortunately, ever since Season 5, when Benioff and Weiss ran out of book material, Littlefinger’s characterization has suffered massively, as he has made increasingly more foolish decisions until he was finally killed in the most humiliating fashion ever. To write intelligent characters and plots, you must be an intelligent person yourself, and with a genius character such as Littlefinger, you need a genius writer such as George R.R. Martin. Without Martin’s material, Benioff and Weiss clearly were not up to the task of making Littlefinger the terrifyingly manipulative villain he started out as.

Littlefingers first stupid move was trading off Sansa to the Boltons. This move seemed nonsensical for a number of reasons. Firstly, Sansa was already in the Vale, where she seemed to be preparing for a position of power. So moving her from the Vale seemed like an unnecessary strategy. Secondly, why would it be beneficial to marry Sansa off to the sadistic family who helped murder her family? Especially considering that Littlefinger just helped her escape marriage to another sadist. The only thing that giving Sansa to Ramsay could possibly accomplish is getting Sansa to hate you, which is exactly what happened.

After Sansa's escape, she tells Littlefinger and everybody who can listen that Littlefinger is not trustworthy. Instead of laying low, Littlefinger tries to manipulate Salsa even more, attempting to convince her to usurp Jon's authority. Then, as Arya arrived back to Winterfell, Littlefinger engaged in his stupidest plan yet, which would prove to be his downfall. He attempted to turn Sansa against Arya through a variety of means.

The first stage of his plan, as stated, was to frame Arya with the letter, which seemed to have worked. The second stage of the plan came in the finale, in which he seemed to convince Sansa to have Arya executed in a mock trial. However, this trial proves to be Littlefinger's doom, as the Stark sisters use Bran's omniscience to expose Littlefinger's crimes. Littlefinger begs for his life, but it is no use, as Arya mercilessly cuts Littlefinger's throat, bringing a pathetic end to the villain who started the Game of Thrones to begin with.

Littlefinger's death and the strategy used to kill him is ridiculous for a multitude of reasons:

A) Littlefinger should have been suspicious the moment that the trial started and Arya was unnaturally calm for someone going to be executed on false charges

B) Littlefinger should have been wary of Bran's omniscience, especially considering Bran already

C) Littlefinger should have known that his plan to turn Arya and Sansa against each other was flimsy at best, as there would be many opportunites for both to communicate with each other and uncover Littlefinger's obvious deception

D) The show seems to imply that Sansa and Arya knew about Littlefinger's plan, and that their constant arguments throughout the season were meant to trick him. Seriously? You mean to tell me that Arya threatening to cut off her face was just a ploy to fool Littlefinger? How? Sansa and Arya's had virtually all of their arguments in private settings.

D) There was also speculation that there was a deleted scene in which Sansa found out the truth from Bran. This would have not only made Sansa seem stupid for needing Bran to figure out Littlefinger's rather overt subterfuge, but it also would have made Bran seem like even more of a deus ex machine than he already is.

E) In the first season of Game Of Thrones, in the first episode, before we learn anything about anyone, we learn the Stark's golden rule: The person who passes the sentence is the one who swings the sword. This is apparently one of the Stark families most revered codes of honor. However, in the final season, the writers seem to completely forget this, as Sansa passes the sentence on Littlefinger, but Arya is the one to kill him. What? Shouldn't Sansa be killing him?

F) Do Littlefinger and Arya not remember their little meeting with Tywin? When Arya was Tywin's servant and Littlefinger came to visit him, and there was massive tension about whether Littlefinger knew her true identity and whether or not he would tell Tywin? I didn't forget that, but clearly Benioff and Weiss did. One must wonder if in his final moments, Littlefinger regretted not exposing Arya to Tywin when he had the chance.

G) As I've made abundantly clear, Littlefinger deserved a far better death than this. Littlefinger was always known his manipulation, charisma, and calm demeanor, and yet he dies making and falling for an obvious trap, failing to talk his way out of his execution, and then crying and begging like a little bitch. To write Littlefinger off like this is a complete disservice to the brilliant villain that George R.R. Martin wrote and book and television fans loved to hate. While I am not saying that I wish Littlefinger was impune to punishment, the contrived and humiliating way that he was finally neutralized felt less like the satisfying conclusion to a character arc, and more like bad fan fiction. With Littlefinger’s death, it was undeniably clear that the show was no longer the intelligent genre-subverting narrative that had initially attracted viewers, but was instead now a shallow fantasy with nice cinematography but increasingly unrelatable characters and an increasing lack of thematic depth. As such, Littlefinger’s death may be the harbinger of the death of the show’s quality.

Season 8: The Greatest Decline of Quality in Television History:

Benioff and Weiss: How to Not Direct A Show

As I have brought up many times during this review, a lot of the blame towards Game of Thrones descent into mediocrity can be placed at the feet of Benioff and Weiss. Their incompetence at showrunning, combined with their obvious inability to replicate George R.R. Martin’s genius writing, has resulted in Game Of Thrones becoming  a television laughingstock.  They seem to enjoy watching their favorite actors emote rather than watching characters develop, and it results in them making huge divergences from character arcs because they want to watch the actors do dramatic performances, as evidenced by the death of Stannis and inclusion of Dorne.  Along with a lack of understanding of characterization, they also seem to lack understanding of the logistics of filmmaking, as evidenced by the troubled production of the Battle of The Bastards, where Benioff and Weiss wanted to a Birdman-like one hour uncut take of Kit Harington with live horses in Heavens Gate-level stunts. Their shoddy production schedule, in which they shot the episode in chronological order rather than shooting the most important scenes first which is standard practice in filmmaking, led to the final 3 days of filming and thus the original ending, where the Karstarks and Northerners rebel against the Boltons, being cut and replaced due to bad weather on the last days of filming. Also, as shown by their writing of Dorne and Sansa, there seems to be an arguable, but not definite lack of respect for women. While Benioff and Weiss may have initially seemed like good choices for showrunners, as of now, without George R. R. Martin’s brilliant material, their inexperience and incompetence is becoming more and more apparent.

So what do you think? Is Game Of Thrones ruined? Can it redeem itself with a good final season? Are Benioff and Weiss capable of writing a good final season without book material?  Will George R.R. Martin ever release another book? You judge, you decide, like, comment, and subscribe