I STILL Love Game of Thrones Part 1
Updated: May 3, 2021
Tonight is the final episode of this iconic show and I am very excited and at the same time sad that it’s going to end.
I know I am in the minority when I express my love for this final season because every time I go online, people are just throwing projectiles at the show, the show runners, and George R.R. Martin. Honestly, I don’t get the vitriol at all.
For example, people hate the fact that there’s not enough setup for how characters are behaving in this final season. Like Jamie Lannister all of sudden returning to Cersei to face their fates together after several attempts to redeem himself and take the honorable path of leaving his sister-wife.
Jamie’s devotion to Cersei was planted in the pilot episode and people seem to forget that.
“The things you do for love,” Jamie said as he pushed little Bran Stark off the window while Cersei looked on – still reeling from the forbidden act that they both consummated in that tower in Winterfell.
That line. That’s all the setup you need. Yes, you can bring me everything from Jamie doing right by protecting Brienne to him being super nice to his brother Tyrion to even betraying Cersei to join Jon and Dany in the fight with the Night king’s forces and still I wouldn’t be surprised that he eventually came back to Cersei. Remember: “The things you do for love.”
I call bull when people say that Jamie’s decision to reunite with Cersei was abrupt, unnatural, and lazy. Well, how many times have you tried doing something different to make a change in your life and yet slide back into where you started? Isn’t that one of the most human experiences we all share? Quitting smoking, losing weight, separating from an ex-partner only to end up together again because it’s just so fucking hard to live apart from each other. If you’ve never experienced these, then you can say that Jamie’s story arc is unrealistic and out of character.
Now what about the outcry for the final season being rushed? Yes, there were production flaws from the Starbucks cup to Jamie’s growing hand to dark cinematography. But story-wise, I think nothing was rushed. Half of season 7 and all of the final season were designed to tie arcs after 6 1/2 seasons of setup. For some reason, people are desperately looking for more setup in this final season. Well, you won’t find it there. That’s what HBO Now is for. Start with episode 101 all the way to 806.
But some pundits are relentless. Why would a master spy like Varys all of a sudden plot against the queen she supported, trained, and advised out in the open, risking his life? They never saw this coming. I did. I knew in the end that Varys will take matters into his own hands depending on how things play out. He did so in the book but that didn’t accurately make it into the TV show. But I understood his motivations since I view him as a patriot-king/queen maker that didn’t get the results he planned for, especially when the existence of another Targaryen with a more legitimate claim to the throne was exposed.
I have seen things like this either in political dramas or real-life power grabs. Plotters and turncoats are very common and the Eunuch was one. And to think that these types of people have a straight-line path to morality and loyalty is foolish. And most of the time they operate in stealth often masking their real actions with false grand schemes meant to misdirect. So for people to think that Varys acted stupid and out of character misses the full nature of his character.
So yes, I STILL love GOT and that’s because the characters are not pre-destined by arcs meant to satisfy a linear moral trajectory. Instead, they divert and rebel against pro-conceived labels, try and redeem themselves from their unsavory tendencies, and then end up with complex problems and situations so much bigger than themselves.
And if that’s not real and human to you, then you’ve completely missed the beauty of this show.
Bring on the projectiles.