The final battle between Daenerys and Cersei . Other long - awaited confrontations . Major quality demise . Justice . Heartbreak . Much more than the fightagainst the White Walkers , this penultimate episode of Game of Thrones had everything it postulate to have . And while it was n’t double-dyed , it was still perfect for Game of Thrones .
That ’s a counterintuitive way of life to say that based on what the show has become over the retiring few years — as it transform into its own alone personal identity once it left the breeding roulette wheel ofGeorge R.R. Martin ’s novelsbehind — last dark ’s next - to - last episode matte up right . Like , yes , this is the way the show is opine to go down . No , not all of the plot or persona decisions or deaths were completely satisfying , but they were as satisfying as Game of Thrones generally gets . The upshot is the best sequence of the season so far , and I ’d be enjoyably surprised if next week ’s last is as good .
So much hap in “ The Vanessa Bell , ” but when it beginsit ’s all about Daenerys , who is … not in a sound place . She ’s suffered loss after loss , and I do n’t just intend her many defeats on the battlefield . Jorah pass away protect her , then Cersei kill her firedrake Rhaegal and her friend / advocate Missandei . She lose the wild-eyed warmness of Jon Snow , but also her rightful call to the Iron Throne . You would n’t need to have the ancestry of the Targaryens in you for all this to lead off get you crazy .
Davos (Liam Cunningham), Jon Snow (Kit Harington), and Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) get ready to see some bleak stuff.Photo: (HBO)
But it gets worse for poor Dany . It turns out she ’s also surrounded by traitors , include Jon , for revealing the truthof his identity to Sansa . Dany knows that the Lady of Winterfell tell Tyrion , who told Varys , who is now actively conjure against his queen , and endeavor to talk Jon into claiming the throne for himself . Tyrion is forced to tell Daenerys of Varys ’ bodily function , which earns the eunuch an execution . Both Jon and Tyrion abide , albeit uncomfortably , by their queen as she orders her dragon to roast Varys alive . Varys ’ net words are perfect : “ I hope I deserve this . I go for I ’m ill-timed . ”
Varys is not wrong . Daenerys is angry and alone , desperate for retaliation and to prehend the throne she believe she ’s owed . When she tells Jon that she inspire no making love in Westeros , only fear , Jon answer , “ I sleep together you . ” But after Daenerys seek to kiss her nephew , Jon ca n’t assist but break dance it off and back away . Dany has a rueful smile when she says , “ Let it be reverence . ” That ’s ominous , but Daenerys catch , uh , ominous - er . When she tells her small council that “ mercy ” is the persuasiveness that sets her violence aside from Cersei ’s , she particularise it ’s clemency for “ succeeding generations ” who wo n’t have to have next despot — the short , present - day smallfolk who are going to get killed in the crossfire of the upcoming struggle will not be most so lucky .
Tyrion , who has spent so much of the last two seasons trying to win over Daenerys not to kill everyone in King ’s Landing , has one last , desperate hail The Virgin play : If the urban center bells ring after the first violation , it will mean that the urban center has surrendered and the tone-beginning can block up . The queen only begrudgingly fit in , but with no real conviction . Tyrion decided to commit some high treason of his own , and free his brother Jaime ( who had been captured on the road to King ’s Landing by Dany ’s armies ) . Tyrion tells his brother about the secret passage from the cove into the Keep , and tap him to discover their babe Cersei , convince her to ring the Bell , and then the two of them can lean , hopefully to find a quiet life together outside of Westeros .
Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) is not in a good place right now.Image: (HBO)
Tyrion has a really good line here : “ Tens of thou of innocent lives … one not especially impeccant dwarf … it seems like a fair trade . ” But it ’s the playing between Peter Dinklage and Nikolaj Coster - Waldau that progress to this prospect so affecting . Despite all the random Lannister family reunions over the last two seasons , none of them have really had any emotional weight ; here , though , Tyrion , knowing one or both of them is probable about to die , tearfully thanks Jaime for being the only someone who did n’t deal him like a ogre when they were child . If all the gloominess and gratitude Dinklage puts into it does n’t put a rip in your middle , or the emotional squeeze between the brothers , you may be a White Walker .
At daybreak , the war begins . Interestingly , “ The Bells ” chooses to start from Cersei ’s forces ’ point of opinion : There ’s Euron and his fleet in Blackwater Bay ; the Golden Company soldier of fortune guarding the main gate to the city ; all the men man the scorpion ; and there are bowman and soldier , all break away to get quick … and then they wait . It ’s a groovy selection to spend the time looking through their oculus because it makes it far more terrifying when Dany comes screaming out of the sphere with Drogon and startle killing all of them .
Here ’s something I expect people to have a problem with : Despite the fact that the elephantine crossbow Scorpio tear a flying dragon apart like it was fresh bread just last calendar week , Daenerys and Drogon literally destruct every undivided one of Euron ’s ship and all the elephantine scorpions on every single breastwork surrounding King ’s landing place without any trouble whatsoever . They do n’t even have help ! All of Cersei ’s deliberate preparations which have been plenty deadly in season eight ? Useless , because Dany managed to grab the Invincibility Star from Super Mario Bros. for the scene .
Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) is not in a good place right now.Image: (HBO)
And here ’s why I ’m fine with it : Because while watching Daenerys and Drogon have a careful , draw out battle to take out the scorpions one - by - one might be “ realistic ” in terms of battle , it would also be boring . Jettisoning verisimilitude to keep things move briskly is just part of what Game of Thrones has become over the last few old age ( for practiced or defective ) , and there ’s absolutely no point in fight it now . Besides , without that dedication to keep affair move at top speed we might not have seen Drogon spread out the front gate , by which I mean detonate the front gate , raining flaming rubble onto the backs of the Golden Company , whose survivors are hacked down by the onrush of Unsullied , Dothraki , and Northmen .
candidly , the whole struggle is a one - sided intimacy . Once there ’s no fleet or danger to the dragon , it ’s a rout , and many of the Lannister soldiers surrender . Daenerys ’ forces win hands down , but until someone knell those bells , Dany wo n’t call off the attack . It takes a very long metre — there are a lot of shots of Cersei look out her tower , hearing periodic peasants beg her to deliver — but eventually the bell ring . Martin Luther King Jr. ’s landing place has fall . Cersei is defeated . Daenerys has her can .
regrettably , Daenerys does n’t care .
Tyrion could also be better.Photo: Helen Sloan (HBO)
She ’s too lock into what ’s she ’s lose , too focussed on what she hates . With the Red Keep looming before her , Cersei indoors , Daenerys gives into her passion and her rage , and starts destroying King ’s Landing anyway — the Ithiel Town , the castle , the the great unwashed , all of it . An every bit angry and acid Gray Worm starts attack the Lannister soldiers who had already surrender . And then everything descends into dread chaos .
It ’s the smallfolk who are the collective ace of the respite of the episode , as it expend most of its clip follow the commoners who came to King ’s Landing hop for safety , and come up they ’d only immobilise themselves . Men , women , and kid are burned live by dragonfire , or crushed by buildings tumble by it . Crowds move blindly , tread down each other . Dany ’s soldier take her destruction as a sign they can go wild , and Jon is horrified to watch the men he led start murdering innocents , looting , or unfit . Sometimes a few folks find a place they intend they ’re safe , and then pop off there anyway . It ’s all exactly as ugly as it ’s say to be , especially when you call back that Daenerys follow to Westeros with the intent of protecting these people .
While Daenerys starts to bring down the Red Keep , the Hound and Arya manage to get in . In a facsimile of a tender scene , the Hound manages to convince Arya to go , mostly because the collapse castle makes Cersei ’s death a certainty one way or another . Arya ’s retaliation is / will be reach , and she can attempt to survive for something else — something more than the Hound supervise to . Arya departs , and Sandor eventually finds his buddy Gregor descend a stairwell , guarding the queen . Once the two brother lock eye , though , the Mountain has a raw antecedence . He crushes Qyburn for assay to stop him from struggle the Hound , while the pointedly silent Cersei is allow for to abstract past them .
Davos and Jon look at something, I dunno. Probably something Dany set on fire.Photo: Helen Sloan (HBO)
Personally , I think “ Cleganebowl ” lived up to the hype . It was plenty brutal , and we got to see how messed up the Mountain was underneath his mask and armor . ( Answer : plenty messed up . ) Since the Mountain was some form of zombie , Sandor got to bring down many , many wounds on his horrible brother with no core . The part where the Hound only stabbed the Mountain repeatedly , while examine to keep his eyes from being crushed , was great — as was the reveal that even when the Mountain gets a dagger stuff in his optic , he ’s more lost than suffer . So the Hound takes out his undead brother in the most thematically appropriate way potential . After Gregor stuck Sandor ’s face into a flame , pock him all those years ago , now Sandor tackle Gregor , knocking them both off the ledge of the column , and the two twilight over a hundred metrical foot into the rebuke fires below .
regrettably , Cersei ’s fortune was n’t quite so satisfying . After leaving the Hound and the Mountain , she finds Jaime , who amount up from the tunnel — after a battle with Euron , who very conveniently wash out up at that exact place at that precise time . ( Jaime got jab a few times , but at last killed Euron , who was a narcissistic son of a bitch til the ending ) . But when the twins get down to the tunnels , Daenerys ’ reign of destruction has seal off their relief valve , and they both know what ’s do next . Lena Headey does a skillful job bear witness Cersei finally come to grips with realism , but after all these season watching her trial and loss and mental decline in quality , it feel like Cersei ’s concluding moments should have been bigger — not with a grander or more exciting end , but something more emotionally powerful as she realized that her destruction was of her own doing . Still , it ’s kind of nice that she and Jaime get to go carry one another , as the ceiling of the keep collapses in upon them .
After pull up stakes Sandor , Arya spend the rest of her time try on to escape King ’s Landing , which is no small feat , especially with everything on fire and/or come asunder and also Daenerys still raining down netherworld . If you thought it was eldritch that the show would have Arya come to King ’s Landing to stamp out Cersei , only for the Hound to easily talk her out of it moment before they found the poof , well , you ’re right-hand . But Arya really get along to King ’s landing place so we could watch a character we manage about seek to escape the apocalyptic incubus that is the surrender of King ’s Landing ( as pointed out in“Inside the Thrones ” ) instead of just the smallfolk .
Cersei (Lena Headey), in blissful ignorance of the shitstorm that’s about to come down.Photo: Helen Sloan (HBO)
It ’s a lot of scrambling , a lot of dust , and a batch of nameless smallfolk characters getting kill all around her . It drop dead on for so long that it ’s authentically stressful … and then it goes on for a bit longer than that . But the uncanny part is that it , and the episode , ends when she wakes up after the destruction has ended to find a very pretty ( and very clean ) white cavalry just standing there in the middle of the rubble , and she rides off on it . This seems extremely weird , but we ’ll have to wait until next calendar week to see if it ’s an ominous sign for Arya or just a bit of really hokey storytelling .
https://gizmodo.com/these-3-characters-destinies-were-finally-fulfilled-dur-1834383036
Given that next week is the serial finale , I ’m hoping the unearthly sporting cavalry is just a weird clean buck , because there ’s so much else leave to get to ! The old queen is dead , and the unexampled faggot just murdered ten of thousands of guiltless hoi polloi and may be the most detest fair sex in Westeros . Her consultant Tyrion just committed treason against her by set his brother Jaime free . Her lover , because of his ranking claim to the pot , is now the crowing menace to her reign . And after what she did to the innocent people of King ’s Landing , I ca n’t imagine what she would n’t do to the people that crossed her , like Tyrion , or Jon , or Sansa , or Bran , or Samwell , or … anyone , really .
Actor Marc Rissmann as the leader of the Golden Company mercenaries, who I want to call… Bertie? Bertie.Photo: (HBO)
Daenerys was supposed to be the queen that was lead to “ break the roulette wheel , ” and end the bicycle of oppression that incessantly crush the commoners no matter who was battle up top for mastery . Last Nox , Daenerys proved without a doubt that the wheel had conk out her instead , and she has become part of the trouble she had wanted to deposit . Now she might have become as paranoid and compassionless as her father was . peradventure more so .
Daenerys played the game of throne , and pull ahead , while all those who ’ve played it against her have died . Even though the game is over , nothing ’s good , and nothing ’s been fixed . So what else can masses do in next week ’s time of year finale , other than to begin a brand - newfangled round ?
Assorted Musings:
Special credit to the “ antecedently On , ” which did a marvellous job of giving viewers a clangour – course of instruction in the history of Targaryen insanity / cruelty and all the thing that have bear on Daenerys to the breakage peak . It was so good it should have been in the episode , but I understand voice montage do n’t really fit there .
Let ’s see , major character deaths : Varys , Qyburn , the Hound , the Mountain , Cersei , and Jaime . Am I missing anybody ?
Before Varys died , he was 100 pct post letters telling masses about Jon ’s real parents . I wonder if he sent them somewhere especial , or just as a general raven - based e-mail blast ?
That shot of Drogon ’s head appearing out of the shadow behind Dany just before blasting Varys was goofy but highly effective .
Uh , Jaime , you did n’t think to take your gold hired man off before trying to drop off past foe lines ? You truly are the dumbest Lannister .
Man , who else got dotty excited when the burst of green fire started erupting in tiny brilliance across King ’s Landing ? If you do n’t echo , that ’s wildfire — the stuff Cersei used to mishandle up Baelor ’s Sept with the High Sparrow and Margaery and the rest in it back in season six . I ’m accept the cause it keep bulge out up is because Daenerys ’ father , the “ mad king ” Aerys , disperse it through King ’s landing place with the architectural plan of destroying it in some sort of nuclear option . In fact , Aerys was about to apply it to tout up the metropolis when Jaime rat his oath and bolt down his Billie Jean King , saving tens of thou of lives .
remove the wildfire is still strewn about the metropolis , and there ’s absolutely no way Game of Thrones would have made certain we check all those green flame if it was only a abbreviated nod to the yesteryear . I ’m bet Aerys ’ ego - destruct episode do back in the final episode , but who use it , and why ? Does a sick Daenerys also palpate like getting rid of the city she subdue and destroyed ? Will someone use it to seek to take out Daenerys and Drogon ? Hoo son .
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