‘Game of Thrones’: No Choice at All
“David Sims:”
“This late in its run, Game of Thrones is mostly about tyrants, and I’m glad it’s aware of that.”
“There are plentiful types of tyranny for the Westerosi to choose from, of course.”
“There’s the conniving elitism of Cersei Lannister, still convinced of her house’s utmost superiority and willing to rule over whatever kingdom she can get, even if she has to blow everyone up in the process.”
“There’s the “liberation” offered by Daenerys, who claims to offer freedom from oppressive rulers but really is presenting a more binary choice: Join her, or die.”
“Finally, to the north, there’s the impassive force of the Night King, who offers only the apocalypse, something more than a few bedraggled citizens of Westeros might welcome at this point.”
“It would be too easy for this show to pitch Daenerys’s efforts at conquest as a battle between good and evil. That’s never been a narrative pursuit in George R. R. Martin’s books, and it was entirely absent from the fiery ass-kicking her Dothraki/dragon combo delivered to Jaime’s forces last episode. There are people to root for, and people to fear, on both sides, and the viewer’s sympathies lie more with Tyrion, aghast at the visceral carnage.”
“There was nothing triumphant about the scene.”
““Eastwatch” picked up right in the aftermath of Daenerys’s assault on the Lannister loot train, as the mother of dragons stuck firmly to her brand and offered the beleaguered troops a supposed “choice”: Bend the knee, or get roasted alive.”
“It’s a problem that has plagued Daenerys since her days liberating Slaver’s Bay: the concept that her noble ideals, backed up with displays of strength (i.e., dragonfire and conquest), will be enough to win hearts and minds. Instead, as Tyrion and Varys know, all you end up with are endless displays of strength, which can quickly make you a Mad King (or Queen).”
“Davos is a loyal soldier, and his loyalty only ended up costing him his son’s life (as he reminded Tyrion), the men around him, and eventually, his liege lord Stannis Baratheon. His loyalty to Daenerys is different and more complicated, the same kind of loyalty Tyrion, and Varys, and even doe-eyed Jorah have for her: They see the chance for something different in her, even if she often behaves just as badly as the rulers they served in the past. It’s something Jon recognizes, too (and, in turn, something Daenerys recognizes in him), and that’s why this mission to retrieve a White Walker makes a mad sort of sense, as hair-raisingly dangerous as it might be. That Daenerys would consider such a scheme, rather than going around burning more castles and scoring more easy victories, is the glimmer of real hope that everyone recognizes beyond the tyranny.”
“Lenika Cruz:”
“David Benioff and D.B. Weiss are giving us a bunch of last-hope, only children carrying on some noble cause after being dismissed by their family—Samwell Tarly (disowned his dad), Jorah Mormont (same), Gendry (same), Daenerys (exploited by her garbage brother Viserys), Jon Snow (who, by virtue of his bastard-dom, could never be a real Stark; he was also murdered by his Night’s Watch brothers).”
“Game of Thrones enjoys poking at the arbitrary conventions involved in maintaining the institution of family; it also suggests the strength of blood depends entirely on how seriously the members of a given clan take that bond. The Lannisters take family most seriously of all the houses left on the show.”
“Look up north for a contrast. We noted last week how peculiar and cold the Stark family reunion was. I’m not saying the Starks don’t care about each other, but the individual identities of the members of their family have been destabilized to the point where mere relation doesn’t seem to be enough to ensure feelings of loyalty. Bran and Arya and Sansa have all become different people: the Three-Eyed Raven, No One, and Lady Stark (f.k.a Lady Bolton, f.k.a. wife of Tyrion Lannister).”
“For all this episode’s fixation on protecting and ending bloodlines, and on family name-checking (even Gendry and Jon trust each other almost instantly because of who their fathers were), more important was how “Eastwatch” coaxed the characters to think less tribally, for once.”
“Megan Garber:”
“Sigh, I agree about Jorah. But ironically, if he meets his end in the next episode—a death not by stone but by ice—it would be one of the least existentially tragic deaths the show has portrayed so far. In “Eastwatch,” Jorah got what he’s been wanting for so long: reconciliation with Dany. That element of his story, which is in a lot of ways the element of his story, was given a happy ending. Which is a rare thing in Game of Thrones’s world: So few of the people in this place end their stories having gotten what they want. So few die fulfilled. That’s one of the things that makes watching this show—in addition to the, uh, torture and gore and general bleakness of life in Westeros and beyond—so reliably depressing: There is a pervasive sadness to the proceedings here. On top of everything else, this is a land of dead dreams.”
“One of the things Game of Thrones has been so heavy-handedly hinting at this season—beyond the idea that Jaime might betray Cersei and that Jon Snow’s true parentage would be revealed and in due course Change Everything™—is that, in a show about dragon-fire and ice zombies and all the rest, the most destructive thing of all, in the end, might be classic human obstinance.”
“Would humans being human be the death of humanity? Would people’s stubbornness and selfishness and willful ignorance prevent them, in the end, from resisting the encroachments of the Night King?”
“One of the things I’ve appreciated about the show, pervasive existential sadness notwithstanding, is how methodically—but also how artfully—it has infused those questions into its storyline.”
“From the start, it has been interested in the tangle of information that is true and information that is manipulated—in belief that is justified and belief that is not.”
“People have compared the White Walker plot in Games of Thrones’s world to climate change in our own, and I think, in general, that’s a really fair comparison to make: The White Walkers, too, are a slow-moving menace. Battling them requires first that people expand their views of the world to accommodate a new and weird reality. In Game of Thrones’s universe, the epic and climactic battle between the forces of winter and the forces of life could end up being, the show has hinted, less a classic war and more an easy conquest. The White Walkers could win by default. They could win simply because they have at their disposal that most powerful of things: weaponized human ignorance.”
“This has been a season that has been, in addition to everything else, a really detailed portrayal of the dynamics between belief and disbelief.”
“I did appreciate how the episode explored belief itself as a weapon in the war against the Night King and his forces.”