Frewns - GoT S7E6 spoilers

Old Man Rating: Various

I caved and watched the leak and I'm glad I did because it was impossible to avoid spoilers on the internet. As I said earlier, I think this will be a Marmite episode - and I'm not entirely sure where I sit on it.

The multi-layered, nuanced GoT is well and truly over. This started to happen when the show moved beyond the books but has really taken off this season. In the "behind the episodes" clips you hear the showrunners saying "we wanted to get [the magnificent seven] together fighting wights, so it was a question of what could we make happen that would have that effect".

That completely changes the nature of the beast. It's plot out some "kickass scenes", plot backwards from there to where we are to get those scenes to happen. The exact opposite of how GRRM writes his books.

For my own sanity I should just accept that it is what it is, enjoy the spectacle - and spectacle there undoubtedly is - and leave the storytelling to GRRM, if he ever finishes the tale (I reckon 2019 for Winds of Winter; I am really not sure A Dream Of Spring will ever get written).

That means putting aside the obvious illogic of "Tyrion's Plan", for example, or the multiple Oh That's Convenient happenings (c.f. timing of Dany's intervention). Even having done do, though, I found quite a few aspects of this episode grated. Just one named character, but all the "redshirts", died? I'd expected many more than that - deaths of Tormund or Jorah or the Hound or even Davos would have had much more emotional impact, though I expect the latter two to have plenty to do next season (I think Davos is more important than we realise, but that's just me).

The fight was very spectacular and the raising of Viserion at the end was too. Did the Night King forsee dragons and lay a trap specifically for them? I assume so as otherwise why would he happen to have those chains available, or those spears? But that's not too bad a stretch - clearly he has Bran-like powers, probably with more control over them than Bran currently has.

Dan/Jony falling in love is so lame. I guess one or both dies next season for Extra Emotional Impact.

I don't get Arya this season. But then I didn't get her last season either - wandering around Braavos in the open when the World's Deadliest Assassins(tm) were after her, for instance, was just ridiculous and out of character - as is the sniping with Sansa. The kindest explanation is that this is all some master deception for the benefit of Littelfinger's spies. Any ways up, I think Littlefinger is not long for our screens. However with all the Braavos stuff last season there was a lot of theorising/clever internet plotting to explain the apparently out of character behaviour we were seeing. None of it turned out to be true: it was just poorly written (not as badly as Dorne, but Arya-Waif bits jarred). I worry this is more of the same.

So as the spectacle ramps up and the beats get bigger and bigger I'm finding it less and less the story I fell in love with. There *is* a part of me that will enjoy the spectacle notwithstanding, and I do realise that the show and the books are two very different things.

I did like the way in the previous episode Gilly got a throwaway line confirming Jon Snow's legitimacy and the irony of Sam - who was fed up finding important stuff but being ignored - ignoring this important stuff Gilly found. There are touches like that, or Davos doing the Gendry Meme, which I really enjoy.

I find it hard to give this a solid rating, though, because as the season progresses it becomes less and less Game Of Thronesy, and I regret that, however spectacular what it turns into has become.

Posted By: Old Man, Aug 21, 09:46:01