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Just kidding. *This* battle scene is actually perfectly well lit!
[I SAID SPOILERS! CAUTION!]
Many unexpectedly stupid comments have been posted on fine sites like AV Club about Season 8, Episode 5 of Game of Thrones, aka Episode 72 or the Penultimate Episode. Most of these are whinging about Dany going “Mad Queen.” They make a faulty presumption: that Dany actually WENT “Mad Queen.” I rise to her defense.
IN DEFENSE OF DAENERYS, FROM HER OWN PERSPECTIVE:
(1) She did not go “Mad Queen because” Jon the Unwitting Nephew wouldn’t continue getting jiggy with her once he found out their relation.
And for R’hilllor’s sake, she was not being hormonal! (Stupid male commenters!) Nor was her attack simply an emotional reaction to Cersei’s murder of Missendai.
She was completely clear about her options. When Jon said that he loved her as his Queen, not not as his incestuous lover, she realized that that was not going to be enough for her to retain his loyalty — especially when people kept on preferring him to her despite her better preparation and such.
She had hoped that she could rule Westeros by love, using Jon’s love for her as an example and benefiting from some of the lose for him accruing in her own account. Without that, she was going to have to rule by fear. (Essentially, she moves from a Jimmy Carter or Barack Obama view of leadership to a Dick Cheney or John Bolton one.) If you want to rule through fear, then of course you provide your best and clearest demonstration of why you *should* be feared. And so she did. (Note how Jon’s choice to reject incest recapitulates Ned’s choosing honor over realpolitik. Would it really have killed you, Jon?)
She flat out SAID “fear it is, then.” Why would we be surprised, then?
(2) She couldn’t do a direct blind-of-any-threat Dothraki charge at the Tower where Cersei was because she didn’t know how many scorpion bolts they had left.
Last week people were complaining about her not doing some fancy tactics and zooming in on Drogon to incinerate the Iron Fleet (East). She didn’t do that because she’s not an idiot — she had to think through what had happened (which was “unthinkable”) and come up with tactics to counter the threat — which it looked to me like she did.
She wasn’t going to get too close to the tower because it was reasonable to expect that they would have their best fortifications — including scorpions — there to protect against such a charge. Lose Drogon and she loses her means to defeat Cersei. So again, she was just being not-dumb and avoiding any situation where she could fall into yet another trap. WE knew that the scorpions were destroyed. She did not.
(3) Militarily, she had to make sure to destroy enough to make absolutely sure that Cersei was definitely dead.
Dany’s main concern was with ensuring Cersei’s downfall — and she didn’t get it without exerting this near-maximum level of destruction. It’s hard to think of how she COULD have gotten it. OBVIOUSLY, hearing the bells was not enough: we heard the bells, but we never heard Cersei give up her right to rule.
We know that she was right to look out for tricks by which Cersei could escape — because there WAS a plan, devised by her own Hand, for Cersei TO escape. (Tyrion really *does* deserve to die, by GoT standards, for such an act of treason.) The only way to give Dany the security she needed to end the war was for someone whom she KNEW to be Cersei to either die or surrender. But frankly — and let’s remember how many “doubles” there are in the series (especially in the books) — she wasn’t even safe there. The smart thing for Cersei to do would be to have Jamie show up with a Cersei lookalike and execute her right where Missandei died — but even then Dany would have good reason to suspect that it was a trick and continue fire (so to speak.)
(4) Dany didn’t have to worry overly much about King’s Landing
If (as I suspect will be the case) she planned to rule from Dragonstone. Better there than at a wrecked castle — so why not wreck the castle? By the way, there’s no way that a half million people died in the Red Keep, so there’s plenty of King’s Landing left anyway.
(5) But Dany is not as clever as she imagines. She may still lose.
Dany’s big problem is that (a) she’s likely to be murdered and (b) if someone figures out how to kill her dragon — or (more easily) at least blind it — then she can no longer instill fear. My bet would be that Jon and Arya (possibly planning with Bran and Sansa, and maybe Tyrion if he’s still alive) blind Drogon with archers — remember the first episode and the one where we saw how great a shot Arya is? and the Oberyn & Wight Giant & Hound/Mountain foreshadowing? — and that Dany turns out to be a paper dragon, perhaps allowed to rule Dragonstone while the rest of the Seven Kingdoms all become independent.
The problem with that bet is that it’s not bittersweet enough. So maybe Jon and Dany and someone else die in the process too. Even a blind Drogon can still burn people. Then again, the bittersweet part may come when the rest of the Dothraki and Unsullied join forces, after Dany and/or Drogon die, and just slaughter people willy nilly. Maybe the Iron Bank can send elephants to stop that.
I keep looking for a disagreement, but still find myself concurring. Let’s unpack a few items though…
…she moves from a Jimmy Carter or Barack Obama view of leadership to a Dick Cheney or John Bolton one.
That’s actually why I find this (painful to watch) episode compelling. When people we love cause innocents to suffer death by hellfire, we strive to discount/avoid/minimize the horrible incongruity. When Barack Obama ordered drone strikes, we shrugged aside the horror of shattered cities and slaughtered children – ‘he’s not like that other guy who did much the same but did it for [cruelty/financial gain/racism/politics/etc.]’
Indeed, how many millions turned to GOT precisely because they wanted an escapist fantasy to avoid the psychological pain of confronting our own complicity? What historical ‘breaker of chains’ did so without killing thousands of innocents? Lincoln (who presided over the largest slaughter of Americans in history)? Spartacus? L’Ouverture?
And in this day and age, when dragon-drones breathe hellfire to wreck cities from which ‘enemies’ attacked us – how often do we hide from the horror of it, and simply shrug by saying ‘it’s justified?’ ‘It’s necessary?’ One more strike, and then it’s all done… You know which horrors and travesties I’m referring to…
I could track Dany from Season 1 through the entire series: this isn’t some ‘sudden transformation’ produced by bad writing/pacing. The most remarkable element is the extent to which we’ve rejected the evidence that was right in front of us (men are predictably fooled by Clarke’s physical presence; women were just as fooled, but by the rare ‘triumph’ of a woman in a man’s world). Season 1 she burns a witch at a stake – something horrific – but ‘justified’ by that witch’s duplicity…even if the which carried out her promise quite literally (or maybe Dany didn’t mean when she agreed to pay ‘any blood price’). In every season since, she’s crucified, crisped, entombed or incarcerated whoever she needed, whether she loved them or not. We felt tinges of discomfort occasionally, but blamed ‘bad writing’ (e.g., the tone deaf imagery of the ‘white savior’ – could it be we were supposed to feel discomfort watching those Mhysa scenes?).
But Dany is not as clever as she imagines. She may still lose.
We haven’t heard from the Iron Bank in quite some time…whether the story goes there or not, in the real world, we know who winds up ‘helping’ to finance any reconstruction: the carpetbaggers that come after the cataclysm. Yet in this world, the World Bank has never wielded ‘control’ – just influence (as with all those other banks). Perhaps expecting the bankers to call the shots would be attributing a cynicism that Martin never shared?
But if ‘The Bells’ is a sickeningly literal ‘Scouring of the Shire,’ the next episode will be ‘Into the West.’
“The problem with that bet is that it’s not bittersweet enough.”
Again, concur. Arya already destroyed Sauron (oops). A few fans might be satisfied by a repeat, but certain problems just aren’t fixed by piercing someone’s heart…
Must Dany die? Drogon? Arya still exists: Dany knows she is mortal. Can Bran warg into Drogon and demonstrate how little control Dany actually has? Drogon could even melt the Iron Throne of his own initiative – a dragon is not a slave – and Dany wouldn’t really know who was behind it. Perhaps that would rein her reign without any more Castamere rain…
Gray Worm noted Jon’s ‘treasonous’ turn in King’s Landing – and looked back twice – confused, then angry. Unfinished business…is Jon moving North, mano y wolfo? Starting a new Night’s Watch? Wouldn’t the Unsullied be ideal watchmen?
Is Brienne or Arya pregnant? Will we have a baby bump and a promise to tell the truth to the child to come about the ‘Great Queen’? Perhaps Arya takes up acting, and Sam-‘Will’ Tarly writing dramatic or historical accounts, a stand-in for Bill the Quill, ‘s stand in (with people wondering whether Tyrion actually penned these accounts?)
Perhaps the writers WANT us to feel ‘unsatisfied’ by this ‘return of the king (queen).’ At the very least, will anyone ever be satisfied again with Tolkien’s answer for how to resolve this story and it’s ubiquitous imitators?
Wouldn’t the most satisfying ending be if thousands of infuriated would-be authors watch how this ends and are motivated to do it better than Martin did?
Line from “Person of Interest” back in 2016: “The CIA lost the War on Drugs and now has taken over that business to fund the War on Terror!”
*Yesterday, we saw John Wick 3. Being serious fans of John Wick and John Wick 2, Three was a giant disappointment. Uber Violence when coupled with serious incite and intelligence is always entertaining. Three turned out to be nothing but Uber Violence and stupidity. Not a great combo in our minds. There was little character development of the bad guys. In fact the so called Ajudicator should have been dusted after the first scene. She wasn’t …..and not the 2nd or 3rd time. Sadly, John Wick 3 brought no new tech info, no new wisdom and no desire to return for John Wick 4….which is fraudulently does as a near two hour trailer for John Wick 4! Brutal Consumerism……and hardly worth the $7 bucks we spent on the Medium Popcorn!
Had to come home and watch three episodes of Season 2 of “Person of Interest” on Netflix to get our minds right after holding our ears for two hours!