What the f*ck was this?!?! I've never been so pissed! Cersei is the one who is insane deviant psychopath, she is the one who's always been murdering innocents and yet they gave her this "heartbreaking" death, like I'm suppose to be sad for that bitch. She deserved much worse faith. And Dany!?! Dany has been nothing but kind, fair and good queen. She helped and saved people, she never ever hurt anyone who didn't deserve it. And now, all of a sudden, in less than 5 minutes they make her do something so out of character just to make her look mad! Why? Just to justify putting Jon on a throne! Because he's a man I guess?!? Jon who, let's face it, is an incapable ruler, he never did anything right and he would be dead a long time ago if it wasn't for other people saving his ass like Sansa, Arya and DANY, but somehow he gets all the credits, praise and promotions! I was rooting 7 season for her just to get this bullshit! F*ck this show and the writers! You managed to make the best show the worst show ever! I don't even care anymore about what happens in the last episode, they probably going to kill Dany so the dumb Jon could become a king. This show is dead to me.
I was ok with the poor character development when the TV series departed from the books. I used to like thinking it was a kind of alternate universe from the "real" one.
They struggled on TV to show daenerys as a spoiled and selfish girl instead of the woman who was learning to have patience and wielding power in a so goodhearted way it asked a high price from her in the books.
But nothing could justify her acts on this episode. After their utter and final SURRENDER she says "guess what I'm gonna burn them all". Not even aiming to Central tower. Just make an open air barbecue of the city. The breaker of chains, mother of the slaves, making all peasants BURN. There is no plot excuse. 7 years of character building thrown out the window.
This is not the only problem in this episode. Arya is useless but survives inferno and has a magical horse appearing. Cersei dies in the most disappointing way. Euron just happens to swim to the EXACT LOCATION Jamie is.
Frankly I would not be surprised if D&D choose to end it next week explaining that all of it was a westworld simulation experienced by androids. Because the Deus Ex Machina limit has been breached a long time ago, and they keep forcing it.
I don’t know why people are complaining so much about Daenerys, this is her arch in the series, it is said from earler seasons, about her father and other Targaryens being mad. Her madness wasn’t out of nowhere... ahe was loved in the other part of the world and lost that in Westeros, she isn’t respected at all, she fought a war that wasn’t hers against the Night King, she lost half her army, 2 sons/dragons, Sor Johra, Misandei, she was betrayed by her council, Varys and Tyrion, she thought Jon doesn’t love her anymore because he knows he is the rightful heir... what do you people want more?? She simply thinks that she will be respected by “Fire and Blood”, since no one cares about all the good things she has done previously, she saved Westeros from the dead and yet people follow and love Jon. She decided to use her Targaryen power. It’s all her arch has shown us. And this episode brings the same feeling when Ned Stark was killed, people didn’t get it at that time, people got mad... this is Game of Thrones, wake up, breaker of standards. Go read about character archs. I just whish this season got more episodes, so it wouldn’t be so rushed.
I’d rather have had the NK kill everyone than this.
Throwback to the days when even minor character deaths had an emotional impact and made sense.
When the Lannisters surrender but you still have 40 minutes to fill the rest of the episode.
Dany: Guess I'll commit Genocide.
Foreshadowing is not the same as showing a character's arc. After 7 seasons of portraying her as a flawed heroine (even her musical themes played that up) who NEVER harmed innocent children, they needed more than two damn episodes after she saved the North to make it seem earned. [Literally the “signs” of her going mad are echoed in Sansa - Sansa is shown being jealous of Jon getting the acclaim, and being a bit of a party-pooper, and wanting to kill Cersei. But no one accuses her of being mad, because those aren't signs of madness]. You can’t just have a couple of characters worry about it, have her save millions of lives and then just magically make her go mad [In Season 4, Dany locks up her own Dragons because ONE of them scorched ONE child. There is no progression. There is her being a hero and then in the span of an episode she is mad. Hinting that Daernerys will go mad. This isn't the same thing as actually writing her descent to madness. Ned Stark and Robert Baratheon both executed people. They're not considered mad. Jon Snow executed all the guys who tried to kill him. [He turned useless not Madness]. Instead, we got an Unlimited Dragonfire Special Edition... which Dany has already experienced plenty and viewers were never given time to digest...and characters telling us it would happen, but not showing it from Dany's perspective. Like her or hate her, the character and viewers deserved a real transition with clearer motives for her Genocide actions. They went for shock value over clear character development and it was cluster fuck.
Pros
+Daenerys feeling betrayed and the talk with Jon about how she doesn't inspire love in the Seven Kingdoms so she has to resort to fear. fucking excellent dialogue.
+Jaime once again being chained to a pole and Tyrion returning the favor to him
+Cleganebowl was good, maybe not as amazing as it could've been but it was more that satisfying
+Euron fighting Jaime
+Stalemate in the city
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Dany's fury Particularly from Jon and Arya's viewpoints, was amazing
+Acting was WAAAAAAAY stronger than normal
Neutral
*Varys' death was kinda fast but it had to be
*First part of the battle was fine, nice of the writers to take the heat seeking missiles off of the ballistae
*Not crazy about Jaime returning to save Cersei as a storyline but it does make sense
Cons
-Golden Company had no point
Fuck any of the brainlets who say Dany is acting against character. Remember that part about her being raised by her psychotic brother, or when she walked into a big ass fire expecting to die, or when she threatened to burn down Qarth moments after arriving there while her dragons were still babies, or when she just gave all of slavers bay to a mercenary because she broke up with him, or how she has a savior complex and resents anyone who doesn’t immediately accept her as queen, or how she’s gradually becoming less and less accepting of criticism while being more sure of her “destiny” to rule, or when she killed Sam's family instead of imprisoning/ransoming them or how she continues to try to bang her nephew. Yeah, this came out of nowhere though lmao. She's always had that edge, seems fair that watching her best friend get her head chopped off set her just over. This isn't to say she's completely crazy either, she very well could justify making an example of King's Landing in order to inspire fear in the rest of the Realm. Remember, just because a show doesn't do what you want it to do doesn't make it bad or not make sense.
If anything, I am grateful for this episode. It doesn’t only provides us with the most stunning shots ever, it also gives us a great great message; Not one of us is purely evil and not one of us is all good. Just like the real world is and most importantly, how George wants his characters to be.
Dany’s Outburst is something true fans saw coming since the show aired back in 2011. Now that the moment is finally here, it’s difficult to see because we love her so much. If anything, i didn’t wanted it either! But it doesn’t weaken her or the show, it shows us Dany is only human and acts on her feelings, no matter how horrific the outcome would be. And for the show’s sake, we can’t all truly believe Dany would have gotten what she always wanted without any bloodshed. It’s plain old sticking your head into the sand. Of course I wanted the same as every one did. But if that would be the outcome of this episode, Game Of Thrones would be like every other predictable show. And let’s face it, the ‘not knowing what will happen’ factor it brings is the reason we all fell in love in the first place.
So, I’m grateful for this and although it saddens me that the end will be near, I will always remember the silver haired young lady who broke the wheel.
DRACARYS!
Making of a murderer. There are two kinds of populous who watch this show. First, who watch it for the spectacle and politics. Those who are in sync with the latest fan theories. And then there's the other half (maybe even less) who are interested in the characters' development and their arcs. They are the ones who indulge in proper analysis before judging an episode. So no wonder this episode has generated such a negative response. It could have served the former masses like they have for the past few seasons but I'm bloody well glad that they didn't. They threw all fan theories out of the gate and did something that no one expected. They decided to go back to the roots and do something that the OG fans fell in love with. There is no bigger joy than seeing an 8-season arc be paid off so well.
Rags to riches to rags again. This season has been about her losses and failures. Losing her children, best friend and someone who loved her unconditionally were the wheels that drove her to madness. But the final push was her love betraying her. Something that she could never contemplate. Annihilation was the only way out that she could see. This one was a TV version of Carrie.
True Love. Never saw Cersei as a black and white narcissist. So, I totally was fine with her end. Facing death with the only true love of her life while caring about her unborn child. As for Jamie, I don't think he ever loved anyone other than Cersei. He could've comfortably chosen to stay in the north.
I Hope I'm wrong. Varys was in two minds about the queen. But in the end he chose his instinct without considering that it might lead to his demise. He chose the fate of the realm over himself.
Sandor, Thank You. Great moment with The Hound and Arya. Both acknowledging their familial instincts for each other was definitely one of the highlights and looks like it came full circle.
Penultimatum. Calling this the best episode of the season will in no way be fair to other episodes as this one would not be standing if not for the 72 hour experience that was pointing to this. Don't even want to think about the finale right now. Glad that it's a week away since it will take me that much time to digest this one. Hail HBO for not following the Netflix formula
It is hard to say something about this episode, most reviews say that Dany's turn to madness and utter evil was not very well-prepared for in the earlier episodes, though on one hand when Tyrion suggests stopping the attack when the bells are rung, she does not agree to it so she doesn't fall on her promise not to attack when she hears the bells because she hadn't promised that. Later it is just mindless killing for the sake of killing. Maybe the episode doesn't make sense in the wider universe of GoT, but it is a good warning against the cruelty of war, and shows the suffering of common people and soldiers alike quite well. Arya may be too resilient to be realistic, surviving all this, but maybe she got lucky, it happens. Though the scene when she finds the charred body of the woman whom she wanted to help and her daughter is quite moving. The last conversation between Lannister brothers and Cersei and Jaimie's meeting were rather touching too. Jaimie fighting Euron was unrealistic and pointless, though, and I have no idea why the Clegane brothers were fighting since they were bound to perish in the sack of the city anyway. What Dany did in King's Landing brings to mind the events from the WWII when Germans destroyed Warsaw after the uprising.
What in the actual f*ck.
I'm a reasonable man, I realize I've been crapping on D&D even more than usual this season but I really do have to give them props for doing exactly what they set out to do. They hoped to subvert our expectations and they did just wonderfully in that regards.
We expected all of that buildup over the years to actually amount to something that at the very least passes for a presentable series finale but instead, we got an incoherent, steaming pile of shit. Expectations subverted!
We expected all of that character development to actually result in a beautiful pay-off that respects the journey of self-discovery each and every one of our beloved characters went through to get to where they are now but instead, we got a painful, disrespectful cycle of character regression. Expectations subverted!
We expected the final season of this show to keep us at the edge of our seats with thrilling writing that didn't subvert our expectations for the sake of subverting our expectations via low-quality shock value-seeking writing, but to introduce plot twists that make sense within the overall narrative of the story but instead, we got CW-level predictable, cringe material. Expectations subverted!
I get it. I really do. GRRM let them down by not getting the books ready in time and so they had to improvise away from his influence, but this? This? For a long while, Game of Thrones lived up to the slogan of its parent network, it wasn't just TV, it was something different, something unique and now to have to see it come to this... it's nothing short of disappointing.
On the bright side though, at least this episode didn't suck completely. The acting, score and cinematography were all on point, so I guess it's nice that I didn't walk out of it having appreciated absolutely nothing about it.
So why do I even bother anymore? I honestly could not tell you, though it's probably a mixture of masochism and a faint sliver of hope that they won't flush our collective investment into this series down the drain by the end of it, just one more episode dammit.
I have no idea how to rate this episode. It is a technical masterpiece. The imagery of Dany wreaking her terrible vengeance on King's Landing left me awe-struck. "The Bells" doesn't just give us all the amazing CGI wizardry of flaming death reigning from above and masses of bodies hacking one another to bits. It firmly and fully conveys the abject terror that being in that situation would create, anchoring the Saving Private Ryan-esque horror in the reaction of Jon, the efforts to escape by Arya, the mother and child who are the audience inserts and vehicles our sympathies as innocents caught in this maelstrom. There is such an atmosphere, such arresting visuals, and such a sad, frightening mood that Game of Thrones evokes here. You could show this episode to someone who'd never seen the show before and, while it would spoil a hell of a lot, I still think they would get and appreciate the gruesome peak of the show's "war is hell" mentality in a potent and visceral way.
But god help me, the show writes so many characters so poorly, and rushes others, that when you step away from the sheer spectacle and emotion of what you've just seen, it's hard not to just be frustrated. Jaime's eight-season path of growth and development basically goes to pot in twenty minutes of "I just love Cersei", without enough time to grapple with all he'd done and how he'd changed. Cersei crumples in the face of loss and death, in a way that doesn't track with her actions in the Battle of Blackwater. And Tyrion has gone from being smart if a little unduly optimistic to being downright naive about his sister and his queen and pretty much everyone these days. Other characters get a bit of the short shrift in terms of their journeys too, but the Lannisters in particular, who the show spent so much of its narrative juice on over the course of the series, just get butchered in terms of their character arcs here.
I am still awed by the visceral brutality of the Cleganebowl, touched by Tyrion's farewell to his brother and The Hound's last lesson to his accidental student, and I even buy Dany's descent into madness 100%. The final turn happens quickly, but the show has been hinting at Dany's dark side for a long time, and I definitely can accept losing pretty much all the people she loves or cares about it in the span of a week as spurring her to unleash that. Again, the direction, editing, and aesthetics of the Battle of King's Landing is truly masterful, letting you feel the force and fury of Dany's quest for vengeance while rooting it in the lives of the innocent people she's wasting.
But I still just can't get past the sorry destinations "The Bells" had for a number of characters I really cared about on the show. As spectacle, as emotion, and the bloody ascendance of The Mad Queen, the penultimate episode of Game of Thrones wows and more than does its job. But as a vindication and culmination of character arcs the show has been seeding and growing for eight years now, there is so much to be disappointed with her, that it tarnishes the episode's otherwise stunning technical and emotional achievements.
Review by cutecruelBlockedParentSpoilers2019-05-13T17:01:32Z— updated 2019-05-24T21:10:34Z
Good things about this episode:
This episode captures the theme of the novels - no one is 100% good or evil. The good guys can turn bad, kill, and the bad guys can be afraid and vulnerable. We are all capable of either based on our experiences.
For me, Cersei is one of the most complex and memorable characters of all time and I liked the way she died. No one gets her and no one deserves to. I felt her and Jaime dying in each others' arms to be very satisfying. They came into the world together, were an incestuous couple and went out together. I don't think Jaime's arc was ruined as so many claim. He was never a good character - yes, he grown along the way, but at the end of the day he was always loyal to Cersei. I thought his arc ended the only way it could have: doomed to love her. I can understand why some people would dislike it but it was a very fitting end for him.
“She is not eating.” - Sneaky Varys was trying to poison the queen. I'm a little disappointed with his death but at least he advanced the Daenerys madness plot.
Dany going mad makes sense since they have been foreshadowing it for a few seasons. It has been shown before she’s impulsive and irrational, and once she crossed over to Westeros her entire focus was to take the Iron Throne but now that the word is out thanks to Varys, she has lost everything because she knows people would choose Jon.
Tyrion telling Jamie that he was the only one that never treated him like a monster was heartbreaking.
The cinematography and music were absolutely perfect.
Bad things about this episode:
How does Danaerys fail so hard with three dragons, but succeed so easily with only one dragon? Last episode a dragon was killed so easily, this episode one dragon did all that without dying.
Did not expect Cersei’s defeat to be so simple. No strategy or no back up plans. She legitimately only had 10 lines this season, all she did was to stare out of her balcony.
Euron is one of the worst written character in television history. Him talking directly to camera, “I am the one who killed Jaime Lannister” was so cheesy. And his fight with Jaime was pointless. How come he magically washed ashore at the exact location where Jamie was?
Arya's plot armor is getting ridiculous.
How are all these dorathki and unsullied still alive?
All in all, this episode was about Dany’s descend into madness and Cersei's death, so it was a predictable one as I expected it.