Whilst this season finale was a good episode and the scenes were well executed, I am not happy with how the show writers have treated the arcs of the ‘schemer’ characters. They are being disposed of perfunctorily with second rate story lines, and the show does not seem to realise that these characters and the system they operate in are what sets Game of Thrones apart from your usual ‘Golden Protagonist Triumphing over Adversity’ fantasy. And incesty boatsex doesn’t compensate for this loss, even if Kit Harrington’s bum is peachy.
It’s of course inevitable as the Life vs Death battle comes to a head that the “action” characters will take to the fore. This is fair enough in so far as what GofT does best as a show is spectacle and crescendo. It still does this amazingly (OMG Zombie Dragon!!!).
But the second best thing it does and I would argue the heart of what made the series stand out initially is its political realism. When “good characters” make mistakes, there are consequences. They pay. Many of the “good” characters are in fact depraved warlords, but operating to make their feudal system slightly less depraved than the “baddies”, who are perfectly satisfied with the current level of depravity. The goodies include slavers and rapers and despotic aristocrats. This is INTERESTING.
My favourite characters are those that have an intelligent view of the moral chess board, make thoughtful bargains with themselves as to what they will do to advance their interest and are skilled players — sometimes possessing privilege and direct power, sometimes cunning and verbosity: Littlefinger, Tywin, Olenna, Tyrion, the High Sparrow and most of all Varys (more recently you could arguably include Cersei and Sansa, but I have reservations about both). These characters are the Players. Jon, Dany, Arya etc might have armies, glory or hotness but they don’t actually know how to play The Game.
The Game, where its iron rules will slice through plot armour like a Valaryan blade through ice zombie, and where walking the tightrope between ruthless machiavellian device which can win you political advantage (though have longterm backlash, see Tywin’s fate) and having some Higher Goal, is why I watch. I watch to see Ned Stark die and Tyrion succeed.
This is why for me Littlefinger has always, even above the NIght King, been the ultimate villian of the series, and Varys the ‘hero’. I had hoped, and still hope for the books, that the existential threat of the Walkers plays as a stress test to the complexity of the world — pushing the moral impulses and machiavellian skill into an arena of 4D chess, where outward unity becomes necessary but planning for the aftermath is a greater opportunity. After the Walkers were defeaed, the world lay in ruins, those who had prepared for the aftermath as the traditional feudal order of things had been upended would make their move (a bit like Cersei’s plan, which is why she is fast shooting up in my estimation) — ie Chaos, Ladders, etc etc. Exactly the sort of scenario that could see a character like Littlefinger from no nobility, but utterly ruthless cunning who just wants “Everything”, ascend to the Iron Throne.
Varys seems the opposite: someone who uses ruthless deception much like Littlefinger, but does so as a dirty compromise for “The Good of the Realm”, seeking to enthone not himself but benevolent dictators over despotic ones, valuing peace and stability and governance, even if maintaining a terrible system (a blairite? :P ). At one point he calls Littlefinger the Most Dangeous Man in Westeros, and I think he was right. More dangerous than Cersei (who plays for family and biterness) or Ramsay (for psychopathic lust); a true Villain, who understands the Game better than either and plays totally for himself. Not immoral, but amoral. At least, until the writers fucked him up.
Along with fucking up Olenna’s story, Tyrion’s character and utterly sidelining Varys. The latter set up early in the show as an ultimate player with great info; a spymaster who in a season finale about politics, diplomacy and double crossing did not speak a single line of dialogue. I’m not saying I’d have traded the show time for Jon’s bum, but like does anyone really care about Thoen more than some clever Varys intrigue? (Maybe a shadow battle with Qyburn for control of the Little Birds underneath the city, during negotiations?). Olenna, one of the smartest players and someone whose character we’re invested in to get revenge for killing her family gets cornered in her own castle having made no narrative impact on the season despite her amazing dialogue and Dianna Rigg’s acting. A castle which can see for miles around btw, as a massive army creeps towards her. Tyrion I recognise has grown and become scarred and not just physically, but in earlier seasons he has a razor tongue and brilliant mind. Now, he is bested in dialogue by a barely literate Euron and his entire role has been as a plot device to show Danaerys she shouldn’t be overly cautious. I will grant he had a great scene in the finale with Cersei, but its the only one for two seasons. A long way from his exhilarating trial performance.
For their great flashy action pieces and hot protagonists the writers have sacrificed too much of these interesting complex characters, who had all been set up to be so much more than the writers have used them for. They have sidelined, killed off and, in the case of Littlefinger, had skills diminished so as to get rid of him, clearing the deck so they don’t have to worry about thoughtful characters when instead they can blow things up with Dragons in Season 8.
Now, the very fact that I as an adult have bothered to type up a rant about a fantasy show (apart form it being a bank holiday and I’m bored), clearly evidences that I am still invested in the show; I think in many respects its still great. I’m not into all the nitpicking about Westerosi travel time or whatever. The show has to make compromises from the books , which is why as much as it irks me I can swallow the fact that whole kingdoms such as Dorne, the Reach and the Stormlands seems to disappear totally during a massively consequential war. But Game of Thrones stands out because it treated its audience like adults, didn’t dumb down and portrayed an almost uniquely (for TV) large array of complex, interesting characters all interacting realistically.
The writers have compromised that for more conventional ideas about what people want to see and what they can manage to follow. It is affecting the quality of the show. Its still very salvageable, and even on current trajectory is a thrilling watch, but if it wants to end with the brutal brilliance which which it launched, it needs to invest again in the characters which are actually interesting as well as the Ice Dragons and complementary lighting for Aegon Targaryen’s posterior.
