From critically acclaimed to cringeworthy: The fall of Game of Thrones

Aurko Mahapatra
Aug 22, 2017 · 4 min read
Courtesy of www.hbo.com

From killing the protagonist Ned Stark in season 1 and tormenting their fans with major character deaths, plot twists, and complex politics; to playing into fan fiction and giving us implausible love stories- Game of Thrones has gone from being one of the best T.V. shows in the world to a cringe worthy teenage chick flick. This downfall had been coming since the time Jon Snow was brought back to life in Season 6, we just didn’t see it yet; or maybe didn’t want to see it. Season 7 has seen the quality of content of the show plummet to new lows, with episode 6 one of the worst pieces of work I have seen from HBO.

Courtesy of www.hbo.com

Being a student of history, I have a minor case of OCD when it comes to timelines and chronology, which is why I was on the verge of smashing my laptop to pieces while watching episode 6- “Beyond the Wall”. Nothing makes sense anymore. It seems ravens can travel at supersonic speeds; because within 12 hours of Jon and his band of idiots (who thought it was a great idea to pick up one Wight from an army of thousands right under the Night King’s nose) being stranded in that lake; Gendry (also known as The Flash) manages to get back to Eastwatch by sea, send a raven to Danaerys Targeryan, which Danaerys receives and thinks about, and then flies beyond the wall and finds the exact place where Jon and his men are stranded. Without GPS and teleportation, there is no way that entire storyline was possible in the given timeframe. Meanwhile, Jon and his friends are surrounded by thousands of wights on all sides with the Night King less than 200 metres away, but the white walkers decide to wait till the water around them freezes again to kill the ‘prince that was promised’. The Night King himself is extremely talented at Javelin throwing which he shows when he kills a flying dragon with one shot, so it puzzles me why he didn’t bother to do the same for Jon and his friends (unless the Night King really is Bran). Similarly, it seems very odd how Benjen Stark somehow always manages to find his family members in distress no matter where they are in the kingdom of Westeros.

Courtesy of www.hbo.com

Coming to Winterfell, although Little finger being at his best means that the level of politics in Game of Thrones will return to its previous heights, the animosity between Arya and Sansa is excessively exaggerated. Just one letter and a stupid show of skills from her little sister shouldn’t push Sansa, who’s grown so mature in the past 6 seasons, to plot Arya’s murder.

The most cringe worthy part of season 7, however, has to be Danaerys and Jon’s love encounter. Fans of the show fell in love with Danaerys after her confession about not feeling anything when leaving Daario, showing she was finally ready to be a player of the ‘great game’. Similarly, when Jon rejected Melisandre’s sexual advances, fans were overjoyed by knowing that even in the most tempting of situation, Jon continues to think with his brain rather than another organ. But these characteristics came crashing down when Jon started calling the dragon queen “Dany” just on their second meeting and Danaerys responded with the most forced blush in the history of the television. The writers and directors are feeding right into the demands of the mainstream fans, and in the process making Game of Thrones lose its trademark of defying the norms.

Courtesy of www.hbo.com

The only good element that has been kept up in season 7 is the large scale effects and settings. While the majestic sight of Drogon fighting in the Battle of High Garden will go down as iconic, the army of the dead and the setting in the North has been mesmerising to say the least. The special effects directors are somewhere making up for the damages caused by the scriptwriters.

While the whole storyline of Jon going beyond the wall is unnecessary, indicating it was constructed just to give the fans what they so dearly wanted- an ice dragon; the Arya-Sansa divide seems to be there just to keep the political part of the show alive. Meanwhile, the Jon and Danaerys love story destroys the emotional independence the two characters had built in a bid to keep the fans happy. Clearly this indicates that the writers of the show are running out of ideas; and giving birth to the thought that maybe it wasn’t a great decision to deviate the story of the show from the books after all.

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Phil dunphy is my hero

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