Why Game of Thrones Season 7 felt like some other show
Everyone remembers the first episode of Game of Thrones mostly due to the way it ended, where in:
1 ) There was incest. *gasp!*
2 ) The kid who seemed to be the son of the protagonist, might be dead. *double gasp!!*
And so as we all (or so I believe most of us) binge watched through the episodes in the first season, we realised the show wasn’t exactly what we expected. It was something altogether new. Even though everyone’s favourite character, Ned Stark, didn’t quite meet the fate he deserved, it didn’t leave followers disgruntled. Maybe only temporarily. But it made them want to know more of this universe that was bold enough to not follow traditional rules.
Game of Thrones, although packaged like a fantasy epic, wasn’t. It was far more than that. It looked familiar to the elements that were present in the genre, mostly coming from our exposure to Middle Earth, Narnia, Potter-verse but seemed more…for the lack of another word… Politically driven.
For the sake of simplicity here, I’m not gonna talk about A Song of Ice and Fire, the original series of books on which the show is based on, but solely zeroing in on the show. The book along with its power of shifting point of views with each chapter, fleshed out and detailed universe, and the fact that its been more than 20 years since the first one came out has a much more consistent world built up than what we are presented in the series. [Sorry Lady Stoneheart, you’re not invited]
All said and done, Game of Thrones has been a glorious adaptation of the books. At least till the books ran out, at which point Benioff and Weiss, the creators of the show, went “Screw it! I’m not gonna wait no more.” whilst flogging the horses of plot consistency. Now this might seem like a hissy fit at the creators for the route they have taken with the past two seasons. But considering how long GRR Martin might take to conclude the books and that the cast of the show is not gonna get any younger, they were quite outta luck. And leaving such an engaging story midway, going “That’s all folks” doesn’t seem like a great idea considering the rabid fan base that’s out there.
But what marked Game of Thrones so different from any of its predecessors was its ability to break from the tropes and cliches. The fact that the plot wasn’t about the standard war of Good vs Evil, but a race to see how characters can be bent out of shape to achieve what they desire, or in some cases, just plain survive. The fact that a lot of its plot-lines challenged all our expectations, activated something psychology calls variable rewards. It’s the same principle that compels us to use slot machines while gambling or keep scrolling social media like the slack jawed ice zombies we are.
The shows pace over the course of the first five seasons had been mostly diplomatic conversations concerning alliances and splits, with a series of spike events (the gasp! moments) sprinkled in between to slap the viewer completely out of their comfy sense of security. This includes everything from pivotal characters dying, the notorious red wedding, the epic battle scenes and the cliffhanger finales. The viewers had to put up through a number of episodes in a season without anything major happening. These are times when the end credits would start rolling and make them go “Wait! No one died! Where’s the justice? Where’s all the incest I never asked for?”. But BAM! The next episode, or maybe the one after that, the course of the plot get’s altered and everyone is forced to relearn what had been gathering so far.
This ability to disrupt the conventional storytelling was what raised the stakes and blended to become a part of the shows appeal. There was always a certain amount of fun in predicting things right. But due to the nature of the show, things didn’t always quite end up as predicted which led to the show’s intrigue.
So what exactly went wrong the moment the show split from the books?
The seasons long journey of Game of Thrones is quite similar to the career graphs of a couple of famous bands and musicians. The debut and the following albums were what cemented the idea of the artist. But as time went by and the art became more embedded with business, the essence started eroding away leading to the subsequent albums trying to play catch up to the fame of the previous ones. And in the end, the band/musician is a shallow reflection of their former selves.
Season 7 can be considered that shallow reflection. It’s akin to a metal band coming out with a poppy album cause that’s what the masses crave for.
Season 7 was proof that you can’t rest the weight of the show on the fan’s shoulders. The fact that everyone got what they secretly wanted was not the point of the show in the first place. Suddenly the stakes aren’t high anymore. If Jon Snow came back to life (and let me not get started on Beric Dondarrion), with what didn’t seemed like a lot of effort, it feels like playing a game with cheat codes on.
The past few episodes saw the emergence of a clear split between good and evil. Even though Cersei Lannister’s intentions are always dubious, the White Walkers vs All-Star-Westeros, although an inevitable battle, is starting to make the plot a lot more linear. Resulting in what feels like a dumbed down experience.
All of this aside, Season 7 was still enjoyable. Each episode had me engaged like a rabbit mid mating season cause it always had something new to offer. Right from the Loot Train Attack sequence, the many awaited reunions, the suicide squad stranded on an episode of Man vs Wild, Bran Stark turning into the guy you don’t call at parties and the ultimate winner: Jon and Dany’s cave painting moment …
But the break neck speed was at the cost of the integrity of its universe. Even something like the travel times being cut by less than half suddenly shrank the stakes of what earlier seemed like a painful arduous process.
Consider Jon Snow racking up all his frequent flier miles…
Coupled with the fact that Gendry can just summon his inner sub-zero ultra-runner like it ain’t no thang, Ravens are only slightly slower than a Facebook chat message on dial-up internet, Jamie Lannister with an Army travelling 760 miles in what is supposed to be a fortnight, The Jon-Dany forced romance hooking up faster than most Tinder Dates and others, kind of ruin the flow at which the show was running on so far.
Meanwhile we also have the whole Benjen Stark pulling a deus ex machina, much like the call-on-demand-eagles in Lord of the Rings.
Hence due to the rushed nature of this season, there was an immense loss of build up which was carefully crafted earlier. This is because Game of Thrones has transcended something beyond a series of books and just a show. It’s become a yearly social tradition for the past couple of years.
I’m not sure how much of the popularity or the growth of the series was anticipated, but the show grew into a behemoth of a pop culture flagpole. Right from Ramin Djawadi’s insanely awesome title track to knowing most of the characters more than our own friends, the show might have grown beyond its own critical mass to handle itself. On top of which the numerous hacks that threaten HBO, it’s actually surprising how things have turned out so far.
And yet despite the season being not up to the mark, it still spawns debates and discussions. Weekly chats with colleagues and friends on what could happen next. The millions of fan theories including Bran being the Night King, Tyrion and his suspicious expression, Jamie eventually killing Cersei and many many more. Not to mention the unending barrage of memes that follow.
Yes, this season was more Dungeons and Dragons than The Sopranos when it comes to the storytelling department. But then we can only wait till November 2018 to know if they can learn from these missteps. GRRM did promise a bitter-sweet ending. The current direction of the show can still follow that vision. But that’s only a wild guess. Cause till then we’re the same as Jon Snow…
