The internets are aflutter with discussion and memes about Sunday night's Game of Thrones finale. I was neither less nor more less disappointed than I've been all season long. That is, after we passed the point where things began to feel rushed and half-assed . I think there is much to be considered as to exactly WHOSE story this was. In a show with so many characters and locations, as you wind to a close and begin to zero in on events in one place and among a select group of characters, who is in the scene begins to reflect who the story is mostly about. At times toward the end, this became harder to discern. Was it Tyrion? Was it Jon Snow? Was it Daenerys? Who are we following? Who should we be rooting for? (this I think is why many people were really frustrated with the Mad Queen scenario, they thought it was her.)
And what of those characters whose story it once seemed to be (I'm thinking primarily of Cersai here) who become merely the antagonist in the final season, and not a very layered and carefully drawn one at that. Obviously, since she got very little screen time and an unspectacular end, it wasn't really her story. Or Jamie's. The closest you might come is Tyrion. Who are you supposed to hail as the hero of things? Not Jon Snow, surely? And certainly not Bran. (I would argue the only two people with a lick of sense in the whole damn show were Sir Davos & Sam--interestingly one who could do nothing much but read and another who was being taught how to read.) They kept saying that Bran was the person who held all the stories and the memory, but surely Sam, with his refrain "I read it in a book." was just as knowledgeable.
There is much in there about the importance of reading and knowing history in order to avoid repeating it. think of Joffrey's reluctance to read the history of the Kings. The entry on Jamie Lannister that Brienne completes. Sam's book at the end. It brings t mind the quite that history is always told from the side of the conqueror. Had Dany not gone awry, it would have been her history to write. So who then do we look to as our hero? I was really pulling for Sansa to end up on the throne, because it would make sense for it to be her story, given how badly she fared through much of the journey.
There is much in there about the importance of reading and knowing history in order to avoid repeating it. think of Joffrey's reluctance to read the history of the Kings. The entry on Jamie Lannister that Brienne completes. Sam's book at the end. It brings t mind the quite that history is always told from the side of the conqueror. Had Dany not gone awry, it would have been her history to write. So who then do we look to as our hero? I was really pulling for Sansa to end up on the throne, because it would make sense for it to be her story, given how badly she fared through much of the journey.
