After last week’s well-seeded character work, Game of Thrones nears the end in its 2nd battle episode of Season 8, where the main tension seems to be if we’re seriously supposed to believe Daenerys is now just like her dad because she was snubbed at a party. It’s sure to be another classic David Benioff and Dan Weiss (D&D) episode, so join us for a live viewing as we react in our Disqus comments below!
For those who’d like to play this season’s CAROL, get your official boards right here!
Our reactions to this episode
Julia
I feel like I’ve said this every every episode this season, but man do I feel nothing. A bunch of major characters died, I guess, but I have no emotional attachment to anyone anymore.
This episode was extra, though. Never have so many random things happened for so little reason that I could discern. Never has set up been more obvious. Never has a fashionable haircut trickled so far down the social hierarchy!
Highlight: I really enjoyed how stupidly one-sided the battle was. They’ve been building up this battle since the end of season 6 and… that was it. True story, I looked down the type something in the liveblog and when I looked back up, the Golden Company was gone. That fast. Man is Tycho Nestoris going to be disappointed. And the scorpions work with Plot Driven Aiming, only hitting targets when the narrative finds it convenient. It was so pathetic that they needed the commander of the winning force to go on a rampage for literally no reason. Did she really have her heart set on burning things and didn’t want to pass up the opportunity?
The sense of anti-climax is strong. If I didn’t know much better I’d think they’d had a surprise cancellation after episode 2 or something and were desperately trying to wrap things up in four episodes.
I realize my highlight seems a lot like a lowlight. But this total lack of quality is enjoyable at this point.
Lowlight: So, Larry had no character arc at all, it seems? His dying words were about how all he cares about is himself? Also, what was Varys in this whole show? Arya’s super into revenge but then she’s not.
And she rode off on a white horse?
I’ve never seen character development as feeble as this outside a sitcom.
Just one more week, just one more week….
Caroline
I have no investment in this show anymore. The characters act so randomly it all means nothing. Some game site, with Hentai games, porn games just look here download and play. Why was Jon commanding people to fall back when they clearly already won and killed everybody? Why did Dany decide NOW to use her dragon effectively? Why was killing Gregor so important that Sandor had to sacrifice himself? I do not understand.
Highlight: SO friends, pals, readers… I literally cannot think of a highlight. I found this episode boring and abysmal. Nothing made sense. My notes for it are a lot of “WTF” and “how is this happening” comments. Therefore, I will go ahead and make my highlight the one moment I actually, genuinely enjoyed: the reappearance of Floormap.
Since its first entrance onto the GoTs stage in season 7 (I think?), Floormap has intrigued and bemused me. It’s so impractical – how can you plan anything on it? Where did they get all that pigment? Is it used, perhaps, for a Westerosi form of Twister? These questions will haunt me eternally. But this I know: from its use as a place for Cheryl to monologue about misogyny, to its backdrop when Larry was planning troop movements that would never happen, to its final performance here tonight, Floormap has never failed to deliver. I feel, in many ways, that Floormap is a microcosm of the problems with this show – and is perhaps a microcosm of the problems in us all.
So kudos to Floormap, for making my viewing experience worth it.
Lowlight: There are many. I’m going to narrow this very finely to a broad idea in two points: misogyny, as demonstrated by (1) good guy Tyrion and (2) Cheryl only caring about her baby. First, good guy Tyrion. Of COURSE he’s the reasonable one; of COURSE he needs to subvert his queen to do the right thing; of COURSE he’ll risk his life to save his brother. Of COURSE he cares about the small folk! The children are at stake! The reason this is related to misogyny, and the sexist patten of the show, is because of Tyrion’s juxtiposition with Deadpan. He is reasonable, kind, and cares about people; she suddenly doesn’t have any of those qualities. Please recall that Dany was always the one with “the gentle heart” and who was “loved” and who cared about smallfolk enough to literally abolish slavery in this universe. But once she’s in a room with Tyrion, he gets all those qualities; though he’s never demonstrated them before. This is sexism, plain and simple.
Part two: Cheryl’s baby. Of COURSE Cheryl only has “a reason” now that she’s pregnant. This is as classically sexist as you can get – a woman’s reason to literally live is because of her role as a mother. What. Is. This. Bullshit.
There are many other amazing moments from this shenanigans episode. I’m sure we will rant about it ad nauseum on the podcast. I know I will!
