Game of Drones: Season 8 Episode 4

***SPOILER WARNING***

READ AT YOUR OWN RISK

"Subverting expectations" being all the rage is turning out to be a real drag. As stated in my last contribution on the series, there's a difference between being unexpected and good, and the writers for Game of Thrones no longer seem to know the difference (if they ever did at all). Things are happening and being resolved in increasingly unexpected, and therefore rather random, and therefore unfulfilling ways. The death of yet another dragon wasn't entirely unexpected, but the way it occurred was pretty much completely random and ridiculous, and therefore incredibly unfulfilling. The writers clearly conflate defying expectations with adroitness, and sacrificed the latter in pursuit of the former some time ago.

At this point nothing would "subvert" my expectations more than a coherent script. 

Conversely, the things playing out as expected were often very predictable; e.g., Dany's descent into despotic myopia and the resulting perfidy of her advisers. As I observed years ago.

"Jon, having that same pervading integrity and indefatigable sense of justice as his surrogate father, Ned, would frankly be the better 'ruler;' a Targaryen with a Stark's honor." - - Me, May 23, 2016.

"Jon Snow should end up the ruler of Westoros. [...] Dany's character [...] sounds ever more like the pretentious, entitled Viserys. Jon has no interest in power, it's always imposed upon him, whereas Dany now covets it above all else just like her insufferable brother (to which everyone around her is absurdly oblivious). She's becoming a more one-dimensional segue for the dragons getting from one continent to another with every episode.

As I said before Jon Snow's character is the only one that personifies unadulterated goodness. He's the one paragon of decency and virtue, in a sea of characters that are habitual, self-serving conscience compromisers, or even abject evil. The reason for this difference, and why Jon is the more suited to rule, is obvious; Jon was raised by Ned Stark; a man of indefatigable honor. Dany was not. She's not evil, but she's not entirely good either, and lacks the temperament to be a "great" ruler; contrary to the sentiment all the sycophants that surround her." - Me, July 31, 2017.

"I believe he (Tyrion) has begun to question Dany's worthiness as a ruler, particularly when she burned Sam's father and brother (despite his repeated appeals to spare them). He saw what every viewer should have seen long ago. Dany is more like her father than those around her will admit. She's obsessed with power, vindictive, egocentric, etc. I think Tyrion realized that truth on some level in that episode, and that he was perhaps merely trading one despot for another." - Me, May 4, 2019.

Dany is a walking contradiction at this point, ridding the world of tyranny (in her own mind) through increasingly tyrannical acts. "I've come to free you. Now bend the knee or die." Despite having arguably "good" reasons for her increasing austerity and vindictiveness, she's blind to the inherent contradiction and increasing hypocrisy of her agenda. The real irony is that Dany already had everything she wanted, just not in the place she wanted it. She could have done in Essos what her ancestors did in Westoros. She was already a ruler there, and even loved by many of the people, but that wasn't enough for her. Had she been content with that kingdom and stayed there, she eventually probably would have become one of the most powerful rulers in the world. And later her, or her children, or their children, could have taken Westoros after they'd raised a legion of dragons. But it wasn't the kingdom she wanted, on the continent she wanted, with the people she wanted. So here we are, two dragons down, and her claim to the throne becoming weaker by the day. 

As for the show there's this weird thing going on now, in which it's bouncing back and forth between extremes of unpredictability and predictability, but both are often disappointing and unfulfilling. Both the things I expect to happen, and the things I don't expect to happen, end up being disappointing. I anticipated Dany would distrust, if not seek to murder Jon for being a potential rival, the moment his true lineage was revealed. But that's a disappointing outcome on a personal level. There only seem to be those anymore. 

And once again, as in the last episode, poor decisions abound. Dany after losing another dragon, makes the worst decision possible and flies directly into the line of fire, and somehow survives. And much like the Night King, after nailing one dragon three times, her attackers inexplicably can't manage to hit the other one (even when it presents itself on a platter) for anything. The entire time Dany and her small attachment of escorts were appealing to Cersei to surrender, I just kept asking myself why Cersei didn't murder them all right then and there, effectively ending the war. Dany was about 150 yards from the gates and virtually defenseless. Her dragon was of little use and also seemed far too close, sitting on the ground within range of the ballistas mounted on what appeared to be every tower surrounding the city. Tyrion again stupidly tries to reason with his genocidal sister.

I mean, I don't even understand how this dragon killing ambush happened in the first place. Dragonstone is basically a stone's throw away from King's Landing. Cersei would have had ample time to annex the apparently abandoned island and castle, place assassins lying in wait, plant with wild fire caches, or garrison troops there while Dany was up north fighting the NK. How Dany, and especially Tyrion, seemingly never suspected a thing, given its proximity to King's Landing, seems quite absurd. But they needed an excuse to kill a dragon, and further level the playing field in Cersei's favor, and so we got another lazy deus ex machina via crack shot Euron's ambush at sea.

I used to think the show was too slow in the beginning, and now conversely, it seems to be racing by with little thought given to nuance. The attention to detail, and therefore the quality, has significantly diminished. The writing seems just sufficient enough to segue the characters from one scene to another, with overall narrative credibility having fallen almost completely to the wayside at times. For example, there appeared to be about 20-30 people left alive in Winterfell at the end of Episode 3. Yet in Episode 4, Dany's forces have regenerated, and we're told that apparently thousands remain alive. The Dothraki, which were ostensibly obliterated, it's implied will be a factor in the upcoming battle; which means they're not only still alive but survived in significant numbers.

Again, it reminds me of another show I shan't name here. (But it rhymes with The Walking Dead.) But I will provide you with an example for illustrative purpose.

I will never forget the episode in which Carol uses a bottle rocket like a mortar to blow up a fuel tank. It's just one of countless and wildly absurd things that occurs in TWD. Like characters taking cover behind pieces of plywood or sheets of aluminum during battles with high powered rifles. But I post this in particular, because not only was it a deus ex machina that saved multiple main characters (whose captors were distracted by the explosion), but because it's also only slightly less ridiculous than Rhaegal's death in Episode 4. Much like TWD, when GoT's writers need a projectile to hit something it's a homing missile, and when they don't those some weapons become essentially useless.

In order to maintain the narrative integrity integrity, I feel like the battle against the Night King should have unfolded over several episodes, if not a whole season (not unlike The War of The Five Kings). Jon and the living being forced to retreat repeatedly, and more of Westoros joining the conflict out of necessity. The battle against the Night King should have also killed either Jon or Dany, ultimately determining who ended up on the throne, with the survivor seeking revenge against Cersei for her betrayal (if she was to be the last conflict).

Dany, in her abject vanity this episode, has never been more odious. She sits in the corner sulking like a brat because someone else is getting attention and praise instead of her. All these people just survived the end of the world, and she can't allow them one night to let loose, and let family and friends celebrate together. It's all political for her and she therefore sees only opportunity or perfidy in everything occurring. She has no qualms about asking Jon, whom she knows to be an honest man, to deceive those closest to him purely for her own political benefit. And speaking of that Dany and Jon's relationship, their "love" for one another, feels entirely artificial. Unlike Ygritte, at least to my recollection, Jon and Dany have never really spent any time together on screen growing closer and bonding romantically. We watched Jaime and Brienne grow closer on screen over an extended period. But with Jon and Dany it pretty much all happens off screen, and we're basically just supposed to believe they're in love because they're depicted in bed together and kissing a few times. The credibility of their relationship being yet another apparent victim of the show's drastically accelerated pacing and therefore inability to provide adequate character development. It's hard to care about a couple being sundered when you never really cared about them being together in the first place. Meanwhile, two characters you do care about are split apart in a very unsatisfactory way, when Jaime reverts back into a scoundrel by smashing and dashing on Brienne. (Honestly, what woman deserved that less than Brienne? She's spent her entire life a paragon of virtue, and Jaime robs her of it and promptly bails.)

There is one thing of note that occurred at least to me personally. Bran's brief dialogue with Tyrion.

I'd really like to believe there's some greater significance to this brief exchange. That sharp look over his shoulder (at what appears to be the Maester), and the ostensible worry or fear on his face, is the most Bran has emoted in what feels like years. He didn't even look that worried when he was about to be killed by the Night King. His statement, "mostly I live in the past," seems to be more than mere garrulous banter. Or maybe I'm reading it all wrong, and it's just typical stoic Bran, stating a fact. Even if it was something, with two episodes left, it will never be developed in any meaningful way. So I hope it is nothing.

In closing, I feel like I've been vindicated, when I said in my contribution about the last episode that they deliberately underwhelmed us with the battle against the Night King to bolster the subsequent battle with Cersei. I thought all the deus ex machinas in Episode 3 were bad. But it turns out that entire battle was a deus ex machina serving purely to deplete Dany's forces enough to make the subsequent battle with Cersei plausible. It was never meant to be meaningful or intended to live up to its narrative potential. Thus, the anticlimactic order of events makes complete sense from a lazy writing perspective. Eight years of building up a villain, and the battle with that villain, just to use it as a cheap plot band-aid. Why? Because "subverting" expectations is a lot easier than meeting them.