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Game of Thrones Episode 8.01: “Winterfell”
Dec. 6th, 2021 08:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chavalahWeeelll, this has been a long time coming! The beginning of the end of my coverage of Game of Thrones.
The season finale first aired on May 19, 2019, and it is now over two years later. Seems like enough time has passed for me to get my thoughts around how it all went down. That, and maybe the emotions from the rest of the fandom (and let’s face it: a large swatch of anyone who watches television) died down.
That being said, the fire’s been snuffed out, but the shape of the dragon-glass is pretty absolute. General consensus seems to be that Game of Thrones crashed and burned in the final season. Most fans marked a steady decline since a couple of seasons prior, but this was the show’s final chance to “redeem” itself. And it failed to do so, in the eyes of many critics.
My feelings are a bit more complicated, though I do think that overall it was a weak end. It’s a shame how that then becomes the narrative, over the rousing success of the first few seasons. Over the fact that it inspired lots of non-fantasy fans—including my own parents—to watch. But that in itself is a double-edged sword. Game of Thrones got a bit too big for its britches. I mean to say that in some ways, I think the show got too big to succeed. I discussed it all much more succinctly in a blog post I made after the series finale, here.
Still, I think the first episode of the season was a pretty strong one. Some people don’t like the “set up,” but to me it’s all about the characters. And this hour was chock full of reunions—folks awkwardly dancing around old history as they try to devise the next step forward. Daenerys, on the other hand, was meeting people for the first time, and such meetings proved that “making friends” in the North would be far different from “making friends” in Essos.
In King’s Landing we check in on Cersei, now that she’s more alone than she ever has been before in her history. And we sneak up on the White Walkers, by way of seeing their carnage slink ever closer to Winterfell. Lots of balls up in the air here—including the next step of the Jon parentage reveal!
I’ve decided to do away with the “spoilers” section of my reviews, because quite frankly, we’re far removed from the books here. Maybe I should have my geek card taken away from me, because I’m less certain of outcomes anymore. I guess I still trust my “head canon” with regards to what might show up in later books, but eh. I had pretty strong feelings about the plotlines this season that didn’t come to pass. I’ll discuss my thoughts on each as the show gets to them. But I hope these reviews impart a friendly vibe for all show watchers. We’re all in this together!
( Episode Summary and Thoughts )
The season finale first aired on May 19, 2019, and it is now over two years later. Seems like enough time has passed for me to get my thoughts around how it all went down. That, and maybe the emotions from the rest of the fandom (and let’s face it: a large swatch of anyone who watches television) died down.
That being said, the fire’s been snuffed out, but the shape of the dragon-glass is pretty absolute. General consensus seems to be that Game of Thrones crashed and burned in the final season. Most fans marked a steady decline since a couple of seasons prior, but this was the show’s final chance to “redeem” itself. And it failed to do so, in the eyes of many critics.
My feelings are a bit more complicated, though I do think that overall it was a weak end. It’s a shame how that then becomes the narrative, over the rousing success of the first few seasons. Over the fact that it inspired lots of non-fantasy fans—including my own parents—to watch. But that in itself is a double-edged sword. Game of Thrones got a bit too big for its britches. I mean to say that in some ways, I think the show got too big to succeed. I discussed it all much more succinctly in a blog post I made after the series finale, here.
Still, I think the first episode of the season was a pretty strong one. Some people don’t like the “set up,” but to me it’s all about the characters. And this hour was chock full of reunions—folks awkwardly dancing around old history as they try to devise the next step forward. Daenerys, on the other hand, was meeting people for the first time, and such meetings proved that “making friends” in the North would be far different from “making friends” in Essos.
In King’s Landing we check in on Cersei, now that she’s more alone than she ever has been before in her history. And we sneak up on the White Walkers, by way of seeing their carnage slink ever closer to Winterfell. Lots of balls up in the air here—including the next step of the Jon parentage reveal!
I’ve decided to do away with the “spoilers” section of my reviews, because quite frankly, we’re far removed from the books here. Maybe I should have my geek card taken away from me, because I’m less certain of outcomes anymore. I guess I still trust my “head canon” with regards to what might show up in later books, but eh. I had pretty strong feelings about the plotlines this season that didn’t come to pass. I’ll discuss my thoughts on each as the show gets to them. But I hope these reviews impart a friendly vibe for all show watchers. We’re all in this together!
( Episode Summary and Thoughts )
