Spoilers through Season 5 of 'Game of Thrones' follow, as well as discussion of the books.
"My duty is to the realm. How many boys dwell in Westeros? How many girls? How many men, how many women? The darkness will devour them all, she says. The night that never ends. She talks of prophecies . . . a hero reborn in the sea, living dragons hatched from dead stone . . . she speaks of signs and swears they point to me. I never asked for this, no more than I asked to be king. Yet dare I disregard her? We do not choose our destinies. Yet we must . . . we must do our duty, no? Great or small, we must do our duty."
~ Stannis Baratheon, from A Song of Ice and Fire, speaking of Melisandre and her prophecies.
Jon Snow is dead. Long live Jon Snow.
This was the same feeling I had at the end of the fifth book of George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire. Jon Snow is dead, but really...he can't be. Not entirely.
Because Jon Snow is the song of ice and fire. Some book thoughts/spoilers here, though it's all theoretical now that the show and books are neck-and-neck, and viewers and readers are equals.
Jon Snow, I believe, is the son of Lyanna Stark and Rhaegar Targaryen, not of Ned Stark though Ned claimed him to protect him for all those years.
This makes Jon Dany's nephew (though they're about the same age, since she was so much younger than her eldest brother Rhaegar) and a slayer of White Walkers. He wields one of the last remaining Valyrian steel blades. Jon Snow is one of the chosen heroes of this saga. Azor Ahai, maybe.
Isn't he? Isn't that what Martin and HBO intend?
I'm not really sure sometimes. What if this whole theory, the entire R+L = J theory, is wrong?
I suppose we'll find hints in casting and billing notes for Season 6. If Kit Harrington shows up on the rosters, we know Jon Snow isn't really dead. And besides, nobody is ever for sure, absolutely, one-hundred percent dead in this story. Arya thinks Jaqen H'ghar is dead, but no, that wasn't Jaqen. We think Catelyn Stark is dead but, in the books at least, Thoros of Myr (a red priest, like Melisandre) brings her back, much like he's brought back Beric Dondarrian so many times (without ever burning a soul.)
Even Gregore "The Mountain" Clegane was only mostly dead, returned now as Ser Robert Strong, the newest addition to the King's Guard, and Cersei's new champion when she invariably chooses trial by combat.
So many dead. So many possibly animated corpses. Ned Stark lost his head, but Jon Snow's body is still in one piece. If Thoros of Myr can bring Beric Dondarrian back from the dead, Melisandre---a priestess of the same god, though possibly much more powerful---can certainly bring back Jon.
And now she must realize that Stannis was not the chosen one, not Azor Ahai, the god R'hollor's legendary hero, come to stop the tide of undead. That's why she rode away, fled the doomed army, came back to Castle Black. Because she realized she was wrong. She had Stannis burn all those people, burn his own daughter...for nothing.
Stannis realizes it too, as he stands there watching the much larger Bolton army bear down on him and his men, all their horses gone, all their hopes dashed.
Let's visit this feast of crows for a moment, before returning to Jon Snow and his faithless sworn brothers. The cowards.
In the shadow of Winterfell
I was prepared for Jon Snow's death, or whatever it is. His death and possible resurrection. I have had years to dwell on it and stew over it and wonder. I was not prepared for Stannis to die.
I'm still not happy about it. Until last week, Stannis remained one of the more complicated, interesting characters in HBO's fantasy drama. He was ruthless and utilitarian in his quest to become king, but he was never wicked in the same sense that Joffrey or Ramsay are wicked. His burning of Shireen was wicked, though, and foolish and out of character I think, still. It doomed him, but in the books his doom remains uncertain, as does his daughter's fate. I'm not sure what to think now that we've come to the end of both books and TV show. The paths diverge, and yet here I am at the end of each. How strange.
(Last week I wrote a pretty impassioned review focusing on how the show basically ruined Stannis as a character, which you can read here.)
I never thought Stannis would be king, or at least not king for long, but he was the only one of any of these kings and pretenders---including Daenerys herself---who saw clearly that the realm itself, that all of Westeros and the whole entire world, were in peril.
"I was trying to win the throne to save the kingdom, when I should have been trying to save the kingdom to win the throne," he tells Jon at one point in the books. What other king says such a thing, puts aside his own life and his own world and kills his own family all because he's been led to believe that not only is the world coming to an end, but he alone can save it? He was thoroughly convinced of his role in all of this by Melisandre, and she was wrong.
In the books he sees a glimpse of it, of his fate, and tells Davos, "I know the cost! Last night, gazing into that hearth, I saw things in the flames as well. I saw a king, a crown of fire on his brows, burning… burning, Davos. His own crown consumed his flesh and turned him into ash. Do you think I need Melisandre to tell me what that means? Or you?"
Stannis isn't burned to death in the end, but his whole world turns to ash before he dies. He burns his daughter at the stake so that her ashes might melt the snow, only to see half his army desert and run off with his horses. His trusted adviser, Davos, is gone. His own wife is found hanging, cold and dead. His world is ash, and when he finally comes to Winterfell he finds himself vastly outnumbered, and his army is slaughtered.
Among the dead Brienne finds him and passes her judgment when he confesses to murdering his brother, Renly. "Any last words?" she asks. "Do your duty," he replies. And she does. Valyrian steel. One half of Ned's old blade. At least she, like Ned, carries out the execution. "The man who passes the sentence should swing the sword," Ned says early on. Or the woman, as the case may be.
Melisandre is gone, off to Castle Black where she'll be needed by a fallen Lord Snow. But Stannis...his end is pathetic. They don't even show the battle.
Is this how it ends for him in the books? Have we merely fast-forwarded the events of book six? Does Stannis truly fall on the battlefield, greatly overwhelmed by the Boltons? Is all of it for nothing? Is the siege just a red herring in the books?
So many questions!
Brienne gets her vengeance, of course, but she misses the signal Sansa lights in the tower. Vengeance has a way of blinding us to the truly important things. Stannis would have died perfectly miserably without Brienne's help, and now Sansa has to escape without her help, too.
Nevertheless, this was a good moment for Sansa. She lights the candle while the battle rages and nobody comes. As she heads back to her rooms (or at least that's what I think she was doing) Myranda and Theon stop her. Myranda has a bow trained on Sansa, and makes some creepy threats about torturing her everywhere except where it counts to Ramsay and his ability to foist sons on her. But as she raises her bow to fire, Theon finally, finally wakes from his stupor, grabs the awful woman, and tosses her from the battlements. Hooray! Something good has happened in Game of Thrones! Of course, this is just as the Bolton army returns, so Theon and Sansa are forced to flee the only way they can: Over the ramparts and into the snow below.
Hand in hand, together, the two victims of Ramsay's torture escape together. Neither one is the knight in shining armor or the damsel in distress. Rather, they needed one another to make their fated plummet.
And what about that drop? The snow is very deep. The drifts against the wall should be more than enough to cushion their landing. The real danger isn't falling into the snow, it's making it away from the castle without being hunted down by Ramsay's dogs and killed (or worse.) Will Brienne come to their aid now? Better late than never, I suppose. But even with Brienne, where could they possibly go that Ramsay couldn't find them? Nowhere is safe.
The girl took a life that was not hers to take.
Another gratifying, gory scene takes place in a Braavosi brothel, where the pedophile/sadist Meryn Trant is caning three young girls because, well, Trant is an awful human being and we really need another example of this I guess.
Fortunately it serves a bit more of a purpose than just that. The third girl doesn't react at all to the beating. It's Arya, naturally, though she's wearing one of the magic faces from the Faceless Mens' sanctuary.
She kills Trant with gusto, stabbing out both his eyes, slashing him wildly, stabbing him over and over in the chest, all while monologuing impressively. Then she cuts his throat, which is more than he deserved. Ah well, these "good" moments in Game of Thrones are so rare, let's just enjoy them. Arya needed a kill, needed to whittle away at that long death list of hers.
But the Many-Faced God and his acolytes disagree, or disapprove anyways, and Arya is left blinded by Jaqen H'ghar after some other faceless person takes deadly poison to free her of her life debt. Now that she's blind, what uses will the Faceless Men put Arya to? How will this spur her transformation into deadly assassin, and not just over-zealous killer? We won't know for nine months or so.
God, nine months or so. Or whenever the sixth book comes out.
Every Rose Has Its Thorn
Speaking of poison, it's basically the Game of Thrones gift that just keeps on giving. In Dorne we finally get our payoff, though it isn't much of one.
Jaime's "coming out" scene with Myrcella is truly touching. When she stops him, tells him she already knows he's her father, and that she's glad, I admit I was moved. It was a touching, heartfelt, sixty-second scene.
And the Myrcella collapses, victim to one last ploy by Ellaria Sand. I was hoping for something a bit grander---Prince Doran admitting his plot to overthrown the Lannisters and help Daenerys Targaryen ascend to the throne, perhaps---but it's something at least. It's better than Bronn and the Sand Snakes flirting.
I do think Dorne could have been cut or cut down significantly this season to make more room for... A) the Brotherhood Without Banners and Lady Stoneheart; B) a different Jaime story altogether, whether in the Riverlands as he is in the books or something else; C) the inclusion of the Iron Islanders and House Greyjoy, Theon's family; D) any number of more interesting things.
Alas, Dorne---no matter how cool it is as a concept---remained pretty uneventful and boring this season. Jaime and Bronn were both squandered, as was Doran Martell. Myrcella is the second of Cersei's children to die by poisoning, which isn't particularly original either.
And Myrcella and Tommen are both kind of amazingly sweet kids, if a little spoiled and foolish. Why was Joffrey so bad? Honestly, minus Joffrey all the Stark kids and Baratheon kids would be playing in the gardens of the Red Keep right this very moment and nobody would be at war and everyone would be happy. That little twerp ruined it for everyone.
A Lannister Always Pays His Debts
There are Lannisters and then there are Lannisters. The most Lannistery of them all, however, is Tyrion Lannister, the Imp.
Left with Ser Jorah Mormont and Daario Naharis, the question for Tyrion is what do we do now? He wants to go with the warriors to find Dany, but Daario rightfully suggest that he remain with Greyworm and Missandei and try to govern Meereen.
Frankly, I think Tyrion could do better than just about anybody at ruling. More than any other person in this show/books Tyrion would fit perfectly on the Iron Throne. He would be just and wise and fair, and still hated thanks to being a dwarf.
What better than Tyrion as interim CEO of Meereen? Tyrion with Varys the Spider at his side. The spymaster shows up just as Daario and Jorah ride off (I doubt this is a coincidence) and offers his help. Information is what Tyrion needs, Varys notes. A network of spies to find out what the Sons of the Harpy are doing, their strengths and weaknesses. Varys will also no doubt help steer Dany back toward her destiny and Westeros, though he'll have to find her first.
She's...somewhere with Drogon. A great, grassy somewhere vaguely reminiscent of the Dothraki Sea (of grass.) Actually she appears to be right in the middle of the Dothraki Sea, surrounded by Dothraki. What will they make of this wayward Khaleesi?
Find out in 2016!
"What have we become, when kings and high lords must dance to the twittering of Sparrows?" ~ Lord Randyll Tarly
In King's Landing, Cersei confesses to her crimes---though not all of them.
For this, the High Sparrow, now the most powerful man in the capital city, allows Cersei to return to the castle and to her son, King Tommen. She just has to do a walk of atonement first, naked and barefoot from the High Sept to the Red Keep.
Her hair cut short, her robe discarded, Cersei walks. She walks to the taunts of a jeering crowd, to horrible insults and hurled food and filth. The Sparrows protect her as she shambles along, not breaking down, her feet bloodied.
I recall in the books this was the first time I truly felt sympathy for Cersei. She was finally something less than a cartoon villain, now that her humanity was laid bare, her dignity and pride torn from her. In the show it's much different. Cersei is vile, but she's so much more sympathetic on TV than in Martin's story.
Here, she loves her children. She loves them fiercely, and sometimes that love spills over a little bit and she acts the tiniest bit decent, if only for a heartbeat. Here, we discover that she was beaten and abused and neglected by Ned's old friend Robert Baratheon, a slovenly, oafish king whose folly sparked this entire series of unfortunate events to begin with.
Cersei walks with her head held high, though you can see the strain it puts on her, the pain she's in as her feet leave bloody steps in her wake. And finally she makes it to the keep, where Qyburn greets her with a cloak and an introduction to the latest King's Guard, Ser Robert Strong. The Mountain raised from the dead.
It's important to see Clegane raised from the dead only moments before we see Jon Snow slain. Likewise, it's important that we see Myrcella and Jaime have such a loving moment of father to daughter, just before we see Cersei take her walk of shame. The sin she's truly on trial for is not Robert's death or any of her truly awful scheming. It's for her relationship with Jaime, the one their daughter just said she was glad about. Better Jaime her father than the man who beat Cersei and barely paid the children a moment's heed.
Now we're left with a much diminished Cersei. We just need to find out what happens with her trial---not to mention Margaery and Loras. How will Tommen react? What sort of power will Kevan Lannister wrest from her, now that he's acting Hand? What will all these Lannisters and Tyrells do about the Sparrows?
"It's the Lord of Light brings you back. I'm just a lucky drunk who says the words." ~ Thoros of Myr to Beric Dondarrian
But it's really the North we should care about. White Walkers and giants, wildings and crows. And Jon Snow.
Jon Snow is dead. Tricked by Olly to go outside where Alliser and others waited under the pretenses of having information about Benjen.
That's just cruel. And not just to Jon. The showrunners put Benjen hints in the "previously on Game of Thrones" bit before the episode began, leading viewers everywhere to think that Ned's little brother might finally return.
That would be too easy, though, so instead Jon Snow gets killed.
Maybe. But I read that quotation above from Stannis, when he talks of "a hero reborn in the sea" and I think: That's Jon Snow. We haven't seen the last of him yet.
At least, I don't think so. I think Jon is the central figure in these stories. His own story is far from finished.
I guess we'll have to wait and see.
In the end, as Season 5 draws to a close, we're all left just wondering "What now?" In many ways, this season felt like setup for the next two (if seven is all we get) much like books four and five felt like setup for books six and seven (or however many Martin writes, eventually.) This made the ending episodes feel a bit more jarring.
- Stannis had such a weird metamorphosis, from silent and cold to loving father, back to silent and cold though also the type of father who will burn his own daughter at the stake.
- Jon Snow managed to save thousands of wildings, but never managed even the most basic explanation for the other Crows, and then they kill him, largely out of fear and ignorance.
- I like that Sam asked to be sent away to become a Maester and that Jon agreed, and sent Gilly and her baby away too. This is different than how it happened in the books, but it's important that he goes one way or another.
- So many cliff-hangers tonight. It reminds me so much of the last 200 pages of A Dance with Dragons, where each chapter ended as a cliff-hanger, one after the next...
- I was right that Lady Stoneheart wasn't coming back tonight.
- I was wrong (and right) about lots of other things.
Some of tonight's big moments felt jarring, too. Stannis dying so soon, long before he dies in the books (if he dies in the books, that is, since he's still alive and well by the end of book five.) Sansa and Theon diving from the wall while leaving viewers hanging on a ten-month cliff-hanger. Arya going blind.
Still, all told it was a great episode. I wish we'd seen a few fewer cliff-hangers, but at least I know the show will be out with its next season next year---like clockwork. The same thing cannot be said of the books.
What did you think of the Season 5 finale? Shout out in the comments or on social media, and if I've missed anything or anything warrants inclusion in an update, I'll add it to the post.
Update: Morning After Edition
So I'm largely feeling the same as I did last night about this episode. Unlike last week---which had me emotionally shaken---last night's finale wasn't particularly surprising.
One thing many readers have brought up is the possibility that Stannis is still alive. They didn't show the killing blow or his body after. Did Brienne spare him? Will he be sent to the Wall where he can still fulfill his role as protector of the realm? It's an interesting thought.
There have also been some big interviews with Jon Snow actor Kit Harrington and the showrunners stating fairly explicitly that Jon is not coming back (or at least that Kit isn't.) "Dead is dead," they say. But I still wonder. One must be dead in order to be resurrected, after all. Is it possible Snow will come back in some other form? Is it possible that Kit and the showrunners are simply not telling us the truth in order to preserve a big reveal next season? Martin himself has been cagey about Jon's death, and as we know many people die and come back in this story. Not all, but many.
I think if Jon really, truly is dead that this is a mistake for both the books and show. For the show's part, they finally started giving us hints to Jon's parentage this season. Dropping a clue about Rhaegar here, Lyanna there. What's the point of this other than audience manipulation if they're just killing him off for good?
For both show and book, killing off Jon Snow leaves us with very, very few characters to really care about anymore. It's one thing to kill off Ned and Robb and Catelyn and Oberyn and all these other sort of secondary figures to the larger plot. Killing off Jon would be like killing Tyrion or Dany (though I'm not a Dany fan, personally.) It mucks up the story in a way that makes it much less enjoyable. Yes, yes, I know. This is "gritty" and somehow it's brave and keeps us guessing when they unflinchingly toss out major characters like this.
Only, no, it's not. There's nothing brave about killing off characters unless it serves the story. Killing Ned served the story. I'm truly baffled about how killing off Jon Snow could do anything but harm it. The import of his parentage is cast aside. His confrontation with the White Walkers no longer matters. It's almost nihilistic.
The season itself I'll come back to in a postmortem once I've had a bit more time to reflect, but all told it's been one of my least favorite of the entire show, although early on it was the season I had highest hopes for. It's not the cuts or changes so much as the feeling that the showrunners are just racing forward to finish at this point rather than being good stewards of this fantasy. Much of it has felt contrived and rushed, or shocking for shocking's sake.
I'm still excited for next season, but I find myself slinking back into the book camp now, tail between my legs. I've been a harsh critic of Martin's last two books, and his slow pace, but I'm beginning to think I prefer it to the way this season was handled. I'm a little sad to write that, but there it is.
