[Download Game Of Thrones Season 5 Episode 10 Mp4 163
Jamar Lizarraga
It was . . . pretty good, too. In 80 minutes, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss wrapped up a show that's spanned eight seasons, two continents, seven Houses and hundreds of thousands of corpses, and they did a decent job at it, considering. There was no way this show was going to give us the perfect conclusion, not after it began rushing toward that conclusion. The first ten minutes of tonight's series finale should have been the last ten minutes of this season's finale, with another season in the offing detailing the fight of Jon Snow and the other rebel Lords and Ladies against the tyrant Dragon Queen.
Instead, it's all over, with so much story left untold. In an ideal world, Season 7 should have been 10 episodes setting up the conflict with the Night King. Season 8 should have been another 10 episodes resolving that conflict and setting up the showdown with Cersei (Lena Headey) as well as further establishing Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) as a dangerous, mentally unhinged conqueror. And Season 9 should have been the evisceration of Cersei and King's Landing and the fight against this new Queen of the Ashes, out to liberate all of humankind, through blood and fire.
"They don't get a choice," Dany responds, thrusting a knife into her own heart in the process, though she doesn't realize it until it's too late. Jon Snow has executed conspirators, true, but he's never been one to go out and save the world by taking away other peoples' freedom. That's not true liberation, and while Jon hasn't ever really been much of a liberator, either, he's always had a sense of right and wrong. Dany has lost sight of that. Or, rather, Dany never quite realized that the means to an end actually matter. To her, the ends were the only thing that held any meaning at all.
And for Dany, the whole concept of "breaking the wheel" was always just about her taking more power so that she could dispense what she believed to be justice. It's a truly terrifying megalomania and one that I think she's had all along, we just didn't always see it.
Like her companions, we were blind to all the warning signs. What would Jorah (Iain Glen) think of Dany's turn? Would he love her still? Would he have been able to do the deed? In a sense, I wish it had been him instead of Jon. Jorah has loved her for so much longer. But he died defending his queen, and perhaps he would have forgiven her even this atrocity.
So much in this episode would have been truly great if we'd just gotten here more naturally. Jon's resistance to Tyrion's hard truths about Daenerys and the threat she posed to the world might have made sense if Jon and Dany's relationship had been even half as convincing as Jon and Ygritte's, or if this had been a conversation between Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) and Jorah. If Jon and Dany's love had been more fleshed out and convincing, I could understand his unwillingness to hear Tyrion's words. But there's nothing about Jon Snow's character that would defend Daenerys in this situation. He clearly believed that what she did was wrong, that what she described in her speech to the Unsullied and Dothraki was abhorrent, the words of a self-deluded megalomaniac.
If the show had convinced me that he truly loved her with an undying passion, that his love would truly overshadow his reason, his duty, then I'd believe Jon's brief break with reality. This scene would have felt earned. Instead I wanted to slap Jon in the face and shake him and tell him to stop being so bloody stupid! (To be fair, this is not the first time I've felt that way about Jon. You know nothing Jon Snow).
In the end, because he's Jon Snow, he does the right thing and kills Daenerys Targaryen, Mother of Dragons, Breaker of Chains and "Liberator" of King's Landing (or at least mass murderer of that city) before she can liberate another population.
Drogon is massive at this point, and when he flies down into the throne room, through gaps in the wall he inflicted, we get a real sense of his vastness. It's a terrifying moment. I thought for sure that Drogon would try to burn Jon and that the fire would have no effect and Jon would very obviously be a Targaryen that Drogon would defer to.
I'm glad that didn't happen. Instead, Drogon melted the Iron Throne, as if even he acknowledged that it was that lust for power that led his mother to her demise. In the end, he still demurs to Jon, bowing before he flies away, Daenerys clutched gently in his talons.
When Jon was sent North to the Wall I said to my girlfriend, I hope he goes north of the Wall and lives with Tormund (Kristofer Hivju) and Ghost. I mean, he obviously can't keep his Night's Watch vow when it comes to never having sex, and this seemed like the right thing for Jon Snow, who was never really at home in the Seven (now Six) Kingdoms. Besides, they really don't need a Night's Watch anymore.
Lo and behold, that's exactly what happens! We get a great moment between Jon and Ghost, who's missing an ear but still makes Jon smile, a rare thing these days. Jon leaves with Tormund and the Wildlings, and heads into the wild north. We see a sprig of wild grass coming up from beneath the snow. Summer is coming.
Well again, I think the finale's flaws were mainly born out of rush. All of this could have been earned; very little of it was. Dany's transition from killing evil men to killing women and children was far too hurried to work properly, but given the right amount of time and TLC, it could have been one of TV's most incredible character arcs.
I liked this episode, and at times I thought it was truly brilliant. Drogon emerging from that pile of snow, ruffling ice from his wings, was such a cool moment. The shots of King's Landing in the snow and ash were unbelievably beautiful. There is no other show that is so visually evocative (something only matched by its gorgeous musical score).
But the lords and ladies of Westeros picked a new king in five minutes, when we've spent eight seasons fighting a bloody war over who would sit on the Iron Throne. And the Iron Throne itself may indeed be melted, but we still have a king ruling over the smallfolk, while the lords and ladies of Westeros laugh Samwell Tarly down when he suggests democracy.
Actually, thank god they went with the Magna Carta version instead of the Utopian Westeros Democracy, and thank god that we see the Small Council bickering with one another as our parting shot from these characters. Meet the New Wheel, same as the Old Wheel. That's good, and like so much of this episode felt right.
I'm very glad Jon killed Daenerys and not Arya. Arya has already killed the Freys, Littlefinger and the Night King. She didn't need another notch on her belt, and at least Jon loved Daenerys, making his deed all the more terrible. Jon Snow, Queenslayer, but also Aegon Targaryen, heir to the Iron Throne. His trek north ensures that the Targaryen line is truly dead. Any child he bears now will be a Wildling, far removed from the politics of the Six Kingdoms plus the North (which will need a name beyond "the North" soon).
Peter Dinklage was phenomenal in this episode. He's really been the thread that ties this entire season together, and even though it seems like he just keeps making mistake after mistake, all of his mistakes are well-meaning. He learns, however slowly. That scene where he digs his siblings out from the rubble, weeping, was incredibly powerful. Then again, the Lannisters always did have the best actors.
There are still loose threads, of course, including what Arya does out West. Drogon is another big wild card, still looming despite the show coming to an end. Bran thinks maybe he can find the erstwhile beast, but what then?
Perhaps a sequel show instead of just prequels? For my part, I want to write fan fiction detailing the war of Jon Snow and the rebels against the Tyrant Dragon Queen, who truly believes her war machine is one of liberation. (Daenerys would make a great Legend of Korra villain, actually, and actually that show would have probably done more justice to her character than this one).
I'll probably have a follow-up post tomorrow about all of this once I've had time to really sit with the episode and its implications longer. For now, I think it did the job it needed to do, even if part of me knows that with more time and care we could have reached this point and had it feel so much more poignant and powerful.
I'm very curious to hear your thoughts. I know this will be deeply controversial. Even a perfect season finale would be. Fans simply have so much of themselves (ourselves) invested in this by now. So many theories. So much promise and so much disappointment. It could never please everyone. I think it did a decent job at trying, but I will always wonder "What if?"
I wish we had another season or two of this show to watch together and talk about. I do plan on reviewing the first two seasons, however. I started these reviews in Season 3 (you can find links to all my reviews here) and I want to remedy all that's missing. It might be fun to go back and watch this show from the beginning again, and if you'd like to join me on that journey, look for new reviews of old episodes later this summer.
Thanks so much for reading these reviews and talking about this amazing show with me over the past five years or so. It's been pretty incredible, both the show and the enthusiasm from readers who come and talk about it with me each week. Thanks so much. I will definitely miss this. I'll be reviewing new shows going forward, so stay tuned for that. And then there's the Game of Thrones spinoffs to look forward to, plus The Witcher on Netflix and whatever Lord of the Rings stuff Amazon has on the burner.
Game of Thrones is an American fantasy drama television series created by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss. The series is based on George R. R. Martin's series of fantasy novels, A Song of Ice and Fire. The series takes place on the fictional continents of Westeros and Essos, and chronicles the power struggles among noble families as they fight for control of the Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms. The series starts when House Stark, led by Lord Eddard "Ned" Stark (Sean Bean), is drawn into schemes surrounding King Robert Baratheon (Mark Addy).[1]
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