Ah fuck it, Team Cercei. No one’s played the game of thrones better than her. She’s going to die of course (unless she doesn’t). But until her wonderful, most likely inevitable death (at the hands of Jaime?), all aboard that crazy bitch’s train.
Lady Mormont is the Beyoncé of Westeros. All hail.
I’m pissed that they didn’t reveal much at the Tower of Joy. Only after reading online about its significance online after-the-fact did I get the context of it. I wish they’d spelled it out more obviously for non-book-readers. They’d been leading up to this moment all season long only for them to not explicitly reveal it. Bullshit.
Still, this episode stands up there with Rains of Castamere as possibly the best of the series. The only thing holding it back was that the first 15-20 minutes set the bar too damn high that pretty much everything afterwards felt like comedown.
At the beginning of the season when all the castmembers were doing press, someone (off the top of my head I want to say Maisie Williams aka Arya) said by the end of the season, it would feel like the end is in sight. Even midway through the season, even at episode 6-7, it did not feel like it. It most certainly does now. All the houses are falling into place, conglomerating behind a leader for a final battle royale (and let’s not forget the looming threat of the white walkers). Cercei Lannister has decimated the internal/nearby threats to her and has consolidated King’s Landing to fall in line behind her (in political rule, if not in people’s hearts). Jon Snow & Sansa have won back the North and, with Beyoncé Lady Mormont whipping them in order, the houses of the North (along with the wildlings) have united behind them (with Littlefinger creepily watching (and most likely scheming) in the corner). Pretty everyone with a pulse outside of those two areas have united behind Daenarys. She has the water people (Reek/Theon’s area). It looks like Varys’s secret mission was to get Dorne and Lady Tyrell to unite behind her also. The 3 houses are amassing and dear God I hope season 7 is just an 8-hour battle between the houses and season 8 is a 7-hour battle with the white walkers, plz. Looking at the Game of Thrones logo though, which is the 4th house?
The dragon is House Targaryen. The wolf is House Stark. The lion is house Lannister? Who’s the stag/deer house? Oh right that’s Baratheon. Basically dead then.
Vengeance.
It has proven itself to be the greatest motivator. Cercei has used anger and fury and vengeance to fuel her ascent to the Iron Throne. Daenerys wants to avenge her family name, House Martell & House Tyrell are united behind her to seek vengeance for their dead at the hands of the Lannisters. Jon Snow and Sansa also were motivated by vengeance, first to take back the north from Hitler’s literal decomposed anus Ramsey Bolton, now to seek revenge against the Lannisters, again for the many deaths in their family caused by the Lannisters. Everyone feels slighted and wronged and push aside and in the side of injustice at someone else’s hands, and, as the show has set up well, the audience feels empathy for them at some point or another (even Cercei, sort of). And Arya is just off on her own killing spree (who let her borrow faces though?).
All in all, a fantastic, fantastic season ender to an uneven season.
AVthatsme 