Sunday, November 25, 2018

SEVEN BLESSINGS: THE BEST MOMENTS OF GAME OF THRONES SEASON FIVE



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In honor of the faith of the Seven, and to pass the interminable wait for the conclusive episodes of Game Of Thrones, and not at all to scratch a compulsive itch that wouldn't go away once the idea occurred to me, I have decided to list my seven favorite moments from each of the first seven seasons.  Videos will be embedded in the headings.  Anyway, without further ado...




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In a series with a reputation for sadism, Brienne’s story of how she came to love Renly Baratheon stands out as an example of how kindness can reverberate as powerfully as cruelty.  Characters are still discussing Ned Stark’s death 5 years later, but just as often, they discuss his example.  It’s not just his children, but his former allies and even enemies that remember his honor and fortitude, as well as his mistakes. 

Less people hold Renly’s memory in such high esteem, but his death has always struck me as one of the greatest tragedies in the scheme of things; murdered just as he had brokered a deal that would have brought the War Of Five Kings to a swift, more-or-less just end.  Brienne is not most people, though. She does not forget Renly’s kindness, nor the dirty tricks Stannis played to kill him.  There are many people on the show out for revenge, but she is fairly unique in how keenly she still values the virtue of compassion.  For as often as the series demonstrates the opposite, she has seen that power can be wielded with grace, and for her that is a source of strength. 



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Stannis is a hard man, and a hard man to like.  He’s been around for four seasons before we get to see his softer side, and it’s…still rather severe, actually.  Because Game Of Thrones is about, among other things, the power of perspective, and because Martin created a world with such a deep and detailed history, and because the cast is impeccably stacked with powerhouse actors, it is often at its best when it just lets one of them tell a story about their background (see: the last entry here, Jaime’s hot tub confessions, Robert’s war stories, Aemon’s reminiscences of his former life, Oberyn’s stories of his childhood, Tywin’s ruminations on  his family history, Thoros recounting how he lost and rekindled his faith, a dozen other examples). 

Shireen’s story is the most sentimental we have ever seen Stannis, but it is still a testament to his obstinance as much as anything.  Like most good writing, it is doing more than it appears.  Showing us Stannis’s softer side (if still remarkably rigid) is setting us up to make the absolutely brutal sacrifice he will make that much more heartwrenching.  And it is also subtly providing exposition about greyscale and the Stonemen before they become more central in the following hour. But even in hindsight, with those elements noticeable, Stephen Dillane’s performance overpowers everything else.   And the sacrifice is that much worse because there is nothing insincere about any of it.  Indeed, Stannis is constitutionally incapable of insincerity, which makes him a rather bad father overall, but renders his blunt force statement of devotion even more powerful.

Poor, poor Shireen.


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Especially in the sprawling middle section of the series, it could be a fun diversion to imagine what character pairings from the far-flung corners of the show would be most interesting (how would Jorah and Arya get along? What would Melisandre think of Bran’s pagan magic? Could Dany resist Oberyn’s charms?). One pairing I never even thought to ask for was Samwell Tarly and Stannis Baratheon. The meeting between these two men who could not possibly be any different is brief, but where you’d expect Stannis to be disgusted by Sam’s lack of martial prowess, he actually acknowledges the importance of knowledge when it comes to making war. It’s subtly reminding us about Sam’s father and seeding the idea that Dragonstone has obsidian deposits, which will come into play in future seasons, but really I just like the moments where this famously bloody, ruthless series defends intellectualism. In season 3, I very nearly included the bit where Gilly is so impressed with Sam’s ability to know things that happened far away and long ago by looking at marks on paper that she calls him a wizard. I didn’t mainly because I knew this one was coming up, and I prefer the contrast that Stannis’s no-nonsense demeanor provides.


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Season 5 was not the strongest for Tyrion, as he left the chaotic muck of Westeros, where fortunes are constantly changing and anything can happen, to tour the Land Of Foregone Conclusions.   He and Jorah did not make for as interesting traveling companions as Jaime and Brienne or Arya and the Hound, but they had one memorable scene together at least.  After discussing the finer points of the DTs, the men are inspired by the sights of the ruins of Valyria to have an impromptu poetry jam.  It’s a nice, lyrical moment even before Drogon passes overhead, and Tyrion gets his first, dumbstruck look at a real, live dragon in flight.  Even after 5 years of having them on screen in elaborately-rendered glory, a great actor can show them to us with fresh eyes. 


And then there is the stomach-dropping capper, when the stone begins to move.  



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We have waited along time for Dany and Tyrion to meet, and while that meeting couldn’t suddenly make Meereen seem like anything more than a speed bump on Dany’s predestined path back to Westeros, it did make it immediately more interesting than it had been before.  Bringing Tyrion and Varys into the mix was a positive step, but giving her more interesting advisors doesn’t address that the fundamental weakness in Essos was on the opposing side.  The various slavers were never invested with any of the depth or nuance of the various feuding families in Westeros, and with her dragons and armies constantly growing, they actually felt like the underdogs most of the time. 

Which all by way of saying that Dany’s scenes become instantly more interesting when she is discussing Westerosi politics rather than the problems immediately in front of her.  We also get some of the tangled web of loyalties and sympathies that makes the main conflicts more interesting, with the reminders that Tyrion’s brother killed Dany’s father (and his unwillingness to apologize for it).  This is potential that unfortunately goes mostly unfulfilled, as Dany is spirited away in their next scene together and then the show just sort of acts as though he had been her trusted advisor since forever, instead of an enemy that spent a day or two currying favor.  But for one scene at least, we are promised a reinvigorated dynamic with new players and a sharper focus on the conflicts that actually matter, far off though they may still be.


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The series' action has gotten increasingly impressive over the years.  And while “Blackwater” remains my favorite battle episode, “Watchers On The Wall” is more extensive, and “The Spoils Of War” and “Death Is The Enemy” add more dragons and zombies to the mix for spectacle, this is my favorite action sequence of the show.  I love the way it springs on us unawares, an episode before we’ve been trained to expect the big fireworks. I love how it is as much a horror sequence as an action setpiece, how all that managed to put me far enough back on my heels to feel a credible threat to Jon in spite of any more sober analysis telling me he had a lot more plot lifting to do.  I love how aside from that, there are enough redshirts around (up to and including Ed and Tormund) that there is no relief from the dread even when it cuts away from him.  I love that it gave us Wun Wun and put him in action right away.  I love the shot of the Walkers on their horses ringing the cliffs, and of the dead throwing themselves off them like lemmings, and of the fresh walkers rising silently at the end.  I love how it gave fresh urgency and punch to the specter of the Walkers, who had been a very intermittent threat up to that point.  

Really, I love that the series had earned its ruthless reputation so thoroughly that I was not just wowed by the giant spectacle (literally), but genuinely had my heart in my throat, not knowing what would happen next but caring desperately what did. That’s the power great storytelling can exert.

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Stannis’s end was shocking for just how straightforward it turned out to be, in a series known for its wild twists and turns.  That, and all the prophecy and sorcery trappings make what happens – which is exactly what would happen when marching a small contingent of starving, bedraggled infantry into a much larger force of cavalry holding a fortified position – into the last thing you expect to happen.  It’s not as painful as the Red Wedding, as Stannis’s actions have definitely branded him as Not A Good Guy at that point, but it was shocking for some of the same reason. Without him, the war that’s been the central conflict of the show since the start would seem to be over, and so for him to be taken out by one of the more minor houses rather than his “true” enemy, so far from his ultimate goal, seems to violate the basic rules of dramatic construction. 

But really, it’s the performances that make it one of the most memorable moments of the series. Say what you will about Stannis Baratheon. He would have been a terrible king. He was less than spectacular as a husband. Somehow even worse as a brother. Worse still as a father. But he sure knew how to die. Stephen Dillane’s performance was remarkable for how it not only avoided courting the audience’s sympathy, but also the desire to impress them by looking cool or clever or badass or what have you. And he really slays it at the end; if I were being stricter with myself on defining a “moment” as an actual moment instead of a whole scene, I might confine this to just the look on his face when he sees the Bolton army charging down and realizes that all his sacrifices bought him nothing. Though he is just as good grunting his way through one last fight and accepting Brienne’s long-simmering judgment


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