Warning: Contains Spoilers
HBOHere we are, we’ve made it, there’s only one episode left of Game of Thrones and we get to see just how things conclude for the (remaining) people of Westeros.
But before we get to that, we have to unpack last night’s episode. If you haven’t seen it yet, turn away now because the following loosely arranged words and sentences are chock full of spoilers and strung together in shock after what we’ve just seen.
As we all know, Game of Thrones loves a high death count. Pretty much every season there’s a battle to end all battles. Except it doesn’t end all battles and there’s always a bigger one on the horizon.
This time, however, it seems there is no more battling on the horizon. Goodies and baddies alike were wiped out side by side in season eight, episode five, also known as The Bells, also known as the Battle of King’s Landing.
As we’ve seen in the Battle of the Bastards, the Battle of Winterfell, the Red Wedding and countless other episodes, Westeros has plenty of nameless people ready to be killed off for great cinematic effect.
This time, however, innocents died, beloved characters you thought might just make it to the end died, and the one person who had spent seven seasons not killing innocent people, freeing slaves and standing up for the little guys did an about turn and let them all have it.
HBOBasically, Daenerys Targaryen became *whisper it* the mad queen. She was pissed off, people! So Dany climbed on her last remaining dragon Drogon (RIP Viserion and Rhaegal), and just torched the place to the ground, with all the people inside.
Dany for 7 seasons: Has never killed innocent people, stood up for them, freed slaves, people looked up to her.
Dany in season 8: Hears bells of surrender and for some fucking stupid reason starts killing innocent people.#GameofThrones #DemThrones
— Denizcan Stark (@MrFilmkritik) May 13, 2019
We all FINALLY got to see Cleganebowl – the brothers Sandor and Gregor going head to head and ending not with one victor (would it have been too much to let the Hound win?) but in a fatal plummet off the Red Keep.
As for Cersei and Jaime, the doomed sister-brother-lovers, they were always doomed from the start. The ever-present evil twins that, more so than the Night King, more so than Ramsay Bolton or Winter itself, the Lannisters – especially Cersei – were just evil to the core. We thought Jaime might be redeemable, and he came close to it after knighting Brienne. But nope! So they snuffed it together under the rubble of King’s Landing. And they deserved it.
The #GameOfThrones writers throwing all that character development out the window. pic.twitter.com/W3AFBkOsRW
— R Y▲N H▲Y (@horrorengine) May 13, 2019
But did they really die?! After all – the Game of Thrones writers have always said if you don’t see someone actually die on screen there’s still a chance…
Some people, however, aren’t convinced by the visually stunning episode – after seven seasons of build up, hype and anticipation, did the character arcs pay off? Well Dany turned pretty easily, Arya ran away, the immortal Hound became mortal, the undead Mountain died for real, Jon carried on fighting bravely as he always has done, and Cersei crumbled… With only one episode left, there’s a lot to get through!
Check out the teaser for the next one here:
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Charlie Cocksedge is a journalist and sub-editor at UNILAD. He graduated from the University of Manchester with an MA in Creative Writing, where he learnt how to write in the third person, before getting his NCTJ. His work has also appeared in such places as The Guardian, PN Review and the bin.