Recap "Iron Throne": NPR

We recapitulated the eighth and final season of Game of thrones. Spoilers, of course, abound.

I mean … of course?

I'm ready to die on the ashy hill of They They have not laid the foundation necessary to justify the turn of Daenerys, but all this setback seems so incredible last week. I made peace with her and I am ready to dissect the series they made, not the one we were hoping for or wanting.

In the show that they did, Daenerys became the monster. Jon killed that monster, as he was obviously destined to do, and was sent to the Wall without his supper. The iron throne turned into a pile of slags, and after briefly flirting with the notion of representative democracy, Bran MacGuffin became king of the Six Kingdoms, Sansa became queen of the north and Arya … went on a cruise. (If you were waiting for his return from Bag O 'Faces, you were disappointed.So, suppose we use it to entertain the ship's crew with his compelling impressions, two shows a night in the Lido Deck Lounge, a one-woman deal called Walder Frey: King Leer? Or Heaven can Waif?)

To companies:

We are all born naked; the rest is dragon

After a very short "Previously On" – Essentially Daenerys' decision to serve the citizens of King's Landing in flamesand the death of Jaime and Cersei – we get the credit card for the last time. The only thing to note is that the mechanics of King 's Landing look a little less beautiful and that the throne room window lacks its Lannister seal.

Despite all the talk about the rush of the last season, this final episode contains a lot of scenes that feel … without haste, say. Reflective. Contemplative.

…. Slow.

Example: the looooongue Tyrion walk at half-time in the charred and steaming ruins of King's Landing. He looks thoughtful, very much. He looks sad, a lot. He meets Jon who, as you probably guess, has a head start on his "sad" tip (this is both his calling and his calling!).

Jon meets Gray Worm, who is about to execute Lannister 's soldiers on the order of Daenerys. This fact makes Jon sad (drink!) And pleads for mercy, but Gray Worm has not moved. Jon is all "Well, I'm telling mom," and Gray Worm says, "Yeah, she told me you were adopted, then," and proceeds to their execution.

Tyrion enters the Red Dungeon in ruins and heads for the catacombs, which are a lot less collapsed than they seemed at the end of the episode last week. He finds the bodies of Jaime and Cersei with, it must be said, a remarkable facility. (He had to follow the lessons of Euron Greyjoy about "Jaime Lannister in a rather improbable way.") He cries over Jaime's body, and Dinklage sells it well, although I am less convinced that the show seems to be necessary. this scene to justify the next stage of Tyrion. (They look hilarious to be crushed under tons of rocks.) Carol Brady's wig from Cersei is barely ruffled.)

Jon climbs the stairs of the crumbling Red Keep, which now sports a huge targaryen banner (obviously, King's Landing Party City has escaped the flames). Arya is here too, for some reason, even though the last time we saw her, she was coming out of the city.

As Jon reaches the top of the stairs, we get a beautiful visual: Daenerys scrolls the track to him with a new black leather number while Drogon spreads her wings behind her. It serves you the Dragon Queen / Maleficent reality, and I remain resolutely here for the proverbial.

In a speech to Unsullied and Dothraki (with Drogon playing Joe C. for his Kid Rock), Queen Yaaaas promised to continue her war, freeing the world from tyrants. "Do you want to break the wheel with me?"

They respond in the affirmative, while Tyrion opposes Daenerys about his recent massacre. He takes off his King's Hand pin (but does not try to stab her with it) and is stopped, while Jon … still looks sad. Again. Again.

Arya sneaks on him and warns him that Daenerys will see him as a threat. ("I know a killer when I see one," she says about a woman who turned thousands and thousands of people into ashes.) I mean, yeah. Some thoughtful comments there.)

Jon visits Tyrion imprisoned so writers can ask Tyrion to patiently explain it to Jon, who is extremely slow, about the danger that Daenerys represents. Which is to say: Giving even more details on how she will convince herself of what she is doing is right. Jon becomes defensive (and looks at his face like he's trying to make a long division), but we're supposed to record that Tyrion influenced him.

Kiss kiss stabbing stabbing

Jon passes near Drogon (who looks at him suspiciously) on the way to the throne room, where Daenerys is busy dealing with a previously seen villain. His vision, back in the house of the eternal, a throne room in ruins and covered with snow / ashes is realized. But before she can actually park her keister on the iron throne, Jon comes in and yells about "Little Kids! Tiny Babies!" that she burned all at the moment.

Daenerys is calm and calm, refusing to forgive Tyrion, despite Jon's pleas. She begs him to join her in all this wheel breaking business because she knows what is right and it is enough. This certainty – and her acknowledgment that she and Jon, and no one else, must choose the way forward for everyone – are the things that editors want us to record as red flags . She does not seem to break the wheel, they seem to say, she just changed a tire.

They kiss, he stabs her, she dies. Just another crazy episode to keep in touch with the Targaryen.

Drogon feels the death of his mother and lands in the ruined throne room. He gives his body a few hesitant and curious head shots, then sets Jon with a hard look, like Paddington with eczema. If he roasted Jon at the dragon fire now, it would have an inevitable meaning – but he does not do it. Why it is not clear. Can Jon's Targaryen blood act as a kind of universal card Get Out Of Prison Free? Maybe the Targaryen always prepared to kill each other, so their dragons got used to it? Or maybe Drogon had unresolved problems with his mom, all this time?

Whatever the reason, Drogon spits fire not directly on Jon, but in front of him – on the iron throne. You will remember, it was originally forged by dragons firing swords from enemies of Egon the Conqueror – and is now reduced to a pile of slag 300 years later, under the gaze of Another Aegon Targaryen.

Drogon picks Daenerys and goes out.

Some time later, Tyrion is taken to the Dragon Lodge by Gray Worm, where the lords and ladies of the last great houses of Westeros are assembled.

Among them: Samwell Tarly, Edmure Tully, Arya, Bran and Sansa Stark, Brienne, Davos, Gendry, Yara Greyjoy (yes!), A guy basking in a brightly colored dressing gown that must be the Prince of Dorne. a few episodes back, Yohn Rocye and Robin Arryn.

Sansa asks about Jon. Gray Worm says he's still a prisoner.

That stopped me for a second – after all, there was no one else in the throne room when Jon killed Daenerys, and Drogon left with his body. How, I wondered, could anyone know what happened to him?

I wondered this for exactly two seconds, when I remembered that it was Jon we were talking about. Mr. truth and honor. He probably walked up to Gray Worm after committing the act, like: "I killed your queen yeah it's me with my dagger that was still in her body when Drogon l & rsquo; So you just have to take my word for it but yes I did it myself I am the murderer. "

Yara and Sansa argue over which tyrant, Cersei or Daenerys, is preferable. Davos, peacemaker, tries to reason Gray Worm by thanking him for his help against the army of the dead (remember them, guys? Remember that?). He offers the unstained soil all his own, but Gray Worm refuses and insists that Jon remains a prisoner.

Tyrion then launches, exhorting the lords and ladies assembled to choose their king. Just like that.

And just like that, Gray Worm is soothed. "Of course, go crazy with that," he seems to say. "We occupy your city, but I strangely agree with all this plan" elect your own king, "suddenly, for no reason that I can point to."

Inexplicable? Sure. But so soon after Daenerys Burns King's Landing instead of Just The Red Keep, not to mention Drogon Spares, who murdered his mother, inexplicable seems to be the new normal, so let's hurry up.

Edmure Tully, hilarious, presents himself as a potential king, but gets arrested by Sansa. Samwell, bless him, suggests establishing a representative democracy, which is greeted by a chuckle. (If you mark at home: The Wheel? Always intact. Barely dented.)

Davos asks Tyrion who they should choose – and Gray Worm also looks at him, like "yeah, who?" which again it does not make any sense – and Tyrion gets a nice little speech about the power of … stories.

"What unites people?" he asks. "Stories."

(If he's talking about this particular story, he's not been on the same websites as me.)

Ixnay on the oken-bray

He offers the name of … Bran MacGuffin himself. "Bran the Broken," he calls, while checking his LinkedIn page. Tyrion's logic here is that Bran would make a good king because "He is our memory, the guardian of all our stories."

Sansa points out that Bran can not father children (how does she know that?) And Tyrion looks like "Bonus!" because he has a plan: from now on, leaders will be chosen, not born. And they will start with Bran, who does not want to comment – except that it turns out that's the case!

During the series, Tyrion and Varys espoused the philosophy that the best leader would be someone who would not want to govern – that's why Jon seemed to them such an excellent candidate. Here, however, Tyrion takes this heading to its logical extreme. Jon was laughing at the decision. But Bran does not care about … well. A lot of no matter what, more. He said it himself – he is barely present and spends his days in the past. Dude is not just impassive, he is almost catatonic.

But that's the plan: long live King Bran the Broken, I guess. (Not the most inspiring epithet. Bran the Steel-Cut looks cooler, but I did not get a vote.)

Speaking of vote, the lords and ladies accept King Bran, Perpetual distracts – but Sansa defends the North, which will remain independent.

They get up, the music gets bigger, they shout "Hi, Bran the Broken!" – really and rubs it – and Bran just looks into the middle distance as he's trying to remember the lyrics of "Friday I'm In Love".

Bran chooses Tyrion as the king's hand, of course. The cutworm says "No way!" and Bran the God you want FOCUS is like "Yes way!" and that is remarkable.

… Except not quite. We cut off Jon, who, because of his shiny locks, has been a prisoner for some time. Tyrion informs him that to calm those who are not defiled, Jon is sent to the Night Guard.

Jon, speaking on behalf of the viewer: "There is always a night watch?"

Good question – with the king of the night dead and the Wildlings definitely less wild, what Night Watch … must watch, exactly? Does it mean many park guards, a little silly, who smell of ripe cheese?

But that's where he's heading – back to Castle Black. "No one is very happy," said Tyrion after hiding under Reddit.

Jon asks if killing Daenerys was right. "Let's get back to me in 10 years," said Tyrion. That's what George R. R. Martin should say at that rate when we talk to him. Winds of Winter.

The Winterfell Four meet one last time. Jon and Sansa share a moment of emotion. Arya informs everyone that she has headed west to Westeros, where the maps stop. She and Jon kiss each other, another moment of emotion.

Jon and Bran the I'm sorry did you say anything that I was Miles away from looking at each other. And then Jon takes off.

Brienne flips through the book which lists the Knights of Westeros and their noble exploits. She goes to the page of Jaime Lannister, who is largely virgin, and proceeds to update her wiki with noble acts.

Talk to the hand

In the turn of the hand, Tyrion repositions the chairs (reminder!) Waiting for the rest of the little advice to show. Soon they arrive – Ser Bronn, who finally has his castle (Highgarden), Davos, and – holding a book called (wait) A song of ice and fire, Sam Tarly, wearing a maester dress. We learn that this book is the one that Archbishop Ebrose wrote during Sam's brief stay at the Citadel – a story of the last wars. ("I helped him with the title," says Sam.)

Tyrion is a little disappointed that he does not deserve to be mentioned in the book of Ebrose, but the council embarks on the management of a kingdom. Ships, food, sewers and – because fish have to swim, birds have to fly, and The Thrones have Throne – brothels. King Bran the Verrier-Eyed comes to Brienne and we learn that Podrick is knighted.

At Castle Black, Jon finds Tormund and – finally, as if to silence a particularly noisy corner of the internet – with Ghost, who looks a little less loud.

In a short montage, we see Jon, Arya and Sansa devote themselves to their new life. Sansa takes her position as North Leader, Arya stands on the bow of a ship flying Stark flag, looking forward … well, to the west, anyway.

And Jon leads a group of Wildlings north of the wall. At first it puzzled me – I did not really know what we were supposed to be taking away from such a banal walk scene.

But I think this is supposed to act as a positive mirror image of the threat that has dominated the show for so many seasons – instead of Death, inhuman and inexorable, walking south to slaughter humanity, it's Life, walk north – in hostile and ruthless terrain.

And that's it. I must say that this episode looked more like a season finale than the final of the series, if only because this last season seemed so isolated from what was happening before.

Thank you for reading these things that were beaten in the early morning. It was fun, but I must admit that in recent weeks, I was eager to type the following words:

And now my watch is over.