BLOG: Episode 5 – And so my (re)watch begins
After I have finished a novel, film, album or television series, I have to sit with it before deciding if I love it or hate it. I’m very aware of the recency bias effect.
I also have a terrible problem with obsession. A new album or installment in a franchise can cause me to spiral into a rabbit hole where I will only breathe a specific subsection of media. Some of my more painful fixations include the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the entire “Bridgerton” franchise and Taylor Swift.
This is all to say that I have to wait usually a year before I settle on my feelings toward a particular offering. Some things, like “Frozen” and “One Tree Hill,” benefit from this practice, while “Revenge” and Shawn Mendes drop significantly in my esteem.
Rarely, something I love so intensely at first rises higher as time passes. In fact, only one comes to mind –– the controversial political fantasy drama “Game of Thrones.”
I love “Game of Thrones,” much more than the average person. I love the series so much that reading the books feels like a weird betrayal simply because the show skewed so far away from that plotline.
The series is a masterclass in acting, and the political storylines are so rich that they are comparable to the first four seasons of “The West Wing.” Regardless of who people favored for the Iron Throne, you cannot deny that ‘Battle of the Bastards’ is one of the, if not the, greatest episode(s) of television of all time.
Understandably, the ending of the series is less than satisfying. Season eight is terribly rushed with bizarre lighting choices. However, fans find the events of the final episode not representative of the series because of the show’s pacing issues. Seriously, how did Sansa Stark, Bran Stark and the entire Northern Army make it to the King’s Landing from Winterfell in the span of an episode when it took Arya Stark over five seasons to make the reverse journey? If the show is now using fast travel, then why does time not pass similarly in certain cities?
As someone who actually found the series had a mostly fitting ending (I swear my plans for Cersei Lannister was much better), I find myself defending the franchise as a whole.
As part of its “Iron Anniversary” celebration, HBO encourages fans to marathon the series with six various paths. I chose to embark on the “A Good Walk Spoiled” route, where I watch all of the jaw-dropping and insane moments of the series (I’m looking at you, ‘Rains of Castamere’). When you go back and watch the first two seasons, the finale makes sense, and it’s all the stuff in the middle that doesn’t.
It is so much fun to look back at how the show started and how it ended and look at all of the Easter eggs that predict the final events. The first episode focuses more on Brandon Stark than any of the other Stark children and it insinuates that he will end up as one of the most critical players in the series.
Looking back and knowing what happens, you realize that it is around season four when the show took a turn for the worse and pivoted from a political drama with elements of fantasy to a medieval fantasy series. By making Daenerys Targaryen a hero, the showrunners set her — and the fans — up for failure.
While I watched a later episode of the series first and declared Sansa Stark to be the greatest fictional character of all time, I didn’t know what I was getting myself into when I sat down to watch the pilot episode. Sure I love Mark Addy and Sean Bean, but I’m not impressed with the undead and dragons. However, what captivated my attention was the War of the Roses-esque feud between the Starks and the Lannisters.
“Game of Thrones” fans remind me of brides choosing their wedding dress –– what they thought they wanted isn’t what they actually wanted. Fans thought the show needed more dragons and Danerys, but they fell in love with the complicated relationships, political betrayals and morally gray characters. This is all super obvious with the progression of Jaime Lannister, which I feel may be the show’s biggest blunder, but that’s a conversation for another day.
This whole “MaraThrone” I am doing allows me to pinpoint all of the flaws in the series, but it also makes me love the show more. I felt a connection to these characters and excitement for the next jaw-dropping moment, and that’s something a rushed final season cannot take away.
While I strongly dislike the Targaryens on the television series, I am eagerly anticipating the series’ prequel “House of the Dragon,” based on civil war set 300 years before ‘Game of Thrones.” Until then, you can catch me getting my money’s worth of “Game of Thrones” content from HBO Max.
