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plutherusWarning: Spoilers after the cut!
“So what would you have done differently?” nobody asked. Well, here’s my answer anyway.
Sure, every writer is going to make different decisions on the characters. And everyone has an opinion and their justifications for their opinions. Here’s mine.
I feel like in this, the second-to-last episode of Game of Thrones, everyone (well, almost everyone) suddenly started acting completely contrary to their character. And they didn’t have to. They could have made the plot work, in some cases better, while still hitting all the same notes.
Daenerys: This is the big one. They had a chance to make her a tragic figure, whose downfall was brought about by her own nature. They set it up, then seemed to forget about it. Did the writers of the last episode not talk to the writers of this one or something?
What would I have done differently: Let’s start with the same setup: She’s just torched the Iron Fleet. Her armies are outside waiting for her signal. Suddenly the walls are breached. The scorpions are aflame, her armies charge in. Faced with overwhelming odds and no defenses, the forces of Queen quickly surrender. The armies march on the Red Fort to take Cersei into custody. Suddenly they are consumed by a great spout of green flame. Wildfire strikes the forces, then it erupts throughout the rest of the city (we actually saw it flaming around the city, but only when mixed with dragonflame). Daenerys, then, only in response to a false surrender, mounts her dragon and flames her way to the Red Keep, circles it round and round until the walls burn while with the heat of dragonfire, burning and cooking every man woman and child who sought shelter therein, rather than just mindlessly hunting down and killing civilians. She’s angry, and she’s vengeful, but she’s still Daenerys. Rage rather than suddenly abandoning her entire character arc just to go mindlessly mad. Also, she ends up getting blamed for deaths she didn’t cause because of all the wildfire that Cersei planted around the city.
And what about Cersei? We saw wildfire scattered around the city during the battle. Did she plant it? Why? What good was it supposed to do? She could have used it to discredit Daenerys, or provoke her, or both. But it’s never mentioned, just shown in the distance simultaneous with dragonfire. So, she got all the civilians herded up to the Red Keep and then locked outside so Daenerys would have to torch them and become a villain. Good plan. It should have worked. She could have made Daenerys the greatest villain since the Mad King himself. Instead, Daenerys just went ahead and did all that for her. Taking away her agency is one form of revenge, I guess? So what was her plan? Stand there? Then, when it was obviously too late, finally leave? To where? During the battle of Blackwater she retreated to relative safety and was prepared to take poison to avoid the horrible inevitabilities of the last safe place being breached by the enemy. There was no indication of either of those here. She stood in the open as if taunting Daenerys (which would have been a good angle to play up, but they didn’t.)
What would I have done differently? The plan with the wildfire I mention above.
Jamie. At the end of the last episode, he dumped Brienne to run off to find his sister. I assumed his plan was to stop her, or kill her, or something. Instead, he just finds her, attempts to lead her to safety after it’s too late to stop her from doing anything. He gets stabbed on the way but it doesn’t really affect him in any way.
How about something like this instead: After getting stabbed in the kidneys, knowing he’s going to die soon, he fights his way to the room where she is. She lets him approach. Tells him of her plan - she’s herded all the children in the city into orphanages near the edge of town, all she has to do is light this torch and they all die in wildfire, the Mother of Dragons is blamed for it and her unborn child grows up to be the rightful king and eventually takes the throne back. Jamie pulls her close to him, tells her he loves her, then stabs her with his dagger. She falls to the ground. Dies. He falls to his knees beside her and the Mountain’s axe comes down. The End for both of them.
Also, this would have fulfilled the prophecy that they keep bringing up that she'll be killed by her little brother. They've implied that it refers to Tyrion, but it could just as easily be Jamie as they've gone out of their way to point out he was born second.
Grey Worm. OK, he’s always awesome, and going out in a fit of rage killing soldier after soldier after they surrendered, which he was already angry about because he wants revenge and a surrender just isn’t satisfying. I wouldn’t change anything there. He renews his attack because Daenerys renewed hers and it’s what he really wanted to do anyway.
Jon Snow. Tries to stop the slaughter. Fails Sees the trick for what it is. Tries to convince anyone/everyone for what it is. Fails. His big moment comes in the confrontation with Daenerys next week. Eventually, he has to kill her to save the realm. Either that, or convince her to go back to Essos and rule there, but that would be a lot more difficult.
Tyrion: If I’d been writing it, he would have died last episode in a hail of arrows at the same time his sister had her captive beheaded on the front gate. That would have been a fitting and shocking death. He risked his life trying to make things right one time too many. Failing that, though, freeing his brother was a great final act of treason. How cool would it have been, after hinting that he was really a Targaryen after all to then have him be sentenced to death by dragon fire, the dragon rears up breathes a gout of flame and when it dies down there he is standing in front of Daenerys and Jon, unharmed.
(Also, what, no reaction from anybody to learn that the queen is pregnant? Not even her new lover who just learned that she was already pregnant before they fucked?)
Arya: I loved that she gave up her revenge to go back to Winterfell. Or to do whatever it was she was planning on doing. Kudos to the Hound for telling her to, kudos to her for listening, and for using his first name, giving him forgiveness and final absolution. The only thing I’d’ve changed was maybe using her elite ninja skills to get through the crowd and avoid being trampled. And also successfully saving somebody. She won’t kill the queen, but she will get these people to safety. She knows the hidden byways of Kings Landing better than almost anybody. She should have used them. Without even mentioning the possibility, it seems like the writers just forgot about that.
Am I forgetting anyone?
“So what would you have done differently?” nobody asked. Well, here’s my answer anyway.
Sure, every writer is going to make different decisions on the characters. And everyone has an opinion and their justifications for their opinions. Here’s mine.
I feel like in this, the second-to-last episode of Game of Thrones, everyone (well, almost everyone) suddenly started acting completely contrary to their character. And they didn’t have to. They could have made the plot work, in some cases better, while still hitting all the same notes.
Daenerys: This is the big one. They had a chance to make her a tragic figure, whose downfall was brought about by her own nature. They set it up, then seemed to forget about it. Did the writers of the last episode not talk to the writers of this one or something?
What would I have done differently: Let’s start with the same setup: She’s just torched the Iron Fleet. Her armies are outside waiting for her signal. Suddenly the walls are breached. The scorpions are aflame, her armies charge in. Faced with overwhelming odds and no defenses, the forces of Queen quickly surrender. The armies march on the Red Fort to take Cersei into custody. Suddenly they are consumed by a great spout of green flame. Wildfire strikes the forces, then it erupts throughout the rest of the city (we actually saw it flaming around the city, but only when mixed with dragonflame). Daenerys, then, only in response to a false surrender, mounts her dragon and flames her way to the Red Keep, circles it round and round until the walls burn while with the heat of dragonfire, burning and cooking every man woman and child who sought shelter therein, rather than just mindlessly hunting down and killing civilians. She’s angry, and she’s vengeful, but she’s still Daenerys. Rage rather than suddenly abandoning her entire character arc just to go mindlessly mad. Also, she ends up getting blamed for deaths she didn’t cause because of all the wildfire that Cersei planted around the city.
And what about Cersei? We saw wildfire scattered around the city during the battle. Did she plant it? Why? What good was it supposed to do? She could have used it to discredit Daenerys, or provoke her, or both. But it’s never mentioned, just shown in the distance simultaneous with dragonfire. So, she got all the civilians herded up to the Red Keep and then locked outside so Daenerys would have to torch them and become a villain. Good plan. It should have worked. She could have made Daenerys the greatest villain since the Mad King himself. Instead, Daenerys just went ahead and did all that for her. Taking away her agency is one form of revenge, I guess? So what was her plan? Stand there? Then, when it was obviously too late, finally leave? To where? During the battle of Blackwater she retreated to relative safety and was prepared to take poison to avoid the horrible inevitabilities of the last safe place being breached by the enemy. There was no indication of either of those here. She stood in the open as if taunting Daenerys (which would have been a good angle to play up, but they didn’t.)
What would I have done differently? The plan with the wildfire I mention above.
Jamie. At the end of the last episode, he dumped Brienne to run off to find his sister. I assumed his plan was to stop her, or kill her, or something. Instead, he just finds her, attempts to lead her to safety after it’s too late to stop her from doing anything. He gets stabbed on the way but it doesn’t really affect him in any way.
How about something like this instead: After getting stabbed in the kidneys, knowing he’s going to die soon, he fights his way to the room where she is. She lets him approach. Tells him of her plan - she’s herded all the children in the city into orphanages near the edge of town, all she has to do is light this torch and they all die in wildfire, the Mother of Dragons is blamed for it and her unborn child grows up to be the rightful king and eventually takes the throne back. Jamie pulls her close to him, tells her he loves her, then stabs her with his dagger. She falls to the ground. Dies. He falls to his knees beside her and the Mountain’s axe comes down. The End for both of them.
Also, this would have fulfilled the prophecy that they keep bringing up that she'll be killed by her little brother. They've implied that it refers to Tyrion, but it could just as easily be Jamie as they've gone out of their way to point out he was born second.
Grey Worm. OK, he’s always awesome, and going out in a fit of rage killing soldier after soldier after they surrendered, which he was already angry about because he wants revenge and a surrender just isn’t satisfying. I wouldn’t change anything there. He renews his attack because Daenerys renewed hers and it’s what he really wanted to do anyway.
Jon Snow. Tries to stop the slaughter. Fails Sees the trick for what it is. Tries to convince anyone/everyone for what it is. Fails. His big moment comes in the confrontation with Daenerys next week. Eventually, he has to kill her to save the realm. Either that, or convince her to go back to Essos and rule there, but that would be a lot more difficult.
Tyrion: If I’d been writing it, he would have died last episode in a hail of arrows at the same time his sister had her captive beheaded on the front gate. That would have been a fitting and shocking death. He risked his life trying to make things right one time too many. Failing that, though, freeing his brother was a great final act of treason. How cool would it have been, after hinting that he was really a Targaryen after all to then have him be sentenced to death by dragon fire, the dragon rears up breathes a gout of flame and when it dies down there he is standing in front of Daenerys and Jon, unharmed.
(Also, what, no reaction from anybody to learn that the queen is pregnant? Not even her new lover who just learned that she was already pregnant before they fucked?)
Arya: I loved that she gave up her revenge to go back to Winterfell. Or to do whatever it was she was planning on doing. Kudos to the Hound for telling her to, kudos to her for listening, and for using his first name, giving him forgiveness and final absolution. The only thing I’d’ve changed was maybe using her elite ninja skills to get through the crowd and avoid being trampled. And also successfully saving somebody. She won’t kill the queen, but she will get these people to safety. She knows the hidden byways of Kings Landing better than almost anybody. She should have used them. Without even mentioning the possibility, it seems like the writers just forgot about that.
Am I forgetting anyone?
