Read the next entry in the series here.
“The Bells”
Written by David
Benioff & D.B. Weiss
Directed by Miguel
Sapochnik
We’re almost done, you guys. It’s almost over.
This episode had one huge glaring flaw, but overall, it
might have been the best episode in the season. The cinematography was
gorgeous. The cello work in the score? Brilliant. The acting had me right on
the edge of sympathetic tears for the first 15-20 minutes. The tension while
everyone’s waiting for the bells to ring—magnificent. The juxtaposition of Arya
escaping and Sandor fighting Gregor—amazing. The production crew at all levels
deserves every Emmy they’re likely to win this year.
They even gave us some believable character moments. Leaving
entirely aside that I don’t think “Cleganebowl” will happen in the books
(Sandor’s a much different character there), it makes perfect sense for this Sandor. This Sandor is vengeance
personified and knows it, and knows that it’s terrible, and saves Arya from the
same fate. He can’t turn back—but Arya can, and does. It was nice to see her
humanized a bit.
I initially considered Jaime’s bit in this episode a flaw
because it continued the changes Benioff & Weiss have made from the books,
changes that I think are detrimental to Jaime’s overall character. However,
taken in isolation from the books, it demonstrates a consistency that not a lot
of characters in this show have. Would I rather see character development and Jaime stay with Brienne
and decide he wants to be a better person than Cersei? Sure. Does it make sense
that he doesn’t? Yes. If this is the Jaime they wanted to give us, at least he
was an internally consistent Jaime who recognized his own flaws and followed them
to their logical conclusion—like Sandor did.
The huge, glaring flaw? One guess.
The showrunners have no idea how to write women, or to write
about women. They never have. I’ve said
this
over
and over
in this
series.
Added to this particular weakness is their push to get to the end as fast as
possible, which has led to sloppy writing that relies heavily on harmful
tropes, especially when it comes to women and people of color.
For Daenerys in particular, there’s an implication that
women can’t be trusted with power because they’re too emotional. The narrative
wants us to be afraid of her because she keeps burning people alive and not
listening to her advisors. But this is the same narrative that had her doing
similar things for years and wanted
us to view her as a badass. The sloppy writing comes in with the sudden turn in
season seven toward the narrative favoring Jon to be king and needing to get
Dany out of the way. But when you’ve already set her up to be the rightful
queen of Westeros, who’s been working toward that goal and helping people and
learning to rule for six years, how do you suddenly change the audience’s
sympathies?
By making her “crazy,” of course. Irrational. Emotional. Too
unstable to rule. Can’t be trusted with her finger on the nuclear button
because PMS or some shit. Not only is this a terrible approach to writing a
woman (women, really, because they did the same basic thing to Cersei, minus
the dragons), but it’s a horrific way of approaching and writing about mental
illness.
The Daenerys they’ve constructed on the show isn’t a
sociopath or a psychopath or whatever it is they want us to think she is
because of some “gods flip a coin” stuff. Right up until she nukes King’s
Landing, all of her feelings are absolutely valid. She listened to her advisors
and didn’t immediately take King’s Landing upon arriving in Westeros, and it
cost her her fleet and ultimately a dragon (the stupid trip beyond the wall
wouldn’t have been necessary if she’d already taken the throne by then). Now
her advisors are turning on her. The one person she thought she could trust
refused to do the one thing she asked of him, giving said advisors ammunition
to turn on her. She lost her best friend. If anything, she’s depressed, and she has every right to
be.
What the show is arguing, and has argued pretty much from
the beginning, is that mental illness (of any kind) leads to violence. By
default. Full stop. Everyone coded “crazy” (I apologize for the abelist
language, but that’s entirely the approach the show is taking, especially since
they never specify what kind of mental illness they mean) is violent. Aerys.
Viserys. Joffrey. Euron. Ramsay. Cersei. And now Daenerys.
That final “snap” into “Mad Queen” even came out of
literally nowhere and didn’t fit with anything they’ve given us about Dany up
to this point. I’d have believed her destroying the Red Keep after the bells
were rung. I don’t believe her just opening fire on the city like that. She’s
angry, sure. She’s angry with Cersei
for everything that’s happened since she got to Westeros—for losing Viserion,
for Cersei not helping with the White Walkers, for Euron killing Rhaegal, for
Cersei killing Missandei. So going after Cersei would have absolutely made
sense. But even at her most conqueror-y, Dany never just burned down a city for
no reason.
So why have her do it? My best guess—they wanted to have a
reason for Jon to turn on her. He’s been unflinchingly loyal, absolute in his
conviction that he does not want to be king, and they needed a reason for him
to flinch.
I suppose we’ll see next week.
Deaths:
Varys
The Golden Company
Euron Greyjoy
Qyburn
Sandor Clegane
Gregor Clegane (for real this time)
Jaime Lannister
Cersei Lannister
Lots and lots of soldiers and King's Landing civilians
Lots and lots of soldiers and King's Landing civilians
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