Paul Levinson's Infinite Regress

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George Santayana had irrational faith in reason - I have irrational faith in TV.

Sunday, May 12, 2019

Game of Thrones 8.5: Revenge and Fire not Sweet

Well, we now know that Varys was right in his view that Jon would make a better ruler than Daenerys: she slaughtered thousands of innocent people with her dragon's fire, in her quest to destroy Cersei and everything that was hers.

Daenerys had motivation, for sure. She lost one of her children in the sky last week, shot down by one of Euron's war machines. She lost Missandei last week, too. She was right to want revenge. But by any standard of decency and humanity, she went way too far in exacting it.

Tyrion, a man of reason to the core, underestimated that. So did Jon. So did everyone else, except Grey Worm, who also had ample motive for revenge. The best you could say about Daenerys's siege and destruction of Cersei's beloved city is the meta-point that it made for some memorable battles.

Jamie vs. Euron was a good one. The Hound vs the Giant was even better. So, who survived this carnage? Arya definitely. Her riding out of the dragon-produced rubble on a horse was one of the best scenes of the night. Tyrion's still alive. So is Jon, who gave the timely order to get out of there. Jamie and Cersei are probably gone, though we didn't see either of them actually dead. The same for the Hound and the southern Giant (I can't recall, but don't think he's related to the giants beyond the wall in the North).

But back to Jon: he's now amply motivated to take Varys's advice and challenge Daenerys for the Iron Throne. But not when she has her dragon beside her. I suppose there's also a chance he could just walk away from it all and go live with the wildlings. And there's still Sansa at Winterfell, who may come down south to join her sister Arya and convince Jon to take the throne. Or ...

See you here next week, when maybe we'll also learn what happened to Arya's direwolf.

See also Game of Thrones 8.1: All Together Now ... Game of Thrones 8.2: Apologies and Memories ... Game of Thrones 8.3: Fighting Death ... Game of Thrones 8.4: Tough Night for Pleas

And see also Game of Thrones 7.1: Library Redux ... Game of Thrones 7.2: Vikings and Strategies ... Game of Thrones 7.3: Alliances ... Game of Thrones 7.4: Dragon vs. Byzantium ... Game of Thrones 7.5: Reason Breaking Out All Over ... Game of Thrones 7.6: Two to One ... Game of Thrones 7.7: End Wall