The blockbuster series of The Throne of Swords comes to an end and each of the millions of fans and spectators finds itself having to deal with the particular outcome in which all the passion, curiosity, expectations and hopes of 8 years of stories come together… A final that definitely does not satisfy.
Hot impressions
At the end of the vision of the last season of Throne of Swords, I was seized by multiple different sensations each minute distilling the end. But distilling is not the right term, since distillates are the product of a purification process, a process similar to extracting an essence, but what remains for our eyes is not something equally, pure and refined.
So let’s say rather each minute that ran towards the end. Basically it is so, this event will also run away, it will go away, it will disappear with the time it takes to see it and the hopes, suppositions and enthusiasms will now be consumed in a single final. A final that disappoints. Yes, because only one constant prevails over all other sensations: disappointment.
And even if everything goes by it will take time, like in lost loves. In fact it is really about love. A fan or a spectator of a TV series unarmingly entrusts all his dreams about the characters to authors who, between one episode and another one, will have his unconditional interest and all power over his emotions. And therefore, as in every broken affection, now I find myself having to rationalize this bitterness.
Planned originality
It would seem strange that the disappointment emerges from a final that, from the penultimate season, seemed almost to be produced as a fan-made series. Since John Snow was resurrected, the darling of all the fans, who have followed the misadventures and daring feats, it is since he escaped the elimination from the plots which he smelled the odor of “sop”, let’s say a final perhaps more obvious, perhaps with him and Daenerys Targaryen who reign on the Game of Thrones.
As a lover of astonishing and original plots as they have always been following the novel by JRR Martin, I certainly would never have been satisfied with an ending of such banality, but I was subtly ready to accept it, knowing that many other fans did not ask to see that prevail their favorite characters and aware of the fact that already from the seventh season there was no longer A Song of Ice and Fire as a literary reference for the script. Instead the originality of this finale is that it disappoints you as you do not expect it.
All knots in the comb
The abundant battle of over an hour had already been little spectacular and in the fourth episode he had seen men clash with the threat of the whole saga: the Strangers. Having both sides at least one dragon I expected a lot of things, but it was all very smoke and little roast. In a literal sense, the scenes are mostly shot with this great storm of snow and wind and clouds evoked by the Lord of the Night and the battle just enjoys a couple of things. For the rest it seems to witness an episode of The Walking Dead (another disappointing series), complete with a preamble in the third episode in which the characters spend their time complexing and loitering more or less sadly as death looms over them. One of those episodes that bore like the face of Isaac Hempstead-Wright who plays Bran Stark.
Some technical shortcomings follow in a summary disregard for realistic aspects when dealing with armies and battles. While before the merit of the series was in the attention with which every aspect was treated, now we are satisfied to see whole nonchalant armies of extreme battles that cross the entire Westeros in a couple of days, fleets that make sagacious ambushes, but that then strategically positioned off a bay by blocking the tide and the days of little sun. But perhaps only a small percentage of fans appreciated the military consistency of the previous seasons. More or less the same people who appreciate original descriptions like the law of gravity and the force of friction.
But many others may have only become attached to the characters and their stories. On all Daenerys, beautiful, independent, gritty, filled with dragons, with all the requirements to be hired as a queen. Yet, despite her path is characterized by a certain intelligence, at the end she is carried away by a blind impulsiveness with contours of icy cynicism. A transformation that jars for the unmotivated exaggeration with which it happens. But the character had to reap that promise of devastation that only three of them find to fulfill. Thus in Approdo del Re flames and earthquakes are on offer at 99 cents, satisfied or charred.
But at least it was possible to elude the obvious ending, opening up new possibilities. And like every time a great opportunity opens up to develop a new idea, the daring screenwriters close in mediocrity.
What happens to everyone
John Snow decides to kill his beloved mad queen, because doing the right thing, sacrificing himself for the common good and being the most unhappy and unlucky character are his characteristic traits. Then he is also exiled with the Night Watch, because being depressed has become a crime.
All the nobles agree to elect a king, (just to remember us that we like the parliamentary system) and finally a king representative of their identity emerges, the inexpressive, mediocre, Bran Stark. Not even witnessing his coronation ceremony is so uninteresting, while Samsa Stark sees herself crowned queen of the North, traditionally secessionist. All that band of Immaculate immigrants left the barges she had come from. It must be a particular period, because the League also achieves important results in the Throne of Swords.
Arya Stark sets sail to discover new lands, in an adult version of Dora the explorer, of which she has practically the same sex appeal.
Only the true protagonist of the whole story remains Tyrion Lannister, the goblin, the dwarf masterfully played by Peter Dinklage, who sits as First Knight around a table of characters that reflect the various fans: some look at the Throne of swords because he wanted to feel like a knight, the one who wanted to have fun, the one who had read the books … And in a casually allegorical scene the feelings of the characters are exactly those of the spectators, what was read in the books is there because there had to be, the one who wanted to amuse himself is happy to have enjoyed himself, who wanted to be a knight regrets the most interesting characters that have disappeared, and finally who followed all the intrigues, who was both a knight and an advisor, who adventurer, who traveled with the various characters by loving the most beautiful, in the end he is in a role that does not make him happy, but that he must play, like a spectator in the last season, in front an unsatisfactory ending.
Conclusions
I didn’t read Martin’s books, also because with the fantasy genre I closed in the youthful age. However, with this series I wanted to seize the opportunity to awaken a fantastic imagery able to excite and thrill me again. A part of me that accepts the idea of dragons, however, necessarily repudiates mediocrity. That’s why many better endings come to mind, some even within reach, but you have to surrender to this. At the moment.
J. R. R. Martin, even if he has delayed the conclusion of his novels for years and years, has declared himself still determined to close this literary enterprise with the missing volumes. I can only think that the dissatisfaction that has taken many fans of the series is a stimulus to do their job in the best possible way.
I would like to conclude with a few striking sentences, some witty remarks, but you want to do it, even the background of my character is resignedly sad like that of John Snow.
