Death cooled down

Season 6, Episode 8

Contrary to many on Twitter (well, according to this NZ Herald article) I didn't find last week's episode of Game of Thrones boring at all.  It featured everything that makes a 'regular' GoT episode great. (I contrast regular with those set aside primarily for epic battles, so see you next week.)

I found this reflection on the episode's themes and decisions in a You Tube comment from gutz1981.

"I think the deaths that we did not see in this episode were more to do with a directorial choice. Yet unlike other off screen "Deaths" these were confirmed almost soon after. Even the death of the actress was off camera. This episode seemed to have a theme about death and "Last words" as mentioned by the hound. The men who were hanged were not allowed to be touched by the Hound and then they allowed him [to kill them] but only by hanging. [Missandei's] joke was about a man who did not know how to swim but knew how to ask for help in 19 different languages before he drowned. Bron and Pod talking about how everyone wants to kill a squire. Trail by combat is abolished. And Jamie talks about who he is willing to kill to get back to Cerise..."

That.

Plus, the Hound killed a bunch of people with an axe.

Actually, I wish predicting the Hound's killing spree of rogue knights from the Brotherhood Wthout Banners wasn't the only thing I stood by from last week's post. I was right after all in criticising the way the Waif's attack on Arya was written.

I suspect some of the disappointment for No One was that none of the theories of what was happening with Arya and the Waif came to pass. As the Washington Post explains, they all had at least one thing in common - namely being wrong. Another thing they had in common was that they were all pretty far fetched. I don't mind the more prosaic resolution to that subplot, but it does mean the criticism of Arya's behaviour at the end of the previous episode stands.

There was also the lack of traditional pay-off to some scenes. In particular, people were disappointed that we didn't get to see the final clash between Arya and the Waif. On stuff Jack Price acknowledges the impact of the shot where Arya cuts the candle ["cuts the candle" sounds like it should be a euphemism for something] but then suggests they should have shown the fight somehow.

But no; this time, you don't get to see the pointy end.

As Mr 1981 observed, there was a deliberate choice to undermine expected conflicts (such as Tommen ending trail by combat) and to have understated resolutions to the conflicts that did occur.

It was like a palate cleanser for the battle to come.

The final confrontation between the Waif and Arya was just right because:
 - it fitted perfectly with the overall theme, while still allowing for a climax to the episode
 - it provided variety: Thrones has a lot of sword fight showdowns, and not many chase scenes; they
    made this mostly a chase scene, and it was a good one. Yeah let's have a little medieval parkour
 -  it paid off the 'blind Arya' subplot.

I have some criticisms of the episode. Arya was able to defeat the Waif wth her 'Daredevil' powers, and that's fine, that was set-up. But she also suddenly seems to have the athleticism of Black Widow and the healing powers of Wolverine.

Killing Lady Crane was a missed opportunity. The opportunity being to not kill her. They managed to create a reasonably compelling and sympathetic character in a few episodes, and then killed her in a predictable way. Having minor but interesting characters come and go is something Thrones should do more. Not killing the character would have been the more surprising development, and her death didn't add anything. Killing Lady Crane was actually a very formulaic thing for the show to do, in an episode that otherwise messed with its own standards, just a bit.