Game of Thrones Season 8: The death of the character arc

Spoilers ahead.

“GODS I WAS A CHARACTER ARC THEN!”.

While this may not be Robert Baratheon’s exact words, it sounds a lot like what the erstwhile king (affectionately known as ‘Bobby B’ by the fans) would say if he watched the show in its final, dying moments.

Jaime Lannister. Daenerys Targaryen. Lord Varys.

These are all examples of characters viewers have lived with for a decade — whose arcs have now fizzled away into wasted territory. Whatever character development they had was wasted in the final episode, particularly in Season 8 Episode 5’s “The Bells”.

Jaime’s treatment is the hardest pill to stomach. He was, until the last episode, one of the show’s best-written characters. From being an incestuous Prince Charming (the Shrek 2 kind) to becoming a tragic unsung hero (whose deeds Kings Landing forgot to write down), from being a man who would do anything for the love of his life (including pushing a small child off a tower) to walking away from her so he could save the world by fighting zombies — he has epitomized what it means to change yourself into a better person.

All this development was thrown away in two episodes — at first, by having him leave Winterfell to reunite with Cersei, a person with whom he had become morally disgusted with, and now by telling Tyrion that he “never really cared for the innocent”.

Jaime Lannister never cared for the innocent?

This is the man who saved King’s Landing from the fire of the last Targaryen. The same man who was willing to give his life to stop Daenerys in “The Spoils of War” (Season 7 Episode 4). The same man who walked away from his sister, the love of his life, to fight the White Walkers — choosing to save the world over saving his relationship.

This is the character that D&D — an abbreviation for David Beniof and D.B. Weiss — reduced to a relapsing addict (Jaime’s addiction has always been Cersei), making Jaime return to Cersei after a single one-night-stand with Brienne of Tarth (with whom he had been building a relationship since Season 2).

Jaime, once the most memorable of GoT’s characters, was reduced to quoting Metallica (“Nothing Else Matters”) in his final moments with Cersei.

Take Daenerys Targaryen – the Queen that was promised. While her madness has been foreshadowed for a while, its trigger was bafflingly arbitrary. Did she go mad when Missandei died, or when Jorah died, or was it when Jon Snow betrayed her trust?

Feminist critiques of the show have grown by large number in the wake of Danerys’ transformation. Women rulers do not last in the show, and are not shown too favourably. The long-held hopes that Dany would “break the wheel” were pegged, in part, on the idea that she would be different as female ruler. As a promise of change, her character had tremendous potential. That potential disappeared when she decided to eke out genocide on the people of King’s Landing.

For hundreds of babies who have been named Khaleesi in her honour (549 in the US in 2018), today’s episode will be a bit of a sore spot. It just goes to show that you should never name your children after fictional characters whose stories have yet to end.

Varys, who has been foreshadowing the cause of the people for some time now, is finally dead for threatening to pick them over his Queen. Much like with Littlefinger’s death, you wonder why such a talented schemer did not anticipate his own end. Years before, when Tyrion threatened to throw Varys into the sea, he calmly responded that he would swim back and exact his revenge. He has always been a survivor. Why did he set himself up to die at the hands of the Mad Queen with no backup plan?

GoT’s final season killed a lot of small characters, but the deaths of Cersei and Jaime are significant. Cersei proves a satisfying character in the end, epitomizing the ruthlessness of one who will pick family over anything else. Her rise and fall and rise and fall have been satisfyingly acted, proving that you don’t need to die a hero in order to have a good character arc.

The problem with Season 8 is that the show could not decide between delivering fanservice and delivering “subverted expectations” (a phrase from a behind-the-scenes interview, that has become a meme among fans who hate the writing in this season). In trying to do both, it fails its characters.

The fatal duel of the Hound and his brother, the Mountain, has been a fan demand for years. Dubbed “Cleganebowl”, it was hyped with air horns and fan edits of it set to dubstep. Cleganebowl had to happen, but it takes place at the cost of the Hound’s humanity.

In season 6, there were signs that he wanted to forego his revenge for a quiet life. For a time in season 7 and 8, he fought for a greater cause. But season 8 returns him to what he has always been — the yin to the mountain’s yan, a bloodthirsty hound out for vengeance. Season 8 episode 5 gave fans the Hound battle they wanted, but not the battle they deserved. His arc ends predictably, like a Jean Claude Van Damme revenge thriller.

Euron Greyjoy's demise was also a wasted opportunity. Considering how ambitious his character was in the books, his willingness to give his life for the sake of being the man who killed the (one-handed) Kingslayer is unrealistic and pays no heed to his motivations for greater grandeur.

With little room to wrap up a satisfying finish, fans can only hope that the books prove to be more just to these characters than the television series.